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My alternates tend to take over the world. Advice available. Rates negotiable.
Shell Bell puts up her sign and nibbles her most recent charity meal. Not potatoes! It is not potatoes. Or fish or clams. It is rice and curry and a fruity yogurt drink. That nice person told Bar she could use his tab for four meals, and this is meal number two.
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she_sells_seashells
seewhathappens
He produces a fairly hefty paper bag of dried papaya slices and hands it to her.
"I don't have any reason to suspect that particular thing out of all the possible things would fail to work. It works just the same for me here as it does at home."
"I don't have any reason to suspect that particular thing out of all the possible things would fail to work. It works just the same for me here as it does at home."
she_sells_seashells
She goes on steadily eating the papaya slices (her lunch is already gone) while she reads through her stack of books.
Eventually, if uninterrupted - she yawns halfway through her stack of things with which to verify Kiro's credentials. "Um. Time is sometimes - weird, in Milliways, parts of it don't always match up to other parts. If I go back to my room and sleep and it seems like it takes me a week or something will you still be here?"
Eventually, if uninterrupted - she yawns halfway through her stack of things with which to verify Kiro's credentials. "Um. Time is sometimes - weird, in Milliways, parts of it don't always match up to other parts. If I go back to my room and sleep and it seems like it takes me a week or something will you still be here?"
seewhathappens
"Yes. But if you want to make sure, I could give you a holy object now. I can see and hear and speak through them as well as using them to expand my domain or distribute blessings."
seewhathappens
He produces a small blank wooden disk, just about coin-sized, and hands it to her.
she_sells_seashells
She takes it and pockets it. "Thank you. Um, are you perpetually seeing and hearing out of it?"
seewhathappens
"Yes, but with varying levels of attention, from 'as much as I give my manifestations' to 'only enough to notice if someone says my name'. And it can't see or hear much from inside a pocket."
she_sells_seashells
"Okay. So if I put it - away, and don't use your name out loud, it will not spy on me."
seewhathappens
"Correct. I also do not pay attention to mortals in non-public areas of my domain unless they ask for me by name."
she_sells_seashells
"That must be nice, being able to deliberately move your attention around like that so consistently."
she_sells_seashells
Shell Bell yawns again. "Okay, I need to sleep. Could be five minutes or five days on your end unless the disk syncs time." She collects her books and goes down a side hallway.
seewhathappens
Kirovalin finds somewhere for his manifestation to sit, and pays a little bit of attention to the bar through it, and attends to matters back home.
she_sells_seashells
Shell Bell comes back nine hours later, books and all. "I have a couple of vouchers left for meals from Bar. But you said you'd cover my food and I don't know if you mean in a Bar way or in a papaya slices way."
seewhathappens
"As proud as I generally am of my empire's food, I think Bar has the advantage there. I'll pay for your meals with her."
she_sells_seashells
"Thanks. She can take any kind of currency and sometimes, if she really likes you," Shell Bell whispers, "she'll play around with the exchange rates for you." And she goes up to Bar and comes back with eggs Benedict and a bowl of fruit slices in syrup and a mug of hot cocoa with whipped cream.
seewhathappens
Kirovalin follows and arranges with Bar to put Bell's meals on his tab for the forseeable future; in the process he hands over some coins that have his face on one side and an attractive bird on the other.
she_sells_seashells
Which Bar whisks away. It's good of you to be taking over. The poor child, I can only sneak her so many vitamins.
she_sells_seashells
Shell Bell devours her snuck vitamins, and reads her stack of books.
seewhathappens
Kirovalin's empire is very well-run, at least according to these materials. Problems sometimes occur: then he solves them.
The biggest recurring issue facing his empire is a long-running dispute between residents of the neighbouring provinces Mejain and Rileno: about half the population of each thinks that since they're two of the smaller provinces in the empire and speak the same language they should merge, and the other halves would prefer to stay separate. Every so often the argument breaks out again and Kirovalin listens to both sides and then reiterates that he isn't going to merge the provinces until a clear majority emerges in favour.
