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Bella finds it.
"Alli!" she twines. "C'mere."
"You c'mere. Easier for you."
"No, you need to come look at this, seriously."
"Okay, fine, where are you?"
"Garage."
So Alli comes out to the garage. Their parents aren't home; Charlie's working, Renée is volunteering with some of the refugee kids at a shelter, trying to find which have parents who just wound up somewhere else, which need adopting, which are going to wind up coming of age adrift in the bursting-at-the-seams system. It's just them, not attending school, recovering.
"Whoa," says Alli. "So when you said you were at the garage, you meant that you were at the freakish restaurant that someone put in our garage."
"This isn't somebody's idea of remodeling," Bella says. "It's too big to be the garage."
"Do you think it's safe?"
"I think one of you should go in first, for sure."
"We don't actually know if I work that way," say two Alli voices, but Bella pushes one of them towards the door anyway.
Nothing happens.
The Allis converge, inside the bar. Bella follows.
point_b
whatamithinking
"It has a lake and a forest and a mountain in the distance. The lake's a bit cold, but otherwise good for swimming."
point_b
"Why not? They're certainly striking through the window and I assume if it was a functional vacuum it would slurp up the lake, so it would just be a view."
whatamithinking
"Okay, true, but the mental image you initially generated was one where you might go over the edge by accident."
whatamithinking
"If you go far enough you just sort of loop back around and end up in the general area again."
point_b
Bella goes out. Alli orders lunch.
Bella comes back. "My sense of place is very confused by the edges of that landscape."
Bella comes back. "My sense of place is very confused by the edges of that landscape."
whatamithinking
"Huh. Well, as long as it works. Of course, Milliways does go out of its way to be habitable and such."
point_b
Flicker and Verge stick around for a while longer, the former talking mostly to Bar and the latter playing cards with herself. Flicker collects a few more souvenirs to bring home, and eventually gemini, ashbot, and shopping bag all go home.
whatamithinking
"Oh, hello. Your alt and her twin left, but it hasn't been long enough for my sister or I to have slept."
whatamithinking
"I don't think the time-bendery is reliable enough for it to do that, aside from time not passing in your universe if the door's closed."
thinkering
"Yeah, but I'm a tinker. I'm a contingent systems tinker. I might be able to do something cool with it. I'll keep it in mind, anyway. Aaaand gonna try the door..."
The door doesn't go.
"I guess we've got a wait. I will try to use it to be less taxing on finances. Bar, can I have a nice cheerful sign that says, 'Custom Robots and Devices While You Wait' and in smaller print Materials $1,000-$35,000+ plus $1,250/hr labor or equivalent in portable magic, cannot be maintained by nonspecialists, some design restrictions apply?" Bar makes her a sign. "Thanks. Let's see who bites."
The door doesn't go.
"I guess we've got a wait. I will try to use it to be less taxing on finances. Bar, can I have a nice cheerful sign that says, 'Custom Robots and Devices While You Wait' and in smaller print Materials $1,000-$35,000+ plus $1,250/hr labor or equivalent in portable magic, cannot be maintained by nonspecialists, some design restrictions apply?" Bar makes her a sign. "Thanks. Let's see who bites."
whatamithinking
"I imagine you're a bit out of most peoples' price range there. But I'm not going to say you're overselling yourself, to be sure."