super speed and other exceptional abilities

[self_composed]

Wisconsin fast plants (so called because they are from Wisconsin, fast-growing, and plants) are the subject of Bella and Bridget's chosen bio experiment. It involves taking at least some measurements after sunset - Bella managed to find an exact specific experiment design that hasn't been done before, when she heard they were allowed to choose their own, and even though all it will determine is whether indoor plants without windows can "tell if it's night" even if you leave the light on all the time, she is slightly excited about this.

She meets Bridget there. They measure their plants in the lit room and the dark room, take pictures, and write down subjective evaluations of leaf droopiness. They leave.

They're about a third of the way to Bella's building when a man's voice behind them says, "Hello, girls."

Comments

[regularsized]

"I couldn't begin to say. How would I know?"

[self_composed]

"Other direction then - would you have ever told me, if you hadn't gotten shot right in front of me? Have you told anyone else besides Mystery Power Person? Did they have to see you get mysteriously not-injured first?"

[regularsized]

"I might have gotten around to it eventually. The main thing stopping me is the fact that it's hard to demonstrate without unnerving people."

[self_composed]

"You have experience with that?" Bella asks.

[regularsized]

"I did actually try to tell a couple of my friends in high school. They thought I was kidding and they were creeped out anyway. I didn't ever get to the demonstrating part."

[self_composed]

"Huh. So you're not overly worried about the being-whisked-away-to-a-lab thing."

[regularsized]

"Well, that is another, somewhat longer story," she says ruefully.

[self_composed]

"Storytime!" exclaims Bella. "Do tell."

[regularsized]

"Skipping most of the irrelevant details: I have been whisked away to a lab, it is not my favourite memory, and I have reason to believe it won't happen again."

[self_composed]

"Please, lay on the irrelevant details," says Bella, finding this explanation unsatisfactory.

[regularsized]

"Not my favourite memory," she repeats firmly.

[self_composed]

Bella is displeased. She files this away for later. "Fine. At least tell me how careful I have to be about telling other people."

[regularsized]

"I would appreciate it very much if you didn't mention my superpowers to anyone who doesn't already know."

[self_composed]

"Do I know anyone who already knows, at this time?"

Also, Alice totally already knows. Har har.

[regularsized]

"All our mutual acquaintances are your friends," Bridget points out, "and I haven't told any of them."

[self_composed]

"Didn't think so. Okay."

Bella looks at the ceiling. "Anyone else you may get around to telling eventually?"

[regularsized]

"That you know? Probably not."

[self_composed]

"Okay."

Bella takes out her phone and glances at the time. "And with that, I think I'm out of questions if I think of one more on the way out or not - I should head home. I'll see you in class."

[regularsized]

"See you," Bridget says agreeably.

[self_composed]

Bella lets herself out, hops on Tegu, and drives back to the dorm the way she came.

[So apparently I'm not the only person with a random power. I suppose this was more likely than me happening to have something that only happens to one in billions of people. The fact that I met one suggests that they're either pretty common - or there's a selection effect.]

Pause.

[Second possibility: slightly worrying.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[...What's a selection effect?]

[self_composed]

[Imagine you say that your club is open to everybody, and then you only advertise that it exists in yacht clubs. You are going to get people who have yachts. Anything that filters who you're looking at like that. I'm not sure I like the idea that someone or something is filtering who I look at so I get magic people. But it's only one - you weren't magic till after understood causes unrolled - so perhaps I'm only paranoid.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[Maybe you have a magic stalker,] he says whimsically.

[self_composed]

[Gah. That'd be bad.]

Bella thinks about it. [I don't think Bridget planned to get shot. I invited her on my own initiative to walk with me as far as my dorm - although it's possible she'd have invited herself along if I hadn't. I could have biked to and from - though it's possible that she just knows how I get around campus normally. We could have gone a different route - but I wouldn't necessarily notice if she were doing something subtle with her body language to steer me, and I didn't notice the guy until he was right behind us anyway so who knows how long he was tailing us. Hm.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[Maybe you've both got a magic stalker,] Alice hypothesizes. He doesn't know why he finds the vague notion of a mysterious individual arranging to have magical people meet each other so hilarious.