"What's his output and how's he feel about working for evil aliens?"

"Something like a few hundred megawatts and I have no clue."

"Not gonna cut it."

"I mean, maybe you could convince a genie to make an infinite energy thing, but it'd probably be way smaller than Transistor's output. Gaah. This ticks me off. Can only imagine you you feel about it."

"Oh, it gets worse."

"Evil aliens making monsters. Making monsters! And magical girls who turn into monsters if they don't keep fighting. What else?"

"I'm stuck in a time loop. It has been late January and February for years now and I still don't know how to stop the world from ending."

"Ouch."

"There's a witch that gets big enough by the end of February to eat the entire world. The evil aliens let her do it; she's some kinda feedback-loopy witch that they can use just as well as they can the current status quo."

"So the end of the world is fine is it, because we're still getting our profit out. I swear it's like the damn mining companies all over again and augh I'm going to go outside for a minute and vent so I don't explode something in here."

"...okay. Back door over there, if you let the front one close with you in your world it's gone."

"I'll be back. Got a couple of ideas. But yeah, bye for a minute."

She takes to the air with a burst of fire as soon as she's out the back door.

Nobody will mind a crater or two out here, hopefully.

And then she comes back in and looks for her magic acquaintance again.

Still by the bar, reading new napkins and drinking a milkshake.

"Hello again. I just realized I never introduced myself - Selene Cortez, Windfury if you wanna use my stage name."

"Bella Swan."

"Nice to meet you. Nice as it can be. So, ideas, you said 'emotional energy'. Is your sort of magic closely tied to your emotions?"

"Not exactly. We sorta run on magic batteries. We get a charge capacity, which starts at 100%, based on how happy we are to get the wish that turns us magic. The wishes are legit, as far as they go, with some power limitations that vary per person. The capacity runs down with magic use and acts as a ratchet on mood, and at low levels negative emotions also drain it. Run out, turn into a witch. Recharge by taking dead witch byproducts and offloading drain onto them."

"I was thinking we could try some projective empathy. See if that recharges you."

"Well that's terrifying but if it works..."

"Lots of people are dubious about it, yeah. Rosa's trustworthy with that power, as far as my word goes. She's a therapist."

"The evil aliens are fond of bipolar girls and I've met a few who have nasty things to say about therapists."

"How about the fact that I'd punch her in the face if I thought she was screwing with people's heads, and so would most every other Spirit Bearer I know?"

"Well, the thing about anything mind-control flavored is you not thinking so is even less of a guarantee than it would be by default."

"Mind control is an occasional thing and there's a longstanding tradition of lynching, not that I approve of lynching, anyone who's not scrupulously harmless with their mental powers. But if you don't want to believe it I can't convince you."

"If I walk out of here with a solution at all it'll probably look like mind control, considering, it'd be irresponsible to turn you down, but I'm not gonna be super comfy with it."