<strong>Name:</strong>Harmony<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Sensate Sensoriums, Civic Festhall, Sigil<br/><strong>Time:</strong>Mid-morning<br/><strong>Tagged:</strong>Golden Morning Radiance, Fei, Open<br/><br/>Harmony was surprised, initially, to find that another Sensate had been eavesdropping on her conversation with the clueless woman.  Another human woman, one whom she was unfamiliar with, had apparently taken an interest in their conversation, and was now as curious as she was about what experiences the woman would wish to see.  Given the philosophy and inherent curiosity present in almost all members of the faction, this should perhaps not have been as surprising to her as it was, but nevertheless it was enough to keep her frozen in place for several seconds, processing everything, while the woman answered the questions put to her on her own initiative.  Before long, however, they were traveling once more, this time with their eavesdropper having joined them.<br/><br/>The Modron had no problems in allowing this third person, Fei, to join them in the chamber she had reserved.  It was sized to comfortably fit two people within, and so was somewhat crowded with three, but she did not mind the closer contact with either of the two women.  Becoming acquainted with more people would give her greater opportunities to be introduced to new sensations, and would give her access to more differing viewpoints on what those sensations meant, what lessons could be learned from them.  This, in turn, would help in her own development, while simultaneously allowing her to help in theirs.  It was a mutually-beneficial arrangement, either way.<br/><br/>Showing the clueless woman how to work the recorder stone was a simple affair, and took less than a minute of their time.  Soon enough, the woman was calling up her first choice of sensations, and the Modron quieted her own mind in order to better experience it.  A sense of accomplishment was her first choice, a feeling of satisfaction in having finally completed some worthy task.  The Modron, familiar with a life of constant toil, of working long hours on a thankless task, with always another task to complete once the current one was finished, felt that she could understand the woman's reasons for selecting such an experience.  It was an emotion that she had managed to feel personally, after learning what a major contribution she had made to the Society's archives with her own life experiences, and the striking contrast that feeling had carried compared to her former life had erased any lingering desires she may have once had to return to her former rank in the Modron hierarchy.<br/><br/>The second experience selected was related to one that the Modron had been planning to experience for herself, earlier that day.  Seeing the smile of her child, recognizing it as something born of herself, knowing that it was happy and healthy...  She experienced the same sensations that the other two women in the room did, but she lacked the ingrained physiological responses that were often associated with them.  As the experience ended, she was smiling softly, and was left feeling somewhat confused at the apparent sadness the clueless woman was displaying.<br/><br/>She filed it away to ask about later, however, as the woman began on her third choice of experiences shortly afterwards.  Sexual pleasure, a subject that Harmony had heard was among the first choices of many who were new to the Sensoriums.  She had explored many of the recorded sexual experiences within the archives during her second week within Sigil, but beyond the intense pleasure of the experiences themselves, she had not found much personal benefit in her studies of them.  It did not help that many of the experiences she had selected were apparently considered unusual.  Few people had been willing to publicly debate with her about the subtle differences between such esoteric topics as, for example, a human woman's recorded sexual experiences with a centaur versus those of an elven woman's experiences with a unicorn.<br/><br/>More importantly, it seemed that the clueless woman was choosing to experience these recordings only shallowly, stopping after the first kiss or touch with the male partners, and skipping over the lesbian experiences altogether.  That was enough to have the Modron frown, slightly displeased at the apparent fear of trying a new experience that the woman was displaying.  She understood that intimate contact between members of the same sex was frowned upon on many material worlds, but had she not stated earlier that she wished to experience something 'wild'?  If the culture she came from was as strict about such things as her behavior was suggesting, then the experiences she was avoiding were precisely the experiences she was seeking to change her fate.  Why, then, was she hesitating to experience them?  What was the logic in doing so?<br/><br/>Before Harmony could make a direct inquiry about this, the woman asked a question of her own, proclaiming her desire to join the Society of Sensation and asking what steps she would have to take in order to gain membership.  This was a more complex question than the woman realized, and the Modron spent a few seconds formulating an answer before she realized that her own experiences could help her here.  She had once asked the same question herself, and so needed only to paraphrase the answer she had been given.<br/><br/>"Membership within the Society of Sensation is open to any being who is willing to follow the tenets of our philosophy,"  The Modron began, looking over at the woman.  "If you are unaware of our philosophy, it is quite simple to grasp.  Since we use our senses to learn about the world around us, the only way to truly know something is to experience it for yourself.  Following from there, if something cannot be sensed, it does not exist.  Also following from there, the most worthy pursuit in life is to seek out new experiences, to enrich yourself by learning and experiencing as much as you can.  There are many who are unwilling to follow these tenets, however, who seek only to experience the same pleasant and pleasurable sensations without any variation.  In order to sort these hedonists out from those who truly wish to learn, there is a test that must be passed for any prospective member.  You must contribute five new experiences to the archives, one focused on each of the five senses, or one single experience that contains new sensations for all five senses.  Your contributions will be judged by a senior member of our Faction, and if they are found worthy, then you will be granted membership."<br/><br/>And, with the information given, the Modron waited to see the clueless woman's reaction.