in which the narration is suggestive, yet vague

[subtly_artistic]

Neckrubs become a more regular part of Bella's life. And she does not tell him to stop until she is good and done. There is hugging. There is snuggling. There is kissing. There are some impressively sappy looks from his end, some fascinated mindreading from hers. The semester wraps up, Bella goes home for a week, and she comes back (now signed up for Utility Psionics 2, Intro to Mental Healing, Arcane Defense, Intro Cognition, and her survival credit, a lecture entitled "Wilderness Triage" (subtitled: Quick And Dirty Mechanisms For Identifying The Lesser Of Several Evils).

She missed Celo! She seeks him out at once. Hugs.

Comments

[lifes_sake]

"Yep," says Cam. "I'm lucky, I got to keep my regular nickname because I'm the only boy one so far."

[pythbox]

"That is lucky," says Celo, looking up at him with a speculative smile.

[lifes_sake]

"You should've seen the look on my face when I found out there were eight more of Jellybean. And now there are more than that within peal reach," snorts Cam when he observes this smile.

[autokinetic]

"Depends how you count if eight was even the right word," laughs Aegis.

[subtly_artistic]

"Besides you three and Etty what are the other nicknames?"

[dark_light]

"Stella, Shell Bell, Golden, Angela, Juliet, Pattern, Rose, Sarion, Aurora, Glass."

[subtly_artistic]

"...I think I'll take Aether."

[pythbox]

"That's cute," says Celo. "I love you."

[subtly_artistic]

Aether smiles.

[autokinetic]

"So what's this world like? Is it a fantasyland, I'm getting a fantasyland vibe if nymphs are a thing that exists."

[subtly_artistic]

"I don't think I catch your meaning?"

[lifes_sake]

"The most common place for Bells to come from are variants of Earth, but there are some from farther-flung locales, with more or less magic."

[dark_light]

"Or none, Angela's from a nonmagical world and not the Earth in it. But it has an Earth, and Glass's world, or Sarion's, don't."

[subtly_artistic]

"This is definitely a magical world. I have no idea how a non-magical one would even exist," snorts Aether.

[autokinetic]

"Some of us do pretty well!" says Aegis cheerfully. "Jane's the next best thing to minting and she's not magic at all, technically!"

[subtly_artistic]

"...She's not?"

[autokinetic]

"Nope! Very high-tech, but not magic, not a speck, Glass and Lazarus agree."

[subtly_artistic]

"Uh," says Aether. "Then - what is she?"

[autokinetic]

"High-tech, like I said. Emergent intelligence from a network of ansibles. Oh, and she's always watching, out of our jewelry," Aegis taps her earpiece.

[subtly_artistic]

"You come from a science world?"

[autokinetic]

"Yeah, you could call it that, Peace is really advanced compared to basically everywhere else, although I think Atlantis has us beat in a couple fields, not that this'll mean much after I drag Peace properly into our place in the multiverse and we can network."

[subtly_artistic]

"No, I don't mean how much science do you have, I mean - you have science."

[dark_light]

"We all have science," says Amariah. "I mean, Chronicle and Thilanushinyel and Rêverie are more primitive than standard, and Peace and Atlantis and sort of Samaria and to a lesser extent Aurum are father along than standard, but - yeah?"

[lifes_sake]

"What's your point, Aether?"

[subtly_artistic]

"Science doesn't - work here. It's fantasy. You can't do it." She swallows. "Are you sure Jane is still working?"