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]

"Triangles, squares, pentagons, stars."

[I don't know about likely, but if he did, it wouldn't be a petty falling out where he'd move to Milwaukee and badmouth me to the neighbors. His interest in keeping me happy stands between him and serious mayhem. He is naturally inclined towards serious mayhem. Can I make it so he cannot come into direct physical contact with coins, and thereby can't make wishes? A very thin film of no-coins-allowed-beyond-this-point around his skin?]

[prima_sequentem]

"Stars," she repeats. "I like it."

[nonbird]

[Maybe,] says Lazarus. [His power wouldn't prevent it, anyway. Do you need direct physical contact...? Yes, I guess you do. What about when you make coins?]

[self_composed]

[When you make coins, they appear on your person, but I imagine I could design the film so it'd scoot them away faster than his reaction time,] Bella says. [He doesn't have my cognitive speedup. It'd be risky, I'd like a better idea or a supplementary one...]

"It seemed obvious," Bella says.

[nonbird]

[Can you make a wish directly, without coining it first?]

[prima_sequentem]

"It certainly is now that you mention it."

[self_composed]

[No. The action you take with the pain makes a coin; you can put it where you want, I used to appear them inside my socks so they wouldn't be noticeable. I tried turning pain into a wish instead of a wishcoin and it didn't work.]

"I do wish you'd tell me why you believe those to be dangerous," Bella sighs.

[prima_sequentem]

"Because they are," says Libby.

[self_composed]

"Have you used one?"

[prima_sequentem]

"I do wish you'd stop trying to pry information out of me that I don't want to give you."

[nonbird]

[Can coins break?] he wonders next, somewhat distracted from the original subject.

[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."