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Cam studies. He studies madly. The next week elapses with him having very little sense of individual days. He doesn't want anyone to know anything special is up, so he goes to a movie with Renée and to a friend's house after school to play Nintendo games and Charlie gets his weekly phone call and he shows up to his classes and gets his homework adequately done. But other than that he studies. He wants to be fluent in this thing inside three months if possible. It's easier than Spanish, he's motivated, he can use it in everyday conversations as he asks passing animals and convenient plants how smart they are (dogs: smarter than goats; squirrels: about goat level; his friend's hamster: dumb as a rock; shrubs: way dumber than trees; indoor potted rosemary: just a step above grass) and chats with Grace, he's basically dropping himself in an immersion course with some inconvenient English here and there so he can interact with humans. He thinks three months is ambitious but reasonable.
He's not actually doing that many spells. He does wheedle tofu into tastiness on a nightly basis, and when he feels a cold coming on he looks up a spell about that, but he wants to know what he's doing before he gets going on what he most wants to be doing, because he wants to be doing big things. He swore to oppose death. He meant that.
Today he is preparing to oppose death in his backyard. It's threatening rain and he doesn't want to be all the way down the street with Leafy if the clouds open up. The jerk tree doesn't talk to him if he doesn't talk to it and it's perfectly serviceable as something to sit under, anyway.
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lifes_sake
lifes_sake
"Because of policies like that one, presumably? And the Powers can't revoke or haven't revoked your wizardry?"
"Once you have it, if you want it, it's yours," says Matilda.
"They can't revoke it even for people who are actually working for Iggy," says Jellybean.
"But needless to say, we disagree with a lot of their decisions," says Matilda.
"They can't revoke it even for people who are actually working for Iggy," says Jellybean.
"But needless to say, we disagree with a lot of their decisions," says Matilda.
lifes_sake
"No kidding. Iggy said it'd be tremendous fun for it if I went up to the Powers and complained about how they're running this place," muttered Cam. "I guess it decided that it wouldn't be enough fun to risk having me run amok."
"Even we've never tried that," says Matilda.
lifes_sake
"My manual says a substantial fraction of its content is written by a Power. Does your manual still pull content normally?"
"More or less," says Matilda.
"Sometimes I have to coax it," says Jellybean.
"And I think there's things we're blocked from accessing, but we can get by on what we've got," says Matilda.
"Sometimes I have to coax it," says Jellybean.
"And I think there's things we're blocked from accessing, but we can get by on what we've got," says Matilda.
lifes_sake
Cam chews his lip a bit. "Grace, can you write in yourself?" he asks. "If I ask you to?"
"Maaaaybe," hums Grace.
"C'mon," Cam says. "You're a notebook, you're meant to have things written at you, you'd be better at your job if you could put them there yourself..."
"Oh, okay, if you say so," giggles Grace.
"Excellent. I want you to navigate the manual and transcribe the important parts as best you can just in case - you know what I'm looking for. Can you do that?"
"Yes I can!" says Grace brightly, and she commences bossing the manual around to read to her.
"Maaaaybe," hums Grace.
"C'mon," Cam says. "You're a notebook, you're meant to have things written at you, you'd be better at your job if you could put them there yourself..."
"Oh, okay, if you say so," giggles Grace.
"Excellent. I want you to navigate the manual and transcribe the important parts as best you can just in case - you know what I'm looking for. Can you do that?"
"Yes I can!" says Grace brightly, and she commences bossing the manual around to read to her.
"Smart cookie," says Jellybean approvingly.
lifes_sake
"Grace at least won't defect on me," snorts Cam. (Grace is presently soliciting information on automation and on turning over the fine control of complex spells to objects.) "Can you hear her? I don't think I've seen either of you react directly to anything she's said."
"Kind of," says Matilda, and Jellybean nods along.
lifes_sake
"She's clear as a bell to me," Cam muses.
"I'm yours," Grace tells him over the manual's rapid monologue.
He grins and flicks her open to have a look at the ongoing transcription.
"I'm yours," Grace tells him over the manual's rapid monologue.
He grins and flicks her open to have a look at the ongoing transcription.
"Awwwww," says Jellybean, leaning his head on Matilda's shoulder.
lifes_sake
Cam flips a few more pages to find his long-term plan notes. "So, I had some things I was planning to learn to do enough magic to pull off, but like I said, pretty Earth-centric. Can I get a summary of conditions on other planets?"
"There are a lot of other planets," says Matilda. "And we haven't visited all of them. But I can give you an overview, I guess."
lifes_sake
"Yes please. Grace, can you multitask well enough to transcribe the manual and something else at the same time? I bet you can, you're so smart."
"Oooh," says Grace. "Maybe."
"You managed to take everything I wrote and turn it into a personality, and the manual's not even talking that fast, I bet you can. I can't soup up my memory directly, yet, so I need your help, okay?"
"Okay!"
"You're the best," he tells her, patting her cover.
"Oooh," says Grace. "Maybe."
"You managed to take everything I wrote and turn it into a personality, and the manual's not even talking that fast, I bet you can. I can't soup up my memory directly, yet, so I need your help, okay?"
"Okay!"
"You're the best," he tells her, patting her cover.
"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww," says Jellybean.
Matilda starts talking.
Matilda starts talking.
lifes_sake
Cam listens, and asks questions. He's particularly curious if there are planets where magic is common knowledge, unlike Earth.
There are some! Jellybean and Matilda avoid them most of the time. It's the same problem as they have with wizards, except with entire populations.
lifes_sake
"So the Powers have a pretty good approval rating," Cam says. "For some reason."
"Conventional wisdom is that they're the good guys," says Matilda. "Very few people seem to think they're insufficiently good."
lifes_sake
"But it doesn't sound like Earth is even significantly below average, here, do you have any idea how many people die of iodine deficiency and other stupid things like that?"
"Presumably the argument is that Iggy causes all that, and the Powers are doing as much as they can to stop it. For all I know, they are," says Matilda.
lifes_sake
"Are the various Powers all pretty much just souped-up wizards with lots of experience, or do they have extra abilities beyond that?"
"We're pretty sure they're fundamentally not the same kind of creature as anyone else," says Matilda, "but it's hard to say how that affects their abilities exactly."
lifes_sake
"They're immortal, right? Do they have bodies? Was Iggy most likely being a rock or just resembling a rock or talking through a rock?"