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Alice eventually goes home for the evening.
Bella goes up and sits in her room.
She has five hexes.
Five.
That's rather a lot of hexes.
She gets out her notebook, with the lists, and she makes some wishes.
And then she goes to bed, grinning.
In the morning it will be time to make plans.
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self_composed
self_composed
Bella offers no apology and does not caveat the obvious explanation. She just flies along, weaving between trees. She's a lot more graceful in the air, controlled by purely mental action, than she is when she has to act via her body.
edgeofyourseat
He thinks of that after a bit—wondering whether the lack of tree-crashing noises is for that reason or because she's flying high enough to avoid hitting things.
self_composed
But Bella's still not reading him, so she doesn't know.
"Up ahead," she says after a couple minutes. "It's an easy trip. Do you want me to wish it for you?"
"Up ahead," she says after a couple minutes. "It's an easy trip. Do you want me to wish it for you?"
edgeofyourseat
"Yeah, you're the one who's good at details," he says. "How come you haven't hit any trees?"
self_composed
"Flying's mental. I'm not clumsy in the brain," Bella says cheerfully. She lands right on top of the rock, looks around, and turns visible again. "All right, here goes."
Aaand - yes, a hex can apparently do the lair and the appliances and the stairs and the rock passage and the restricted access all in one go.
"Hexes are awesome," Bella enthuses. She flies off the rock and walks through its side.
Aaand - yes, a hex can apparently do the lair and the appliances and the stairs and the rock passage and the restricted access all in one go.
"Hexes are awesome," Bella enthuses. She flies off the rock and walks through its side.
edgeofyourseat
"I love you," says Alice, which seems inadequate next to just feeling it and having her notice. He follows her into the rock.
"Ooh, lairy," he says approvingly.
"Ooh, lairy," he says approvingly.
self_composed
Bella flies in a spiral rather than chance the stairs. The air glows, the layout's just like the one she drew, it has high vaulted ceilings and big open doors with rounded corners into the sewing room and the kitchen and more customary ones - albeit made out of rock, like everything else - for the bedroom and the bathroom. The appliances are sleekly white and silver, and they look like extremely iconic versions of their types, without brands or electrical cords or even a humming noise from the fridge. All the colors are as she wrote, and she sinks an inch into the rich red carpet when she lands at the foot of the stairs in the central room. Bella lifts back into the air just so she can twirl without falling over. "Here ya go," she says.
edgeofyourseat
Alice trots down the stairs in a more ordinary way, but when Bella twirls, he beams at her and hovers experimentally.
"I love yoooou," he announces, and hugs her.
"I love yoooou," he announces, and hugs her.
self_composed
Bella hugs him back quite willingly. "So, you're still missing key furniture - bed, sewing table, any shelving, places to sit, kitchen table, etcetera." She still doesn't have a new phone, so she has to guess at the time, but: "I think we probably have time to run around and put all that stuff in before it's time to start dinner."
And before the unspoken subsequent event, once Charlie gets home.
And before the unspoken subsequent event, once Charlie gets home.
edgeofyourseat
"Awesome," he says brightly, letting go and spinning around to survey the space. "Read me?"
edgeofyourseat
Well, first of all, there is how much he loves her, which is: lots.
Second of all, it is easier to get a second opinion on furniture placement when he can just—see things where he thinks they should go, instead of having to point and chatter. Like, say, a kitchen table. Over there! Supplied with chairs!
Second of all, it is easier to get a second opinion on furniture placement when he can just—see things where he thinks they should go, instead of having to point and chatter. Like, say, a kitchen table. Over there! Supplied with chairs!
self_composed
Bella shrugs; she's got lots of squares and he'll thrust more upon her at the next opportunity. She follows him around and conjures up furniture out of his thoughts, edited where necessary to have useful properties like "enough legs to not fall over" and "does not clash horribly with wall".
edgeofyourseat
He ends up with a bed of maximum comfiness, more storage space in the sewing room than absolutely anywhere else, and a single big squashy armchair in one corner of the main room with a little table next to it.
"Yeah, that'll do it. Thanks," he says, dropping the 'hon' that wants to attach to the end.
"Yeah, that'll do it. Thanks," he says, dropping the 'hon' that wants to attach to the end.
self_composed
Bella smiles and twirls her necklace around her fingers. "You're welcome. Do you have the time? I haven't gotten a new phone yet."
edgeofyourseat
"Yeah," he says, digging his phone out of his pocket and showing her the time display.
self_composed
"Probably time to start the pot pie with the leftover chicken," Bella says. "Homeward!" And she flies up the stairs.
self_composed
Bella's invisible before leaving through the rock. She tests out her top speed. And gets above the trees and loops till she's dizzy.
edgeofyourseat
Alice hovers for a second or two on the outside before he decides that not getting caught is probably a good plan and settles to the ground to walk back.
self_composed
Bella dives and comes up short near Alice. "You could learn to be invisible too," she points out.
edgeofyourseat
"I could!" he agrees. "Ooh, y'know what else—"
That thing they were thinking of earlier, about some way to run his bad ideas past her without waiting for a phone. It doesn't need to be related to telepathy at all, but if they had some way to talk at arbitrary distance without being overheard, it would make invisible flying excursions that much more convenient.
That thing they were thinking of earlier, about some way to run his bad ideas past her without waiting for a phone. It doesn't need to be related to telepathy at all, but if they had some way to talk at arbitrary distance without being overheard, it would make invisible flying excursions that much more convenient.
self_composed
Bella designs a magic mental phone system, controlled entirely by mental action. It will be expansible, because why not; she and Alice will start as the only two nodes, but if she wants to throw in Charlie or somebody, or add an interface for Alice's sewing machine, she will be able to do that with only a pentagon. It will allow any number of nodes to talk to each other. There will be magic voicemail, in case someone does not want to receive a communique at a given time. And the whole thing can be compressed to text in either direction, in case one is in a loud environment or wants to send mental ASCII art.
She turns over this design in her head a few times, and then spends a hex to put it in place. [Like so?]
She turns over this design in her head a few times, and then spends a hex to put it in place. [Like so?]
self_composed
[Like a phone, basically. You wanna talk to me, you can, unless I have a busy message up, and then you can leave magic voicemail.] She switches to text, and the words "Works this way, too," march across his vision. [And I can add more people later, if desired.]