a city and a mint who sleep very little between them

[self_composed]

Bella bikes to the airport on Friday. She gets a little reading done on her flight, then sleeps-on-purpose through the remainder of the trip, waking up precisely when the plane touches down. One nice bonus that she didn't even explicitly build into the power is that she can sleep at will in virtually any position; she doesn't have to get comfy if that's not convenient.

She steps off the plane, backpack full of her things over her shoulders, and stalks into the halls of LaGuardia, eyes peeled for Libby.

Comments

[self_composed]

[I don't know. Do you have some left? Want to try it for me?]

"Yes, well, I wish the set of such pieces of information were dramatically smaller," says Bella.

[prima_sequentem]

"You've made that very clear."

[nonbird]

[I am somewhat worried about what would happen if I managed it,] he says. [And no.]

[self_composed]

[Alice, will you carefully - reporting to me each step - see if coins are breakable?] Bella asks. He probably won't even ask why this experiment is worth doing. [Triangles. See if triangles are breakable. Lazarus can't tell by looking.]

Bella sighs heavily. "So how'd you know you didn't just miss another mint who gave us our magic?" Bella asks.

[edgeofyourseat]

[Sure!] he says. [One sec, though, cookies.]

[prima_sequentem]

"Because I don't think I missed any mints," says Libby.

[self_composed]

"You didn't get my name or my friend's off your map-or-globe-or-atlas-or-whatever. Maybe there's someone else you didn't get at all."

[Of course. Cookies first.]

[prima_sequentem]

"You keep pushing this idea," she says. "Why?"

[edgeofyourseat]

[Cookies are tasty. Broken coins are not tasty. What do I even try? I could hit one really hard with a hammer, I guess.]

[self_composed]

"Five mints is not very many mints," Bella says. "I expected there to be more."

[Try hitting one with a hammer if you like, try wishing one broken with others of various sizes,] Bella instructs.

[edgeofyourseat]

[Sure thing. What's all this about, anyway? Just thought of it and wanted to know?]

[prima_sequentem]

"If all mints are as reluctant to make more mints as the mints I know, and there weren't that many to begin with, five is a pretty reasonable number."

[self_composed]

[Lazarus asked and is nervous to try it himself,] Bella says.

"Perhaps I should make some more," she replies.

[prima_sequentem]

"I'd really rather you didn't," says Libby. "Failing that, I'd really rather you did it cautiously. You are, as you've mentioned, insufficiently paranoid."

[self_composed]

"Caution is a definite yes," Bella agrees.

[prima_sequentem]

"Good to know. I don't suppose there's any chance you'll run your candidates by me?"

[self_composed]

"It'll depend on the candidate, I imagine," Bella shrugs. "You're not introducing me to all your friends."

[prima_sequentem]

"You're not claiming special expertise in judging people, and I'm not doing anything that might need it."

[self_composed]

"Well," Bella says. "I don't have anyone in mind right now. Perhaps I will never run across such a person."

[edgeofyourseat]

[Hammer doesn't do it,] Alice reports. [Neither does a hex.]

[prima_sequentem]

"Don't get me wrong, if you run across someone who genuinely should be a mint, I have no problem with you making them one," she says. "I just don't have a lot of faith in your ability to tell."

[self_composed]

"Your criterion being mostly about blowing up the world?" Bella asks.

[Interesting,] Bella tells Alice, [thank you,] and she says to Lazarus, [Hex will not break so much as a triangle. Is that relevant to my backup plan notion, or a side question?]

[nonbird]

[Side question. I have no idea what to do about your backup plan. Can't hurt to know more things, though.]

[prima_sequentem]

"Ideally, every mint should be a person who absolutely won't blow up the world," she says. "Less risk that way. And also someone who won't, say, conquer the world and add all dissenters to their collection of carefully preserved human skulls. That sort of thing."

[self_composed]

"Ew," says Bella, wrinkling her nose.

[Agreed,] she tells Lazarus. [Knowing things is good. I think my current emergency protocol is the film thing, then. It would also make Alice less miserable than my other idea, which is a fine side effect as long as the goal of safety is accomplished.]