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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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giftedandtalented
"I guess we could tell them too... but I'd rather think of something else... maybe you could say you have a healing magic item from somewhere?"
swordofeden
"Maybe...I don't think that will work on Horace, once he's better. I can think of several times I really would have told him if I had such a thing. I think it will work for his son, though," she nods firmly.
giftedandtalented
"I don't mind if Horace knows, I think I can trust him."
swordofeden
"Okay." And she scoops her up and teleports the both of them to the living room of Andrea's house.
swordofdamocles
The living room contains: Andrea, flopped on the couch and crying inconsolably.
swordofdamocles
Hugs. "I--I can't, I tried, I looked through every book I could, there's nothing I can set up fast enough, Mom and Dad promised to get him home so I could draw circles and stuff for rituals if I found something fast enough but everything that could fix it takes at least a week for the full ritual and I don't have anything condensed, even just replacing steps haphazardly it's not enough, and I can't, I can't."
giftedandtalented
"It's okay, it'll be okay," says Mehitabel, squeezing her. "Can we go see him?"
giftedandtalented
Mehitabel hugs her a little longer.
To the hospital?
To the hospital?
swordofeden
Well, first they need to talk to Andrea's parents, unless they want to make a separate trip.
In their bedroom, discussing things like medical bills and inevitable funerary arrangements and their daughter's emotional health in hushed voices.
giftedandtalented
Mehitabel lurks, waiting to be noticed or for an opportune moment to interrupt.
They notice her after about a minute. "Oh, hey, Mehitabel," Andrea's mom says. "Did the hospital call?"
"Of course." The two look at each other, and then the mom grabs her purse.
"I don't think Andrea's up for seeing him again so soon," she murmurs. "Brian's going to stay home to be there for her."
"I don't think Andrea's up for seeing him again so soon," she murmurs. "Brian's going to stay home to be there for her."
Teleporting to hospitals: not a thing. She goes out and starts the car, and then the three of them drive to the hospital.
giftedandtalented
Mehitabel waits. She thinks about how to heal someone with a heart attack. A heart attack is something being blocked, and then things don't get enough oxygen and start dying. So she will have to put oxygen where it goes and remove all the everything in the way of more of it getting where it goes and that is pretty much all the her-own-detail-work she knows how to do. This might be expensive. But she doesn't really run into a lot of emergencies where she can't get her mother or use non-miracle solutions, so it's okay if it's kind of expensive. Also afterwards he will know she is the Christ Child and that will probably constitute attention.
They arrive at the hospital. Mehitabel is on the list, but Helen has to sign Anna in.
...
He's not dead yet, but the cheer and vitality that had so characteristically animated him are gone. He's a limp thing in a hospital gown, wheezing through the nasal cannula and eyes unfocused.
...
He's not dead yet, but the cheer and vitality that had so characteristically animated him are gone. He's a limp thing in a hospital gown, wheezing through the nasal cannula and eyes unfocused.
giftedandtalented
How easily can Mehitabel get some time to talk to him without Andrea's mom listening?
Well...if she wants privacy, Andrea's mom will leave the room without any arguing at all, but how much he's capable of talking to her is up for debate.
giftedandtalented
She just needs the answer to a yes or no question.
"I can fix you," she tells him. "Do you want me to fix you?"
"I can fix you," she tells him. "Do you want me to fix you?"
It takes him a moment for his eyes to focus on her. "Huuuuh...?" It's ambiguous whether this is an attempt to speak or a particularly raspy breath.