self_composed | i'm just that fascinating i guess

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

self_composed

"My boyfriend makes most of 'em," Bella nods. "And there are a few that I just found."

From:

nonbird

"Well, I can definitely see them," he says. "If I look just the right way, the variance in number of sides is as clear as day."

From:

self_composed

"Interesting. Can you just tell that they're there or could you tell me exactly how I've got them arranged and everything?"

From:

nonbird

"At this range? I can see them as clearly as I see someone with a power standing behind me," he says. "Location and shape. So yes, I can tell how you have them arranged."

From:

self_composed

Bella grins and helps herself to a chair. "So, here's a cooperative mint. Anything else you'd like to see done?"

From:

nonbird

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

From:

self_composed

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

From:

nonbird

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

From:

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?"

From:

nonbird

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

From:

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.

From:

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."

From:

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.

From:

nonbird

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

From:

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."

From:

nonbird

"Understandable," says Lazarus.

From:

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.

From:

nonbird

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

From:

self_composed

"I did," Bella admits, unrepentant.

From:

nonbird

But he is so woeful!

From:

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.

From:

nonbird

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

From:

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.