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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
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from_scratch
connecticut_yankee
Well, now nobody wants to stand out. Back to cowering.
Everyone near the unfortunate who asked the first question nudges him forward, and he stammers out "Is there no man in England who could be king?"
Everyone near the unfortunate who asked the first question nudges him forward, and he stammers out "Is there no man in England who could be king?"
from_scratch
"Many could be but none ought. Any who tries now to be king over you is an usurper."
connecticut_yankee
Twenty-five thousand knights stop being monarchists.
After a few moments' silence, one realizes there isn't much point in their previous divinely appointed mission anymore, and asks "Where shall we go now? Is there some great deed we can accomplish, or quest we can achieve?" The ones with their helmets off look briefly hopeful at the word 'quest.' Briefly.
After a few moments' silence, one realizes there isn't much point in their previous divinely appointed mission anymore, and asks "Where shall we go now? Is there some great deed we can accomplish, or quest we can achieve?" The ones with their helmets off look briefly hopeful at the word 'quest.' Briefly.
from_scratch
"Go home and faithfully relay my message," Cam charges them, "without omission or addendum. And prepare yourselves for great and marvelous changes in the world around you."
connecticut_yankee
It's not exactly dragon slaying, but now that they're an important part of the message the listeners are more in favor of it. A few in the back turn and ride off early, either wanting to be the first to deliver the message or just to get away from the severe-looking angel.
One knight toward the front gets as far as "So, can you tell Westley—" before the man next to him shuts him up and speaks over him. "My lord, we will discharge the obligation with the utmost duty and respect. In a fortnight all of England shall know of your decree."
One knight toward the front gets as far as "So, can you tell Westley—" before the man next to him shuts him up and speaks over him. "My lord, we will discharge the obligation with the utmost duty and respect. In a fortnight all of England shall know of your decree."
from_scratch
Cam nods beatifically. He flicks on the speakers and lets them play the rest of Universalis as he flies back into his cloud formation.
He can stay in the air for a long time. He can get tired, but only so tired, and it's just not tired enough to make his wings seriously contemplate collapse. So he circles, hidden, waiting to give the knights time to disperse. He makes a walkie-talkie for Hank and one matching for himself. "Hey, lemme know when I'm not going to be spotted instantly if I land near you. What'd you think of the show?"
He can stay in the air for a long time. He can get tired, but only so tired, and it's just not tired enough to make his wings seriously contemplate collapse. So he circles, hidden, waiting to give the knights time to disperse. He makes a walkie-talkie for Hank and one matching for himself. "Hey, lemme know when I'm not going to be spotted instantly if I land near you. What'd you think of the show?"
connecticut_yankee
It takes Hank a few tries to guess that he's supposed to talk while holding down the button.
"That was perfect! I've spent years as a charlatan and a politician—if you'll pardon the redundancy—and that's the best lie I've ever seen work. Couldn't see the fireworks with the camera facing forward, but the voice was excellent. I almost believed the angelic messenger story myself!
You could probably come down now; everyone is facing the other way after all. Safer to give it a few minutes, though, depending on how long you can fly."
"That was perfect! I've spent years as a charlatan and a politician—if you'll pardon the redundancy—and that's the best lie I've ever seen work. Couldn't see the fireworks with the camera facing forward, but the voice was excellent. I almost believed the angelic messenger story myself!
You could probably come down now; everyone is facing the other way after all. Safer to give it a few minutes, though, depending on how long you can fly."
from_scratch
"I can fly as long as I want. I don't get very tired. I'm glad nobody asked for my name. The most plausible non-lie I could've come up with would have been my middle name, and 'Mark' isn't really very angelic. I suppose I could have said 'Campbell' and hoped all the many thousands of them managed to hear something more like 'Camiel'. I could've said 'Revelation' but that is not supposed to be anybody's name and involves a few more creatures with too many faces than I wanted to evoke, in the biblical origin."
connecticut_yankee
"Is it easier to lie about being an angel than to make up a stage name on the spot? If it matters, we can ask people to call you Camiel and it'll become true in short order."
from_scratch
"Coming up with lies unprepared takes longer than it ought to take anybody to produce their name. Anyway, I didn't actually say I was an angel. And I do not want people to call me Camiel. I prefer Cam."
connecticut_yankee
"Can't say I blame you. My own name was as out of place as they come, and I kept that.
Are you planning on being an angel when you colonize Mars, or do the colonists get more of an explanation?"
