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Cam is out flying. There's a decent cloud of atmosphere around the gold plane, now, millenia of demons making air around themselves for comfort and not sealing it up because why would you bother. There's a small forest, here - the effect is kind of ruined by the lamps it has to grow under, but it's still pretty.
He feels an open summons and lets it grab him -
the Connecticut Yankee summons Demon Cam
from_scratch
connecticut_yankee
"That works, too. Starting a new religion wouldn't have the advantages of using an existing Pope or emperor, but I suppose the same applies to Islam.
Oh, and about the lying. If anyone asks if you're an angel and they don't accept evasion, 'angel' just means 'messenger,' you absolutely do have a message, and the answer is yes."
Oh, and about the lying. If anyone asks if you're an angel and they don't accept evasion, 'angel' just means 'messenger,' you absolutely do have a message, and the answer is yes."
from_scratch
"I'm not unable to lie. I just don't like it. If I need someone to think I'm an angel and I get asked point blank I'll tell them I am."
connecticut_yankee
"Oh, good. I've known people who couldn't lie for anything. Good people to work with, but that was in an industry that didn't require deception."
They approach line of sight of the cave. This time there is someone visible on the outside, at the Gatling platform on top of the hill. When he sees the machine, the figure turns and disappears down into the inside.
They approach line of sight of the cave. This time there is someone visible on the outside, at the Gatling platform on top of the hill. When he sees the machine, the figure turns and disappears down into the inside.
from_scratch
Cam lands.
"And the 'messenger' business is pure semantics. I've met members of the actual species of daeva that in English is referred to as 'angels'. I am not one of those. It'd be like calling myself a swan because that's my last name. I am, in a perfectly legitimate sense, a Swan; if I utter that sentence to someone without explaining I am clearly screwing with them."
"And the 'messenger' business is pure semantics. I've met members of the actual species of daeva that in English is referred to as 'angels'. I am not one of those. It'd be like calling myself a swan because that's my last name. I am, in a perfectly legitimate sense, a Swan; if I utter that sentence to someone without explaining I am clearly screwing with them."
connecticut_yankee
"Oh, absolutely. Like I said, there are people for whom the semantics would actually make a difference in whether they can credibly say it. It's one of the few uses of semantics.
I mistook you for someone like that because you avoid lying to people but demonstrably don't mind screwing with them."
I mistook you for someone like that because you avoid lying to people but demonstrably don't mind screwing with them."
from_scratch
"If I screw with people, but never lie with my exact words," says Cam, hopping out of the ship, "then later, if I need to, I can point that out to them, and they'll know that my exact words, when I utter them plainly, are probably reliable."
connecticut_yankee
"Hm. That sounds like it could work, but I doubt I would have got so far as escaping the stake without lying about being a magician."
Hank exits the contraption and walks toward the door. It opens, and suddenly they're surrounded by a contingent of teenage boys eager for news.
He just states, "We won." Cheers occur.
Hank exits the contraption and walks toward the door. It opens, and suddenly they're surrounded by a contingent of teenage boys eager for news.
He just states, "We won." Cheers occur.
connecticut_yankee
"We're not besieged, England soon won't think the Republic needs to be destroyed, and the army has been ordered to spread the word that there's going to be an election. We'll need to get the presses running as soon as we could plausibly have heard about it."
Clarence steps forward. "I've already contacted our printing office in Mercia, with the story written as if it went according to plan. As soon as word reaches them, they'll ensure it reaches everyone else. Unless I tell them it didn't go according to plan?"
Clarence steps forward. "I've already contacted our printing office in Mercia, with the story written as if it went according to plan. As soon as word reaches them, they'll ensure it reaches everyone else. Unless I tell them it didn't go according to plan?"
from_scratch
"I'd like to have a look at the story, but the plan went off as described plus some last minute details."
connecticut_yankee
"I can get you a copy. Or more accurately my notes; the final version is being edited over there. What was added?"
from_scratch
"I landed on a marble arch, I put a mirror on the arch to hide some electronics, I," sulfur hexafluoride! "talked like this the entire time, and I took a few questions you can't have anticipated ahead of time. Don't bother getting me a copy; I can make my own when the editing's done."
connecticut_yankee
Clarence didn't know about Cam's information-copying ability, but it's pretty self-explanatory in context. "I'll pass that on." Clarence promises.
"Can you make a copy of the geographical survey we completed in 534?" Hank asks Cam. For the others, he clarifies "We'll need railway and telephone lines covering Britain, and this is to find lines within a reasonable distance of everywhere while also being relatively easy to clear."
"Can you make a copy of the geographical survey we completed in 534?" Hank asks Cam. For the others, he clarifies "We'll need railway and telephone lines covering Britain, and this is to find lines within a reasonable distance of everywhere while also being relatively easy to clear."
connecticut_yankee
This method of creating-anything-imaginable has its attractions.
Hank briefly starts trying to plot courses, but is replaced in seconds by people who are from the relevant areas and can find locations as well as he can or better.
"That part may go more quickly than I thought.
If you make the best transportation system you can, we'd have no idea how to keep it running. Is there anything we can adopt into one of our designs and have it make sense?"
Hank briefly starts trying to plot courses, but is replaced in seconds by people who are from the relevant areas and can find locations as well as he can or better.
