Author: self_composed | Bella bikes to the airport on Friday. She gets a little reading done on her flight, then sleeps-on-purpose through the remainder of the trip, waking up precisely when the plane touches down. One nice bonus that she didn't even explicitly build into the power is that she can sleep at will in virtually any position; she doesn't have to get comfy if that's not convenient.
She steps off the plane, backpack full of her things over her shoulders, and stalks into the halls of LaGuardia, eyes peeled for Libby. |
Author: prima_sequentem | There she is! She offers Bella a friendly wave. |
Author: self_composed | Bella waves back, giving Libby an assessing look, and approaches nearer. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Welcome to New York," she says, smiling slightly. Her voice is very similar to Chris's. |
Author: self_composed | "Thank you. So far, it looks like an airport," Bella says. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I assure you, the rest of the city is more than just a rumour." |
Author: self_composed | "I have seen photographic evidence," Bella agrees. "Are we going somewhere, or having our chat at the baggage claim?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Unless you are intensely fond of this baggage claim, I was thinking maybe coffee," she says. |
Author: self_composed | "I have been known to drink coffee, and this baggage claim and I are just friends," says Bella. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Coffee it is."
She beckons, leading the way. |
Author: self_composed | Bella follows after her, noting with interest that there are not spies about.
Perhaps they're redundant. |
Author: prima_sequentem | Having spies about would give Bella more information than they could get from her, with Libby there to pay attention. It would be counterproductive.
Coffee, it turns out, is not very far away at all. |
Author: self_composed | Bella orders something sweet and creamy and complicated and hot. "So," she says. "Here I am in person. What do your powers of observation tell you that you needed to know badly enough to buy me a plane ticket?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | Libby orders plain black coffee.
"That you're very impatient, but I already knew that." |
Author: self_composed | "Patience is only a virtue when waiting is the best way to get something. There are often many other ways to get things, and even if waiting will work, one may as well spend one's waiting period thinking of other options." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Reasonable," says Libby. "Right now, though, you want to know things only I can tell you, and the only way I'm going to do that is if I get a good enough sense of you to be sure you won't use it against me. So let's chat. I meant it about your goals in life, by the way. There's a lot of things you'll find a lot easier to accomplish with me as a friend." |
Author: self_composed | Bella shrugs. "I haven't picked a major yet. I do a lot of things. I don't think I'm going to go pro on the music or the soccer. Programming's more likely. Politics is interesting, but I don't know if I have the stomach for the career path. I'm eighteen, how much concreteness do you expect me to have in my goals?"
Bella is glad she did not go into a lot of philosophical detail about herself with Bridget. Friends, yes - but not to the point where Bridget could guess that Bella more-than-idly wishes to take over the world. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "No burning desire to be President, join an internationally famous rock band, get a medical degree and cure a few cancers, any or all of the above...?" |
Author: self_composed | "The jury's out on politics," Bella reiterates. "I play the flute. I'd've picked up guitar or something if I wanted to be in a rock band. Doctoring's not out of the question, though, I could still break in favor of pre-med." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Personally, I think there should be more rock bands containing classically trained flute players, but maybe that's just me." |
Author: self_composed | Bella laughs. "I suppose it could happen. I haven't got a bead on potential bandmates, though, and don't do my own composing to speak of."
It will be a terrible pity if she cannot find a peaceful solution to the problem of Libby Being Sinister And Sometimes Kidnapping People. |
Author: prima_sequentem | She smiles. "Should I keep you in mind in case I find a rock band looking for a flute?" |
Author: self_composed | Bella shrugs. "I won't take it amiss if you do, but it does not constitute satisfying my fondest ambition or anything like that." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I very rarely get to satisfy people's fondest ambitions," she says, "but once in a while I get to hook up the metaphorical rock band with their metaphorical flute player." |
Author: self_composed | "What are some nonmetaphorical versions of this pastime?" Bella asks. "It sounds logistically interesting. Being a... networking locus." That description doesn't have the word "sinister" in it at all; Libby should be pleased. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I find it very fulfilling, actually." She smiles again. "And I hope you'll forgive me if I don't say which one, but I have in fact introduced the members of at least one rock band to each other, and they're doing pretty well these days." |
Author: self_composed | "Is this band," Bella asks, "a magic rock band? Or is that only a fraction of your activities?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Only a fraction." |
Author: self_composed | "So the rest of it is just garden-variety... networking. Informal, I presume, no mailing list, no registering yourself as an LLC in Delaware, I suspect I'd have heard about it by now if you hosted mixers alternate Thursdays." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Exactly," says Libby. |
Author: self_composed | "And you sent Bridget to spy on me because you wanted me kept on your radar because... you think I might get in someone's way, or might be able to do things you and your friends would like done." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I expect you to get in someone's way if I don't keep an eye on you," says Libby. "The question is whether you're going to have simple, ordinary goals that conflict with the simple, ordinary goals of one of my people, or at the opposite extreme, start setting cities on fire one day. I don't like it when people set cities on fire. It creates mess." |
Author: self_composed | "I don't have any plans to set any cities on fire," Bella says honestly. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Good to know," says Libby. "Keep it up." |
Author: self_composed | "Why do you expect me to get in someone's way?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Because you're powerful, and 'someone' covers a very long list of people you could potentially inconvenience without ever knowing it. You could only manage not to get in anyone's way by being very unimaginative, and you don't strike me as unimaginative." |
Author: self_composed | "Do you classify mints in general as 'very powerful', that way, or do I only count because you think I've got imagination?" Bella asks.
False dichotomy is fun. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "No," says Libby. |
Author: self_composed | "What, then?" Bella says, unfazed. False dichotomy is fun but it doesn't always work. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "You have the tightest anti-spying ward I've ever seen. For example." |
Author: self_composed | "I don't like being spied on. I don't know if Bridget told you, I took it a bit amiss when I found out she'd been doing it." Bella sips her drink. "How did you see my anti-spying ward?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "By trying to get around it, of course." |
Author: self_composed | "Of course. But doesn't that strike you as a bit rude?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Sure it does. But I am absolutely willing to be rude if it will help me protect my people." |
Author: self_composed | Bella is not quite sure how to communicate the disconnect between Libby's take on this and her own. Bella is also not sure if she wants Libby to understand the way in which this is not okay, though, so she doesn't try very hard. Instead she says:
"The way Bridget talks about you makes more sense now."
Because it really does. Humans are mostly designed to care about people being team players, not about people adhering to abstract ethics or rule of law. Libby is - or can produce a very convincing front of being - a team player. |
Author: prima_sequentem | Libby raises her eyebrows. "Oh?" |
Author: self_composed | "Yes, she was adamant that you were definitely oriented around being helpful to her and others in the network, and kept taking exception to the 'sinister' description." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Why do you insist on calling me sinister?" |
Author: self_composed | "Because you were spying on me," Bella says tiredly.
