devoted enchantment conduit, smile!

[incanted]

Aurora goes home before Brilliance does. She wants an aura; she's admired all the others enough to feel out of place by not having one. (Even Sarion does now.)

She asks Jane to let her know when Brilliance comes home to Rainbow.

And when she gets this notification, she says, +Hey Brilliance.+

Comments

[incanted]

"I guess that makes sense."

[cardistry]

"I wonder if you even can use pants," he muses. "It's a little more - hands-on. The way some spells are, you know?"

[incanted]

"...Some of 'em are involved, yeah. I have no idea. Are we just calling it 'pants' now?"

[cardistry]

"It's a cute name for it," he says. "It's funny. I like it."

[incanted]

"Okay then," chuckles Bella. "Well - I don't know how much my own lack of masochism would interfere with its use."

[cardistry]

"You know what," he says, "let me down off this one and try it."

[incanted]

Bella tapers him down from where he's at. "Um, am I at much risk of accidentally overdoing it given that I don't know what I'm doing pantswise?"

[cardistry]

"I don't know what the interface looks like exactly from that side, but it didn't seem like it took that long to figure it out," he says. "If I yell, stop?"

[incanted]

"Okay."

She finds a comfy snuggling position, propped up a little on part of the enchanted pouf-beanbag so she can watch his face in addition to listening for yelling.

"Say when."

[cardistry]

"When," he murmurs, smiling at her.

[incanted]

Bella swallows nervously.

But she musters up a token amount of wanting and she whispers:

"Devotion."

[cardistry]

The details of the spell interface unfold in her mind. It's very complicated, but it's not that hard to read, especially since large parts of the network correspond directly to his physical nervous system.

And all together, the whole thing is completely under her control. She can give him any pain-related sensation she can figure out how to implement - controllable by feel rather than by number, on a smooth scale rather than discrete increments, and mappable to any and all locations or nonlocations she might desire. (Apparently he has an entire set of pain receptors that aren't connected to his body at all.)



Brilliance is still smiling. But then, she hasn't hurt him yet.

[incanted]

"Well, this is complicated and I don't know what to do with it," Bella murmurs. "...It's like a nerve map. Except plenty of it isn't located in your actual body."

[cardistry]

"Yeah," he says. "This body's only part of me, remember? I've got other places that can hurt."

[incanted]

"Yeah." She swallows. She runs her fingers through his hair. "...I'm not clear on how this maps onto triangles. I think I'll start really small and we'll see what kinds of coins you can make off of it? Okay? ...And, uh, I don't think it comes in plain, any flavor requests?"

[cardistry]

He shrugs. "Okay, that sounds good."

[incanted]

"No requests, huh. Uuuum." She decides on what she most commonly does when she feels like making a little coin on the spot. Biting. She doesn't know if that makes any sense applied to a non-location, but she's going to try it again, very, very gently, over in the nonlocations.

[cardistry]

"That's not even a triangle," Brilliance reports.

[incanted]

Okay, a little less gently?

[cardistry]

A triangle is not far off. When he gets one, he shows it to her and then tucks it away.

[incanted]

Bella kisses his forehead. "Okay, so that's one. How far up d'you want to go?"

[cardistry]

"Star-ish is a good ceiling for now," he says. "Lots of room to get it wrong and still be okay."

[incanted]

"Okay."

She drags her will across his "nerves" like a child with an unfamiliar piano, holding herself down to the mid-pentagon range to start, and she keeps an eye on his face.

[cardistry]

He wriggles and shivers and smiles.

"I like the way you do it," he says. "It's... sweet. You're sweet."

He kisses her.

[incanted]

Kisses. "How's it sweet?" she asks. "Sheer benign ineptitude?"