"That part may go more quickly than I thought.
If you make the best transportation system you can, we'd have no idea how to keep it running. Is there anything we can adopt into one of our designs and have it make sense?"
from_scratch
"Uh - maybe. It's been a while since I studied the minutiae of monorails. I could just do a regular train platform up on columns, if that'd be easier? Then you can put normal train cars on it, swap them out as your infrastructure catches up. Monorail was mostly just for the cool factor."
connecticut_yankee
"We could probably swap out monorail cars as easily as train ones, but train tracks would mesh more easily with the existing lines.
Do you need spaces dug out for the bases of the columns, or does pushing things out of the way extend to this?"
Do you need spaces dug out for the bases of the columns, or does pushing things out of the way extend to this?"
from_scratch
"It'd really be best to have proper holes. 'Unpredictable materials stress' isn't something you want near your train columns. If it's inconvenient I could make the holes with ice, wait a bit, and use that."
connecticut_yankee
"We could have them dug the same way we clear any above-ground obstructions out of the way. It would just take longer. Ice is a fantastic idea. Or perhaps solid carbon dioxide, it seems neater.
What happens if you use the same method to get rid of every other obstruction? Could this theoretically be done in minutes or seconds?"
What happens if you use the same method to get rid of every other obstruction? Could this theoretically be done in minutes or seconds?"
from_scratch
"Dry ice could hurt somebody if they touch it, will people not touch it? And it depends on the obsctruction. It'd take me a good while to tunnel through a mountain or something with ice - the matter still all exists, if I move it around in the wrong way it'll collapse into a new stable configuration and if I just use ice pockets to weaken it for conventional tunneling to go more smoothly the conventional tunneling still has to happen. A vertical hole in the ground to put a column in is pretty trivial by comparison even if I do a million of 'em. Getting a tree out of the way is worse - I can ice one to smithereens but then I have tree smithereens, not exactly ideal foundational substrate. And my usual limitations on interacting with matter when I'm not looking right at it apply, of course."
connecticut_yankee
"Dry ice is the carbon? I was just thinking that it wouldn't have to stay untouched for long, and would disrupt the area less when it disappears. Any other solid-to-gas material has the same benefit, of course, if you know about a better one than I do.
We're already selecting routes that are as flat as possible. No mountains or anything, but probably some trees. Having a tree where a hole is supposed to be seems like a necessary consequence of doing a million of 'em; does that mean we can't just hand you a map of places for ice columns?
The best-case scenario that I was thinking of was an ice replica of the entire thing, following the blueprints, columns and all, so that anything in the way gets smithereensed by some magic material that disappears right away, and then putting the real thing in the open space. But I can see how that wouldn't work if the smithereens themselves are a problem."
We're already selecting routes that are as flat as possible. No mountains or anything, but probably some trees. Having a tree where a hole is supposed to be seems like a necessary consequence of doing a million of 'em; does that mean we can't just hand you a map of places for ice columns?
The best-case scenario that I was thinking of was an ice replica of the entire thing, following the blueprints, columns and all, so that anything in the way gets smithereensed by some magic material that disappears right away, and then putting the real thing in the open space. But I can see how that wouldn't work if the smithereens themselves are a problem."
from_scratch
"Dry ice is carbon dioxide, it doesn't sublimate that fast in the sizes we're talking about, and it's cold enough to do harm if you grab it without gloves. I'll look through my notes and see if there's anything safer but it doesn't seem that likely, and I guess dry ice probably won't kill anybody unless they're really keen on poking the hurty cold thing...
If I try to make the entire thing out of ice it won't work where there's solid stuff in the way. My options when there's stuff in the way are grow the new thing from a single point, shoving the original out of the space in the process and cracking it into a few pieces if it's fragile; or destroying the original thing by growing something in many locations all at once till it comes apart." He makes two blocks of wood. One splits in half in his hand as he grows an ice cube in the middle; the other crumbles to damp sawdust as it fills with tiny ice crystals. "Like so. I have to be doing one or the other, there isn't a magical default option if I try to just plain add ice to an area and there happens to be a tree present."
If I try to make the entire thing out of ice it won't work where there's solid stuff in the way. My options when there's stuff in the way are grow the new thing from a single point, shoving the original out of the space in the process and cracking it into a few pieces if it's fragile; or destroying the original thing by growing something in many locations all at once till it comes apart." He makes two blocks of wood. One splits in half in his hand as he grows an ice cube in the middle; the other crumbles to damp sawdust as it fills with tiny ice crystals. "Like so. I have to be doing one or the other, there isn't a magical default option if I try to just plain add ice to an area and there happens to be a tree present."
connecticut_yankee
"And it's the first thing that would make holes, but the second thing for destroying obstacles. That could be a problem."
from_scratch
"Exactly. I mean, I suppose I could look through my chem textbooks and see if there's a nice acid that'll do the job without decomposing into anything horrible?"
connecticut_yankee
"I'd be very surprised if there's an acid that's safe at the kind of quantity we'd need. If not, we can clear trees and tree-equivalents the normal way. Would you be able to mark the route with paint or something similar once we have the map ready? The clearance will go faster if we can tell the workers 'remove anything between the yellow lines,' and we'd hardly need to worry about the structural integrity of paint."