welcome to the chessboard

[self_composed]

Bella stockpiles hexes.

She already has a ridiculous number, but she wants so many that if it seems most expedient to individually do some manner of hex-magic to every cubic inch of space in her dorm room, she can and still have a ridiculous number left. She wants enough that if Libby turns out to be a particularly dab hand at extortion, to the point where paying up is her best bet, Bella can keep gritting her teeth and handing over tribute up until the point where even this person will believe that this is all there could ever be - and still have a ridiculous number. She wants her ridiculous numbers to have ridiculous numbers.

What does she have?

An Alice. She has one of those.

And she can use what she has to get what she wants, late into the night, hexily disassembling her body's dependence on sleep, and till she should start thinking about catching up on the internet and heading to class.

Comments

[nonbird]

[Actually... what sorts of things could I do with a pentagon?]

[self_composed]

[Learn to speak Swahili or play the oboe or kick ass at Ultimate Frisbee or cook like a deity or do awesome parkour tricks? Make a neat magic device like my bike, only please nothing conspicuous because I don't want it to be too blatantly obvious to Libby that I'm passing you coins?]

[nonbird]

[I would like some pentagons, please,] he requests. [I'll spend them all on languages.]

[self_composed]

Bella sends him twenty.

[nonbird]

About thirty seconds later: [Can I have some squares, too, actually?]

[self_composed]

[Are you out? Sure.] She gives him twenty of those too.

[nonbird]

[Learning languages with magic feels like cheating,] he reports, after another minute or two. [And the amount of magic a pentagon spends on who-knows-what is the same as the amount of magic a square spends on doing its actual job.]

[self_composed]

[That's interesting... does a hex send a pentagon-sized amount wherever-it-goes?]

[nonbird]

[I think so. I might as well take that perfect memory now; I seem to keep needing it.]

[self_composed]

Bella sends him a hex, tapping her fingers on her knee with intent impatience.

[nonbird]

Very, very shortly afterward: [Yes. And looking back at triangles, I don't think they spend any extra at all. But a square spends a triangle's worth of mystery magic.]

[self_composed]

[That's very peculiar. I wonder what the mystery magic could be doing.]

[nonbird]

[I still can't figure that part out,] he admits.

[self_composed]

[It's not contributing to the wish. Is it just... waste magic? Released to no effect at all? A natural inefficiency of the coining process?]

[nonbird]

[I don't think so?] he says. [I do get a certain sense of... futility from it. But I'm not sure how reliable that impression is.]

[self_composed]

[Futility,] repeats Bella. [So it's... doing something pointless? Doing a tiny amount of work towards an astronomical task? Doing something that will be undone?]

[nonbird]

[I can't quite tell.]

[self_composed]

Bella hefts a length of her bandolier. She spends a pentagon to tell her what the rest of the pentagon is doing.

Doesn't go. Hex won't, either. Coins are not very good at directly learning information, or maybe they're not good at recursion.

[What would you need to look at to learn more?]

[nonbird]

[I might need to watch more different people doing magic, in case it has something to do with the caster.]

[self_composed]

[You can come lurk by the magic door and Alice and I can come up with stuff to do,] Bella suggests.

[nonbird]

[Will do.]

But first, he should probably put on some pants.

[self_composed]

[Alice, what fun things can you think of to do with coins of various sizes so Lazarus can watch magic do stuff?] Bella asks.

[edgeofyourseat]

[...Define fun,] he says, giggling. Because he can think of lots, but the first ten or so items that come to mind probably aren't things Lazarus would enjoy watching.

They could always create a rain of jelly beans. Invisible jelly beans. And then clean them up afterward.

[self_composed]

[Rain of jellybeans and subsequent cleanup is a couple pentagons. If you're low on fabric or anything this would be a good time to do some batches of conjuration. I think I'll add super-speed - to match my brain's version of same. And if we need something else I may want to gain the power to become insubstantial. And I haven't learned all the languages there are yet.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[I love you,] Alice says cheerfully, and makes his way to the appropriate magic door.