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]

[Did it really take me a while or am I really used to you?] Bella asks. [I don't mean you're overwhelmingly predictable or seem normal to me, that's not the same thing.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[Either,] he says. [I mean, if you ever got used to me, I don't think I noticed.]

[nonbird]

Lazarus snorts.

[self_composed]

[I have formed the background expectation that you will be around, and have a basically serviceable model of what that should mean to me,] Bella says. [If you disappeared, this would be alarming and require mental adjustment. I'm calling that being-used-to-you.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[Gotcha,] he says, weirdly pleased.

[self_composed]

[Anything interesting going on?] Bella asks, with that subject exhausted.

[edgeofyourseat]

[Is baking interesting?]

[nonbird]

[Comparatively.]

[self_composed]

[Ooh, carrot cake,] Bella comments. [Lazarus, we could teleport you something to eat, right? Assuming you eat neatly without the benefit of a plate and pretend to be hungry when Libby-or-whoever fetches you there should be no associated informational giveaway.]

[nonbird]

[...I'm not sure how you plan on the food arriving neatly without the benefit of a plate, but beyond that, yes.]

[self_composed]

[I was thinking "land in the hand wearing the watch"; would that refer too directly to you, in your expert opinion?]

[nonbird]

[Yes. If you end up referring to me, it won't work, even if you only end up referring to me because I happen to fit a criterion like 'wearing Kolya's watch'.]

[self_composed]

[Huh. Put it in a box, tie it up with string, appear string tied around watch, disappear the box and string on your say-so?]

[nonbird]

[...Weird, but functional,] he says. [But if you're going to be disappearing the packaging afterward, you may as well include a plate and possibly a napkin.]

[self_composed]

[And a little bottle of milk?] Bella inquires.

[nonbird]

[Why not.]

[self_composed]

[That can be arranged. If taking over the world doesn't work out maybe I'll open a magic restaurant. ETA on the carrot cake coming out of the oven is... five minutes apparently, triangles do cooling, then it will take a minute for Alice to frost.]

[nonbird]

Lazarus giggles.

[self_composed]

[Cream cheese frosting,] Bella says encouragingly.

[prima_sequentem]

A car pulls up outside the warehouse. Normally that would not be apparent to the person inside, but this car happens to contain a mint. With a familiar power signature.

[nonbird]

He yelps, out loud and by brainphone.

[Cancel the carrot cake,] he says urgently. [No cake for me. I've got a visitor.]

[self_composed]

[Who is it?] Bella asks, with equal urgency.

[nonbird]

[The mint with the dark purple coins, I think. And—oh. Oh.]

[prima_sequentem]

"Sorry I'm late," says a half-familiar voice from behind a stack of crates. "Traffic."

And the rest of the magic around her is also half-familiar: Chris's power, seen from the target instead of the source.

[nonbird]

[It's Libby,] says Lazarus. [Crap.]