Eliel hasn’t been paying much attention to the conversation and has been sending Leo text messages to avoid interrupting out loud. Still, he nods at that last part. 

"Extremely valid of him! He can hide as much as he wants once it's no longer a health risk! The one big thing I think we're going to need is a trip out to get him some clothes and such, and whether he has any allergies I should know about."

“No allergies as far as I know but you can ask him if you want confirmation. I can get the clothes for him if that works better?”

She shrugs. "That's up to you two, I'm fine with either. I just wanted to get that idea out there while you were here."

He nods and looks at Eliel, “El, what do you prefer?”

“If I go out I’m going to want to tell everyone I see everything I think off.”

That gets another nod from Leo, “I can go get them now.”

"Figured. Okay. Anything else you think I should know, Leo, before you head out?"

“Nothing I can think of, well, maybe my phone number?”

"Good idea." Phone out of skirt pocket, screen unlocked, contacts app opened, and she hands it to Leo on the New Contact screen. "Add yours, I'll text you right now."

He’ll take the phone and add his contact under the name ‘Leo 🏹’ before giving it back to her.

And then he'll presently get a text!

Hi! It's Sable, the weird baby-esper looking after Eliel!

"Thanks, Leo. See you in a few?"

Leo here! I’ll send El your number if that’s okay.

“Yes, be back soon,” he nods and, after a quick wave, heads outside.

Sounds good.

She shuts the door behind him and then heads back to the couch with Eliel.

"So at some point we should probably talk about how much contact you're comfy with for guiding," she suggests with a smile. "I'm pretty flexible, so we're going to go by your limits."

“I’m not sure. I’m not a physically affectionate person. The guiding does feel nice though. I can take off my shirt if that would help? And I’ll let you know if I don’t like it, I mean, I obviously couldn’t hide it even if I wanted to, at the moment.”

"Probably a good idea. I should probably switch to a summer top, like a crop-top or tank or something."

Sable gets up and lets go of his hand for a moment, stepping over to a small closet separated by a curtain. She grabs a black crop-top with a silver fangs print on the chest and steps over to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

Eliel can feel the backlash increasing again when she stops holding his hand. He takes off his shirt (he folds it neatly and sets it aside) and goes back to messaging Leo. He wasn’t planning on it but, due to the rising backlash, his parents and brother get some messages too. Future him can feel embarrassed and worry about the concerned replies he’ll get, once he’s less desperate to be unnecessarily honest.

She's not gone long, barely a minute. Back she comes in that midriff-bearing shirt, skirt swishing about her now-bare thighs (she's stripped off her tights as well). Lots of room for more skin contact.

Her clothes get tossed in a hamper in the curtained closet and she sits back on the couch next to him, taking his hand and scooting close. "Hey there."

He leans against her, letting out an almost-happy sound. “Guiding is very nice,” and then he blushes a bit, embarrassed, and apologises. He wants to explain to her in detail how he feels about the current situation but actually no, he’s pretty sure he’d prefer to close his eyes and pretend he’s alone if he could.

"I'm glad it's nice, and no need to apologize," she replies with a smile. She wraps an arm around his shoulders and presses against him, getting out her phone with her other hand. "If you wanna just snuggle quietly, that's fine, or if you wanna talk, that's fine too."

She pulls her power notes and starts looking through it, not bothering to angle her phone for privacy at all.

“I do need to apologise because that’s part of my train of thought sometimes and I currently have to share as much of it as possible. So, I don’t really want to talk but I kind of have to. I’ll shut up as soon as I can and I hope I don’t bother you much. Please redirect me to other topics when necessary.”

He’ll try to relax into the touch but he won’t look at the notes on her phone because he does remember that other people want privacy (he’s even aware that he usually wants it, if in a vague way).

"Reasonable enough. I'm very difficult to bother. At the moment I'm just looking over some ideas I had about my power, nothing private. Glad to chat if you wanna talk, fine to cuddle quietly otherwise."

Proper guiding really does feel nice. She could theoretically do some power testing, since he's such a convenient backlash sink, but she'll wait a bit on that.

“I’m feeling pulled towards externalising internal monologuing. Well, that also involves verbalising it, most of my thoughts aren’t actually worded out. Anyway, if you want to ask me about my opinions on something else or whatever, I think I’ll appreciate that when I’m less backlashed.”

Eliel doesn’t know what she’s thinking, and therefore can’t comment on it. He does agree that guiding feels nice, though.

"Well! I suppose we can talk through my brainstorming here, and see what ideas you have about it. The basic idea with my power is that I can sense minds around me cheaply, identify them a little more expensively, and read goals and intentions more expensive still. I can tell where any mind I sense is in relation to myself, and I can expand my range with a higher backlash cost. I'm trying to think of tests to perform and niches I could fill. So far the best idea I have is rescue targeting."

“That’s not a particularly appealing topic, probably because it isn’t exactly personal, but I’ll make do.

”Rescue targeting sounds like a good way to use it in dungeons. Do you know if it works on monsters? And, outside of doing dungeons, it might be helpful in some kind of therapy?”