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Bella has watched a simple, managed Martian ecosystem and a glitteringly colorful first city pour procedurally out from assorted points of origin on her computer with a variety of rand seeds, and picked the prettiest result.
She's standing on that ideal origin spot now - the top of Olympus Mons, under a blue-dyed sky and a breathable layer of atmosphere - holding her laptop which holds this specification under her left arm. All present to witness this moment are Alice, Libby, Lazarus, and Bridget.
She defangs a trio of stars: one for the terrain, one for the wildlife, one for the city of Olympus. To be dramatic, she squares them off her bandolier and holds them high in the air between the fingers of her right hand.
"Welcome to Mars," she says.
Wishwishwish.
Moss ripples out from under her feet and carpets the landscape, giving way to forest further downhill and, further away, to freshwater ocean. Birds, startled by their existence, take off. An instant later they're all standing at the foot of her crystalline tower that sits at the center, watching skyscrapers riddled with magical appliances sprout from the ground, and streets pave themselves with smooth tiles.
Bella defangs more stars and lays down what she's taken to calling Ground Rules with another gesture. Mars is going to be peaceful. Mars is going to be safe. Mars is going to watch its people and report to her.
Mars is going to be the seat of the Empire of the Stars.
(There's a flag, on the spire of her tower. It's sky blue, and there are half a dozen seven-pointed stars spangling it. It ripples in the breeze that's begun to waft in from the sea.)
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self_composed
self_composed
[I think I'll call it Moonstone Palace, then. The tower can be Marspire.]
Renée doesn't seem to be able to generate any more questions. She's just watching Bella's feet dangle above the floor.
"I have quite a bit of magic," Bella says. "I've decided to colonize Mars with it. I was wondering if you and Phil would like to live there. You don't have to decide right away, of course."
"Live on Mars?" Renée says. "I don't believe there's air on Mars. Not so you can breathe it, anyway."
"There is now."
Renée doesn't seem to be able to generate any more questions. She's just watching Bella's feet dangle above the floor.
"I have quite a bit of magic," Bella says. "I've decided to colonize Mars with it. I was wondering if you and Phil would like to live there. You don't have to decide right away, of course."
"Live on Mars?" Renée says. "I don't believe there's air on Mars. Not so you can breathe it, anyway."
"There is now."
prima-sequentem
[That's adorable,] says Libby. [Okay, paperwork incoming. Sign above the helpful little post-it notes, then the place is yours.]
self_composed
[Do I turn it in to someone after signing?]
"Look, Mom, I think you might still think you're dreaming. I'm going to go get some paperwork done, and I'll come back tomorrow, and maybe after you've seen me floating twice it won't seem so dreamlike. Okay? I love you." Bella drifts forward, hugs her mother (who hugs her back automatically), and then lets go and pops into her office. Sign, sign, sign.
"Look, Mom, I think you might still think you're dreaming. I'm going to go get some paperwork done, and I'll come back tomorrow, and maybe after you've seen me floating twice it won't seem so dreamlike. Okay? I love you." Bella drifts forward, hugs her mother (who hugs her back automatically), and then lets go and pops into her office. Sign, sign, sign.
self_composed
It is. Bella teleports there and surveys the place. [Have I got a height limit?]
prima-sequentem
[Not explicitly. Someone will probably be upset if you present an obstacle to aircraft.]
self_composed
[Right.] Bella covers about two-thirds of her space with a twelve-story office building, puts in an underground parking structure, and erects a sign:
Emigrate to Mars
In the unlikely event that anyone stops to see what's going on there on the sole basis of this sign, she'll handle them herself. She rather expects that no one will. They'll decide to look her up on the Internet later and find -
Oh, how embarrassing. She doesn't have a website.
Bella walks into her new building, conjures potted plants and a magic door so Libby's pick for immigration office manager can commute, and then teleports to her office in Moonstone Palace to fix that. She'll write the immigration parameters at the same time.
[The immigration officer has a magic door where specified,] Bella informs Libby. [It'll take her to the new building.]
Emigrate to Mars
In the unlikely event that anyone stops to see what's going on there on the sole basis of this sign, she'll handle them herself. She rather expects that no one will. They'll decide to look her up on the Internet later and find -
Oh, how embarrassing. She doesn't have a website.
