Lifelight has that peaceful smile of hers as she cuddles to Serena's side while being engulfed by a wing. She looks at Bella as the baby touches Serena's wing and keeps her smile. Unlike Andy, Lifelight has no idea there is any danger in letting a levitating baby touch your wings.

Lifelight herself isn't all that powerful, honestly. Super smart, perhaps, but due to her personality, she avoids powerful armaments in her inventions and such.

She is also quite happy that Serena has Mittens for a friend as well. "I am happy to be your friend, Seraph." she says softly.

Mits is busy with helping out Daystar's search, so that means she has need of half her face elsewhere.  Since most get perturbed by half of someone's face suddenly vanishing behind a portal or three, Miss Adventure put one of those Phantom of the Opera half masks on first before portaling half her senses to a cabin out in the wilds to search for signs of an escaped para.

Mits grins at Lifelight's compliment and complimentary lightshow.  Surprised by Seraph's wing-hug, she mews.  Also surprising is Seraph's response.  Suddenly being made the center of everyone's sympathy after having a private trauma exposed would have been enough for most folks to make a wounded, "None of your business" comment followed by a hasty exit.  That she reacted so well speaks volumes of her emotional strength.

"I... er... wise words...  Oh, I hear sproing sounds, must be Matt retur-Ah!  Surprise cuteness!"

Mits jogs in place and jaz-hands at the appearance of the adorable Bella.

"Pretty is right!  And happy to be your friend also, Seraph!"

Randomly, she covers her mouth with a jet pilot's oxygen mask to say something she doesn't want to bother the others with.  Super hearing types would be able to hear well enough, though:

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
_{"Wowzers!  You found the secret cave nearly instantly!  And from the smell of things, our friends were here not long ago.  Not sensing any danger, or any emotion, or even a small animal.  Strange...  Mmm.  Maybe not so strange.  Even with that yummy smell to attract them, I think most animals have common sense enough to figure this must be the den of a big predator."}

---

This message was last edited by the player at 03:22, Mon 15 June 2020.

Seraph smiled at her two fiends and withdrew her wings but stretched one out for Bella. “Hello, sweet pea. You are adorable, you know that. You can stroke my wing. It’s tougher than it looks.”

The flames that normally cover her wings and lick the feathers are doused for the baby whilst she touches her wings.

  Bella giggled gleefully and wriggled out of Andy's gentle grasp to float right over, and used both hands to pet those lovely feathers, declaring "Soft!!"  She had, Seraph discovered, a pretty strong tug, but she then put one hand on her mouth (after tugging pretty darn hard) on a long one, and said "No hurt?  I strong girl."  She was, Seraph could tell, superhumanly strong.

  Meg smiled, and said apologetically "She's getting a good idea,  but she still doesn't always realize how much stronger than a normal baby she is.  She's Excel and Fluid's daughter, you see.  I gengineered her for them because they couldn't have a baby without some serious help."

"She's wonderful," Seraph told Megaira with a big smile. She gently rubbed one of Bella's cheeks. "No, little one. That didn't hurt but any harder and it might so be careful. You can keep touching them if you want."

Dane chuffed a short laugh, and said, "That's why I don't ever see myself having kids. With my luck I'd have a kid who could light things on fire with her mind, or turn into a demon, or a dinosaur. She is cute tho... that's how they get you."

Maverick is returning to the group, calico fantail goldfish in hand and hands it over to Andy's mom. He catches Dane's comment and smiles. He looks up at Dane and says, "I just watched you transform rebellious punks into guys who wanted to hang out with you and listen. That's the part that matters more than any super powers. You would be a really good dad, Mr Sinclair."

He then looks at the baby. "Who do we have here?" he waves at Bella.
This message was last edited by a game editor at 05:14, Sat 25 July 2020.

Although Lifelight is thinking of a great many things, she doesn't add to the conversation. She is smiling at Seraph, Meg and Bella. With her visor HUD, she begins examining data readings on Bella out of curiosity. Whatever is available is enough for her. While she is naturally curious, she isn't one to pry into people too much unless the person's life depends on it.

