and a wolf will move among the lambs

[impetuous_force]

It's that afternoon after school when Bella next visits the Witchnook. (She already made another nighttime visit to pick up her powder, and it's safely stashed under the false bottom in the box full of notebooks under her bed.) This time she just needs beetle wings and a reasonably clear chunk of quartz. Her books and the goldvine bramble she ordered aren't in yet.

Comments

[eversomuchfun]

"Better than some others," says Sherlock.

[impetuous_force]

"Such as?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Bravery is a complicated concept. Sometimes it can mean - a kind of recklessness. And recklessness is nobody's friend."

[alicornucopia]

"I wouldn't ever describe Bella as reckless," says Angie.

[eversomuchfun]

"Nor would I."

[impetuous_force]

"No, sometimes I do get in over my head," says Bella. "I just make sure I have a good reason to take the chance first. I don't think that's factored into the definition of recklessness."

[eversomuchfun]

"I think taking chances without making sure you have a good reason to is exactly the definition of recklessness."

[alicornucopia]

"I think Bella has a point, though. If somebody goes into a burning building to save somebody else and they're wrong about whether they can, and they die, they might get called reckless. But if they had a good chance of being right, then there was a good reason to take the chance."

[eversomuchfun]

"I wouldn't call them reckless, if I knew why they made the choice."

[impetuous_force]

"I would call them reckless if there were precautions readily available that they didn't take," Bella says.

[alicornucopia]

"But you never saw a precaution you didn't like," teases Angie, "so I guess you aren't reckless, then."

[eversomuchfun]

Sherlock laughs.

[impetuous_force]

Time passes. The recruitment drive occurs after John Escott has been enrolled for two and a half weeks; a witch in a USADI uniform peers at Bella and appears about to ask her something before Bella asks if she'd be so kind, as long as she's here, to have a look at her good-luck-charm (this is what the quartz was for) and see if it's any good. The witch examines the charm, determines it the likely source of any magic Bella's giving off that she's noticed, and hands it back saying that it's reasonably well done but she hopes Bella didn't pay more than thirty dollars for it. Bella has gone three days without casting any spells prior to the drive, and enchanted the charm just before that, for just such an eventuality.

Going without magic makes her irritable, especially by day three, and maintaining a poker face with the uniformed witch takes about all she has. She hustles to the Witchnook after school to get fixings for a pick-me-up; the USADI drive is over with and no more witches who might want to draft her are going to encounter her anytime soon.

[eversomuchfun]

"You look like hell," Sherlock comments. "What can I get you?"

[impetuous_force]

"Ugh, I don't even know, I was going to just fix the sink but Renée called a plumber before I expected her to get around to it," growls Bella, scratching irritably at her scalp. "I could make another charm but who'm I going to give it to, you?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Keep it. Who can't use a little more luck?"

[impetuous_force]

"They'd be redundant with each other, somebody'd notice if I had an extra -" She starts scanning the shelves, biting her lip. "Fucking plumber, I could've done it, fucking Charlie, Renée'd be fine with it but he's worried and him being fucking worried only gets me into worse trouble, good job, father of the year - are you guys still out of potion-quality sage?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Yes, we still are. I could give a charm to Angie and pretend I've had it all along," he suggests.

[impetuous_force]

"She'll insist you keep it. I don't want you to have one, I don't like you, worst fucking night of my life when I met you."

[eversomuchfun]

"Tape it to her locker signed from a secret admirer with forged handwriting," he suggests next. "Or is that too convoluted?"

[impetuous_force]

"Pretty fucking convoluted and her dad's a suspicious ass sometimes, might get it looked at, might trace it - why don't you have any fucking potion quality sage, I could just make a healing potion, I like those, they're useful, they're a good dose, is it that hard to keep the damn stuff in stock -" She stalks up and down the aisles, scowling.

[eversomuchfun]

"The shipment was delayed. You could scry to see why," he says whimsically.

[impetuous_force]

"You are so fucking smug," she snaps, but she grabs a bottle of scrying water from the endcap and stalks to the register.

[eversomuchfun]

"It is among my many personal flaws."

He operates the register.

[impetuous_force]

Bella doesn't even dignify that with a response; she puts the bottle in her backpack - no disguise necessary; it just looks like a bottle of water - and almost leaves before she notices the cop car parked at the coffee shop across the street.

"Oh, fucking hell," she snarls.