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Bella has now read everything that has been written on the neutral demon species known as the Sessiaki. It's not much - it's never much - but she now has a general low-confidence picture of them and will probably be able to talk to one civilly without making them want to slap her. She's already juiced up her teleportation to take her to demon dimensions and back, but the Sessiaki supposedly have enough of a pattern of integration that there could easily be one visiting the earth at this time. She tried her crystal ball, but all it showed her was a couple of apparent siblings talking about nothing in particular, laughing.
After school (she's phoning it in at this point, but to placate Charlie's wish to "not have one of those children who just never shows up to school again one day", she is still showing up to take classes as honestly as she can with perfect recall and all the subjects pentagoned) she wishes up a globe sort of like Stella's, only it's small enough to keep in her bedroom (she can zoom in) and it shows demons and local magic instead of ingots and coins, and she can narrow down the pins from many kinds of demons to just one. Where might she find a Sessiaki here on Earth, pray tell, magic globe?
cross_and_bow
cross_and_bow
Zoom zoom zoom. That's just a house. Cool. Bella's already pentagoned their native language (a surprising number of demon species have only one, but then they do have smaller populations than humans). She turns invisible, teleports to the front doorstep, spies no witnesses, re-visibles, and knocks. Her aura is withdrawn for now; this isn't a situation she expects to involve a lot of hostility.
newtimov
One of the apparent siblings from her crystal ball answers the door.
"Um, hi?" he says, blinking at her.
"Um, hi?" he says, blinking at her.
cross_and_bow
"Hello!" says Bella. Interesting. Perhaps the crystal ball was giving her a heads-up about how integrated this Sessiaki is. "My name is Bella. I'm in the process of opening diplomatic relations with assorted species. There's a Sessiaki in your house. Can I come in?"
newtimov
He frowns.
"Um, maybe," he says. "Why are you opening diplomatic relations with assorted species? Because if you're doing it for creepy reasons then you should go away."
"Um, maybe," he says. "Why are you opening diplomatic relations with assorted species? Because if you're doing it for creepy reasons then you should go away."
cross_and_bow
"Well, I'm working my way up to the ones that eat people, but the ultimate aim is making the world a better place," says Bella. "I don't think I'm creepy. My personnel officer hasn't hired me an actual ambassador yet so I'm doing some legwork in person."
newtimov
He peers suspiciously at her, then says, "Okay, I guess you can come in. I'll get - Val."
newtimov
He shows her to the living room, then says, "Just a sec," and disappears up the stairs.
grabsthebutt
About thirty seconds later, his probably-sister comes thumping down the stairs and into the living room.
"Hi," she says. "What's up?"
"Hi," she says. "What's up?"
cross_and_bow
"Hi. I'm Bella. I'm looking to open diplomatic relations with miscellaneous species and there is a Sessiaki in your house. I could just go to Siathe, but it seemed like a better idea to try talking to the one who's already on Earth amongst humans."
grabsthebutt
"I'm Val," says Val. "Ike's asking Mom if she feels like talking to you."
cross_and_bow
"Ooh, cool, you're a half-Sessiaki? Neat. I'm a technically dead ex-Slayer with magic powers."
grabsthebutt
"Good for you," says Val. "Should I be worried about the 'Slayer' part of that sentence?"
cross_and_bow
"Nope. I'm not prejudiced or trigger-happy. My boyfriend's a vampire, the technically dead thing was a Watcher's fault so I'm not exactly on board with that standard program, and also I can resurrect the dead if I ever make a mistake anyway."
cross_and_bow
"I agree," says Bella. "I am an okay person. You seem pretty cool yourself. What is it that you do?"
grabsthebutt
"Like... with my life? Um, I go to school," she says. "And have strong feelings about beer. And punch people who pick on my brother."
cross_and_bow
"Goodness knows it was never my favorite thing even when it comprised a much greater portion of my complete breakfast."
cross_and_bow
"I got murdered," says Bella. "I have pasted most of the assorted abilities back onto my person, but the title is no longer technically mine."