cake and ice cream

[self_composed]

Bella finds Milliways next, too, on New Year's Day, and calls in Alice (he's not coming to Goldenworld even if they find a person who can take them there, but he might find someone interesting to talk to in the bar) and also Lazarus. She mentions the door to Libby, too, in case she and/or her wolf want to take an excursion and see if his friends and family back home can be visited.

Comments

[nonbird]

[I don't know, I haven't studied it enough yet.]

[self_composed]

After Bella has patiently ferried Addy and Lazarus around to look intently at things for some time, she gets a message from her counterpart, who has turned out to be able to use the brainphone network just fine even though she can't communicate telepathically with her telepathic witch staff member. "Elspeth found a door, we can go home now if we don't want to wait another few days," says Bella to Lazarus.

[nonbird]

"And come back later," says Lazarus. "I'm especially enthusiastic about the part where we come back later."

[self_composed]

"Yes, of course we can come back later," laughs Bella. "Shall we?"

Teleporting doesn't even cost a coin; she takes them both to where Elspeth is without even waiting for an answer.

[nonbird]

That is fully acceptable.

But: "Sure," he says dryly, when they arrive.

[self_composed]

Goodbyes are bidden; the rest of their party is collected; and through they go.

[prima_sequentem]

The rest of the party piles back through the door in fairly short order.

[nonbird]

Lazarus does not.

Lazarus turns all the way around one way, and then all the way around the other way twice, as though trying to glimpse the back of his own head. He looks perplexed and fascinated.

[self_composed]

"See something interesting?" Bella asks, pausing.

[nonbird]

"Maybeep!"

[yourheartstrings]

"Hiiiiiii," purrs the woman who has suddenly appeared out of more or less thin air with her arms draped around his neck. She is only a few inches shorter than he is, wearing a graphite-coloured strapless dress so thin and skintight (albeit perfectly opaque) that body paint would probably be less revealing, and there might be something more than a little familiar about the cast of her face.

[self_composed]

"Uh," says Bella. "Who're you, where'd you come from, and why are you making him eep?"

[yourheartstrings]

She giggles.

[nonbird]

"Those are all really good questions," says Lazarus.

[yourheartstrings]

She lets go and steps back with a wide, friendly smile.

"You can see me," she says, pointing at Lazarus. "You're the first person I've ever seen see me. What's your secret?"

[nonbird]

"I eat a lot of carrots."

[yourheartstrings]

She claps her hands and twirls around.

"Ohhh, you're fun, you're fun, you're fun," she crows.

[self_composed]

"You're familiar," Bella accuses suddenly.

[yourheartstrings]

The familiar stranger cocks her head and spins to face Bella.

"Am I? You're not."

[nonbird]

"...Kind of like a combination of Addy and Alice, actually," says Lazarus.

[self_composed]

"Look at her face, she's like a female Alice," says Bella. "I suppose she's got some Addyesque properties too but she doesn't physically resemble her."

[nonbird]

"Magically she's nothing like either of them," he says. "Magically she's nothing like anything."

[yourheartstrings]

"Who's Alice?" she inquires. "Does he look like—"

Her body disintegrates in a flash, from the dress inward; the skeleton is the last to go, and it lingers for a moment, clean and white.

[gunpowdergelatine]

Then a new skeleton appears, just slightly different from the last, and a new body assembles on it as quickly as the other one left. He's even wearing the same tight grey dress.

"—this, by any chance?"

[self_composed]

"Well, he would have if I'd let him get a bit older before I turned him into a vampire," says Bella. "So what are you?"