[Trouble is that we don't yet know what part of the country his PhD will land him in--could be California, Minnesota, Arizona, someplace else--there are several possibilities, so it's not like we can settle in advance anyway. Realistically, we'd be moving knowing that we'll move again in a year. My folks want us to be near them, but they're in rural GA which is not where we want to be.]
"I'm a great believer in it," Aurus said, sitting down for a moment on the edge of the bed. He did not add and I can see how your mind is racing, at least not aloud, but perhaps he didn't need to.
He leaned forward, resting his elbows against his knees and motioned for Charles to come closer to him. "Have you meditated on objects--on a flower or a leaf? Obviously for me that's a rather existential sort of thing, as much a question of my race's existence as it is a contemplation of the object itself. It's astonishing not just that we exist at all, but that we look the way we do, that our bodies have managed to copy your own using material that is so unlike flesh and blood.
"Look at my brow, the way the leaves come together here to form a ridge--it's like yours but also wholly unlike it." He reached out to take Charles' hand to guide it towards his face, inviting him to feel the way the leaves lay, the edges and the contours of them. It was a way of beginning to answer questions that he knew must be in the man's mind, and also of starting to break down a social barrier of propriety and formality, to bring them into physical contact without it being anything too overtly sexual in its charge.
It was clear to Aurus that words alone were not going to be enough to let them move forward together. That required touch as well. Hopefully this wouldn't be too overwhelming a step, even if it felt shockingly forward at first.
no subject
"I'm a great believer in it," Aurus said, sitting down for a moment on the edge of the bed. He did not add and I can see how your mind is racing, at least not aloud, but perhaps he didn't need to.
He leaned forward, resting his elbows against his knees and motioned for Charles to come closer to him. "Have you meditated on objects--on a flower or a leaf? Obviously for me that's a rather existential sort of thing, as much a question of my race's existence as it is a contemplation of the object itself. It's astonishing not just that we exist at all, but that we look the way we do, that our bodies have managed to copy your own using material that is so unlike flesh and blood.
"Look at my brow, the way the leaves come together here to form a ridge--it's like yours but also wholly unlike it." He reached out to take Charles' hand to guide it towards his face, inviting him to feel the way the leaves lay, the edges and the contours of them. It was a way of beginning to answer questions that he knew must be in the man's mind, and also of starting to break down a social barrier of propriety and formality, to bring them into physical contact without it being anything too overtly sexual in its charge.
It was clear to Aurus that words alone were not going to be enough to let them move forward together. That required touch as well. Hopefully this wouldn't be too overwhelming a step, even if it felt shockingly forward at first.