we will seek my buried inheritance

[self_composed]

Bella fixes French toast for breakfast to salvage stale bread, and, having seen Charlie off to work, hops in her own car and makes for Alice's house. She arrives at nine-thirty, and goes up to the doorbell and rings it.

Comments

[self_composed]

"Exactly-one-hex might be an actual target, and then after that the same injury could hurt only enough for pentagons. Are you suggesting I sit there raining pentagons while you wish yourself coinmaking powers and then find a way to generate more hexes so you can turn me into - who was it, Wolverine?"

[edgeofyourseat]

...ooh.

He takes a deep breath.

"...Will it make you any more unhappy about this whole thing if I bring something to hurt myself with in case it works?"

[self_composed]

"No, not really."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Do you wanna know the plan?"

[self_composed]

"What's the plan?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Blowtorch," he says succinctly.

[self_composed]

"Oh, for the - what if your clothes catch, or your hair does, and the whole house goes up, and I can't run away because my foot is broken?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Believe it or not, I am actually pretty good at fire safety? It does not have to go near my clothes or my hair. If what I saw in that picture worked, then I just have to do this..." he draws a broad line down the inside of his left wrist and over his palm with the first finger of the opposite hand "...and then I can rip into it with my fingernails to get the rest. Easy."

[self_composed]

"I would still be more comfortable with some non-fire-based method," Bella says. "While I will be sitting there with a broken foot."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Okay," he says. "Those're messier, though. And slower."

[self_composed]

Bella does not scrunch her eyes shut. Because she is driving.

"I will be able to turn my head, if need be."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...Should we not be talking about this right now?" he wonders. "'Cause I mean, I'm sure my dad is gonna go on other trips this year..."

[self_composed]

"I'm not even planning to attack my disinterest in supervising self-mutilation. I just need to be able to hold still and not tell you 'stop'."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Okay," he says, but he sounds unconvinced.

[self_composed]

"If I don't manage to pull this off tomorrow," she shrugs, "we'll have to wait for another trip, and I can think of something else."

They're pulling into Forks. "Back to your house?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Sure," he says.

"...I just don't think you know how bad not pulling it off could get."

[self_composed]

"What do you mean?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Maybe it's different. It's probably different."

He sighs.

"Just—really bad shit isn't over when it's over."

[self_composed]

"Wouldn't that apply if I do accomplish what I have in mind, too?" Bella asks.

[edgeofyourseat]

"If you make yourself not hate it the way I don't hate it, you'll be fine," he says. "I don't think you'll do that."

[self_composed]

"I'm not even sure if - wait. What am I even thinking? I have fucking magic powers. I have Elias's stash. It worked for cryptanalysis, hell, that only took squares, maybe it works for masochism. It's at least worth a try, and then," she laughs, "I don't even have to wait overnight."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Sure," he says, surprised.

"We'll have to be fast, though. Or you'll have to keep wishing yourself kinky, but I bet it won't be fun if it slips."

[self_composed]

"The cryptanalysis lasted a minute, maybe a minute and a half? That should be enough time, shouldn't it? Smash foot, create hex, heal foot with pentagons if I can't stand it. Hand off the hex and you have magic powers."

[edgeofyourseat]

"It could easily take more than a minute and a half to get you to hex-level pain by smashing your foot with a hammer," he says. "Especially if we stop to test that it works at all first, which you know, we probably should."

[self_composed]

"Well, what's faster? And don't say 'blowtorch'," Bella says. "And yes, of course, squares are cheap, I'll try a dry run. I could definitely tell when I did and did not have cryptanalysis powers."