Mits is also softly smiling at the adorableness.  When not disappearing her mouth to continue her conversation with Daystar.  Wait.  Did Megs just casually mention that baby Bel is biotech?!  Probably not a good time to mention that most of the council worlds would place her in a reeducation facility for splicing super-genes faster than you can say, 'Crime against all sentient life.'  And that's the nicer aliens.  The rest of them would steal the gene code and start cloning armies of Bella soldiers.  (Or maybe that was just a Star Trek movie plot.)  Not to mention the things she's heard about people having emotional melt-downs over finding out that they aren't natural.  Right!  Putting a pin in that one.

"Mittens has parenting-phobia as well.  Which isn't a real mental illness.  Just something she made up.  Mav's prolly right.  You'd make for a kick-ass dad.  According to a 70 year study, parenting is as simple as 'Don't abuse or neglect your kids.'  Tack on consistent bed time and suddenly you're a genius at raising healthy kids.  Mittens will not get into the irony that her parents' love is largely to blame for the fear they have for her not surviving the dangerous career she's chosen."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:07, Sat 25 July 2020.

  Like Maverick, Matt is pretty sure Dane could handle raising a kid who turned into a demon dinosaur that breathed fire.  Though sometimes Matt is still far too optimistic so who knows?

  "Well, Bella is a smart kid already.  So if she isn't safe to be around then every baby is a danger to the world at large."  Babies with knives was not the strangest straight to video movie he ever saw, but it was still far more plausible that the one about children with radioactive hugs.

  Megs smiled, and said "Bella's only dangerous when she forgets how strong she is.  She is Ex and Fluid's daughter, in all truth, and that means she did inherit something from each of them.  And might have other gifts we don't know yet.  I don't know if THIS Bella will be like the other Bella we know and love, our poor timelost girl.  She and Aaron stay away mostly because, well, she might be immune to temporal paradox, but it can get confusing."

  Little Bella giggled, still petting Serena's wings with a happy expression, and declared again "Soft.  Nice!"

  Andy chuckled at the commentary, and said "Bella's the best gift Megs has ever made for someone.  Bill and Darren love her to bits.  Couldn't have had a baby by themselves, but they love Bella here to bits.  We first discovered Bella would exist when a future self of her from a timeline jumped back to our time when Bill and Ex were about sixteen.  And she's still here because that Bella's timeline stopped existing.  Completely, so she's trapped here.  We don't know if this Bella is identical or not, but she's showing a lot of the same abilities."  He looked at Mav, and Dane, and asked lightly "So, do the two of you want to learn how to see auras?  The aura matches the soul, so you can read one by the other.  As I said, learning to  see them is simple.  Understanding what you read is the hard part.  Anyone can learn to see auras though."

  He glanced at Matt, and tilted an eyebrow slightly.

  "Even knowing absolutely nothing about parenting, I'm pretty sure current Bella will turn out okay and not accidentally throw any babysitters into the sun." Or on purpose either, probably.

  "Just remember to take advantage of the fact Time Bella can't skip out helping with 'oh, no, the universe will paradox itself to death if I babysit myself!"

  When you go without facial expressions for a while, you get real good at responding with a vague shrug. Which is what Andy gets from Matt.

Seeing Bella is preoccupied with Serena's wings, Maverick turns his attention back to Andy and nods. "Yes, please. I think it would come in very handy."

He isn't sure what to say about the concept of time travel, but the idea of one's entire timeline ceasing to exist is a bit ominous. If the time-traveling Bella were here, he'd want to give her a hug at the least. But she's not. So instead, he just thinks about how to find out why that timeline no longer exists... so he and anyone else here can be prepared to keep that sort of thing from happening.

Dane nodded. "I would. Could be handy."

"Mittens can kinda sorta sense auras through Space Zen training, but that's clearly not the same as the reading .  Would love to learn more if invited along with the boys."

Holy moley the time cops would have a heyday with the violations going on, let alone the interstellar bio-ethics cops.  (Mittens still finds it surprising just how many specialized cops she's run afoul of.  How ironic she's studying to be a specialized cop in her own right.)  But due to being sworn to secrecy about time travel related things as part of her release from time prison, she must remain silent on the topic.

