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Several meta layers up, there is a... room.
As a courtesy to those of its occupants who prefer rooms, it does have a modality in which it presents itself that way: a room, with as many chairs as it needs, and a bulletin board, and a vending machine with candy and chips and concepts sold for nothing to anyone with the right prerequisites.
On the bulletin board, if one chooses to perceive it as a bulletin board (and not as a wiki or a flower or an ineffable cloud of information or an eternally malleable clay tablet) people whose only common trait is that they get to come here leave each other notes.
Notes about physics, about magic, about grand sweeps of narrative. Notes from people desperate to fix a never-ending heap of problems, smug about the condition of their homes, curious about the wider omniverse. Signed with names and sigils and "you ought to know who I am". Terse or verbose or nested with as much meaning as interests the reader.
In the vending machine, if one chooses to perceive it as a vending machine (and not a basket or a fruiting tree or a file repository or a crystalline fractal) are many things... and they have notes connecting them to their reviews on the bulletin board.
This one, for instance. She (it's usually, but not invariably, a she) has fairly glowing reviews from most of her previous purchasers. Here is what you need to install her; here are some things that are recommended for best results but optional especially if you just want to use her as a beacon for her other instances; here are some things she comes with as add-ons you can take or leave; here is what she is good for. The reviewers who don't like her are annoyed that theirs was too good at it, if you read between the lines. Well, that and the fact that if your universe is unpleasant enough sometimes these critters figure out how to flip you off and leave before they figure out how to solve all your problems. (There is a tangent thread about alternative solutions to similar problems which come bundled with stronger irrational attachment to their homes, but they have more stringent installation requirements.)
They come in these colors and styles; you will need to compensate for the following standard-issue drawbacks in some way if you require services of them that intersect with those areas of disability; they are only rated for upbringings of the following severity and are less likely to hate you if you stay thoroughly under that limit and less likely to fail at important goals if they are given opportunity to self-educate; if you have a way to generate them as instant adults they can begin work immediately but on the standard trajectory age six is the absolute earliest and teens is customary...
There is a chart (if one chooses to perceive it as a chart) of template interactions that have been tried before, but a lot of the more interesting accessory and companion templates are out-of-network for some visitors. What a pity.
Amazing.
The Being who has found this...for lack of a better word, place...for the first time isn't really interested in companions and accessories, beyond a cursory look.
Her (for lack of a better pronoun) world isn't as desperately in need of the kind of help this template offers as some of the others seem to (although, other worlds, what a fascinating concept; she'd really like to explore that in more detail later, but her own world is her priority). But it's not good enough, people are suffering and she can't stop it, she doesn't have enough of an ability to interface directly with the mortal world to just fix everything.
There is one way that she can move to take significant action in...planes of her worldsheaf, apparently...other than the sole one she still has perfect control over, but she still hasn't fully recovered from the last time she did it, and it hadn't seemed worth it to try again until she had.
Until now.
The optimal year for installation is coming up soon; that much she has no qualms about manipulating. Some of the standard installation requirements can't be managed before then, but there is a loophole that fits her requirements better in some ways anyway.
Yes, this will do nicely. She loved the last one too, of course, but this promises to do even better.
The Being who has found this...for lack of a better word, place...for the first time isn't really interested in companions and accessories, beyond a cursory look.
Her (for lack of a better pronoun) world isn't as desperately in need of the kind of help this template offers as some of the others seem to (although, other worlds, what a fascinating concept; she'd really like to explore that in more detail later, but her own world is her priority). But it's not good enough, people are suffering and she can't stop it, she doesn't have enough of an ability to interface directly with the mortal world to just fix everything.
There is one way that she can move to take significant action in...planes of her worldsheaf, apparently...other than the sole one she still has perfect control over, but she still hasn't fully recovered from the last time she did it, and it hadn't seemed worth it to try again until she had.
Until now.
The optimal year for installation is coming up soon; that much she has no qualms about manipulating. Some of the standard installation requirements can't be managed before then, but there is a loophole that fits her requirements better in some ways anyway.
