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Over the next week, Isabella gets the alethiometer to tell her that the planets they looked at don't contain microorganisms that know what to do with a human body (although the one with the giant bugs has some multicellular parasites that might be able to make do with the foreign macro-scale features of a human body if they got the chance). "The present", it includes in one of its answer phrasings, which is kind of worrying. But Adarin makes enough progress with his scry in little enough time that it's worth the double-check.
Isabella also hires ticket-takers, gives them little pots of ink to verify the authenticity of the passes she handed out, and opens the Los Angeles - New York route for the employees of her three companies of choice and anyone who shells out a cool fifteen thousand dollars per round trip (ten K for a one-way). This is steep, but it's within an order of magnitude of what people sometimes pay for short-notice first-class cross-country flights - with less novelty and more hassle. Albeit she doesn't supply inflight meals. She expects to have to raise the price when more people hear about it in response to volume and then be able to drop it again.
By the time the thing has been open for a few days she's fired and replaced one ticket-taker and the others have settled into a routine that she's willing to try out leaving unsupervised for awhile.
If Adarin's up for some up close and personal planet shopping and his results suggest it'll go well, anyway.
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dark_light
prodigal_miser
"Pfff... The stopwatch didn't seem strange at all? I don't know what else I would even use it for!"
dark_light
"I didn't use a stopwatch, but I've been curious about how long it takes me to do certain mental tasks..."
prodigal_miser
"You time how long it takes you to do certain mental tasks?" asks Adarin curiously. "... That's adorable. Also useful, but really adorable. Technically I was doing exactly that, but for a very specific purpose of reflexes."
dark_light
"So we are both adorable and now I know what you were doing with a stopwatch and gummy worms."
prodigal_miser
"Yup. Now you know what I do if I slink off somewhere quiet with a bag of candy. I'm practicing magic."
dark_light
"You will not ever be making me cunning Valentine's Day crafts?"
prodigal_miser
"... I might now, but I will need you to explain to me what Valentine's Day is!"
dark_light
"It is a holiday characterized primarily by a red, pink and white color scheme, heart- and lace-themed decorations, and couples being obnoxiously coupley. And chocolate, chocolate's a thing."
prodigal_miser
"'Obnoxiously coupley,' huh? That's a thing I can do. Bwuahahaha!"
prodigal_miser
"Birthday first, though," he says, once the evil laughter of shared obnoxious couplehood is complete. "Right? Wait, when is it in the year, is it before or after your birthday? Because planned birthday presents aren't couple-based at all, just things I think you will like."
dark_light
"...Valentine's Day is before my birthday in the calendar year but after it in terms of what things happen next. It's February 14."
prodigal_miser
"Aha. Thank you, my plans are safe. I don't have to scramble in order to get obnoxious couplehood prepared."
prodigal_miser
"I can plan, months in advance. Bwuahahahaha. It will be glorious! I can check Wikipedia to get the traditions right!"
dark_light
"Should I be afraid? Is it going to be like six florists nested in my house?"
prodigal_miser
"Possibly. I have plans, you see. Well, I mean - I will have plans. Eventually. In the future, at some point."
dark_light
"Good. That is the thing intended to be celebrated by Valentine's, you know."
prodigal_miser
"Good, good. Otherwise it would be terribly awkward. I'd go trying to be obnoxiously coupley, and you'd say, 'What, no, Adarin, I meant we should actually be obnoxious to each other.'"
dark_light
"Wow, that sounds like a terrible holiday. If it existed I wonder what would purport to justify it?"
prodigal_miser
"Hmm. Probably made and kept active by those that are sick of anyone being obnoxiously coupley. So, they just want the couples to be just obnoxious, instead."