View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
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.
+ Show First Post
giftedandtalented
Mehitabel doesn't mind meeting him in person.
But first she needs to fill in some blanks.
She has her list. She prays. Would God like to add anything, correct anything Mehitabel extrapolated about her personal opinions, or supply mathematical breakthroughs and facts about space and so on that Mehitabel could not possibly have produced without keeping a lot of really futuristic technology in her garage?
But first she needs to fill in some blanks.
She has her list. She prays. Would God like to add anything, correct anything Mehitabel extrapolated about her personal opinions, or supply mathematical breakthroughs and facts about space and so on that Mehitabel could not possibly have produced without keeping a lot of really futuristic technology in her garage?
And for the second time in her life, divine revelation blooms in her mind.
The opinions are mostly accurate, but there are a couple of points where things ought to be tweaked for clarity. Adding these few things in these few places would be good. These facts about subatomic particles (with accompanying equations) haven't yet been discovered but should be within a few years.
(And also she is still deeply beloved, but whether this is a specific part of the message or just a feature of divine revelation in general is imperfectly unambiguous.)
The opinions are mostly accurate, but there are a couple of points where things ought to be tweaked for clarity. Adding these few things in these few places would be good. These facts about subatomic particles (with accompanying equations) haven't yet been discovered but should be within a few years.
(And also she is still deeply beloved, but whether this is a specific part of the message or just a feature of divine revelation in general is imperfectly unambiguous.)
giftedandtalented
Mehitabel writes it all down, says, "thank you", and then makes the changes and insertions.
Now she can meet the publisher guy!
Now she can meet the publisher guy!
He is very deferential.
giftedandtalented
Mehitabel can live with that.
"Hello. Here I am."
"Hello. Here I am."
He's a nervous-looking man. When he sees her, he drops the book he was holding, although he catches it before it hits the floor and puts it back on its shelf with trembling hands.
"My Lord," he breathes.
"My Lord," he breathes.
giftedandtalented
"I'm a girl," she points out. "God doesn't mind either way but I'm a girl."
"I--can't say I've really thought of the phrase as being inherently gendered--not in this context," he confesses. "But--of course, My Lady."
"I--yes," he says.
giftedandtalented
"Did you want to meet me in person for any specific reason?"
"I--" He stops. He tries again. "I have always been a God-fearing man. But I never expected--you never expect this kind of thing to happen, not in your lifetime."
giftedandtalented
"I don't really like the phrase 'God-fearing'," Mehitabel comments. "It makes it sounds like you think God wants something other than what is best for you and you're worried about that."
"...I wouldn't describe it that way," he says awkwardly. "Maybe to start with? People had some, uh, strange ideas about what God wanted a while back. Some still do. I just use it because it seems, uh, less self-congratulating than 'devout.'"
giftedandtalented
"It's not awful," she says. "Just a little weird."
"...I think it's sort of partly a conflation of fear and respect," he offers. "God is a big deal. And--uh--there definitely is something to fear about God, which is the possibility of--Her--not existing. That's pretty much the worst thing God could do to you, is not exist. I decided a long time ago that if it came down to it, if God existed and wasn't as benevolent as could be hoped--torture was better than oblivion. So I guess when I say God-fearing I mean I take the subject seriously and I really don't want to actually die."
giftedandtalented
Mehitabel tilts her head and considers this perspective. "And you won't," she says. "You can say 'he' if you're used to it, I'm just used to 'she' instead."
He shrugs. "I'm not really attached to the pronouns."
"I've received a rough summary from your mother."
giftedandtalented
"I'm not really sure how to market it or anything," she confesses.
"...Well," he sighs. "I assume you don't want to sell it as a work of fiction, which would be easiest in the short term but possibly detrimental in the long term. New Age Spirituality is...unlikely to hold the gravitas the work demands, but that, I'm afraid, is beyond your reach until you begin working publicly, and it seems the most accurate possible option."
giftedandtalented
"I considered selling it as a work of fiction but I don't think it holds together as a story," says Mehitabel. "It's not like Harry Potter where a lot of people would just be thrilled to find out it was all real after all. It might be that I shouldn't publish yet at all."
"That...might be the case," he says. "Depending on your plans."
giftedandtalented
"I wrote it this early so it would be ready when I needed it, but my divinity's still coming in and I'm not sure what I'll wind up being best placed to accomplish. Is there a way to print it and have it available if someone orders it without having to assign it a genre just yet?"