Private Finished Returning Patient 2: Attack of the Oluremi Boogaloo

This was a whole issue, wasn't it? That she was pulling herself in two different directions. Was she human, or was she not? Because right then, looking at Valli, she'd chosen to present herself in a human form.

"You don't have to, if you don't want to. A good example would be fae raised in courts. While they might present themselves as fully human at times, the mentalities they were raised with remain. However, when you present yourself as human, others will respond in turn. Generally speaking, people will follow the lead of the person they're interacting with. So when you take a form that's almost entirely human, people will assume that you are human."

Of course, he could already tell where the conversation was lead, so he skipped right ahead.

"This bias reflects even with those who know you aren't. They look at you, and even if their brain says Remi is an Oricenta, their eyes say Remi is a human."

Alright. There it was, something he was going to have to stab at. Something he would have to actually deal with.

Humans were normal. She wanted to be attractive. There were a lot of issues in there that he was going to have to deal with, weren't there?

"While things are clear to you, they might not be so clear to other people, which might be resulting in these issues you've been having. Specifically, the signals you're sending out into the world are mixed. You're choosing to present yourself as a human, and judging yourself by human standards of beauty. You're doing this specifically to appeal to those who also are operating on human standards. But you also want people to judge you as an oricenta, and to hold you to those standards. In an ideal world, this would be perfectly possible, but this isn't a truly ideal world. If you present yourself as a human, people will hold you to human standards. If you want to be held to oricenta standards, then you'll need to present yourself as an oricenta. Otherwise, it may come across as you trying to pick and choose for your own benefit, and push people away."

Remi seemed like a balloon someone had jabbed, deflating the moment he'd pointed out any issue with her logic.

"You'll never find a solution in something like a shapeshifting magic," Valli said. "Everyone finds different things attractive. From one culture to another, the standards of beauty change. Even within a given culture, the standards of beauty are wildly inconsistent. When you aim for the standards set by others, you'll find them changing beneath you, and you'll never be happy."

Alright. Fine as she was now, but defined beauty standards - he couldn't really argue that, could he? The island certainly had things it considered more attractive, and those things tended to be shaped by western media as a whole. That was kind of how it was in general.

"No, it's alright," Valli said. "My specialty is therapy, but that isn't the only thing I deal with. I can speak about other things, and this is obviously something that's weighing on you. There are things I could say, but many of those things are things that you've heard before - that people should like you for you, and all that. Instead I'd like to just ask a question: Why do you feel such a drive to be seen as attractive?"

He was, in so many words, looking for some introspection.

Valli smiled a little bit at that. Remi might have thought it was obvious, but it wasn't true, either.

"Attractiveness is a hill, not a slope. It rises, and then it falls. You are correct in that people are generally more friendly towards people whose appearances they find appealing. People who are considered traditionally ugly face discrimination. But the are also issues on the other end of the scale. People who are supernaturally beautiful face issues of their own. People often find it unnerving, or unnatural. They doubt what they see and pull away."

He was familiar with that himself, although his wasn't nearly as bad as others.

"What do you mean when you say you can't improve your strength?"