so there was this deck of cards, right

[lexicality]

Jessica's house is cute. Lexi could see doing a lot of her homework here, listening to the calming chatter of gossip and getting help from Jessica on math (Bella's no help there) and helping Jessica on English. Forks isn't so bad. She doesn't mind the rain as much as Bella does.

Jessica goes to pee before they even start their assignment, after just introducing Lexi to her mom and dad as "one of Chief Swan's kids", and Lexi doesn't want to do work by herself or she wouldn't have come over in the first place. She sits on the couch and plunks her bag down and waits. There's a random deck of cards over there; she picks it up and flips through it. She's been trying to learn to bridge-shuffle.

Comments

[incanted]

"...Well, I didn't know there was anything to try for, but you did," Bella points out as Lexi pulls the car into the driveway and they both hop out.

[cardistry]

"I wasn't really thinking about designing a great set of clothes at the time," he says. "Turned out pretty good, though, didn't it?"

[incanted]

"At least it has reasonable coverage, I wouldn't want to be going around like Wonder Woman trying to get people to aim at defended spots two inches across."

[cardistry]

"Oh, that's not how it works," says Brilliance. "Well, it is and it isn't. How much of you it covers is related to how strongly defended you are, but you could take a 'fuck you' to the face in that thing and walk away. It'd hurt, but it wouldn't kill you."

[incanted]

"Can I switch outfits without you helping?" Bella asks.

[cardistry]

"...Kinda sorta," he says. "The Barrier Jacket's another thing you get for free through me that you could probably manage on your own but it'd be harder and I wouldn't know how."

[lexicality]

"I think you should keep it, Bella, sounds super-handy," opines Lexi, flopping onto the couch.

[incanted]

Bella rolls her eyes and heads upstairs to their room. "So - basically - how do spells work? How are they fueled, how are they constructed and directed?"

[cardistry]

When Lexi says 'I think you should keep it', Brilliance shudders in Bella's pocket.

He doesn't answer her question.

[incanted]

"You okay?" Bella asks, taking him out of her pocket.

[cardistry]

"Not really," he says, his cardboard surface still trembling a little.

[incanted]

She puts him on her side of the two-chaired desk she and Lexi share. "What's wrong?"

[cardistry]

"I really don't like it when people talk about me like I'm a - thing," he says. "I really don't like it."

[incanted]

"...So, male pronouns, then?"

[cardistry]

"Sure," he says. "I don't really care which ones as long as they're ones you use for people."

[incanted]

"The rest-of-you looked like a guy and the voice you have sounds like a guy's," Bella observes. She shouts down the stairs. "Hey, Lexi, Brilliance says he's a he!"

[lexicality]

"Whatever!" Lexi shouts back.

[cardistry]

"Thanks," snorts Brilliance.

[incanted]

"You're welcome," sighs Bella. "Were you going to tell me how quick healing spells are? Or don't you know?"

[cardistry]

"I don't really know, and I think it depends, and I don't really know what it depends on."

[incanted]

"Okay, I guess I've got a research project. What's the simplest spell you can think of that I might conceivably want to do here in my bedroom, so I can practice doing magic at all without you - doing whatever it is you did?"

[cardistry]

"Um... Shield, maybe?"

[incanted]

"Okay. I just - try saying it and wanting it, to start?"

[cardistry]

"Yep!"

[incanted]

Bella shuts her eyes, and wants. She learned her lesson from the flying, so she's very specific; she wants a shield to appear just exactly here.

"Shield."