i'm just that fascinating i guess

[self_composed]

The first day Bella spends out and about with her new who's-watching-me powers, she is rather alarmed.

Maybe she's just mistaken about how much time people spend looking at reasonably pretty eighteen-year-old girls. She kills a pentagon to try it on a nearby control - who's looking at that girl over there?

Fewer people. Fewer people are looking at that random girl, and less intently. They're looking at her familiarly - they know her - or casually - they're checking her out.

[I have a spy problem,] Bella says. She makes a faintly exaggerated show of snapping her fingers in frustration and turning around. She's going back to her room to get a mirror and bobby pins and barettes, so she can spy back on the pretense of checking her hair, without making it overwhelmingly obvious that she knows what's going on.

Comments

[nonbird]

"My mind is suddenly blank," he says mournfully.

[self_composed]

"Well, I have a question - did it look like anything special when I made you that triangle?"

[nonbird]

"I think so," he says. "It was hard to tell, with all the—" he waves a hand vaguely in her direction "—noise."

[self_composed]

"Perhaps you'll get used to it and be able to pick out more detail," Bella says encouragingly. "What do you think you saw?"

[nonbird]

He shakes his head. "I couldn't begin to say. Maybe if I saw it a few more times?"

[self_composed]

Bella digs her thumbnail into her opposite arm in a neat little pattern from elbow to wristbone. "I did say you could have a bagful." She pours a dozen triangles into his hands.

[nonbird]

"That's a little bit disconcerting," he observes. "But yes, something definitely happens when you make them. I can sort it out from the noise now, but I'm not any closer to describing it coherently."

[self_composed]

"Perhaps you could describe it incoherently," Bella says. Aikido's useful; she finds a nerve in her wrist and digs a knuckle into it. Square. She flicks it at him.

[nonbird]

"...That was... different," he says, freeing a hand from the pile of triangles to catch the incoming square. "And even more disconcerting."

[self_composed]

"I'll save the more-disconcerting-still demos for the boyfriend," Bella says. "I am not him. I could be relevantly similar," she pokes a pentagon, "but frankly it does not interest me to become so."

[nonbird]

"Understandable," says Lazarus.

[self_composed]

"You're not going to freak out if he demonstrates?" Bella inquires. "It can be done in an entirely sanitary manner. He doesn't have to set himself on fire."

Bella may enjoy watching Lazarus be disconcerted just a little bit.

[nonbird]

"You did that on purpose," he accuses, making a woeful face.

[self_composed]

"I did," Bella admits, unrepentant.

[nonbird]

But he is so woeful!

[self_composed]

"Would you prefer if I did not make further gratuitous references to unsanitary ways in which my boyfriend might generate coins of assorted sizes for your investigatory purposes?" sighs Bella.

[nonbird]

"Yes," he says firmly. "Yes, I would prefer that."

[self_composed]

"All right then. He'll probably find that really disappointing though." She crosses her ankles. [I don't think Lazarus wants to play with you,] she reports to Alice.

[nonbird]

"Well, he can just be disappointed, then."

[edgeofyourseat]

[Aww,] says Alice, disappointedly. [Why not?]

[self_composed]

[Most people aren't into that sort of thing. I dunno, maybe you can make a pentagon via agony beam and he'll find this sufficiently scientifically fascinating that he'll get over the hangup.]

"Yes, he can," agrees Bella. "Empirically."

[nonbird]

"Empirically, meaning...?"

[self_composed]

[Brainphone, remember?] she says to Lazarus, smirking.

[nonbird]

[...That is going to take some getting used to,] says Lazarus.

[self_composed]

[I found it pretty easy. It's tremendously useful. Saves on my cell bill too.]