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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.
self_composed
edgeofyourseat
"Huh." He shrugs. "Okay."
The takeaway from this seems to be: don't talk in front of Bella's friends. Well, whatever. He does not have strong feelings one way or another about that, so he may as well not.
The takeaway from this seems to be: don't talk in front of Bella's friends. Well, whatever. He does not have strong feelings one way or another about that, so he may as well not.
self_composed
"It would probably be weird if you were around them for long and didn't talk at all," Bella says. Angela can be heard getting in her car and driving away, which is Bella's cue to get rid of the illusory casts. "But if you don't actually care either way, it might be simplest not do it a whole lot. I'm running a lot of social algorithms that would be complicated to document and explain and translate so they'd work for you instead of me."
edgeofyourseat
"I mean, I don't wanna freak 'em out because you don't want me to freak 'em out," he says. "But I don't think I care enough to follow a bunch of complicated rules anyway."
Predictably, there are no good associations in his head for following rules.
Predictably, there are no good associations in his head for following rules.
self_composed
Bella nods.
She collects the lair notebook and relocates to the kitchen table.
"So this is the basic shape of the thing. Color scheme? Flooring? Lighting?"
She collects the lair notebook and relocates to the kitchen table.
"So this is the basic shape of the thing. Color scheme? Flooring? Lighting?"
edgeofyourseat
"Don't care," he says, "something that's easy to clean, don't care again."
He has a vague notion that bright colours might be fun, and another vague notion that he might get sick of them after a while, or at least sick of the same ones in the same places all the time. Lighting he just hasn't considered in enough depth to have any opinions at all.
He has a vague notion that bright colours might be fun, and another vague notion that he might get sick of them after a while, or at least sick of the same ones in the same places all the time. Lighting he just hasn't considered in enough depth to have any opinions at all.
self_composed
"I bet you can repaint a flat wall with a triangle," shrugs Bella. "Let's do neutrals with accent walls and you can fuck with the accent color once a month. And everything is easy to clean. We have magic powers." She starts labeling walls (dove gray and blue in the bathroom, beige and red in the central room, white and lavender in the sewing room, ecru and forest green in the bedroom, all pastel yellows in the kitchen.) She puts tile in the kitchen and the bathroom because Alice might just forget to clean for a while (she's seen his room), even if it only takes a triangle, and these will become less gross in the interims; everything else gets carpets to match the paint. She decides she liked the glowing-air effect in Elias's hidey holes and that this should pervade the entire lair, intensity of same fluctuating according to the interests of Alice or herself.
This is fun. She's humming.
This is fun. She's humming.
edgeofyourseat
"You forget," Alice says cheerfully, "I get off on scrubbing things. But eh, I can clean my bathtub once in a while for kicks."
self_composed
Bella nods. "Okay. Hm." She looks around the room for more inspiration. And adds a little arrow pointing at the word "carpet" indicating that there will need to be a nice padding layer between the carpet and the rock underneath, to make it comfy to walk on. (She does plan to visit this place, after all.) "I think this is probably it, except for your furniture that doesn't need magic electricity and water. Where do you want to put the entrance? We can check out the composition of the underground under your first choice first."
edgeofyourseat
"Somewhere near here," he says. "Like, off in the woods somewhere or something, towards the school?"
self_composed
"There's a big rock roughly thataway," Bella says, gesturing. "Big enough to walk into and not immediately fall down the stairs. By accident."
self_composed
Bella laughs. "Okay. Time to see if you're going to run into any aquifers if you just put it twenty feet belowground."
She goes up to where her computer is located in her room.
She goes up to where her computer is located in her room.
self_composed
Bella does some cursory searching, and says, "Looks like we're good. We only live under permanent water, not above it. Wanna go install the lair now?"
edgeofyourseat
It takes him a second or two to connect the weather reference, and then he giggles fondly.
"Sure, why the fuck not?"
"Sure, why the fuck not?"
self_composed
"Righto." Bella turns invisible. "Don't want the neighbors to wonder how I'm, you know, walking. Also, this way I can fly there." Alice can hear her go down the stairs.
edgeofyourseat
"Cool," he says cheerfully, meaning both okay and awesome. He trots down the stairs after her.
self_composed
Partway down the stairs, Bella remembers flying. She's not used to having it yet. Off the stairs and into the air she goes. She puts on her coat; it disappears from sight as soon as she picks it up.
edgeofyourseat
"Kinda weird," Alice comments, and then observes that he should probably get in the habit of not talking out loud to the invisible woman before they exit the house.
self_composed
Aww.
Bella flies out the door and up, up, up into the air. She can "hear" Alice from any distance; if she needs to talk to him to direct him towards the rock, she can always dip low.
Wheeeeeeee!
Bella flies out the door and up, up, up into the air. She can "hear" Alice from any distance; if she needs to talk to him to direct him towards the rock, she can always dip low.
Wheeeeeeee!
edgeofyourseat
There is no actual way for him to tell, but he just assumes she is having fun up there.
That makes him vaguely pleased, too.
(He wonders idly about hexing himself invisibility powers that make them both able to see each other when they are respectively invisible, and thinks happily of going flying with her, and entertains a brief and completely unrepentant daydream about invisible midair sex.)
That makes him vaguely pleased, too.
(He wonders idly about hexing himself invisibility powers that make them both able to see each other when they are respectively invisible, and thinks happily of going flying with her, and entertains a brief and completely unrepentant daydream about invisible midair sex.)
self_composed
Bella sighs, quits reading during the sex part, and swoops low so she can hear him if he talks. She's not offended - that would be silly - but that is not what she cares to daydream about at this time.
"Bear left a bit," she says.
"Bear left a bit," she says.
edgeofyourseat
When he feels the sense of being read depart, he cracks up; when she directs him leftward, he obeys.