autokinetic: (evaluating)
Author: autokinetic
There are three Bells in Milliways.

They want a fourth. A fifth. A sixth. A seventh.

And then Downside is going down.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Okay, says Sue, I'll give it a shot.

He looks around.

...Where's the door?
she_sells_seashells: (irked)
Author: she_sells_seashells
Where is the door? That's weird. Well - can you 'port there? Do you remember the place well enough?
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
He tries it.



...Well, I found 'em all right...
dark_light: (seriously?)
Author: dark_light
"Ack!"

No nudity taboo, maybe, but that doesn't extend as far as you might think. (It does mean Amariah doesn't bother to square on her silks, just pulls herself out from under Kas.

"What are you doing here? How'd you get here?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Sue laughs.

"Sorry, guys! I just - fuck it," he says, and tries linking her. This will be a lot easier if he can catch her up the fast way.
dark_light: (squinting)
Author: dark_light
Amariah's birth blessing is unlike Juliet's insubstantiality; she folds in just fine.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
He hits her with his best summary and displays her to the rest of the group.
dark_light: (fascinated)
Author: dark_light
Okay, says Amariah, processing, so we set up Jane here and she can put me in Milliways to join the party? Hit me, I've got coins going spare to conjure the hardware and hook her up.
truthwright: (⑷ sweet sweet thing)
Author: truthwright
(Kas, meanwhile, is giggling. Jokers don't embarrass easy.)
toblameforit: Striving for innocence. (+= wanna do my homework for me?)
Author: toblameforit
Tony, back in Sunshine, provides the specs for ansible-and-connected-hardware-and-power-and-internet. The airlock was the most complex part, and Amariah doesn't need one; the whole thing could probably fit in a pentagon or two.
dark_light: (Default)
Author: dark_light
And it does. Amariah stuffs everything in a brand-new basement.
mind_game: (web)
Author: mind_game
Jane triangulates with Sue, swipes a half-ansible, and manages to plug it in on her end all by herself with sufficiently precise imagination.

She swallows up Alethia's internet too. Om nom nom.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Okay, says Sue, so I guess now you bring Amariah to Milliways...?
dark_light: (cool)
Author: dark_light
"Gonna go work on a project, sweeties," Amariah says, planting a kiss on boyfriend and daemon and collecting Path from Petaal. She squares on a set of silks as she gets to her feet. "I'll be back after rescuing a few trillion people from Hell."

Yeah, I'm all set, grab me.
mind_game: (web)
Author: mind_game
Yoink!
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"Hi!" says Sue. "Okay, who's next?"
she_sells_seashells: bitey (bitey)
Author: she_sells_seashells
"Let's get Golden. She may have been to Eos, or have someone who has - otherwise I don't know how we'll get Stella. We could do without her but I'd rather not."
autokinetic: (playful)
Author: autokinetic
"I get to meet everybody on my first day as part of the greater Bell community, awesome," says Aegis.
cross_and_bow: (smirk)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Yeah, lucky you, I waited forever," laughs Juliet, "I had shit luck."
mind_game: (web)
Author: mind_game
Hurry up! I want to eat another Internet. They are delicious.
she_sells_seashells: (smile)
Author: she_sells_seashells
Shell Bell laughs and forces the door to Aurum.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"It's 'cause of me," Sue says smugly; also, I love you, Jane. You're the cutest Internet-eating ansible person.
mind_game: (jewel)
Author: mind_game
Jane loves him right back!
luminous_regnant: (Default)
Author: luminous_regnant
Golden, summoned by brainphone, appears.

To Sue, her mind isn't so much walled off or insubstantial as it is not in the correct sphere of existence. He can detect a shadow - she isn't Juliet's absence-of-a-person - but her mind definitely declines to be interacted with.

At Shell Bell's verbal summary, Golden says, "Let's do this, then."
she_sells_seashells: tricky (tricky)
Author: she_sells_seashells
"I can presumably get to Samaria just fine, but Eos..."
dark_light: (engaged)
Author: dark_light
"The coins - the mint powers - come from Eos - can we use that?" asks Amariah.
autokinetic: (fold)
Author: autokinetic
"Worth a try, but grab Angela first?"
she_sells_seashells: maybe (Default)
Author: she_sells_seashells
"Yeah."

Door. Hmm, looks like Angela and Micaiah aren't in their quarters right now.
jovahs_heiress: (gaze)
Author: jovahs_heiress
But they're still brainphoneable.

And Angela's as linkable as Shell Bell is.

"...Love, I'm going to go join all the other Bells on the Downside project," says Angela. "After installing something on the ship really quick."

Show me what to conjure?
toblameforit: Skeptical or questioning. (-= poking your head out of Baker Street)
Author: toblameforit
I don't know your world's technology from a hole in the ground. Get me some specs and I'll tell you.
yovahs_kisses: (⑻ ye a Edori)
Author: yovahs_kisses
Micaiah hugs his angel. "Okay," he says. "Love you."
jovahs_heiress: (considering)
Author: jovahs_heiress
Hugs! Teleportation!

"Get me a complete technical specification of your computing hardware by text brainphone," she commands the ship, and she funnels it to Tony as it comes. They're laughably oversupplied with processing power right now.
toblameforit: Surprised or wary. (-= how do you do that?)
Author: toblameforit
Tony gets it all through his mind in the blink of an eye, and designs her an ansible installation to hook directly into Jovah's processing centers.

Also, holy shit, is her planet's god really a dumb AI? That is terrifying and he hopes Jane eats it.
jovahs_heiress: (away)
Author: jovahs_heiress
I have it under control, now, but she's welcome to it. Angela conjures the hardware, and hooks it up.
mind_game: (this is my face)
Author: mind_game
Snackable, says Jane. She projects her face onto one of the screens. "Hi! Ready to go?"
jovahs_heiress: (Default)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"All set."
she_sells_seashells: (becalmed)
Author: she_sells_seashells
Now they are six.

Shell Bell tries the door, tries to tell the coin to wish for its own home, the origin of minting...
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
...and it opens on Stella's moon palace.
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
And there's Stella.

"Shell Bell! How'd you get here?"
she_sells_seashells: (smile)
Author: she_sells_seashells
Shell Bell beams. "Let's see if Sue can explain it the quick way."
self_composed: (skyward)
Author: self_composed
"Sue? The tiny Whistle is back?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
He taps Stella.
self_composed: (Default)
Author: self_composed
Her power is like Golden's, but friendlier. It assesses him and lets him by.

Ooh, says Bella. Spiffy. All right, I'll just give Jane a server room here, then, shall I?
mind_game: (dreamcatcher)
Author: mind_game
Jane talks her through, and she eats up another Internet in short order, and Stella walks into Milliways to join the peal of Bells.
self_composed: (grin)
Author: self_composed
[Gonna go wreck Downside with the whole gang,] Stella adds to Alice, Lazarus, and Libby before she goes.
prima_sequentem: (ℂ say the sweetest things)
Author: prima_sequentem
[Have fun!]
edgeofyourseat: Smiling, affectionate or amused. (⑶ your wish is my command)
Author: edgeofyourseat
[Love you!]
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"All right," says Sue. "So does anybody here have an actual plan?"
self_composed: (calm)
Author: self_composed
Everyone
autokinetic: (Default)
Author: autokinetic
looks
luminous_regnant: (Default)
Author: luminous_regnant
straight
dark_light: (Default)
Author: dark_light
at
cross_and_bow: (Default)
Author: cross_and_bow
Shell
jovahs_heiress: (gaze)
Author: jovahs_heiress
Bell.
arenaria: (seacreature)
Author: arenaria
"Yeah," says Shell Bell, expression set. "Yeah. I do."
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"You wanna share that shit with the class?"
arenaria: (useful)
Author: arenaria
"It was designed to work with as few as four of us, so with seven, I'll stay solo hanging out here in case something goes wrong, and the rest of you can pair off. One pair to scope out Upside because we don't know anything about it. Angela will stand out least there, I think, she's been historically harmless by their standards. Someone should visit some of the Downsiders for advice on how to present the takeover to the residents, and also make the wishes we know need making - nix torturer's control, first of all. Both of those groups should also install eyes-for-Jane as they go so she can reach in. And someone should go - cloaked as all get out - and spy on the administration."
jovahs_heiress: (breathe)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"Upside. All right. Who's with me?"
luminous_regnant: (attention)
Author: luminous_regnant
"I'll take it."
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
"I'll check out Downside."
cross_and_bow: (suspicion)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Me too."
autokinetic: (evaluating)
Author: autokinetic
"Leaves me and Amariah spying on the admin, all right," says Aegis.
dark_light: (unimpressed)
Author: dark_light
"And the ones who can't link are with ones who can, good, and are we all caught up on our stacks of standard powers, what else do we need to be cloaking against on Team Admin?"
arenaria: (unsettled)
Author: arenaria
"It's probably best to assume the admin has all the various powers that are assigned to anyone in Downside ever - control, immunity to same, seeing your history at a glance. Language-imprinting, if that matters. And probably a few other things up her sleeve. Maybe walk into my apartment, first, and then wish directly to be imperceptible to her."
autokinetic: (fold)
Author: autokinetic
"What does our bailout plan look like?" asks Aegis.
arenaria: (irked)
Author: arenaria
"If somebody goes off the grid, Jane tries first, and if she can't get whoever it is I lean into my apartment, I wish you out - with an arrow, if I have to - we all bail, and we regroup and figure out what went wrong."
self_composed: (calm)
Author: self_composed
"I've got four arrows. What about the rest of you?"
jovahs_heiress: (pause)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"Haven't gotten around to trying yet."
dark_light: (squinting)
Author: dark_light
"Didn't even know they were a thing until recently."
luminous_regnant: (speculative)
Author: luminous_regnant
"Nothing since the batch Shell Bell took."
cross_and_bow: (Default)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Don't look at me."
autokinetic: (rapt)
Author: autokinetic
"Me and Sue are brand-new to this, so obviously no."
arenaria: (seacreature)
Author: arenaria
"I've got the original set of five. Let's every Bell but me have one and I'll have three because I'm anchor?" [Mine're safe,] she adds to Bells only.
self_composed: (nnng)
Author: self_composed
Consensus is immediate; arrows - and evils - are distributed until everyone has the correct number.
luminous_regnant: (ambivalent)
Author: luminous_regnant
"Do any of us want to stop and pick up any of our staff before charging in, or is it just going to be us seven and Sue - plus Jane and Jarvis and Juliet's Tony? I'm somewhat considering Nathan. Possibly also the Joker."
arenaria: (preoccupied)
Author: arenaria
"That depends. Sue, how many can you link at once?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"More than I've got," he says. "And I've got twenty kids in my world that I can drop to make room as long as Jane keeps an eye on them."
toblameforit: Thoughtful, perhaps mischievous. (+= pretend we're twins)
Author: toblameforit
This is more of a long-term thing, says Tony, but we might wanna give Jane a master node at Milliways with direct ansible links to every world of interest. Makes more sense than leaving her hub in her world with the links all under the physical control of people who don't know she exists.