She is not sure why this is so complicated. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Comes with the job," she says, unapologetically. "Someone has to make sure nobody destroys the world." |
Author: self_composed | "How did you get this job?" Bella asks. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I figured out that nobody else was doing it." |
Author: self_composed | "And prior to that time, the world remained undestroyed," Bella points out. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Lucky world," says Libby. "I'd rather not leave it to luck anymore." |
Author: self_composed | "Have you averted many near-apocalypses, then?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "You say that like you think it's funny," she observes. |
Author: self_composed | "Even if I assume you began doing what you do sometime during elementary school, you've had two decades tops working on it. Did you take over from someone else? Has there been maybe one, more likely zero, arguable potential apocalypse you've been in a position to intervene with over that entire period? Are you operating in ignorance of other persons, forces, or organizations with the same goal who've been around longer than you? Are you using this as a cover to make yourself sound altruistic while you mostly work on something else? Is the world in negligible danger and you're paranoid? All of those possibilities are more likely than the world having always needed someone doing what you do and only having just recently gotten it, previously persisting only by luck." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Anyone with the powers you or I have could easily cause massive widespread destruction if they happened to feel like it and no one was around to stop them," says Libby. "Are you going to argue with that?" |
Author: self_composed | "I could destroy stuff, if I wanted to," Bella says. "Sure. But the history of the world does not look like one in which mints and the natively empowered routinely decide to destroy lots of stuff. Magic can accomplish extremely precise, unnatural, abrupt effects, and will by default unless people are trying to hide, and the widest-scale disasters have been none of those. People willing to destroy lots of of stuff and kill lots of people and who have magic to burn on that project have little, if any, reason to deliberately cover their tracks."
Like, for example, if Alice had gotten minting powers without her around - the results would not look like "volcano erupts" or "tsunami hits". It would look like "suffocating rain of jellybeans". |
Author: prima_sequentem | "So... because it's obvious that it hasn't happened yet, it's probably not going to happen in the future? I'm having trouble following your logic here." |
Author: self_composed | "Mints could decide to do all kinds of things," Bella says. "The evidence suggests that the regularity of mint behavior doesn't involve rendering humans extinct - or screwing with the orbits of neighboring planets, or creating brand new species of megafauna with no evolutionary relation to other animals, or spelling their names in volcanic eruptions across the surface of Asia, or any number of other things that we could certainly notice now if they'd been done in the past. Because these don't seem to be things that are done despite however many thousands of years of opportunity, I do not expect them. Because I do not expect these events, a desire to prevent them does not mean I ought to take ethical shortcuts and spy on innocent people whose only feature of note is being a mint. I also wouldn't put a keylogger on my roommate's computer if I discovered she owned a pocketknife, just because she could decide to stab me with it overnight. The regularity of human behavior is that it doesn't usually involve stabbing." Bella shrugs. "Given the stakes at hand, I might see where you were coming from if you looked just hard enough to see if I had a history of psychiatric problems, or made a habit of distributing extremist manifestos on campus, or something, but you looked longer and harder than that even after finding no such thing."
Bella pauses, steepling her fingers.
"How'd you know to look in the first place?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I arranged to find out when there are new mints," she says. "It was the obvious thing to do. By the way, counting you and your friend, and assuming there aren't any more that managed to hide from me, there are currently five." |
Author: self_composed | "My friend?" Bella asks. That has to be Alice, but she doesn't want to give away anything about him right now. He is her secret weapon. "And - what, only five? In the world? Are you one yourself - are you any sort of magic yourself?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I'm a mint, yes, although I don't use it very often. If there are any more, they are either very well hidden or not on this planet at all." |
Author: self_composed | Bella had been expecting so many more mints than that.
"Five," she says.
Elias knew a lot of mints. What happened to them? (Maybe Libby wiped them out.)
"How does your mint-detector work?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Why do you want to know?" |
Author: self_composed | "Five is fewer than I expected. Maybe there's something the matter with your detector." |
Author: prima_sequentem | Interesting.
"Why did you expect more than five?" |
Author: self_composed | Bella half-lies. "Because it's so straightforward to make more mints. Anyone who wants anything even relatively pedestrian would have a motive to divvy up the minting between themselves and a reasonably trustworthy apprentice or three, who get the power in exchange for some fraction of the coins they generate. Mints should also live longer - curing diseases and so on, even if nothing else. Five. That's almost none. That's mints almost died out levels." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "True," says Libby. "And before you ask, it was like that when I got here." |
Author: self_composed | "And you haven't made more yourself because you think they'd destroy the world?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I haven't made more myself because I want to be very, very careful about who I give that power to. I don't necessarily think they'd destroy the world, but the intersection of people who want to be mints with people I trust to be mints is not as large as you seem to think." |
Author: self_composed | "If anyone has the wherewithal to sort through a lot of people I'd expect it to be you," Bella says. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Of course I do," she says. "But on the other hand, I don't consider replenishing the world mint population—if it was ever more than five to begin with—very urgent." |
Author: self_composed | "I suppose you wouldn't," Bella muses.
She wonders if Libby will ask her the same question, if she asks how Libby became a mint. She wonders if Libby already knows. She decides that the question is obvious enough that drawing it to acknowledged attention won't hurt.
"How did you come to be a mint?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I found one, and asked very nicely," she says. "There was a certain amount of bribery involved. Mostly he wanted to know it was the only six I'd ever ask him to make. How about you?" |
Author: self_composed | "Your mint detector doesn't tell you?" Bella asks. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I know it happened on one of two possible dates, and your friend was the other one. I don't know who was first, where you got the powers in the first place, or who your friend in fact is, although I've got a few guesses about that last one." |
Author: self_composed | "What makes you think I'm friends with the other mint?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "The fact that you toured Europe together is a big clue." |
Author: self_composed | "Maybe they're stalking me." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "If so, they're doing a much better job of it than I am. I think I'm jealous." |
Author: self_composed | "Hey, I didn't know Bridget was a spy until you had her tell me. I'm clearly not the world's best stalker-detector." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Bridget has the major advantage of not actually being the stalking type," says Libby. "If I wanted to send a professional spy after you, there were candidates available. But since I did hope you'd end up on friendly terms, it seemed like a good idea to send someone who would either make friends or give up." |
Author: self_composed | "I do like Bridget, even though I was mad at her for the spying. She was a good pick," Bella says. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Glad to hear it," she says. "I always like it when my guesses turn out right." |
Author: self_composed | "If you don't even have enough fine detail to tell whether me or the other mint was first, how did you narrow it down enough to find out that I was one of the two?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "You were the only person from Forks who went to Stanford this year." |
Author: self_composed | "So you have, what, a map with pushpins on it that skate around?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | She smiles slightly.
"Good guess." |
Author: self_composed | "And you didn't make these pushpins have post-it notes with names sprout from them - or you couldn't fit that into the size coin you used." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Or something." |
Author: self_composed | "Or it doesn't work on me," Bella acknowledges. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Or something," she repeats, but she's smiling again. |
Author: self_composed | Bella smiles. "I like it when spying does not work on me." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I can tell," says Libby. |
Author: self_composed | Bella laughs. "And you don't know who my stalker-or-friend-or-whoever is either, so it doesn't work on them either. So I guess the answer to the question about how your mint finder works is not all that well, if it fails on names for forty percent of mints it can even find." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Feel free to make a better one." |
Author: self_composed | "Might, but. It hasn't been a priority so far," Bella says. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Oh, right," she says. "You're not worried about strange mints destroying the world. Not even the sinister ones." |
Author: self_composed | "I'm not completely insensate to the risk, but have not yet decided to appoint myself Chief of the Secret Police." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Good to know." |
Author: self_composed | "Do you have any plans for the world besides not-blowing-it-up-or-letting-anyone-else-do-so?" Bella asks. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Not particularly. Why, did you want it?" she jokes. |
Author: self_composed | "That would be the most epic Christmas present of all time," snickers Bella.