The other consistent trouble is languages. There are about fifteen major languages spoken in the empire, and while Kirovalin himself has no difficulties with translation, he can't staff every single government office with himselves. So the various provinces argue with themselves and each other over which languages should be officially supported where. This is usually sorted out at the provincial governors' level without the emperor needing to step in.
Temples do indeed provide food and shelter to those who would otherwise go without. They also seem to be... general centers for finding help when you aren't sure where else to look. Priests work with citizens to help them find jobs they prefer, or methods of worship that suit them best, or permanent homes they can afford as an alternative to staying in temple quarters. And they are where people go to ask for Kirovalin's blessings.
Apparently there are six specific blessings to be had: improved endurance, improved reflexes, improved health, improved learning and retention, immunity to cold and freezing, and a sense that detects imminent danger to oneself or others. These can be had more or less for the asking; health and cold immunity literally so, and the rest available to anyone who can explain to a priest what good they expect to get out of it.
Besides that, the other major divine ability that has gone unmentioned in conversation is acolytes. Kirovalin's acolytes have the power to share disease immunities with a touch: all the touched person's existing immunities are added to the acolyte's collection, and the touched person receives all the previously collected immunities they didn't already have. Kirovalin's manifestations share this power. The system for ensuring that every citizen in the empire has their immunities regularly updated is well-organized and robust. Stories of disease outbreak in news and history tend to follow the form "and then the acolytes showed up and no one else got sick".
The biggest recurring issue facing his empire is a long-running dispute between residents of the neighbouring provinces Mejain and Rileno: about half the population of each thinks that since they're two of the smaller provinces in the empire and speak the same language they should merge, and the other halves would prefer to stay separate. Every so often the argument breaks out again and Kirovalin listens to both sides and then reiterates that he isn't going to merge the provinces until a clear majority emerges in favour.
The other consistent trouble is languages. There are about fifteen major languages spoken in the empire, and while Kirovalin himself has no difficulties with translation, he can't staff every single government office with himselves. So the various provinces argue with themselves and each other over which languages should be officially supported where. This is usually sorted out at the provincial governors' level without the emperor needing to step in.
Temples do indeed provide food and shelter to those who would otherwise go without. They also seem to be... general centers for finding help when you aren't sure where else to look. Priests work with citizens to help them find jobs they prefer, or methods of worship that suit them best, or permanent homes they can afford as an alternative to staying in temple quarters. And they are where people go to ask for Kirovalin's blessings.
Apparently there are six specific blessings to be had: improved endurance, improved reflexes, improved health, improved learning and retention, immunity to cold and freezing, and a sense that detects imminent danger to oneself or others. These can be had more or less for the asking; health and cold immunity literally so, and the rest available to anyone who can explain to a priest what good they expect to get out of it.
Besides that, the other major divine ability that has gone unmentioned in conversation is acolytes. Kirovalin's acolytes have the power to share disease immunities with a touch: all the touched person's existing immunities are added to the acolyte's collection, and the touched person receives all the previously collected immunities they didn't already have. Kirovalin's manifestations share this power. The system for ensuring that every citizen in the empire has their immunities regularly updated is well-organized and robust. Stories of disease outbreak in news and history tend to follow the form "and then the acolytes showed up and no one else got sick".
she_sells_seashells
Shell Bell approves. She has gotten a selection from Bar which includes materials printed outside Kiro's sphere of influence, but those sources don't have anything particularly damning to say about him either besides that they're vaguely concerned all their population will defect to him (not exactly something she needs to be concerned about).
"There's probably not much likelihood of interworld transmission and I bet the diseases are all different," she remarks, "but I might as well update you in case I'm usefully immune to anything." She holds out her hand. "Also, I would probably have to be insane to turn down free blessings."
"There's probably not much likelihood of interworld transmission and I bet the diseases are all different," she remarks, "but I might as well update you in case I'm usefully immune to anything." She holds out her hand. "Also, I would probably have to be insane to turn down free blessings."
seewhathappens
Kirovalin touches her hand. "Some of those are almost recognizable," he remarks. "And here are your blessings for health and cold immunity; did your reading material cover what's expected for getting the rest?"