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The following morning, Bell hears what sounds like a fire alarm. It's not in their building - it's at least a block away. From her window, she can clearly see the house that's caught, near the train station, and just as clearly see that there isn't any bucket brigade handling it yet.
She seizes her wand from the nightstand and assumes control over the fire; if there's anyone in the unburnt part of the house they'll be able to get out. "SHERLOCK! TONY!" she calls.
Bell wants a second opinion before she snakes this fire down the corner of the house and over the grass to destroy the train station.
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she_sells_seashells
she_sells_seashells
"It's like you're telepathic," remarks Bell. "Okay, normally I'd say I wanted some time to think about it, but I'm pretty sure I know what the answer after my thinking about it is, because the other person I've heard of in this situation, who I mentioned, said he slept with his alt who was my alt's boyfriend. So I'm pretty confident I'm equipped to come down on the side of 'okay' and there's no strong reason I have to do all the steps of that beforehand. Have fun. If you can get pregnant, please don't do that."
sicaria
"I cannot get pregnant without significant medical intervention," says Sherlock. "Thank you, we will."
She leads the other Sherlock... out to the lake, for some reason.
She leads the other Sherlock... out to the lake, for some reason.
she_sells_seashells
Well.
Bell knows how to occupy herself unaccompanied in Milliways.
She starts talking, systematically, purposefully, to each person in the bar.
Bell knows how to occupy herself unaccompanied in Milliways.
She starts talking, systematically, purposefully, to each person in the bar.
How about this girl? Sitting in an armchair by the fire which she has turned to face the Window, manipulating what appears to be a laptop computer with a holographic projector instead of a screen. The image it currently projects into the air above her lap is of a complex and very spiky-looking three-dimensional shape.
Also, there might be something slightly familiar about her.
Also, there might be something slightly familiar about her.
she_sells_seashells
"...Do... I know you...?" Bell asks the girl. It's not her usual introduction. She launches into that. "I'm Shell Bell. I'm from Panem, Earth, year 72 by our reckoning and something I don't know by everyone else's."
"...Um. I'm Matilda," she says. "I think we've met. About twelve years ago, my time."
she_sells_seashells
"That... sounds right, yes, are you the one who can float things and who I lost in my panic about the squid in the lake outside?"
"That's me!" agrees Matilda. "Is your world still horrible? It turns out mine does have magic."
she_sells_seashells
"My world is still horrible! I am collecting magic so me and my girlfriend and her brother can make it not-horrible. What kind do you have?"
"The contagious kind!" says Matilda. "Or, sort of contagious. Sometimes, if I use a bunch of magic on somebody, or even a little, they end up able to do magic themselves. Sometimes nothing happens. And since I started doing magic, of which the floating things was some, more and more people in my world have been able to do it too even though I've never met most of them. It's a fascinating system. I wrote three papers on it and now I have the world's first PhD in thaumatology."
she_sells_seashells
Bell stares at her. "Contagious magic? Can I have some? And my girlfriend and her brother too when they finish what they're doing?
"Ye-es," says Matilda. "But I'd rather give you the operating manual before I give you the magic. Or try to, because again, sometimes it doesn't work and I don't know why. Um, one sec."
She closes out of the file she was viewing and brings up what seems to be a kind of directory structure, with labelled folders and files as nodes in a three-dimensional graph. At dizzying speed, she navigates this maze until she finds a folder labelled HOW TO MAGIC.
"Do you have a computer on you?" she asks, selecting the folder. It sprouts a forest of subdirectories and text and video files.
She closes out of the file she was viewing and brings up what seems to be a kind of directory structure, with labelled folders and files as nodes in a three-dimensional graph. At dizzying speed, she navigates this maze until she finds a folder labelled HOW TO MAGIC.
"Do you have a computer on you?" she asks, selecting the folder. It sprouts a forest of subdirectories and text and video files.
"Would you like one?" she inquires.
Matilda snaps her fingers. A duplicate of her laptop appears, hovering in the air in front of Bell.
"I designed these myself," she explains. "One of the limiting factors of my world's magic is that it's harder to conjure an object the more complicated it is, unless you know its underlying structures really, really well."
"I designed these myself," she explains. "One of the limiting factors of my world's magic is that it's harder to conjure an object the more complicated it is, unless you know its underlying structures really, really well."
she_sells_seashells
"...If you can just appear them out of nowhere, any chance I can get one for the girlfriend and one for her brother too? And maybe one for said brother to take apart and turn into nifty things? He's an engineer."
"Sure!" she says. Another snap of her fingers, and five more laptops appear stacked neatly under the first one. Then she does something to hers that causes the top three on the stack to blink small blue lights in their upper left corners. "And now you've all got a copy of the magic manual."
she_sells_seashells
"You're awesome," declares Bell. She finds a place to sit. "Should I just start reading it now? In case I don't run into you again for another twelve years and since it's a contagion prerequisite?"
"Good idea!" says Matilda. "Let me know if you need help figuring out the interface."
she_sells_seashells
Bell is not mystified by computers. She's borrowed them from Bar. This one is unfamiliar, but nicely designed, and Bell only has a couple questions on her way through the directory tree to the manual. She reads it with a ferocity normally reserved for starving people presented with food or drowning people presented with air.
And in fact, two of the listed common spells are 'conjure food' and 'breathe water'.
All in all, it's a very tidy system, although it has a few quirks once you move away from the basics. And the document on how to get magic is not terribly promising.
All in all, it's a very tidy system, although it has a few quirks once you move away from the basics. And the document on how to get magic is not terribly promising.
she_sells_seashells
Bell looks grimly at Helpful Graphs.
"If it takes days," she says, "to get to the might-as-well-give-up point... can I get you to spend days on us? I cannot overstate how much this would be amazing for de-horribling the world."
"If it takes days," she says, "to get to the might-as-well-give-up point... can I get you to spend days on us? I cannot overstate how much this would be amazing for de-horribling the world."