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]

"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?"

[first_and_final]

"I'm not sure... all my memories of her are pre-vampire, I can't call any specific examples to mind, she's just the sort of person who I'm not surprised to hear might know things about overthrowing gods, sort of the same way I wouldn't be surprised to hear that about you if I didn't already have confirmation that you didn't."

[ertia]

"Ha. All right. So we have our information and the traded promise for it and you're going to be a mesmerizingly beautiful dragon now?"

[first_and_final]

"That seems like a plan, although if you want more time to consider in light of new information, go right ahead," says Milan.

[ertia]

"It probably wouldn't hurt," Kithabel admits. "But it's pretty much strictly less troubling than Kiaver would have been."

[first_and_final]

"We have the time."

[ertia]

"Mm-hm."

So Kithabel thinks.

And eventually she says, "Go ahead and mesmerize me."

[first_and_final]

"I think I'd like to be outside for the turning into a dragon part; I know dragons can fit in here, somehow, but it doesn't seem like it would be comfortable," says Milan.

Out the back door he goes.

[ertia]

She follows him.

[first_and_final]

And he...

...turns into a mesmerizingly beautiful dragon.

He keeps the ever-present sparkle, now applied to resplendent silver scales. He is pretty small for a dragon, smaller than any they've met today, but not by much. His wings arch from his back and catch the light and scatter it in every direction; the translucent membranes cast dazzled half-shadows on the grass of the lakeshore. The long curve of his tail gleams like crystallized fire.

It's a bit much, but in kind of a glorious way.

He looks down at Kithabel with beautiful silver eyes and says, "...I'm still sparkling, aren't I."

[ertia]

"Yeah."

[first_and_final]

"That's mildly embarrassing." He folds his wings. "...So, the magic vampire crush is... less, I'm going to go with less, like I'm not a vampire anymore but I still very much have—"

—a crush on her. Oh, there it goes.

The main thought in Milan's head during the brief flash of mental overshare is: fucking finally. He has been waiting far too long for Kithabel to get her due share of outrageous cheating. Kithabel deserves all the outrageous cheating she wants, because she is great.