miracle crystal dancing jewel, spin!

[incanted]

Bella goes to bed, happily exhausted. She can make stuff! Not a lot of stuff, not yet, but still. She will be able to solve Brilliance's food problem and if she can figure out how to scale up she will be able to solve the world's food problem.

The next day is, alas, also a school day. She bids Brilliance good morning while she brushes out her hair. +Hey you.+

Comments

[incanted]

+You'd be the expert on whether that's something you could accomplish by magic or not,+ Bella says wryly.

[cardistry]

+Nah, I don't think I can pull it off.+ He laughs. +Too bad.+

[incanted]

+Alas. So if you're not non-sexual, what are you? I assume you're familiar with the fact that there's kinds.+

[cardistry]

+I don't think I have a kind,+ he says. +What's the sex equivalent of the way I feel about food? I'm that. Except I've had more food than sex. Which is definitely something I hope to change. Hey, wanna have sex with me?+

[incanted]

+Uh. I'll have to - think about that,+ says Bella.

(She enjoys a brief and vivid mental image of being enjoyed the way he enjoys ice cream.)

+Just - that, or is there context here?+

[cardistry]

+...Context like what?+

[incanted]

+Like, I'm not sure of actual percentages, but often people who have sex are also dating or something?+

[cardistry]

+...Yeah, and? What are you asking, here? I wanna have sex with you because I wanna have sex and I know you and I like you and you're nice.+

[incanted]

+There are ways to like people, though. I'm trying to figure out which one you mean.+

[cardistry]

+I like one person,+ he points out. +It's not like there's anything to compare the way I like you against.+

[incanted]

+...That's fair.+

And sweet.

+Okay, so that I can think about this question without extraneous fluff in the way - can devices get people pregnant or transmit bio-person diseases?+

[cardistry]

+Nope! I'm not even as good a disease vector as your average deck of cards, 'cause I shed all that stuff every time I change form.+

[incanted]

+Okay then. I will - think about it.+

[cardistry]

+Okay,+ he says brightly. +Think I've got time to go try out my body some before you have to go to school?+

[incanted]

+We'll be going any minute, I've been dithering staring at this hair elastic trying to figure out how to get the glass droplet onto it, I probably don't even have time left for an actual breakfast and will just grab cold poptarts on the way out.+

[cardistry]

He laughs. +Lemme at the hair elastic.+

[incanted]

Bella trots downstairs, puts the hair elastic on the kitchen table, checks the time, and puts her poptarts in the toaster.

[cardistry]

Brilliance picks up the hair elastic; his spell diagram unfolds beneath him. The hair elastic comes apart at the join. He holds it out to Bella. "Put the bead on it, I'll join it back up."

[incanted]

"Cool. Is this repeatable without a new spell if I accumulate more?" she asks, stringing on the bead.

[cardistry]

"Nope," he laughs, reuniting the ends for her and letting go of the elastic. His spell diagram goes away. "But the matter manipulation was pretty tiny, I didn't even need to incant for it."

[incanted]

"Cool." She tests the stretch; it will go on her wrist and hold up a ponytail. "Thanks!" And she spins on the ball of one foot towards the toaster when it pops, and plates her poptarts and breaks one in half and hands him a piece.

[cardistry]

He beams.

Nom nom nom +ooooh, I like these.+

[incanted]

+Thought you might.+

[lexicality]

"Come on, Bella," calls Lexi from where she's putting on her shoes, "we'll be late!"

[incanted]

Bella holds her poptarts in her mouth, ties her shoes, and follows her sister out the door. +C'mon!+