A Supermagnet, A Doctor, and A Twin Walk Into A Bar

[iamnotpolaris]

Milliways. Oh, bless.
Dr. Xavier could have finished her shift, made it home, and buried her head in a pillow if she had to. But this is much easier.
"Hi, Bar, can I have a stimulant that won't interfere with my judgement or dexterity or anything like that?"

Comments

[iamnotpolaris]

"Yeah. I guess I should have specified, I thought it was apparent from the surname."

[roc_on]

"It was, but only because I actually remembered your surname."

[iamnotpolaris]

"True. I suppose I shouldn't take that as a given."

[roc_on]

Beila shrugs. "Anyway, it sounds like things got mostly resolved, so that's good. I'm sort of a point person for major international instability and environmental threats - I had to calm down a supervolcano once, but it was actually really anticlimactic."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Wow. I think anticlimactic is the best possible outcome in that situation."

[roc_on]

"I mean, yes. But it doesn't even make a good story. One day all the elements acted oddly so I accidentally pulled my boyfriend into the spirit world with me and he had to carry me because I couldn't bend, and we found a supervolcano spirit, and I told it I would figure out who was bothering it and make them stop. And then I called in a competent earthbender to put a lid on a pit and told off the landlord, and everything was fine."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I think not having a supervolcano erupt is more important than having a good story."
Pretzel. Nom.

[roc_on]

"I agree with you. I would just have liked to have a good story on top of an unexploded supervolcano."

[iamnotpolaris]

"You could make something up!"

[roc_on]

"I'm just not the making things up type when I can avoid it."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Aversion to lying, or lack of creativity?"

[roc_on]

"First thing. I'm not exactly a bad liar, I'd just rather avoid it."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Fair enough. I'm not too fond of it either."

[roc_on]

Beila finishes her slush. "So what does one do in here besides meet extradimensional doctors?"

[iamnotpolaris]

"Drink interesting beverages, consume interesting foods, flee despotic governments although I doubt that one applies to you, purchase nifty objects, purchase nifty technology close enough to your current level to be reverse-engineerable while advanced enough to be worth reverse-engineering..."

[roc_on]

"My government is not despotic and if it were I would consider it entirely my job to fix that, not to run away. Technology sounds interesting; do you have tips on getting the right stuff?"

[iamnotpolaris]

"Ask Bar."

[roc_on]

"Bar?"

Your technology differs stylistically from that of most other worlds and you will have intercompatibility issues with many things I could provide, but you will probably be able to make particularly good use of more advanced batteries, certain materials engineering instructions, and possibly some insights into genetics. You will need to copy out any written materials from other worlds, as they will not stay translated once you leave.

"Good thing I brought my screen with me, then."

[iamnotpolaris]

"It helped in my case that my father's genius friend was nearby, so I could drag him in here, and he was going to be the person doing the reverse-engineering anyway."

[roc_on]

"Useful. I don't have anyone like that convenient at the moment."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I'm sure you can leverage your unChosen One powers to find someone appropriate."

[roc_on]

"Yes, but unfortunately it's late enough that I don't think the nuns who help me find people to do Avatar-related stuff are checking their screen messages."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Nuns?"

[roc_on]

"Nuns. From the Reconstructed Air Temple. I'm an Air Avatar - all the avatars learn all the elements, but in a different order, and we're born to families that would normally have produced different kinds of benders; my parents are different kinds, but the last avatar was a Fire Avatar so we're sure that I would have been an airbender, not an earthbender, if I weren't the avatar. And I'm a girl - that alternates except when it's a fire to air transition. And therefore my support system is nuns."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Ah, that makes sense."