Bella walks into her new building, conjures potted plants and a magic door so Libby's pick for immigration office manager can commute, and then teleports to her office in Moonstone Palace to fix that. She'll write the immigration parameters at the same time.
[The immigration officer has a magic door where specified,] Bella informs Libby. [It'll take her to the new building.]
prima-sequentem
[I'll let her know,] says Libby. [You're delightfully productive for an empress, have I mentioned that recently?]
self_composed
[I don't see what else the point would be,] Bella says, furrowing her eyebrows and wishing a number of attractive photographs of Martian locations into existence on her hard drive. She's started to use her coins almost like they're part of her body, like wishing is a native power of hers and not a tool she's wearing in quantity.
self_composed
Bella grins. [I appreciate that very much.]
A skeleton of a simple website forms quickly. [I want my own country code toplevel domain,] she says. [I think .eos would be nice. Empire of Stars, sounds like the Greek goddess of the dawn. Is that something you can do?]
A skeleton of a simple website forms quickly. [I want my own country code toplevel domain,] she says. [I think .eos would be nice. Empire of Stars, sounds like the Greek goddess of the dawn. Is that something you can do?]
self_composed
[I like you,] Bella announces.
Mars is going to take immigrants who need it - the impoverished, mostly - but it's also going to prefer entrepreneurs and artists. She wants Mars to look cool and high-status, not like a dumping ground for people who can't make it on Earth, and while some of the impoverished can probably come up with something cool to do if she makes poverty irrelevant for basic physical needs, she doesn't want to gamble entirely on that.
Apartments and storefronts are free - if no one else wants them. Once the place fills up there will need to be a rule. The obvious rule is that people can pay each other to forego their claims on locations. And that means that the tired/poor/huddled masses yearning to breathe free will have a disadvantage at staying in locations that become desirable neighborhoods of Olympus. Not that any part of it is going to become filthy or crime-riddled, but proximity to important businesses and interesting cultural sites is still an issue.
Bella pauses in website design to put in a nice subway. It is not a train, it is just an underground network of teleportation points. If you step onto one, it will take you to the other of your choice. There's a map next to each one.
That should help.
Having no other issues with this method of resolving disputes over space - first come first serve, you can pay someone to leave if you can talk them into the transaction - she puts it in the site and in the brochure version she's going to "print" and distribute.
Mars is going to take immigrants who need it - the impoverished, mostly - but it's also going to prefer entrepreneurs and artists. She wants Mars to look cool and high-status, not like a dumping ground for people who can't make it on Earth, and while some of the impoverished can probably come up with something cool to do if she makes poverty irrelevant for basic physical needs, she doesn't want to gamble entirely on that.
Apartments and storefronts are free - if no one else wants them. Once the place fills up there will need to be a rule. The obvious rule is that people can pay each other to forego their claims on locations. And that means that the tired/poor/huddled masses yearning to breathe free will have a disadvantage at staying in locations that become desirable neighborhoods of Olympus. Not that any part of it is going to become filthy or crime-riddled, but proximity to important businesses and interesting cultural sites is still an issue.
Bella pauses in website design to put in a nice subway. It is not a train, it is just an underground network of teleportation points. If you step onto one, it will take you to the other of your choice. There's a map next to each one.
That should help.
Having no other issues with this method of resolving disputes over space - first come first serve, you can pay someone to leave if you can talk them into the transaction - she puts it in the site and in the brochure version she's going to "print" and distribute.
prima-sequentem
In point of fact, it only takes her an hour and a half.
[You are now the proud owner of the .eos top-level domain,] she reports.