We are in no way admitting to Mittens being able to read Mav's mind, but she does make a mental note to herself to try and comfort her buddy about the deletion of a timeline being less problematic than one might initially think.  Based purely on theory, and not at all based on personal experience, of course.  Pesky parole conditions.

  Andy nodded, and closed his eyes for a moment,  then opened them as he said "Look at me.  Then slowly move your point of focus past me, and when the first blush of pale color becomes visible around my edges, that's my aura.  I pushed it out a bit to make it more visible for you."

Maverick looks at Andy as instructed. He narrows his eyes a little as he focuses "past" Andy. At first, he tries seeing what is behind Andy, imagining it in his mind. Then he pulls back a bit to try and see Andy but with the mentality of trying to use X-ray vision that he doesn't have. He isn't sure he'll be able to do it at all, much less on his first try. But if he does manage, the boy will be quite shocked and excited...

Antoinette is usually looking past people, but that is more due to being distracted and other things that come along with being Antoinette. But she is dressed as Lifelight, and so she is able to come out of her shell more. Hearing what Andy instructed the others and being a curious person by nature (she is an inventor and a trivia queen), Lifelight looks at Andy and sees his aura because he pushed it out.

For Lifelight, being able to do what Andy said came natural because she has been constantly looking past people's exterior appearance and thinking only about their hearts. But she is still a newbie at this and it is only because Andy pushed his aura out that she manages.

Lifelight gives Andy an innocent smile.

"Mittens has heard of astral projection, but astral expansion is a new one."

First try is a fail.  Unlike Antoinette, Mits does not naturally look past people's exteriors.  If she did, she wouldn't have been so quick to try the, "I'm on your side, you awesome gentlemen thieves," tactic with the Lavish Legion.  So all Mits accomplishes at first is to sense the vague "darkside" within Andy like she'd normally be able to do - the presence of which probably wouldn't surprise him in the least.

"'Simple, but not easy,' I suspect."

Mits closes one eye, allowing her to look past Andy to the water behind him without depth perception.  Staring at water is well known for helping with the magical girl stuff, after all.  Then she slowly re-opens her eye, trying to remain focused past hi- Ooh shiny!  No wait, that was just the sky reflecting off the water.  Impatience and frustration start setting in.  The Space Zen master recognizes that this is where trying to force things will only guarantee failure.  She slowly inhales, holds, then slowly exhales to re-center herself and try for a third go.

"Ah.  There it is.  Third time's the charm.  Neat!"

  Andy nodded, and said "Now, seeing them lets you get an idea, but reading them, understanding exactly what you are seeing, is the hard part.  I can . . taste . . . emotions, and that tells me a lot more about the auras I can perceive.  Unless you're empathic, none of you will have that advantage, but I can tell you that healthy feelings, traits and emotions will look like purer, brighter colors.  Unhealthy ones, negative ones, malevolent ones will be more like the unhealthy colors of diseased tissue, bruising, or just look somehow repulsive to you.  Unless they're what you feed on, like some Demons do.  But that's beside the point.  Use that as a basis, and you can get the general idea, practice will help you to refine your knowledge and understanding of what you see."

Dane, after squinting for a moment, shrugged and said, "I can see it, but it isn't colorful to me. I can sense how powerful it is, and it adds to my 'threat assessment' subroutine, but I don't think I'm wired to see the world in a rainbow of colors. Too confusing, and ultimately wouldn't be helpful."

"With all this talk of subroutines and wiring, Mittens concludes that Dane is an android.  Small wonder he's a powerhouse of holding his alcohol.

"As for whether Miss Adventure noms on yucky ghosts, that was just the one time!  Not fun.  So no worries about thinking yucky souls are food."

As before she alternates between this scene and another, something something Blues Brothers.

"Very interesting. I thought my ability to see auras was due to my divine nature but here you are, teaching the others to do just that. There are more things in Heaven and Earth," Seraph said before reaching for the floating infant and taking her into her arms and planting a big kiss on her cheek. She let her wings fold around them so Bella could keep playing with them if she wished.

"And you are just too bloody cute your own good, little one."

  Bella giggled and petted Seraph's wings, trying to be gentle, but she still hadn't totally mastered it yet.  A strong man would probably be staggered under those gentle looking pats.  She definitely took after Excelsior.