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The first day Bella spends out and about with her new who's-watching-me powers, she is rather alarmed.
Maybe she's just mistaken about how much time people spend looking at reasonably pretty eighteen-year-old girls. She kills a pentagon to try it on a nearby control - who's looking at that girl over there?
Fewer people. Fewer people are looking at that random girl, and less intently. They're looking at her familiarly - they know her - or casually - they're checking her out.
[I have a spy problem,] Bella says. She makes a faintly exaggerated show of snapping her fingers in frustration and turning around. She's going back to her room to get a mirror and bobby pins and barettes, so she can spy back on the pretense of checking her hair, without making it overwhelmingly obvious that she knows what's going on.
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self_composed
nonbird
[Yeah! Why am I standing here rambling, I can ramble while I go look for Kolya,] he says, turning and heading for the stairs. [Anyways. Your power. You know what it does, don't you?]
self_composed
[The thing that failed for redundancy was a mental defense against spying and tampering,] Bella says. [That's the only way I know it exists at all; it doesn't make itself otherwise known to me, so I don't have much detail.]
nonbird
[Well, it's very pretty,] says Lazarus. [Almost floral. And it's not inward or outward; I'd call it, hmm, exact. A defined boundary between your mind and the rest of the world. The farther away from that door I get, the weirder it is to look through it.]
self_composed
[It's just an amusing description.] Bella waits patiently to be told if the place is clear of unobtrusive folks.
nonbird
He doesn't say anything, at least not to her, for about a minute.
Then he says, [Nope, not here.]
Then he says, [Nope, not here.]
self_composed
Bella steps invisibly through the door, looks around, and says, [What's the apartment number? Or are you going to come all the way back and escort me?]
self_composed
[Yep.] Bella's still invisible; she might as well fly up the stairs. She does.
self_composed
[I am! That's just about the first thing I did once I had a good hex supply,] laughs Bella, landing on the fifth landing. [Here I am at your door. Can I come in?]
nonbird
[Yes you can!] he says, and opens the door.
"I suppose at the point where I'm letting an invisible person into my apartment I can stop trying not to act weird," he adds out loud. "Hello."
"I suppose at the point where I'm letting an invisible person into my apartment I can stop trying not to act weird," he adds out loud. "Hello."
nonbird
Lazarus laughs and shuts the door and inspects Bella.
The apartment is small and moderately cluttered, mainly with loose books. Some of them are on furniture; others are being used as furniture. The couch has two free cushions and one pile of mixed fiction and non-. There is a bookshelf, but it is over capacity and then some.
The apartment is small and moderately cluttered, mainly with loose books. Some of them are on furniture; others are being used as furniture. The couch has two free cushions and one pile of mixed fiction and non-. There is a bookshelf, but it is over capacity and then some.
self_composed
Bella de-invisibles as she skims his book titles. "You," she diagnoses, "are a reader. Or Kolya is. But given this quantity I'm going to guess both."
nonbird
He laughs again.
"Correct!" he says, perching on the arm of the couch in a clearly familiar posture. "That stack of powers you have there is fascinating. It's hard to look away. What did you say your coins were? Red and glowy? Can I see one?"
"Correct!" he says, perching on the arm of the couch in a clearly familiar posture. "That stack of powers you have there is fascinating. It's hard to look away. What did you say your coins were? Red and glowy? Can I see one?"
self_composed
Bella nips the edge of her lip and appears the triangle in her hand instead of on her bandolier; she throws it to him. She could square some off the chain but that seems excessive when he didn't even specify a size. "Behold."
nonbird
"That's fascinating," he says, closing his hand around it, studying the glow.
Then: "You don't happen to be wearing a few hundred more, do you? That aren't yours?"
Then: "You don't happen to be wearing a few hundred more, do you? That aren't yours?"
self_composed
"My boyfriend makes most of 'em," Bella nods. "And there are a few that I just found."
nonbird
"Well, I can definitely see them," he says. "If I look just the right way, the variance in number of sides is as clear as day."
self_composed
"Interesting. Can you just tell that they're there or could you tell me exactly how I've got them arranged and everything?"
nonbird
"At this range? I can see them as clearly as I see someone with a power standing behind me," he says. "Location and shape. So yes, I can tell how you have them arranged."
self_composed
Bella grins and helps herself to a chair. "So, here's a cooperative mint. Anything else you'd like to see done?"