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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
from_scratch
"It would be marginally all right for the church to increase in legitimacy if it also increased in, like, decency, by a lot and very fast. I probably cannot encourage mass atheism on any reasonable time frame, and I'd be losing a lot of useful person-coordination power that I could co-opt instead, if I could and did."
connecticut_yankee
"That...is a surprisingly good reason.
I never had the option to work with the Church even if I could grit my teeth hard enough, since I claimed to be a magician from day one. But in your position convincing the Pope to tell the priests to tell everybody things might actually be the most effective thing to do."
I never had the option to work with the Church even if I could grit my teeth hard enough, since I claimed to be a magician from day one. But in your position convincing the Pope to tell the priests to tell everybody things might actually be the most effective thing to do."
from_scratch
"Well, for the Catholic population. If I hadn't landed near you I might not have started work anywhere near Europe. I can't get any free languages without being resummoned by people who speak them, but a combination of fancy software and what I landed with would let me set up in other places, possibly more comfortably."
connecticut_yankee
"The Catholic population is essentially all of Europe. I don't know if there are any other individuals who control continents at the moment, but if so then subverting them would be equally powerful."
from_scratch
"Yeah, I'd need to look up some history, find out how long China's been doing the emperors thing."
connecticut_yankee
"Do you know if they'd have any obvious ways to get an emperor to take orders? The angel trick is a bit culture-specific."
from_scratch
"This would also require the eavesdropping for a while thing. I think China might do a mandate of heaven thing? I'm not sure who is supposed to communicate about said mandate, though. Likely nothing as easily imitable as an angel. So I might've started in Europe after all, or I'd see what was going on in the Muslim world - I think Islam is currently pretty new, and they do angels?"
connecticut_yankee
"Islam does angels, but I don't know whether it exists yet. And international information is slow, so all I can say is that if it does it's recent. Maybe you could start it."
from_scratch
"I do not really want to start Islam. I have no idea what Mohammed looks like, for one thing."
connecticut_yankee
"If you start it, you get to pick the tenets.
Maybe you could fly around with the light, the clouds, and the angelic chorus and ask people if they've seen Mohammed lately?"
Maybe you could fly around with the light, the clouds, and the angelic chorus and ask people if they've seen Mohammed lately?"
from_scratch
"No, see, remember I don't like lying to people? I'd rather appropriate a preexisting network of falsehoods with a few well-targeted misleading appearances than start Islam. If I decide to start something I will go somewhere without a history of copious monotheism, show off some magic, and start making pronouncements without much in the way of surrounding theology."
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."