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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.
asteptotheright
"That's statistically anomalous. Most demons who have managed to slip the leash are succubi or incubi."
giftedandtalented
"Yeah, that makes sense. I'm not sure I would have as much to talk about with one of those at this point in my life."
asteptotheright
"I see. Well, I shall need some method of contacting you should my experiments proceed as you claim."
asteptotheright
He tucks it into his pocket, nods to her, and re-engages with his previous conversational partner, who returns with a plate of cheesy li'l smokies.
giftedandtalented
Mehitabel passes the rest of the boring meeting listening to mages talk about magic.
She can learn quite a bit about magic that way! There is a reason Horace comes to these things, and it is not the admittedly delicious appetizers.
Some more magicians talk to her. She's still pretty young, but Horace has been bragging about her a lot.
She is very impressive for a twelve year old! No one is indelicate enough to say the latter part of this sentence out loud.
asteptotheright
A few days after the party...
A few days after the party, she receives an email from an address that gives little clue as to the sender, but the subject, "It worked," and the body, "Is there anything in particular you wanted me to do or did you just want to know whether my assistance would be an available resource while making your plans?" should be a decent hint.
A few days after the party, she receives an email from an address that gives little clue as to the sender, but the subject, "It worked," and the body, "Is there anything in particular you wanted me to do or did you just want to know whether my assistance would be an available resource while making your plans?" should be a decent hint.
giftedandtalented
"The latter. I have goals but there are lots of ways I could go about them and I need to know what I have before I start picking paths there. Are there any things you can do I might not be able to guess?"
giftedandtalented
"The only things I know magic can't reasonably do are the things you thought would make good proof of my divinity. If there are other limits, or other things that might seem hard but are actually doable, I need to know them. If you also know anything about why most people don't know magic is real, that would help."
asteptotheright
"In my experience, most things that are magic or otherwise beyond the bounds of the common understanding of the world prefer to maintain that fact in relation to themselves in order to avoid unwanted attention. How it started I do not know. In my experience, the limits of magic are what you can figure out how to do, rather than any hard limits on the system."
giftedandtalented
"That's promising. The main limit on miracles is that most people can't do them even if they decided to try. Did you read my book? It goes public on basically everything. It's not very widely read so far. I think it's about time everyone knew about all of it, but if there are reasons for caution I would like them."
giftedandtalented
"This does worry me. But the conservative option leaves me with fewer resources and the status quo isn't sufficient. Do you have any advice on reducing the risk?"
asteptotheright
"Start relatively small. Build up a solid base of believers who won't do anything regrettable before confronting those who will."