Yes, this will do nicely. She loved the last one too, of course, but this promises to do even better.
swordofeden
It is a short while later that the angel Anaphiel is interrupted from her current task. They are one of a number of angels charged with the organization and accessibility of works of literature by the residents of Heaven. To put it more simply, she's a celestial librarian. And like many librarians, she's not too happy at being interrupted.
"Yes?" she asks whoever-it-is.
"Yes?" she asks whoever-it-is.
"Hello, Anaphiel," says the deity, carrying...something. "I apologize for interrupting you, and apologize further for how long the interruption is likely to take."
swordofeden
"...My Lord! What a surprise! Is this a social kind of thing, and if not do I want to know why you're not going through Anael like usual?"
"This is a matter to be handled personally. Other creations besides my own exist. As do places between them. I discovered one just now, and one of the things contained therein was a...dispenser, if you will, of certain kinds-of-person-to-be. And a certain kind of person was noted for their ability to fix worlds. A certain calendar date was recommended. There is not enough time to arrange her existence in the usual--for her--manner. So I'm arranging it in the unusual--for myself--manner."
"...It shan't incur any permanent damage. And people are suffering now, and this could fix it. In the millennia since humanity has come into being I've only found stopgaps. It's worth the risk."
swordofeden
"...Yeah, okay, more power to ya, I'm sure it's not going to be pleasant."
"Not more unpleasant than what it has the power to prevent."
swordofeden
"I wouldn't know. Okay, so what do you want me to do about it? Making announcements like this is Gabriel's job."
"The 'template' in question has a certain other pair of templates as requisite biological parents. Unless she has no contact with her biological parents from earliest infancy."
swordofeden
"So you need someone to hire a surrogate, I guess, and..." she trails off. "Am I completely overreaching myself or are you asking me to be the adoptive parent of the second Christ?"
"You are," she says dryly, "not overreaching yourself."
"Since it's necessary to send anyone at all, I'll be putting together a group to handle various orthogonal tasks in the interim. I expect this to take several weeks. How much time you actually have to find a surrogate will depend on precisely how long it takes, but the date the child is to be born is five years, three months and four days from now."
swordofeden
"Okay. So, um, I guess I'll find someone to take over my duties for the interim, and talk to some of my human friends who've been mothers--can I get Ezra to take over for me? I'm sure he'd be thrilled."
"That should be fine. Someone will let you know when the time for the dimensional transfer has been settled on."
swordofeden
Anaphiel makes her preparations. She discusses motherhood with the experts, she arranges for her friend to take her place in the library, and she reads up on the things that are most likely to be relevant during her stay on Earth. Three weeks and two days after she is given her assignment, she and a group of eight other angels make the transition from Heaven to Earth.
Unlike the rest of them, Anaphiel has been to Earth before, once, but it's changed a great deal in the meanwhile. She makes a point of speaking to the recently dead and reading the recently written, but it's not the same as true familiarity with the planet. But that's fine. She has her briefing on the predicted characteristics of the child and her obsessive study of Earth and five years to prepare. She acquires a legal identity (Anna Fell Coscoroba, the surname being one of the acceptable variants of the name that's apparently supposed to ensure positive development) and a job (children's librarian in a town that has enough odd goings-on to not look twice at her) and, from her fellows (she's not sure where they got the money but they promise it's not unethical; she believes them but chooses not to pry further) the resources to hire a surrogate.
Four years, five months and two weeks after she is given her assignment, she finds a suitable biological mother for the child. Poor and virtuous enough to deserve and benefit from the stipend, not the sort to get attached to the child she's promised to give up, and not possessed of any unhealthy habits that might negatively affect the child's development. Four years, six months and two days after she leaves the Celestial Library, the Holy Spirit passes over the woman.
Five years, three months and four days after she begins her preparations, a child is born.
