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]

"Kinda, yeah. I'm not even positive I'll keep it, since it sounds like it applies to the body, but it's worth a go."

[ragexserenity]

"Very well."

He doesn't do anything visible, but after a moment, Bella's whole body begins tingling. A moment after that, it intensifies, with an extra helping in her eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and the most sensitive places on her skin.

[onceandforall]

"Wow, warn a girl."

[ragexserenity]

"...Sorry." He looks vaguely uneasy.

[onceandforall]

"It's okay, just tingly."

[mutatis_mutandis]

"What's tingly?" Charlotte asks, coming back in wearing a circlet with a blue stone in the front.

[onceandforall]

"The spell."

[mutatis_mutandis]

"Which one?" she asks, closing the door behind her.

[onceandforall]

"I don't know, he didn't actually say, for all I know the painkiller feels like nothing and he cast before it without me noticing."

[mutatis_mutandis]

"...Ah."

[ragexserenity]

"The painkiller and the ensorcering."

[onceandforall]

"It's very tingly."

[ragexserenity]

"Good."

[onceandforall]

"Thanks, by the way."

[ragexserenity]

"You're welcome."

[mutatis_mutandis]

"So I assume you'll want a copy of everything too...Bar, what's the best memory-to-volume-ratio computer you can give me with an intuitive interface?"

[alicornucopia]

Standards for intuitiveness vary crossculturally. Possibly the best fit as described would be one with a psionic attachment but it may be that this does not meet your needs.

[mutatis_mutandis]

"I can psionically attach to it myself regardless of interface. It should be intuitive for Bella."

[alicornucopia]

Aha. And Bar produces a slender tablet.

[mutatis_mutandis]

Charlotte turns it on and pokes at it to make sure she has a good idea of what corresponds to what. "And...I have no idea how to meaningfully ask for the Lost Wisdom of the Ancients. Obviously there's too much literature produced by an entire civilization to to reasonably fit inside a bar."

[alicornucopia]

It would present a tight fit.

[mutatis_mutandis]

"Well, how were the other two kinds of magic created? No, wrong question, artifact creation would be a large number of interrelated things, possibly its own field of study, not a monolithic event. What can you tell me about how magical girls came to be?"

[alicornucopia]

Not very much. It was an intensely classified procedure and I'm limited to material that has been in some sense 'published'.

[mutatis_mutandis]

"Dang. Can you at least tell me who it was classified by?"

[alicornucopia]

No.