Most Likely A Refuge

[whatamithinking]

It was probably safe.

The bar was...unusually reticent, in the lower layers of her mind (and she hadn't pried further; she wasn't sure if she'd be noticed; she wasn't sure if offending would get her kicked out, and regardless of whether it was actually safe it was safer than anywhere else she'd been for the past...three years?) so she couldn't be sure this place wasn't really a trap of some kind, but the higher layers gave a plausible explanation that didn't involve being a trap, and whatever else it was warm and dry and had food. Her guard was probably a full 25% down. Positively trusting, these days.

Comments

[onceandforall]

"I mean, if you wreck it you buy it."

[whatamithinking]

"...Does Bar even care if she gets it back broken? Worth checking."

[onceandforall]

"She doesn't care care, but she'll still put it on your tab."

[whatamithinking]

"I might ask anyway, about chunks of iron or whatever that would only be good for scrap anyway so it wouldn't matter how many pieces it was in so long as the mass was the same."

[onceandforall]

"I don't know her policy on that."

[whatamithinking]

She shrugs and heads back inside, repeating her query to Bar.

[alicornucopia]

If shapeless hunks of metal will serve, then I will not add to your tab if they are differently shapeless when returned.

[whatamithinking]

"That will do fine, thanks."

[alicornucopia]

Bar produces a heap of shapeless hunks of metal.

[whatamithinking]

And Edie...will haul them outside one at a time with her unaugmented strength, because if there's one thing besides despair living through five years of apocalypse will teach you it's stubbornness.

[onceandforall]

"...Do you want help with that?"

[whatamithinking]

"Sure, if you're offering."

[onceandforall]

Telekinesis!

[whatamithinking]

Oh, cool.

And when the metal is all set up it can learn that it is susceptible to vigorous petaling.

[onceandforall]

It will learn this lesson, yes indeed.

[whatamithinking]

"...Thanks. To both of you. And--I'm sorry, again, for--at the beginning." She looks at the somewhat scrappier scrap metal. "I think I had better get this stuff back to the Bar and then go home."

[onceandforall]

"Good luck."

[whatamithinking]

"Well, unless I'm drastically mistaken about what this spell can do, Iiiii'm about to go kill the Sentinel I was trying to hide from when I ducked in here."

[onceandforall]

"Enjoy."

[whatamithinking]

"Oh, I will. The one good thing about this situation is that the use of nonsapient machines to carry out the slaughter means I don't have to restrain my vengeful impulses one bit."

[onceandforall]

Snort.

[whatamithinking]

"...Would you and your handy telekinesis help me haul this back in?"

[onceandforall]

"Sure." Haul haul.

[whatamithinking]

And once it has been confirmed that this is all of it she returns to her world to invite extreme prejudice upon some Sentinels.

[onceandforall]

And Bella sits back down next to Not-Thorny Edie.