Because she thinks "yes" would be the wrong answer. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Maybe in a few years, when you've demonstrated the necessary level of responsibility," says Libby. "Planets are like puppies that way." |
Author: self_composed | "What's my goldfish-equivalent, then?" Bella asks. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Good question. Any suggestions?" |
Author: self_composed | "Australia," deadpans Bella. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "There is the slight problem that Australia already has a government." |
Author: self_composed | "That does seem problematic. Oh well. I'll let you know if I think of anything else." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "You do that." |
Author: self_composed | "Mars," suggests Bella idly. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "If you want Mars, you can have Mars." |
Author: self_composed | "I wonder how squares are at long-distance conjuration, I haven't played with that really," muses Bella. "Could put a flag on it so I can prove I was there first if pesky astronauts appear." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "They have a range limit, and Mars is past it. You'd have to bump it up a notch." |
Author: self_composed | "Good to know. What is the range limit?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "A little more than the radius of the Earth." |
Author: self_composed | "Interesting. I wonder why. Pentagon could manage Mars, if I wanted to spend one on frivolity?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I've never tried, but I bet it could." |
Author: self_composed | "What else do you know about coins that I might not?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I could ask you the same question." |
Author: self_composed | "I think you've been at this longer than I, though." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "True," she says. "But on the other hand, I don't know what you know. Except I'm pretty sure you've either been warned off sevens, never managed to make one, or haven't gotten around to using it yet." |
Author: self_composed | "So far I haven't decided to solve any problems with coins that I couldn't handle with smaller ones," Bella says slowly. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Don't use a seven," Libby recommends. "Even if it looks like a really good idea. They backfire habitually." |
Author: self_composed | "Why is that?" Bella asks with tones of mild curiosity. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I'm supposed to know?" |
Author: self_composed | "Well, how did you hear this warning?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "From a reliable source." |
Author: self_composed | "And this reliable source didn't tell you anything about why? Aren't you at all concerned that they just didn't want anyone else to get to use heavy-duty magic?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "No." |
Author: self_composed | "Why not?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Reliable reasons." |
Author: self_composed | "How should I know that you are not making this up so I don't get to use heavy-duty magic, then?" Bella asks.
She knows different, but she wants to know how Libby knows. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Feel free to think so," she says. "But if you want to test it, may I suggest doing your experimenting on Mars? Less risk for the rest of us." |
Author: self_composed | "These are big coins we're talking about. It would not be trivial to make an extra to test far away before using it for whatever my main project was." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I'd pay your way to Mars and back," she offers. |
Author: self_composed | This does actually bring Bella up short. "Okay, you either take this warning seriously, or you are willing to throw a lot of resources around making me think you do. Why won't you save yourself the trouble and tell me why you take it seriously?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I don't get the impression that 'I trust the person who told me' will carry much weight with you." |
Author: self_composed | "It carries weight - in the sense that it moves the question a step further. Where did that person find out?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "And we're back to square one." |
Author: self_composed | "I'm trying to figure out why that would be a secret," muses Bella. "Would it harm the person who warned you if this fact were known in any more detail? I don't go around attacking people for issuing warnings, who would? Perhaps you just made a general promise not to spread the information, because... your warner is paranoid? You don't seem to be operating under a general principle of never sharing information, or never sharing information with me; only here and there. Maybe this is the wrong idea; maybe you don't know where the original warning came from, and you're... embarrassed to pay attention to a restriction that you don't know much about? Undertaking your own controlled experiments on an ongoing basis, and don't want me to know about it?" Bella pauses, like she's thinking of it for the first time. "Maybe the warning doesn't apply to everyone, and you don't think you'd like what I'd do with information about that, and you think I'd derive some if you were any more forthcoming." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "You're very thorough," says Libby. "Has anyone ever told you that? I bet they have." |
Author: self_composed | "I'm not sure if the exact word has come up. And I'm sure I'm missing something. You're under a geas and cannot share the information because someone else has reasons of their own to keep it limited - you're trying to keep me occupied fussing about this to distract me from something else - someone has a reliable native power of prophecy and says there will be a rain of frogs if I learn the truth -" |
Author: prima_sequentem | Libby shrugs. |
Author: self_composed | "Don't stop me if I get close, or anything, I might find myself inclined to like you and that would be awful." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "No rains of frogs," she says, helpfully. |
Author: self_composed | "Oh, good, amphibians would be thematically inappropriate. I prefer cetaceans." Bella closes her eyes. "Is the person who told you still alive?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I suggest we move on to a topic you'll find less frustrating," says Libby. |
Author: self_composed | "Do you think I would find moving on without knowing the answer less frustrating?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Less frustrating than spending an indefinite amount of time trying and failing to weasel it out of me? Yes." |
Author: self_composed | "Fine," says Bella grouchily. "I'll find out some other way." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "You really don't like not knowing things," says Libby. |
Author: self_composed | "I really, really don't," Bella agrees. |
Author: prima_sequentem | An apparent non sequitur: "Lazarus seems very convinced you don't want to destroy the world." |
Author: self_composed | "Lazarus is not a stupid person," Bella says, "that's probably why." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I don't disagree with him. But until I met you, I wasn't sure." |
Author: self_composed | "Have you been comparing notes on me with Lazarus lately, then?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | |
Author: self_composed | "Mm?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Asking me disingenuous questions doesn't help your case." |
Author: self_composed | "I realize that you have already thoroughly implied that you've been comparing notes on me with Lazarus, but English has a lot of phrasal curlicues to move conversations along that do things like retread past content," says Bella. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "So he hasn't mentioned anything about our conversation to you? I'm surprised." |
Author: self_composed | "Either that, or I don't have his permission to reproduce the contents of our exchanges to third parties," Bella says pleasantly. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I see," says Libby. "Maybe I should go ask him." |
Author: self_composed | [You've come up in conversation with Libby,] Bella informs Lazarus. "What, right now?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I wasn't planning on it, no." |
Author: nonbird | [Um?] |
Author: self_composed | Bella reproduces the relevant segment of conversation for him in text channel. [Any requests as to how I discuss you?]
"Because he lives rather nearer to you than I do," Bella goes on. |
Author: nonbird | [I have no idea, I'm just generally nervous.] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I noticed that, yes." |
Author: self_composed | "So," Bella says conversationally, "should I just operate under the assumption that you can read everyone's email, or are you not quite that spy-ish?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I can read everyone's email. I usually don't." |
Author: self_composed | "Do you read my email?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Nope." |
Author: self_composed | "What about Lazarus's?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Once." |
Author: self_composed | "Recently?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I bet you could guess when." |
Author: self_composed | "So you've read some of my email. Just not from my end." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Sure." |
Author: self_composed | [Libby can and has read your email,] Bella informs Lazarus. [Implication is that she only did it during the time we were corresponding, but not like anything would stop her if she had reason to spend the time on it again.]
