the experiment

[instar]

When Andi has gotten one of Charlie's friends to give her a ride to the grocery store and the unauthorized residents of the house can come out of hiding, Bella goes looking for Trouble, so to speak, and finds him in the kitchen.

"Hey," she says, "I have some more questions that I'd be asking Aspret if she was here. Charlie didn't have answers; Esclan wasn't the talkative type or the experimental type."

Comments

[instar]

"We have a few more ingredients and aren't nearly so freezer-stable, yes."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble cracks up.

[instar]

"Is it possible to be comfortable in your head, or am I more likely than not to run into unpleasantness whether you're trying to distract me or not?"

[aeskhyne]

"Sure it's possible," he says. "There's always a chance you'll run into something nasty, and nothing's gonna stop you if you go looking, but most of the time I'm just fine."

[instar]

Bella nods.

"This is really weird," she mutters, scribbling in her notebook.

[aeskhyne]

"Which parts?"

[instar]

"The part where I am contemplating turning into an alien slug to wrap around your brain to determine the scope of alien slug brain-wrapping abilities and you're on board with the plan for unclear Trouble reasons."

[aeskhyne]

"Was 'I'd really like it' not clear, or just not clear enough?"

[instar]

"I have guesses about the details."

[aeskhyne]

"I bet you do."

[instar]

"Do you bet they are correct?"

[aeskhyne]

"Oh, probably."

[instar]

"And you are, regardless, okay with me being pretty much just scientifically motivated."

[aeskhyne]

"Well, yeah."

[instar]

"You keep saying things like that as though they should be obvious."

[aeskhyne]

"They're obvious to me. Doesn't mean they're obvious to everybody, but it does mean that's how I talk about 'em."

[instar]

"Mm." She sighs. "For the creativity part, have you got anything suitable that I haven't happened to hear about?"

[aeskhyne]

"Try cooking, actually," he says. "It's not always a creative thing, but it can be. Tell you the truth, I'm not sure there's anything I don't do creatively."

[instar]

"Okay." She sighs. "And we're going to have to tell everybody this experiment is going on so no one attempts to brain you with the tire iron if they catch me acting funny."

[aeskhyne]

He grins. "Yep."

[instar]

"Grand."

Scribble. Scribble. "If I write things down with your hands you still won't know what it means, right?"

[aeskhyne]

"...well, there's no saying I couldn't guess," he says. "And I'll be watching from closer by than usual. But no, I won't just automatically know it."

[instar]

"Or anything else? What kind of leakage from me to you do I have to worry about, you kept talking about knowing Aspret really well after being in such close quarters."

[aeskhyne]

"You won't just randomly drip thoughts," he says. "Aspret and I went through some stuff together. You're not gonna end up crying on my bedroom floor at three in the morning."

[instar]

"That is unlikely, yes." She sighs. "Renée could show up as early as tomorrow, depending on various factors, so this evening is probably best if I want to get it done this month at all and given that I haven't decided to bring Renée in on the conspiracy yet, given that you're usually a pigeon or whatever."