Hi, Bella!

My friend finally caved. You can direct your nosy questions to her now. (Hi, Chris!)

Hi, Chris! Thanks for agreeing to talk to me. First of all, if you don't trust email for the topic in question, let me know and we can work out something else. If email's fine, let's start with the obvious:

What is it you do?

-Bella

Short story: I protect people.

There's a progression of longer and longer stories if you want more detail, but some of them are going to take a lot of explaining. I won't trust email for all of it. If you're the kind of person who likes to have the whole story (and I'm betting you are), we should definitely find a more secure way to talk.

You bet correctly. There's various forms of electronic encryption. I can also get anyplace in the South Bay pretty readily to talk in person, although it occurs to me that I have no idea where you live. Phones are generally insecure if someone's looking to spy on you, but harder to sift through with robots for general topics of interest because voice recognition is spotty. What's your preference?

For our purposes, I think a phone will do the trick. Please call me when it is daylight on the east coast.

Hi!

A little bird told me you have questions about magic? She is a somewhat paranoid little bird sometimes, so she would probably rather we didn't mention her name, but I am neither paranoid nor little nor a bird so I have no problem talking magic over email.

Hello, nonbird! You must be Lazarus. I have all of the questions about magic and how people act around it. Do let me know if my questions begin to annoy you, but I'm led to believe that's unlikely. Here's some to start with; I don't know how much time you have and my impatience can put up a good fight against my curiosity sometimes.

- What "native" powers have you seen that the little bird didn't mention, assuming there are some? We covered Bridget and little bird herself and a precog and you and someone with an "unobtrusiveness" power.
- Are there patterns to where and when they appear? How many people have them in the general population?
- What's up with the storebought powers? Who's buying them, what are they paying, what kinds of powers do they tend to walk away with?
- How do you work? (I'm going to want similar detail about everybody, but I might as well start with you.) What's your range? Do you function through barriers, electronic media, etc.? What does it tell you exactly, do you have to turn it on or is it passive, does anything (like little bird's power?) block you or are you some sort of unstoppable force of divination...?

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me!

-Bella

I'm making all my friends call me Nonbird now. You have no idea what you've wrought.

To answer all your questions completely out of order:

I have a sense for powers the same way I have a sense of touch or taste or sight or sound or balance. It works in all directions and through barriers, up to the same range as sight and with about the same loss of detail over distance. I know where people with powers are when they're nearby, and most of the time I can figure out what they do if I look at them long enough. 'Look' is a metaphor, of course, I used to actually squint at people but it only helps psychologically.

I haven't gathered detailed statistics, but I live in a fairly big city and I can go as long as a month without seeing any new powers, so the overall percentage can't be that high. Everyone I've talked to who knows they have a power and remembers a time when they didn't has said it came in before they were ten; I'm in the 'can't remember a time when I didn't' category. It always seems to be relevant to them in some way, although it's not always obvious until you get to know them.

"Storebought" powers are interesting. I know one or two people with them, but they're even more secretive than the little bird; they haven't told me much and they probably don't want me to repeat any of it. I can talk about the powers in the abstract, though. They're very easy to tell apart from native powers, and it's usually easier for me to tell what they do without getting up close. I've seen a few 'in the wild', so to speak; there was a mint who rode two cars down from me on the subway once, who I never saw again, and someone who walked past me in a mall who had remote viewing.

To know if the little bird's power blocked me, I would have to have looked at someone she was covering who had a power. I haven't looked at someone she was covering, powers or no, so it's hard to say. At a guess, though, I'd bet she wouldn't. Her power is very protective, and mine isn't harmful.

On the other hand, Kolya's unobtrusiveness hides itself just as well as it hides the rest of him. When he has it turned up, I'm as oblivious to him as anybody.

You're welcome for your new nickname.

A "mint"? Like... the herb, or what?

"Most of the time"? When can you not, what goes wrong?

It being a sense sounds really interesting. Do you have magical aesthetics? Would it really annoy you if someone with a certain power moved in upstairs and just went on having it at all hours of the night? Do you sense your own power directly?

Do you go out a lot? That affects how much your big city is affecting what people you see; if you're a shut-in you have your neighbors and delivery people, not a huge sample size.

What do you mean by "relevant"?

Is it generally easy to get people to talk to you about their powers, once you walk up to them and ask if they believe in magic?

Knowing a dude who can be completely unobtrusive like that sounds really disconcerting.

"Most of the time": all powers vary in how hard to figure out they are. Nonnative are always easier than native, but besides that, it just seems to be a normal variance.

I sense my own power, yes. I've never seen a power that grated on me like you describe, but I guess it's theoretically possible. Some powers are definitely prettier than others.

A certain little bird was my biggest success story in walking up to a stranger and anouncing I could see their magic underwear (so to speak). Poor Kolya faded right out from in front of me and left me saying "...I should've expected that" to thin air.