"That's not very polite either, but I suppose we've established that isn't your top priority." |
Author: nonbird | [Augh,] says Lazarus, very calmly. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Yes we have." |
Author: self_composed | "You could have just written Lazarus, or had Chris write him, and asked him for his assessment of my likelihood of blowing up the world," Bella says. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I don't think Lazarus is a good enough judge of character to accurately tell." |
Author: self_composed | "You wound up having to talk to me in person after all anyway," Bella points out. "What did your espionage net you?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Maybe it didn't. Maybe it was a bad idea." |
Author: self_composed | "So you've seen the error of your ways, or you've decided I'm never going to drop the 'spying' thing and you should switch to 'lying' if you want to be friends, or you just think this exact instance was not worthwhile but your general policies are decently sound?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I'm open to considering that this exact instance might not have been worthwhile. I have a lot more faith in my general policies." |
Author: self_composed | "Mm." Bella sighs. "It's lucky that I've been assuming someone could and might read my email for a while now." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Of course you have." |
Author: self_composed | "Yes. And I keep turning out to have been inadequately paranoid - Bridget being the best example - so I probably still need to dial that up." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "And yet, I note that your main complaint about me is that I am much too paranoid." |
Author: self_composed | "My paranoia leads me to take defensive measures. Your paranoia leads you to take liberties with things that do not belong to you." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "We're defending different things," she says. "On very different scales." |
Author: self_composed | "You don't exhaust less liberty-taking avenues before you do what you do, or I might round down to that being the only difference." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "What kinds of less liberty-taking avenues would you suggest?" |
Author: self_composed | "You could have contacted me directly instead of sending Bridget and told me that I showed up on your Global Mint Radar and asked if I wanted to chat. You could even have done it from behind security like I have in case I flipped out. And if I did flip out, you could try something like Bridget covertly, and if I did not, you could have just interacted with me like a normal person. You could have told me about not using the heavy-duty coins much earlier, too, and if you'd like tests on those done on Mars? That seems like something you want mints to be told about at once, not months later." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Doing any of those things involves assuming you are not already hostile," says Libby. "That's not a safe assumption to make." |
Author: self_composed | "If I were any more trigger-happy than I actually am, you would have rendered me hostile by now," Bella says. "You can, as it stands, salvage the situation, and I am more than happy to let you try, but my hostility is not a static quantity that has nothing to do with whether you attempt any self-fulfilling prophecies about it. And that's what the security wishes are for." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I don't need security wishes. But you already know that, because you are not a stupid person," says Libby. "My concern is for everyone else, not for me." |
Author: self_composed | "You're safe; you're not invisible. You would protect the rest of your network by being defended against spying, that's what I meant - if attempts to magically learn about you bounced off, you couldn't be referred to by any wish that tried to learn about your friends and family. If you got a throwaway email address and no amount of throwing coins at the question would tell me anything about you that you didn't want me to find, then you'd look nervous, maybe, but not sinister." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I'm tempted to turn any new mints I find over to you." |
Author: self_composed | Bella chuckles. "Are you really? But you don't trust me, as you've repeatedly had to remind me." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I started out not trusting you. Right now, I trust you enough to be having this conversation, which is a fair bit, let me tell you." |
Author: self_composed | "How much? I mean, you're safe. I could be very dangerous to people in general and none too happy with you, and you'd still be safe. Native trumps." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "When I find someone I consider dangerous, I don't offer them information about important things that are secrets to most people. It just seems like a fundamentally bad idea." |
Author: self_composed | "Fair enough. Although speaking of secrecy, I'm somewhat curious why you want to have this conversation in a coffee shop. I imagine most people would think we're talking about some manner of fiction if they listen to us at all, but you keep other seams in your operation snug enough that I'm surprised even that little hazard sits comfortably." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "We're covered," she says. |
Author: self_composed | "Oh? How?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Anti-spying ward." |
Author: self_composed | "Have you got one just generally? I don't know, you see, because I have never attempted to spy on you." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I can't imagine why not." |
Author: self_composed | "As a general rule, I do not spy on people. I might do it if I had a good reason, but I never default to it." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Good to know," says Libby. |
Author: self_composed | "I'd imagine. Are you going to answer my question?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Yes, I have an anti-spying ward." |
Author: self_composed | "But you said mine was the best you've ever seen. Did I do a better job of wish-designing or did I throw more magic at it?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Guess again." |
Author: self_composed | "You were trying particularly intrusive spying and ran into the edge of my brain? You weren't counting yours because it is not a ward you have encountered in the wild? Mine doesn't cover random people in coffeeshops and therefore has more juice to do everything else, so mine is only better within a limited context?" Bella guesses gamely. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Not quite, but close," she says. "Mine is only active when I need it to be. It's not as pervasive as yours, but that's a feature, not a bug." |
Author: self_composed | "I can see how that might be useful sometimes. It's not my style, though." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Clearly." |
Author: self_composed | Bella changes the subject. "How many people with native powers are there running around that I haven't heard about yet?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Lots," she says. "Or did you mean individually, not statistically? Not that many." |
Author: self_composed | "I did mean individually. You've probably done a reasonable job of filtering them for being interesting." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Yes I have," she says. "Tell me, if I decided to hand you all of my secrets on a silver platter, would you take that as a good reason not to use them against me?" |
Author: self_composed | "That depends to a certain extent on what your secrets are and what you mean by 'against you'. If you have - I don't know, a minty little sweatshop where you coerce miserable third-world teenagers into making coins? That would be shitty, I would object. If you're asking whether being cagey is buying you some kind of insurance, like I'm going to be more inclined to not harm you if I think this might get me secrets, of course it isn't. By default I am not inclined to attack people. By default I am more positively disposed to people who tell me things worth knowing, and give me stuff I want." She shrugs. "And, if you decided to hand me your secrets on a silver platter, considering who we're talking about here, that would mean you were at least loosely sympathetic to my goals. Why would I want to antagonize sympathizers if I didn't have to?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Loosely sympathetic to whatever goals I imagine you have, because you haven't actually told me any big ones. Unless you really would like a planet for Christmas." |
Author: self_composed | "Yes, well. I don't know what you'd do if I handed you all my secrets on a silver platter, but I'm happy to rule out hypotheses like 'Bella wants to blow up the world'." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Bella does not want to blow up the world. That much is clear," says Libby. |
Author: self_composed | "Anything else on the same list as 'blowing up the world' you'd like me to convince you I'm not interested in?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "No, I think you're in the clear on that general score." |
Author: self_composed | "Then clearly I am a safe repository for all your secrets," teases Bella. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "If only it worked that way." |
Author: self_composed | "Yes, yes. What do you think would happen if you told me what you know about the population of natively magical folks you've encountered? Besides that I wouldn't have to decide whether to spend coins and time and effort on finding them myself." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "It's not inconceivable that you might decide to go pester some of them," she says. "Many of them do not appreciate being pestered. Some of the rest don't appreciate being talked about in general. Bridget is not the only person I know who has needed to be rescued from intensely curious people. The reasons I might not let you near my personnel lists are not strictly strategic." |
Author: self_composed | "I won't pester anyone who doesn't want to be pestered. In fact, I'll take your word for it about who those people are," Bella says. "And naturally you may decline to spread information you've been asked to keep mum by its owner. What about the others?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Chris did a pretty good job of covering those. In fact, she even mentioned some of the please-don't-pester-me kind." |
Author: self_composed | "Is there a word for people with native powers? ...Ingots?" Bella suggests. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Ingots?" |
Author: self_composed | "Natural magic as opposed to the artificial, minted kind," Bella says. "You've probably already got a word for it, though, right?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "No. And I didn't come up with 'mints', either." |
Author: self_composed | [Hey, Lazarus, do you have a word for folks with native powers?] Bella inquires.
