Fates Between Us

Chapter 5 - Synaisthima

SYNAISTHIMA (συναισθημα)

[Greek, noun]

feeling, sentiment, sense.

---

One fine day, after surfacing from sleep, Tul did what he usually did first thing in the morning: expand his senses, latch onto the nearest person's consciousness, and telepathically suck out whichever neural impulses were running through their limbic system in that given moment.

His source of nourishment that morning was the couple cuddled together on a futon positioned on the other side of his room, across from his lavish queen-sized bed. It was Mew and Gulf's turn to accompany him last night. Deciding on feeding from the older man first, he kept his eyes shut as he latched onto the waves of Mew's sleep, languidly sucking it into his own consciousness, savoring how they melded into his own brain waves and gave him a glimpse into the older host's ongoing dream. He saw images of... Mew in a spacesuit, laboriously floating through a barren stretch of land riddled with craters and rocks, seemingly focused on getting to a shuttle that was parked several feet away. He continued to plod through the zero gravity atmosphere, his frustration at his sluggish movement mounting to the point that Tul felt it as if it were his, the negative emotion souring the taste of it all. Then the scene changed just as he was about to pull out of Mew's mind, the surroundings morphing completely into a field of hazy pastel and brightly colored flowers, Mew now dressed in normal clothes and sitting in the middle of the field while his young lover lied down on the ground, head pillowed on his thighs with eyes closed in contentment. Unlike earlier, the peace that filled Mew's unconscious mind as that scene played out tasted sweet on Tul's tongue, and he savored it with a tiny grin.

He got lucky with that morning's emotion roulette after all, to his relief. Sometimes Mew's dreams involved extreme hunger and homelessness and forced parting from his lover - subconscious manifestations of his real-life fears, it looked like - and the anxiety and stress caused by such images honestly didn't make for a nice wake-up meal. (Though he had to admit that said negative emotions sometimes tasted like a particularly strong roast of coffee, which made for a nice pick-me-up on days when he was sleep-deprived and in need of more stimulation to manage to get out of bed, so it wasn't necessarily all bad.)

After taking his time savoring Mew's transition into relaxation, he withdrew from the older man's mind and then delved into Gulf's. As was usual with the boy, he was met with a mild and easy-to-consume wave of emotion, the younger man's dreams involving his beloved cat and idyllic images of him and Mew hiking through mountains and snorkeling in clear, blue ocean waters, leaving a taste akin to hot chocolate on his tongue. Tul actually hummed out loud, enjoying the happy-go-lucky vibe of Gulf's dreams that, combined with the safety that he felt while fast asleep in the arms of his beloved, gave his emotions a very comforting taste, comparable to hot soup on a cold, rainy day.

There was a reason why this couple was Tul's favorite, out of all the hosts residing in the Thanasrivanitchai household.

Tul continued to lie in bed as he savored the dregs of his breakfast, licking his lips and suddenly craving a mug of actual hot chocolate, and possibly french toast to go along with it. While a synaisthima like him didn't need actual food to survive - couldn't survive on it alone, in fact - living with hosts had made stocking their fridge with raw ingredients and ready-to-eat food a necessity, and partaking in regular food despite it being unnecessary had become inevitable. After all, normal food tasted just as strong and fulfilling as emotions did, and it wasn't unheard of for synaisthima to indulge in the culinary arts just for sheer pleasure.

Heck, Tul himself loved gourmet food and fine dining so much that he had ended up using his inheritance to put up a restaurant - one whose recipes he created and planned almost entirely by himself. In his opinion, few things were more pleasurable than drinking fine wine and eating meticulously prepared dishes, despite these being of no nutritional value to him. Occasionally he would even go out with one or more hosts of his choosing, treat them to lavish food, and then feed greedily on their pleasure and satiation in real time, making it a win-win situation.