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]

This is the first implication that there might be more than one time. "Maybe. You're seeing this happening regularly?" Bella asks, shaking sand out of her T-shirt.

[cardistry]

"Well, yeah," he says. "I mean, if you want. I definitely plan on having sex again, but it doesn't have to be with you."

[incanted]

"Hmmm." Bella pulls her shirt over her head. Her jeans wound up on the corner of the picnic blanket and didn't wind up sandy, so that's more straightforward. "- I dunno. One time to see what it's like for fun, I can do that, I just did, I feel like if it's gonna be a recurring deal I'd want, like, labels, context, that sort of thing."

[cardistry]

"...Labels and context like what?" he wonders, flopping down on the blanket just because.

[incanted]

"Like, a boyfriend," says Bella.

[cardistry]

"Okay. What's a boyfriend?"

[incanted]

"Uh, are you starting from zero on knowing what it is or just soliciting clarification?"

[cardistry]

"I'm not starting from zero," he says, "but I've only ever heard of it in the context of humans and humans and I have no idea how I fit in, and I don't know what it means to you specifically either."

[incanted]

"Well, I mean, you're a person, in the relevant ways you work pretty much like a human," says Bella. "And I've never had one before so any definition I concoct is not stress-tested."

[cardistry]

"...I think maybe you need to pretend I'm starting from zero," he says, "because I still have no idea what being your boyfriend would mean, like, practically."

[incanted]

"...Okay, explaining humans to an alien mode engaged. So humans have all this emotional and cultural stuff that sits on top of sex and is also an end in itself. All the component bits are technically optional - including the sex, for some people - but common components several of which would generally be involved include, like, exchanging presents, and celebrating Valentine's Day because that's a couple thing, and exclusivity with the sex and/or the romance, and, like, emotional intimacy, and a sort of general courtship trajectory, and the relationship having a sort of public-facing aspect where the involved parties' loved ones know, and general life-event-support stuff, and defaulting to each other for situations where having a date is called for, and mutual prioritization in each other's lives, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff. And because all these things are optional, and because all these things can happen without people being technically officially together, there's a fuzzy zone that gets a line drawn through it and that line is called 'deciding to label this thing these people are doing "dating"'. Does that make sense?"

[cardistry]

"...Yeah," he says. "So which parts of that do you want? 'Cause right off, I can tell you exclusivity with the sex is not happening. I love having sex with you, but I'm not gonna give up having sex with everybody else for it. But on the other hand, you're already my favourite person and I already love you, and those aren't gonna stop if we don't fuck again."

[incanted]

Bella blinks.

"I'd need to think about whether I want any of it, if that's off the table," she says slowly. "It's kinda standard where I come from."

[cardistry]

"Okay," shrugs Brilliance. "...Are snuggles a separate thing from sex, here? Because snuggling you is awesome and I wanna do more of it."

[incanted]

"Separate thing, but would also need thinking about. Hugs are categorized differently, and random casual touching differently still, those can both happen."

[cardistry]

He nods, and smiles, and hugs her.

[incanted]

Hugs. "Everything on the list up for grabs?" she queries.

[cardistry]

"I'm not sure," he says. "A lot of it's still human-context stuff - like, I don't know what you mean by 'general courtship trajectory' but I'm betting having sex and falling in love and then calling myself your boyfriend ain't it, and it's not like I'm ever going to be in a situation where I need a date for something, and you're gonna have a hard time explaining me to anybody who doesn't know about magic... and I'm not sure what some of them mean, like 'life-event-support stuff', what's that? But sexual exclusivity's the only automatic no."

[incanted]

"The trajectory thing is more about a steady increase of seriousness, like, there's whatever you're doing, and then time passes and you're doing more of it. We're already cohabiting and stuff, so there's some constraints on how much trajectory there is to be had in any standard sense, but it's not nonexistent. And I might be in a situation where I want a date for something, I might get invited to a wedding, hell, with my droplet I can probably learn to dance and show up at school dances, I don't have to explain you, you can just be mysteriously sourced. Life-event-support is, like, if Lexi were in the hospital and for some reason I couldn't just magically fix this problem, would it be appropriate for me to cry on you. Or would you show up to my graduation ceremony and clap at the correct times."

[cardistry]

"You can cry on me all you want," he says, hugging her again. "And if you really, really want me to show up to your graduation ceremony and clap, I can probably do that too."

[incanted]

"That was just an example, I'm not ruling out the possibility that I drop out of high school completely and just do magic instead," laughs Bella, hugging him back. "Okay, well, I'll think about it. - It might help if I knew why exclusivity was off the table?"

[cardistry]

"...Uh," he says, "I like sex. I mean I really like sex. I like sex like I like food. I fucking love ice cream, but I wouldn't eat nothing but ice cream for a year. I love fucking you, but I wouldn't fuck you and nobody else for a year. I mean, I've never even had sex with anybody else except that one guy I gave a blowjob to - I wanna find out what it's like with different people, you know?"

[incanted]

"Both metaphorically and literally, you didn't eat anything for four hundred years," Bella points out. "Now it's an impossible tradeoff when presented with your ostensible favorite person versus assorted random strangers?" She keeps her voice very even. She has no grounds for jealousy at this time; it will therefore be viciously killed if it should happen to intrude.

[cardistry]

"Um... yes?" he says. "Why do I feel like that's the wrong answer? You're my favourite person but you're not the only person who exists and I feel kind of weird about being expected to pretend you are?"

[incanted]

"I don't expect anything," she reminds him. "There's a reason I didn't ask about any of this ahead of time. It didn't matter for just," she gestures at the picnic blanket, "once. It might turn out to matter - although then again I'm not sure till I've given it some serious thought - for anything beyond once. And pretending other people don't exist isn't the idea, anyway."