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Bella goes to bed, happily exhausted. She can make stuff! Not a lot of stuff, not yet, but still. She will be able to solve Brilliance's food problem and if she can figure out how to scale up she will be able to solve the world's food problem.
The next day is, alas, also a school day. She bids Brilliance good morning while she brushes out her hair. +Hey you.+
incanted
cardistry
+Hey yourself! So I worked on that movement spell a bunch last night,+ he says cheerfully. +And I figured out a way to make it so I don't have to maintain it for you and you don't have to maintain it yourself. I just have to make you a tiny little device, with just barely enough power to keep the one spell going. It won't have to turn it on and off, because I bet you'll want it on all the time, so I don't think I'll have much trouble making it, and it'll be about as smart as an amoeba.+
incanted
+I'm... surprised,+ Bella says, +both that you can do that, and that you'd be inclined to, amoeba or no amoeba.+
cardistry
+The amoeba is kind of the important part,+ he says. +I wouldn't make you a device if it was going to wake up. All devices are a little bit alive, but as long as it's not alive enough to want things, I'm fine with it. I don't think it's all that different from you making me a sweet potato. Those are biological too, remember?+
incanted
+If sweet potatoes could talk I'd be in a bit of a pickle,+ Bella says. +So to speak. So - devices are not significantly more "related" to each other than I am to a sweet potato? This isn't going to be, like, your kid or anything, this is an - arts and crafts project?+
incanted
+Okay, neat. What's it gonna look like?+ She finishes disentangling her hair and starts pouring cereal. +Do you want to try Rice Krispies?+
cardistry
+Yes!+
He shifts and hurries into the kitchen, magephoning as he walks.
+What it looks like is mostly up to you. I was thinking of using some glass from the sand planet as a base, 'cause it's really pretty. And it'll have to be something you wear all the time; it won't be able to connect from a distance.+
He shifts and hurries into the kitchen, magephoning as he walks.
+What it looks like is mostly up to you. I was thinking of using some glass from the sand planet as a base, 'cause it's really pretty. And it'll have to be something you wear all the time; it won't be able to connect from a distance.+
incanted
Bella pours him some cereal and some milk on top and hands him a spoon. +Little droplet of blue-green glass on a necklace? And then if I accumulate more for more maintenance spells I can string them on together.+
cardistry
"Sure!"
He knows how spoons work now; he accomplishes Rice Krispies without spilling anything anywhere. Om nom nommmmm.
He knows how spoons work now; he accomplishes Rice Krispies without spilling anything anywhere. Om nom nommmmm.
incanted
"Sometimes people slice up bananas in their cereal," remarks Bella idly.
incanted
Bella laughs and eats her own breakfast. +Is making the device time-consuming or mana-intense? This a before-school or after-school plan?+
cardistry
+Probably after-school. I don't actually know how long it'll take; I've never done it before.+
incanted
+I don't have to, I just have no idea what the standard here is.+
lexicality
Lexi yawns her way down the stairs and looks critically at the cereal box and cracks an egg into a frying pan instead.
cardistry
Brilliance shrugs. +Does the standard matter? I don't know it either, I just know I'd feel weird naming a sweet potato.+
incanted
+I'd feel weird naming a sweet potato I was going to eat. If I were going to keep one on the kitchen counter because it was an interesting shape, or something, I might name it.+
incanted
"Oh. Morning. Sorry, distracted," apologizes Bella. "You sleep okay?"
incanted
Bella's done with hers too. +How would you feel about making Lexi little-devices to maintain some spells on her too? Like, not today, after she's loosened up some.+
