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]

"Let's just stop talking about toes," says Lazarus. "And weren't we going to go compare empresses?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"We were!"

[self_composed]

Bella shrugs and teleports them to the throne room.

[nonbird]

"Hi!" says Lazarus. "See, Addy, what'd I tell you about the—" and he's off into multilingual sensory metaphors.

[self_composed]

"They're comparing our powers," Bella explains to her counterpart.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"That makes sense," says Golden Bella. "We've collected some more technological specs for you. Alice brought them in earlier from wherever they were being kept." She hands them over. "Trade you for three stars and five hexes."

[self_composed]

"You want to wish on them yourself? Fair enough," says Bella. She quietly declaws the stars and hands over the eight coins. "Don't let Addy touch them. I don't know what would happen."

[nonbird]

"—but what really gets me is the silence here," he says, interrupting himself in the middle of talking about Golden Bella's power extensions. "I honestly think I could distinguish every witch on this planet if I had the time and the detail range. It's so much clearer than back home. I wouldn't have thought we had magical background noise before, but the difference is like looking through air and then looking through vacuum."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"So tell me about the 'air'," says Addy.

[nonbird]

"It's air," he says. "Stand on the Moon and describe the visual quality of Earth's atmosphere. In other words, I'll have plenty to tell you after I've gone back home and studied it for a while."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"We don't have a moon base," Addy says exasperatedly. "It's on the agenda for later."

[nonbird]

"That was a hypothetical instruction."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"At any rate, I suppose you'll just have to come back, then," says Addy.

[nonbird]

"I'm planning to!"

[her_imperial_radiance]

Addy grins and gives him a hug. She's quite experienced with handling humans and knows how to not squish him. That doesn't mean he can get out until she feels like letting him go or he gets help.

[nonbird]

"I am not sure whether I am disturbed or endeared," he remarks.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Most people settle somewhere around 'both'," says the Golden Empress dryly.

[nonbird]

"So noted," says Lazarus. "I would like to stop being in this hug now."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Addy," says the vampire Bella when this prompts musing but not instant hug release.

"Harrumph," says Addy, letting him go.

[nonbird]

"Thank you," says Lazarus.

And to Bella, [When we get home, I would like an independent teleportation power, please.]

[self_composed]

[Why then and not now?]

[nonbird]

[Because I want time to design it first.]

[self_composed]

[Something wrong with mine?]

[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.