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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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swordofeden
And so: Day after tomorrow, there is art! There are paintings by Karl Schueller and Jane Watson, and ceramics by Benjamin Haller, and great sweeping metal sculptures by Emily Javier. The metal sculptures look like a variety of things, from trees to people, and they have impressively fluid and sweeping lines for sculptures that claim not to have come out of a mold.
giftedandtalented
Mehitabel whispers to Anaphiel that one of the trees looks like her.
swordofeden
"How would you know? You've never seen my true form," Anaphiel whispers back teasingly.
swordofeden
She laughs. "And--oh, look, the other one came too," she says, pointing.
Through a gap in the crowd is visible two women, both Caucasian and brunette and wearing similarly-cut skirts and blouses in different colors. One is also wearing a light scarf and a beret and expounding enthusiastically on some subject or other.
Through a gap in the crowd is visible two women, both Caucasian and brunette and wearing similarly-cut skirts and blouses in different colors. One is also wearing a light scarf and a beret and expounding enthusiastically on some subject or other.
giftedandtalented
Mehitabel goes up to them to listen to the expounding.
iamnotpolaris
The expounding is about art! Javier is, apparently, notoriously closemouthed about her exact methods, but is happy to discuss the artistic merit of various conventional techniques and the use of proper arranging to make sure the light hit the statues for optimal shadow aesthetic and other shop talk.
giftedandtalented
"How come you won't say how you make the sculptures?" asks Mehitabel during a gap in the expounditure. She suspects the reason is "because magic of some kind" but bets she has another answer prepped.
iamnotpolaris
"Oh--hello," she says, raising an eyebrow. "Well aren't you--never mind. Anyway, trade secret," she winks. "As long as I'm the only one who knows, I have an advantage."
giftedandtalented
"Did you at least write it down and bury it on an island and make a treasure map?"
iamnotpolaris
She sporfles. "Why on Earth would I do that? Besides it being fun, but trust me, there are enough fun things to do that you're not going to get to 'em all in any human lifetime."
giftedandtalented
"Well, it'd be more fun than any other way you could make sure the secret would never be totally lost forever," explains Mehitabel.
iamnotpolaris
"Except there's no way I could be sure of the treasure map falling in the right hands that wouldn't apply to the secret itself, and anyway, if I buried it on an island it could get dislodged by tide or storm or hungry animals of one sort or another."
giftedandtalented
"Why would animals be hungry for your secret? Anyway, that's why you bury it deep."
iamnotpolaris
"I suspect traveling to a deserted island and burying a piece of paper in a glass bottle six feet deep is both more expensive and more work than the fun idea would suggest," she says dryly. "Let no one ever tell you I'm not whimsical, but I'm afraid it doesn't extend quite that far."
giftedandtalented
"Okay, fine. Where'd you get the idea for the tree one? I like it best."
iamnotpolaris
"I was randomly doodling and a shape came out like that and I liked it."
giftedandtalented
Okay. Other people may take turns asking questions now for the time being.
iamnotpolaris
Other people ask questions! Emily answers them. Sometimes the presumed other-demon will interject with something scathing if a question is rude.
giftedandtalented
Presumed other-demon comes by it honestly. If the scathing comments are ever clever Mehitabel will laugh.
whatamithinking
The scathing comments are frequently clever! And the totally-a-demon notices when Mehitabel laughs, too. She favors her with an approving if slightly sharklike smile.
iamnotpolaris
Alas, all good things must come to an end, including this art show. Eventually miscellaneous visitors begin trickling out and various people in charge of moving stuff around do that.
giftedandtalented
Mehitabel loiters, of course. (And eats hors d'oeuvres.)