bugbear

[shesepankh]

Bella amasses a spreadsheet full of runes. She learns enough about programming to store them a bit more elegantly than that and get the program to make suggestions that do various results. Doesn't have a GUI wrapper, but it works for the part that is about choosing runes and sizes, if not laying them out - that still has to be done by hand.

Invisibility is going to be very popular with monsters who want to go out in the world.

As far as scrolls are concerned: Xeroxing them doesn't work. Carbon paper does, even on gray paper where the runes are barely visible for intellectual property reasons, and tracing a xeroxed copy also works fine; a simple spell takes about five minutes to make a stack of four. The spells are available in French and Spanish. There isn't a huge selection to start. But it's something.

They give Angela an after-school job tracing them according to demand so they have more time to discover additional runes and work out additional spells, and they put up fliers in the Avalon advertising a mail-order service.

Bella gets a car. It's a beat-up station wagon, but it works.

Bella has a small business, a vehicle, and a long-term career plan.

She sets about making arrangements to skip the eleventh grade, and Darren follows suit.

The two of them are adorably attached to each other. There is a lot of kissing. Savannah teases them a lot and Bella messes with her and Darren blushes.

By the time summer vacation starts, they have a stabilized price point, sufficient regular buyers, enough repertoire, and a nest egg of money that permit them to rent a small storefront and hire a teenage griffin to sell scrolls in the Avalon. They are on their way out (Savannah accompanying for kicks, Bella driving) to seal the deal and drop off a batch of inventory. Bright and early.

Comments

[shesepankh]

"Because it betrays a lack of self-examination or because of retroactive impatience to get on with mentioning it or what?"

[castmyown]

"First one, kind of. It's like I missed a variable and now I'm annoyed at myself for missing it because for a long stretch of time the rest of the problem was wrong."

[shesepankh]

"Are you a math problem?"

[castmyown]

"... If I am I am the most ambulatory one of all time," laughs Darren. "It's an easy way to think about my head? I guess?"

[shesepankh]

"How peculiar. What kind of math problem?"

[castmyown]

"It's... Hmmm. A really complicated giant math problem? Where I weigh things that I have and their uses and how important they are to me or my goals. Then I combine certain parts of it to get what something is worth to me both resource and emotional wise and then I file it into mental priorities. So I guess it's also like a spreadsheet? And a math problem?"

[shesepankh]

"Huh. I mean, I do that, but it's all extremely verbal and felt out, not numerical at all."

[castmyown]

Nod. "Mine's numerical. I mean there are - non-numerical parts of it, but I do tend to look over those and give them a value in comparison to other things. With numbers."

[shesepankh]

"Can I have examples?"

[castmyown]

"Okay, well, what sorts of examples do you want me to give? Like - what do you want me to aim for? A lot of the time it's with a goal in mind, but once I've worked out the values for those I reuse them later."

[shesepankh]

"Mostly I want an idea what sort of scale you're working with, since I imagine it's relative value and not absolute that makes the Darren-spreadsheet behave. If I am very important does that make me worth fifty points or fifty million or what?"

[castmyown]

He giggles at 'Darren-spreadsheet.'

"Yeah, it's relative. I don't like having large numbers just to have large numbers, they're annoying to work with, so - fifty instead of fifty million. You are very much above average at a solid 37.4. I can break down why you have this number?"

[shesepankh]

"Ooooh yes. Why am I thirty seven point four, do tell."

[castmyown]

"Well there's math and reasoning behind all of these numbers, but - seven point six for intelligence and general sense-making. A solid ten for aiming it in the right direction, as in, fixing the world. Three and a half because you are systematic about it and things in general. Six point eight because I am dating you and there are reasons for that and they are good ones. Six point five because you are a super magic fairy princess and that has proven to be very, very useful. Two because you do not go about the sorts of things that you want in an immoral way. Then the last is the token point I give every sentient being ever just for being alive."

[shesepankh]

"You have all this memorized? And morality is only two points compared to nearly seven for dating you?"

[castmyown]

"I would not be dating you if you were not moral," points out Darren. "It's not actually just because I am dating you, it's because you are the sort of person I would date, and am, in fact, dating. I'm kind of picky. The numbers are kind of memorized, I was approximating them a bit, in my head they're more fluid. Besides, yours are pretty easy, I think about you a lot. If you wanted me to spit out the numbers for say, Mike, I would need time to think because I don't think about him very much."

[shesepankh]

Nuzzle. "Awwww."

[castmyown]

Darren smiles and nuzzles back. "Also, your boyfriend is a nerd. I hope you're not surprised by this development."

[shesepankh]

"Not a bit. It's great."

[castmyown]

He snickers. "Was it the math problems that made you think so?"

[shesepankh]

"Nope. I already thought it."

[castmyown]

"Awww. Thanks." Snuggle.

[shesepankh]

Snuggle. "I am extremely fond of you, you may have noticed. And you are a huge nerd, so if it was a minus, I could not be nearly so fond of you."

[castmyown]

He giggles and nuzzles her. "Thank you for loving me and my nerdy, nerdy ways."

[shesepankh]

"You are welcome."