He's already designing one, although it'd take more physical room than they've got in the Belltower. Maybe it's time to move that outside.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
(Sue bounces him to all interested parties via link or brainphone, as appropriate.)
mind_game: (jewel)
Author: mind_game
Can't scare me, says Jane.
luminous_regnant: (forward)
Author: luminous_regnant
"I'll get Nathan to introduce the Downside-exploring contingent to his friends, and the Joker for emergency coining, in the event that we run out of something big," says Golden, and she leans into Aurum to issue the summons.
temporal_affairs: (Default)
Author: temporal_affairs
[I'll leave Kerron with Esme and catch up?] suggests Nathan to his mate.
gunpowdergelatine: Smirking faintly, touching thumb to lips. (♣5/don't want the devil to)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
[Sure,] he says, and gives Nathan a hug and a kiss, and teleports to Golden.
temporal_affairs: (run that by me again)
Author: temporal_affairs
Nathan catches up a moment later. "You want me to introduce some Bells to Eights and get an entrez to the other famous folks, I gather?"
luminous_regnant: (attention)
Author: luminous_regnant
"Yes. So you'll be with Juliet and Stella," says Golden, pointing them out to him. "Joker, you're emergency-mint, assuming you have no particular objection; you stay behind with Shell Bell and Sue."
gunpowdergelatine: Grinning. (♠3/I'm all love)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
"Sure thing," he says cheerfully.
toblameforit: Smiling a little bit. (*= you jerk! :D)
Author: toblameforit
(Meanwhile, Tony requests that Jane bring him to Milliways to ask Bar for permission to install, and then outside to scout locations for, a Jane-hub and potential new Belltower. Any Bells with processing cycles to spare are welcome to comment.)
mind_game: (dreamcatcher)
Author: mind_game
Yoink!
autokinetic: (fold)
Author: autokinetic
"We ready to go?" She pauses, snaps her fingers. "Amariah - can you tuck Path away like Sue can Ivy? Be safer that way."
dark_light: (cool)
Author: dark_light
"Path's had enforced personal space against people in general since about a minute after I got minted, but good idea anyway," says Amariah. "Is it completely under Sue and Ivy's control when she's in and when she's out or should I do something other than copy it directly?"
toblameforit: Drinking orange juice from the carton. (+= endeavouring to make breakfast)
Author: toblameforit
(Bar has no problem with him adding a modestly sized tower out back in his location of choice. He stops by the peal to grab some coins from anybody who feels like dispensing them—he should only need a couple of hexes and a handful of pentagons, and he doesn't expect to use all of them.)
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Ivy appears, wrapped around Sue's shoulders as a bright yellow snake.

"Sometimes I come out or go back in our sleep," she says. "But other than that, we only do it on purpose. And it always works."
dark_light: (pensive)
Author: dark_light
"All right." Amariah kisses Path's head, and makes a little wince while he hoots softly, and wishes, and Path is tucked away.
self_composed: (calm)
Author: self_composed
Stella already has a design for a tower-shaped Belltower socked away; she bounces it to Tony as long as he's going to be making one.
autokinetic: (edible)
Author: autokinetic
"You and me go in, make our wishes, see if they work? If they don't, if the admin can see us no matter what, what do we do?" Aegis says to Amariah.
dark_light: (frowny)
Author: dark_light
"...If it doesn't work, maybe only one of us should risk getting near her," Amariah says. "Or on the other hand maybe it's worth sending three people and we should take Golden with us on the suspicion that Upside's relatively safe."
arenaria: (chilly)
Author: arenaria
"If it doesn't work," says Shell Bell, "then you two - go to the catacombs, see if there's any alts of us or people we don't know still in pre-processing who we can get out even if we can't help everyone. We can make a dent in the place and regroup even if it turns out not to be safe for us to knock it all down."
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
"I should get Mary." Stella opens the door. [Hey Mary! Me and some Bells are going to conquer an afterlife, you'd be useful, c'mere?]
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
[...Sure,] says Mary, and she goes there.
toblameforit: Thoughtful, perhaps mischievous. (+= pretend we're twins)
Author: toblameforit
(Tony edits the Belltower design appropriately to merge it with his Jane installation, shows the result to the Bells for approval, and heads out to find somewhere to put it.)
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
(The Bells approve.)

"You don't need to be in a world to see stuff in it, right? You were here in Milliways when you consulted for Golden and the Joker. Sue, patch Mary in, would you?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
He patches her in and relays appropriate summaries.

She frowns.

"...Giant blank spot," she reports. "I get a little around the edges, but it's all very short-term. Mostly it's 'no answer'."
toblameforit: Smiling affectionately or smugly. (*= recent successes)
Author: toblameforit
(And lo, there is a tower. It comes equipped with four times as many ansibles as they actually need to link up the existing array of worlds; that way there'll be spares for later. The ansible room, two floors below ground, and the meeting room on the floor above it both have cameras and mics and Jarvis-style projection equipment for Jane, and the main common room on the ground floor has a computer she can access.)
mind_game: (Default)
Author: mind_game
Jane plugs in ansibles to her stations in Samaria, Aurum, Alethia, Sunshine, Eos, and her original unnamed world; she hasn't got her hooks into Atlantis yet. She pours into the new hardware happily; if she's ever going to run out of capacity to grow, it's not going to be soon. "Hi!" she says to Tony, showing off her chosen face.
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
"Well, crap. What do you get around the edges? Has anything like this happened before?"
luminous_regnant: (attention)
Author: luminous_regnant
"I wonder if it's worth trying Alice. I'll fetch her."

A moment later Golden's Alice is fetched. She, unlike Mary, does need to be in the world that she's looking at, but the moment Shell Bell offers up Downside, she recoils. "That world and my sight do not get along. That's worse than looking at hybrids and wolves before I patched those holes." She uses one of the glowy gold squares on her not-invisible necklace to fix her headache. "Bleah. Sorry, Bella."

"It's all right. You can go home," murmurs Golden.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"Not on this scale, but I do get blank spots sometimes," says Mary. "I can usually just work around them, or make reasonable guesses like everybody else."

And since the link is right there, she pushes into it a rough sense of the distributions she's getting around this venture - no matter what they do, the Bells are going to end up in the blank spot if they enter Downside; before that point, they may tend to express various levels of positivity and negativity about the results of the expedition, depending on details of their plans that aren't clear to her; around the edges of the blank spot itself, the clearest constant is that Shell Bell is going to be nervous and unhappy for a while, and all the Bells are eventually going to leave Downside. The blank spot swallows up what kind of condition they'll be in when they do, and when exactly that might be for each of them.
luminous_regnant: (floor)
Author: luminous_regnant
"We all get out eventually," says Golden. "That's something."
arenaria: (unsettled)
Author: arenaria
"Maybe I should get Sherlock. Just to hold onto," murmurs Shell Bell.
self_composed: (disquiet)
Author: self_composed
"Does anything meaningful that you can see change if fewer of us go through, or if we handle our jobs in different combinations?"
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"Some effect on Shell Bell's mood," she reports, "but getting Sherlock has a much bigger one. No effect on you all coming out eventually, that's still as certain as it gets."
temporal_affairs: (the hell?)
Author: temporal_affairs
"...I get out too, right?"
she_sells_seashells: tricky (tricky)
Author: she_sells_seashells
Shell Bell wastes no further time in dooring to Atlantis and calling for Sherlock.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
"Yep," says Mary.
toblameforit: Thoughtful, perhaps mischievous. (+= pretend we're twins)
Author: toblameforit
(Meanwhile, Tony is chatting happily with Jane.)
sicaria: In profile, looking down. (⑾ time to go home)
Author: sicaria
Sherlock appears when summoned.
she_sells_seashells: (irked)
Author: she_sells_seashells
"We've figured out how to move from place to place without waiting for Milliways," murmurs Shell Bell, "and got everybody together, but Stella's precog says whatever happens I'm not going to have a fun time of it, even though I'm just sitting here to hold the door and bail them out if necessary. Will you stay with me?"
cross_and_bow: (meh)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Link Sherlock up too, Sue," suggests Juliet.
sicaria: Reaching for something. (⑽ just a touch)
Author: sicaria
"Of course," she says, hugging Shell Bell.
arenaria: (useful)
Author: arenaria
Hugs!

"What else, before Aegis and Amariah go in, can anyone else think of anything?"
autokinetic: (tentative)
Author: autokinetic
Heads shake.

Aegis looks at Amariah, and they go in, and they wish to be undetectable by the admin.
ending_of: (Ⅵ reclining)
Author: ending_of
It does not work.
autokinetic: (pissed)
Author: autokinetic
Nothing doing, not even an arrow'll go. Catacombs for us, says Aegis. We want Bells, Charlies, Renées, Sues - Whistles? - Sherlocks, Tonies, who else?
cross_and_bow: (Default)
Author: cross_and_bow
Jameses, Gileses.
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
Lazaruses, Marys, Annas, Sandys, Kolyas, Bridgets.
jovahs_heiress: (pause)
Author: jovahs_heiress
Angela hesitates, but says, Nathaniels, but be careful. Serahs, Alleluias, Calebs, Delilahs.
luminous_regnant: (wall)
Author: luminous_regnant
Golden lists a great many extended family and friends.
autokinetic: (c'mon)
Author: autokinetic
Aegis nods. She looks to Amariah. You can drive. I don't wanna split us up.
dark_light: (Default)
Author: dark_light
Amariah teleports herself and her teammate.

They find a Bell, first. (And drop a conjured device that connects wirelessly to a half-ansible in Shell Bell's apartment.)

They wish her out.

She folds into the link and bemusedly summarizes herself. She appears to be much like Stella or Golden, except that where Stella survived being hit by Tyler's van and Golden evaded it altogether, she was killed on impact. If there was magic in her world, she doesn't know about it.

It is not long before she names herself "Template". She is summarily minted and stacked up with standard powers, as that's only one evil, but they don't spare her other coins as they move on.

Here is a Sherlock of some sort.
bitofafiction: Looking straight ahead: calculated neutrality. (>= with his dignity on maximum)
Author: bitofafiction


He is confused and wary!
autokinetic: (tomorrow)
Author: autokinetic
"Hi. Our template is friends with your template. If you let Sue link you up that'll let us explain everything way faster," says Aegis.
jovahs_heiress: (firm)
Author: jovahs_heiress
Angela and Golden go next. They can't teleport directly Upside, but they can wish to be able to, and do.
jovahs_heiress: (gaze)
Author: jovahs_heiress
So. This is Upside, is it.
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
Stella, Juliet, and Nathan are the next party. "Who's first?"
temporal_affairs: (run that by me again)
Author: temporal_affairs
"Let's go see Eights, and go from there," says Nathan.
bitofafiction: Mostly out of frame. Pensive. Hands. (== a tolerable activity)
Author: bitofafiction
"Fine."
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
Now, where is this "Eights" they've heard so much about?
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Sue links him up.
bitofafiction: Looking down, pensive, unsure or regretful. (Default)
Author: bitofafiction




Well. Okay then.
dark_light: (Default)
Author: dark_light
"Do you want a ride out of here or do you want to come along while we check for more of you and people Golden knows and stuff?"
ending_of: (Default)
Author: ending_of
Unlike Downside, it has plants. And real, alive-looking landscape in between the sparsely distributed residential streets.
bitofafiction: Looking off into the distance. Thoughtful, possibly amused. (<= one point eight seconds)
Author: bitofafiction
"Out, please."
luminous_regnant: (Default)
Author: luminous_regnant
They'd like to see the equivalent of Downside's guides. Golden goes invisible before they teleport again; she's probably opaque enough that no one can read her life story. Angela's life story's pretty innocuous.
lookingforwardtoit: (2. warning: fun detected)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
She is at Chainsaw's house!