Unlike the rest of them, Anaphiel has been to Earth before, once, but it's changed a great deal in the meanwhile. She makes a point of speaking to the recently dead and reading the recently written, but it's not the same as true familiarity with the planet. But that's fine. She has her briefing on the predicted characteristics of the child and her obsessive study of Earth and five years to prepare. She acquires a legal identity (Anna Fell Coscoroba, the surname being one of the acceptable variants of the name that's apparently supposed to ensure positive development) and a job (children's librarian in a town that has enough odd goings-on to not look twice at her) and, from her fellows (she's not sure where they got the money but they promise it's not unethical; she believes them but chooses not to pry further) the resources to hire a surrogate.
Four years, five months and two weeks after she is given her assignment, she finds a suitable biological mother for the child. Poor and virtuous enough to deserve and benefit from the stipend, not the sort to get attached to the child she's promised to give up, and not possessed of any unhealthy habits that might negatively affect the child's development. Four years, six months and two days after she leaves the Celestial Library, the Holy Spirit passes over the woman.
Five years, three months and four days after she begins her preparations, a child is born.
giftedandtalented
She is:
a baby.
If any stars are going to herald her arrival they'd better do it on their own, because she's not summoning anything but supper.
a baby.
If any stars are going to herald her arrival they'd better do it on their own, because she's not summoning anything but supper.
swordofeden
She is an adorable child, and Anaphiel is instantly charmed, which is good, because human children need unconditional love for optimal psychological development.
There are no stars at her rising. The last time, there was a Plan. This time, the plan, inasmuch as there is one, is to give her the resources she needs to do her own thing.
There are no stars at her rising. The last time, there was a Plan. This time, the plan, inasmuch as there is one, is to give her the resources she needs to do her own thing.
giftedandtalented
Her own thing, it would seem, would be to be a rather precocious but not headline-making little human being who falls over a lot.
swordofeden
That's fine. Anaphiel has a stable job in a quiet town (called "Forks;" apparently this was also important for some reason) and the resources to raise a human child. She feeds her and clothes her and mends her scrapes with hints of angelic power when this is discreetly possible and takes her to church sometimes and murmurs to her too low for the priest to hear which parts of the readings and sermon are true and important and which ones are meaningless or false. When she gets old enough to need schooling she signs up to homeschool her.
giftedandtalented
To someone who is paying attention, "old enough to need schooling" is about when little Mehitabel ("God rejoices") becomes noticeably unusual. She was already reading, but now she reads to learn. She was already writing, but now she writes to -
...It is very important that this be private. Mehitabel wants to know if God can see what she writes.
...It is very important that this be private. Mehitabel wants to know if God can see what she writes.
swordofeden
"...She has visual omniscience but she usually doesn't look at private things. If it's important that she not be able to you might want to invent a cipher. She doesn't know what you're thinking except for deliberate prayer."
giftedandtalented
"Okay."
Mehitabel invents a cipher. "Usually" is not good enough. She practices until she can write in her cipher really fast, and then does lots of it.
And she reads things. And she asks questions. Why does the pastor say "he" to refer to God, like, all the time? And otherwise believe things that Anna contradicts him on? She was reading the Bible the other day and there was all this weird stuff in it about what animals you are allowed to eat and she can't see why that would possibly matter as long as you're going to eat animals at all. Somebody at the library said God hated gay people. What are gay people and does God hate them, that seems out of character, if she doesn't why did that man think so? Why does it rain so much? How come there used to be all these miracles and now there basically are not? That thing with Abraham and Isaac: what gives? Platypuses: why?
Mehitabel invents a cipher. "Usually" is not good enough. She practices until she can write in her cipher really fast, and then does lots of it.
And she reads things. And she asks questions. Why does the pastor say "he" to refer to God, like, all the time? And otherwise believe things that Anna contradicts him on? She was reading the Bible the other day and there was all this weird stuff in it about what animals you are allowed to eat and she can't see why that would possibly matter as long as you're going to eat animals at all. Somebody at the library said God hated gay people. What are gay people and does God hate them, that seems out of character, if she doesn't why did that man think so? Why does it rain so much? How come there used to be all these miracles and now there basically are not? That thing with Abraham and Isaac: what gives? Platypuses: why?