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]

"No hugs, please," he says, orbiting closer.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Of course," says Addy obligingly, and she lays cold hands on his cheeks.

Now that she has the trick of... eating with chopsticks... it only takes her a few seconds.

"Oh, you're tasty," she purrs. And she does literally purr, while smiling like the predator she is.

[nonbird]

"Eep," says Lazarus, raising his eyebrows.

[her_imperial_radiance]

She releases his face, holding up her hands in a nonthreatening gesture. "Oh, come on, you of all people should know that's not me threatening to literally drink your blood, can't you see how I work? Goodness! Everything's so pretty! I can even see magic on Her Majesty over there! I might want this one back again, if you're going through to my world," she says. "Oh, everything's so pretty."

[nonbird]

"If I thought you were actually going to eat me, I wouldn't just be saying eep," he says. "I am slightly less ineffectual than that. You're still a little unnerving even when I know you're mostly harmless. And yes, isn't it?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"It is," she gushes. "Bella is so terribly shiny... Oh my. Is that why he was turned into a vampire. What an odd way to arrange magic. But - oh! That must be the mate bond. I was wondering what would do that. Looks different when I'm using Marcus's power, let alone compared to Chelsea's... Goodness. Is that normal? Do you know? The... cuddliness?"

[nonbird]

"I've only ever seen one mate bond," he says. "But I'm betting not. You know what his power's like. When the bond first showed up they had a little standoff before they got this friendly."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Oh, I bet they did. Now I can't wait to look at Bella-back-home. I bet her witchcraft wasn't too friendly to her mate bond either, but as far as anyone knows it's there. But she's immune to Marcus so he can't check. Oh, and I've got to look at Marcus too - I wonder if I can arrange to keep this long enough to get to Safesun and back, given that I can't borrow one of your toes? It's such a pity you can't work over electronics, have you ever worked on that?"

[nonbird]

"How would I work over electronics?" he asks wearily. "Look at my power, it just... looks. What it sees is not a thing that electronics transmit. I did find a way to use it at a distance, but it takes, what else, more magic."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I am the expert on this sort of thing," says Addy severely. "Now, maybe ingots just don't grow the way witches can, but don't you even care? Haven't you even tried?"

[nonbird]

"You are an expert on this sort of thing," Lazarus corrects firmly. "No, I haven't tried, but I'm telling you right now electronics is a dead end."

[her_imperial_radiance]

Addy licks her lips thoughtfully. "Admittedly it wouldn't be the first thing I'd push you on. Range is usually the easiest thing to expand on powers for which that's a factor... and I wonder if you could learn to share visions like Alice did, the Alice back home... Please promise I can have this back again later if I take a look at her next?" Addy points out Chris.

[nonbird]

"You can have this back again later," Lazarus says. "Absolutely. I want to compare notes with you somewhere with less... noise," this with a wave at Milliways in general.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Oh, absolutely," Addy says. "Somewhere less distractingly beautiful." She turns to Chris. "May I?"

[self_composed]

[I'm pretty sure that my alt has put a stop to this kind of thing,] Bella says to Lazarus, [but you might want to know that when Addy was "training" Elspeth, she responded to a brief flagging of Elspeth's motivation by sending her to be tortured by a since-deceased witch whose power was rather like my agony beam. Be careful of her. Consider only working within range of the Emperor even if you don't want company directly.]

[queensidecastle]

Chris extends a hand toward Addy.

[nonbird]

[Noted,] says Lazarus.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Addy shakes hands in a terribly friendly way. "Oh, this is cute," she says. "What a polite power. Why would anyone object to you protecting them?"

[queensidecastle]

"Huh?"

[nonbird]

"Oh, of course," says Lazarus.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I know, it's a little tricky to see," Addy says to Lazarus sympathetically. "Tastes obvious, though. You can protect people who wouldn't mind if you did, but the magic will back right off if they'd disapprove. I wonder why. Maybe you haven't noticed? It tastes... still. You could move it around but you haven't much. Have you not even been systematically checking people for protectability? Where is everyone's sense of scientific investigation?"

[queensidecastle]

"Protectability of third parties is kind of a moot point for me," she says, patting her niece's shoulder.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"But don't you even care what you could do?" says Addy pleadingly. "What if you could add more targets?"

[queensidecastle]

"...Okay, slightly tempted," she admits.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"You know, I don't think it would even be that hard, if you started the right way," muses Addy. "Whose loss would just devastate her? Is there anyone she sits up at night worrying over? It would just take the tiniest stretch..." Addy undergoes a brief all-over shudder. "See, this is why I have to help people, I can feel how close the improvements are but I can't touch them unless the original witch - ingot - does it first."