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]

"Oh well. I'll deal. I've got all the time in the world."

[whatamithinking]

"Yeah."

[onceandforall]

"What's the story behind the guy who's currently cooling his heels in Security, anyway?"

[whatamithinking]

"Magical Girls aren't the only kind of magic in our world. There are magicians, who use formulas and things to harness raw magical force, and artifact users, who get specific powersets from specific magical objects. The Gem Guardians, of whom the Golden Diamond General is the strongest, are a quartet of artifact users who are the lieutenant of a magician who calls himself the Obsidian Magus, which just goes to show it's not just magical girls who are over-the-top about these kinds of things. I'm not sure what it is he's trying to accomplish, exactly, but I think it involves a lot of really unethical magic science." She sighs. "The Black Opal Guardian--wasn't there willingly."

[onceandforall]

"Oh dear. ...Where do the artifacts come from?"

[whatamithinking]

"Every now and then a set or a lone one turns up from some kind of ruins or something. No one really knows where they come from originally."

[onceandforall]

"Weird. ...What happened to the Black Opal Guardian?"

[whatamithinking]

"We didn't have to kill her. They arrested her. She let me do some mind magic to prove she wasn't working for the Obsidian Magus willingly, so I'm going to testify on her behalf at the trial."

[onceandforall]

"It's admissible in court and everything?"

[whatamithinking]

"If it's ever learned I magically perjured myself under oath the consequences are really, really nasty. But yes, the result of information-gathering magical girl spells, consensual application of mindreading counted therein, have been admissible as witness testimony since 2005."

[onceandforall]

"...What year is it by you?"

[whatamithinking]

"2017."

[onceandforall]

"My loop's in 2005."

[whatamithinking]

"Huh. Well, it's not that surprising that Milliways can pull people from different years."

[onceandforall]

"Not at all, I knew that, I just hadn't realized you were close but not that close."

[whatamithinking]

"I'm trying to remember 2005 but most of what I can recall isn't directly relatable to the year."

[onceandforall]

"And I mean, you would have been six, which is a little weird all by itself."

[whatamithinking]

"Not that I imagine you need the reminder but if you have a six-year-old me in your world don't flirt with her."

[onceandforall]

"I won't. If you have a thirty-year old me in yours... go for it if you feel like it, I guess?"

[whatamithinking]

"Pfff. Maybe when I'm older."

[onceandforall]

"Entirely fair."

[whatamithinking]

"Given what I know of you, if there's a thirty-year-old version of you in my world I've probably heard of her. Just not as Bella, and she wouldn't necessarily have anything to do with jewels."

[onceandforall]

"I wasn't gonna say it... but yeah I was thinking that."

[whatamithinking]

"Well, of course."

[onceandforall]

Giggle. "I am a motivated and power-hungry beastie."