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Bella likes school. She didn't use to like school one bit. Even when Renée was teaching her when she was in kindergarten (Renée refused to hear of skipping her past her opportunity to teach her only daughter), it was all - coloring and stupid kiddy books. She likes Renée. But she likes learning serious stuff more.
She devours classwork. She plays in the practice rooms and the gym. She loiters in the games room, fingers flying under strips of copper as she controls things, tries things. She loses to older kids a few times with each new game, till she figures it out, and then moving at the speed of thought means she's got the advantage. Bullying happens around her, but she's a girl - this shields her from much of it - and even though she adds up to faster and stronger than all of the other kids, she's still wearing an assistive device, she's still a cripple. That's fine with her; it keeps her out of the way of the nastier kids. She's not sure the Battle School people are looking for quite the right ratio of ferocity to other traits.
She plays the fantasy game, until she hears from other people that you can't win the Giant's Drink, and she uses this as an example in her statistics homework and never bothers with it again. What a stupid game.
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autokinetic
autokinetic
"And maybe I'll grab some screenshots for desk wallpaper," she adds. "This is pretty."
"It is!" he agrees.
autokinetic
Behind him there's another public desk. She sits at it, swivels the chair so she can look at his without losing hers in her peripheral vision. She logs in as herself (username Bella, password a long string of letters and numbers and symbols produced by keyboard mashing and reproduced by her equivalent of muscle memory) and boots up her game.
She knows where the Giant is; she was playing for a week and a half before finding out it was rigged. She goes through the mousehole, runs her mouse along the avalanche, and starts Giant-dodging, ignoring the drinks. She's seen the room; she goes straight for the tunnel out.
She gets clouds, too, turns into a sort of bird-person hybrid with wing-arms and hands peeping out from the feathers at the ends and a beak curving from her face, and she flies until she has a color scheme she likes (the color of denim, and copper) and then dives.
She doesn't find a volcano.
She finds a village, inhabited by more bird-people in every color.
"Neat," she says, pleased.
She knows where the Giant is; she was playing for a week and a half before finding out it was rigged. She goes through the mousehole, runs her mouse along the avalanche, and starts Giant-dodging, ignoring the drinks. She's seen the room; she goes straight for the tunnel out.
She gets clouds, too, turns into a sort of bird-person hybrid with wing-arms and hands peeping out from the feathers at the ends and a beak curving from her face, and she flies until she has a color scheme she likes (the color of denim, and copper) and then dives.
She doesn't find a volcano.
She finds a village, inhabited by more bird-people in every color.
"Neat," she says, pleased.
"Guess it's different for everybody," he says. "Yours is cool too."
The next obvious thing to do is dive under the ocean, so he does. His bird swims a little awkwardly, but soon it adapts to the new environment, trading feathers for fins. It's dark under here, but not too dark to see, and he can chase schools of fish and wrestle with sharks.
The next obvious thing to do is dive under the ocean, so he does. His bird swims a little awkwardly, but soon it adapts to the new environment, trading feathers for fins. It's dark under here, but not too dark to see, and he can chase schools of fish and wrestle with sharks.
autokinetic
Bella sets about meeting bird-people; they aren't very talkative, and she can't really talk in the game, although she can emote, and can get them to participate if she starts a project and makes their role in it clear. She has them digging a well in the village square when the message free play over takes over the screen.
"Rats, bedtime," says Bella.
"Rats, bedtime," says Bella.
He laughs.
"Nighty-night, Aegis."
"Nighty-night, Aegis."
autokinetic
She laughs.
"Night, Suicide Watch."
She paints a path to her launch group and cartwheels all the way there.
"Night, Suicide Watch."
She paints a path to her launch group and cartwheels all the way there.
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