...Bella being unremarkable? Yeah, that's gonna take magic.

[You realize not everyone looks upon me as the most interesting thing to happen in their life. Even if they meet me. You'll notice I am not in ongoing contact with any friends from Phoenix and that I do not routinely have to fend off reporters who want to talk about my fantastic accomplishments - mostly because there aren't any to speak of,] says Bella, amused. [I've been living a pretty low-key life.]

[Well, you're pretty fucking remarkable to me,] he says. [But yeah, I getcha.]

[I always figured I'd wait until I was older before really doing anything, because there are so many obstacles in the way of a teenager trying to really do things that it didn't seem like the most productive thing I could be doing - better to get ready to handle what I'll have to work with as an adult, right? - but now I have lots to work with, lots and lots, so here goes,] Bella says.

[I'm planning to quit aging when I'm somewhere in my early twenties, maybe later if I don't think I can slip that under some relevant radar,] Bella says. [I don't plan on dying ever, and would be rather obliged if you didn't either.]

[It's different now,] says Alice. [I've got more to stick around for,] like Bella, and underground lairs, and blood-soaked showers, and rains of jellybeans, and Bella, [and I can just not die if I feel like it.]

[Don't just directly wish for immortality,] Bella warns. [Mythology is full of ways that can go wrong if handled naively. I'm working on it.]

[Does your regen handle diseases?] Bella asks. [Most of those aren't really fast, but there's probably some I haven't heard of.]

Given who he was thinking of when he wished it: [It should!]

[Good, good. By default mine works fast enough that I think it'll handle even very sudden injuries - like, I dunno, guillotine wounds, or getting hit directly in the head with a van. Also mine doesn't hurt like yours does, actually comes with a little anesthetic, but that's probably just - personal taste.]

Bella rolls her eyes. She walked into that. [Designing powers is fun and complicated and just the right amount of challenging. I don't think college'll let me major in that, though.]

[And you're awesome at it,] he says, not bothering to verbalize his opinion of college. (Total indifference, for the record.)

[The point of college, at this point, is not to learn things, anyway. Pentagons can learn me things. The point of college now is networking for assistance in taking over various portions of the world, which means I have to aim for Ivy League or similar,] Bella says.

[It might actually take some doing to get into the Ivy League. I have lots of A's and some extracurriculars and I used to volunteer at a food pantry because Renée was doing it, but the Ivy Leagues care about sports and I don't have a chance to accumulate more than a little sports experience even if I get a doctor here to prescribe me an inner ear med and then have it 'miraculously cure' my balance issues and then I pentagon myself Olympic skill at whatever games are even played here.] Pause. [Although that could make a good, inspiring personal essay. And they care about legacy candidates - Charlie didn't go to college at all, Renée got her associate's degree by correspondence and hasn't done any school since.]

[What in the fuck is a legacy candidate?] he asks, while idly cooking up semi-legitimate medical explanations for a sudden cessation of balance problems.

[Someone whose parents went to the school. If you can get a few generations of a family to go to your school, they tend to feel affiliated with it and give the school money.] She opens up his thoughts about balance issues, looking for something she could tell a doctor with an actual medical degree to have the miracle cure properly on-record.

Alice obligingly speculates in greater depth! The fact that there is no need to figure out what's actually wrong with her opens up the possibilities a little.

[I do have to be able to convince a doctor to diagnose me with something and prescribe me with something for it to look right.]

[Yeah, but you have magic acting skills and can lie about your symptoms,] he says cheerfully.

[Enh - I can lie about my symptoms if they don't want to talk to my parents, such as because they don't believe that I can remember how I was presenting at age three,] Bella says. [Which I honestly couldn't have done till recently.]

[Okay, yeah,] he acknowledges. [Still. Fake cures are easier to find than real ones, y'know?]