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

[subtly_artistic]

"Yes," breathes Aether, "yes, that's what I'm saying, maybe you come from the settings of epic novels where heroes can use the regularities of the cosmos to bend reality to their will but here we have to rely on things that are intrinsically unreliable for anything remotely big."

[dark_light]

"But - but -" Amariah gestures around at the room. "Look, this still looks, you know, habitable to me, this is a decent standard of living, how do you have mass-produced pillowcases and -" She gestures at Aether's jeans. "Denim?"

[subtly_artistic]

"If something works one way one time it'll often work that way other times. You just can't start - cheating. I have denim because denim is nonthreatening. Denim doesn't antagonize faeries or gods or dragons. If I read everything there is to know about the characteristics of one of those things - if I could magically know about everything dragons have ever done in the history of always - and then I came up with a way to use denim to kill one without being personally staggeringly powerful such that it would be appropriate for me to beat a dragon, that seems like it would still make sense based on all that, then it might work, but only if the universe was in a good mood or if the dragon was due, and I probably couldn't do it twice."

[autokinetic]

"But we are staggeringly powerful!"

[subtly_artistic]

"If you're going to say shit like that can you at least not do it near innocent bystanders?"

[lifes_sake]

"Are you kidding me?"

[subtly_artistic]

"Okay, talking's probably safe if that's all you do, but - I'm paranoid about this, I have hubristic tendencies."

[dark_light]

"Of course you do. Bells, given enough resources, tend to take over their worlds. Oh, you poor thing, what a terrible place for you to have wound up. What were you going to do with yourself?"

[subtly_artistic]

"I was - I mean, I am, it's not like you guys can change any of the relevant factors, is it - I'm going to be a mental healer. I'm a subtle artist."

[autokinetic]

"I guess Pattern was going to be a doctor or something," mumbles Aegis vaguely.

[lifes_sake]

"...This world won't Downside," Cam observes abruptly. "Normally that would just mean Aether has a project upcoming, but in conjunction with everything else I'm worried, can we even trust torching?"

[dark_light]

"Yeah - Aether, you're the expert here, tell us what we can and can't do while we're stuck."

[subtly_artistic]

"...What can you normally do? What's torching?"

[autokinetic]

"Most worlds - not this one, not Syntropy," Aegis gestures at Cam, "and not Alethia, but all the others we know about, started out connected to or can be made to connect to an afterlife called Downside. We sort of - we didn't actually conquer it, but it's probably the easiest way to summarize - and collected some magic from it. If you die and show up Downside, then if you suffer would-be-lethal damage you reset to a healthy state right there. One of the things on the Bell checklist is to gain the ability to do that, and also to visit the Downside admin and get her to give you the power to distribute torching to other folks. If we make somebody from a world torchable, that'll usually also hook up their world to Downside. We can do it a la carte," she gestures at Cam and Amariah, "but the way you're talking I'm not sure we should even touch you with it.'

[subtly_artistic]

"Yeah, um," says Aether, "I'm not actually sure if that would do me harm or just fail or succeed according to universal whim, but maybe you could leave me alone on that front until and unless I would actually die otherwise?"

[lifes_sake]

"Okay. And apart from that, me and Jellybean are wizards - we can speak a magical language that lets us address and command or coax plants and animals and objects that can't usually talk, and also just lets us communicate with anyone. Does that sound safe to use here? Jellybean's been doing it the whole time, he never bothers wishing up languages."

[subtly_artistic]

"...I think that sounds safe to use for communicative purposes, especially if you've had it and been using it for a while," says Aether carefully. "I wouldn't try to 'coax or command' anything big. No gods or faeries or dragons or anything - like that. And I don't guarantee that even small things will work how you're used to. But - wishing up languages?"

[dark_light]

"The basic utility magic for everyday Bell use is wish-based," says Amariah. "We, or helper mints, make magical coins that can be wished on. Most of our magical powers work that way. A pentagon is the shape of the coin that's the right size for magically learning a language; we all did it for yours before we got here."

[subtly_artistic]

"Kheez, I am really glad I caught you before you tried to do anything with that - sweet happy fantasylands with well-behaved wishes - don't touch that kind of magic here. Wishes are dangerous as hell, they will not work how you want."

[autokinetic]

"But our existing powers mostly work like that! We have perfect recall and accelerable cognition and we don't trip over our own toes and you'll notice we're talking Pax right now!"

[subtly_artistic]

"Sure, you made the wishes in Science Fantasy Land," says Aether, shrugging, "and now you don't have a wish, you have a power. It's not like people here can't have powers. I'm a subtle artist, and I'd be surprised as anything if I woke up one morning and that didn't work. As long as you aren't cheating or pissing off anything big, powers you already have should work about like normal - I mean, they might glitch in some funny way, I won't rule that out, but it's safe to talk in Pax and think fast and remember things and walk upright - lucky bastards - just day-to-day."

[lifes_sake]

"How sure are you about that?" asks Cam. "Because there are some things it would be bad if we suddenly couldn't do. Our memories and whatnot are one thing, but - say - me and Amariah have daemons -"

[dark_light]

"I'm Amariah's daemon Pathalan," says Path. "Cam's is Grace and she can turn into a notebook and is in his backpack. Don't ever, ever touch us."

[lifes_sake]

"And when we want to, we can tuck them away inside ourselves, if we're worried about somebody touching them, or if it's just more convenient, or whatever," Cam says, "but neither of us do it naturally, and having something go wrong with one's daemon is disastrous."

[subtly_artistic]

Aether thinks about this. "Are there daemons who can do it naturally?"