12. Berne #3
Berne cleared his throat and tried not to blush even further when he looked down at Sirin's smug face. He grabbed her hand before she could accost him again and started leading her toward Seam Square. He could feel the glee radiating off of her, the infernal woman.
''C'mon,'' he said, ''there's lots more to see and do, first we need to get your measurements on file with the clothiers, then we should see about getting you a desk.''
''Clothes and desks are very nice, but what I'd really like is a glass blower,'' Sirin said.
''A glass blower?'' Berne asked. ''Why would you need one of them?''
''To set up my laboratory. I have a whole list of glassware I will need.
Plus I suppose I need to find out if what I have on hand for money will be enough.
If not, I might need to give you a letter of withdrawal for my account for the next time you go into Pershing.
I'll also need cleaning products and some specific chemicals.
Oh damn, I am not sure you are going to have iodine on hand. Do you all have iodine?'' Sirin said.
Adorable, Berne decided. Adorable was the perfect word for her.
''Of course, if that's what you need, we'll see it done.
Gunna might be showing a hard face, but the council knows we need your research.
We don't think of lunula in the same way you do.
We don't use it the same, not like you. We start so young, it's not something we think about really, we jus' do it. ''
''I noticed,'' she said. ''When do you all start? On average, I mean.''
''Honestly, I'm not sure. I'm fair certain the girls have been for a while now.
They had a bit, a month or so ago, where they kept cutting their hair to grow it back out.
'' He scratched his beard. He knew they must do it other times, but honestly couldn't think of anything.
''Often, it's just we're especially healthy, so it's hard to notice.
Learning to shift is a long process, but none of it is explained in your type of scientific terms. It's all meditation and communing and the like. ''
''Interesting. Well, we'll work on your control yet,'' Sirin said with a sly smile, her hand just happening to graze the front of his trousers. ''You know,'' she continued with a thoughtful look, ''a cage might help you with that. We could look into it.''
Berne gulped. ''A cage? What do you mean a cage?''
''For your cock. I think it would help you learn to manually control your blood flow if you had tactile feedback,'' she said as if suggesting they buy him a new shirt.
Berne felt the blood drain from his face. That sounded horrible. Why would she even suggest such—
''Mmmm, I see,'' Sirin said. ''Looks like that's probably a hard limit then!
'' She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him.
''No worries! I don't want to torture you into learning!
I have some other ideas anyhow! Now how about those measurements?
And do we need to pick up anything for this cake?
I want to get to the glassmith as quickly as we can!
I have a list here in my notebook, but can they read common? ''
Berne shook his head, she was taking to everything like a bear cub to snow. She was excitable, overwhelming, and talked faster than he could think half the time. He couldn't have designed himself a better mate.
''Yes, lass, let's go see about your glass.
We can always get measurements and groceries after,'' he said.
Sirin squealed and ran off toward the center of town, her body undulating in a way that forced him to practice his lunology again.
He ran after her chuckling. Considering she didn't know where to find the glassmith, he wasn't sure where she thought she was going.
What he was sure of, though, was he'd be happy to follow regardless.
1. After spending years living in a society that expected me to erase any vestiges of my own culture, being with Berne was a revelation. He valued the parts of me that I’d hidden for years and went out of his way to embrace them in our life.
2. I’ll be a bit of a braggart and say that I completed said curriculum within six weeks, it helped that I really only needed to learn those things specific to Sanctuary but it went faster than otherwise since those things were exceedingly fascinating to me.
By eight weeks, Sigfinn and I were immersed in our research.
3. Because the people of Sanctuary are such astoundingly powerful lunologists, they often don’t actively think about how they are using it.
Most of their effects happen entirely subconsciously and I have found, as a result, that shifting this mindset to more active control is difficult at first. Berne’s body wasn’t actually interested in not being hard, since he was receiving tactile feedback.
Going against his body’s natural instincts was difficult, whereas working with their bodies, they tend to be extremely successful.
Most often, the human shifters of Sanctuary don’t even realize they are catching a cold, since their body heals it before they even notice.