"Because pepper is the thing that makes the taco filling spicy, and it only takes a little to make a lot of something quite spicy indeed, and most people would be very unhappy if they ate any significant amount of straight pepper."
"Most people would probably also be unhappy if they stabbed themselves with a fork," he points out. "Gimme!"
"Noted." She glances at the clock. "Charlie's gonna be home soon, and there are probably better ways to introduce you than as this random dude in a weird jumpsuit thing."
"I could be a random dude in different clothes!" he offers, and starts licking his fingers.
"Yeah, you probably want, like, shoes, and go with jeans and a t-shirt like what I'm wearing only cut to fit you if you don't have a better idea," Bella shrugs.
He is now wearing tight black jeans, a red belt with a silvery buckle shaped like an ornate spade, and a perfectly fitted black T-shirt with the spectral figure from the Black Ghost Joker printed on the front and the design from the back of the cards covering the back. Oh, and boots. Black leather boots.
"Better?"
"Very thematic," says Bella. "Looks a little like you're going to walk into a goth club or something, but it's less bizarre than the jumpsuit."
"All right. I'm trying to decide whether to lead with 'Dad, this is Brilliance, he is my magic tutor' or 'Dad, this is Brilliance, he is from another planet' or possibly 'Dad, don't come into the house yet, I have to tell you some things first'."
"He might not want you staying in the house when I'm not present and awake," Bella says after a moment's thought.
"You look like a dude. Might have more luck if I present you as a talking pack of cards," shrugs Bella.
"Well, he could show up any minute," Bella says, picking up Brilliance's plate and putting it in the sink. "You want to live here, you probably wanna be a deck of cards. Or the staff."
He shrugs, and stretches out and wriggles much in the attitude of someone slurping the last bit of milkshake out of the cup, and then he shifts down to deck form and hovers over the chair.