welcome to the chessboard

[self_composed]

Bella stockpiles hexes.

She already has a ridiculous number, but she wants so many that if it seems most expedient to individually do some manner of hex-magic to every cubic inch of space in her dorm room, she can and still have a ridiculous number left. She wants enough that if Libby turns out to be a particularly dab hand at extortion, to the point where paying up is her best bet, Bella can keep gritting her teeth and handing over tribute up until the point where even this person will believe that this is all there could ever be - and still have a ridiculous number. She wants her ridiculous numbers to have ridiculous numbers.

What does she have?

An Alice. She has one of those.

And she can use what she has to get what she wants, late into the night, hexily disassembling her body's dependence on sleep, and till she should start thinking about catching up on the internet and heading to class.

Comments

[self_composed]

Bella represses a sporfle.

She brainphones to Lazarus only. [You too, huh?]

[nonbird]

[I'm sure I don't know what you mean.]

He so isn't.

[self_composed]

[Of course, of course.]

She resumes conference calling. [Professional insights?] she prompts, scritcheling Alice on the head.

[nonbird]

[My professional insight is that he likes it.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[No shit,] says Alice, leaning into Bella's hand with a reasonable approximation of a purr.

[nonbird]

[No, I'm serious,] he says. [It makes a difference. Your power prevents mental tampering, but that's not, strictly speaking, what it's for. It's for...] He trails off contemplatively.

[self_composed]

[Hedging out unwanted tampering? Unwanted classes of tampering, unwanted sources?]

[nonbird]

[No, not quite. 'Unwanted classes' is closest, but it doesn't really get there. You might say that an anti-tampering power of the kind you thought he had is a 'look, but don't touch' power, and what he has is a 'touch, but don't change'. For our purposes, the agony beam qualifies as, uh, touching.]

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice grins.

[Oh, you liked it, didn't you.]

[self_composed]

Bella would be hypocritical to chide Alice for that, so she doesn't. Instead she says, [So he's immune to mind control, memory alteration, forcible unconsciousness, that sort of thing - but perhaps not to illusions in general, certainly not to any form of communicative power, and not to the agony beam.]

[nonbird]

[I'm not sure about illusions,] says Lazarus, choosing not to respond to Alice at all. [Illusions might be a borderline case. But yes, communicative powers and the agony beam will work just fine. Clearly.]

[self_composed]

[Well, now we have a productive series of experiments for the use of further coins,] Bella says.

[nonbird]

[Joy,] says Lazarus.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice giggles.

[self_composed]

Bella starts playing with pentagon-sized illusions, notifying Lazarus each time, and she gives the go-ahead for Alice to rain jellybeans.

[edgeofyourseat]

[Whee!] says Alice.

It turns out that visual illusions work on him just fine. Also, invisible jellybeans are still tasty.

[nonbird]

[Good to know you're having fun,] he says, amused. [Illusions look really weird.]

[self_composed]

Bella cycles through some more illusory senses, including touch, since she's not sure if the agony beam is technically "illusory pain" or just disconnected "real pain". Alice gets "trapped in quicksand" and smells "lavender" and tastes "risotto" and hears "Beethoven's fifth". Bella can detect all these things herself, too, where applicable, but she thinks that's probably only because she's controlling the illusions: they originate inside her brain and are allowed to be there on a probationary basis. [Look weird how? Alice, illusion me something, let me make sure it's only mine I can experience.]

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice illusions her a rain of cuddly pillows (visual and tactile), or tries to.

[self_composed]

[Well, I know what you did 'cause I can read your mind, but I don't see them or feel them,] Bella says, squinting at the ceiling.

[nonbird]

[You are definitely buried in illusory pillows,] says Lazarus. [It's remarkably cute.]

[self_composed]

Bella shakes herself, chuckling. [Okay, but, what looks weird about illusions to you? Of pillows or otherwise?]

[nonbird]

[They don't exist. They are very insistent about that. Absolutely no room for doubt. It's just weird looking at something whose most obvious feature is that it isn't really there.]

[self_composed]

Bella laughs. [I wonder if I can wish myself an illusion-detection power? I can imagine blundering into some problems by simply failing to note the presence of illusions when I hadn't been planning to advertise my native power. Then I can look at things that are Obviously Not There with you.]

[nonbird]

[I think that's a fine idea,] says Lazarus.