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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.
giftedandtalented
"I'm not sure. They didn't even know angels were real, I thought they'd obviously know it."
swordofeden
"It's possible they did. It isn't common knowledge, and they may not have preferred to make claims they didn't have evidence for. But the Seven Deadlies are pretty minor demons, so it's possible they may never have heard anything they considered conclusive."
swordofeden
"Well, I guess there could just be God in Heaven and no angels, but if there were angels and no Heaven then they'd have to be on Earth and probably be common knowledge."
swordofeden
"It would be harder to be hidey if it were all of us instead of just nine, and for thousands of years instead of a little more than a decade so far."
giftedandtalented
"Yeah that's true. But maybe there wouldn't be as many? I dunno, there's probably no reason to figure out how it'd work because it doesn't work that way."
swordofeden
"Thinking about unpleasant counterfactuals is unpleasant sometimes. Don't worry about it."
swordofeden
"By which I mean: don't ever be afraid to ask me something because you're worried I'll find it unpleasant. If it's not real it can't really hurt me and if it is real not thinking about it won't make it go away. Making sure you know what you need to know is what's important."
swordofeden
"You're welcome."
And after a few more weeks, the magician--hasn't actually finished his project. But he's hit a plateau and needs to think about something else for a while.
And after a few more weeks, the magician--hasn't actually finished his project. But he's hit a plateau and needs to think about something else for a while.
The magician, as it turns out, is an old but very boisterous and energetic man named Horace Rockwaller. When introduced, he makes no mention of her age, only greets her warmly and inquires after her progress thus far.
giftedandtalented
Mehitabel shows him! Here are her notes and the spells she has learned and how she can vary him and her accumulated questions that Anna couldn't answer!
Horace thinks her system of transliterating her cipher is very clever! He can answer many of her questions!
He also has a rather large library on the topic! It's not in Washington, but one of the spells he knows involves setting up twinned markers in places to let you teleport between them, which is how he gets to her lessons. It's a relatively advanced spell, but he hints that she can have the full run of the library once she's reached the point of being able to get there.