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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.
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asteptotheright
The next email he sends her is a blank with an attachment that turns out to be profiles of various acquaintances of his detailing their skills, magical traits, relevant personality details, and other potentially useful tidbits.
asteptotheright
"There's some extremely salient information omitted for privacy reasons, I should warn you, but all in the category of 'things they can do,' not emotional landmines or similar that I expect you to trigger as a result of not having the information."
giftedandtalented
"I understand. Can you give me an example of something like that which you might have redacted if it were real? If there's not that many things it could be you could flip a coin to decide whether to use a real or fake example."
asteptotheright
"Someone is a werewolf, and prefers not to let this be known because they prefer not to be viewed through the lens of the traumatic attack that turned them. That's a fake example."
asteptotheright
There's his sister, who has the usual vampire powers and is better at using them than most of their ilk. She's also social, persuasive and a reasonably talented poet.
There's his sister's...friend, who is a remarkably talented biology student, has a penchant for getting into trouble through seemingly random but suspiciously insistent chance and getting out of it through a combination of skill and moxy, and is relatively promiscuous but has a healthy helping of self-respect on the topic.
There's the rest of their charmingly named "B-Squad," who each have their own talents.
There are several of his and Mehitabel's fellow magicians.
There are several vampires and a few other near-humans. There are a small handful of fairies. Rannsi is on that list, actually, although he doesn't seem to know about Antarctica and does note that he hasn't seen her in centuries.
There's his sister's...friend, who is a remarkably talented biology student, has a penchant for getting into trouble through seemingly random but suspiciously insistent chance and getting out of it through a combination of skill and moxy, and is relatively promiscuous but has a healthy helping of self-respect on the topic.
There's the rest of their charmingly named "B-Squad," who each have their own talents.
There are several of his and Mehitabel's fellow magicians.
There are several vampires and a few other near-humans. There are a small handful of fairies. Rannsi is on that list, actually, although he doesn't seem to know about Antarctica and does note that he hasn't seen her in centuries.
giftedandtalented
"I wanted to see Fairyland. I was six at the time so I spent a fair amount of the visit riding a unicorn around but I also visited Rannsi and her daughter."
asteptotheright
"Perhaps I should look into re-acquainting myself with some of my old contacts. All my information on Fairyland is at least a century old by now."
asteptotheright
"I suspect it would take more than a hundred years and the Second Coming of Christ to change that."
asteptotheright
"I suspect there must have been some political maneuvering I wasn't expecting if Rannsi fin Vraikis vai ten Sarafel has a child. Her faction was not particularly in favor when last I was appraised."
giftedandtalented
"She's colonizing Antarctica? Her name is different now, it's vai ten Drask Uraeh."
asteptotheright
"That would be a change, yes. In that case I definitely think I need to catch up on fairy politics."
giftedandtalented
"You'll probably pick up more than I did when I was six, I'd be interested to know what they're up to when you get back."
asteptotheright
"I suspect that I will ultimately resort to some level of espionage in addition to above-board discourse, in which case I assume you are capable of being discreet about any piece of information I indicate is not public knowledge for any definition of public, but I would still prefer to transfer any such information over a more secure communications method than email."
asteptotheright
"I assume you have some reasonably public but also reasonably discreet place you wouldn't mind meeting. I can teleport."