aurum tourism

[temporal_affairs]

There is a Janepoint in each of the capitals, including this one in Forks. It has its own building, and in it two vampires are waiting - Nathan, because his mate is incoming, and Alice, because she's supposed to check if the guests are going to need to avoid meeting anybody for matey reasons (Jellybean, and Cam, are both coming and both in potential danger of being mated to).

But she can't see anything till they show up.

Cam arrives first, despite having been a later addition to the expedition - no one was distracting him with last-minute goodbye makeouts - and she clears him and he waits around for Jellybean.

Comments

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Ah, you're a little out of date on Bell auras, Golden's gives her fine shield control that she didn't notice till she tried to use it," Addy says, wagging a finger. "I don't know about the others, they're not as accustomed to indulging my curiosity. What all else can you do with it, now that I'm full enough not to get distracted and leap for your throat with it turned up?"

[pythbox]

"All the normal Joker stuff," he says, gesturing vaguely—his soundtrack fades in with melancholy violins; his mood-aura dips to match, then brightens into giggly happiness while the soundtrack keens sadly onward. His aura of candy flavours itself pineapple, then blueberry, then acquires a hint of chocolate.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Addy attends raptly to these changes, looking like she'd eat him right up, again, if she had room.

[pythbox]

Jellybean laughs. "I can't tell if that look is about the magic or about the candy," he says.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Eighty-twenty," says Addy. "Keep messing with it, I want to see what else it does!"

[pythbox]

"Fine," he snorts, and he flares the candy part. Suddenly he is an every-flavoured Jellybean.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Addy grabs his hand and bites into it, teeth not quite meeting in the middle. She just sort of leaves her jaw there, apparently to distract the bits of her that want to do eating and not science. [Carry on,] she brainphones merrily.

[pythbox]

His soundtrack starts playing something new.

He cracks up.

[her_imperial_radiance]

[Charming,] says Addy, raising an eyebrow.

[pythbox]

Jellybean is snickering too hard to answer this intelligently.

[her_imperial_radiance]

[Are you unable to concentrate on your aura if I'm biting your hand?] Addy inquires impatiently.

[pythbox]

[The hand's a little distracting, but mostly it's the part where I'm laughing my ass off,] he says through giggles.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Addy sighs through her nose and waits.

[pythbox]

"Somebody's grumpy," he snorts, and his aura informs her that she is being gently made fun of, although this was already pretty obvious.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Addy gives him a withering look and crosses her arms and continues to restrainedly not bite his thumb and forefinger completely off.

[pythbox]

His mood-aura spins through a wildly varying array of emotions, most of which he isn't really feeling. The faster that changes, the faster his flavour seems to change, although the rates don't precisely match.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Addy notes this with interest. [The emotional broadcast is interesting. I don't think it's all genuine, but is it indicative of something genuine?]

[pythbox]

[I have to remember feeling like that to put it out there, if I'm not feeling it right then. Same way for everybody else, I think; we didn't really talk about it.]

[her_imperial_radiance]

[Didn't really -? Weren't you curious? Where is everyone's experimental mindset, I ask you. All right. Is it easier to do some emotions than others, assuming you remember them equally well?]

[pythbox]

[Yep, but it's different every time which ones are easier, it's about what mood I'm in but it's not directly related to how different what I'm feeling is from what I'm trying to 'say'.]

[her_imperial_radiance]

[So what do various moods do exactly?]

[pythbox]

He thinks about it, and then he tries answering in the Speech. This category relates to that category in such-and-such a way, but in the other direction it's different, and of course there are the obvious exceptions -

The obvious exceptions aren't obvious. Despite being spoken in a universally understandable language, the things he's saying don't make a whole lot of sense.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Addy listens attentively anyway, hoping that it will all snap together into sensemaking at some point.

When he's done inexplicably explaining, she says, [Forget about your aura for a second, tell me about that language!]

[pythbox]

"It's called the Speech," he says, still speaking same; the Speech's name for itself translates as such, but has stronger overtones of fundamentality. "It's from my world. You can use it to talk to anything that can understand you, and if you speak it, you understand anybody who's trying to talk to you. Somebody should teach it to your princess, I bet she'd have a field day."

[her_imperial_radiance]

[She would. I want it. Will you tell the local Bella that it's harmless so she'll let me have it, pretty please?]