a city and a mint who sleep very little between them

[self_composed]

Bella bikes to the airport on Friday. She gets a little reading done on her flight, then sleeps-on-purpose through the remainder of the trip, waking up precisely when the plane touches down. One nice bonus that she didn't even explicitly build into the power is that she can sleep at will in virtually any position; she doesn't have to get comfy if that's not convenient.

She steps off the plane, backpack full of her things over her shoulders, and stalks into the halls of LaGuardia, eyes peeled for Libby.

Comments

[self_composed]

This does actually bring Bella up short. "Okay, you either take this warning seriously, or you are willing to throw a lot of resources around making me think you do. Why won't you save yourself the trouble and tell me why you take it seriously?"

[prima_sequentem]

"I don't get the impression that 'I trust the person who told me' will carry much weight with you."

[self_composed]

"It carries weight - in the sense that it moves the question a step further. Where did that person find out?"

[prima_sequentem]

"And we're back to square one."

[self_composed]

"I'm trying to figure out why that would be a secret," muses Bella. "Would it harm the person who warned you if this fact were known in any more detail? I don't go around attacking people for issuing warnings, who would? Perhaps you just made a general promise not to spread the information, because... your warner is paranoid? You don't seem to be operating under a general principle of never sharing information, or never sharing information with me; only here and there. Maybe this is the wrong idea; maybe you don't know where the original warning came from, and you're... embarrassed to pay attention to a restriction that you don't know much about? Undertaking your own controlled experiments on an ongoing basis, and don't want me to know about it?" Bella pauses, like she's thinking of it for the first time. "Maybe the warning doesn't apply to everyone, and you don't think you'd like what I'd do with information about that, and you think I'd derive some if you were any more forthcoming."

[prima_sequentem]

"You're very thorough," says Libby. "Has anyone ever told you that? I bet they have."

[self_composed]

"I'm not sure if the exact word has come up. And I'm sure I'm missing something. You're under a geas and cannot share the information because someone else has reasons of their own to keep it limited - you're trying to keep me occupied fussing about this to distract me from something else - someone has a reliable native power of prophecy and says there will be a rain of frogs if I learn the truth -"

[prima_sequentem]

Libby shrugs.

[self_composed]

"Don't stop me if I get close, or anything, I might find myself inclined to like you and that would be awful."

[prima_sequentem]

"No rains of frogs," she says, helpfully.

[self_composed]

"Oh, good, amphibians would be thematically inappropriate. I prefer cetaceans." Bella closes her eyes. "Is the person who told you still alive?"

[prima_sequentem]

"I suggest we move on to a topic you'll find less frustrating," says Libby.

[self_composed]

"Do you think I would find moving on without knowing the answer less frustrating?"

[prima_sequentem]

"Less frustrating than spending an indefinite amount of time trying and failing to weasel it out of me? Yes."

[self_composed]

"Fine," says Bella grouchily. "I'll find out some other way."

[prima_sequentem]

"You really don't like not knowing things," says Libby.

[self_composed]

"I really, really don't," Bella agrees.

[prima_sequentem]

An apparent non sequitur: "Lazarus seems very convinced you don't want to destroy the world."

[self_composed]

"Lazarus is not a stupid person," Bella says, "that's probably why."

[prima_sequentem]

"I don't disagree with him. But until I met you, I wasn't sure."

[self_composed]

"Have you been comparing notes on me with Lazarus lately, then?"

[prima_sequentem]

[self_composed]

"Mm?"

[prima_sequentem]

"Asking me disingenuous questions doesn't help your case."

[self_composed]

"I realize that you have already thoroughly implied that you've been comparing notes on me with Lazarus, but English has a lot of phrasal curlicues to move conversations along that do things like retread past content," says Bella.