do: read; don't: visit 214

[giftedandtalented]

Mehitabel reads a lot.

She starts calling herself "Tab", for short, not that anyone calls her anything apart from Kers. She writes suitably encrypted emails to Aelise about ideas for fixing the world - mostly she asks questions, to start, forming a picture of the exact problem she has to solve.

She misses her parents, but not very much. At least she got to say goodbye.

When her brain won't absorb new information, she bounces around in zero-g.

After six months, Aelise visits again.

Tab says, "Anybody you store up here must be important somehow. If I don't know about the other secret person, I won't know how to come up with ideas that work with them being important however they're important."

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"Love and loyalty. See if you can keep him teleporting to such inconvenient places, that immortality thing he does can foul up a net," says Demauri, half-smiling.

[salus_populi]

"I'll try my very best."

[alicornucopia]

Demauri salutes, and sees himself out.

[salus_populi]

And Aelise makes sure Harley is tucked in safe and sound, and then she goes about her business.

She comes back a week later to do the whole thing over again.

There's no way to get him unconscious again instantly after the draining stops, so she tries persuasion this time.

"Can't we talk about this...?"

[pythbox]

"No," he snarls, scrunching his eyes shut. A wavering moment, and then he's gone again.

[salus_populi]

Aelise sighs.

At least this time she drained him for longer. She probably has a few thousand years' worth of immortality stored, to be distributed as she pleases, unless it drains faster over time when it's all piled up like this.

She calls Demauri again.

[alicornucopia]

"On it," sighs Demauri, and he follows the trail.

[pythbox]

Harley is, it turns out, in Hawaii.

Specifically, in Mauna Loa. And that is in, not on. He is somewhere in the middle, well below sea level, and not going much of anywhere.

[alicornucopia]

...Demauri is not equipped to handle this.

He calls Aelise.

[salus_populi]

"Of course he is," she sighs. "I'll deal with it. Thank you."

Then she finds Sandre and Anneia.

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Aelise! What's up?"

[salus_populi]

"I need to borrow you two for a little while. Could be dangerous. Likely to be painful," she says with a quirk of a smile.

[guiltless]

"Sign me up," laughs Sandre.

[salus_populi]

"Yes, that's what I thought you'd say."

She explains on the way: Harley, whom she's sure they remember, has managed to get himself stuck in the middle of a volcano. She is hoping that some combination of Sandre's telekinesis and Anneia's indifference to extremity will let them conspire to fish him out. It's likely to push Sandre's range, but maybe not that far. And although Kers is protecting both of them and is more than proof against a little lava, her protection against unpleasant sensations has been known to give out long before her protection against real physical harm. Hence why Anneia will be the one diving in after Harley, with Sandre keeping hold of her to haul them both out.

[lookingforwardtoit]

"I'm all for it," Anneia says cheerfully.

[salus_populi]

"I know you are."

[guiltless]

They find the volcano; they perch as close to Harley's last known position as they can get without an undue risk of falling in; Sandre reels Anneia down, letting her familiar body anchor his perception to pull it past its ordinary limits. She's just at the edge of his range when he feels something else beside her that's not lava - there and gone and there again, in a bizarre but familiar way.

He hauls them both out. It takes twice as long as he expects it to, because he can't move Harley while Harley is doing his mysterious immortality thing, and he's bouncing in and out of it as rapidly as you'd expect from someone swimming unprotected in hot lava. But eventually, they both emerge, and Anneia snuggles up to Harley and pours healing into him, and Sandre pulls them up to where he waits with Aelise and hugs them both.

[pythbox]

Harley weeps desperately into Sandre's shirt.

[lookingforwardtoit]

"What happened to you?" murmurs Anneia, petting his miraculously regenerated hair.

[pythbox]

"Chelsa got me again, I was miles away, I wasn't even awake and she got me, I can't fucking stand it," he sobs. "I hate it, I hate her, I hate everything, I want to die and if I can't have that I want to hurt until I stop caring."

[salus_populi]

"There are other methods available for that," says Aelise.

[pythbox]

"Fucking do it then," Harley spits. "'Cause next time you're not gonna fish me out so fast."

[salus_populi]

So Aelise starts draining him again.

There is less point in keeping him so thoroughly hidden now, and something will need to be done about all the screaming to avoid disturbing people; she takes him back to Mont Blanc and arranges for a thoroughly soundproofed little suite tucked into the mountainside, with an office where she can do actual work while she pulls lifeforce from his endless supply. And then, after several hours of draining, she puts him to sleep as fast as she can.

[warmfeelings]

When Anneia and Sandre are home, Chelsa calls them from where she's snuggling with Corona. "Where did you go?"

[lookingforwardtoit]

Anneia cuddles up.

"Oh, Aelise wanted us to fish Harley out of a volcano," she says.