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]

"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.

[cardistry]

"Sure I am. I mean, my life up until now has been pretty shit, but if I was a human I'd be dead, and now I get to do all kinds of stuff that you can't because the people who made you are controlling your life."

[incanted]

"They're looking out for me. Most people my age do pretty idiotic things even with more parental supervision than I have. They get drunk and crash their cars, or flunk out of school with no skills and no plan and spend the rest of their lives unable to get decent jobs, or they get pregnant, or whatever. I know I'm not going to do that, but Charlie only mostly knows I'm not going to do that. If he didn't set any rules at all that might be convenient for me but it would probably, given the way humans work, mean he didn't care."

[cardistry]

"Well, I'm still glad I don't have to deal with that shit," says Brilliance.

[incanted]

"How fortunate for you that you do not, then."

The door opens.

"Hi, Dad!" Bella calls.

"Hi, Bella, where's Lexi?"

"Jessica's. She'll be back in like half an hour, and it's her turn to make dinner. Hey, Dad, I have something important to tell you."

"Mm?"

[cardistry]

Brilliance glimmers.

[incanted]

"Okay - first of all - magic exists."

"...Bella..."

"No, seriously, I can prove it. Flight." And up she goes, over the sofa with mana-feathered feet tucked under her. "See?"

Charlie stands there.

[cardistry]

He glimmers again, a little ripple of light, like a visual laugh.

[incanted]

Bella sits in the air. "D'you believe me?" Bella says. "Because that's not the whole thing."

"Where'd you learn to do that, Bella?" Charlie asks slowly.

Bella brandishes Brilliance. "This is a talking deck of cards from another planet. His name is Brilliance. He's teaching me. Brilliance, you wanna say hi?"

[cardistry]

"Hi!" says Brilliance.

[incanted]

Charlie takes a step back.

"...Hi."

[cardistry]

Brilliance giggles.

[incanted]

"Where'd you find it?"

"He, Dad, please," says Bella, "Brilliance is a person."

"Where'd you find him?" amends Charlie impatiently.

"At school. Picked him up and he said hi."