in which nymphs are good for more than one thing

[subtly_artistic]

At least four people conclude that Bella and Celo have had sex and mention this to Bella. The fact that the door was open the entire time he spent hanging out in her room is apparently immaterial (since she wouldn't have been breaking any rules if she'd had sex with him that way, and no one was loitering in the hall supervising them the whole time). She contradicts them on this. Three people don't believe her. Miki does, and is immediately promoted to Bella's favorite out-of-class friend.

In Intro Psych for Subtle Artists, there's a discussion of what subtle artists do with their own minds, and how this differs from everyone else. Bella has already talked to all her subtle arts professors about her own peculiarities, and Professor Murray has her talk a bit about how she's used lucid dreams for introspection, self-modification, and memory boosting. Professor Murray then explains that people who aren't subtle artists can only rarely lucid dream, and even those who can don't find it an effective jumping-off point for any heavy-duty self-searching.

One of the elves in the class looks at Bella oddly through her little talk.

But she doesn't say anything, so Bella ignores her.

Comments

[pythbox]

"You would not believe the amount of dick I have sucked in the last day and a half," he sighs contentedly, flopping onto a couch. "I love everything."

[subtly_artistic]

"Especially that, I surmise."

[pythbox]

"Mmmmmmmyep."

[subtly_artistic]

Bella laughs softly and goes through another few flashcards, then says: "I emailed a bunch of people about those elf girls. No response yet. I guess I'll take better-traveled routes; they might come after me again. I don't know about you. But you can obviously defend yourself."

[pythbox]

"Fucking right I can," he agrees, stretching his arms up over his head. "I'm pissed that that one girl walked off with my best dagger in her shoulder, though. Gonna take a lot of psionics labs to replace that one."

[subtly_artistic]

"Maybe you could get a divination student to find it for you, if you like it that much. Of course, the elf might take exception to attempts at retrieving it."

[pythbox]

"Meh, they already want to cut my dick off and take it as a trophy," he shrugs. "How much worse can it get?"

[subtly_artistic]

"Well, they could want that and you could also be on their turf," Bella points out.

[pythbox]

He laughs. "Okay, yeah."

[subtly_artistic]

Flashcard. Flashcard.

[pythbox]

"What'd they want with you, anyway?"

[subtly_artistic]

"The subtle artist one is in my intro psych class. She heard me talking about being able to self-modify, and figured I was the perfect candidate to break her friend's faerie curse which requires true love's kiss."

[pythbox]

"Well, that sounds dumb," says Celo.

[subtly_artistic]

"Yeah, I thought so too, they weren't buying it."

[pythbox]

He snorts.

[subtly_artistic]

Flashcard. Flashcard. "Did you ever wind up talking to Professor Winters?"

[pythbox]

"Yeah. Professor Winters has no idea," sighs Celo.

[subtly_artistic]

Bella sighs and nibbles her lip.

[pythbox]

"Maybe it's just impossible."

[subtly_artistic]

"Maybe."

[pythbox]

Celo puts a throw pillow over his face and makes frustrated mumbling noises into it.

[subtly_artistic]

"What?" Bella asks, looking away from her flashcards. "Are you okay?"

[pythbox]

"I wanna do the thing and I don't know how," he says. "It's annoying. I'm annoyed."

He sighs.

"Maybe I can just - I don't know, think about it."

[subtly_artistic]

"Maybe," says Bella.

[pythbox]

So he thinks about it. And hugs, squashes, and occasionally bites the pillow.