Are you planning on being an angel when you colonize Mars, or do the colonists get more of an explanation?"
from_scratch
"I think the angel wings are probably a good compromise between going wingless and looking demonic. If I wind up teaching a lot of people how to summon, it'll come out what I am anyway just based on the kind of magic I use, but I'll keep these for the time being, not like I have a swimming pool to get waterlogged in here. The halo and the voice are too much hassle for everyday though."
connecticut_yankee
"If you're not planning on pretending to be a terrifying divine messenger indefinitely, you may want to be careful about who sees you. At least for the near future. It wouldn't do for the public to find out there's someone who looks exactly like the angel but isn't.
Speaking of which, the knights are gone far enough that the camera can't see anyone. It should be safe to come down."
Speaking of which, the knights are gone far enough that the camera can't see anyone. It should be safe to come down."
from_scratch
Cam dives and lands near the parked ship. "Yeah. I could change a few things about my face, but I don't really want to do that, either."
connecticut_yankee
"We'll just have to try to make it as short a time as possible until we're not depending on today's message. Once the Republic is up and running and obviously enough of an improvement that going back is unthinkable, it won't really matter if people guess that the angel was a fake."
from_scratch
"If I go as far away as Mars you will not be able to get ahold of me in a hurry except by dismissal and resummoning, which we don't currently know to work normally even on top of the time travel. But I could go see how my Chinese stacks up against what's currently being spoken and make some friends there, leave you the phone and make another and a slew of satellite relays, and be out of the way of anybody likely to draw conclusions about the angelic messenger if they get a good look at me. Since you've already got some progress underway here."
connecticut_yankee
"Would you be able to hold off on flying to China until we extend the communication and transportation lines to cover the rest of Britain? It'd be hard to manage a nationwide election otherwise."
from_scratch
"Yeah, sure. I'll hole up with your teenage boy contingent for a bit, you can draw up some plans for where you want a monorail to go, and I can overfly the island putting it all in place before I go into space and make satellites and touch down in China. Or maybe someplace that speaks Arabic. Arabic has probably been held to some consistency because of hangups about translating the Koran."
connecticut_yankee
"I'm afraid I don't know anything about Arabic.
Shall we go tell the contingent they aren't going to be besieged after all?
Maps and surveying were an early project of mine, so we should be able to have the plans done in days if we reuse blueprints as much as we can. Clearing the space may take longer, if you need us to have that done."
Shall we go tell the contingent they aren't going to be besieged after all?
Maps and surveying were an early project of mine, so we should be able to have the plans done in days if we reuse blueprints as much as we can. Clearing the space may take longer, if you need us to have that done."
from_scratch
"Ideal conditions would have an angel - a real one - helping me, but I'm not sure if you should summon one. We don't know yet if you can send me home. So, yes, clear the space." Cam gets into the ship's pilot seat.
connecticut_yankee
"If I try to send you home and it works, is there much of a risk that I can't just summon you back? If the sending doesn't work, we'd at least know not to try any angels."
from_scratch
"I have been a curious sort of individual, dwelling in Hell, taking summons routinely, for a hundred fifty years. I've never heard of anybody time traveling when summoned. I don't know why it happened this occasion. I don't know if it'll behave like summons normally do only with added time travel; I don't know if it'll interact with you having also time traveled, such that I go home and find that it's your original time, or this calendar year, or a version of my usual time in which all the things we have been up to are recorded history, or what. So, yes, I'd say there's a risk that you can send me home but not get me back, especially because I didn't actually exist yet during this time or yours in my own timeline - but I don't know how big the risk is."
connecticut_yankee
"Too much of a risk for the time it'd save, then.
I'll send out some people with maps and budgets to recruit labor from the nearest towns. With the sorts of wages we can offer, it should go by fairly quickly."
I'll send out some people with maps and budgets to recruit labor from the nearest towns. With the sorts of wages we can offer, it should go by fairly quickly."
from_scratch
"Sounds good." Cam takes off and heads back the way they came. "There are good economic reasons not to counterfeit currency, at least in large amounts, but that sort of problem doesn't apply as much to things with direct uses of their own, so if you run short of economic wherewithal I can conjure anything commonly bartered. Although if you have me doing livestock it's going to be excruciatingly stupid livestock; demons are terrible at minds."
connecticut_yankee
"This country could use more inflation, but counterfeiting isn't necessary. When I worked for Arthur my salary was one per cent the amount by which I increase the Treasury; I can easily afford hiring labor.
We could create more money for this—I suppose I arguably still have the power to authorize that—but that might make it a Crown project, and under the circumstances I'd rather have the new lines be unambiguously privately owned.
Are there limits to how far away you can create things? If we use that to send messages, it could save valuable time on the recruitment."
We could create more money for this—I suppose I arguably still have the power to authorize that—but that might make it a Crown project, and under the circumstances I'd rather have the new lines be unambiguously privately owned.
Are there limits to how far away you can create things? If we use that to send messages, it could save valuable time on the recruitment."