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The following morning, Bell hears what sounds like a fire alarm. It's not in their building - it's at least a block away. From her window, she can clearly see the house that's caught, near the train station, and just as clearly see that there isn't any bucket brigade handling it yet.
She seizes her wand from the nightstand and assumes control over the fire; if there's anyone in the unburnt part of the house they'll be able to get out. "SHERLOCK! TONY!" she calls.
Bell wants a second opinion before she snakes this fire down the corner of the house and over the grass to destroy the train station.
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she_sells_seashells
she_sells_seashells
"Why that particular kind? I mean, that's really specific - if there's an Eastern there must be a Northern or a Western or a Southern, and if there's a gray morph of that extremely specific owl there must be other colors, and why a screech owl, and why an owl at all and not a - seagull?"
dark_light
"There's tons of theorizing about this," says Isabella. "And daemons correlate with personality - we don't like anybody with a stinging bug like a scorpion or a wasp, although spiders are sometimes fine, and we get along pretty well with rodent and rabbit daemon types in spite of the obvious fact that Path settled as something that can eat small mammals. Witches are flying birds - not bats, not flying bugs, not flying squirrels, not ostriches or kiwis, only flying birds. But no one really knows exactly why daemons settle the way they do or how they know what's right."
truthwright
Petaal decides to cease being an owl. She shifts into a bee hummingbird instead and zooms up to Path to give him tiny peck-kisses.
dark_light
Path is amused.
Not that anyone but Isabella and Petaal can readily tell. Can't smile with a beak.
Not that anyone but Isabella and Petaal can readily tell. Can't smile with a beak.
she_sells_seashells
"Huh."
Bell is finished writing the profile template and is ready to write her actual profile. BELL SWAN, she writes neatly at the top of the page.
Bell is finished writing the profile template and is ready to write her actual profile. BELL SWAN, she writes neatly at the top of the page.
truthwright
"Do you want to be dating us?" whispers Petaal. Kas sprawls on the floor close by and looks at the walls some more.
dark_light
Path hops off Isabella's shoulder to have the conversation in more privacy, daemon to daemon. Isabella looks askance at this behavior but doesn't object, trusting.
"We don't want to be a crazy witch. We don't know what makes some people do what they do, so we don't know how to avoid it," he confesses softly to Petaal.
"We don't want to be a crazy witch. We don't know what makes some people do what they do, so we don't know how to avoid it," he confesses softly to Petaal.
truthwright
Petaal decides to be a dragon, so Path can perch on her scaly back and she can curl her neck all the way around to talk to him up close.
"He meant what he said about thinking the daggerpoint thing was hot," she murmurs. "But if she did it for real we'd fuck her once or twice and then run for the hills. What are crazy witches like? What are you worried you'll do?"
"He meant what he said about thinking the daggerpoint thing was hot," she murmurs. "But if she did it for real we'd fuck her once or twice and then run for the hills. What are crazy witches like? What are you worried you'll do?"
dark_light
"A crazy witch would find him and kill him if that happened. We don't want you guys to die," says Path, perching where he's meant to perch and hunkering down into a ball of feathers. "Or want to want it."
truthwright
Petaal nuzzles him gently.
"I know, sweetie," she says. "Are you afraid you'll want to kill us?"
"I know, sweetie," she says. "Are you afraid you'll want to kill us?"
dark_light
"We're afraid there's something we don't know about how witch brains work. About how we work. That we haven't been able to find no matter how hard we've looked. That'll come out and make us stick a knife in someone we ought to love, if we let it."
Path can talk so, so quietly. Years of practice.
Path can talk so, so quietly. Years of practice.
truthwright
Her forked black tongue flickers out to touch his feathers.
"We love you," she says. "She's pretty and you're fluffy and you're both sweethearts. And we don't want you to do things you're scared of if you don't want to, but we'll risk it if you will." She grins a dragony grin. "And not just 'cause we like thinking about her and knives."