"I was calling us just 'wishcoiners' before I began corresponding with Lazarus." |
Author: nonbird | [Should I?] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "'Mints' is cute. And shorter." |
Author: self_composed | "Yes," Bella agrees. "I adopted it quite happily."
[If you don't, I propose "ingot".]
"Speaking of minting." Bella taps the table. "How do you do it, what with Chris keeping you safe from everything?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "That would be one of those strategic secrets I don't plan on telling you until I'm sure you won't try to screw me over with it." |
Author: nonbird | [Ingot is adorable. I'm sold,] says Lazarus. |
Author: self_composed | Bella shrugs. "That one's just a personal curiosity anyway; I still have to operate under the assumption that you can acquire coins either way. So no big deal." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Well, that's nice." |
Author: self_composed | "I am very nice."
[Libby knows I made up the 'ingot' term, so don't use it in front of her or Chris or anyone who talks to them until I've had a plausible opportunity to share it with you by not-brainphone.] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Apparently so." |
Author: self_composed | "So I've met the interesting ingots who might want to meet me, I guess. How hard have you looked? I notice the ones I've met are all, you know, white English-speakers. That seems odd." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I take it you haven't talked to Kolya, then." |
Author: self_composed | "Not so I'd know what crayons to use." Libby's quite equipped to know that Kolya once sent Bella an email using Lazarus's account, though. "Even so, it's an odd demographic." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "You've met two at the crayon level that I know of," she points out. "Hardly enough to draw statistical inferences. For the record, with a larger sample size, the distribution seems pretty even." |
Author: self_composed | "Yeah, Lazarus described himself - well, he relayed Kolya's description. And Chris is your aunt, which gives me somewhat more than fifty percent information about her, now I've seen you," Bella says. "Fair enough. Are ingots scattered around the globe as well as the crayon box?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Yes they are. Although I'm somewhat limited in getting to know them by the fact that I speak mainly English." |
Author: self_composed | "Languages aren't your top priority for the use of pentagons, then?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Not usually. Why, are they yours?" |
Author: self_composed | "I've used more pentagons on languages than on anything else," Bella says. "I like 'em. And I did travel around Europe last summer." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "You seem to use magic a lot more frequently than I do," Libby observes. |
Author: self_composed | "I broke my leg last winter. It was an accident, but as long as I had a broken leg, I jostled it for coins. I have a good pain tolerance at that level."
This is all technically true. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Unfortunately for me, I don't have those kinds of accidents." |
Author: self_composed | "Yes, but we've established you don't want to tell me how you get any coins whatever under your circumstances. Me, if I fall down the stairs, I will get beat up." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "How convenient for you," she says dryly. |
Author: self_composed | "It really is! It would be a pity if I were Bridget. She'd be a terrible mint, since bootstrapping doesn't work." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "She would, at that." |
Author: self_composed | "Speaking of Bridget, I have been advised not to ask you if I may try breaking your wrist to compare Chris's protection with Bridget's version," Bella says.
And she's not asking. Quite. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Advised by whom?" |
Author: self_composed | "Lazarus. I believe he finds your aunt unnerving." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Chris has that effect on people." |
Author: self_composed | "You're not laughing at him and offering me your hand, so I'm going to assume he was right." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I won't take exception to you asking, but I also won't say yes, and if I did I would pick a less public location in case someone got the wrong idea." |
Author: self_composed | "Anti-spying ward doesn't cover that, then? But all right, sure, not everyone invincible is going to be as cooperative about playing with it as Bridget." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Maybe once I get to know you better," she deadpans. |
Author: self_composed | "Fair enough." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Any other nosy questions?" |
Author: self_composed | "Would it net me any interesting secrets if I volunteered to occasionally serve as an interpreter-who-already-knows-about-magic between you and ingots overseas?" Bella asks thoughtfully. "Since I have some languages. I don't want a full-time job while I'm in school, and if you need translations done while I'm in class you might just need to burn squares for temporary competence in French or whatever, but as long as we're being friendly and could use a basis for more opportunity to get to know each other..." She shrugs. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Good idea," says Libby. "What languages do you speak?" |
Author: self_composed | Bella names... most of them. "Most of the major Romance languages, German, Greek, Arabic, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Hindi, and Mandarin. And, you know, English and Python and Lisp and stuff." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I don't need German," she says. "And I already know an interpreter who knows about magic and speaks Russian. But you might be more convenient than Lazarus now and then." |
Author: self_composed | [You do translation work for Libby?] Bella asks Lazarus quizzically. That's news to her.
"Cool," she says. |
Author: nonbird | [No I don't,] says Lazarus. [I mean, I do translation work, but not for Libby.] |
Author: self_composed | [Are you sure?] |
Author: nonbird | [I think I would've noticed.] |
Author: self_composed | Bella passes along the suggestive segment of conversation. [Perhaps she just expects that you'd take the work if she asked?]
"How do you go about finding ingots? Do they appear on your globe too?" Bella asks. |
Author: nonbird | [Probably,] he agrees. [I am an interpreter, that much is true.] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I think I'll leave that an open question for now." |
Author: self_composed | Bella's going to make her own globe when she gets home.
"Of course you will," she sighs. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "You're not very patient, are you." |
Author: self_composed | "Nope. I am not." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "That's a little inconvenient." |
Author: self_composed | "For whom?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Both of us, really. If you were very patient, I could just tell you that if you hang around me long enough, you'll pick up plenty of secrets, and that would be that." |
Author: self_composed | "Even if I were very patient, I might not believe you if you told me that," Bella points out. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "If you were very patient, you might be willing to wait and see." |
Author: self_composed | "I'm not seeing it," Bella says. "I don't think Bellas come in 'patient'." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Like I said," says Libby. "Inconvenient." |
Author: self_composed | "I'm sure my other scintillating qualities make up for it, though," Bella says earnestly. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Oh, don't get me wrong, I think you're perfectly charming on a personal level." |
Author: self_composed | "And on a personal level, apart from all the irritating secrecy and so on, I think you're lovely company as well," Bella returns. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Irritating but lovely. You know, I can't say I get that a lot." |
Author: self_composed | "No? I get called charming and impatient all the time." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I am not surprised." |
Author: self_composed | "So you have a doctorate in math, right?" Bella asks, out of productive magic talk for the time being. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Yes I do." |
Author: self_composed | "Do you recommend grad school generally? I hear mixed reviews of the pastime." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Try it and see. It's the only way to know." |
Author: self_composed | "Well, that wasn't very helpful."
