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Morty knows he shouldn't be screwing around with multidimensional shit. It's dangerous, it's impractical, it's blah blah blah. But it's a potential key to unlimited energy, how does nobody see that? He's built a dimensional siphon (it kind of looks like a cardboard box with a funnel and a TI-84 taped to it, but it damn well works), keyed in the dimensional coordinates to a random plane, and by God he's going to use it.
He flips the switch and waits for the energy bar to fill up.
It does! It fills up very rapidly. Then it explodes, along with the box. There's rather more smoke than there should be, and once the smoke clears someone is standing there.
"Oh dear," Morty says faintly.
Flicker at Whateley
in-like-a-lion
"Uh... I mean, there's enchantments and stuff too? People have to keep it nonlethal, and there's, like, luck charms that make it less likely for people to get hurt worse than the healers can handle. And you get a little wristband that teleports you out to the healers if it looks like you're going to die in the next couple of minutes, and they patch you up. Nobody's died in, like, a decade, and that was some kind of sabotage anyway."
point_b
"Not unless it's gemini football, but even that is a lot tamer than gladiatorial combat outright."
in-like-a-lion
Hee.
A thought occurs. "Ordinarily I'd have celebratory sex with Callum because we wrecked his shit. How... does that interact with, uh." She gestures vaguely. "This."
A thought occurs. "Ordinarily I'd have celebratory sex with Callum because we wrecked his shit. How... does that interact with, uh." She gestures vaguely. "This."
point_b
"I. Don't know. I mean, the custom I'm working from here says that it's a little early to actually suggest exclusivity but also says that if it's not present in practice something's fishy?"
in-like-a-lion
"I mean... I've never really done exclusivity? I don't think it really makes sense to me to think of it as making the relationship more meaningful, but I'm aware that the idea exists?" She fidgets. "I'd rather not if it can be helped, though. I mean, I'd probably consider being exclusive, if the relationship went really well and poly shit was a total dealbreaker, but... I dunno, it just seems kind of sad. There's so many people, you know?"
point_b
"I'm not sure I'd go as far as 'can't be helped' but it'd be a compromise. Should we be having this conversation in this stadium?"
in-like-a-lion
"Huh? Oh."
She looks around. "Nobody's listening here, but I'm pretty sure the gossip mill has everywhere bugged, so it's a concern if you're concerned. If you care, we could talk in my room?"
She looks around. "Nobody's listening here, but I'm pretty sure the gossip mill has everywhere bugged, so it's a concern if you're concerned. If you care, we could talk in my room?"
in-like-a-lion
Ariel flops onto the ceiling. "So, yeah. What kind of compromise? I mean, like I said, I don't think exclusivity would actually do anything on my end except making me not have sex with people."
point_b
"...I mean, I guess I can see that, and frankly if it neither causes nor signals any substance beyond the thing itself on your end, the thing itself is beside the point - but the fact that it neither causes nor signals blah blah might be important? Does that make sense?"
in-like-a-lion
"Oh, sure! Yeah, I just- I don't think I have all the same parts in my head that normal people might, y'know? Might be because of Mom, might just be how I work, but some things just don't make sense. Like this idea I love somebody less because I'm screwing other people too - what, do I just not generate enough love? Am I on rationing? 'Cause from my point of view, loving a bunch of people just means I'm loving a bunch of people."
point_b
"I don't think we've even begun to approach that vocabulary," Bella points out. "I could try to explain the missing architecture but I'm not really drawing on a wealth of experience and I'm not sure you'd find it more than theoretically interesting."
in-like-a-lion
"Nah, sure. I love easy, is all. And I might like the architecture talk, but I definitely don't think understanding how mono folks work is gonna make me any less poly, y'know? It seems like the whole thing's mostly about whether you can comfortably mono at my poly."
She considers. "I need to tone down the jargon before those stop sounding like words."
She considers. "I need to tone down the jargon before those stop sounding like words."
point_b
"I'm not having any trouble following you. And, like, I feel like I could comfortably mono at somebody's poly. It would not be my first choice, so if I am ever presented with a girlfriend-o-mat I will not be checking that checkbox, but it's not the worst thing, but it's also not one thing? There's probably a jillion ways for someone to poly at my mono and some of them would really bother me."
in-like-a-lion
"Oh, cool! So, you want- rules? Because I can totally do rules. Speak to me of rules. If that's what you're saying."
point_b
"I don't have a list yet! I dunno. If I told you 'go nuts, be free' what would you in fact do?"
in-like-a-lion
"Uh... Well, basically what I do now. Sleep with people who I think are cute or hot or funny or whatever, routinely sleep with a lot of the same people... I'd keep you posted on it, obviously, that's just sensible... I probably wouldn't, like, enter other romantic relationships? One is basically enough for me. And I'm pretty sure I'd usually spend more time with you than other folks, because that's a girlfriend thing, though I wouldn't be totally shocked if that turned out not to be true. Does that sound like the right kind of info?"
point_b
"That is more or less what I was asking, yes. Okay, for purposes of my contemplations should I assume that this universe or at least the immediate environment is free of STDs...?"
in-like-a-lion
"The environment of me certainly is! I mean, it's always possible somebody could come up with some Exemplar-proof hellbug of a social disease, but like, we're in the highest concentration of healers and wizards and medical Devisors in possibly the world, so it's pretty implausible. Plus I use prophylactic magics."
point_b
"Yes, for purposes of my contemplations 'immediate environment' can mean 'you'." She hmmmms. "The thing you have described sounds fine but not totally congruent with the 'loving a bunch of people' summary unless you're using a secondary definition there."
in-like-a-lion
"I mean, like I said, I love easy. There's not really a coherent line between 'I love this friend' and 'I love this person I have a lot of sex with' and 'I love my girlfriend', or whatever, it's just that Sally I love and don't sleep with and Xan I love and sleep with and you I love and kiss and have a bunch of fuzzy feelings about. It's all kind of performative. I only really need one person to kiss and have fuzzy feelings about, so I don't feel the need to toss anybody else into the third category unless you say it's alright. It's all different kinds of love, I guess is what I'm trying to say."
point_b
"Okay. So... I am a very inherently selfish person. The thing I foresee maybe being a problem here is my opinion that I Deserve An Entire Human All To Myself, with allowances for things like 'people need to sleep' and 'I am an introvert' and 'I am planning to become extremely fucking magic and do all the everything'. And in theory I could accomplish my arithmetic by adding up the best parts of several different humans but in practice I'm disinclined, which adds up to monogamous inclinations."
in-like-a-lion
"Oh, interesting. I can see that. But, like... Is the problem with my availability, or with the fact that other people are theoretically getting bits of me? Because the former isn't really any more a problem than other activities I might do, and the latter falls into the 'my love is a limitless resource' thing. I could put more effort into making sure you're first and foremost in my thoughts, if that helps?"