[I love you,] Alice says cheerfully, and makes his way to the appropriate magic door.

Bella meets him in the lair. [Ready when you are, Lazarus,] she says, including Alice in the call too.

[...What the hell...?] he says, sounding confused and vaguely affronted, as he trots down the stairs. [Oh. Why would you do that? Did you not know—? I guess not. Alice, you have a native power that protects you against mental tampering,] he says. [And it clashes horribly with the hex on top of it. Ick.]

[Hello to you too,] he says, giggling again.

[Like... half of my native power?] Bella asks, tilting her head. [That would explain why his didn't fail for redundancy like mine did, if it's only half. We can peel away the extra if it's bothering you.]

[It is bothering me a lot,] says Lazarus. [It's like you took a pretty little decorative object of some kind and then covered it in glue. And I wouldn't say it's half of your power, exactly. They don't look at all alike.]

[I'm defended against inspection and tampering, he's defended against just tampering - what's the difference beyond that?] Bella asks curiously. [Alice, please warn him before making wishes; we want him to supervise them carefully.]

[Ooh, that is pretty,] says Lazarus. [The differences are, um... I'd almost call them a matter of personality? Your power has that very distinctive exactness to it; Alice's is more, how do I put this, friendly. Or maybe friendly isn't the right word. It's close, though.]

Bella laughs helplessly. [Friendly! But - wait a second. I'm pretty sure an agony beam like mine would bounce off me, for tampering and not inspection reasons. How come it works on Alice if he's all natively-anti-tampering? Because it so, so does.]

[Um,] says Lazarus.

[Well, I don't have another example ready to hand, I don't tamper with Alice's brain very often. In your professional opinion, what's going on there?]

[In my professional opinion, I have no idea,] he says primly.

[Would it help you make a professional determination if you saw it done?] Bella asks. [You know, in a professional capacity. I'm really not trying to go out of my way to discomfit you even though it is entertaining, but it seems worthwhile to know how this works.]

[Thanks,] he says dryly, [I'm glad you cleared that up. And okay, if you must know, I guess I can stand to watch. It probably would help.]

Without further ado, Bella hits Alice with some mid-pentagon-range (expecting smaller amounts to be indistinct), flavor: rattlesnake venom. She looks in Lazarus's direction expectantly, through the magic doors.

Alice closes his eyes and smiles. Mmm, fun.

[My professional insight is that he likes it.]

[No shit,] says Alice, leaning into Bella's hand with a reasonable approximation of a purr.

[No, I'm serious,] he says. [It makes a difference. Your power prevents mental tampering, but that's not, strictly speaking, what it's for. It's for...] He trails off contemplatively.