Bella peers into her empty beverage cup, then pushes it aside. "It occurs to me to ask - what all do you know about my stalkerfriend?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "It occurs to me to ask, why do you want the answer to that question to be 'nothing'?" |
Author: self_composed | "So you think you know the answer is that they're my friend, rather than that they're my stalker and have been just as good at hiding themselves from me," observes Bella. "I'd want to know what you knew either way, you realize. If they're my friend I want to patch security holes and if they're my stalker I want to know who the hell is stalking me." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "On the other hand, if they're your stalker, you have no motivation to phrase that as an if." |
Author: self_composed | Bella shakes her head. "If they're my stalker, maybe I want to give off the impression that I have a powerful friend because I don't quite trust you - or I want to learn more about how you think - or I don't want to admit outright I can't handle them on my own - or we used to be friends and I'm not comfortable turning on them yet - or I want to be their friend and I want to snap 'em up before you do - or any number of reasons." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "They're your friend," says Libby. "Good odds they live in Forks. In your opinion, how likely are they to destroy the world?" |
Author: self_composed | "Do I strike you as likely to be friends with someone who is liable to destroy the world?" Bella asks. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Are you evading because you really don't want to admit to the friend part, or because they are more likely to destroy the world than you are and you don't want me finding that out?" |
Author: self_composed | Bella rolls her eyes. "Oh, fine. We're friends. More likely? Yes. Likely? No." She pauses. "Because it would make me upset, more than for other reasons, if you're ever tempted to remove me." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Noted," says Libby. "Thank you." |
Author: self_composed | "I would be very displeased if my friend were removed," Bella adds gravely. "Likewise." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I'd figured that much out for myself," she says dryly. "I don't plan to remove your friend. But I would be very happy if you continued to keep their destructive tendencies to a minimum." |
Author: self_composed | "Yes, that is one of my primary aims in how I conduct our friendship," Bella says peaceably. "I also have a plan for - Oh, hm." She frowns. "Come to think of it, there is a flaw in my plan for how to deal with a rogue friend, but I will replace it." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I'm definitely not going to ask about that one," she says. "Because unlike you, I am not indiscriminately curious." |
Author: self_composed | "Thank you," says Bella politely. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "How did you two become mints?" |
Author: self_composed | "Magic," says Bella languidly.
[Lazarus, it has occurred to me that my Emergency Plan For What If Alice Goes Rogue will not work. Since you've seen his ingot power, perhaps you can help me come up with a replacement that will not have the same defect?] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "You found a pair of sixes," she translates. "Or one six, which you took a while to duplicate." |
Author: nonbird | [...Dare I ask what the original plan was?] |
Author: self_composed | [Original plan was take his coins and then take his ability to experience pain. Directly taking minting powers away doesn't work, at least not without stars. But his touch-don't-change thing would not likely take kindly to something like that.]
"Yes," Bella acknowledges. "We've been calling them hexes, though." |
Author: nonbird | [Yes. It's safe to say that any plan that involves taking away one of Alice's senses is not going to work. Also, why do you have a plan for what if Alice goes rogue? Is he likely to?] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Cute," says Libby. "What do you call the others?" |
Author: self_composed | "Triangles, squares, pentagons, stars."
[I don't know about likely, but if he did, it wouldn't be a petty falling out where he'd move to Milwaukee and badmouth me to the neighbors. His interest in keeping me happy stands between him and serious mayhem. He is naturally inclined towards serious mayhem. Can I make it so he cannot come into direct physical contact with coins, and thereby can't make wishes? A very thin film of no-coins-allowed-beyond-this-point around his skin?] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Stars," she repeats. "I like it." |
Author: nonbird | [Maybe,] says Lazarus. [His power wouldn't prevent it, anyway. Do you need direct physical contact...? Yes, I guess you do. What about when you make coins?] |
Author: self_composed | [When you make coins, they appear on your person, but I imagine I could design the film so it'd scoot them away faster than his reaction time,] Bella says. [He doesn't have my cognitive speedup. It'd be risky, I'd like a better idea or a supplementary one...]
"It seemed obvious," Bella says. |
Author: nonbird | [Can you make a wish directly, without coining it first?] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "It certainly is now that you mention it." |
Author: self_composed | [No. The action you take with the pain makes a coin; you can put it where you want, I used to appear them inside my socks so they wouldn't be noticeable. I tried turning pain into a wish instead of a wishcoin and it didn't work.]
"I do wish you'd tell me why you believe those to be dangerous," Bella sighs. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Because they are," says Libby. |
Author: self_composed | "Have you used one?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I do wish you'd stop trying to pry information out of me that I don't want to give you." |
Author: nonbird | [Can coins break?] he wonders next, somewhat distracted from the original subject. |
Author: self_composed | [I don't know. Do you have some left? Want to try it for me?]
"Yes, well, I wish the set of such pieces of information were dramatically smaller," says Bella. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "You've made that very clear." |
Author: nonbird | [I am somewhat worried about what would happen if I managed it,] he says. [And no.] |
Author: self_composed | [Alice, will you carefully - reporting to me each step - see if coins are breakable?] Bella asks. He probably won't even ask why this experiment is worth doing. [Triangles. See if triangles are breakable. Lazarus can't tell by looking.]
Bella sighs heavily. "So how'd you know you didn't just miss another mint who gave us our magic?" Bella asks. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Sure!] he says. [One sec, though, cookies.] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Because I don't think I missed any mints," says Libby. |
Author: self_composed | "You didn't get my name or my friend's off your map-or-globe-or-atlas-or-whatever. Maybe there's someone else you didn't get at all."
[Of course. Cookies first.] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "You keep pushing this idea," she says. "Why?" |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Cookies are tasty. Broken coins are not tasty. What do I even try? I could hit one really hard with a hammer, I guess.] |
Author: self_composed | "Five mints is not very many mints," Bella says. "I expected there to be more."
[Try hitting one with a hammer if you like, try wishing one broken with others of various sizes,] Bella instructs. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Sure thing. What's all this about, anyway? Just thought of it and wanted to know?] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "If all mints are as reluctant to make more mints as the mints I know, and there weren't that many to begin with, five is a pretty reasonable number." |
Author: self_composed | [Lazarus asked and is nervous to try it himself,] Bella says.
"Perhaps I should make some more," she replies. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I'd really rather you didn't," says Libby. "Failing that, I'd really rather you did it cautiously. You are, as you've mentioned, insufficiently paranoid." |
Author: self_composed | "Caution is a definite yes," Bella agrees. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Good to know. I don't suppose there's any chance you'll run your candidates by me?" |
Author: self_composed | "It'll depend on the candidate, I imagine," Bella shrugs. "You're not introducing me to all your friends." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "You're not claiming special expertise in judging people, and I'm not doing anything that might need it." |
Author: self_composed | "Well," Bella says. "I don't have anyone in mind right now. Perhaps I will never run across such a person." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Hammer doesn't do it,] Alice reports. [Neither does a hex.] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Don't get me wrong, if you run across someone who genuinely should be a mint, I have no problem with you making them one," she says. "I just don't have a lot of faith in your ability to tell." |
Author: self_composed | "Your criterion being mostly about blowing up the world?" Bella asks.
[Interesting,] Bella tells Alice, [thank you,] and she says to Lazarus, [Hex will not break so much as a triangle. Is that relevant to my backup plan notion, or a side question?] |
Author: nonbird | [Side question. I have no idea what to do about your backup plan. Can't hurt to know more things, though.] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Ideally, every mint should be a person who absolutely won't blow up the world," she says. "Less risk that way. And also someone who won't, say, conquer the world and add all dissenters to their collection of carefully preserved human skulls. That sort of thing." |
Author: self_composed | "Ew," says Bella, wrinkling her nose.
[Agreed,] she tells Lazarus. [Knowing things is good. I think my current emergency protocol is the film thing, then. It would also make Alice less miserable than my other idea, which is a fine side effect as long as the goal of safety is accomplished.] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Yes," says Libby. "Ew. Exactly." |
Author: nonbird | [Would he be miserable...? Well, yes, I guess he would.] |
Author: self_composed | "I will be careful," Bella repeats.
