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

[cardistry]

Yep, still snickering.

[incanted]

+So you're not even biological enough to breathe when you're dude-shaped?+

[cardistry]

+I can breathe, I'm pretty sure I can even eat food, but it took me a while to figure out that humans don't just do it when they need the air for something. Or - you know what I mean. And I'm not totally sure I get the point of eating.+

[incanted]

+You're pretty sure you can eat food, you haven't tried it? 'Cause unlike breathing that one has recreational applications.+

[cardistry]

+Yeah, never really got the chance,+ he says. +Maybe I should take Dude Form for a test-drive sometime soon.+

[incanted]

+Sure, we can stop at home before going to Colorful Sand Planet, you can have an apple or something to try.+

[cardistry]

+Cool,+ he says cheerfully.

[incanted]

Eventually gym class concludes, and Bella drives home alone because Lexi's going to try the "go to Jessica's" plan again, and she lets herself in the house and takes Brilliance out of her pocket and puts him on a kitchen chair.

[cardistry]

The deck shimmers; the shimmer becomes a glow, which expands abruptly into the fiery silhouette of a human figure, then fades.

"Oh, cool," says Brilliance, tipping his head back and stretching out his arms. "I forgot how fun it was just being this shape."

He is wearing a skintight black bodysuit that ends just above elbow and knee, with white trim that resembles the designs on the deck of cards he was just being.

[incanted]

"Are you as trivially adjustable like so as you are when you're a deck of cards?" inquires Bella curiously, tossing him an apple from the fruit bowl and grabbing one for herself. She bites hers.

[cardistry]

"I can adjust the clothes," he says, grinning a little as he catches the apple. "So can you, actually. Why, got something you wanna see me in?"

[incanted]

"Not really, just curious if you picked it or if it came with you-ness."

[cardistry]

"Okay," he says, and shrugs, and attempts to make the apple interact with his face.

[incanted]

"...You bite it," Bella says helpfully, and she demonstrates again.

[cardistry]

"I'm trying!" he laughs. "It's harder than it looks!"

But no, no, he's getting it.

...

He closes his eyes and hugs the apple-minus-a-bite against his chest and wriggles blissfully.

[incanted]

"So you like apples?" Bella asks.

[cardistry]

"Mmmmmmmmlnnngh," says Brilliance.

He takes another bite and squirms some more.

[incanted]

"Okay, apples are your new best friends," laughs Bella. She takes a less overwhelmedly blissful bite of her own. "Am I going to have to explain you to Charlie just so he doesn't wonder where all the food goes?"

[cardistry]

+Why does anyone ever do anything other than eat,+ he says over magephone, because his mouth has way higher priorities than forming speech right now. +It's so good, is all food like this?+

[incanted]

"Um, apples are like this, other food is like other things, these aren't even unusually good apples?" Bella says, talking between bites like a civilized person. "Do you want to try, like, a taco, there's some leftover filling and a few more tortillas."

[cardistry]

+I would fucking love to try a taco,+ says Brilliance.

[incanted]

Bella plates and nukes a tortilla and a glob of ground saucy beef. "This is spicy, some people don't like spicy," she advises him, sliding the place across the table. "...And you fold the tortilla part in half around the filling part and try not to let filling fall out and you hold it flat and bite it, is how this kind of food works."

[cardistry]

Brilliance nods.

He finishes his apple.

...He finishes rather more of his apple than you're supposed to.

[incanted]

"The middle bit of the apple there isn't generally considered food," comments Bella.

[cardistry]

He shrugs and attacks the taco next.

+I like spicy!+ he declares immediately. +I like spicy a lot.+

There is considerable squirming involved in how much he likes spicy, but he puts down the taco first so he doesn't drop precious precious food all over himself.