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Bella's on her way to kill a witch.
It usually hits Port Angeles, inspires arson, and then if allowed spins off a familiar that does the same in Forks. She's tracked it back far enough that she can reliably head it off before it makes that fellow set that apartment building on fire as long as she hops in the car without doing her hospital exit paperwork. If she's lucky, this time she's early enough to nab it before it lights up the bakery, too.
...The fuck is that? It's not usually there.
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onceandforall
"By the way, you need to be touching the scanner to use it. The power source will last for about nine days of constant use. Don't try to open the power source, it might explode if you do. I have a few spare power sources which will be traded with the scanners, and I can make more if you find me some thorium."
The power source looks like a particularly bulky power tool battery. The whole scanner can be held in one hand, but it's heavy enough that the hand would get tired eventually.
The power source looks like a particularly bulky power tool battery. The whole scanner can be held in one hand, but it's heavy enough that the hand would get tired eventually.
onceandforall
"I haven't got the first idea where to find thorium," she says. "Anything else I should know before I nip off and get some metal?"
"Is anyone else likely to disturb me here? I might try to lift off and land somewhere more out of the way, you would have trouble finding me again if I did."
onceandforall
"This... isn't the best-traveled highway but it's pretty unlikely you can sit here all day without attention, even assuming no one noticed you crash."
"Any suggestions for where to go instead? I can probably find any place you describe well enough; I have maps of the local area from when I was crashing."
The scanner should now be politely informing her that it has a map.
"Thanks for the advice. If I'm not here when you come back, I'll be there." And then he drops into a hatch on the ship, disappearing from all her senses.
onceandforall
She gets back in her car, continues to Port Angeles, calls the fire department, kills the witch, stops by the mall and briefly borrows a heavy silver necklace and a titanium glasses frame and then puts them back, and then drives to where she found the crashed ship. If he's not there, she continues to the suggested out-of-the-way area.
Nick's ship is no longer there. There's a police cordon around the whole area, though. One of them tells her that this is the site of a 'major accident' and to move along, please.
onceandforall
These aren't the Forks police; they're probably from Port Angeles. She has no pull with them. She moves along, to the other location.
And Nick's ship is there. This time without the crater and destroyed trees. If she's currently using the scanner, it informs her that she is being scanned.
onceandforall
That seems only fair. She comes to a stop and ambles shipward.
Nick pops out of a door near the front. "Hello again. Do you have the metal and seeds?"
onceandforall
"Yup. I have them socked away safely. The process by which I'll get them back will constitute part of my evidence for the end of the world, incidentally."
"Oh, really? Well, let's see it."
onceandforall
And then she does a rather cute little dance, and then instead of jeans and a t-shirt she's wearing a dress and tights, and there's a buckler shield on her left wrist.
"I have magic powers," she explains, reaching into the shield, which opens to admit her hand. She pulls out a necklace, and then another one just like it.
"I have magic powers," she explains, reaching into the shield, which opens to admit her hand. She pulls out a necklace, and then another one just like it.
He sighs. "'Magic' is not unique to this dimension. I have seen inexplicable abilities before, though not this exact type. Did that shield materialize objects out of nothing? Is it a [wormhole/portal/pocket dimension]? But the fact that magic exists here at all makes me much more ready to believe you about the end of the world. Most dimensions with magic are a lot more... Volatile. I still want the full explanation, please."
onceandforall
"Yeah, you'll get the whole explanation, but materials first. Say when," she says, producing another necklace and a set of the glasses frames and then alternating.
"...These objects are all exactly identical. Down to the molecule. You have a post-scarcity machine!"
onceandforall
"I really don't. I'm the only person who can use it and it only works on things yea big and I have to literally reach into it every time. I could keep a handful of people in extremely samey comfort without any furniture, I guess, but it is not a post-scarcity machine."
"Still, this is great. No wonder you didn't seem worried about how much silver I wanted. A deal is a deal, so I'll still give you all the tech you wanted even if I was a bit decieved. I'll invent you some things and let you keep some more tech if you duplicate a few other things for me in addition to the metal. Would you like to see the inside of my ship? If you produce these things directly into the metal-purifier you'll be done faster."
So he leads her inside the ship. Her scanner shuts down completely as soon as she enters the threshold. The interior of the ship is nice enough - narrow corridors, but the rooms they open into are spacious and cleanly designed. He leads her through a kitchen, past a room almost completely taken up by some kind of giant engine, and into a workshop. And here's the metal-purifier! As she drops necklaces and glasses-frames into it, it starts extruding long cylinders various metals from an array of holes on the side - mostly silver but also some of what are probably the alloyed impurities in the necklace.
"I'd still like the whole end-of-the-world story, if you don't mind."
"I'd still like the whole end-of-the-world story, if you don't mind."