[Of course he would.] |
Author: nonbird | [Lucky for him it can't happen, I guess.] |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I believe you'll be careful. I don't believe you're going to spot all the skull collectors." |
Author: self_composed | "How many skull collectors do you believe there to be?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "When it comes to giving out minting powers, I don't like to play the odds." |
Author: self_composed | "Why was there anything for me to find last winter, then? Why hadn't you taken care of that one way or another?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Unfortunately, I don't have infinite magic to spend on the task of locating and cracking open hidden coin stashes," she says. "Or I would be." |
Author: self_composed | "Mm," Bella muses.
Boy, is Libby's head ever going to explode if she gets a look at Bella's bandolier, which now loops via magic through an extra several feet in the treasure chest tucked away in the lair.
Pause.
"Look, we've established that I am very curious and very impatient and probably not going to blow up the world. Is there any chance I can buy answers to my questions with coins?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "...Maybe," says Libby. "I'm reluctant to say yes unequivocally. There are questions I'm refusing to answer on general principle, and questions I'm refusing to answer on very specific principle, if you see the difference." |
Author: self_composed | "If you run short of coins," Bella says, "consider issuing me a price list. Although my curiosity doesn't swamp my understanding of game theory and I won't let you establish any precedents that leave me in a permanently terrible bargaining position." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Sure," says Libby. "Anything I'd be tempted to price just out of reach, I probably shouldn't be selling, anyway." |
Author: self_composed | Bella nods. "I didn't think that would escape you or I wouldn't have even brought it up." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Well, I'm glad we seem to be taking each other seriously." |
Author: self_composed | Bella's silent for a moment, then says, "You can give out my email address to any magic folks who might want it, by the by." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Noted." |
Author: self_composed | "To what extent do I still need to be concerned about you spying on me and my friend - or trying?" Bella inquires. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "If I said 'not at all', would you believe me?" |
Author: self_composed | "I would not equate your words with the whistling of the wind," Bella says. "But I wouldn't take it on faith that you were telling me the absolute truth either. It'd be some information, but certainly no guarantee." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "My previous reason for spying on you was to determine how dangerous you are," she says. "I don't have a new one." |
Author: self_composed | "See, that's even better than just telling me 'no'," Bella says. "Especially since you conspicuously didn't mention whether you have a reason to spy on my friend." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Is your friend dangerous?" |
Author: self_composed | "So long as I am around," Bella says, "no. And I have no plans to stop being around." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Then I don't need to spy on them, do I?" |
Author: self_composed | "Only if you believe me, and I'm not sure you do. You've expressed a lack of confidence in my skill as a judge of character." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "True. Maybe I should meet your friend and see for myself." |
Author: self_composed | "No," says Bella pleasantly. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Why not?" |
Author: self_composed | "I don't think you'd get along particularly well." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "See, that worries me." |
Author: self_composed | "I get along with my friend swimmingly. I would not be friends with anyone who I expected to blow up the world," Bella reiterates. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "So why don't you think I would get along with your friend?" |
Author: self_composed | "Let's give my friend a code name and flip a coin to pick a gender, as this is tedious," Bella suggests. "How about Whistle. Bells and whistles, yes?" She digs a dime out of her purse. "Heads, Whistle is a guy - tails - All right then. Whistle's apparently a girl for this purpose. And she does have other characteristics besides being practically unlikely to blow up the world, you understand." |
Author: prima_sequentem | Libby looks mildly amused.
"And what are some of those characteristics?" |
Author: self_composed | "Her aversion to blowing up the world is not intrinsic," Bella says. "And I have reasons you don't, to trust it to stay put anyway. And it is out of the question to duplicate those reasons for you."
[I got tired of referring to you as a genderless nameless "my friend" to Libby, so I flipped a coin in front of her to pick an uninformative gender - you're a girl for this purpose - and named you "Whistle", as in "bells and whistles",] Bella informs Alice. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I see. Those reasons being, what, the closeness of your friendship? Or some personal judgment of character that you don't think I'll trust? Because you don't think I'd understand it, or because it's flimsy?" |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Alice, predictably, finds this hilarious and delightful. |
Author: self_composed | [I thought you'd like that.]
"Trade you for how you came to believe stars dangerous," Bella suggests. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I trusted the person who told me so. Both to be telling to truth and to know what they were doing. Your turn." |
Author: self_composed | "That's not what I meant and you know it. But as a gesture of good faith: your guesses are wrong," Bella says testily. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "My guesses don't leave a lot of room for alternate explanations," she muses. |
Author: self_composed | "I'm aware. I'll tell you what you missed - or at least, the accurate thing you missed - if you answer the question I actually want answered." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "That question being...? Who I learned it from, so you can go harass them?" |
Author: self_composed | "I don't necessarily need their identity, unless that's the only reason you believe them. I want your evidence. If I told you that you oughtn't use hexes on the nights of the full moon, because doing so would have unspecified bad consequences, you would want to know why I thought that." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "So my first answer was complete after all. I believe them because I took their word as a trustworthy expert." |
Author: self_composed | "Did they use a star and lose the entire left half of their body?" Bella asks. "Do they have an informative ingot power? Did they derive it from Bible Code? Did they hear it from yet another person? Did you seriously just believe someone's unsupported statement that you should not use your most powerful coins?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "If they made up the warning, they could just as easily have made up some secondhand horror stories to go with it." She smiles slightly. "On the other hand, maybe you're right and I should spend that seven I've been keeping in reserve. I think duplicating my anti-spying wards across all my friends would be a pretty good use for it, don't you?" |
Author: self_composed | "Wait - no - don't do that - haven't you even got a reason, did you seriously not have a reason so I can just talk you out of caution over coffee by trying to find one, I don't necessarily mean you should use it -" |
Author: prima_sequentem | Libby shakes her head.
"Relax. I trust my warning. In fact, it did come with horror stories, and one of them involved a mint losing the entire left half of their body. Interesting, don't you think?" |
Author: self_composed | Perhaps Bella would have done better to make something up from scratch. She touches the rim of her coffee cup, regretting its emptiness, considers ordering another. "Interesting," she agrees. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "So I'm pretty sure you have independent confirmation, because if you'd talked to this person, I'd know." |
Author: self_composed | "I know why I'm wary of stars. I'd like to understand why you are." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Have I not covered that sufficiently yet?" |
Author: self_composed | "Until I unwisely duplicated a cautionary tale, I don't see how you had any more evidence than stories that could easily have been made up. Sure, now you probably have enough information to justify it. I don't get how you did before." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "They could easily have been made up. I don't believe they were." |
Author: self_composed | "Why not?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Because I know the person who told them to me, and I know they weren't lying." |
Author: self_composed | "Based on your deep personal regard for them? Because you have kidnapped their great-grand-niece? Because magic lie detection?" asks Bella. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I am just very, very good at predicting people," says Libby. "If I know someone well enough, I always know whether or not they are lying, and usually why. This person wasn't." |
Author: self_composed | Bella regards Libby thoughtfully, and then sighs and says:
"I'm not particularly talented at predicting people. So instead, I read Whistle's mind. With her permission and magic of her manufacture; she wouldn't want me to be nervous about what she gets up to and she's happy to render that unnecessary." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Generous of her," says Libby. |
Author: self_composed | "Very." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "And convenient for you." |
Author: self_composed | "Whistle is overall extremely convenient for me. I was very lucky." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I'm beginning to see that," says Libby. |
Author: self_composed | Bella smiles pleasantly. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Although I'm curious as to exactly how she is convenient." |
Author: self_composed | "What do you mean by that?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I mean, in what ways besides curbing her destructive impulses and letting you read her mind does she make your life easier?" |
Author: self_composed | "It's nice to have a collaborator for magical experiments," Bella says. This seems like harmless, obvious information. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I'm sure it is." |
Author: self_composed | "And, of course, before I watched Bridget get shot, Whistle was the only person I could really talk to about magic." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "...You watched Bridget get shot?" |
Author: self_composed | "Yes. I take it she really wasn't keeping you posted on our activities? We got followed by a creep, we told him to piss off, he turned out to have a gun and he managed to put a bullet - well, not in, on her before I took him down. I know aikido," Bella adds. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Why, did you think she was? No. Although I did ask her if you were dead, right after you dropped off the map." |
Author: self_composed | "I wasn't sure if she was or not. She told me about the 'dead' thing." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "And you didn't ask her if she was reporting any more extensively?" |
Author: self_composed | "I asked her all the questions under the sun, but I can't take anyone's word as gospel, and Whistle's the only person I can check up on directly." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Yes, I was going to say. Not asking a question doesn't seem at all like you." |
Author: self_composed | "I sometimes exhibit discretion, but at the time I had no reason to restrain myself around Bridget." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I see," says Libby. "What counts as a reason to restrain yourself?" |
Author: self_composed | "If asking the question lets on something I don't want known. Occasionally, I even let a question go unasked to avoid being rude to someone." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I see," Libby repeats thoughtfully. |
Author: self_composed | "Triangle for your thoughts." |
Author: prima_sequentem | She laughs.
