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

[self_composed]

[Maybe she's not, maybe Chris is using her native protection power to defend someone of purely sentimental value - in which case we still have a mint-shaped hole in our explanation. Or maybe a coin-stash-shaped hole.]

[nonbird]

[Chris does know a mint,] Lazarus says slowly. [A mint who is much creepier than she is. I told you about him, didn't I?]

[self_composed]

[You mentioned a few mints. Say more about this one, please.]

[nonbird]

[Sea-green coins. Gave me the one that fixed my clicky jaw. Generally off-putting and secretive demeanour.]

[self_composed]

[How do you know that he knows Chris? What do you know about their relationship? Does he have other powers? How many coins was he carrying on him, what kinds, when you met him?]

[nonbird]

[The coins were an assortment. Mostly triangles, a few squares, and a pentagon. The pentagon was sea-green; some of the others were dark purple. He doesn't have any other powers, and I met him through Chris, which is about all I know.]

[self_composed]

[How did Chris go about introducing you? Do you have magic-people parties or what? Did she say why she introduced you?]

[nonbird]

[I don't remember exact details; it was a while ago, and she was being very mysterious about where she found this guy. But she knows I like magic and she wanted to know what I thought. Of him, of their operation, I'm not sure. I confessed to being a little creeped out and she never mentioned him again.]

[self_composed]

[Their operation?]

[nonbird]

[He was with the superpower salespeople. Did I not mention that? I'm sure I implied it heavily.]

[self_composed]

[Is there a place for that - a supermarket, if you will - I'm just trying to form a picture of how all this happened,] Bella says.

[nonbird]

[He had a nondescript office somewhere that may or may not have been where he usually meets prospective buyers. And it was in New York, actually.]

[self_composed]

[And Chris, what, invited you to come have lunch with her in another country, and people-watch a bit and chat, and go swing by his office space?]

[nonbird]

[I travel occasionally. She mentioned it to me when I happened to be in town.]

[self_composed]

[Okay. So there's a local mint who Chris knows. He can at least make pentagons; it's possible to overshoot, if you're not using my favored methods, and wind up with something bigger than you meant to, so even if he doesn't aim for hexes he's probably made some. Good to know.]

[nonbird]

[Yes.]

He hesitates.

[And... I think, while I was there, I saw the mint who makes the dark purple coins. They were on a different floor and too far away for me to be sure about the coins part, especially because I wasn't even sure coins were identifiable that way, but they were definitely a mint.]

[self_composed]

[...That's also interesting. Just two? We aren't looking for an entire office building full of mints?]

[nonbird]

[Just two,] he confirms.

[self_composed]

[But the green mint had some of the purple one's coins. So most likely they work together.]

[nonbird]

[Yeah, that sounds like good logic.]

[self_composed]

[Chris knows one. She probably knows the other one. You haven't met many mints just randomly walking around so this isn't likely to be a coincidence. Chris knows you - and would have had the wherewithal to spot-check spy on you. Chris doesn't go around with persistent magic powers besides her native one, though?]

[nonbird]

[Not that I've seen,] says Lazarus.

[self_composed]

[So hexes are exceptionally expensive for them,] Bella concludes. [Or, any possible powers are worth less to Chris than you thinking she lacks them. Does Chris carry coins?]

[nonbird]

[She does not,] says Lazarus. [Not that I could tell. She could probably squirrel away a few of the lower-tier ones without my noticing unless I was paying a lot of attention.]

[self_composed]

[But would she know she could do that without asking you? Has she asked you?]