in a heap of people

[she_sells_seashells]

They go home after a couple of days, without incident. The colors in Bell's hair are fading, albeit incompletely.

A bit later, when there is not the question of whether Sherlock can accompany her unnoticed, Tony finds a door and in they go.

Other Sherlock - whether this is their other Sherlock or some other other Sherlock, Bell cannot be immediately sure - is in the main bar area. Bell waves!

Comments

[self_composed]

Bella tosses her the square. "You want help wish-designing or do you think you've got it covered? Oh, and I've already got an agony beam installed, let me know if you want to take it for a test run."

[she_sells_seashells]

"You're very casual about this," observes Shell Bell.

[self_composed]

"Blame him," laughs Stella, aiming a thumb at Alice. "Amariah's got one too, the book says, though as of the writing they weren't dating; check up on her later and if you can stomach it ask what they get up to."

[sicaria]

"Thank you, I believe I have it covered," she says.

The square disappears. She nibbles her lip.

Thoughtfully: "This agony beam of yours, it has settings for different coins' worth? A square's, if you please."

[self_composed]

"That's a range," says Stella. "Going from ten 'triangles' -" She offers up ten triangles' worth of pain. "Through ninety-nine." She skips up to that, then backs off. "It goes up by orders of magnitude. A hundred and up for a pentagon, a thousand and up for a hex, ten thousand and up for a star, and one time Alice made an eight-pointed thing that I consider probably evil and have not attempted to use."

[sicaria]

"A thousand, then?" she requests.

[self_composed]

Bam. Still in "plain". "Because this was designed for Alice, who finds the agony beam to be just about his favorite thing," says Stella dryly, "it comes in flavors. This is plain, but if you have a request, I can oblige. I am like unto an ice cream parlor."

[sicaria]

"Well," she says, "the masochism edit worked. And I should have no trouble producing hexes if I make it permanent and someone is willing to... beam at me."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I... guess... I can do that?" Bell asks, looking uncertainly at Stella. "Did it take a lot of getting used to?"

[self_composed]

"Not that much, but it helps that, one, Alice makes fascinating faces when in pain, which Sherlock doesn't appear to, and two, I can read his mind and confirm at whim that he's having fun with it, which my best guess is that Sherlock wouldn't care for," says Stella.

[sicaria]

"Make her able to read my mind," Sherlock says immediately. "—If you want, Bell."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Um - are you sure?" Bell asks.

[sicaria]

"I said I would transmit to you my entire knowledge of the world if I could. I meant it," says Sherlock.

[she_sells_seashells]

"You're sweet," sighs Shell Bell, and she hugs her girlfriend tight. "Okay. Um, how does yours work, Stella? I don't know if I just want the same design that's optimized for Alice."

[self_composed]

"I get everything in a visual channel as a first pass. He can tell when I'm doing it - Sherlock, that feels like so, but it could be anything - and it's in words and images and symbols for various sensory experiences, mostly, most of the time, with a little blob that changes shape and color and so on to reflect his emotional state. When he doesn't think in words, I get the words I'd be thinking if I had that thought, and if I wouldn't be able to translate it either, then the magic itself makes an attempt - these three possibilities appear in different colors. Otherwise I get a black box, the symbol for something I didn't manage to include - I've updated it a couple times to cut down on those, I get very few anymore. Things are tagged with whether they're current experiences, a memory he's thinking about, an intent, or whatever. Everything has a border in grayscale to indicate affect towards the bordered thing - more white is better. I can 'open' any of these things to get a more detailed look at it, which is not just a visual channel and can be very... heady. Oh, and I can sort through his memories the same way, which feels slightly different on his end, like so."

[sicaria]

"I see no immediate flaws," says Sherlock. "Except that this visual channel of yours is likely to be very busy."

[self_composed]

"Very," says Stella. "I have some... boosts. Actually, when Alice turned into a vampire I needed those boosts to not just utterly drown every time I opened up the emotion-blob; vampires have serious mental horsepower. If I'd tried to do without it's entirely possible my ingot power would have decided that mindreading was dangerous and I shouldn't be allowed to do it. Something similar happened to our vampire alt with her daughter. I can give the boosts to Bell too. Actually, Bell should probably just have all the superpowers I do, although it's probably worth explaining them first so she doesn't step off a curb sometime and be confused about why she's floating."

[she_sells_seashells]

"You can fly?"

[self_composed]

"Shell Bell," says Stella, almost reproachfully. "Of course I can fly. And if I'm not touching the ground and not paying attention, I default to hover, so I don't fall out of the sky."

[sicaria]

Sherlock laughs.

[ferratus]

"I wanna fly too," announces Tony.

[self_composed]

"You want my design, or your own hex to figure it out yourself?" asks Stella comfortably. "By the way, Shell Bell, these guys get stuff on your say-so, I'm just expecting based on having met the vampire us that you'll be similar enough to me that I can substitute your judgment here - feel entirely free to veto anything." [Including,] she adds, adding Bell to the brainphone, [privately like so and then I'll make up a reason to turn them down on my own.]

[ferratus]

"My own hex, why not," he says.

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell nods.

[self_composed]

Stella squares a hex off her bandolier and tosses it in Tony's direction.