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Bella likes school. She didn't use to like school one bit. Even when Renée was teaching her when she was in kindergarten (Renée refused to hear of skipping her past her opportunity to teach her only daughter), it was all - coloring and stupid kiddy books. She likes Renée. But she likes learning serious stuff more.
She devours classwork. She plays in the practice rooms and the gym. She loiters in the games room, fingers flying under strips of copper as she controls things, tries things. She loses to older kids a few times with each new game, till she figures it out, and then moving at the speed of thought means she's got the advantage. Bullying happens around her, but she's a girl - this shields her from much of it - and even though she adds up to faster and stronger than all of the other kids, she's still wearing an assistive device, she's still a cripple. That's fine with her; it keeps her out of the way of the nastier kids. She's not sure the Battle School people are looking for quite the right ratio of ferocity to other traits.
She plays the fantasy game, until she hears from other people that you can't win the Giant's Drink, and she uses this as an example in her statistics homework and never bothers with it again. What a stupid game.
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autokinetic
"There is now!" he laughs.
And after a short pause: "Hey, you wanna do me a favour?"
And after a short pause: "Hey, you wanna do me a favour?"
"I wanna see the rest of the room," he says, "but I'm too slow, the Giant keeps squashing me flat. Think you could give it a try?"
autokinetic
"Sure." The mines adapt to her; one blows up her avatar and she abandons the console. "This game doesn't adapt the speed, just the content, if I remember right..."
She takes over his game. She dodges the Giant and looks around.
She takes over his game. She dodges the Giant and looks around.
The Giant's table occupies the center of a cavernous log cabin. There is food everywhere: sacks of grain piled against the walls, a whole ham hanging from the ceiling.
It's not easy to maneuver here, but it's possible.
At one corner, two sacks of rice lean together with a gap between them, a natural tunnel just the size of the player avatar. It's an inviting place to hide from the Giant's stomping feet.
'Suicide Watch' looks on with interest.
It's not easy to maneuver here, but it's possible.
At one corner, two sacks of rice lean together with a gap between them, a natural tunnel just the size of the player avatar. It's an inviting place to hide from the Giant's stomping feet.
'Suicide Watch' looks on with interest.
autokinetic
Bella doesn't duck in right away - she's not having any trouble dodging the giant, so she makes a complete circuit, and then she squirms through to see where the tunnel goes.
It's dark under there, but the outline of a knothole in the log wall is just barely visible. That in turn leads to a short, twisting tunnel with grainy wooden walls, and from there the avatar falls into a skyskape of endless drifting clouds in peaceful pastel colours, with the Giant's cabin receding above them until it's nothing but a speck, and then nothing at all.
"Cool," he says.
"Cool," he says.
"Yeah! Thanks!"
Impulsively, he hugs her.
Impulsively, he hugs her.
autokinetic
Bella does what it is normal to do with a hug: she returns it. "You're welcome!"
Beaming, he returns to his game.
It's possible to steer his flight to some extent, aiming for specific clouds. Some are denser than others, and turn the whole world pink or blue or green until he gets out of them; some are light and wispy and only veil everything else for a little while.
It's possible to steer his flight to some extent, aiming for specific clouds. Some are denser than others, and turn the whole world pink or blue or green until he gets out of them; some are light and wispy and only veil everything else for a little while.
autokinetic
"I wonder if there's a point to this part or if this is just what happens when you go off the rails," says Bella. She peers over his shoulder. The console to his left opens up. She tries this game too; it turns out to be more her speed than the minefield, with a space station she can arm and armor against little blinking enemy dots. Winning against the first wave of them earns her the right to name her station and save her progress. She calls it "Aegis".
"It's fun!" he says gleefully.
When she saves her progress, he glances over. "Athena's shield?"
When she saves her progress, he glances over. "Athena's shield?"
autokinetic
"Goddess of wisdom, shield," Bella controls her little laser array one handed long enough to tap her head, "my brain - I like the word."
"Cool," he says, grinning at her.
In his game, his avatar is slowly morphing from a tiny mouse into a bird, brightly coloured like the clouds but with darker, more vivid shades. It takes him a little while to figure out the new controls, but then he's happily exploring his new environment, circling through the shifting clouds.
In his game, his avatar is slowly morphing from a tiny mouse into a bird, brightly coloured like the clouds but with darker, more vivid shades. It takes him a little while to figure out the new controls, but then he's happily exploring his new environment, circling through the shifting clouds.
autokinetic
Bella's game has moments between waves when she's out of upgrade credits and she glances over at his screen. "It's not even presenting you with obstacles. It's just a sky of pretty colors. It's like a screensaver," she says. "I think I might've just won the game for you and it's a victory screen."
He giggles. "I love it!"
autokinetic
"It's even more boring than watching your avatar die fifty times in a row," asserts Bella.
"Sure," he shrugs. "To you, maybe."
His avatar's transformation is still not complete. The patterns on his wings are becoming more vivid, more complex; he has a long curling tail of green feathers flowing out behind him and golden talons tucked up against his blue-purple body.
He flies through a pink cloud that's shifting to orange. His next set of feathers grows out fiery red.
His avatar's transformation is still not complete. The patterns on his wings are becoming more vivid, more complex; he has a long curling tail of green feathers flowing out behind him and golden talons tucked up against his blue-purple body.
He flies through a pink cloud that's shifting to orange. His next set of feathers grows out fiery red.
autokinetic
Bella shrugs and spends upgrade credits on commerce infrastructure for the Aegis so she can collect more in tariffs and buy shiny armor plating before the next round.
His shape is more or less stable now, but he can control the colour distribution by choosing which clouds to fly through. For a while, he shifts schemes, repainting himself in every shade of the rainbow. But when he gets one he really likes—green head, blue body, purple tail, and wings like candle flames shading from blue at the front through yellow and orange to red at the tip of every feather—he starts navigating through the same cycle of colours over and over again, so he can keep it just the way it is.
A path opens up where he doesn't have to fly through any clouds at all. He takes it.
A glitter below him: light on water. An ocean, with a setting sun painting the wavetops red. He circles, now firmly under the multicoloured clouds. There's a cluster of mountains in the distance; an island? He heads that way.
A path opens up where he doesn't have to fly through any clouds at all. He takes it.
A glitter below him: light on water. An ocean, with a setting sun painting the wavetops red. He circles, now firmly under the multicoloured clouds. There's a cluster of mountains in the distance; an island? He heads that way.
autokinetic
"Oh, stuff," Bella says, as her new spherical defense web takes out a flock of enemies and depletes her electricity bank. She buys a new generator and starts setting up for a trade arrangement to get fuel on the regular; she wasn't expecting the web to be that expensive.
"Stuff!" he agrees.
One of the mountains in the range turns out to be an active volcano. As he approaches, it erupts.
He dives into the fountain of fire.
His bird doesn't burn; it rides the lava stream up into the sky, cawing triumphantly.
One of the mountains in the range turns out to be an active volcano. As he approaches, it erupts.
He dives into the fountain of fire.
His bird doesn't burn; it rides the lava stream up into the sky, cawing triumphantly.
autokinetic
"Maybe I'll beat mine too, if it's not stupid and rigged after all," she says.
She plays with her space station until she earns another save point, then stops and watches over Suicide Watch's shoulder.
She plays with her space station until she earns another save point, then stops and watches over Suicide Watch's shoulder.
The sun dips below the horizon; the lava fountain reaches up as far as the clouds and lights them on fire, burning them away to reveal a skyful of multicoloured stars. Streamers of burning cloud fall into the ocean, leaving coloured streaks on the surface of the water when they finally burn themselves out.