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

[ertia]

"And unicorns will definitely... work... even if we resurrect Tialle in another world or something."

[first_and_final]

"Unicorns extremely work," says the unicorn.

Milan snorts.

[ertia]

"Good for unicorns. Okay, the major problems I'm foreseeing are still extraneous Bondmates... and the possibility that Milan dies and I don't, because I could get him back but resurrection does start you at zero momentum. I'll come back omnipotent regardless if I have a dragon Milan but he won't have that advantage. But this was sort of already a problem and is not a special dragon-related problem."

[first_and_final]

"I can cheat hard enough at acceleration that I won't mind too badly if I have to start over one day," says Milan. "Although - can the Wild Magic tell which of my properties would survive resurrection?"

"The thing that hurts and makes you very fast is really stubborn about staying with you," says the unicorn. "The sparkly magic healing thing that makes you almost impossible to kill in the first place is almost but not quite that stubborn and you might have to become the thing that is why you are sparkly again in order to get it back if you died, but just turning into a dragon won't budge it."

"The thing that is why I am sparkly is called being a vampire," Milan supplies.

[ertia]

"Is the Bondmates thing all vision based? If both parties are turned invisible and then kept separated...?"

[first_and_final]

"You find out you are going to Bond when you look at someone and they are prettier than a unicorn," says the unicorn, who is indeed very but not quite mesmerizingly pretty. "Then if you look in their eyes you Bond. It would work differently for someone who didn't have eyes or couldn't see at all, but if you don't look in someone's eyes and don't spend hours or days staring at them you won't Bond."

"Okay," says Milan.

[ertia]

"So we could potentially avoid it entirely with quickly applied invisibility both ways and then having me run interference."

[first_and_final]

"Yes," says the unicorn.

"If I meet anyone else I'm able to Bond to, I would definitely appreciate the chance to get to know them, via intermediaries if necessary, before they become potentially omnipotent and able to control me with their mind," says Milan.

[ertia]

"Yeah. And you can do that whisper thing that amuses you, or give them your own equivalent of my wooden beads, just don't gaze at them," Kithabel says. "Plenty of reaction time, right? What with Milan being so fast?"

[first_and_final]

"Milan is extremely fast and does not at all have to worry about his reaction time."

"Good to know," says Milan.

[ertia]

"So just... don't be distracted by any mesmerizing beauty other than mine, I guess. I think this is our concerns all worked out? Any other warnings from the Wild Magic?"

[first_and_final]

"The Wild Magic says..." The unicorn frowns in concentration. A frowning unicorn is quite a sight. "...that Milan has a big important goal that's as important as ending the Dark, and the Wild Magic could tell you something about that, but it would be very hard for the Wild Magic to say the thing, so it wants Milan to promise first that if you resurrect Tialle you'll take her to the world with the resurrection magic first and get her some of it to send her home with so she can get a Dragonbond and be omnipotent."

"...I'm inclined to take that deal," says Milan. "I assume it's talking about me going home and overthrowing the gods?"

"That sounds right."

"And it has something useful to say about that?"

"Yes. But it's hard for it to tell me the thing for complicated Wild Magic reasons so it wants the promise of an omnipotent unicorn in return. And I guess Tialle is a good unicorn to make omnipotent."

[ertia]

"We haven't met her. What if we meet her and don't want to make her omnipotent?"

[first_and_final]

The unicorn swishes his tail. "Well, if you promise to make her omnipotent and then you don't want to I guess you can just break your promise, but that wouldn't be very nice."

"Making the wrong person omnipotent isn't very nice either, but I take your point," says Milan.

[ertia]

"Do you want a promise to make her omnipotent immediately...? Or can we have a while to think about which option is less nice?"

[first_and_final]

"The Wild Magic just asked you to promise to make her omnipotent, it didn't say anything about when or how fast," says the unicorn.

"Fair enough," says Milan. "Kithabel, what do you think? Should I go for it?"

[ertia]

"It seems to add up that way..."

[first_and_final]

"Then sure. I promise that I will make Tialle omnipotent if and when I resurrect her."

"And that you actually will resurrect her if you need a unicorn when there isn't an alive one available, and not weasel out of it by not doing that. The Wild Magic didn't quite tell me to say that part but it seems like a good idea," says the unicorn.

"Sure, that too."

"Then the Wild Magic says..."

The unicorn trails off. Milan waits.

"...That if you want to know if you can do the thing yet, you should... this is really weird... you should wait in this place for the person from your world who teaches stabbing and she can tell you," says the unicorn.

"The person from my world who teaches stabbing?" says Milan incredulously.

[ertia]

"Is stabbing commonly taught in your world...?"

[first_and_final]

"I mean, yes, it is, we just don't normally call it that... are you referring to Jillian Callahan?"

"Yes, the Wild Magic says that's right," says the unicorn.

"Jillian Callahan can tell me when I'm ready to overthrow the gods?!"

"Apparently!"

[ertia]

"Somebody you know?"

[first_and_final]

"She's a martial combat teacher at my university. I wasn't aware she had useful advice on the subject of overthrowing the gods."

[ertia]

"That... does seem like a weird combination."

[first_and_final]

"...It's not as big a surprise as it could be," he admits.

[ertia]

"Why not?"