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Somehow Mama never manages to be nearby when Elspeth finds this place. Mama would exploit it; Elspeth is happy enough to come in and get some of that gold fizzy stuff. (And bring more of it home for everyone else.) Mama has given Elspeth fairly minor exploitation-type errands, but Elspeth has pointed out that major ones might make whatever causes the door to prefer Elspeth in the first place stop favoring her so much. (Bar certainly doesn't know; it's all guesswork - but Elspeth can't rule it out, which gives Mama pause. She does show Mama everything that happens while she's there, anyway.)
So when she finds it in the cafeteria instead of finding the cafeteria, she and Jake go in, and Jake orders himself nine inches square of deep-dish lasagna and Elspeth has a bubbly and asks Bar to recommend her a book. They sit in a booth and watch the stars explode.
her_imperial_radiance
meletiti_entelecheiai
He shakes his head. "Almost everything I did would have to be in the form of 'things I could tell you how to do.' I'm not harmless, but only because I could hypothetically sacrifice my home, my star, and possibly my life in order to do something to your home universe. If I'm not willing to do that, there's not a lot I can actually do other than 'scry,' and while scrying will get us pretty far you'll have to implement them. And things will almost certainly go wrong while you're implementing them."
He tilts his head consideringly. "I could... no, you can't trust that.
"... Can you say to Jake that I am not any more dangerous to you or your home when I am in it than I am here? I realize that is not the most reassuring of truths, but at any rate you would lose nothing by letting me try to help."
He tilts his head consideringly. "I could... no, you can't trust that.
"... Can you say to Jake that I am not any more dangerous to you or your home when I am in it than I am here? I realize that is not the most reassuring of truths, but at any rate you would lose nothing by letting me try to help."
her_imperial_radiance
"I don't think you're accounting for Milliways security in asserting that," remarks Elspeth. "And... describe scrying?"
meletiti_entelecheiai
Aislian waves his hands. "It would't be matter of Milliways security. There are worlds within my sheaf, and there are worldsheaves besides my own, and then there are entirely separate Truths, and I can controllable transit between any of these."
"Scrying is fundamentally acquiring answers to arbitrary questions. I am starting to suspect that the easiest way for me to help you is to simply give you plans for, say, a blank-slate cloner, so that you can at least start working through your backlog, while I work on mostly-technological solutions to finding new minds."
"Scrying is fundamentally acquiring answers to arbitrary questions. I am starting to suspect that the easiest way for me to help you is to simply give you plans for, say, a blank-slate cloner, so that you can at least start working through your backlog, while I work on mostly-technological solutions to finding new minds."
her_imperial_radiance
"I won't turn down the cloning machine," says Elspeth, "but if you want Mama's goodwill you're going to want to be very careful using that scrying on any minds that can't give you permission to look at them."
meletiti_entelecheiai
Aisilian relaxes a little at that. "I'm not in the habit of violating people's privacy like that. There are questions I could ask that might do it indirectly, but nothing I'm willing to do involves people's thoughts or memories actually being seen by me."
He turns to the Bar, and idly returns to his drink. "Bar - can you make an appropriate memory drive based on something I have in my mind, or am I going to have to store the blueprints myself? I'd like to copy plans for a blank-slate cloner that will work in her world to disc, but I didn't happen to have any mysteriously cross-world-compatible drives on me when I randomly fell across Truths." He makes a wry smile.
He turns to the Bar, and idly returns to his drink. "Bar - can you make an appropriate memory drive based on something I have in my mind, or am I going to have to store the blueprints myself? I'd like to copy plans for a blank-slate cloner that will work in her world to disc, but I didn't happen to have any mysteriously cross-world-compatible drives on me when I randomly fell across Truths." He makes a wry smile.
her_imperial_radiance
I cannot read your mind, napkins Bar primly. But I can sell you or Elspeth similar plans from a world which unlike your own contains them in published form, and something to read them with.
meletiti_entelecheiai
Aisilian looks at Elspeth. "That sounds like it'd... work? Mm. No, not quite, because you'd need the infrastructure to make the infrastructure to make them in the first place.
Alright. It's been awhile since I've had to pay for something - how do you handle payment, anyway? - but I'm sure I can find some way to buy an appropriate drive, and then I'll create a step-by-step plan."
Alright. It's been awhile since I've had to pay for something - how do you handle payment, anyway? - but I'm sure I can find some way to buy an appropriate drive, and then I'll create a step-by-step plan."
her_imperial_radiance
I can take almost all forms of cash and many forms of credit. You may also choose to run up a tab.
meletiti_entelecheiai
Aisilian tilts his head. "I can't imagine you'd be very temporally limited... Can you draw from my credit account in the Second Age in El'aistrim?"
meletiti_entelecheiai
Aisilian 'tch'es. "Let's open up a tab, then, and I'll get some cash. Will you accept El'aistrim Second Age obols?"
meletiti_entelecheiai
Aisilian chuckles. "I'll just bet. Well then. One - relevant memory device, and one footstool, please."
meletiti_entelecheiai
Aisilian winces. "I feel a little guilty about sacrificing that stool now. I don't suppose you have anything you were ready to throw out anyway?"
He pockets the cylinder.
He pockets the cylinder.
her_imperial_radiance
It's not really an applicable concept for me, says Bar. I can take it back and offer you a less nice footstool if you like.
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