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Bella is seriously considering refusing to tell anyone else what her major is. Honestly. The way people flinch -
Well, no, that's not fair. She'd flinch too if she were unprotected and a subtle artist walked by. Just because most don't, in fact, casually or unintentionally read thoughts, doesn't mean that none of them do. Her tutor back home thought that her aversion to having her mind read was why her arts were set up so defensively and everything else was secondary for her.
She doesn't like the flinching, but it is fair. Maybe she'll go to the lab and scribe off a few copies of a mini fact sheet so she can hand them out when she meets people. No, that would be obnoxious.
She'll wait for it to wear off. Eventually she'll make some friends who'll know how she works. Or who are other subtle artists; she's probably more likely to make friends in classes than in the dorm, anyway.
She's not sure how she feels about the mixed-sex dorms. The rooms are singles, at least - that's why she's in Thatcher Hall, automatic single rooms for no extra charge at the price of having to maybe live next door to somebody who's not all human. There's a short list of species who qualify to be out of Harlowe and in predominantly-human Thatcher. None of them scare Bella. The orientation guide called Thatcher a "salad bowl". The junior who was wandering by at the time called it a pit.
The building looks nice. Bella's room looks nice. She unpacks her stuff and then goes back out to explore a little and encounters a stark naked man.
"Dude!" she exclaims. "Put some clothes on! This is a mixed sex hall!"
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subtly_artistic
subtly_artistic
"Psionically unfriendly. I can send deliberately, like I did your name -" She does it again. "But apart from that I can't be detected by any but the most sensitive, reception-oriented, well-trained subtle artists. Most of them can't even tell I'm there, except by looking. My tutor in high school thinks that it's related to the fact that I really wouldn't want anyone reading my mind."
"Huh. Okay," he says. "So do you not want to talk about nymphs and love, or do you just not like how I asked, or were you thinking something totally different that's none of my business at all?"
He supposes 'd) go fuck yourself' is also a valid answer, but he doesn't assume she'll give it. Actually, he's pretty sure that telling him to go fuck himself is not something she's likely to do.
He supposes 'd) go fuck yourself' is also a valid answer, but he doesn't assume she'll give it. Actually, he's pretty sure that telling him to go fuck himself is not something she's likely to do.
"One person talking is not a conversation," he says, and refrains from making the obvious analogy out loud.
subtly_artistic
"I may choose to say things, I'm just not going to tell you everything I'm thinking. Even if I were capable, you couldn't drag me into doing what you're doing for your pocket money without involving a straitjacket."
"Okay," says Celo, "I am officially confused. Do you have anything to say about the thing I was thinking, or don't you, or do you not know?"
subtly_artistic
"I do not care to volunteer any comments on the thing you were thinking."
"Okay," he says. "Then it's kind of pointless me talking about it more, because - that was it, really."
But he is still confused. Bella is confusing. He's not even sure exactly what confuses him, he just feels like there's something he's not getting here.
subtly_artistic
"I don't go around intending to stymie people, but the point of this exercise isn't actually to give you a better understanding of me."
"Yeah?" he says. That is also confusing, in the sense where he's not sure why she felt the need to point it out.
Celo continues to be confused. It's a state of mind that doesn't directly involve sex or anything signposted, so she can probably keep looking for a while.
subtly_artistic
She does. She beats her record, then loses it and shakes her head and writes her time. She checks the clock.
"You can go now and still collect the full period's payment unless you want to hang out for the last five minutes," she says.
"You can go now and still collect the full period's payment unless you want to hang out for the last five minutes," she says.
"I don't really have anywhere to be," he says. "Want me to get lost anyway?"
subtly_artistic
"No, I may as well practice for another five minutes if you're not in a hurry."
She reads some more.
She reads some more.
"Okay," he says. He wonders idly if Coach Sadist is going to need him to heal a fellow student again this afternoon. Odds are she won't, but in one of her courses, you never know.
subtly_artistic
"Is healing instinctive, or just easy for nymphs to learn?" Bella wonders idly.
"Inherent, not instinctive," he says. "Comes with the package."
Which is, yes, another dick joke. But a somewhat ironic one, considering the sex of most nymphs, and also perfectly true on a non-dick-joke level.
Which is, yes, another dick joke. But a somewhat ironic one, considering the sex of most nymphs, and also perfectly true on a non-dick-joke level.
Celo grins.
subtly_artistic
"Where'd you look up the thing about suppressing the involuntary spying thing?"
"Asked a lore professor. Nothing. Had a look in the library. More nothing."
subtly_artistic
"Hmm." She nibbles her lip. "If you actually care you could mention it to Professor Winters on your way out when she offers to remove your signposts."