we are an underrated tourist destination

[cross_and_bow]

Bella has just been to visit the Mikleeeeeeeee. It went well, after she flared aura and shouted abuse at the crown prince. (Demonstrating this form of "heedless confrontationalism", it was explained by a quarter-Mikleeeeeeeee girl James found for her to talk to, an essential part of the species' diplomatic process. This held up under lie-detection, but Bella found a few examples via pastwatching before actually doing it.) They have a treaty; they're going to get back to her with revisions they'd like made to their dimension and they're going to end the five hundred year "human season".

Now she's between tasks, hanging out in one of the Jarvises.

Comments

[newtimov]

"Well, yeah," says Ike. "But if you want to make me able to fly, I will totally take being able to fly! Assuming it doesn't come with any magnificently inconvenient side effects like having big obvious wings all the time, but I bet it doesn't."

[cross_and_bow]

In reply, Bella lifts into the air, twirls, and sets down on her tiptoes before resuming walking. "Nothing like that. What would you do with being able to fly? 'Cause if you want to be able to turn invisible too, that might be a little much."

[newtimov]

"I hadn't really thought about it beyond maybe 'keep up with Val'," he says.

[cross_and_bow]

"Is that an ithue thing? You smoosh some wings out of nowhere and fly around?" Bella asks Val.

[grabsthebutt]

"Yep!"

[cross_and_bow]

"D'you get a chance to do that much?"

[grabsthebutt]

"Not on Earth!"

[cross_and_bow]

"That's a pity. Well, sooner or later I'll have all the demons sorted out and then I can start being openly magical in front of the humans. A bunch of my alts are already doing that for this reason or that; none of them come from Sunshine-family worlds with all these thousands of sapient species to learn about and handle. I think next in number of species after here is Glass, and hers you could maybe not count on your hands but you could if you borrowed a couple other people's. Or, Angela might have a lot of kinds of aliens, but she's going very slow." She hmms and looks Ike over. "Do you think you'll even like flying or do you just want to not be the twin who can't fly?"

[newtimov]

"Flying is cool," he says inarguably.

[cross_and_bow]

"Hmm." Juliet checks her coin-sorting wish. She's more than topped up on coins - Aurora is very free with the largesse, especially to the Bells who have only Sherlocks at home, and there was that recent distribution after Brilliance made the tenners which came with plenty of small stuff. "Not going to be irresponsible about public magic use, perform unkind pranks on the unsuspecting, use your power for evil, etcetera? Answer in a complete sentence, I have lie-detecting magic."

[newtimov]

"Um, no, why would I do those things," says Ike.

[cross_and_bow]

"Nefarious motivations, presumably." She pats him on the head and goes ahead and spends the hex. "Let's fly."

[newtimov]

He giggles.

[grabsthebutt]

Val shrugs.

Her whole body turns into a ghostly glowing silhouette, with her alien iron skeleton suspended inside, and a pair of enormous ghostly glowing wings unfold out of her shoulders - moving right through her clothing as though it isn't there - and flap once to drag her into the sky.

[cross_and_bow]

Bella hops into the air after her, cruising upright with her hands folded behind her back like she's on an invisible moving walkway.

[newtimov]

Ike zooms after them both.

[cross_and_bow]

"You like?"

[newtimov]

"Fun!" he declares.

[cross_and_bow]

"Awesome."

[newtimov]

"Wheeeee!"

And there's what is probably a city up ahead - lots of stone buildings, not tall but solidly built, and often with rooftop entrances every bit as elaborate as the ones at ground level. A few ithuetse are even flying to and from those.

[cross_and_bow]

Bella follows Val and Ike, eyes open. On reflection she decides to unfold her hands from behind her back and keep them visible; this makes no difference to her but might make her look less potentially threatening.

[newtimov]

Ike ends up hovering a little ways behind his sister as she soars toward one of the shorter buildings at the edge of the town.

[grabsthebutt]

Val lands and retracts her wings, then knocks on the door of what looks like it might be a house. She stays glowy even after returning to her normal shape.

[cross_and_bow]

Bella lands behind Val, off to the side enough to see around her.

[grabsthebutt]

The door opens, and out comes a Sessiaki: fine scales that resemble mother-of-pearl, short hair like steel wool, and a long pointed tail coiling around her legs.

She blinks at Val, then scoops her into a tight hug.

"Hi, Auntie Eiva!" laughs Val, speaking the local language with a noticeable accent. "Is Mom home?"

The Sessiaki, presumably named Eiva, puts her down and locates Ike to hug next.

"Not today," she says, giving Ike a slightly gentler squish and then putting him down too. She turns to Bella. "And who's your friend?"