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]

"So you like pepper, huh," snorts Bella.

[cardistry]

+Mmhmmmm.+

[incanted]

"Noted." She glances at the clock. "Charlie's gonna be home soon, and there are probably better ways to introduce you than as this random dude in a weird jumpsuit thing."

[cardistry]

"I could be a random dude in different clothes!" he offers, and starts licking his fingers.

[incanted]

"Yeah, you probably want, like, shoes, and go with jeans and a t-shirt like what I'm wearing only cut to fit you if you don't have a better idea," Bella shrugs.

[cardistry]

He shrugs. His clothes glow briefly in the multi-colour of his magic, and the glow spreads and settles into a new shape, then fades away.

He is now wearing tight black jeans, a red belt with a silvery buckle shaped like an ornate spade, and a perfectly fitted black T-shirt with the spectral figure from the Black Ghost Joker printed on the front and the design from the back of the cards covering the back. Oh, and boots. Black leather boots.

"Better?"

[incanted]

"Very thematic," says Bella. "Looks a little like you're going to walk into a goth club or something, but it's less bizarre than the jumpsuit."

[cardistry]

He giggles.

"I can live with that!"

[incanted]

"All right. I'm trying to decide whether to lead with 'Dad, this is Brilliance, he is my magic tutor' or 'Dad, this is Brilliance, he is from another planet' or possibly 'Dad, don't come into the house yet, I have to tell you some things first'."

[cardistry]

"Your call," he says, laughing.

[incanted]

"He might not want you staying in the house when I'm not present and awake," Bella says after a moment's thought.

[cardistry]

"...that's weird," says Brilliance. "I mean, that's really weird. I'm your device."

[incanted]

"You look like a dude. Might have more luck if I present you as a talking pack of cards," shrugs Bella.

[cardistry]

"Whatever," says Brilliance.

[incanted]

"Well, he could show up any minute," Bella says, picking up Brilliance's plate and putting it in the sink. "You want to live here, you probably wanna be a deck of cards. Or the staff."

[cardistry]

He shrugs, and stretches out and wriggles much in the attitude of someone slurping the last bit of milkshake out of the cup, and then he shifts down to deck form and hovers over the chair.

[incanted]

Bella plucks him out of the air and goes to sit in the living room with some of her neglected homework. "We didn't get around to going to the colorful sand planet," she observes. "Maybe after dinner, assuming Charlie doesn't react worse than I'm expecting."

[cardistry]

"...and what if he does?" says Brilliance.

[incanted]

"Then I occupy the evening dealing with that. Worst case scenario, he's a huge pill about it, you hang out not-in-the-house till I haul back to Renée's, I live with her till I turn eighteen and then get a job I can cheat at effectively with magic and move out. Anyone's guess whether I could get Lexi to move again," sighs Bella.

[cardistry]

Brilliance snorts.

[incanted]

"Hmm?"

[cardistry]

"Nothing, just - I don't know how you deal with all these rules."

[incanted]

"I have more freedom than most seventeen-year-olds because my parents know I'm responsible," Bella says.

[cardistry]

Brilliance shivers. "Lucky you, I guess. Glad I'm not a human."

[incanted]

"...Are you?" Bella hesitates to point out that humans never have to planet-hop for centuries of high-stakes sleepless tedium and rarely spend their childhoods being tortured, but the notion is there.