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]

"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.

[ertia]

Well, that's a pleasant if partial distraction from her fear of the whole mind-sharing thing. She does not like the mind-sharing thing it is not pleasant she doesn't even have anything in particular to hide which makes her feel kind of silly for being so scared but she was scared anyway but it'll be over soon and oh gosh he's so pretty.

[first_and_final]

Well, if she's going to be mentally oversharing at least she's only sharing her reservations about the oversharing, which he already knew about, and how pretty she finds him, which was explicitly and repeatedly named as a precondition for this entire thing that is happening and therefore comes as no surprise to him at all—

And there it goes again. No more mental overshare.

"Well, that was relatively painless," says Milan. "Are you omnipotent now?"

[ertia]

"I -"

As soon as she has a thought she can tell the difference. Things around her twitch. Low momentum means lots of concentration and waiting time. Omnipotence means -

"I'm gonna have to be very careful," she says. "Ummmm."

Okay, first thing she wants is a more accustomed level of control. She doesn't need slow response times, but she does want her magic to respond to intention, not passing whim.

Affecting how you sorcer with sorcery is notoriously impossible.

She's omnipotent and does it anyway.

And then she laughs and laughs and laughs and hugs him tight.

[first_and_final]

The outrageously sparkly silver dragon giggles and carefully hugs back. With an outrageously sparkly silver wing.

[ertia]

There is no call to be so careful! Kithabel is impossible to injure! Snuggle.