a city and a mint who sleep very little between them

[self_composed]

Bella bikes to the airport on Friday. She gets a little reading done on her flight, then sleeps-on-purpose through the remainder of the trip, waking up precisely when the plane touches down. One nice bonus that she didn't even explicitly build into the power is that she can sleep at will in virtually any position; she doesn't have to get comfy if that's not convenient.

She steps off the plane, backpack full of her things over her shoulders, and stalks into the halls of LaGuardia, eyes peeled for Libby.

Comments

[prima_sequentem]

"What do you think?"

[self_composed]

"You don't think I'm very good at reading people, and I certainly haven't done anything to convince you otherwise, so you probably don't imagine I could tell if you were contemplating such things - but you're very risk averse - and less curious than I am. You could be doing that, especially if none of your hypotheses seem urgent to you," Bella muses.

[prima_sequentem]

"Very well thought out," says Libby, rather more amused than the situation seems to warrant.

[self_composed]

"As you noted, I'm thorough," Bella says. "How did you come to be so confident in your ability to read people in the first place, I'd like to know."

[prima_sequentem]

"By noticing how good at it I am?" she suggests.

[self_composed]

"Yes, I'm wondering what specifically you noticed. Who did you practice on? How did you verify your early guesses?"

[prima_sequentem]

"Why do you want to know?"

[self_composed]

"Because I want to know things, and this thing came up," Bella says.

[prima_sequentem]

"Good answer. Unfortunately for you, I have no idea. I've been doing it since I could talk."

[self_composed]

"Mm. Fair enough. Is talking crucially involved or did they just co-occur?"

[prima_sequentem]

"It's a lot easier to figure people out when you can have a conversation with them."

[self_composed]

"How much of that is nonverbals and how much of it is just exchanging words in real time? I assume at least some of it is the former or you could do it on the phone, and some of it is the latter or you could do it by further spying. But I'd be interested by a guess at a ratio."

[prima_sequentem]

"Off the top of my head, thirty/seventy."

[self_composed]

"Interesting. To what extent do you suppose it's a learnable skill?"

There's that question, and the superset: to what extent is it a magickable skill? Presumably it could be done - but adding skills doesn't have negligible personality effects. Bella was pretty well suited to install perfect recall and cognitive speedup. She's not sure how well person-reading would graft. This is similar to why she hasn't made herself an Alice-style super-masochist.

[prima_sequentem]

"Oh, I'm sure it's a learnable skill. Lots of people learn it, with varying degrees of success. I just happen to be naturally talented."

[self_composed]

"Who teaching classes in it is a crank and who's got interesting stuff to say?"

[prima_sequentem]

"I don't pay much attention. It's not like I need the help."

[self_composed]

"I'd think you'd be curious about where any particularly well-educated students were coming from, at least."

[prima_sequentem]

"I might be, if I'd met anyone who compared."

[self_composed]

"So you're pretty sure that your reading people extends to reading their literacy?" chuckles Bella.

[prima_sequentem]

"Of course it does."

[self_composed]

"What else does it cover? If you had a little checklist what would be on it?"

[prima_sequentem]

"The way you think is fascinating," Libby remarks. "What do you imagine it might not cover?"

[self_composed]

"I bet you don't know my motorcycle's name," Bella says. "Or if you do, you learned it in a spy way and not by deriving it. I'm just wondering where the line is between that category and the other - and if there are more than that."

[prima_sequentem]

"I don't know your motorcycle's name, but if I'd thought about it, I could probably have guessed that you might name your motorcycle. Does that answer your question?"