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]

"Thanks!" She peers at her notebook. "Any tips on figuring out healing spells?"

[cardistry]

"No idea," says Brilliance. "Never tried one."

[incanted]

"Okay, but generally, what could go wrong if I start groping around blindly there, am I going to wind up giving people I'm trying to help diseases or killing them or whatever or will it just not work if I don't have it right?"

[cardistry]

"It might do something weird but it won't do something harmful unless you mean it to," he says. "I think."

[incanted]

"What does 'weird' mean here?"

[cardistry]

"Weird," he says. "Unpredictable. Unexpected."

[incanted]

"I didn't -" She sighs, and stops, and says, "I would like examples, if you can think of some."

[cardistry]

"I've never seen a healing spell go wrong and I have no idea what it would look like, I just know that if you're trying to heal, you're not going to accidentally blast somebody's head off or something."

[incanted]

"I'm sort of concerned about, like - cancer. If I want to grow an amputated hand back it seems like a related, but in fact harmful, effect, might be some kind of cancer."

[cardistry]

"...I'm not sure," says Brilliance. "I don't really know how you biological people are put together."

[incanted]

"Badly," says Bella dryly. "The rest of you was shaped like a dude..." This isn't on her priority list, but Brilliance said he'd stay overnight; she can relax a little.

[cardistry]

"Yeah," he says. "I have three forms; that's the one with the highest power output. But it's just shaped like a dude, it doesn't really work like one."

[incanted]

"How come we were able to beat it up if it's higher-power, was I just contributing that much mana or something?"

[cardistry]

"The control program wasn't really meant to run all my functions by itself," he says. "Without me in there it was kind of stupid. I think it was having a hard time deciding between killing us first and blowing up the planet first, so it couldn't really manage either one."

[incanted]

"It was smart enough to possess my twin," mutters Bella.

[cardistry]

"All that took was getting her to say the activation password. And I bet it wasn't even all that good at that."

[incanted]

"It did sound like she was arguing with it for a while until it told her it was a limited-time offer." Pause. "Can you possess people when you're all together, like it did Lexi?"

[cardistry]

"...It's not really possessing," he says. "But yeah, I guess I see why you'd call it that. Sure I can. Nobody who's not my wielder, though, which means - just you."

[incanted]

"Uh, so is there a phrase I should learn to avoid ever, ever saying?"

[cardistry]

"...No? Well, yes, but that's a separate issue, and anyway incantations don't work if you don't mean them, and you said you wouldn't torture me."

[incanted]

"...I'm not going to torture you," agrees Bella. "I don't know what that has to do with my question. And I don't think Lexi meant to get possessed, so obviously the meaning-it thing is a little flexible."

[cardistry]

The deck of cards shifts a little on the table.

"It's like this," he says. "The activation password linked them up enough that the control program could engage unison. There's more than one kind of unison, but the kind it was using is supposed to be for if the wielder is too hurt or unconscious or whatever to stay in the fight, and the device has to take over. You're already my wielder; if you say the activation password to me, all you get is a Barrier Jacket. If you want unison, I can do that, but even though I could do it any time I felt like it, I'm not going to unless you ask."

[incanted]

"I appreciate that. What does the other kind of unison do? Kinds? When might I want it?"

[cardistry]

"Unison has the highest possible power output," says Brilliance. "There's pretty much two kinds. One way is like you saw, and the other way it's the wielder whose face is showing and the device is just... backgrounded. If you wanted to do really big magic - especially if you wanted to fight against somebody who was actually hitting back - unison would be a good idea."

[incanted]

"Noted. Not that I should be predicating any plans on you sticking around, I think you've made it pretty clear you're not looking for a permanent arrangement and I only got spoken to at all because the world was going to end. Is there going to have to be some kind of complicated wielderhood-dissolution incantation to get you disentangled or is is that optional?"