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]

"That works," Bella agrees. "Are you normally around only people you can talk magic in front of, when you're not busy?"

[queensidecastle]

"Normally yes."

[self_composed]

"So that's your natively magic friends, and who else? People with storebought powers?"

[queensidecastle]

"Demonstrably, I can also talk magic to people who know about it but don't have any," says Chris.

[self_composed]

"I was thinking of people you hang out with in person, but you know what, that's interesting too, who else knows about magic and hasn't got any?" Bella asks.

[queensidecastle]

"My niece, for one."

[self_composed]

"How come she hasn't bought some?"

[queensidecastle]

"Well, part of the reason I say that the price of superpowers is probably beyond the reach of a Stanford undergrad is that I know it's definitely beyond the reach of a PhD in mathematics."

[self_composed]

"You said it wasn't a monetary cost. What is it about undergrads and PhDs that makes us unlikely to be able to scrape up whatever the not-money is?"

[queensidecastle]

"Now, granted I'm just guessing because I don't know the details of that conversation, but I'm betting they turned her down because she couldn't do them interesting enough favours."

[self_composed]

"What do people with magic to sell even want?"

[queensidecastle]

"I really couldn't tell you," says Chris, amused.

[self_composed]

"Do you know anybody with bought magic?" Bella tries. "Or anybody who knows anybody? Does Lazarus detect that too?"

[queensidecastle]

"I don't personally know anybody with bought magic, but I do know Lazarus can detect it."

[self_composed]

"So maybe he can tell me about them," Bella says. "Okay, this conversation seems to keep leading back to 'I should just ask Lazarus'. Anything you're willing to tell me that he doesn't know, before I bid you goodbye?"

[queensidecastle]

"Nope," says Chris.

[self_composed]

"All right then. Thanks for your time," Bella says politely. "Please tell Lazarus that I'd love to listen to him talk about magic for hours if he'd be so kind."

[queensidecastle]

"I think you two are going to get along really, really well," Chris predicts. "Should I give him your email address, your phone number, or both?"

[self_composed]

"Both," says Bella. "Weak preference for email; allows latency."

[queensidecastle]

"Will do," she says. "And you're welcome."

[self_composed]

"Thanks again. Bye," says Bella brightly, and she hangs up.

He probably doesn't work over the phone. And she has two hex layers of anti-spying. And he's guaranteed to be interesting.

[queensidecastle]

There is that.

So, a few days later, Bella gets an email from someone called L. Anson:

Hi!

A little bird told me you have questions about magic? She is a somewhat paranoid little bird sometimes, so she would probably rather we didn't mention her name, but I am neither paranoid nor little nor a bird so I have no problem talking magic over email.

[self_composed]

Bella grins at this. She's even surer he doesn't work over email.

Hello, nonbird! You must be Lazarus. I have all of the questions about magic and how people act around it. Do let me know if my questions begin to annoy you, but I'm led to believe that's unlikely. Here's some to start with; I don't know how much time you have and my impatience can put up a good fight against my curiosity sometimes.

- What "native" powers have you seen that the little bird didn't mention, assuming there are some? We covered Bridget and little bird herself and a precog and you and someone with an "unobtrusiveness" power.
- Are there patterns to where and when they appear? How many people have them in the general population?
- What's up with the storebought powers? Who's buying them, what are they paying, what kinds of powers do they tend to walk away with?
- How do you work? (I'm going to want similar detail about everybody, but I might as well start with you.) What's your range? Do you function through barriers, electronic media, etc.? What does it tell you exactly, do you have to turn it on or is it passive, does anything (like little bird's power?) block you or are you some sort of unstoppable force of divination...?

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me!

-Bella

[nonbird]

I'm making all my friends call me Nonbird now. You have no idea what you've wrought.

To answer all your questions completely out of order:

I have a sense for powers the same way I have a sense of touch or taste or sight or sound or balance. It works in all directions and through barriers, up to the same range as sight and with about the same loss of detail over distance. I know where people with powers are when they're nearby, and most of the time I can figure out what they do if I look at them long enough. 'Look' is a metaphor, of course, I used to actually squint at people but it only helps psychologically.

I haven't gathered detailed statistics, but I live in a fairly big city and I can go as long as a month without seeing any new powers, so the overall percentage can't be that high. Everyone I've talked to who knows they have a power and remembers a time when they didn't has said it came in before they were ten; I'm in the 'can't remember a time when I didn't' category. It always seems to be relevant to them in some way, although it's not always obvious until you get to know them.

"Storebought" powers are interesting. I know one or two people with them, but they're even more secretive than the little bird; they haven't told me much and they probably don't want me to repeat any of it. I can talk about the powers in the abstract, though. They're very easy to tell apart from native powers, and it's usually easier for me to tell what they do without getting up close. I've seen a few 'in the wild', so to speak; there was a mint who rode two cars down from me on the subway once, who I never saw again, and someone who walked past me in a mall who had remote viewing.

To know if the little bird's power blocked me, I would have to have looked at someone she was covering who had a power. I haven't looked at someone she was covering, powers or no, so it's hard to say. At a guess, though, I'd bet she wouldn't. Her power is very protective, and mine isn't harmful.

On the other hand, Kolya's unobtrusiveness hides itself just as well as it hides the rest of him. When he has it turned up, I'm as oblivious to him as anybody.

[self_composed]

Bella suspects she knows what a "mint" is, but cannot think of a plausible way to guess.

You're welcome for your new nickname.

A "mint"? Like... the herb, or what?

"Most of the time"? When can you not, what goes wrong?

It being a sense sounds really interesting. Do you have magical aesthetics? Would it really annoy you if someone with a certain power moved in upstairs and just went on having it at all hours of the night? Do you sense your own power directly?

Do you go out a lot? That affects how much your big city is affecting what people you see; if you're a shut-in you have your neighbors and delivery people, not a huge sample size.

What do you mean by "relevant"?

Is it generally easy to get people to talk to you about their powers, once you walk up to them and ask if they believe in magic?

Knowing a dude who can be completely unobtrusive like that sounds really disconcerting.