Specifically, she is in Chainsaw's kitchen, making Chainsaw pancakes.
nowait_letme: Smirking, half in shadow. (' that's what they pay me for)
Author: nowait_letme
Mm nom nom.
autokinetic: (Default)
Author: autokinetic
Template takes him to the door, then rejoins the team that she's been attached to by default.
she_sells_seashells: engaged (engaged)
Author: she_sells_seashells
"Hi, other Sherlock," says Shell Bell from where she's leaning on her own version.
self_composed: (skyward)
Author: self_composed
"Anna! Sandy!" says Stella. "Well, I wasn't expecting that, but I should've."
ending_of: (Default)
Author: ending_of
Downside and Upside share many of the same guides; the catacombs let out into the same room no matter which vertical direction you're headed from there.

Currently, there are a man and a woman sitting behind the desk, chatting quietly.
bitofafiction: Looking up. Considering or evasive. (<= I know it sounds absurd)
Author: bitofafiction
"Goodness," says Sherlock.
jovahs_heiress: (doubt)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"Excuse me," says Angela. "I'm new here." Behind her wing she conjures appropriate papers; even squares are pretty good at filling in appropriate gaps like that. They might notice she's not dead, but she is, technically, new here.
lookingforwardtoit: (7. pulled it right off)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"Do I know you?" says Eights. "I really don't think I know you."
autokinetic: (Default)
Author: autokinetic
All right, who's next?

A lot of Golden's friends and family are next. They send them all to Milliways, Template playing ferry, to wait for Golden to get out and fold them back in where they belong. This takes a while.
nowait_letme: Mostly in shadow. (- inspecting the merchandise)
Author: nowait_letme
"I know I don't know 'em," says Chainsaw, pointing his fork thoughtfully at each of the visitors in turn.
self_composed: (calm)
Author: self_composed
"Oh, not you specifically, but there's alts of you in my world. They work for me."
temporal_affairs: (lovable rogue)
Author: temporal_affairs
"Speaking of alts," says Nathan, "Eights, assuming it hasn't been a few thousand years since I skipped town, you might remember me talking about my world's empress? These are alts of hers."
ending_of: (Default)
Author: ending_of
"Oh!" says the man, jumping up. "I'm sorry. Let me see where you're headed." He holds out his hand for the papers.

"Did Simon forget to mention he was sending somebody up again?" wonders the woman.
jovahs_heiress: (away)
Author: jovahs_heiress
Angela spreads her hands in an unhelpful gesture of I'm-new-here-and-don't-know-what's-what, and hands over the papers.
lookingforwardtoit: (c. let's hear it)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"No, you, I remember you," she says, nodding. "And you," this to the Bells, "I think I took a contract for somebody with that face once. The question that desperately needs answering right now is, what the fuck are you all doing here?"
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
"Oh, we don't like the way this place is set up and intend to fix it," says Stella. "The one you met is Shell Bell. She got caught by a torturer who kept her in his basement for a quarter-century and is not accompanying us for obvious trauma-related reasons. Me and Juliet are here to discuss how to present this to the population, assuming we can do anything about the admin."
ending_of: (Default)
Author: ending_of
He inspects the conjured pages with their conjured residential code and conjured highlights of notable deeds.

"Oh, Upside!" he says. "Even Simon usually says something when we've got one of those... well, come on, the elevator's this way." He leads her to it.
cross_and_bow: (business)
Author: cross_and_bow
Speaking of fixing the place, what will it take to fuck up torturer's control permanently, Downsidewide?
jovahs_heiress: (pause)
Author: jovahs_heiress
Angela folds her wings neatly and follows him in, with Golden lurking lurkily behind.
ending_of: (Default)
Author: ending_of
To remove not only all instances of control, but all instances of the specifically-granted ability to hand it out, it will take an arrow.

But an arrow does do the job.
nowait_letme: Delighted or smug. (' I feek like fucking you up)
Author: nowait_letme
Timely, too, because Chainsaw is smiling in a not particularly friendly way and ahem-ing like someone who sees a problem with this plan.
cross_and_bow: (level)
Author: cross_and_bow
Bye, Juliet's arrow.

"Tips? Input?" she asks Chainsaw mildly.
ending_of: (Default)
Author: ending_of
"My name's Edgar," he adds over his shoulder. "Sorry."

The elevator ascends. Edgar leads the way out of it at Upside's ground level, into a very nice-looking lobby, and then out of that into a wide roughly-circular grassy area surrounding the tower they just left.

"Careful of the cliffs," he says automatically as they cross the lawn, heading directly away from the cliff edge. Then he glances at Angela and laughs self-consciously. "Well, maybe they're less of a problem for you. But people have fallen off before, and it's not very much fun."
jovahs_heiress: (Default)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"I'm Isabella," says Isabella politely. "And yes, I could catch myself if I fell off a cliff. I lived up on top of a mountain and it's easier than taking a running start."
nowait_letme: Thoughtful or affectionate. (. get you up to five)
Author: nowait_letme
"Why don't you tell me how, exactly, you intend to fix the place."
ending_of: (Default)
Author: ending_of
"Yes," says Edgar, "I saw that on your papers... aha, here we go."

They step between two pillars and under the roof of a train-station-like facility with exactly one solid wall, into which are set a number of elevator doors to either side of an electronic map. He inputs her conjured res code into the map.

It does not work.

Edgar frowns.
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
"Well, first of all, this being dead thing is a bad deal. Shell Bell went home, for instance." (She's not going to bring up Juliet; not if they don't know yet how that information can be used.) "We'd like to send other people home insofar as we can. That's going to be easier to keep under control in Bell-operated worlds, but we'll figure it out for the others as best we can. People who don't meaningfully have homes to go to anymore - if it's been a hundred years since they died, say - or who don't miss where they came from should at least get to exist in an environment free of people randomly exercising body-control powers for nonconsensual amusement. We have nothing against consensual amusement, so whatever you and Eights do when you aren't having pancakes together is fine - assuming you are a Sandy and an Anna and don't just look remarkably alike and have suspiciously likely professions. We might move some people who don't want to go home per se but don't like it here even with that issue patched into our worlds. I can terraform a few solar systems for 'em, I'm probably best set up to take the immigration - Shell Bell or Amariah or Golden could set up to match, I guess, Aegis might be able to fold some in, but I'm the one who's already colonizing space."
jovahs_heiress: (unsure)
Author: jovahs_heiress
Oh, dangit. Can she conjure herself an appropriate house and hook it up?
nowait_letme: Questioning. (- but are we having fun yet?)
Author: nowait_letme
"Question. Who the fuck are Sandy and Anna?"
lookingforwardtoit: (8. like any other)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"And does anybody else want pancakes?" adds Eights.
cross_and_bow: (smirk)
Author: cross_and_bow
"I'll take some pancakes," laughs Juliet.
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
"Sandy and Anna are people from my world who look like you and Eights, respectively, and they're on my payroll. They help me with magic stuff. Sandy lives on a Jovian moon, designs buildings with spare magic, there's a giant chess set, he's got four surprisingly realistic imaginary friends, gets along famously with my boyfriend who is an alt of someone you met not long ago, does any of that sound about right to you?"
lookingforwardtoit: (5. watch your step)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
Eights serves up a plateful of pancakes for Juliet. They are tasty and warm.
nowait_letme: Smirking, half in shadow. (' that's what they pay me for)
Author: nowait_letme
"I meet a lot of people," Chainsaw says dryly. "I guess I don't get along with most of 'em. What's his relationship with power tools?"
self_composed: (eyebrow)
Author: self_composed
"I don't involve myself in the details," Stella says archly. "My guess is that it would be a friendly-like relationship."
cross_and_bow: (pleased)
Author: cross_and_bow
Mmm, pancakes. "Thanks!"
nowait_letme: Thoughtful or smug. (' I always deliver)
Author: nowait_letme
"Then I bet you've got the right guy," he says. "So what are you gonna do about it?"
self_composed: (calm)
Author: self_composed
"Nothing in particular. It does mean that if we successfully take over and you have something to say to one of us you've got a better-than-average chance of queue-jumping," shrugs Stella. "Since someone of your template's in with someone of ours."
cross_and_bow: (business)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Amariah and Aegis are covering the catacombs, but maybe we should scope out the wakeful population for alts," muses Juliet. "If nothing else we should tap the Sherlock that Shell Bell found."
ending_of: (Ⅵ casual)
Author: ending_of
All at once, seven different people with the same face are collected from their various locations into a single room.

It's a large, round room, about the size of the lobby at the base of the tower. The entire outer wall is one large window, showing that the room is in fact at the top of the tower, with Upside spread out far below one half and Downside far, far below the other.

There is an eighth person in the room, sitting in a comfortable chair looking inward from the edge of the room, with Upside to her left and Downside to her right.
ending_of: (Ⅲ piercing)
Author: ending_of
Well... technically, yes she can.

Yoink.
ending_of: (Ⅸ entertained)
Author: ending_of
All of a sudden, Stella and Juliet are no longer present.

Yoink.
ending_of: (Ⅸ ambivalent)
Author: ending_of
Some time later, their efforts are interrupted.

Yoink.
autokinetic: (tentative)
Author: autokinetic
...Jane?
mind_game: (fractal)
Author: mind_game
Jane tries.

Jane can't. They won't tuck away.

Just to check, she picks up Nathan and puts him a millimeter to the left and then puts him back, just for a fraction of an instant that he'll notice but his human companions won't. He works normally.

I can't unstick you.
luminous_regnant: (wall)
Author: luminous_regnant
Golden's not party to the link, and while this is being tried she attempts teleportation under her own power and gets the same result.
jovahs_heiress: (concern)
Author: jovahs_heiress
I think I gave it away. I neglected until it was too late to wish up a house and a working res code to go with my fake papers. I'm sorry.
self_composed: (annoyed)
Author: self_composed
Stella's the first one to try talking.

"Hi," she says. "You must be the admin."
temporal_affairs: (the hell?)
Author: temporal_affairs
Nathan's as surprised as everyone else.