It's not that bad, honestly. Whatever stories you might have been told, his pranking days were over before I met him.

Relevance: Like the little bird having a protective power and Kolya having an unobtrusiveness power and me having a nosy power. Native powers are always something the power-haver finds useful, or something that reflects their personality.

Shut-in: Nope! I sometimes go a day without leaving the apartment, but it's rare. I see plenty of people.

Mint: Did nobody tell you about wishcoins? Who have you been talking to about magic who didn't think that was the first thing to mention? Never mind, I can guess. Mints are where "storebought" powers come from. They're very distinctive. I've never seen a native mint, but they don't exactly look like other nonnative powers, either. Anyway, a mint is what I call someone who can make coins that grant wishes. I have a lot of theories about them, but I've never met one who felt like answering my questions, so my theories remain theories. I've seen the coins, though. Even used one once. They come in different shapes and colours and they disappear when you're done with them.

Always easier as in, the easiest-to-see native power is still harder to see than the hardest-to-see bought power?

Whose power is prettiest?

How'd you salvage the situation with Kolya?

Is there a good reason for you to have this particular nosy power, and not mindreading or something?

How big's the city? Better yet, what city? Have you traveled much, does it vary regionally or anything? Besides announcing that you know, what do you usually do when you spot somebody with a power - do you ever want to become a substitute teacher of sixth-graders and patrol the country and whisk away the ones with magic to your very own Hogwarts?

The little bird mentioned wishes but didn't use the word "mint", I think I'd have remembered that. What are your theories? What shapes and colors; do those matter? What kind did you get? What did you do with it - do you have a storebought power too?

Yep.

Kolya's. But no, in all seriousness, there's no one power that stands out as obviously the prettiest in the world.

He followed me home. I promise it was cuter and less creepy than it sounds.

I've lived in a few, actually. I met Chris in New York. As far as I can tell, there aren't especially more or less powers in any one place I've been.

I have never wanted to found Hogwarts before...

Oh, don't get me started on mints. Or do, if you really really want to. But they're almost a subject unto themselves, and I know less about them than I do about the rest of magic combined but I definitely think there's more to know about them than there is about the rest of magic combined. And that's the kind of sentence they reduce me to.

So no speculations about why this nosy power and not another?

Who has an ugly power? (Are people offended if you tell them they have ugly powers?)

I think I feel like getting you started on mints. What would you have asked that fellow on the train? What have you figured out despite such uncooperativeness? How do they make the coins - at some kind of fixed rate? Performing some kind of action? You didn't tell me about what kind of wish you made either, is it private?

I don't even know what you look like (except that you are a nonbird) and I'm still forming a clear mental picture of you informing an eleven year old boy, "You're a wizard, Harry."

According to Kolya, I am, quote, "a six-four scarecrow with a nose like an ice pick and hands like two halves of a bleached spider", end quote. I don't know what that's going to do to your mental picture, but there you have it.

Whoops, forgot about the nosiness. I've thought about it, but I couldn't tell you exactly why it fits. It just does.

I've never told anybody they have an ugly power. I'm not sure anybody really does. They range from neutral to kind of pretty.

Okay, I'll start you off with the list of things I've observed directly about wishcoins, because it's much shorter:

I've seen triangular coins, square coins, and a five-sided coin. I spent a square one to fix the way my jaw used to click when I yawned and it hasn't done it since. Some of the coins were sea-green and translucent, and some of them were dark purple and opaque.

I've 'seen' three mints in my life, and only met one of them face to face. That's where I got the square. The mint who gave it to me was really intent about me keeping secret pretty much everything about our meeting, and didn't tell me much anyway, but that's where I learned that wishcoins are where nonnative powers come from. Not that I couldn't have guessed that.

I think I can 'see' coins the same way I see powers. They're much subtler, though. If I'm right, then I think the colour of a coin represents who made it, because those sea-green coins 'looked' like the power of the mint who had them.

Anything beyond that is rampant speculation.

So I suppose you have a missing finger on each hand then?

What about other people - why does Kolya have his brand of unobtrusiveness and not, like, outright invisibility? Or hiding in a pocket dimension?

Wishing for your jaw not to click seems like a kind of silly wish. Why did you pick that? Was the coin designed to only do that wish, or that kind of thing?

Tell me about your speculations! You've had more time to form them than I have.

No one ever said Kolya was good at math.

I'm not sure I can explain this to someone who doesn't have one themselves, but as far as I can tell, everyone's power is the kind of thing it makes sense to them to have. That's just intuition, though. For all I know it could be random and we could all just be reading too much into it, like horoscopes. Or having the power could make you the kind of person who would have it instead of the other way around.

