delta v over delta t when there is no t

[ertia]

In a bar, there is a girl.

She looks like she has saved up all of her decadent and slothful impulses for a solid decade and is indulging them all at once. She is sprawled on a couch with a book she's only half-reading, and an ice cream sundae, and smiiiiiiling.

Comments

[first_and_final]

"Not mesmerizingly, no."

[alicornucopia]

"Well then, you don't get to have me, that's how it works, and I don't fancy marching another bunch of dragons into that cramped little bar to see if any of them strike your fancy better."

[first_and_final]

"Entirely reasonable of you."

[alicornucopia]

"I thought so. Anyway, it lets whoever has us do as much of their magic as they want, without the usual energy costs. Or in the case of elves, at all. It's a long story with the elves."

[first_and_final]

"Very handy. I'm not particularly in need of a dragon, as it happens, but I've got a friend who'd love that sort of advantage..."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh?"

[first_and_final]

"She's a sorceress likewise, and I for a number of reasons have probably the fastest-growing sorcerous momentum in the world, and she would like some of that but it isn't usually transferrable."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh. Well, we could see if she finds me mesmerizingly beautiful. It's a good idea to have multiple Bonded if possible so that if one dies I don't follow."

[first_and_final]

"...Perhaps I should hear more about this whole business first. People dying: generally not desirable."

[alicornucopia]

"Unbonded dragons live forever," explains the dragon. "Bonded ones die with our bondmate - one goes, the other's out too. But if we have two Bondmates at once - or I suppose possibly more - then if a Bondmate dies, the dragon needn't, and can find another Bondmate and chain forward like that indefinitely."

[first_and_final]

"What, er, happens if the dragon dies?"

[alicornucopia]

"Well, we're sort of hard to kill and this hasn't actually happened since we noticed the bondmate chaining thing a couple thousand years ago. But probably the bondmates die."

[first_and_final]

"That sounds inconvenient."

[alicornucopia]

"I'd imagine so, yes."

[first_and_final]

"If you'd like to meet Kithabel I can go find her and ask whether she wants to see if she finds you mesmerizingly beautiful. What is dragon-having like?"

[alicornucopia]

"Well, at first it's a little oversharey. That fades out a few minutes later and it boils down to being good at cooperating, especially with magic. Some empathy, for some pairs."

[first_and_final]

"Define 'oversharey'...?"

[alicornucopia]

"Mutual thought awareness. Not all your deepest secrets, unless your response to mutual thought awareness is to immediately think about all your deepest secrets."

[first_and_final]

Snort. "Very good to know, thank you. Oh, I've forgotten to introduce myself. I'm Milan."

[alicornucopia]

"Kiaver."

[first_and_final]

"Pleased to meet you."

[alicornucopia]

"Likewise. What-all do you do with your magic, anyway?"

[first_and_final]

"I solve problems! Do you have any problems in need of solving?"

[alicornucopia]

"Well, every few millennia the Dark shows up and Darks some things, and that's usually bad news... I'm not sure if that's the sort of problem you mean."

[first_and_final]

"Problems I have solved in the last week include: someone needed a road where there was not previously a road, so I made one, complete with bridge. There was a large fire in a medium-sized town and I put it out and restored some buildings that had burned down. Assorted changes to the weather. Assorted healing of injury, illness, and in one case infertility. Growing a garden. Stopping a flood."