counterfeit

[onceandforall]

This. This is a good bar.

She does not mind taking counterfeit currency and she sells everything.

Bella is going to exploit the fuck out of that but first she is eating really, really good pad thai and finally talking to a person who is a) interesting b) not someone she has already talked to a lot in the last... several years. Lovely friendly bar who makes a lovely delicious pad thai! Bella will have to try opening that door at that moment again in the past.

Comments

[onceandforall]

"Yes, this is the first time I've found the place. I'm not sure if it's not just always behind that door at that time, though. I'm not usually in Buffalo. I'll definitely check again, of course. Bar will take magic counterfeit no problem and she sells everything. But I can't count on finding it later."

[whatamithinking]

"Magic counterfeit?"

[onceandforall]

"So, in addition to the 'wake up in the hospital unharmed and magical on January 25', I have other powers - I can pause time and I can store anything that can fit in this shield on my arm. Things that go in the shield I can pull out again. Any number of times. They stick between loops. I've got all kinds of crap in here, including cash. Not a great range of serial numbers, but I've managed to get and 'dip' enough different Benjamins that they'll hold up to cursory inspection if I want something big-ticket and they check. Bar doesn't care, though, so I spent a while pulling wads of cash out and throwing them at her and now I have a huge tab. I probably won't need to actually buy anything, though. Things are mmmmostly only useful to me if I can keep them, and she doesn't charge if you return the stuff, so..."

[whatamithinking]

"Oh, wow, that's fantastic. That sounds...can you copy magical objects or just mundane ones, do you know? I bet if you can copy magic stuff some of the things we have might be useful."

[onceandforall]

"I can't copy Grief Seeds. If I could my life would be a lot easier. I have to carry those the long way -" Her skirt pleats are hiding pockets. She pulls out a spiky little evil-looking thing. "And I can't store other puella magi's soul gems, which is terrible, because if I could I could bring some people looping with me, our magic suffices if charged up enough to build new bodies from scratch but it just doesn't work. Those are the only magical objects I have access to normally, and Bar can't sell magic stuff. Why, want something copied?"

[whatamithinking]

"I wonder if you can copy anything our transformations come with...somehow I imagine that if we had anything like that an extra would probably go away when we detransformed, but if you could copy, say, the Psyche Staff, you might find it useful."

[onceandforall]

"Quite possibly. I'm happy to try."

[whatamithinking]

Edie plucks a pair of what look like sticks or wands from where they rest over the backs of her forearms, and joins the wide ends together. The combined stick glows pale blue, and then lengthens and widens into a silver staff with a dark blue gemstone set into one end. "Depending on your size limits you probably want to try doing it as sticks, but this is the Psyche Staff. It has an autonomous blast attack that you can activate by thinking at it, and it reduces energy costs for any magic that has anything to do with the mind, and it increases your resistance to mind-affecting spells."

[onceandforall]

"Size limits is 'can it fit through this circle'. Does it usually work for people with no magic? I might not count as having magic correctly."

[whatamithinking]

"Even if you don't have any magic the blast and resistance should still work. Eventually if I don't recharge it it should run out of energy, but if you can just duplicate it maybe you can make a new full up one whenever."

[onceandforall]

"Well, batteries work that way, so we'll see." She takes the staff and pokes it at her shield.

[whatamithinking]

The staff goes in.

[onceandforall]

And she pulls it out again.

[whatamithinking]

"...I don't think that's quite the same thing."

[onceandforall]

"Rats. I can't get 'the original' out again, either, that's not how it works. You'll have another when you transform again, right? I didn't just wreck your magic weapon?"

[whatamithinking]

"Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's been broken before. Well, at least you have a source of star sapphire, I guess, that's technically what the stone's made of. It's not relevant to me because the thing disappears every time I detransform, but you could probably pawn it or something."

[onceandforall]

"Pawning's only useful if I want cash, and I'm stocked on that, but I might be able to bribe other puella magi who like shiny rocks or something."

[whatamithinking]

"True. I was thinking that it might help you diversify your serial number collection, but that's probably not a massive priority."

[onceandforall]

"Not really. It's not hard to rob an armored car if you have magic and can stop time. ...Yes I did watch Groundhog Day for inspiration."

[whatamithinking]

"I haven't seem that movie, so I wasn't going to comment."

[onceandforall]

"It's actually really good. He got all depressed about it, though. Probably because he was stuck in one town and only had a day."

[whatamithinking]

"...It actually wouldn't surprise me if I could leverage one or both of the mind spells into functionally bringing my sister with me, but if I couldn't do that I can't promise I wouldn't get depressed about a time loop. I can think of plenty of things to do with a town and a day, though, at least depending on the size of the town."

[onceandforall]

"I might get depressed about my time loop eventually, but I'm conservatively estimating that it'll take thousands of years. My ability to interact with my parents has... already taken a pretty serious hit... but I explained the whole thing to each of them a while back and they were understanding about the whole thing. I actually got their express permission to do all kinds of stuff I would have hesitated to do. My dad told me how to steal his gun, if I wind up in a position where I'm so low on magic I can't grab weapons out of my shield and I have to kill a monster by shooting at it in real time without transforming. It's sad that they're stuck with everyone else, but I'm an introverted only child without any really close friends so that's the biggest interpersonal problem I'm suffering. There's some other puella magi it would be great to bring with me, and I'm considering in the long term the option of cozying up to some prospectives and seeing if they can wish into my loop, but if something went wrong with that it'd be a disaster so I don't want to do it just for the in-the-know company."

[whatamithinking]

"Heh. You know, I bet my parents would react similarly? I wouldn't describe myself as introverted, exactly, but I don't have a lot of close friends besides my sister. If I could bring her along it kinda sounds like we'd end up being a lot like you."

[onceandforall]

"And you'd have a reasonable shot at it if you had the mind magic in addition to whatever was looping you, sounds like."