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]

"What are the added bonuses of having magical girls in particular work on it? Are you, like, role models with action figures who can get on Sesame Street, or are there people with spells that apply really well to some kind of direct action...?"

[whatamithinking]

"Mostly the former, but there's also the added factor that magical girl spells can be really hard to replicate. Impossible if you're not one, and even most magical girls don't have the dedication to orchestrate what spells they get. So any given magical girl who plays her cards right has a lot of resources to work with, without the caveat that people with resources like that usually come with that they came from privileged backgrounds to begin with to have gotten that far."

[onceandforall]

"Ooh. This might or might not be what you meant but what I'm hearing is 'if a magical girl plays her cards right she can be very, very rich'."

[whatamithinking]

"Oh, yeah. Not just that, but if you play your cards right...it takes time, it's not strange that I have the usual wealth for my native socioeconomic class at seventeen going on eighteen, but yes."

[onceandforall]

"I could, even sans counterfeiting, make a lot of money with magic, but we're all hidey. Maybe that'll change."

[whatamithinking]

"I'd keep hiding the gem-cleaning spell from the fluff a while longer, if you can do that without causing anyone to get unnecessarily hurt, but overall I've found the benefits of public magical girling in my world have significantly outweighed the disadvantages."

[onceandforall]

"Yeah, I need a plan to deal with the fluffs. They don't seem to consider being assholes to be a perk in its own right, but they don't value people. Even a little."

[whatamithinking]

"They don't have emotions. At all."

[onceandforall]

"I picked up on that. Which explains why they're using humans as their emotion fuel."

[whatamithinking]

"Yeah. Which kind of makes me wonder why they were bothering."

[onceandforall]

"Oh, one time one of them told me they're trying to avert the heat death of the universe, which I would buy as a noble motive if they weren't such manipulative assholes about it. Why they care about the heat death of the universe when they have no emotions, well - they have something that motivates them to act, it just isn't as warm-'n-fuzzy as their furball emissaries. I'm actually kind of optimistic that I can work out a peaceful compromise with them - 'here is your clean energy source which doesn't feed on human misery, now give me all your awesome technology and stop preying on teenage girls and I will hand it over'. Easier than trying to fight a space war or something."

[whatamithinking]

"Much easier, yes. Why the heat death of the universe is a priority now rather than a billion years from now I don't know, but--if they want to prevent that, why wouldn't they start with something like, I don't know, putting out some of the giant sky-fires that don't have inhabited planets? This whole thing sounds extremely inefficient."

[onceandforall]

"I actually asked them about astronomical waste too! They seem to be concerned about the heat death on a conceptual level, not a 'buying time' level. Humans are reportedly unique among species in the galaxy at least, possibly the universe, in having emotions, or at least fuel-grade emotions, and they weren't positive we'd still be there if they came back later."

[whatamithinking]

"It still seems odd...can they only use negative emotions? Because operating the world's most fun theme park and siphoning off the joy of visitors would be mildly creepy, but both more effective and less unethical than what they actually chose to do."

[onceandforall]

"It's more complicated than that. I haven't actually gotten one to give me a technical explanation - they don't lie exactly, or even outright refuse to answer questions, but they'll dumb everything down or tell you you won't understand stuff, sometimes - but from what I've pieced together the wishes are an active ingredient and it's something about the differential between 'holy shit, I just got granted a wish' and 'I am all out of everything and depressed as fuck'. I think they prefer if you get to the latter point via emotional downward spiral than by running out of magic - which does cause depression but in a less dramatic way and people vary in how well they cope with being low on charge - but either will do. I don't think they bothered checking to see if there were more ethical methods after determining that this one would be most efficient."

[whatamithinking]

"Okay, and at that point I know little enough about this system that any objections I might make are just ill-informed whinging. So these things are in fact completely amoral but not logically inconsistent."

[onceandforall]

"Yep."

[whatamithinking]

"I suppose I've gotten spoiled on people like Young Earth Creationists whose positions are as unscientific as they are toxic."

[onceandforall]

"Yeah, it'd be really convenient if the kyubeys were wrong about how to get what they want in some obvious way. But they don't seem to be so already so I have to show up with extradimensional powers and make them so that way."

[whatamithinking]

"Luckily, extradimensional powers are available!"

[onceandforall]

"Yep! Including an extradimensional power that will let me spend longer scouting for more!"

[whatamithinking]

"Yep!"

[onceandforall]

"This is a good day."

[whatamithinking]

"I sure wasn't expecting it to be when I got up this morning planning to fight a major boss villain but it really is!"

[onceandforall]

"I am sorry about the 'no outside business' rule, I didn't know about it and didn't think to check our plan with Bar."