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The following morning, Bell hears what sounds like a fire alarm. It's not in their building - it's at least a block away. From her window, she can clearly see the house that's caught, near the train station, and just as clearly see that there isn't any bucket brigade handling it yet.
She seizes her wand from the nightstand and assumes control over the fire; if there's anyone in the unburnt part of the house they'll be able to get out. "SHERLOCK! TONY!" she calls.
Bell wants a second opinion before she snakes this fire down the corner of the house and over the grass to destroy the train station.
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she_sells_seashells
"Sure!" says Matilda.
she_sells_seashells
"Thanks! The statistics are at least encouraging that one of the three of us will get something workable. I hope it's me, but I could work with it being Sherlock or Tony."
"Want me to give you a first try before you go and find your friends?"
she_sells_seashells
"They're busy now anyway," Bell says, nodding. "They met some alternates of theirs. Sherlock's is a boy, which is kind of weird."
(She doesn't specify what they and their alternates are doing.)
(She doesn't specify what they and their alternates are doing.)
"Okay. Mind if I levitate you a few inches? It's easiest."
she_sells_seashells
"That's fine," chirps Bell. "More than fine. I'm so glad I found you."
Bell levitates a few inches off the ground. Matilda opens up the thing she was looking at earlier again.
she_sells_seashells
Bell reads more of the manual, after the part with the helpful graphs. She's a little less manic about it now that she is floating.
There is a lot of technical detail available, including descriptions of every common spell. With variants.
When Matilda said she wrote three papers on it, she apparently meant more like thirty. Unless only a few of these count as papers the way she meant. She's credited as an author in every single document that credits authors.
Also, for some reason a disproportionate focus has been given to the subject of conjuring food.
When Matilda said she wrote three papers on it, she apparently meant more like thirty. Unless only a few of these count as papers the way she meant. She's credited as an author in every single document that credits authors.
Also, for some reason a disproportionate focus has been given to the subject of conjuring food.
she_sells_seashells
Bell is very much in favor of the subject of conjuring food.
She reads all of it.
If it seems like Matilda is open to being talked to, she makes remarks about it as she goes, but she is also open to just... reading. About magic. This is the most technical magic description she's ever gotten her hands on. (Reading about any other system has always seemed needlessly tortuous. She couldn't have them.)
She reads all of it.
If it seems like Matilda is open to being talked to, she makes remarks about it as she goes, but she is also open to just... reading. About magic. This is the most technical magic description she's ever gotten her hands on. (Reading about any other system has always seemed needlessly tortuous. She couldn't have them.)
Matilda is very open to being talked to! Don't tell anybody, but she's kind of a nerd.
she_sells_seashells
Bell is not a nerd about most things.
She is absolutely a magic nerd.
She is absolutely a magic nerd.
Then she has found the right person to talk to.
she_sells_seashells
After Bell is finished with the entire manual - and has reread the interesting sections - she says, "I think it's probably a good idea for me to go find Sherlock and Tony now. You won't go anywhere, will you?"
(And she's going to stash the new computers in her room, just in case, because sometimes fucking Milliways earns its name.)
(And she's going to stash the new computers in her room, just in case, because sometimes fucking Milliways earns its name.)
"I will not go anywhere," Matilda affirms. "Unless you're gone for six hours and I really need to pee."
she_sells_seashells
"Well, if that happens, we can leave each other notes at the bar and try to catch each other again? I'll be here more frequently than I used to. Tony can sometimes summon the door and Sherlock runs across it more often than I do. Anyway, I'll try not to take six hours!" She scoops up the laptops, stashes them, and goes Stark-hunting.
toblameforit
All four of them are in Bell's pair's room, to which Bell has a key.
They are all snuggling. The Tonies are discussing technology.
They are all snuggling. The Tonies are discussing technology.
she_sells_seashells
"I found someone with contagious magic," Bell says loudly and without preamble.
she_sells_seashells
"Downstairs. She's called Matilda. I met her when I was six and then never found her again. She has to do magic to whoever she's trying to be contagious at. Come on, come on!" Bell can't contain herself; she races down the hallway to the stairs again.
she_sells_seashells
Bell finds Matilda again, and on the way down the stairs, she chatters: "And she can conjure stuff out of thin air - I got us laptop computers, and extras for Tony to take apart - and her magic system can do just about anything if you understand it well enough and the contagiousness thing doesn't work perfectly but the odds are good it'll work on at least one of us, and," breath, "there she is! Matilda, this is Sherlock! Sherlock, Matilda!"
"Hi!" says Matilda. "Would you like to be levitated?"