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

[self_composed]

[Like PIs and stuff? Hm. Okay, I'm going to be immune to magic spying and add general-bug-sensing so I'll notice if I do have a stalker and they change tactics. Magically, I am not the droids they're looking for; nonmagically I will notice if someone is taking my picture - actually, since it's just going to be a sense, I may as well throw in how many people are looking at me, with their eyes. Now I have to decide what that should feel like.]

[edgeofyourseat]

Maybe now is the time for that being-watched feeling she tried on him!

[self_composed]

[Except that people watch me benignly all the time; I don't want to feel weirdly scrutinized if Janine looks in my direction or a teacher calls on me. I guess I could just add another visual channel...]

[edgeofyourseat]

Or maybe it should work more like his Bella-compass, and just show her where all the people are who are looking at her at any given moment.

[self_composed]

[Hmm. Turn the compass on and I'll peel open the feeling and see if I like it.]

[edgeofyourseat]

He turns on the compass.

It's a gentle, unobtrusive feeling of that way that way, along with a rough sense of distance.

[self_composed]

[Hm. I want to add a type indication too though - how at-me they're looking, and whether it's a person or a device. Not sure if this is expansible quite like that unless I just encode it all in symbols.]

[edgeofyourseat]

It's gonna get awfully busy in her field of vision, isn't it.

[self_composed]

[If I don't think of an alternative, yes it is. I'd magically expand my field of vision but I think it'd make me twitchy, reacting to things I shouldn't be able to see...] Think, think. [I'll take your directional feeling and make it buzz, I think. Faster for the more intently someone's looking at me - someone scanning a crowd I'm in or a stationary security camera in the grocery store will barely register, someone actually spying on me will vibrate like a bell. And I'll fuss with the distance indicator to add a dimension so I know what it is that's looking at me. And I'll run at one-point-five by default while I get used to it.]

[edgeofyourseat]

Bella is so awesome.

[self_composed]

Bella kicks up to one-point-five, installs the sense, and returns to ruminating on her magical spying immunity. She wants to get all the angles.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice goes back to his sewing.

[self_composed]

[Is that Bridget's dress?]

Bella does not want magic (except Alice's) to be able to tell where she is, or anything about her characteristics; she wants it to fail subtly when it can, fail unsubtly when it can't, and - well. Someone might already be magically spying on her. Maybe she can come up with a way to unobtrusively fade out...? Not likely. Not if they're paying attention.

[edgeofyourseat]

It is, actually! He is having fun with it. Contrary to Bella's warning, even though Bridget did not explicitly specify any minima, it's turning out quite modest.

[self_composed]

[I like,] she says.

There doesn't seem to be a plausible way to fade inconspicuously from well-attended magic spying without mental tampering that might not even work. But perhaps Bella can make it register the way it would if she died, or lost the characteristics on which she's being monitored, instead of as though she jammed the detector. If the hypothetical stalker comes and checks on her in person she will have a chance to identify them: they will be looking at her. Hard.

A hex goes.

[edgeofyourseat]

[Good!]

Alice likes it when Bella likes things!

[How's the spy thing going?]

[self_composed]

[It's going. No SWAT team has busted down my door yet and there don't seem to be any cameras or microphones in my dorm room, which is nice.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[Sounds like it worked!]

[self_composed]

[If a SWAT team had burst in, that would be stronger evidence that it had worked,] Bella points out. [Since they'd come running if they had been poised to attack at any sign of suspicious activity.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[Yeah but you don't want a SWAT team,] he says. [Unless you do. Do you want a SWAT team?]

[self_composed]

[I do not want a SWAT team,] Bella confirms.

[edgeofyourseat]

[So that much worked, anyway.]

[self_composed]

[Yes.]