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

[whatamithinking]

"Yeah. Different situations. ...I feel vaguely insensitive for acting jealous of your costuming situation, earlier, your magic sounds less pleasant on more levels than it doesn't."

[onceandforall]

"It's really cool magic. I resent the fuck out of the evil aliens, because they are manipulative little shits, but they put together a keen benefits package. I can transmute stuff and telekinesis stuff and turn pain off or down and jump around like a video game character and shoot energy beams. The magical ecosystem in which I am now participating is fucked, but all I have to do to fix that is defeat or possibly compromise in some way with an evil alien civilization."

[whatamithinking]

"I really wish I didn't have to worry about getting deleted. I bet using the mind magic on one of the aliens would be massively useful."

[onceandforall]

"If it worked. Like I said, hive mind, might mess up your spell."

[whatamithinking]

"Or it might give us access to everything their civilization knows. Either way we'll never know, I guess, because deletion risk is indeed a thing."

[onceandforall]

"Yeah."

[whatamithinking]

"I don't suppose there's any chance you could call one from the door...?"

[onceandforall]

"...You know I might be able to? Heck, evil-alien-relayed-telepathy doesn't even cost charge. And I could fill up a grief seed and throw it at the furball - they serve as a magic waste disposal system, part of how they collect their energy gains, if we don't give them the grief seeds when they're full they hatch into witches - and then I wouldn't have to spend my time in here carefully distributing my offload between the two of them so as to avoid hatching a witch in Milliways. ...I have considered hatching a witch in Milliways on purpose because supposedly Security here can handle anything, but I am not resolved that this is a good idea and anyway if I give up one seed I can still hatch the other. ...that's beside the point. You want a fluffy alien to interrogate?"

[whatamithinking]

"It sounds like the most helpful thing I could do at this point."

[onceandforall]

"Okay. I will see if Buffalo has any who will come running before someone notices me holding this door open."

She goes to the door and opens it. It opens onto a snowy fire escape in a city.

"Got one," she reports. "It'll take a few minutes."

[whatamithinking]

Fortunately, magical girl transformations give moderate protection from unpleasant temperatures.

"Are we going to have to pretend to be interested in becoming your kind of magical girl?"

[onceandforall]

"No. They hang around existing magical girls like me too, on request or just to be annoying, and you might not even have the potential for it, I don't know. Besides, they're physically harmless as long as you know their tricks, I'll pick it up and close the door and then I can put it wherever you need it to be. ...I should clarify that they are absolutely physically harmless to you two and the issue is that if I let it touch my soul gem it can hurt me that way unless I have pain off."

[whatamithinking]

"Aha. Okay, good to know."

[onceandforall]

"Oh, also you might not be able to see it."

[whatamithinking]

"...Oh?"

[onceandforall]

"They're invisible to most people most of the time. I'm not sure if it's an always-on effect so that only girls they could offer wishes to or who've taken same can see them, or if it's selective, but one can be sitting on my head in Times Square and nobody compliments me on my hat."

[whatamithinking]

"Huh. Well, that might interfere with the spell somewhat, but it doesn't actually require line of sight or anything..."

[onceandforall]

"Yeah - here it comes."

[alicornucopia]

Turns out they can see the alien. It traipses up the fire escape, catlike, and lets Bella pick it up and shut the door.

This isn't a witch's barrier, it remarks. What an unusual place.

It's so fluffy.

[iamnotpolaris]

"...You're so fluffy."

[onceandforall]

"D'you wanna pet it?"

[iamnotpolaris]

"You know what, sure."

[onceandforall]

Bella holds the furball in her direction. It is quite docile about allowing pets. It is very very soft.

[iamnotpolaris]

So soft! If Emily has any mixed feelings about petting the evil alien her sister is about to perform mind magic on it doesn't show.

[whatamithinking]

And...Mind Mirror.