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Vague and grandiose chat about motivated capitalism take up the rest of the wizards' evening. Plans are made for Cam to learn about worldgates the following (skipped from school with Renée's kind accomplicehood) day and, assuming he catches on quickly enough, to go to New York and meet Jenny and talk about her operating as their business proxy.
Presently it's bedtime, and Cam goes to his room and Matilda and Jellybean go to theirs and Cam has the chance to ask Grace what on earth she meant.
"Well," Grace says, whispering, "you've been holding off on labeling because you're only fourteen, but people stabilize at different ages, don't they? And as near as I can tell you've been stable for almost a year now. Not on either, but on whichever. I think you're just as likely to get a crush on Jellybean as Matilda and vice-versa, and I don't think it's because you're still undeclared, I think you're just wired that way."
Cam considers this. "Okay," he says. "I can live with that."
"I should hope so," says Grace, and Cam laughs, and he goes to sleep.
He's still on a sleep cycle appropriate to school, so he may be up before Jellybean and Matilda in the morning.
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He is, in fact! But not by a lot. They proceed out of their room soon enough, still dressed like magical girls.
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"Do you just always dress like that?" Cam just always dresses in jeans and t-shirts, but at least there are black jeans in addition to multiple shades of blue jeans and four entire colors of shirt.
"Not always," says Jellybean.
"But most of the time," says Matilda.
"But most of the time," says Matilda.
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Cam shrugs and goes downstairs to get some cereal. "Do you know where the nearest worldgate hub is," he asks, "or are we just going to take a bunch of buses here and there till we find one?"
"I can find us one!" says Jellybean. "I'm really good at it."
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"Cool." Renée has already left for work. Cam finishes his cereal. "Where to?"
Jellybean takes the lead.
His outfit receives some odd looks. He does not appear to give a single shred of a fuck.
His outfit receives some odd looks. He does not appear to give a single shred of a fuck.
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Cam doesn't pay them any mind either. Jellybean's prerogative.
On they go!
A worldgate locus, it turns out - he finds one in an alley behind a bus station - is not distinguishable by any of the ordinary senses. But there's definitely something there.
Matilda takes over with the technical explanations.
A worldgate locus, it turns out - he finds one in an alley behind a bus station - is not distinguishable by any of the ordinary senses. But there's definitely something there.
Matilda takes over with the technical explanations.
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Cam spends a few minutes standing in various places relative to the worldgate locus, learning the feel of it, and attends carefully to Matilda's explanation.
"All right," he says, "now how do I use this thing?"
"All right," he says, "now how do I use this thing?"
Matilda demonstrates, with her usual precision and efficiency.
The gate she opens has someone's living room on the other side.
The gate she opens has someone's living room on the other side.
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"Cool," says Cam, opening up Grace to sketch a quick drawing of the gate and a map to the locus. "But Jenny's not home, right? By the way, when I meet her, what do I call her?"
"You... call her Jenny?" says Matilda, trying and failing to imagine another option. "And no, she's at work. If we want to visit her we should do it on a weekend."
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"Well, Renée's pretty laid back about my friends calling her Renée - although if I do it she doesn't like it, I have to address her to her face as Mom - but I have friends whose moms insist on being Mrs. Little or whatever," Cam explains. "All right. Now we know where a locus is for later, let's see what we can do about plants and medicines and stuff. We can keep experimenting on that till you guys are bored, and then you can go do whatever for a bit while I win a million dollars and then we can get really started."
"I am totally gonna watch you win a million dollars," says Jellybean.
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"All right, we can keep doing that until you get bored and then we can go and I win a million dollars," says Cam. "I should probably submit an application thing first so they have time to process it, though. Should we take the bus back home or gate there, d'you think?"
"Oh, gate there," says Matilda. "You can set it up, for the practice, and we'll all power it because it's more efficient that way."
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"All right." Cam peers into Grace's transcription of the explanation to make sure he has it down, and then he follows the steps methodically.
And there's Renée's kitchen.
And there's Renée's kitchen.
They all troop through; the gate closes behind them.
"Time to do science!" says Matilda. Jellybean laughs.
"Time to do science!" says Matilda. Jellybean laughs.
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"Science!" crows Cam, and he starts raiding the pantry and the medicine cabinet for raw materials to talk to. He hands Jellybean a potato and Matilda an ibuprofen tablet and himself a vitamin supplement to start with.
Science ensues!
Science ensues!
Potatoes, it turns out, are about on the level of grass and muffins as far as higher cognition goes.
Jellybean still manages to convince his to do a cute little dance.
Jellybean still manages to convince his to do a cute little dance.
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"Cute," says Cam, looking up from his vitamin and his wizard manual. "But dancing potatoes are not going to feed appreciably more starving people."
"So?" says Jellybean. The potato pirouettes.
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Cam looks at him for a second, then says, "Okay," and relegates that particular potato to toy duty and gets himself another one to look at for when he's done with the vitamin.
Jellybean continues playing with his dancing potato.