universal star visitor brilliant start!

[incanted]

Eventually Bella and Lexi go to bed - they have to coordinate this; Bella's a reasonably sound sleeper but Lexi's not, so if Bella goes to sleep first Lexi won't be able to drop off with all the random nouns and if Bella goes to sleep second Lexi will wake up when she's trying to sneak around. They get up, and they get ready for school.

+Morning, Brilliance,+ says Bella while she's brushing her teeth.

Comments

[incanted]

+Thanks.+

[cardistry]

+Not sure I get why you have to, but whatever, your call.+

[incanted]

+He has, you know, reasonable parent-of-some-seventeen-year-olds expectations that he will be made aware of my whereabouts. I'd feel bad sneaking around under his nose, and besides, it'd be inconvenient if he noticed I was gone a lot and wasn't telling him and decided to start implementing explicit rules I'd then have to break. I don't want to have an antagonistic relationship with him.+

[cardistry]

+Huh,+ says Brilliance. +Okay.+

[incanted]

+Is that weird or something?+

[cardistry]

+I just don't really know how parents work,+ he admits.

[incanted]

+Some of 'em don't work very well. Mine and Lexi's work fine. Except for the getting divorced part, I guess.+

[cardistry]

+Gotcha.+

[incanted]

+If I fess up to both parents I might go visit Renée a lot. We moved up here so she could travel with her new husband, but she won't be doing that literally all the time.+

[cardistry]

+And I can teleport you places now!+

[incanted]

+Yup! I'm not sure how you'll get along with Charlie but I think you might like Renée.+

[cardistry]

+We'll see, I guess!+

[incanted]

And here is school. +Welcome to high school!+ says Bella with some irony.

[cardistry]

He giggles.

[incanted]

Turns out Bella really likes having someone she can silently converse with during school. She usually talks to Brilliance - she's sure Lexi would react visibly if she said something, and that could wind up being some kind of problem. She makes snarky remarks about the teachers, the subject matter, her new friends - mostly the selection Lexi's monopolizing; she kinda likes Angela and Eric - and, during walks between buildings, the weather. +Hey, weather spells: doable, not doable? Good idea, bad idea?+

[cardistry]

+I'm not totally sure!+ he says. +I don't know how, but that doesn't mean we can't do it. We just might have to screw around on a deserted planet for a while first.+

[incanted]

+Sounds like a plan.+ Bella writes this down when they're inside again. +Could be a good way of managing food security, if I could teleport around messing with weather systems, assuming I can't just create giant heaps of potatoes out of nowhere.+

[cardistry]

+I have no idea how to do either of those things,+ says Brilliance, +but I'm cool with trying!+

[incanted]

+Someplace nice and unobtrusive,+ says Bella merrily. +Have the planets you found got any other characteristics besides probably not killing me?+

[cardistry]

+One of them has, like - a lot of colourful sand,+ he offers. +It's really pretty.+

[incanted]

+That does sound pretty. Why does it have that?+

[cardistry]

+Fucked if I know!+ he laughs.

[incanted]

+Have any of them got life on them at all, or are they managing to have oxygen atmospheres without?+

[cardistry]

+Nothing you could see without a microscope, mostly. I think I remember some algae somewhere.+

[incanted]

+Algae'll do it. Were the sand colors all mixed together or separate?+