the place to be

[point_b]

Bella finds it.

"Alli!" she twines. "C'mere."

"You c'mere. Easier for you."

"No, you need to come look at this, seriously."

"Okay, fine, where are you?"

"Garage."

So Alli comes out to the garage. Their parents aren't home; Charlie's working, Renée is volunteering with some of the refugee kids at a shelter, trying to find which have parents who just wound up somewhere else, which need adopting, which are going to wind up coming of age adrift in the bursting-at-the-seams system. It's just them, not attending school, recovering.

"Whoa," says Alli. "So when you said you were at the garage, you meant that you were at the freakish restaurant that someone put in our garage."

"This isn't somebody's idea of remodeling," Bella says. "It's too big to be the garage."

"Do you think it's safe?"

"I think one of you should go in first, for sure."

"We don't actually know if I work that way," say two Alli voices, but Bella pushes one of them towards the door anyway.

Nothing happens.

The Allis converge, inside the bar. Bella follows.

Comments

[whatamithinking]

"I don't think the time-bendery is reliable enough for it to do that, aside from time not passing in your universe if the door's closed."

[thinkering]

"Yeah, but I'm a tinker. I'm a contingent systems tinker. I might be able to do something cool with it. I'll keep it in mind, anyway. Aaaand gonna try the door..."

The door doesn't go.

"I guess we've got a wait. I will try to use it to be less taxing on finances. Bar, can I have a nice cheerful sign that says, 'Custom Robots and Devices While You Wait' and in smaller print Materials $1,000-$35,000+ plus $1,250/hr labor or equivalent in portable magic, cannot be maintained by nonspecialists, some design restrictions apply?" Bar makes her a sign. "Thanks. Let's see who bites."

[whatamithinking]

"I imagine you're a bit out of most peoples' price range there. But I'm not going to say you're overselling yourself, to be sure."

[thinkering]

"This is actually a fraction of the market rate for my labor and I'm only undercharging because I don't know how many deep pockets go through here and value keeping busy, and also things I can make in a few hours do include, did you hear, objects to make diamonds out of dust and then facet them for you. I'm an investment."

[whatamithinking]

"I'm not disagreeing. I'm being impressed with you and expressing it poorly."

[thinkering]

"Well, thanks. In the meantime I can't decide between reading interdimensional books and building myself a temporary computer while I can't get at my primary one..."

[whatamithinking]

"I suppose you probably couldn't borrow a temporary loaner computer from Bar since you'd be used to one you probably aren't making for retail sale. What would you be using the computer for, since it wouldn't have your files on it?"

[thinkering]

"Notes, showing customers who want to know what they're paying this much for pretty pictures, reminding me to eat - by the way, Bar, breakfast before someone comes in and orders a robot army, I'll trust your recommendation -" She gets French toast with peaches and cream, sausages, and OJ. "- thank you, and I don't know how long I'll be stuck in here and I might accumulate more files I'd like to keep."

[whatamithinking]

"Aha. Okay. Well, it's up to you. I'm picking interdimensional books."

"If you were wondering where Emily was, by the way, she decided to go swimming."

[thinkering]

"Reasonable thing to do." Mmm, breakfast. And "Bar, got any universes where Shakespeare wrote more plays?"

And a long long wait.