Not sure I can get into the whys. Let's say it was supposed to be trivial and leave it at that.

Speculations:

I think the number of sides on a coin is an indicator of power. More sides means it can do bigger or more complicated things.

If mints are where nonnative powers come from, there has to have been a native mint at some point, doesn't there? But I've never seen one. I can't figure out why.

I said nonnative powers are easier to figure out than native ones, and that's almost always true. Mints are the exception. Or I think they are, anyway. They're a lot more complicated than any other power, but at the same time in some ways they're simpler.

There's some element of interpretation involved whenever I figure out a power. I don't just directly perceive how they work.

I've figured some things out about minting that I'm not sure I really believe. They're kind of unnerving.

Yeah, I was thinking maybe horoscopes, but your way would be interesting too. Do you know any nonmagical people who it's really obvious what they'd have if they had anything?

>They're a lot more complicated than any other power, but at the same time in some ways they're simpler.

You're gonna have to expand that sentence for me a little. I cannot read your mind, natively or otherwise!

>There's some element of interpretation involved whenever I figure out a power. I don't just directly perceive how they work.

What's that like? Is it like... learning to read, or something else?

>I've figured some things out about minting that I'm not sure I really believe. They're kind of unnerving.

Oh, you can't just leave me hanging like that, come on.

Okay, think of the difference between this picture and this picture. Which one is simpler? Which one is more complicated? Most powers are more like the first one; there's patterns there, but it takes some looking before you start to understand them. Mints are like the second one. It's big and simple and obvious at first glance, and then you look closer and there are all these intricate details.

I wish we could have this conversation over coffee or something. I'm much better at explaining things when I can wave my hands around. Although I guess I'd have a harder time Googling suitable examples. Making explanatory gestures to my computer screen just looks silly and makes it hard to type, though.

Okay, I'll tell you what I think I figured out as soon as I figure out a way to put it into words without creeping myself out.

Skype? Best of both worlds.

Webcams are banned in the apartment. It's a Kolya thing.

Well, a mere phone conversation would satisfy the "don't have to type" criterion, I guess? I believe you have my number if that would suit. As of this moment I can expect to be alone in my room for an hour; after that my roommate may reappear and I'd have to find someplace else to go, but I could manage it.

No, it's fine, it's fine! I was just grousing. I am still fully capable of delivering my awkwardly worded ramblings. Ask me more interesting questions, this is the most fun I've had all week.

But you haven't told me what creepy thing you learned about the mints! Or the one about what interpreting powers is like. I generate more questions mostly by seeing what the answers to what I already asked are.

Okay okay... what was removing the jaw-clicking like? What did you do? Did it feel like anything?

Could you get ahold of any of the mints you've met if you really wanted to?

If you were a mint, what experiments would you want to do to figure out about it?

I forgot about interpreting powers. I was going to add it to the paragraph about the difference between mints and everyone else. Actually, I think that's what's got me going on about explanatory hand gestures in the first place, not that they'd help. It's hard to describe. I'll think about it; ask me again later if I forget again.

It didn't feel like anything. I just thought a wish and the coin disappeared and then I yawned and there was no click.

If I really, really wanted to, I could probably find the sea-green one again. I don't want to that badly. Especially because I'd just be in for another round of mystery theatre.

I don't want to be a mint. If I knew a cooperative mint, I'd want to study their coins and ask them how their power works and maybe but probably not watch them use it.

Because: The creepy thing about mints is how they make coins. I think it has to do with pain somehow. See? I'm creeping myself out already. I think coins are made out of a mint's pain. Why do I think that?

Wow, that's got to be the most fucked up magic power ever. Can't they buy a nicer minting power where they can make coins out of sunshine or something instead?

Why do you think that?

Mints are also the only true duplicate power I've ever seen. That might have something to do with it. Maybe there's only one way to be a mint.

Well, that goes back to what interpreting powers is like.

This is a bad way to put it, but I can't think of any better ones: The way a power 'looks' always has some qualities that make me think of things that are like how the power works. The little bird's power looks strong and solid and, I don't know, outward? It just looks like the kind of thing that's for protecting people. And Kolya's power looks shy and like it wants to be hiding behind something at all times. My power has an outwardness to it, too, but it's not exactly the same outwardness. And it's kind of angular and all-over-the-place, like sugar crystals. (Trying to describe powers in terms of the regular senses is usually doomed to failure, but once in a while I get good analogies referencing shape or size. A certain someone's is exactly person-sized, for example, although that has nothing to do with the size it appears to have in the physical world, because all powers are also the shape and size of the people who have them. But on a different level, they meaningfully aren't. Confused yet?)

So: the mint power 'looks' like a thing that turns pain into wishes.

I repeat: most fucked up power ever.

