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]

And Edie reaches for the door. And then stops.

"Wait. This door currently leads to the throne room of a major villain."

[onceandforall]

"That... would tend to be a problem. I mean, you said the vision was instant...? Alternately, hold the door and taunt the villain in here and make Security deal with it."

[whatamithinking]

"...That is actually a really good idea!"

[iamnotpolaris]

"I volunteer to hold the door, as opposed to playing bait."

[onceandforall]

"And I'd rather not run down my charge if it's all the same to you so I'll stand out of sight of the door and hope you don't need me."

[whatamithinking]

"Sounds about right. Oh, hang on, let me detransform and retransform so I can have the Psyche Staff." Between one breath and the next, her outfit is covered with shimmering lights, and then she is wearing a perfectly ordinary t-shirt (for a band Bella does not recognize) and jeans. She grimaces.

[whatamithinking]

Then, taking a deep breath, she places the first two fingers of her right hand against her temple, props the left one on her hip, assumes a cheerful expression, and exclaims, "Truth and Beauty of a Magical Mind, Activate! Fervor and Will of an Impassioned Soul, Come Forth!" Her body is enveloped in the same lights that had accompanied her return to normal, she lifts up off the ground, and spins in place while waves of stronger light pass over her body, leaving her magical girl outfit in place of her street clothes behind them. The lights vanish, and she drops to the floor in a crouch, before rising to her feet and pointing imperiously at nothing in particular. "In the name of Love and Equity, I arrive to right the wrongs of a distorted heart! The Psychic Maiden, Cerebella is here!"

[onceandforall]

"If I get to be a this kind of magical girl I'm only ever doing that crap while time stopped. You poor thing."

[iamnotpolaris]

[whatamithinking]

"...It's not as much of a liability as it looks like. I'm nigh-indestructible while I'm glowing like that. But it is not the most dignified thing ever, no."

[onceandforall]

"Oh, I meant purely for embarrassment reasons." Bella goes over to the fireplace, out of sight of the door.

[whatamithinking]

"It's less embarrassing when there's a whole community of other people similarly afflicted, but yeah." She plucks the sticks from her forearms and makes the Psyche Staff.

[iamnotpolaris]

And Emily opens the door.

[whatamithinking]

And Edie dashes through, firing a blast from her staff almost as soon as she's through. A few minutes later, after some careful maneuvering, she tumbles through the door again, with a man in heavy golden armor bearing down on her with an improbably sized, improbably made-of-gold-looking sword that is prevented from carving her in half by the Psyche Staff being held in both of her hands. It's holding up admirably under the strain.

[iamnotpolaris]

And Emily closes the door.

[alicornucopia]

"That had better not be FIGHTING in the MAIN BAR AREA," says an indignant voice from off to Bar's right. "You have until I get out there to TAKE IT OUTSIDE, BACK HOME, OR UPSTAIRS. FIVE FOUR THREE TWO ONE STUPEFY."

Someone in very witchy robes and hat has just marched out of the Security office and nipped the villain in the chest.

For good measure she Stupefies Edie too.

"Either of you two making trouble?" she asks Emily and Bella.

[onceandforall]

"No ma'am. Ask Bar."

[iamnotpolaris]

Emily very firmly represses the urge to make an Innocent Face. Nothing is more suspicious than an Innocent Face.

[alicornucopia]

The witchy person goes up to Bar, asks for her statement, gravely reads the napkins she receives, and then trusses up the villain with magical ropes and floats him. Edie she wakes up with a wand-tap and "ennervate", but regardless she says, "That's an hour subjective for you, young lady, bringing outside grievances into the bar. Him I'll hold until you've left, but don't you do that again. Follow me."

[whatamithinking]

"...Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am," she says, sounding respectful and genuinely contrite. She follows docilely.

[alicornucopia]

The Security lady puts her and the villain in separate cells in a holding area, otherwise empty. It is boring in there. She sits behind a desk, props her feet up, and reads a magazine entitled Witch Weekly.

[onceandforall]

"I didn't know there was a separate rule about that," Bella apologizes. "Probably should have run this plan past Bar first."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Probably. But, hey, you've still got me to hold the door, so..."

[onceandforall]

"Yeah. Would you?"

[iamnotpolaris]

"Edie wouldn't want her hour's imprisonment to be in vain." She opens the door.