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]

"I'm deeply curious about how you thought I'd react," says Bella.

[regularsized]

"The fact that I was expecting a much bigger disaster doesn't make this not one," says Bridget.

[self_composed]

Bella snorts. "What'd you think I was going to do?"

[regularsized]

"I have no idea."

[self_composed]

"Now I'm imagining you telling Libby 'she's not gonna like it, boss' in a stereotypical Mafia accent," Bella snorts. "Well. I don't like it. I am not saying 'oh, that's fine, I completely understand that you chose to befriend me under false pretenses because a sinister' - hey, how sure are you she didn't send the mugger-creep-person?" Bella says suddenly. "To try to draw me out? I don't think you were expecting him, or you're a hell of an actress, but he did shoot you and only you."

[And,] Bella adds to her brainphone conference call, [Chris's niece Libby runs the sinister organization, or at least has Bridget as a direct report and keeps mum about upper levels.]

[nonbird]

[Augh,] contributes Lazarus, in a bizarrely calm tone.

[regularsized]

"I'd accuse you of sending that guy before I'd accuse Libby," says Bridget. "Things like that guy are the kind of thing Libby protects people like me against."

[self_composed]

"I may be paranoid, but I didn't expect you to be indestructible, and even after learning you were indestructible I did not expect you to be a spy," Bella says. "To my chagrin, I have been operating under the assumption that there was nothing more of significance to you that might need drawing out. Why would I have sent a mugger-creep even if I had the wherewithal to command mugger-creeps? And if she's looking out for you against mugger-creeps why did a mugger-creep shoot you?"

[regularsized]

"Because she has other things on her mind," says Bridget. "If she had reason to believe I was especially likely to get mugged on some particular day, and she had the resources to prevent it, she would, but she hasn't assigned me a bodyguard or anything."

[self_composed]

"Or offered you storebought magic for the purpose."

[regularsized]

"Or whatever," says Bridget. "I don't really want any more magic. I'm magic enough already."

[self_composed]

"Why does Libby think I'm... interesting?" Bella says. Instead of "worth spying on".

[regularsized]

"I know she expected you to have coin powers," she says. "I don't know why. But coin powers are plenty interesting enough by themselves."

[self_composed]

"Has she had you... befriend... people with coin powers before?"

[regularsized]

"Nope," says Bridget.

[self_composed]

"Do you know how coin powers work?" Bella asks, tilting her head.

[regularsized]

"Not in any great detail. Why?"

[self_composed]

"I've talked to Lazarus - Chris introduced us. Lazarus says wishcoins are made out of pain. If Libby finds wishcoiners interesting, it's because she wants to hurt them and extract some benefit from that. Or talk them into hurting themselves, I suppose. As long as she finds wishcoiners more interesting than comparable nonmagical people, it boils down to that."

[regularsized]

"...Where are you going with this?" says Bridget.

[self_composed]

"Nowhere specific. It just doesn't seem all that benign to me. Gains from trade are a thing - but I'm not sure how much of that to expect to see here. Because I don't know what's on offer or what's being asked, but it sure sounds like Libby expects it to involve me being in a hell of a lot of pain, if I'm interesting because she thinks I'm a wishcoiner."

[regularsized]

"She asks people not to do things as often as she asks them to do things," says Bridget. "She might, hypothetically, if you don't end up deciding you want nothing to do with us, just ask you to let her know what you're up to in a general sense and once in a while change what you're doing so you don't interfere with someone else. And then once in a while you can ask her to change what someone else is doing so it doesn't interfere with you. My impression is that the reason she's so keen to figure out strange wishcoiners is because they have the potential to cause a lot of trouble and she wants to avoid that, not because she has magic she wants them to do."

[self_composed]

"I suppose that makes sense," Bella acknowledges. "Keeping people from running into each other sounds like a worthwhile service. But I'm getting the impression that she's not usually very forthcoming with information, which I think I would find infuriating in any significant dose."

[regularsized]

"Well, you could always ask her to be more forthcoming," says Bridget. "If she decides you're trustworthy, she might."

[self_composed]

"What does 'trustworthy' look like?" Bella asks.

[regularsized]

"Like someone who isn't planning to hurt the organization or anyone in it," says Bridget. "Like someone who will keep secrets once given them."