[You are now the proud owner of the .eos top-level domain,] she reports.
self_composed
[Excellent.] Bella's already got her own ISP on Mars so people can use their devices. She registers a slew of domains for various governmental purposes, puts up little flags and notices about what they'll be for later on most of them, and, on mars.eos, puts up the one she's currently working on. Nothing on it is innacurate, it just has a few "under construction" notices. She text-channels the URL to Libby. [Whaddaya think so far?]
prima-sequentem
[Very nice,] says Libby. [I like it. By the way, NASA is finally starting to believe the message you left in front of Spirit.]
self_composed
[Do tell!] exclaims Bella. When she finishes the website, she's going to update the sign for them. [I bet they insisted on getting ordinary telescopes and checking to see if the planet had changed color first.]
prima-sequentem
[I don't know all the details, but yes, they did. After running an amazing number of diagnostics.]
self_composed
[After? Ha.] There are now sub-websites with remote application forms (in case you can't make it to the building in Palo Alto) and a map of the subway and an explanation of how you may go about claiming places. It occurs to her that someone may decide to stake a claim on an entire building, or just an inappropriate number of subdivisions thereof. She limits commercial spaces and apartments each one to a customer, with the possibility of possessing two of either for up to a week if you wanted to make sure you had somewhere to go before selling your existing one.
Her name does not appear anywhere on the site - she simply refers to herself as "the Empress of the Stars". It'll be a little more time-consuming to track her down by face alone. Charlie's safe from attention, but she still doesn't know what to do about Renée and Phil.
She finishes the first draft of the website, makes sure there's a feedback form people can use, and pushes the update. Then she designs herself a pretty crown.
Her name does not appear anywhere on the site - she simply refers to herself as "the Empress of the Stars". It'll be a little more time-consuming to track her down by face alone. Charlie's safe from attention, but she still doesn't know what to do about Renée and Phil.
She finishes the first draft of the website, makes sure there's a feedback form people can use, and pushes the update. Then she designs herself a pretty crown.
nonbird
[We're all moved in,] says Lazarus. [There's not much to do around here. Does your empire need a translator, by any chance?]
self_composed
[Sure, why not. mars.eos here, let's have versions of that in some languages. Do you need any more languages?]
nonbird
[I don't know all the languages in the world yet,] he says. [But I also don't know what all the languages in the world are... I can translate your website into all the ones I know, though, that'll keep me busy for a while.]
self_composed
[Cool, thanks. What's your hourly rate? I'll pay you in asters into the Bank of Mars. Kolya need anything to do? What does he do?]
Bella designs the Bank of Mars. It works on magic instead of electronics. She decides it will be appropriate for people to be able to summon virtual asters from their accounts in the form of cash at will, and deposit (licitly obtained) asters the same way. And consult their accounts mentally, and also the instructions on how to use them. And transfer from their account to other accounts at will. Yes, this is how it should work. She considers and discards the notion of free blenders on signup. Also, she can't really think of any good reason to pay interest on savings. She wants people to invest in things, and since she's still producing asters from nowhere until there are half a trillion of them, she can think of no reason she'd like to incentivize keeping lots in savings. The bank will just be a place where money can be, be moved, and be withdrawn. Anyone who sets foot on Mars will automatically get one, but she will not hold with speculators having magic bank accounts without necessarily even believing in the underlying political entity; that seems silly.
Bam, bank exists.
She puts half a million virtual asters in Libby's account, for the immigration office. [Check out the bank,] Bella says, wondering if that will be enough to figure out.
Bella designs the Bank of Mars. It works on magic instead of electronics. She decides it will be appropriate for people to be able to summon virtual asters from their accounts in the form of cash at will, and deposit (licitly obtained) asters the same way. And consult their accounts mentally, and also the instructions on how to use them. And transfer from their account to other accounts at will. Yes, this is how it should work. She considers and discards the notion of free blenders on signup. Also, she can't really think of any good reason to pay interest on savings. She wants people to invest in things, and since she's still producing asters from nowhere until there are half a trillion of them, she can think of no reason she'd like to incentivize keeping lots in savings. The bank will just be a place where money can be, be moved, and be withdrawn. Anyone who sets foot on Mars will automatically get one, but she will not hold with speculators having magic bank accounts without necessarily even believing in the underlying political entity; that seems silly.
Bam, bank exists.
She puts half a million virtual asters in Libby's account, for the immigration office. [Check out the bank,] Bella says, wondering if that will be enough to figure out.
nonbird
[Kolya doesn't need anything to do at the moment,] he says. [Why, do you have any jobs going begging?]
His usual rate is in Canadian dollars; he looks up the current exchange rate before naming one in asters.
His usual rate is in Canadian dollars; he looks up the current exchange rate before naming one in asters.