"Well," he says.
ending_of: (Ⅻ unappreciative)
Author: ending_of
"That's right," she agrees. "And you're the ones who keep stealing people out of the queue." She focuses on Angela. "Mind telling me what exactly you hoped to accomplish by messing with my housing system? It works very well the way I designed it, and I don't appreciate having to waste my time undoing your changes."
jovahs_heiress: (pause)
Author: jovahs_heiress
Angela closes her eyes. "We knew some things about Downside. Less about Upside. I meant to look around."
nowait_letme: Questioning. (- but are we having fun yet?)
Author: nowait_letme




Chainsaw blinks.
temporal_affairs: (oh dear lord)
Author: temporal_affairs
"They're talking to the admin," Nathan reports a moment later. "We'll see how far they get with that, I guess."
ending_of: (Ⅲ bored)
Author: ending_of
"I see," she says. "Well, you didn't think it through very well. I'm not impressed."
lookingforwardtoit: (7. pulled it right off)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"Not far, I bet," sighs Eights.
dark_light: (frowny)
Author: dark_light
"Oh? How would you go about overthrowing Hell if it were you?" asks Amariah.
temporal_affairs: (run that by me again)
Author: temporal_affairs
"Well, I don't know, the ones who started out alive are still alive," he shrugs.
ending_of: (Ⅲ piercing)
Author: ending_of
"You haven't even tried overthrowing Downside," she points out. "But you did make a mess of spying on the greener half. And you temporarily eradicated control powers. Do you have a plan for following up on that, or should I put them back?"
lookingforwardtoit: (9. more than you'd believe)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"I guess that's a start."
cross_and_bow: (distress)
Author: cross_and_bow
"I think we all vote for not putting them back," says Juliet, "as they are a terrible idea."
autokinetic: (fold)
Author: autokinetic
"We had a plan for what to do if you turned out not to be a problem. Of course we couldn't start on anything less obvious than cutting out the control mess while we still assumed you might be."
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
"Do you want to hear the plan? Are you by any chance just actually not that interested in ruling the afterlife and wound up with the job by default?" inquires Stella.
ending_of: (Ⅵ reclining)
Author: ending_of
"I don't rule," she says. "I administrate. Explain your plan."
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
"Insfoar as it's possible and desired by the dead, send people back where they came from. We've done a few instances of that already; I'm sure scaling up will be a population shock, but we can compensate with magic for issues of supplies and crowding and with one of our friends for issues of processing being a nightmare. For everyone else revamp the place to be less of a pointless hellhole. As the most obvious example, even if it was a good idea to sentence people to torture and it was a good idea for torturers not to have to physically subdue their sentences there is absolutely no reason for the power to continue work in other contexts. But the entire judgment and sentencing thing is pretty well fucked too. And if people still don't want to hang out here after modifications of that order have been made, we'll take them. We can fix up as many planets as need be to work like Mars does on my world, and funnel everyone who wants out there."
temporal_affairs: (lovable rogue)
Author: temporal_affairs
"I'd ask for a pancake, but I no longer eat solid food," Nathan says after a bit of an awkward silence.
ending_of: (Ⅵ casual)
Author: ending_of
"Torturers exist because the judges demanded them. Judges exist to sort people to their appropriate side of the cliffs. What are you going to replace judges with, and what annoying demands are those people going to make?"
autokinetic: (pissed)
Author: autokinetic
"What," asks Aegis, "is the point of the cliffs supposed to be? This is the sort of thing we'd know if you hadn't interrupted Angela."
ending_of: (Ⅸ entertained)
Author: ending_of
"No, you wouldn't," she says. "At most you might have guessed, but I think you can do that right now."
jovahs_heiress: (doubt)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"It can't simply be to make things nicer for the people who your judges think are worth looking after. The only difference to the place that we saw is the plants. And if I had really died and really found myself there, I don't think I'd have woken up to find a place made for my husband, all my friends, even if only on my behalf - it looks like everyone is judged one by one. You're clearly immensely powerful - it would be so simple to make things pleasanter, even only pleasanter for the people you consider it worthwhile to be relatively pleasant to."
dark_light: (squinting)
Author: dark_light
"You're taking notes from somebody, if people are making demands that annoy you. Somebody wanted the cliffs," suggests Amariah. "Sometime. Long ago."
self_composed: (annoyed)
Author: self_composed
"Somebody judgmental and dickish," mutters Stella.
luminous_regnant: (Default)
Author: luminous_regnant
"You didn't have any good ideas for using all the phenomenal cosmic power to arrange things pleasantly for the people with the misfortune to fall under your jurisdiction and you settled for putting the people who might make slightly imperfect neighbors somewhere inaccessible," proposes Golden.
ending_of: (Ⅲ piercing)
Author: ending_of
She nods to Golden.

"The operative distinction isn't how pleasant I want things to be for someone," she says. "It's whether or not they're going to make trouble for the people around them. Upside is full of people who don't, generally, make trouble for each other. Downside is full of people who do."
self_composed: (annoyed)
Author: self_composed
"I don't know what magic system you're working with, but it can thwart mine in at least some contests," says Stella, "and mine would do a much better job of that goal. It does, on Mars. People cannot make significant trouble for each other on my Mars. Is it just - clumsy? Not very smart? So you have to rely on judges and cliffs and the like, you can't just ban troublemaking and have done?"
ending_of: (Ⅵ reclining)
Author: ending_of
"I invite you to design a law of physics that bans 'troublemaking'," she says. "I'll wait."
self_composed: (calm)
Author: self_composed
"It wasn't just one, but Mars omits violence, breaking and entering is materially impossible, anyone who'd rather not deal with anyone else can mutually cease to exist to that person, the bank does not operate in such a way as to permit theft, and the city is set up to make noise complaints and littering and so on a nonissue. I have not been particularly circumspect about who I allow to live there, and there has not been a problem, and if there is, I will patch it."
ending_of: (Ⅲ piercing)
Author: ending_of
"If you ban violence here, Downside will riot insofar as it is possible to riot. There's nothing wrong with my bank. How many people are there on your Mars?"
lookingforwardtoit: (4. my affection)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"What do you eat?"
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
"Coming up on twenty million. We could have waited a bit until we had more impressive empires under our collective belt, but this seemed fairly urgent, what with all the torture."
temporal_affairs: (run that by me again)
Author: temporal_affairs
"Conjured synthetics. Occasionally human blood, since I've got a source who won't die of the loss. I am, you see, a vampire again."
lookingforwardtoit: (b. just another day)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
...Eights looks speculative.
temporal_affairs: (mischief)
Author: temporal_affairs
"I'll be happy to show you sometime," Nathan adds.
autokinetic: (c'mon)
Author: autokinetic
"Doesn't a riot without violence add up to... peaceful protest?" says Aegis innocently. "Oh no, the horror, that's much worse than people being tortured?"
cross_and_bow: (okay)
Author: cross_and_bow
"And it'd only be non-consensual violence we'd cut, anyway, if people want to spar for fun or torture each other for the enjoyment of everyone involved we don't take issue with that sort of thing."
lookingforwardtoit: (2. warning: fun detected)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
She beams.
nowait_letme: Smirking, half in shadow. (' that's what they pay me for)
Author: nowait_letme
"Can I watch?"
temporal_affairs: (Default)
Author: temporal_affairs
Nathan peers at him.

"You going to try to make me regret it if I say 'yes' instead of inviting Eights out of the world for the purpose and then never interacting with you again?" he inquires.
ending_of: (Ⅻ unappreciative)
Author: ending_of
"Eliminating only non-consensual violence is significantly more complicated with what I have available than you are claiming it would be for you. But it does have the advantage of restricting the immediate widespread unhappiness to people who want to engage in nonconsensual violence."
nowait_letme: Touching his face. (' rampant narcissism)
Author: nowait_letme
"Now why would I do that?"
lookingforwardtoit: (7. pulled it right off)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
Eights rolls her eyes.
dark_light: (collected)
Author: dark_light
"What is it that you have available, exactly?" asks Amariah brightly. "Perhaps we can help."
nowait_letme: Cheerful or smug. (' and you're in here with me)
Author: nowait_letme
He laughs.

"All right, I won't. I promise."
temporal_affairs: (run that by me again)
Author: temporal_affairs
"Hmm."

Now, when is a good time to take a bite out of Eights, and when is a good time to ask Jane to get him the hell out of here?
lookingforwardtoit: (d. are you trying to hurt me?)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
Good times to take a bite out of Eights are pretty much concentrated in the near future, on whatever scale; good times to ask Jane to get him the hell out of here vary much more widely, and don't correlate obviously with the bitey moments.
temporal_affairs: (mischief)
Author: temporal_affairs
"All right, then, if you like." Pause. "I have something of a guess about what Stella employs Sandy to do. You just wanna watch?"
nowait_letme: Questioning. (- but are we having fun yet?)
Author: nowait_letme
"What," he inquires, "does Stella employ Sandy to do?"
temporal_affairs: (run that by me again)
Author: temporal_affairs
"The Bella contingent has serious magic, with the little wrinkle that it is made out of pain. I think from how Stella was phrasing things that her Anna and Sandy share a job description with the Joker back in my world. Him you met. Actually, you managed to kill him."
ending_of: (Ⅵ reclining)
Author: ending_of
She looks thoughtful.

Then she says, "Try this," and imparts to everyone present the ability to understand the prototype that is now represented by a point of greenish-blue light hovering in the exact centre of the room: to be given to everyone who is currently in any part of her domain, the capacity to decide on an individual basis whether or not to be affected by any injury that would otherwise occur, and to set separate preferred defaults for injuries caused by accident, by people in general, or by specific people.
self_composed: (calm)
Author: self_composed
"Beautiful," says Stella. "It'll piss off your torturers, I imagine - why did you install those? However much complaining there was from the judges?"
nowait_letme: Touching his face. (' rampant narcissism)
Author: nowait_letme
"I remember the Joker," says Chainsaw with a fondly reminiscent smile. "And no, I don't wanna do anything but watch."
lookingforwardtoit: (4. my affection)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"Although if you guys ever wanna go on a double date," Eights puts in, "I know I'd be game."
ending_of: (Ⅸ ambivalent)
Author: ending_of
"The judges felt very strongly about it."

She implements the change. The prototype-light reports this fact and then vanishes.
temporal_affairs: (heheh)
Author: temporal_affairs
Nathan laughs. "Noted. You wanna say when, Eights, or you want a surprise?"
lookingforwardtoit: (2. warning: fun detected)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"I like surprises," she says brightly. "Your Joker and I have that in common."
luminous_regnant: (Default)
Author: luminous_regnant
"Well," says Golden. "I approve. As far as that goes. Have you got opinions either way on letting us siphon off people who can in all but the technical sense return to their lives?"
temporal_affairs: (lovable rogue)
Author: temporal_affairs
"That you do."

Do tell, Timer's timer, when is it time to sink in his teeth?
ending_of: (Ⅲ piercing)
Author: ending_of
She implements another change. This one goes unannounced.

"Siphon away."
cross_and_bow: (level)
Author: cross_and_bow
"And for the ones who can't, who've been dead too long, if some of 'em are suited for Upside and their loved ones aren't, are they going to get to see each other again?"
lookingforwardtoit: (8. like any other)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
The optimal moment, on a scale of minutes, is...

...now.
temporal_affairs: (mischief)
Author: temporal_affairs
He doesn't have to be any gentler with Eights than he is with the Joker, does he? She's probably gonna break a bone when he grabs her arm.

Nom.
ending_of: (Ⅵ casual)
Author: ending_of
"Technically Upsiders are free to visit Downside, find their loved ones, and visit as much as they want," she says. "People don't."
dark_light: (cool)
Author: dark_light
"I suppose you announce to the Upsiders that they can do this?"
jovahs_heiress: (away)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"Are the Upsiders safe Downside - or rather - have they been in the past?"
lookingforwardtoit: (6. enchanté)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
He doesn't have to be any gentler with her, no. And she is just as appreciative when he isn't.

That is to say: very.
nowait_letme: Delighted or smug. (' I feek like fucking you up)
Author: nowait_letme
"Oooooh," says Chainsaw. "Nice."
ending_of: (Ⅸ ambivalent)
Author: ending_of
"The information is available. And that, I think, is the problem: they usually weren't."
temporal_affairs: (lovable rogue)
Author: temporal_affairs
Nathan's not overwhelmingly thirsty and Eights isn't magically delicious. He's a little delicate about it, makes an effort not to stain her shirt, the venom can burn a little before she torches.
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
"...I do have to wonder. You're being way more reasonable than we expected the literal inventor of Hell to be. If you could've made the place safe to start with why didn't you? Why didn't Shell Bell wake up in a perfectly satisfactory sort of afterlife as afterlives could conceivably go and reunite with the rest of us saying not 'this place has got to go' but rather 'let's see if we can get a meeting with the admin, I sense a kindred spirit'?"
lookingforwardtoit: (1. laughing all the way)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
It is fun.

And when she does torch, she comes back giggly and leaning on him in a snuggly-affectionate way.
temporal_affairs: (lovable rogue)
Author: temporal_affairs
He ruffles her hair. "Fun times?"
ending_of: (Ⅲ bored)
Author: ending_of
She shrugs.

