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

[prima_sequentem]

"Apparently so."

[self_composed]

"So I've met the interesting ingots who might want to meet me, I guess. How hard have you looked? I notice the ones I've met are all, you know, white English-speakers. That seems odd."

[prima_sequentem]

"I take it you haven't talked to Kolya, then."

[self_composed]

"Not so I'd know what crayons to use." Libby's quite equipped to know that Kolya once sent Bella an email using Lazarus's account, though. "Even so, it's an odd demographic."

[prima_sequentem]

"You've met two at the crayon level that I know of," she points out. "Hardly enough to draw statistical inferences. For the record, with a larger sample size, the distribution seems pretty even."

[self_composed]

"Yeah, Lazarus described himself - well, he relayed Kolya's description. And Chris is your aunt, which gives me somewhat more than fifty percent information about her, now I've seen you," Bella says. "Fair enough. Are ingots scattered around the globe as well as the crayon box?"

[prima_sequentem]

"Yes they are. Although I'm somewhat limited in getting to know them by the fact that I speak mainly English."

[self_composed]

"Languages aren't your top priority for the use of pentagons, then?"

[prima_sequentem]

"Not usually. Why, are they yours?"

[self_composed]

"I've used more pentagons on languages than on anything else," Bella says. "I like 'em. And I did travel around Europe last summer."

[prima_sequentem]

"You seem to use magic a lot more frequently than I do," Libby observes.

[self_composed]

"I broke my leg last winter. It was an accident, but as long as I had a broken leg, I jostled it for coins. I have a good pain tolerance at that level."

This is all technically true.

[prima_sequentem]

"Unfortunately for me, I don't have those kinds of accidents."

[self_composed]

"Yes, but we've established you don't want to tell me how you get any coins whatever under your circumstances. Me, if I fall down the stairs, I will get beat up."

[prima_sequentem]

"How convenient for you," she says dryly.

[self_composed]

"It really is! It would be a pity if I were Bridget. She'd be a terrible mint, since bootstrapping doesn't work."

[prima_sequentem]

"She would, at that."

[self_composed]

"Speaking of Bridget, I have been advised not to ask you if I may try breaking your wrist to compare Chris's protection with Bridget's version," Bella says.

And she's not asking. Quite.

[prima_sequentem]

"Advised by whom?"

[self_composed]

"Lazarus. I believe he finds your aunt unnerving."

[prima_sequentem]

"Chris has that effect on people."

[self_composed]

"You're not laughing at him and offering me your hand, so I'm going to assume he was right."

[prima_sequentem]

"I won't take exception to you asking, but I also won't say yes, and if I did I would pick a less public location in case someone got the wrong idea."

[self_composed]

"Anti-spying ward doesn't cover that, then? But all right, sure, not everyone invincible is going to be as cooperative about playing with it as Bridget."

[prima_sequentem]

"Maybe once I get to know you better," she deadpans.