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]

"...I guess not, although I would definitely want you to be quite sure, I can't un-read your mind in the same way a resurrected suicide can say 'thanks but no thanks'."

[no_return]

"It's not the kind of thing that's a big deal to me, and it seems like the fastest way for you to figure out if you trust me or not."

[ertia]

"Well, I suppose. Unless you're the sort of person power corrupts and I can't figure that out by looking because I've never read a mind before except briefly, involuntarily, and surface thoughts only."

[first_and_final]

"I can read his mind too and then we'll have two perspectives on the question," Milan suggests.

[ertia]

"That sounds like a useful extra layer of precaution, if Jewel doesn't mind..."

[no_return]

"Nah," he says cheerfully. "Go for it."

[ertia]

"I don't actually know how much momentum it takes to do, this isn't a conventional milestone or something I ever felt motivated to look up before," Kithabel says to Milan, "so if it turns out you aren't there yet I can probably just forward what I read to you."

[first_and_final]

"Yeah. Because you're omnipotent," he says fondly.

[ertia]

"And whose fault is that?" she grins.

She turns her attention to Jewel. Who the heck is this dude and what would he do with a planet and the power to travel to arbitrary other worlds and, generally, omnipotence?

[no_return]

Jewel is pretty much as advertised.

He was raised as a Career tribute, trained to kill in the arena so that he could volunteer at seventeen or eighteen when his chance of victory was highest, and knew from a very young age that fuck that noise. The exact plan took shape gradually over the course of his years in training. He played the role of a child-gladiator, learned every necessary skill, honed them to perfection, demonstrated his prowess in front of the judges impressively enough to earn the highest possible score... and then threw it all away with deliberate theatricality, leaving no doubt in anyone's mind that his death was a refusal to play the game even with all possible advantages on his side. That he died because he didn't want to kill anyone, not because he couldn't.

And now?

If they're serious about giving him a chance to take over the world... he can't turn that down. Or, more precisely, he won't. He has a choice, and he chooses to take responsibility for his country - or planet, if there are more people on it than he thought. He doesn't yet know what exactly he's going to do, but he knows what he wants: as many people as possible safe and happy and well-fed and leading flourishing lives. Even the ones he hates, if he can manage it. Under the unaccustomed pressure of potential omnipotence, hatred falls away with surprising ease. If he can do anything, then what he'll do is help.

[ertia]

"You having any luck?" Kithabel asks Milan.

[first_and_final]

"...Yep," he says, blinking. "Wow. Have I mentioned I like this guy's style?"

[no_return]

Jewel grins.

[ertia]

"I am impressed with the discernment of your whimsy," Kithabel remarks to Sherlock. "It's possible, though, that we can't actually omnipotence you, Jewel - requires a certain compatibility with a person who wants to at least temporarily turn into a dragon, installing the omnipotence has some mind-affecting effects that I predict may not bother you at all but might disturb candidate dragons, and I suspect that my omnipotence doesn't reach as far as determining dragon-compatibility in a foreign magic system so we'd be crossing our fingers and hoping a resurrected unicorn can do it. Maybe I can just open the door to that world and ask a unicorn if that's possible at all first."

[sicaria]

(Sherlock smiles.)

[first_and_final]

"Seems reasonable. Let's consult a unicorn."

[ertia]

Kithabel goes and stares down the door and pulls on it. Be that world with the unicorns because she says so, c'mon.

Hello, that world with the unicorns. She sticks her head out and looks around for unicorns in case the Wild Magic has anticipated her visit or something.

[speak_softly]

Instead of unicorns, there is this elf!

"I See you," she says to Kithabel.

[ertia]

"...I see you too. I need a unicorn, is there a unicorn handy or should I go find one?"

[speak_softly]

"That may depend on the purpose for which you need a unicorn," says the elf.

[ertia]

"I need to ask one whether unicorns can determine in advance whether and with whom someone is capable of Dragonbonding."

[speak_softly]

"If this need is urgent on the scale of the fate of worlds, you may expect a unicorn to be along shortly," she says. "Otherwise it is possible that you will have to find one yourself."

[ertia]

"Fate of worlds yes, but I'm not actually in a particular hurry."

[speak_softly]

"In that case I suppose it could go either way." She pauses consideringly, then adds, "My name is Rosheverel, Bonded to Saravasse."

[ertia]

"I'm Kithabel, Bonded to Milan over there," she aims a thumb over her shoulder.