"You're lowballing the price and you know it." |
Author: self_composed | "It's metaphorical currency in the original form of the saying. I'd cough up a triangle if you insisted but I'm actually just expressing curiosity," chuckles Bella. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I was thinking that it's interesting that you include politeness and secrecy but not personal danger on the list of things that will stop you from being nosy." |
Author: self_composed | "Both secrecy and politeness can be danger-related," Bella points out. "When would something involve danger and neither of the other two?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "When, for example, learning the answer to the question will put you at a significant risk." |
Author: self_composed | "In its own right? Like in science fiction, you look at the wrong sequence of letters or the wrong drawing or the wrong tentacled abomination and you're driven mad? I'm skeptical that human brains are really wired that way. Or if others found out that I knew the information they'd opt to hurt me? Then my concern ought to be making sure no one thinks I know, and that could be unrelated to whether I actually do." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I think you'll find that acting as though you don't know something is more difficult than it looks. But maybe I have an unusual perspective on that." |
Author: self_composed | "Why would you have an unusual perspective?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Because I figure that kind of thing out a lot more easily than most people." |
Author: self_composed | "What do you think I know that you think I think you don't know I know?" Bella asks. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Nothing, yet." |
Author: self_composed | "So maybe there isn't anything, or maybe I'm good at pretending, or maybe you're lying but you don't want to alert me to the holes in my cunning disguise." Bella appears to find this line of inquiry charmingly entertaining. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Or maybe I'm deliberately not considering the question in as much depth as I could, to give you less to go on." |
Author: self_composed | Bella laughs. "That would be interesting. Are you?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "What do you think?" |
Author: self_composed | "You don't think I'm very good at reading people, and I certainly haven't done anything to convince you otherwise, so you probably don't imagine I could tell if you were contemplating such things - but you're very risk averse - and less curious than I am. You could be doing that, especially if none of your hypotheses seem urgent to you," Bella muses. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Very well thought out," says Libby, rather more amused than the situation seems to warrant. |
Author: self_composed | "As you noted, I'm thorough," Bella says. "How did you come to be so confident in your ability to read people in the first place, I'd like to know." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "By noticing how good at it I am?" she suggests. |
Author: self_composed | "Yes, I'm wondering what specifically you noticed. Who did you practice on? How did you verify your early guesses?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Why do you want to know?" |
Author: self_composed | "Because I want to know things, and this thing came up," Bella says. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Good answer. Unfortunately for you, I have no idea. I've been doing it since I could talk." |
Author: self_composed | "Mm. Fair enough. Is talking crucially involved or did they just co-occur?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "It's a lot easier to figure people out when you can have a conversation with them." |
Author: self_composed | "How much of that is nonverbals and how much of it is just exchanging words in real time? I assume at least some of it is the former or you could do it on the phone, and some of it is the latter or you could do it by further spying. But I'd be interested by a guess at a ratio." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Off the top of my head, thirty/seventy." |
Author: self_composed | "Interesting. To what extent do you suppose it's a learnable skill?"
There's that question, and the superset: to what extent is it a magickable skill? Presumably it could be done - but adding skills doesn't have negligible personality effects. Bella was pretty well suited to install perfect recall and cognitive speedup. She's not sure how well person-reading would graft. This is similar to why she hasn't made herself an Alice-style super-masochist. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Oh, I'm sure it's a learnable skill. Lots of people learn it, with varying degrees of success. I just happen to be naturally talented." |
Author: self_composed | "Who teaching classes in it is a crank and who's got interesting stuff to say?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I don't pay much attention. It's not like I need the help." |
Author: self_composed | "I'd think you'd be curious about where any particularly well-educated students were coming from, at least." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I might be, if I'd met anyone who compared." |
Author: self_composed | "So you're pretty sure that your reading people extends to reading their literacy?" chuckles Bella. |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Of course it does." |
Author: self_composed | "What else does it cover? If you had a little checklist what would be on it?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "The way you think is fascinating," Libby remarks. "What do you imagine it might not cover?" |
Author: self_composed | "I bet you don't know my motorcycle's name," Bella says. "Or if you do, you learned it in a spy way and not by deriving it. I'm just wondering where the line is between that category and the other - and if there are more than that." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "I don't know your motorcycle's name, but if I'd thought about it, I could probably have guessed that you might name your motorcycle. Does that answer your question?" |
Author: self_composed | "Not in detail," says Bella earnestly. "Examples, examples." |
Author: prima_sequentem | "The categorical division between things it's possible to find out about somebody by chatting with them and things it's not seems perfectly obvious and self-explanatory to me, but of course you don't see it the same way." |
Author: self_composed | "Of course. Pretend I'm colorblind. List metaphorical green things and red things of comparable saturations." She pauses. "Think of 'em while I'm up. Back presently." Does this coffeeshop have a bathroom? It has. She visits it.
Bella is back a few minutes later. |
Author: prima_sequentem | While Bella is in the bathroom, Libby steps out of the coffee shop for a second.
It is a longer second than most other specimens.
By the time Bella returns to their table, Libby has another cup of coffee and is looking very much like someone with something delightful up her sleeve. |
Author: self_composed | "You look pleased," Bella observes. "Did you think of marvelous examples?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "None whatsoever," says Libby, "and you're not going to care. Do you have a lie detection power, and if not, would you like me to spot you a five so you can get one temporarily?" |
Author: self_composed | "If you're offering to let me lie-detect you, I can spot the pentagon," Bella says slowly, "but are you sure you don't want to see if I'll believe you on the strength of the offer alone, first?" |
Author: prima_sequentem | "Well, the situation is that while you were in the bathroom I visited a multiversal nexus and met your alternate universe daughter from 2030, who is an imperial princess, because alternate universe Bella made herself empress of the world. This girl, whose name is Elspeth by the way, seems to think you do a pretty fine job of empressing, and since among other things she has the native power of augmented honesty, I believe her. So I'm going to help you take over the world. Would you like to verify any of that?" |