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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
onceandforall
"Yeah, I have the slack..." She does so, twirls in place, undoes it.
"Okay, nothing that time. So it was the witch. I can make a scanner specifically for that kind of radiation - it'll only have a range of about 200 miles, but if you dupe it I can network 'em and cover the whole globe."
"Yes. It'll only detect - whatever happens when you go in. Better than nothing, right?"
onceandforall
"Only slightly. Covering the globe myself post-reset when all the scanners are gone will be a pain in the neck and it'll only tell me when some other puella magi engages a witch, not when one's going unhandled."
"I can't pull miracles out of my hat," he says, suddenly irritated. "Do you want it or not?"
onceandforall
"I'll take it, but you don't need to cover the planet with them for me."
"Alright. If we're not going to try to avoid attention, should I just pick you up in the middle of the street?"
onceandforall
"Yeah. Park in high orbit where nobody can shoot at you till you've found the fuel you're looking for."
He does both things.
"I was nearly finished a D-fuel scanner, but you showed up and were all - distracting. So now I'm gonna finish that, make your witch-battle-starting scanner, and then start a search pattern over the globe. Do let me know if you need to be in a place to kill another witch, psychological problems are nobody's friend."
"I was nearly finished a D-fuel scanner, but you showed up and were all - distracting. So now I'm gonna finish that, make your witch-battle-starting scanner, and then start a search pattern over the globe. Do let me know if you need to be in a place to kill another witch, psychological problems are nobody's friend."
onceandforall
"I mean, I'm to the point where I can kill two, three witches a day if nothing interferes with me driving around, but then I reset and everyone's back where they are the morning of Day One. I don't know how to save the world and stop resetting, yet. Once I figure it out I'll do a perfect run. Until then it's just practice and harvesting grief seeds."
"You could still stop suffering for now. Even if this timeline will stop existing, the harm witches do is still around for about a month. But if you don't want to, you don't want to. Feel free to explore the ship, it won't let you in to the dangerous rooms. Or keep talking to me if you want. Full disclosure, there are cameras and microphones everywhere - I can turn em off if you need to go to the bathroom or something."
And he goes to the workshop and works on things.
And he goes to the workshop and works on things.
onceandforall
"Yeah, that line of reasoning stopped being really compelling when I'd done it like twenty times," mutters Bella. "You have to manually turn off the cameras any time I don't want to be watched?"
"I control the cameras directly. I like to keep an eye on my ship. You might call me slightly paranoid around things I don't understand, such as magic. If you don't want to be watched tell me so and I'll stop watching, but if you act carelessly and break something I'll drop you off back in Spokane."
onceandforall
"If you've gotta drop me I'd rather be where I left my car."
"Then I'll do that if you break something out of carelessness."
onceandforall
"Thanks for the consideration." Pause. "You know, it's possible that as long as you're in space at the time you'd be fine when the giant witch eats everything, it's the interaction with the time travel that's the problem, I know you aren't usually here so I doubt you reset with everybody else."
"I am in no hurry to experiment with time travel. I plan to be long gone, back to places where I know the rules, when you reset."
So he starts working on the new scanners. This involves asking for copies of two of the old scanners, then modifying them.
onceandforall
And she produces the copies.
"I take a lot of notes on things," she says. "I prefer that nobody read over my shoulder. If I pull out a notebook can you not read it, or is there someplace the cameras don't aim, or...? If I keep stopping time to get privacy I'll have to go kill more witches."
"I take a lot of notes on things," she says. "I prefer that nobody read over my shoulder. If I pull out a notebook can you not read it, or is there someplace the cameras don't aim, or...? If I keep stopping time to get privacy I'll have to go kill more witches."
"I'll turn off the cameras in the kitchen and eating room for you. Of course, you just have my word for that - hm."
He goes and puts some sort of tape over total of five little plastic buttons on the roof and walls of the kitchen. "There. Microphones are still up, but the cameras can't see anything."
He goes and puts some sort of tape over total of five little plastic buttons on the roof and walls of the kitchen. "There. Microphones are still up, but the cameras can't see anything."
onceandforall
"That'll do for notetaking, thanks."
She goes and sits in the eating room, pulls a notebook out of her shield, and a pen, and starts scribbling.
She goes and sits in the eating room, pulls a notebook out of her shield, and a pen, and starts scribbling.
And Nick will be in the workshop.
After about an hour, "I'm having some trouble getting the witch-battle-scanner miniaturized enough to fit in your shield. The lens needs to be pretty big. But I had an idea - I might be able to make you a little fold-up vehicle if I can make an engine narrow enough. It'd be horribly inefficient by my standards, range of about 150 miles for one of those power supplies, but since you can duplicate them that's no big deal."
After about an hour, "I'm having some trouble getting the witch-battle-scanner miniaturized enough to fit in your shield. The lens needs to be pretty big. But I had an idea - I might be able to make you a little fold-up vehicle if I can make an engine narrow enough. It'd be horribly inefficient by my standards, range of about 150 miles for one of those power supplies, but since you can duplicate them that's no big deal."