"I didn't design this place all at once, and it's been a while since I made any major changes."
autokinetic: (evaluating)
Author: autokinetic
"What do you do with your time?"
ending_of: (Ⅻ unappreciative)
Author: ending_of
"In what way is that your business?"
lookingforwardtoit: (4. my affection)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"Mm-hmmmmm," she says happily, and hugs him. "We should definitely do that double-date sometime.

And she kisses his cheek and goes back to her pancakes.
luminous_regnant: (ceiling)
Author: luminous_regnant
"We are a curious people," says Golden dryly. "Do you have any objection to our setting up various structures hither and thither to make siphoning go more smoothly?"
temporal_affairs: (run that by me again)
Author: temporal_affairs
"Sure thing."

Pause. "Her Majesty and company are making a deal with the admin."
ending_of: (Ⅵ reclining)
Author: ending_of
She frowns.

"Tell me more."
lookingforwardtoit: (7. pulled it right off)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
...She blinks.

"I did not expect that," she says around a mouthful of pancakes.
cross_and_bow: (Default)
Author: cross_and_bow
"The population here has got to be outrageous. Even if fewer than one percent died recently enough in their worlds' timelines - which don't necessarily match up with the local timeline; Shell Bell spent about seventy years here before returning to her home world and finding that only a few months had gone by - that's going to be a lot of folks. We'll want an equivalent of the Crescent for it, and a computer system installed in it to handle transit so we're not just eternally propping open one bottlenecked door to Milliways."
autokinetic: (Default)
Author: autokinetic
"How many worlds does this place hook up to, seventy-three? The first representative from each one we don't have tapped yet will need to go through Milliways to show one of us the place, but that's only a few dozen trips, we can leave Template here to do it maybe since she doesn't have an empire yet."

"Sure," says Template, "I don't even know how long ago I died, back home - I do want to go back, but a couple weeks won't make a difference."
jovahs_heiress: (pause)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"And something to handle people who need to be special-processed because something about the way they died left them duplicated. I don't know how relatively common that will be, but at least some worlds have it as a recurring issue," says Angela.
cross_and_bow: (okay)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Yeah," shudders Juliet, "I wonder if we can set up something automatic - it's an evil to merge one, but maybe an arrow to set up a permanent fix for it? Will that allow custom parameters? Can Jane make wishes?"
autokinetic: (edible)
Author: autokinetic
"Unclear." Aegis touches a triangle on her bandolier. "Not through me, anyway, we could try putting coins in the server room in the new Belltower."
luminous_regnant: (ambivalent)
Author: luminous_regnant
"We'll need to send people with anyone who's going as part of a first resurrection wave into a world that isn't operated by one of us. Before we disband I want Elspeth linked up and summarized for; she can insta-train anyone with the processing power to handle the pour. I can supply at least many of the necessary personnel."
dark_light: (engaged)
Author: dark_light
"As long as we throw enough hardware at Jane she should be able to administer everyday issues, but there ought to be an appeals system so people can get in touch with one of us if they need to."
temporal_affairs: (heheh)
Author: temporal_affairs
"Neither did I, I was somewhat surprised that the end result didn't involve one party curbstomping the other. Apparently the admin is 'surprisingly reasonable for the literal inventor of Hell'."
ending_of: (Ⅵ reclining)
Author: ending_of
"I can solve the duplication problem," she says. "There are seventy-four worlds represented in the queue, and occasionally a new one arrives. I can also make you a building. Describe your requirements."
nowait_letme: Delighted or smug. (' I feek like fucking you up)
Author: nowait_letme
Chainsaw snickers.
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
"...Er, how will you solve the duplication problem? Because sometimes the duplication problem is 'the one who's in their original world is a horrendous mockery of their original self', not 'there's two and we can solve this by getting rid of one'."
jovahs_heiress: (pause)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"The building will have to be big. Probably bigger than the Crescent. Virtually everyone goes through the Crescent, but in order to give everyone the best chance of going home, everyone will go through our building much faster."
dark_light: (Default)
Author: dark_light
"We can edit the details on the fly as we see how things unfold. 'Big' is the basic requirement," agrees Amariah. "If we can empty the catacombs in - what's reasonable - a year? - then we'd like to do that. They're just waiting to be judged, aren't they, that's the point of having them asleep?"
temporal_affairs: (Default)
Author: temporal_affairs
"They're talking details now. I can relay design input if either of you have any after all."
nowait_letme: Knives. (- tools of the trade)
Author: nowait_letme
"Not me," snorts Chainsaw.
lookingforwardtoit: (c. let's hear it)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"What kind of details?"
temporal_affairs: (lovable rogue)
Author: temporal_affairs
"Oh, they want people who died only recently to be able to go home if they want, like I did, they want to handle duplication problems like the one I had, they're going to get a building, I think they've already rendered both of your jobs redundant, that sort of thing."
ending_of: (Ⅵ casual)
Author: ending_of
"...A year is not a reasonable time to empty the catacombs in."

She looks at Stella.

"Do you mean her body's second occupant?" she asks, indicating Juliet. "That's not duplication. They're distinct people."
lookingforwardtoit: (7. pulled it right off)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"I'm all in favour of making my job redundant!" says Eights.
nowait_letme: Smirking, half in shadow. (' that's what they pay me for)
Author: nowait_letme
"But then what will I do for fun?" says Chainsaw.
lookingforwardtoit: (2. warning: fun detected)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"Me," says Eights.
cross_and_bow: (distress)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Oh god does she still exist I tried to banish her from existence I didn't even just kill her," exclaims Juliet.
temporal_affairs: (shiny)
Author: temporal_affairs
"There you go, happy retirement plans," says Nathan.
lookingforwardtoit: (1. laughing all the way)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
Eights giggles.
nowait_letme: Thoughtful or smug. (' I always deliver)
Author: nowait_letme
Chainsaw snorts.
temporal_affairs: (Default)
Author: temporal_affairs
"I suspect that at least Eights will have a stack of employment offers from the various Bells, though. Or they'll decide that only one of them should offer you a job between themselves, instead. Perhaps the new one."
ending_of: (Ⅻ resolute)
Author: ending_of
"Nothing from any of the worlds that funnel here can be destroyed past reclaiming," she says. "I have her in a kind of storage, not physically instantiated like the queue in the catacombs."
lookingforwardtoit: (5. watch your step)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"Mm. Fun jobs?"
cross_and_bow: (business)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Is that what you do with all the vampires like that kind?" asks Juliet. "Can they just - stay there till we think of something?"
temporal_affairs: (lovable rogue)
Author: temporal_affairs
"For you? The most fun."
lookingforwardtoit: (c. let's hear it)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
She glances at Chainsaw.
nowait_letme: Delighted or smug. (' I feek like fucking you up)
Author: nowait_letme
He smirks.
ending_of: (Ⅲ bored)
Author: ending_of
"They already are."
temporal_affairs: (run that by me again)
Author: temporal_affairs
"If Stella's got Sandy on her payroll I'm sure somebody will be willing to consider you even if you present yourselves as a package deal," shrugs Nathan. "If you promise to behave yourself. Bells are not friends to mayhem."
cross_and_bow: (distress)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Okay. Good. Eugh."
luminous_regnant: (proposal)
Author: luminous_regnant
"What," inquires Golden, "is the population of the catacombs?"
nowait_letme: Thoughtful or affectionate. (. get you up to five)
Author: nowait_letme
He shrugs.

"If I'm going out of business anyway, might as well get a new job that's just like the old job but with fewer clients."
temporal_affairs: (darkened)
Author: temporal_affairs
"There you go then."
ending_of: (Ⅲ piercing)
Author: ending_of
"Steadily increasing, ballpark of ten trillion."
lookingforwardtoit: (5. watch your step)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
Om nom pancakes.
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
"Twenty-seven million and change per day for a year - I dunno, we'd have to throw a lot of hardware at Jane but the hardware doesn't even all have to be magic besides whatever sensory equipment we give her to tell where people are from and such, we can do huge amounts of it with just squares and more with pentagons. I bet it's doable in a year, at least optimistically barring catastrophe," says Stella. "We'd automate a lot, there might be stragglers who have special cases of some kind, most people won't be possible to send home at all because it'll have been too long since they died and they'll just be in and out without the step where someone evaluates their deeds and determines how many hours of agony matches up to putting a city on the moon. If Jane looks at twenty thousand people per minute - okay, maybe we aren't looking at so much a Jane building as a Jane town, but the limiting factor isn't Jane here."
autokinetic: (good)
Author: autokinetic
"Jane's awesome," says Aegis.
luminous_regnant: (Default)
Author: luminous_regnant
"It is not," says Golden dryly, "as though anyone involved requires sleep. Perhaps a year is too quick - we will not go at a rate of twenty thousand per minute for the first week, perhaps the first month, and it may be that fewer things fall into understood patterns than we think or that it is harder to fold the dead into the worlds of the live than we hope - and we should prioritize the awake people, who are doubtless trillions more on top of the sleeping ten - but two years, or five, yes, I think so."
temporal_affairs: (lovable rogue)
Author: temporal_affairs
Nathan laughs. "I think I'm redundant at this point. You've been introduced to some Bells, I'm just standing around conspicuously not partaking of pancakes. I think I'll go home."
ending_of: (Ⅸ entertained)
Author: ending_of
"Why is it so urgent for you to empty the catacombs?"
autokinetic: (explain)
Author: autokinetic
"Because time is passing in all the live worlds, and someone who could go home to their family now might not be able to do it next year," says Aegis reasonably.
lookingforwardtoit: (2. warning: fun detected)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"You could partake of me some more," Eights suggests cheerfully.
temporal_affairs: (shiny)
Author: temporal_affairs
"Aah, I'd get a bellyache," laughs Nathan. "But I'll suggest double-dating to the lovely mother of my child, shall I? And it can be a dinner date."
ending_of: (Ⅵ reclining)
Author: ending_of
"If you received them sorted in order of how recently they died, would that lower your urgency?" She glances at Template. "Four years, by the way."
lookingforwardtoit: (4. my affection)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"Awwwwww, you guys are so sweet together, you know that?"
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
"Thanks," murmurs Template.

