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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
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point_b
"Thanks! Can I get a catalog to check out what all I want to take in the coming term?"
"Certainly."
Mrs. Carson produces such a catalogue. In addition to classes such as "Languages: Mandarin intensive study" and "Social Studies: The 'Mutant Threat'", there are options ranging from "Special Topics: Lair design" to "Special Topics: Team Tactics in the Combat Sims" to "Special Topics: The Whateley Academy firing range (death rays allowed!)"
Including Circe's recommendation, Bella's schedule includes room for seven courses. The catalogue notes that only four should be taken by anyone below Exemplar-3 mental abilities.
Mrs. Carson produces such a catalogue. In addition to classes such as "Languages: Mandarin intensive study" and "Social Studies: The 'Mutant Threat'", there are options ranging from "Special Topics: Lair design" to "Special Topics: Team Tactics in the Combat Sims" to "Special Topics: The Whateley Academy firing range (death rays allowed!)"
Including Circe's recommendation, Bella's schedule includes room for seven courses. The catalogue notes that only four should be taken by anyone below Exemplar-3 mental abilities.
point_b
"...So, I know in local terms I rate an Exemplar number, but gemini basics do not include a mental boost and I don't even know what numerical rating my physical basics net me. Does this add up to 'I definitely positively don't have mental abilities that can keep up with an Exemplar-3', or 'I should take a standardized test'? I'm expecting the former, but just to be sure."
"Your memory and processing speed almost certainly don't match, but the guideline is there for casual students; if you believe that you can keep up with five full classes, it's entirely possible that you can. I'd still recommend only taking four so that you have some semblance of free time, but I won't stop you."
point_b
"It's not so much that I want to overload on classes as that I wonder how many other general guidelines are going to refer to that sort of thing and wish to know where I stand." Bella marks Circe's recommendation, a mutant history overview, an econ survey, and a theoretical seminar on magic-in-general.
"We do have tests, if you'd like to take them."
point_b
"How long do they take and what does the relevant proctor schedule look like?"
"The relevant proctors are devisors who spend most if not all of their time prodding students' powers to see if they do interesting things. They can fit you in tomorrow. Just the Exemplar mental tests would take an hour or so; a full powers diagnostic would be three to five."
point_b
"When do classes start?" asks Bella, pulling a notebook and starting to sketch out her schedule.
"Classes start next week."
"Good. I'll let the techs know."
"The lab is in Kane Hall. You can go in around 2:00, if that would be good for you."
point_b
"Works fine." Bella writes this down, and the timings of the classes she picked out in a sort of a chart for the following week, including her session with Circe. "Oh, rats, forgot to tell my sister - Alli, I'm out of my lesson now, I'm enrolling in some other stuff, everything is still fine. Well, do your best. At least I won't keep you up, huh? Yeah."
Mrs. Carson waits patiently.
point_b
"Sorry about that. Anything else to take care of here before I go take Ariel up on her offer to bring me clothes shopping?"
"No trouble. And I don't think there's anything else until your testing. Unless you'd like a specially issued student ID without powers classification, for whatever reason."
point_b
"Doesn't seem urgent; empirically the campus store and so on don't require one. Thanks!"
And out she pops to where she left Ariel. "I'm all set up. Want to help me pick out outfits?"
And out she pops to where she left Ariel. "I'm all set up. Want to help me pick out outfits?"
in-like-a
"Hell yes!" She rattles off the address of Cecilia Rogers' shop and bounces excitedly in midair.
in-like-a
What follows is what would surely be a very entertaining montage of cloth flying through the air of its own volition, strange machines scanning Bella for her measurements, and Ariel giving in and buying yet another pair of Goddamn combat boots. (They're purple, they're steel-tipped, they have skulls on them, she can't resist, okay?)
Eventually they leave the shop with: clothing!
Eventually they leave the shop with: clothing!
point_b
Hurray! Now Bella has clothes and will not have to borrow a towel to stand around in while repeatedly laundering this one outfit. She notes the price and keeps track of how much of her stipend she has gone through so far.
"Two questions. One, where should we get dinner, I'm starving, and two, can I get a list of Detroit-like locations, because I have a cached set of places I can go if I need to be somewhere far away in a hurry and since this is Earth it might mostly be valid but I don't want to be unexpectedly irradiated or anything."
"Two questions. One, where should we get dinner, I'm starving, and two, can I get a list of Detroit-like locations, because I have a cached set of places I can go if I need to be somewhere far away in a hurry and since this is Earth it might mostly be valid but I don't want to be unexpectedly irradiated or anything."
in-like-a
"Uh... There's a Wikipedia article of 'cities destroyed in mutant conflicts' if you want to check it out. Never read through it myself, but all the anti-mutant assholes like Humanity First! cite it in all their bullshit. Where to dine depends on if you want free and really good or expensive and really good. Except most of the places nicer than the Crystal Hall caf take reservations, so that's probably for another day. So: Crystal Hall, probably. That place has no business being a high school cafeteria."
point_b
"Ooh, Wikipedia persisteth. You know what else I need to spend my windfall on, I need a laptop. After dinner though." She peers at her map to get a bead on Crystal Hall, flickers to her room to drop off the shopping, and comes back for Ariel and puts them at the cafeteria.