tuesday afternoon

[deepest_magic]

Elizabeth's house is within walking distance. Bella goes over to it the following day, after lunch, carrying two extra clumsily-frosted but perfectly baked cupcakes in her hands and notebooks in her backpack.

Comments

[neverbeatme]

"You make good cupcakes," says Elizabeth. "That's going in your file."

[deepest_magic]

Bella giggles. "In case you ever have to tap your network for a good cupcake."

[neverbeatme]

"I have a network now?"

[deepest_magic]

"Well, a sort of -" Bella gestures. "Starfish. I don't know how many of the people you know know how many other people you know. In case you ever have to tap your starfish for cupcakes."

[neverbeatme]

Elizabeth giggles. "Now there's a mental image for you."

[deepest_magic]

"You sitting in the middle of a starfish? Yeah," giggles Bella.

[neverbeatme]

"Or poking one and having it burp cupcakes at me."

[deepest_magic]

"Ew! I don't think the decorative frosting would be intact," snorts Bella. "I was thinking the correct arm of the starfish would just, you know, hand you one."

[neverbeatme]

Elizabeth giggles.

[deepest_magic]

"That's most of the point of starfish is to have arms. They could hand you stuff. None of this burping nonsense."

[neverbeatme]

"Even though it's hilarious."

[deepest_magic]

"Yes," says Bella firmly.

[neverbeatme]

"If you say so."

[deepest_magic]

"I do say so." Bella flops onto a couch. "I thought about it and I think I agree with you I'd be bad at politics, but only if I had to get elected, I think I would be a good queen."

[neverbeatme]

"Really," says Elizabeth. "Go on."

[deepest_magic]

"Well, monarchs are mostly good as long as they don't start doing actually evil things, as near as I can tell. That's what the problem always seems to be with kings and queens in history, is that they started being terrible to people of different religions or going on badly informed witch hunts or taking money they didn't really need or something. I wouldn't do that, I would want a nice happy well-managed country that I could be proud of."

[neverbeatme]

"The problem with monarchies is that kings and queens die and then their kids take over and at some point there's just not going to be a kid who'll be any good at it," says Elizabeth. "The best thing a queen can do for the long term is write a good constitution."

[deepest_magic]

"Oh, yes. I forgot the part where I was imagining I'd be immortal," says Bella apologetically. "I was imagining that. I could probably also write a good constitution, though."

[neverbeatme]

"What would you put in it?"

[deepest_magic]

"It would probably depend on the country, I guess. Maybe I would keep around an evil vizier specifically so whenever he told me to do something I could come up with exactly what about his idea was bad, and put not to do it in the constitution," she suggests, mostly facetiously.

[neverbeatme]

She snorts.

[deepest_magic]

"I think I would also be well up on most real queens and kings just by not having Inquisitions or a torture chamber or crushing taxes, though."

[neverbeatme]

"That stuff's easy. It's the tricky parts that get you. Politics is the kind of thing you can't get right just by sitting and thinking about it; you have to find out how things actually work first."

[deepest_magic]

"Right. I'd have to talk to a lot of people and figure out what they wanted. Or at least have someone who was good at that."

[neverbeatme]

"I'm good at that."