Written to fullaquirkes‘ prompt here to my Summer Giraffe Call.
“I think I’ve got it.” Aspen hurried into the common room, three books under her arm and a basket full of miscellany in her other hand. “I figured it out. Now all we have to do is… try it.”
Betsy looked up. “Is this like the part where we ‘tried’ being a cat for half an hour?”
“I apologized for that.” Aspen wrinkled her nose. “I apologized, I made cookies, I even kowtowed. I had to look up kowtowing, but I did it.”
“Cut her a break, Bets.” Topher didn’t look up from his video game. “I mean…” somehow he still seemed able to see the glare Betsy shot in his direction. “If you want to? I mean, I spent that half an hour as a golden lab, remember?”
“A very drooly golden lab.” BEtsy made a face. “All right… sorry, Asp-lady. What do you have for us?”
“Well, first I have clearing out the fireplace. And then I have sitting around it in a half-circle, because we can’t exactly circle the whole thing. And then…”
“Asp. What does it do?”
“Oh!” Aspen grinned widely. “It takes out the part of our personality we like least. Like, for instance, the way that I go on and on and on and…”
“Asp.”
“…or your self-doubt, or, um. The way Topher doesn’t like anything about himself.”
“The thing is, I mean, I’m with you about Topher,” Betsy said slowly, “but I mean, sometimes the self-doubt keeps me alive…”
“…and sometimes it nearly gets you killed!”
“…and sometimes when you don’t stop talking, we learn important things that we wouldn’t have figured out otherwise. I mean, like the Lumbago Demon.”
“Lon Biago, because lon means of, from, or descending from…”
“Exactly. But Toph…”
“Right. Toph is broken boy, so he gets to be experiment boy.” Topher flopped down in front of the fireplace. “What’re we burning, Aspen-lady?”
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Who wants to help me build a protective area? Over here with the sand bags please!
*grin*
Oh dear. Topher, no …
Poor Topher…
Eeeech. The fact that she couldn’t think of something specific about Topher, and then he’s the one they’re trying it on, makes me think this is going pretty badly. I hope they get lucky, but non-specificity+personality+experimental fire magic=bad plan…
Oh, it’s an awful plan, yes. She was mostly trying to be tactful, ’cause Topher really has a ridiculously low self-esteem.
I can see no way in which this goes well. I mean, there’s probably an infinitesimal chance that he turns into the Human Torch, but I suspect it’s far more likely that he’ll end up a mindless zombie on fire.
Grm, lost my login. The identical anonymous one above is me. I can see no way in which this goes well. I mean, there’s probably an infinitesimal chance that he turns into the Human Torch, but I suspect it’s far more likely that he’ll end up a mindless zombie on fire.