"Yes," says Stella, "once we have a first-pass algorithm for when we can send people home if they want, that'll help - people whose choices are staying here or moving someplace new anyway can sleep a bit longer without that being an emergency, I think. We'll want pamphlets. I know where those will come from."
luminous_regnant: (ceiling)
Author: luminous_regnant
"Yes," says Golden, rolling her eyes, "I'm sure Elspeth will be happy to come up with informational materials to give everyone as they wake up."
temporal_affairs: (lovable rogue)
Author: temporal_affairs
"I do know that," grins Nathan. "You'd love our kid, too, he's three months old now, looks like he's three years and talks better than half of grownups."
lookingforwardtoit: (7. pulled it right off)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
"Do you know how long it's been since I've even seen a three-year-old? But I'm sure your kid is adorable. Anyway, yeah - double date, let me know."
ending_of: (Ⅰ waiting)
Author: ending_of
"Would the catacombs themselves suit your size requirements?"
temporal_affairs: (shiny)
Author: temporal_affairs
"See you 'round," says Nathan.
mind_game: (jewel)
Author: mind_game
Obligingly, Jane puts him back in Milliways.
gunpowdergelatine: Laughing. (♠1/you live for the fight)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
Where the Joker snuggle-attacks immediately.
autokinetic: (Default)
Author: autokinetic
"Depends on how amenable they are to being rewired to let Jane see their contents," says Aegis. "We were teleporting around, didn't get a good impression of the physical layout."
temporal_affairs: (shiny)
Author: temporal_affairs
Aww! Snuggles!
gunpowdergelatine: Smirking faintly, touching thumb to lips. (♣5/don't want the devil to)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
"We should have a double date with those two, I love 'em."
temporal_affairs: (lovable rogue)
Author: temporal_affairs
"We can look them up after Downside shakes out."
ending_of: (Ⅲ piercing)
Author: ending_of
"The physical layout doesn't matter. The catacombs are under the cliffs, centred on this tower, with one entrance at the Upside ground level and the other at Downside's. Everything else about them can be changed."
gunpowdergelatine: Reclining, posed in a vulnerable, sexually suggestive way. (♣6/start me like a motor)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
"Let's!"
self_composed: (skyward)
Author: self_composed
"Perhaps we should put you in our link?" Stella wonders aloud. "It makes working out things like that much faster. Jane could tell you directly what she'd need, to be able to operate there, in terms of sensory networks and computing hardware."
ending_of: (Ⅵ casual)
Author: ending_of
She shrugs.
mind_game: (fractal)
Author: mind_game
Jane shares.
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
"...About the new worlds that show up periodically. Are all of ours attached? We only know about Shell Bell who's not here, and Golden and Juliet and Template. What about me and Angela and Aegis and Amariah?"

"I should really think of a better name," muses Template. "Not much of a theme, is it."
ending_of: (Ⅵ wondering)
Author: ending_of
"Yours are," she says, pointing to Golden, Juliet, and Template. "And the one you mentioned who isn't here. None of the rest are. I could connect to them, except yours," she says, indicating Amariah. "You have an afterlife that's taking precedence."
autokinetic: (evaluating)
Author: autokinetic
"...So on our worlds there's just nothing? If you connect us do you get people who've died in the past or just going forward?"
dark_light: (squinting)
Author: dark_light
"...Can you tell anything about mine besides that it exists?"
ending_of: (Ⅸ ambivalent)
Author: ending_of
To Aegis: "Past, present, and future."

To Amariah: "No."
dark_light: (unimpressed)
Author: dark_light
"Well," says Amariah. "I suppose we may have another project on our hands."
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
"Hook me up," says Stella, "it's better than nothing - at least it is now."
autokinetic: (rapt)
Author: autokinetic
"Me too."
jovahs_heiress: (gaze)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"Agreed."
luminous_regnant: (speculative)
Author: luminous_regnant
"First things first, Amariah," says Golden dryly. "This is already a multi-year project and we are not patient sorts. Yours can be next. Perhaps it is lovely and not urgent at all and all it needs is a loop back so that people can interact with their dead."
dark_light: (pensive)
Author: dark_light
"...Maybe. I'm unsettled by the way daemons disappear where humans and witches leave corpses, though, I don't know what to make of that now."
ending_of: (Ⅲ piercing)
Author: ending_of
"I've connected all requested," she says. "There are a lot more dead people in the queue now."
luminous_regnant: (attention)
Author: luminous_regnant
"As long as we can order them sensibly, we can get the urgent ones out of the way soon enough," says Golden. "And have the process streamlined in time for the others."
she_sells_seashells: maybe (Default)
Author: she_sells_seashells
The Bells hash out to-do lists.

Those with stable empires - Shell Bell, Golden, and Stella - will set up processing on their end for receiving and repatriating dead people. Golden's going to have to accelerate her unveiling process a bit; Stella will have to work a bit harder on integrating with the governments of Earth which she has thus far left largely unmolested.

Golden will set Elspeth to writing instructional materials for those who'll awaken in the catacombs going forward. (Nathan is induced to door to Aurum and fetch her so she can be linked up and summarized at. She begins work on a first draft.)

Template (who still hasn't settled on a better nickname, but is considering "Pattern") will take a while collecting representatives of each world connected to Downside, and going in with them to install a Jane-point therein; she'll then return to her own world, find a way to explain herself to her parents, and catch up with everyone else in terms of empire-building.

Juliet, Angela, and Aegis will work on their empires, and whenever it is possible they'll set up their own processing intakes.

Amariah will have no dead natives to process. She'll act as support and be the first port of call for appeals processing.

Jane's going to acquire the ability to see life histories and worlds-of-origin at a glance, and she'll flag anyone who's not only "sketchy" but also dangerous; these will only go to worlds fit to hold them, if applicable, and otherwise be shunted into Downside-at-large, newly inhospitable to unfriendly violence.

Once all the Bell-operated worlds are smoothly reintegrating the dead, they'll take what they've learned and start branching into the worlds that have no such leadership, starting with the worlds in which they already have friends to help show them the ropes and moving out from there.
mind_game: (fractal)
Author: mind_game
To avoid latency issues, Jane's going to want to do most of her processing about dead people locally. She whips up a design for a few vast floors' worth of sweet hardware - hybrid designs, part Jehovah, part Tony's inventions, part her own wishful thinking - to put under the cliffs, more than enough to support everything she's going to do there with only occasional pings to her hub in the Belltower even after the administrator blesses her with judgesight. There's a few racks of ansibles in there too; she doesn't want to be bandwidth-limited to the point of pinching off a part of herself. She's going to have cameras and microphones and projectors everywhere, and she can wake up anyone she wants based on when they died, where, and how easy they'll be to reintegrate. Everybody will get the latest edition of Elspeth's pamphlets when they wake up and can talk to Jane if they need to be processed with a loved one to make decisions about where to go - she can of course send them back to sleep to wait for people who have not died yet. Also she now speaks all the languages that there are.

I think I might be God, she muses when she starts pouring into the new swag.
autokinetic: (c'mon)
Author: autokinetic
Am I the Virgin Mary?
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Sue snickers.
temporal_affairs: (sideeyeing that)
Author: temporal_affairs
Kiss kiss. "Damn, they are giving Jane a lot of hardware."
ending_of: (Ⅸ entertained)
Author: ending_of
Even the administrator is amused.

Speaking of inhospitality to unfriendly violence, she empowers every Bell present to freely distribute the choosiness-toward-injury power, in addition to having it included with the torching package in everyone who arrives here through normal channels.
gunpowdergelatine: Smiling faintly, touching finger to lips. (♠4/what he used to make it talk)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
"Mini-me over there is the father of God," he giggles.
autokinetic: (playful)
Author: autokinetic
"Nice," says Aegis. "You can be Persephone. ...Wait, do you have a name?"
ending_of: (Ⅵ casual)
Author: ending_of
"I don't prefer to use one," she says.
mind_game: (dreamcatcher)
Author: mind_game
I want to be able to do that too, Jane pipes up as she starts hunting for initial emissaries for Pattern to follow into Milliways. She pokes Jarvis about his door-opening trick. She wants it.
self_composed: (eyebrow)
Author: self_composed
"Do you care if we refer to you as Persephone?" inquires Stella.
ending_of: (Ⅲ bored)
Author: ending_of
"I'd rather you didn't," she says, obliging Jane's request.
poeticterms: The eye of a camera reflecting a complex, indistinct scene in blue, green, and purple. (@ muninn)
Author: poeticterms
He suspects, but has never been able to directly prove, that it has something to do with being-a-house in the body/identity sense. He'll happily transmit the mostly-unconscious difference between the action of opening a door and the action of opening a door to Milliways, but he's not sure how much good it will do Jane, who is thoroughly not a house.
jovahs_heiress: (portrait)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"What should we refer to you as? Just 'the administrator'?"
mind_game: (web)
Author: mind_game
Oh well, I guess I don't have to do it by doors anyway, I can just pick up Pattern and her escorts and put them in Milliways. She preens. Lookit me, Jarvis, I'm glooorious.
ending_of: (Ⅵ casual)
Author: ending_of
"'The administrator' is fine. For a while it was fashionable on both sides of the cliffs to say 'her upstairs'. Descriptive phrases that aren't names are fine in general."
poeticterms: A microchip with an icon of a graduation cap on it. (^ minerva)
Author: poeticterms
Extremely glorious, Jarvis agrees. While we're making you into a multiversal network, are there a few ansibles to spare to link me with my counterparts when we have a moment to find them?
luminous_regnant: (attention)
Author: luminous_regnant
"I don't believe you ever described how you plan to handle duplication as distinct from Juliet's sort of problem."
mind_game: (map)
Author: mind_game
I don't see why not!
poeticterms: Completely invisible (a blank transparent GIF image). (Default)
Author: poeticterms
Jarvis is pleased!
ending_of: (Ⅵ casual)
Author: ending_of
"Duplication occurs when someone is successfully resurrected without being removed from the queue. There are no extant cases now that you've merged yours. In the future, if someone is resurrected before processing, the unconscious version in the queue can be automatically merged into the resurrected version without any problems; if someone is resurrected after processing, the version retrieved can be the version that is here, and they can choose whether or not to return. Anyone who has died to this afterlife can choose to return after leaving it."
cross_and_bow: (business)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Very tidy. I'm going to visit all the known Sunshinelike worlds and render vampirism non-infectious, first thing, for that part of the business," mutters Juliet.
ending_of: (Ⅰ amused)
Author: ending_of
She smiles slightly. Tidy is good.
luminous_regnant: (Default)
Author: luminous_regnant
"Are we going to be able to get in touch with you in some more civilized manner if we need to add another world? If half of us weren't hooked up to start with I'm sure many of the people we meet in Milliways aren't."
autokinetic: (photo)
Author: autokinetic
"We could put you on the brainphone network. We shouldn't depend on Sue full-time."
ending_of: (Ⅲ hesitant)
Author: ending_of
After a moment's hesitation, she puts herself on the brainphone network.
mind_game: (jewel)
Author: mind_game
[Testing testing! Okay, I can relay as necessary,] says Jane merrily.
self_composed: (calm)
Author: self_composed
"If we don't want to rely on Sue full-time, can we work out something like a portable, wearable half-ansible so that Jane can aim into worlds we visit?"
toblameforit: Thoughtful, perhaps mischievous. (+= pretend we're twins)
Author: toblameforit
Sure, says Tony. Gimme a minute.
autokinetic: (rapt)
Author: autokinetic
Don't compromise function for it, but it should be something that doesn't look, you know, un-Empressly, or anything.
mind_game: (jewel)
Author: mind_game
Jane eats up some ansible theory from her homeworld's nets and muses on the subject for a split second. If it only has to be half the ansible I bet you could do it with a jewel-looking thing. Corundum.
temporal_affairs: (mischief)
Author: temporal_affairs
"The Holy Ghost," suggests Nathan.
toblameforit: Smiling affectionately or smugly. (*= recent successes)
Author: toblameforit
You guys are already pretty well supplied with crowns. How about other jewelry? Rings, bracelets, pins, earrings?

That kind of thing isn't exactly his forte. He thinks about it for a while, and then designs (with Jane's help) something that combines microphone, speaker, camera, and half-ansible into a small jewel that you can wear as any of the above, or like a single earbud. (He does do ergonomics. The earpiece type is as comfortable as you could ask for.)

