Hugs Are Important

[iamnotpolaris]

The first thing Emily notices is that something felt weird when she pulled open the door to Hank's lab.
The second thing Emily notices is that what's on the other side of the door is not Hank's lab.
"That's weird," she muses, stepping inside and looking around. Surely someone would have mentioned if they were remodeling? Surely she would have noticed it happening?
...Surely they wouldn't have installed a bar?
For lack of a better idea of what to do, she wanders up to the bar, still looking around to see if an explanation for this oddness will be readily apparent.
"This is strange," she murmurs, drumming her fingers on the bar.

Comments

[iamnotpolaris]

Think about something else. Hugs. Hugs are good. Why do fire and mindreading go together, it's odd, but then not really any stranger than diamonds or telekinesis going with telepathy so whatever.
...She said Ardelay prime, does that mean there's an Ardelay secundus or a something else prime or something?

[calescent]

"There are five primes. Fire and mind are the halves of the sweela element. The others are blood and water is coru, air and soul is elay, earth and flesh is torz, and wood and bone is hunti. The prime has to be related to the relevant family and have the right elemental personality. I'm really sweela and the last prime was my great aunt and I have a power birth blessing so it was pretty obvious it was going to be me. My twin is torz and my little brother thinks he's probably elay so it couldn't have been them. The hunti prime thinks his granddaughter is going to be prime after him. Since I got it so early he's trying to teach her stuff earlier than he should have to."

[iamnotpolaris]

That is sensible! And each of these primes has a different part of a person, that's nifty, although she's not sure she understands the difference between mind and soul.

[calescent]

"Soul is more personality than thoughts. They're related, but so are blood and flesh. I can only tell what you're thinking right now, not what you're like over your whole life."

[iamnotpolaris]

...Oh, that is an interesting difference between Kiri's power and Edie's. Edie doesn't know you from just five minutes conversation, even mental conversation, but even when she's firmly Not Reading Your Mind she still perceives the shape of it.
There follows sense impressions of various people's minds as transmitted from Edie to Emily.

[calescent]

"...It feels different from that to me. Not totally different and I only really have you to compare but still."

[iamnotpolaris]

That is very slightly a shame! Oh well. And this comparison is interesting, if Kiribel weren't so firmly disinterested in having her mind read Emily would try to get Edie so they could compare. But she is. Oh well. Hugs.

[calescent]

"I'm pretty sure I'm getting the mind reading through warmness. It doesn't happen through walls even if I'm close enough, and I noticed it starting to happen from a little farther away outside at night when Jayce was complaining it was cold."

[iamnotpolaris]

That is extremely strange, but also cool. ...No pun intended.
If it's blocked by insulators and cold makes her range longer maybe if her brothers bundled up and went into a sauna...? That would be uncomfortable, they couldn't do it for long, but a nonzero number of hugs is better than zero.

[calescent]

"Aleko tried it. It only works if he's so bundled up he can't breathe. And even right by the fire it's still not hug range. ...And my mom hugged me one time for as long as it took to think anything besides 'I need to be hugging my daughter right now' so it's not actually zero."

[iamnotpolaris]

Better than nothing, yeah.
Do they not have saunas where she's from? To get close enough to a fire to be as warm as a sauna don't you need to get close enough that you're at risk of getting set on fire? Hm. It would probably help if Emily had ever actually been in a sauna. She should maybe fix that at some point, not that it's ever likely to be relevant in this particular a second time.
...It's sort of odd having someone respond to her thoughts out loud instead of in her head. Not bad odd, just odd.

[calescent]

"I can let people get really close to fires without getting too hot. I could probably let someone who wasn't even me be in a fire and not burn but no one's tried it. I don't have a sauna."

[iamnotpolaris]

Oh, well. What's her world's technology like, do they have oxygen tanks...? (Brief concept of what an oxygen tank is) They could maybe bundle one of her brothers up so much they normally couldn't breathe but have one of those under the fabric? Unless they don't have them.

[calescent]

"We don't have those. ...And they don't sound very huggy."

[iamnotpolaris]

Eh, it was a thought. Oh well. As Kiri gets older she will probably meet people who don't mind having their minds read who will hug her. Meanwhile, Emily hugs.

[calescent]

Emily hugs are nice. "I'm not sure how many of those people there are."

[iamnotpolaris]

Well, maybe she could advertise? It's not like someone who was responding to "mindreading subjects wanted for hugging" could plausibly take advantage of her, what with the mindreading.

[calescent]

Kiri snorts. "I don't think so."

[iamnotpolaris]

Well, they exist. No one else besides Emily has ever given Edie carte blanche to read their minds whenever, but there are several other people who will say yes if she asks sometimes. Dad almost always says yes, although that has more to do with Edie knowing when to ask than Dad almost always being up for it.
...Of course, Edie can make sure to only look at some things and not others, so it's not quite the same thing, is it.

[calescent]

"Not really."

[iamnotpolaris]

Oh well.
Hugs.

[calescent]

[iamnotpolaris]

Eventually Emily's mind will wander back to the question she wanted to ask Dr. McCoy for her science class. She's having trouble working something out, and she's sure that she's getting something wrong and that the problem will make sense once she has whatever-it-is corrected.

[calescent]

That's okay. Kiri isn't bored or anything.

[iamnotpolaris]

Then they can keep hugging for a while.