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:

nonbird

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

From:

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.

From:

nonbird

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

From:

self_composed

[At least it means we don't necessarily have multiple sinister organizations regrettably fascinated by us,] Bella points out. [What's she doing? Brainphone me a running transcript of the entire conversation and commentary on anything else you notice.]

From:

nonbird

[Okay,] he says. [Can most people do that? I don't think most people can do that. I'm pretty sure most people can't do that, actually. I apologize in advance if half of it comes out in French.]

From:

self_composed

[I speak French, it's fine.]

From:

nonbird

[Oh. Bien.]

From:

prima_sequentem

"You are still here," says Libby, walking through the clutter.

It is not a question.

From:

nonbird

Lazarus echoes that to Bella and then blinks several times, half-consciously stepping back away from the sound of Libby's voice and her slowly approaching power-shape.

"Sorry," he says, "I just don't really know the polite way to talk to my kidnapper."

From:

self_composed

Bella doesn't want to distract him with unnecessary commentary, but she can't resist, [Zing!]

From:

nonbird

[You are making me laugh! Don't make me laugh,] he complains.

From:

prima_sequentem

"This was not my favourite option," says Libby. "I prefer not to use magic when I can get by without it; I think you've figured out why. But when I realized who Chris had put you in touch with, well, I had to do something."

From:

nonbird

"Um?" he says nervously.

From:

prima_sequentem

She sighs.

"I don't actually know that she's dangerous," she says, "but more to the point, I don't know that she's not. And it's important to know that, because if you spend enough time with her, you could end up teaching her very dangerous things. Not even necessarily on purpose. But let's just say: there are some kinds of magic that, carelessly or maliciously handled, could lead to the destruction of all life on Earth. I would rather keep them in as few hands as possible."

From:

self_composed

[I am not going to extinguish all life on Earth,] Bella says indignantly.

From:

nonbird

"...really?" says Lazarus.

And then he thinks about what he knows so far about magic.

"Okay, I guess I see where you're coming from."

From:

prima_sequentem

"I'd also like to point out that I haven't destroyed the planet so far," Libby adds. "Nor do I intend to. I like this planet. But I can't really be sure of whether or not some teenager I've never met can handle that responsibility, and needless to say, I'm erring on the side of caution here."

From:

self_composed

Bella decides to sit on the argument that she already has stars - that Alice already has stars - and it would probably be safer for them to know what made them tick. She can bust out that kind of logic if Lazarus seems convinced by Libby's arguments later on.

[She's being civil, for a kidnapper,] Bella says instead, trying to sound humorless yet not amusingly deadpan.

From:

nonbird

She succeeds, or at least, Lazarus doesn't complain again.

"I... guess I can understand that," he says. "Couldn't you just have called?"

From:

prima_sequentem

"Under the circumstances, I wasn't going to leave you in the hands of an unknown magic user with no way to protect yourself. You're not exactly one of my people, but you're close enough to count, and I am very serious about taking care of my people."