White box

Odd bits

Marcus left and Stephanie realized she had not asked the most important thing--

"Wait a bit," she said to parents. "I forgot to clean something up. I'll call in a few minutes!"

Mom smiled and shook her head. "Take your time, dear, we have time."

Dad nodded at that.

Stephanie found Purple by her bookshelf, browsing the covers-- so he hadn't left. Which was good!

"What if I use magic by accident?" She asked.

"Not a problem," Purple replied. "Normies only take it as being deeply immersed in music, in fact, do use it all from the get-go, then they will be too entranced looking at you to even properly notice the illusions."

"Does that happen with you too?" Stephanie asked, now feeling at ease. Yep, going all out would be way easier to manage. She was used to going all out, after all.

Purple made a sheepish smile. "Stephanie, normal people pass out if they encounter me."

Ah-- right-- and those who are strong enough to handle him would notice the illusions. "What happens if you sing in this shape?" Stephanie asked.

"Normies can't see or hear me, to you it would sound like a regular human singing, I guess," Purple replied.

Stephanie's eyes zoomed into Purple and sparkled over. "Sing me that song we made--"

"... Don't you need to perform to your parents?" Purple asked.

"Just a single verse--" Stephanie said. They had told her to take her time. She didn't mean to take long and-- after that she would go call them right away.

Purple shrugged a bit, not looking certain why she would ask that, but did sing just a single verse and her heart skipped several beats. It was plain unfair that she could not tackle him, because-- just how perfect could a boy be? Magic or not, his voice was beautiful.

Even he got flustered from the way she looked at him. And now Stephanie saw the same scene he had probably seen when he had complimented her music. She didn't even say a word, but he got it.

"I can sing you more if you like it so much," he said looking sideways. "But right now it's your turn."

Mhm. Right. Stephanie turned around and left to call her parents and then she could see that their eyes were the same as those in the Boundary Cafe guests.

She needed to look up that singer she had been in her previous life-- It felt a bit like cheating that she was using skill some girl she did not even remember being had honed over decades. Well, she had also honed her own voice and skills for a decade, although it had been on a cheap digital piano for the first five. Their family needed to move to a bigger apartment for her sake alone. Not that they had a choice - Dad's parents had gone and bought a grand piano for her and so they had moved and at the age of 10, she got her own soundproofed studio room.

That alone made her feel grateful from the bottom of her heart to be born in this family. Her parents had no idea about music, neither did her grandparents, but even so they did all they could to accommodate her. All her school friends came from families where at least one parent was either a musician of some sort or an avid music lover/consumer, she had popped up out of nowhere, it seemed.

Timothy's love for clocks made sense - Mom's father had been a horologist - he repaired all kinds of watches and clocks. Every summer till that grandfather died Timothy had been there, covered in oils and dust and making Mom's mom sigh all the time. Timothy was smitten with that man - trying to copy him in all he did. That grandfather dying might have been what started Timothy's obsession with that White Box book. That was also when Timothy started to become more and more withdrawn.