Maybe it's a conspiracy and the native mint does it differently but only sells this kind of minting to limit others' power! Wait, that's technically not a conspiracy, it only calls for one person. But you know what I mean.

I am a little confused, but maybe not as confused as you fear? I understand you're trying to talk about an extra sense with a language designed around its absence.

What else do you know about the wishes? What does "complexity" or "size" mean in terms of whether a wish needs one kind of coin or another? Is there any reason for people to be associated with the colors they are or does that seem random?

I don't know a lot about the wishes. And like I said, I haven't exactly seen enough colour combinations to have a good theory. That one mint didn't particularly seem like a sea-green person or anything.

I don't really know what complexity or size mean other than the obvious. Well, I guess "the obvious" isn't necessarily all that obvious. Bigger-and-more-complicated wishes are wishes that accomplish more things, or more of a thing. If I'd wanted to, I don't know, fix a broken arm as well as my clicky jaw, that might have taken a coin with one more side. Or even a broken arm instead of my clicky jaw. But I don't have any more than the vaguest possible sense of how the size of a wish actually relates to the number of sides it needs. For that matter, I don't know how many sides a coin can have. Maybe it stops at five, or maybe it keeps going up indefinitely and the most powerful coins just look like circles.

Have you met Bridget before? It occurs to me that I have no idea - I quizzed her extensively and she always had explanations for how she knew everything, she never said "Lazarus told me that I could do X" or anything. It just seems like you could develop a lot more usefulness if you had more of a sample size to look at properly, and she might not object, though I'd have to ask.

I dunno. What do you do with your time, anyway, nonbird, since you don't run Hogwarts?

Bridget's the physicist, isn't she? Dr. Banner? I've seen her, but not talked to her extensively. Her power is interesting. You'd think it would look like the little bird's, but it doesn't at all, even though there's some overlap in effect.

I have a boring nonmagical job where I do boring nonmagical things. I also like wandering around watching strangers do things. I'm told this is a creepy hobby.

Yes, she's a physicist. That's funny that her power doesn't resemble little bird's - can you describe the differences via poorly-suited metaphor in uncooperative words, please?

Boring nonmagical job sounds like the worst thing. In particular, it sounds boring.

I think people-watching is a thing. I mean, there's a word for it. And it makes sense in your case.

> can you describe the differences via poorly-suited metaphor in uncooperative words, please?

Oh, yes, that's my favourite. :P

They do the same thing, or part of the same thing, but they do it in very different ways. The little bird's power is very outward, like I said; it goes outward from her to the person she's protecting and then looks outward again to guard them. Bridget's power is very, very inward. It works on her, not on the world around her. And it's big and small at the same time, like there's really three times as much Bridget as the world gets to see, trying to press itself down into just slightly less space than she nominally occupies. (Powers looking a little smaller than their people isn't unique—Kolya's does it too—but I've never seen one be simultaneously bigger like that.)

Bridget's power just working on her makes sense to me. She was kind enough to let me try to break her wrist. It didn't go. Nothing happened to me, her wrist just wasn't a breakable thing. I'd be vaguely curious what would happen if I made an attempt at attacking the little bird's niece - I imagine her wrist wouldn't break either, but it might not-break in an interestingly different way.

How long have you known all these various magical people?

If I were you, I wouldn't try it.

I've known these various magical people various amounts of time! Kolya the longest, the little bird next.

Why not? It wouldn't work any more than it did on Bridget. And I'd ask first. Ethical experimental procedures, and all. I don't know little bird's niece, of course, but if I met her why not inquire?

Sure, but when did you meet Kolya?

I just don't think it would be a good idea.

Years and years ago, why?

But why do you think that?

I'm curious about correlations between how long you've known someone and how much you know about their power. And, there seems to be this whole network of magic people that I just stumbled across and I want to know how long it's existed.

Well, I'm a lot more familiar with Kolya's power than anyone else's because I've been living with him for (I just checked) two years. It's not how long I've known them that matters, really, it's how well I know them.

Is a collection of loosely acquainted people a network?

Sure it is. It's not a club or a political party or even a circle of friends, but it's certainly a network.

Have you met little bird's niece?

I'm sure little bird's niece is a lovely person, but I don't want to meet her at all.

Why not?

Have you met her niece?

Why?

Just curious.

You AFK?

Yes and no. Sorry, I got distracted.

The truth is, our little bird kind of makes me nervous sometimes.

Oh dear.

Would you rather be having this conversation in some more confidential manner?

Maybe. I don't know. I'm probably just being silly.

I don't think it's silly.

Yes, well, you believe in magic.

Yes. Yes I do.

Magic is kind of scary.

Sometimes, yeah.

WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HIM???

You must be Kolya. I didn't do anything with Lazarus. What makes you think I did?

SOMEONE did something with him. if not you then who? where is he i want him back help.

I don't know who might have done that.