"We love you," she says. "She's pretty and you're fluffy and you're both sweethearts. And we don't want you to do things you're scared of if you don't want to, but we'll risk it if you will." She grins a dragony grin. "And not just 'cause we like thinking about her and knives."
dark_light
Path is silent, briefly.
Then he says, "As far as we know, crazy witches always kill the people who scorn them in person. You don't need to worry about a long-distance death spell but you might have to worry about an enchanted arrow. She's better with the bow than with the dagger. I wouldn't be there. I don't think she could get so far gone as to do it in front of me and I'd be a point of vulnerability anyway. She'd have me hiding or flying somewhere far away. But if you don't mind touching her even if she's trying to kill you, if you can be fast and armored and flying, I think you could stop her. And if she thinks so too, I think she's less likely to try. We're as far from suicidal as it gets and we've never heard of that changing when a witch goes nuts over a mortal."
Then he says, "As far as we know, crazy witches always kill the people who scorn them in person. You don't need to worry about a long-distance death spell but you might have to worry about an enchanted arrow. She's better with the bow than with the dagger. I wouldn't be there. I don't think she could get so far gone as to do it in front of me and I'd be a point of vulnerability anyway. She'd have me hiding or flying somewhere far away. But if you don't mind touching her even if she's trying to kill you, if you can be fast and armored and flying, I think you could stop her. And if she thinks so too, I think she's less likely to try. We're as far from suicidal as it gets and we've never heard of that changing when a witch goes nuts over a mortal."
truthwright
"...I could," says Petaal. "I could kill her first. I might even do it. But I might not."
She licks Path's feathers again.
"I've killed people before," she murmurs. "That's not the problem. The problem is, if you wanted to kill us, we might want to let you."
She licks Path's feathers again.
"I've killed people before," she murmurs. "That's not the problem. The problem is, if you wanted to kill us, we might want to let you."
truthwright
"I know!" she says. "We know. But everyone dies sometime. Everyone human, anyway. How is more important than when, to us. And if it's someone we love, that's way better."
dark_light
"In this scenario," says Path, "if you loved her, loved us, why would you leave in the first place? She's not going to claim him at daggerpoint as a first move. She's already decided that. She's been very steady about that. The worry is if we all get together some other way, some sane way, and then he leaves - something we haven't been able to find in ourselves might turn out to live there."
(This conversation is too grave for him to say it, but he's thinking, Like Cthulu.)
(This conversation is too grave for him to say it, but he's thinking, Like Cthulu.)
truthwright
Petaal nuzzles him some more.
"Even if there weren't any threats," she says, "if we got the idea she'd kill us for leaving, we'd go. We couldn't do anything else and still be us."
"Even if there weren't any threats," she says, "if we got the idea she'd kill us for leaving, we'd go. We couldn't do anything else and still be us."
dark_light
"I don't know what to do, then," says Path. "Except be only friends. We can do that."
truthwright
"Well, we don't think she'd kill us for leaving," says Petaal, "or I wouldn't be talking to you about this."
dark_light
"Why don't you think so? We're a witch," Path says. "It's a thing witches do. Her grandmother did it. Twice."
truthwright
"You're a you," says Petaal. "You don't want anyone to die, and you extra don't want us to die because you like us, and you're so worried you might murder us anyway that you won't even ask us out, of course you're not going to kill us." She bumps her nose playfully against Path's fluffy tummy.
dark_light
"I don't think Shell Bell would kill her girlfriend if she got dumped, and she's an us. We're also a witch in addition to being an us. We might contain undiagnosed witch crazy," says Path uncertainly.
truthwright
"We could try it," Petaal suggests. "If you did want to ask us out. You haven't exactly said. We could try breaking up and see if it makes you feel like killing us. And we could go stay with Augustine while you figured it out—she wouldn't care if we wanted to let you, she'd still fuck you up if you tried anything. And then at least you'd know, right?"
dark_light
"Try breaking up without dating first?" asks Path uncertainly. "I'm not sure if Augustine would help. Bears can't fly."