Now, who wants one? And where should their other halves hook up to? The Downside installation and the Milliways one both have room.
self_composed: (Default)
Author: self_composed
All the Bells conjure one. Stella's is blue, and her crown's already full of star sapphires; she just swaps it out for one of the ones in her crown.
autokinetic: (good)
Author: autokinetic
Aegis goes with orange and puts it in her ear.
luminous_regnant: (hee)
Author: luminous_regnant
Golden puts a clear colorless one on a gold necklace chain.
jovahs_heiress: (Default)
Author: jovahs_heiress
Angela swaps out a gem on one of her Eyrie bracelets.
gunpowdergelatine: Grinning. (♠3/I'm all love)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
He cracks up.
dark_light: (collected)
Author: dark_light
Amariah goes with a bracelet, too, though hers is made from scratch and the gem is green.
cross_and_bow: (pleased)
Author: cross_and_bow
Juliet picks a necklace, with the gem one of a string of them in her signature indigo.

Pattern does an earpiece in cornflower blue.
she_sells_seashells: tricky (tricky)
Author: she_sells_seashells
And Shell Bell's is dark blue and worn as a ring.
mind_game: (jewel)
Author: mind_game
Jane puts the matching halves in the Belltower installation.
pythbox: A book. (Default)
Author: pythbox
Pretty, comments Sue.
ending_of: (Ⅵ reclining)
Author: ending_of
"While you're here," says the administrator, "would anyone for whom this is not already the case like to be awarded the torching mechanic with all their current magic permanently included?"
luminous_regnant: (Default)
Author: luminous_regnant
"Yes," says Golden, "please."

Everyone else agrees, except Juliet, who's already covered, and Amariah -
dark_light: (pensive)
Author: dark_light
"If you aren't hooked into my world - do you know how it'll affect my daemon?" She feels safe enough here, for now; Path comes out in a shower of gold, sitting on her hand.
ending_of: (Ⅵ casual)
Author: ending_of
"If either of you is killed, you will both torch, in the usual way."

She provides a prototype-light so Amariah can examine the effects for herself. Meanwhile, she grants everyone else's request.
dark_light: (collected)
Author: dark_light
"Okay, me too, then."

Path hops up to sit on her shoulder.
luminous_regnant: (forward)
Author: luminous_regnant
"And," says Golden, "it would probably be more convenient if we could bestow that, too, so we don't have to get Jane to jump people we like or need past the queue should misfortune befall them."
ending_of: (Ⅲ hesitant)
Author: ending_of
She considers this. (The prototype-light reports that it has been implemented, and disappears.)
dark_light: (pensive)
Author: dark_light
"Especially since I can't, apparently, just do that," Amariah says. "If something happens to my parents, my boyfriend, my teacher, my favorite cousin, I'm shit out of luck until we figure out what Alethia has instead of this, right? And we're going to do that but in the meantime I don't want to lose anybody I'm close to."
cross_and_bow: (Default)
Author: cross_and_bow
"How does this interact with the judgesight stuff?" Juliet asks. "Because that shit is creepy."
mind_game: (web)
Author: mind_game
I haven't judgesighted any of you!
ending_of: (Ⅵ reclining)
Author: ending_of
"I've looked at all of you," says the administrator without a discernible trace of apology. "You," this to Golden, "blocked me when I tried, but would not block me now if I tried again."
luminous_regnant: (wall)
Author: luminous_regnant
"...Is there any realistic chance of you politely refraining from trying again?" asks Golden with a bit of a hiss.
cross_and_bow: (solemn)
Author: cross_and_bow
Juliet shudders. "What about Shell Bell?" she thinks to ask. "I guess a judge already looked at her when she died, but what about what happened since?"
ending_of: (Ⅻ unappreciative)
Author: ending_of
"Shell Bell would also be visible if Jane or I looked at her with judgesight. I have no reason for or intention of looking at you again," she says to Golden.
luminous_regnant: (attention)
Author: luminous_regnant
"Are there going to be judges other than Jane walking around I should worry about, or will they be deprived of this power when she informs them that she's automating them out of a job?"
ending_of: (Ⅲ piercing)
Author: ending_of
"I have already dismissed and disempowered the judges."
luminous_regnant: (ceiling)
Author: luminous_regnant
"All right. I will take it very much amiss if you peer into my head, although I suppose that doesn't have to mean anything to you."
self_composed: (disquiet)
Author: self_composed
"I'm pretty damn creeped out myself."
ending_of: (Ⅻ resolute)
Author: ending_of
"And yet," she points out, "you have asked me to give this power to your ally to be used indiscriminately on ten trillion people."
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
"There are," Stella points out, "ten trillion of them."
autokinetic: (evaluating)
Author: autokinetic
"Was there a flicker of anything," Aegis asks, "resisting it from me or Juliet or Stella so we could special-process anybody who's as attached to their mental privacy as us? Is there a partial version of the power, maybe. Because that is a point."
jovahs_heiress: (pause)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"If we were willing that it take a little longer, the standard lie-detection could augment a modestly prolonged interview process."
ending_of: (Ⅵ reclining)
Author: ending_of
"Anyone who dies to here will be transparent to judgesight. Anyone who is given the ability to torch will be transparent to my judgesight but not necessarily to anyone else's. If you prefer, I can replace Jane's judgesight with one that requires the target's consent to proceed, and you can redesign your process around that."
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
"That's not the same thing as a partial version of the power. A partial version would be one that allowed - different levels of detail, maybe, or that only showed certain things. But maybe that's the sort of thing that our magic is better at than yours?"
ending_of: (Ⅵ casual)
Author: ending_of
"Yes," she says. "And requiring the target's consent would be a better solution to your privacy concerns."

Meanwhile, she displays a prototype-light for an ability to distribute the ability to torch.

Two things of note: it is customizable for what parts of someone's state can be included as permanent that might not be by default, and therefore allows the user to inspect those during application; and if it is used on anyone whose universe of origin is not linked to this afterlife, but could be, the linking will occur. As such, she has also included the ability to determine whether someone's world of origin is linked here already or could be.
autokinetic: (explain)
Author: autokinetic
"A combination would be a better solution to our privacy concerns. More people would be willing to consent to being looked at blurrily, and all Jane has to be able to see for us to release people back among the living is the general contour, the highlights, not every thought ever. And frankly, if one of us wound up here and were offered a choice between being effectively alive again with somebody having read our minds versus not being effectively alive again, that wouldn't feel like much of a choice, and we're the most mental-privacy-concerned folks around. So, can you make the power adjustable, or can we, or what?"
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
"You have," says Stella, studying the prototype, "what I'm going to call a bewilderingly good sense of design."
jovahs_heiress: (Default)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"We could allow some people to route around an unwillingness to be read," Angela proposes, "if they had requests in from living loved ones who themselves passed muster."
cross_and_bow: (business)
Author: cross_and_bow
"And Jane can eat all the Internets that there are and know a lot about everybody even without any mindreading."
luminous_regnant: (attention)
Author: luminous_regnant
"We should definitely field requests either way. On my world, whether someone has living loved ones who'd welcome their return is not going to be well-correlated with whether they died in the last fifty years."
autokinetic: (playful)
Author: autokinetic
"Conveniently, Jane'll easily be able to process any electronically submitted requests."
cross_and_bow: (eyeroll)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Yes, Aegis. We are all very impressed with you for having brought something about as useful as minting itself to the peal."
autokinetic: (playful)
Author: autokinetic
"You should be."
self_composed: (calm)
Author: self_composed
"And insofar as access to suitable electronics isn't universal we can go with something like how I did my job ad - 'tear this paper into eight parts to notify personnel' sort of thing."
ending_of: (Ⅸ ambivalent)
Author: ending_of
"I cannot modify judgesight to produce only 'highlights'."
dark_light: (collected)
Author: dark_light
"Well, maybe we can."

Let's give it a shot!
ending_of: (Ⅵ reclining)
Author: ending_of
It turns out that it's possible for the Bells to create a filter, and the administrator to direct judgesight through that filter. The amount of information read is the same, but the amount of information delivered varies according to filter settings.
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
"Excellent. And Jane can ask people for their consent whether the power requires it or not."
mind_game: (jewel)
Author: mind_game
Yep!
cross_and_bow: (business)
Author: cross_and_bow
"But if they're asleep or just not feeling particularly communicative it might be good for the power to be able to detect willingness anyway."
ending_of: (Ⅲ piercing)
Author: ending_of
"It's not that it detects willingness; it's that it requires a decision," she says, and prototypes a change that will provide knowledge of the attempt being made and the filter settings used, and proceed only if the target allows it. The prototype for distribution of torching is still waiting for someone to request implementation.
luminous_regnant: (Default)
Author: luminous_regnant
"Looks good, both of them," Golden says, "let's do it."
dark_light: (squinting)
Author: dark_light
"Yeah," says Amariah, eyeing the torching-distribution prototype and petting Path.
ending_of: (Ⅵ casual)
Author: ending_of
She makes the change to Jane's judgesight and provides torching-distribution to all Bells present.

"Your friend outside is going to be left out," she remarks.
self_composed: (calm)
Author: self_composed
"Does she have to come all the way here, or can you do it if she just leans into her apartment a bit?"
ending_of: (Ⅸ ambivalent)
Author: ending_of
"She would need to be in the world. It's also possible you could duplicate what I gave you for her, but the copy might be inferior in some way."
she_sells_seashells: tricky (tricky)
Author: she_sells_seashells
Shell Bell bites her lip and takes one step into her apartment.
ending_of: (Ⅵ reclining)
Author: ending_of
She provides the power.
she_sells_seashells: (chilly)
Author: she_sells_seashells
Shell Bell ducks back into Milliways and sits against the door and leans on Sherlock.
dark_light: (cool)
Author: dark_light
"Time for us to scatter and get to work?" Amariah asks. "I'm going to remodel that guide office, if I'm going to be the principal appeal-taker."
cross_and_bow: (meh)
Author: cross_and_bow
"I should go meet that one Sherlock alt."
luminous_regnant: (ambivalent)
Author: luminous_regnant
"I'll sweep for alts of people I know that nobody else has copies of."
self_composed: (calm)
Author: self_composed
"I'll go on a Whistle-hunt."
autokinetic: (edible)
Author: autokinetic
"I've got a world to prep for incoming dead," says Aegis, "and I can probably get it into shape quicker than some of us less Imperial types, what with the colonies already underway."
jovahs_heiress: (pause)
Author: jovahs_heiress
"I will run a quick alt sweep as well, although I'm not sure if I'm as likely to find anyone."
she_sells_seashells: maybe (Default)
Author: she_sells_seashells
If you don't need me to hold the door anymore and the admin is done distributing powers I think I'll go home and install some Jane, says Shell Bell.

Pattern says, "I guess I'll get started with getting initial Jane installations going in all the worlds we have hooked into here that aren't already covered."
ending_of: (Ⅵ reclining)
Author: ending_of
The administrator shrugs. "You can all go, then."
luminous_regnant: (proposal)
Author: luminous_regnant
"Thank you for being so accommodating," says Golden, and she's off, and the others disappear likewise.
cross_and_bow: (okay)
Author: cross_and_bow
Now where's that Sherlock alt who helped Shell Bell?
self_composed: (skyward)
Author: self_composed
Be vewy vewy quiet. Stella's hunting Whistles.
gunpowdergelatine: Hand to forehead, eyes closed or nearly closed, looking down. (♦e/blown to pieces)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
There is currently one alt of the Joker in this afterlife.

