several kinds

[thaumobabble]

Glass appears in the Belltower, where the Jokers less Felicity are still assembled.

"There are," she announces, "kinds of you."

Comments

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth jumps down off the roof and lands on her feet, after a while, and puts her tablet on her pillow while she takes a break (she brushes out her hair by hand, and braids it with a triangle, then sits with her eyes closed and her hands clasped to sort through the many thousands of years of unprocessed memories she still holds).

[inhispockets]

Felicity does not emerge from his room again that day.

He grabs breakfast early the next morning, and then spends almost the whole day wandering around the island.

[her_imperial_radiance]

He is quite allowed to do that.

Elspeth puts a few cookbooks on the kitchen counter but draws no special attention to them.

The following morning, Jake leaves first thing in the morning. Elspeth says a couple hours later, "Felicity? I'm going to be out for a few hours. Do you need anything before I go?"

[inhispockets]

"Nah," he says.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"All right. You can brainphone me, or if that doesn't work, you can go through Jane."

And then she is gone.

[inhispockets]

Felicity does some more wandering. He takes his poof. He takes his poof's fountain, too.

An hour after Elspeth leaves, he goes back in the house. It takes a little time and ingenuity to set an empty cereal box on fire - he's already out of triangles anyway, and hasn't asked for more - but he manages it, and then he carries it around to as many flammable things as he can, and then he curls up on the living room floor and waits.

[alicornucopia]

The house is not particularly flame-retardant.

[inhispockets]

Good.

Unfortunately for Felicity's grand plan, even when the house collapses around him, he doesn't quite torch. And, pinned flat under a smoldering chunk of ceiling with what feels like more bones broken than not, there's not much he can do to change that.

[her_imperial_radiance]

In the complete absence of any information on this subject (Jokers give Alice headaches) Elspeth doesn't find out until she comes home.

She puts out the remaining fire, first, and then she picks through the wreckage calmly in search of Felicity.

[inhispockets]

Perhaps the faint whimpering will guide her.

[her_imperial_radiance]

It helps, yes.

She sits down next to him. She's not sure if his ears are working, with this extent of damage. But Elspeth can talk to the comatose, and he's not that far gone. I can heal you. I can torch you better. I can leave you alone. What do you prefer?

[inhispockets]

[heal me?]

[her_imperial_radiance]

It's a hex. She spends it.

[inhispockets]

He whimpers some more, and drags himself out from under the wreckage.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Did you have fun?"

[inhispockets]

"...No."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Oh." She spends a pentagon to restore the house; it's surrounded by enough space that not much surrounding flora has been damaged. She gets up and triangles away the soot.

[inhispockets]

Somewhat disbelievingly: "Did you just magic the house back?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Yes."

[inhispockets]

"Wishes, huh?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Yes. It actually took a bigger one to fix you than the house. Living creatures are complicated, and the house didn't have any inherently magical installations."

[inhispockets]

He is quiet for a moment.

Then: "Is... is that why you're not mad?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"It's a little more complicated than that. I wouldn't have left you unsupervised near anything both destructible and irreplaceable in the first place. Had I done so for some reason, I would probably mourn the loss of whatever was destroyed. But in reality I have plenty of magic and I was warned to expect destruction of property, so there's nothing to be mad about."

[inhispockets]

"Oh," says Felicity.

He looks contemplatively at the restored house.

Then he turns and walks away.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth goes out and inspects the smallish amount of damage to the plants around the house. She fixes it as she finds it.