"Yeah. Our two hours are almost up anyway. The gravity thing is really cool though! Thanks for showing me! Mine's a lot weaker, you know, it's a trait instead of a skill. I have to be constantly using my power to keep it up. And Ground is weird. Lots of things don't count..."

"Yeah, my Artonan language courses didn't really get into it but I assume it's a weak translation of something that's more precise and obvious in Artonan."

"Probably they'll cover things like that in Anesidora-style high school?"

"I hope so but I wouldn't be terribly surprised if you had to really dig for it. I took Chinese in regular high school and the teacher barely gave me enough to Google for about how radicals work."

"Yikes. I went to a private school in America. Fancy Christian type place, with hundred year old buildings and everything. Franklin High is huge. It's really different..."

"Neha's looking into talent development for me so I don't know if I'll ever set foot there. I think a big school would be good in some of the ways a big city is good? More niches, if one in a thousand people is into a thing a really big school has a club for it."

"That makes sense! There will be a miniatures club, an animation club, an animators club..."

The bracelets beep once.

"Oop, that's our five minute warning."

"Better go give back the doodads." Doodads: return!

"Refusal of Gravity seems like it has a lot of potential! I kind of looked like it also works on stuff you're carrying. Something about the way the balls flew. So you could carry heavy stuff- I mean, so can a Brute, but still."

"I could! Could also take window exits once I'm more comfortable with it... I should see how much stuff I'm carrying it can affect and if it matters when I pick it up..." She is taking System notes about this.

"It's exciting! Lots to learn. Even more than usual since you can't talk to people who've taken the power before you. My big limit is I have to be using my other power- Animate Paper- To do Azure Rabbit. So it's more a bonus than a core feature. Took a while to get the hang of activating it but not doing anything with it so I can hop."

"Huh, I guess if there's no other way to use Azure Rabbit at all then there's not much question of whether it drains you faster to be doing two things at once, but I'd naively expect it to... how come you picked Animate Paper?"

"Origiami! Art!"

He grins and fusses with his courier bag, then pulls out two white sheets of paper and focuses on them. They slowly morph into a simple rabbit and crane, then start dancing around each other.

"Oh, that's really cute."

"I know, right? I think it mostly gets used for fancy invitations and parties on summons but I love origami. I'm going to do big, dramatic projects once I have my own place."

"Why would you need an animated invitation - or does it not stay animated past the part where you get it folded up in that case?"

"I mean, I can do origami really fast and origami invitations seem to be a thing, and I can put on shows at parties. That's kind of what Rabbits are about. Lots of people think it's stupid, but that's what trading is for, nyeh."

"I don't think anybody thinks it's stupid that popular actors and singers get rich and that's not strictly useful at all! It just gets a little stranger-looking when there are aliens involved."

"You haven't met a lot of hero hopefuls yet, then. Good for you."

"I have not! Heroism is very glamorous but heroes need the same things as everybody else from the entire rest of the economy."

"That's a good point. Someone makes all their gear sure, but also they live somewhere and wear clothes and eat food and use a computer- If they don't just use the System."

The bus they want to get back to Intake shows up.

On the bus they go. "The System's great for most of the utility and comms use of a computer but I don't think I can play Civilization on it."

"No, you can't. I guess game developers are still safe from us. Civ's good but I like the more like... Small scale games. Like Chaos Ward, where if you expand too fast the demons get way stronger. Maximum effectiveness per colony size."

"I haven't tried it, maybe I should - though I'm the kind who likes building wonders of the world more than the kind who likes conquest, in Civ."

"The victory condition of Chaos Ward is finishing a System but that's not really a wonder, no. I wonder if the Artonans have video games? I've never heard of any..."