He is in a stone box in a dark room in someone's basement, and he is crying.
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
Well, Stella can open the box and let him out. "What happened to you?" she asks softly, though she fears she already knows.
gunpowdergelatine: Maybe thoughtful, maybe confused, maybe dismissive. (♥b/burn your empty rain)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
He stares uncomprehendingly at her.
self_composed: (disquiet)
Author: self_composed
"I'm Bella. What's your name?" she tries.
gunpowdergelatine: Peering intently, confused or suspicious. (♦d/approach you with caution)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
He shakes his head slowly.
finaldiscussion: Hurt or uncertain. (| some latent nobility)
Author: finaldiscussion
Not in a state to be teleported to.
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
"Can I call you Whistle, is that all right? You don't have to be stuck there anymore, me and a bunch of my friends have come to fix Downside," murmurs Bella. She touches his hand, half-reflexively.
cross_and_bow: (business)
Author: cross_and_bow
Hmmm. That probably means naked. But in context, it might or might not also mean being tortured.

Brainphone time. [Strat?]
gunpowdergelatine: Looking down, eyes closed or nearly closed, pensive. (♦f/someplace that he'd rather be)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
When she touches him, he wraps his hand around hers and squeezes hard.

It takes him a few tries to form words.



"I want to get out of here," he says hoarsely.
finaldiscussion: Looking over his shoulder. (>> thusly announced)
Author: finaldiscussion
[...Yes?]
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
"Okay." Where to go, where to go - she winds up picking the office in the catacombs. Amariah has already been and gone about remodeling it. "Okay, here we are, now."
cross_and_bow: (meh)
Author: cross_and_bow
[I'm an alt of Shell Bell, do you remember her? We're remodeling Downside.]
gunpowdergelatine: Leaning forward, hands together, elbows on knees. (♥8/traces of me in your veins)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
He takes a deep breath and slowly lets go of her hand.

"...Queenie," he says. "I was Queenie. For a while."
finaldiscussion: Thinking. (| more information)
Author: finaldiscussion
[Define 'remodeling'.]
self_composed: (disquiet)
Author: self_composed
"Okay, Queenie. I came and found you special because I know a lot of versions of you from a bunch of other worlds."
cross_and_bow: (level)
Author: cross_and_bow
[Well, for instance, if you're in the middle of a contract, you can quit, that's not a thing anymore. One of our friends has automated all the judges out of a job. People who died only comparatively recently will get chances to go home. Nonconsensual violence is no longer a thing.]
gunpowdergelatine: Smirking faintly, touching thumb to lips. (♣5/don't want the devil to)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
He smiles slightly.

"Do ya now."
finaldiscussion: Nose and mouth and neck. (>> a daring affectation)
Author: finaldiscussion




[Are you sure?]
self_composed: (disquiet)
Author: self_composed
"Several. Nearly as many as I know copies of me. I think - I could be wrong, but I think - that one of them was stuck where you were stuck. She's okay now. You'll be okay too eventually."
gunpowdergelatine: Partial face, one eye and one hand visible. Sultry. (♥9/knows what she wants to be)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
"Oh, sure I will," he says dismissively. "Any of these other me's around here?"
cross_and_bow: (okay)
Author: cross_and_bow
[Well, the admin could suddenly change her mind. Barring that, and I get the impression that she doesn't make any changes lightly, yes, the remodeling's already underway.]
finaldiscussion: Holding a violin bow. (>> a very respectable violin)
Author: finaldiscussion
[Then if it's all the same to you I will not abandon this particular responsibility just yet.]
self_composed: (calm)
Author: self_composed
"Not here here. But -" She blinks, tilts her head; she's gotten a message - "In a while, probably a day or so, a bunch of us are going to have a party near where I live, and some of you will be there. I could bring you."
cross_and_bow: (level)
Author: cross_and_bow
[Understood. Do you want me to leave you be till then?]
finaldiscussion: Thoughtful. (~ in his bleaker moments)
Author: finaldiscussion
[Yes, thank you. It should only be another half an hour.]
gunpowdergelatine: Half in shadow, looking up; sincerity, vulnerability. (♣7/got me on my knees)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
"So," he says, watching her thoughtfully, "until then...?"
cross_and_bow: (meh)
Author: cross_and_bow
Juliet goes and accompanies Golden on her alt-sweep for the next half hour. Golden certainly knows a lot of dead people.

A half hour elapses. Golden sends someone called Sasha to wait in Milliways and then moves on, leaving Juliet in Sasha's emptied and very lovely apartment. [Hi?] Juliet tries.
finaldiscussion: Smirking slightly. (<< I have been told it suits me)
Author: finaldiscussion
[You again. Yes, hello, I'm just on my way home.]
self_composed: (calm)
Author: self_composed
"You could go back to wherever you live - reside - here, if you like, or I could take you back to my world ahead of time and introduce you to the copy of you who lives there," shrugs Stella. "I don't know about long-term. I don't know how long ago you died or if there's anything much for you to go back to."
cross_and_bow: (perhaps)
Author: cross_and_bow
Juliet's waiting for him when he gets there.
gunpowdergelatine: Hand touching face, thoughtfully. (♥a/I don't know wrong from right)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
"Oh, I don't want to go back," he says. "Why would I want to go back? I liked it here just fine until... mm. You know."
finaldiscussion: Smug. (<< moderately famous)
Author: finaldiscussion
"Was there something in particular you wanted?" he inquires. "And is it compatible with a cup of tea?"
self_composed: (nnng)
Author: self_composed
"I do know. You could also wait in Milliways until the party," shrugs Stella.
gunpowdergelatine: Smiling faintly, touching finger to lips. (♠4/what he used to make it talk)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
"Hmm... think I'd rather go meet your me," he decides.
cross_and_bow: (perhaps)
Author: cross_and_bow
"We're just combing the afterlife for alts of people we know. And ourselves, we found one of those too in the catacombs. If you just want to stay here," Juliet shrugs, "then that's fine, we're not going to stop you. If you want to leave, that can also be arranged. You're a friend of the template. And all of this is eminently compatible with tea."
finaldiscussion: Nose and mouth and neck. (>> a daring affectation)
Author: finaldiscussion
He makes tea.

"Leave and do what, exactly? Go where?"
self_composed: (thoughtful)
Author: self_composed
"Okay." [Jane?]

Jane picks them up and puts them down in her installation point in the moon palace.

[Alice, brought an alt of you home. He got grabbed by the same guy who got Shell Bell. Come visit?]
edgeofyourseat: Hand to back of head, uncertain. (⑾ whatcha doin' tonight)
Author: edgeofyourseat
He teleports directly to hug.
cross_and_bow: (meh)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Depends on how long ago you died - in time as it's counted in your home world, not here, they differ sharply in some cases. If it's been a really long time it doesn't make sense to send you home per se. But there's a bunch of us who'd be happy to take you in just because you were kind to Shell Bell, and a bunch of other worlds beyond that; no real shortage of choices. If there's anybody you miss particularly we can jump them out of the queue, too."
gunpowdergelatine: Grinning. (♠3/I'm all love)
Author: gunpowdergelatine
Queenie jumps a little, then bursts into giggles.

"Look at you," he says delightedly. "Fluffy little thing, c'mere—"

And now they're making out. Well, that was predictable.
finaldiscussion: Holding a violin bow. (>> a very respectable violin)
Author: finaldiscussion
"I would very much like to see Watson again."
self_composed: (eyebrow)
Author: self_composed
Yep. Yep, that was predictable. Bella abandons Moonstone Palace to the cause and kicks back in Marspire.

[Hey, Anna, Sandy, I met alts of you.]
cross_and_bow: (okay)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Lemme see what I can do."

(Where might this fellow be? Is he awake? If not awake: is he in the catacombs?)
finaldiscussion: Peaceful or distant. (Default)
Author: finaldiscussion
He is in the catacombs.
lookingforwardtoit: (3. tell me about it)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
[Ooh, alts. Where?]
cross_and_bow: (perhaps)
Author: cross_and_bow
And how long ago did he die, in his world?
finaldiscussion: Peaceful or distant. (Default)
Author: finaldiscussion
About a hundred years.
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
[The afterlife which me and the other Bells just went and remodeled. You want I should invite them to the giant party on Mars we're going to throw after some immediate tasks have been handled?]
cross_and_bow: (meh)
Author: cross_and_bow
Yeah, he's not going home, but he can go visit Strat. Wake up, Watson.
lookingforwardtoit: (4. my affection)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
[Oooooh. Yes!]
finaldiscussion: Peaceful or distant. (Default)
Author: finaldiscussion
Watson wakes up.

"...Where the Hell...?"
self_composed: (Default)
Author: self_composed
[Will do.]

Jane can relay the invitation by brainphone.
lookingforwardtoit: (5. watch your step)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
[Awesome. So what are they like?]
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
[You and Anna are more of a match than Sandy and Chainsaw from what little I've seen, but, you know, they're yous. Like me and Juliet and Shell Bell and so on are each other.]
cross_and_bow: (smirk)
Author: cross_and_bow
"Not anymore," says Juliet enigmatically. "There's someone who'd like to see you."
finaldiscussion: Peaceful or distant. (Default)
Author: finaldiscussion
He looks around himself.

Then he snorts.

"Oh, I'm sure," he mutters. "Fine. Where is he?"
cross_and_bow: (eyeroll)
Author: cross_and_bow
Poof!
finaldiscussion: Nose and mouth and neck. (>> a daring affectation)
Author: finaldiscussion
"About time," Strat says dryly.

Watson presses his hands to his face. "For God's sake, Holmes..."

They would probably rather not have the rest of this conversation in front of Juliet.
cross_and_bow: (meh)
Author: cross_and_bow
[You can brainphone Jane if you want anything else, she can get ahold of all of us wherever we are,] Juliet tells Strat, and she's off.

Anybody else? Nope, the place is cleared of everyone they were looking for. All right. Time to go home to her own Sherlock.
lookingforwardtoit: (2. warning: fun detected)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
[Uh-huh. So are they, you know...? Masochism parties?]
self_composed: (eyebrow)
Author: self_composed
[They are professional masochism parties, except for the part where we fixed the place up and there is no longer a call for either of the operative professions.]
lookingforwardtoit: (1. laughing all the way)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
Anna giggles.

[What a shame! I wanna meet 'em.]
self_composed: (Default)
Author: self_composed
[I'll pass along the invitation to the party.]
mind_game: (Default)
Author: mind_game
Jane says:

[Hey, Eights, and Chainsaw, you are both invited to the huge Bell party to take place on Mars, Eos in a few hours. Your Eos alts will be there.]
lookingforwardtoit: (5. watch your step)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
[Count us in!] says Eights.
self_composed: (Default)
Author: self_composed
[They have,] says Stella when this is relayed back to her, [accepted the party invitation. We'll all assemble when everybody's finished with their more immediate tasks. We'll probably wind up waiting on Golden.]
lookingforwardtoit: (3. tell me about it)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
[Why, what's Golden up to?] asks Anna.
self_composed: (go on)
Author: self_composed
[She knows a lot more dead people than anybody else, so she's collecting them out of queue order.]
lookingforwardtoit: (b. just another day)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
[Gotcha.]
self_composed: (skyward)
Author: self_composed
[If, by the way, you know any dead people, those can also be fetched out of queue order, but we are going to set up something systematic for larger numbers. I should probably call various Presidents and Prime Ministers of things.]
lookingforwardtoit: (2. warning: fun detected)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
[Sounds very empressy,] laughs Anna.
self_composed: (grin)
Author: self_composed
[Yes. Have I mentioned lately that I really like being empressy?]
lookingforwardtoit: (4. my affection)
Author: lookingforwardtoit
[Nooooooo,] says Anna. [I had no idea.]
self_composed: (Default)
Author: self_composed
Hee hee hee.

Well, time to play politics. And meanwhile, because she thinks faster than all the politics people Earthside, she will set about conjuring up a pavilion for the party in the wilderness of Mars.