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No place like a new home
Actana Silvers Interview Terry
Permalink Mark Unread

Being mentally linked is really convenient for spell-casting coordination. More so when it's a two layered ritual with a total of sixteen casters.

With care and precision (and a bit of practice, by now) they sculpt vast magical energies into the summon.

There is a flash of white light.

The room's ceiling is very high, at least three stores tall, constructed from green-blue stone in intricate archways. Once the light fades, it's possible to see sixteen beings. Not all of them humanoid, and not even the humanoid ones look that human. There is a winged man with pointy ears right in front of him. He stands next to a four-armed human-looking person that's at least eleven feet tall.

The winged man speaks first before his own vision clears. "Don't be afraid. We are terribly sorry for this disruption. Do you have any immediate or pressing needs besides knowing what's going on? Something urgent happening where we took you from?"

 

 

Permalink Mark Unread

...Um.

 

"I would appreciate evidence I am not high or hallucinating or dreaming, that this is not some kind of elaborate prank, that you have good intentions. The last one may be difficult, but perhaps you'll find a way."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Are there things you can't experience in dreams or hallucinations? Do you know how to read? Most people can't do that in dreams. What aspects of this situation make you consider that it might be a dream, hallucination or prank? Proving good intentions is in fact difficult, but we can at least offer reassurances that we plan to return you to your home safely and the least inconvenienced we could make you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ah-huh. Nonhuman body features which, if a costume, are an extremely good one. Discontinuity of experience - I was driving, you know. Already too late to fix it if my car crashed into a ditch, which it probably did. Empty road, at least, so you probably haven't killed anyone by accident... Improbable architecture."

Permalink Mark Unread

The word car causes people to frown.

"Oh, we are very sorry that your vehicle might have been damaged and if possible we will fix it. Outside Pinny and technically Jeza, none of us are human." He indicates two women, or a woman and a snake person that comes off as feminine. "What's improbable about our architecture?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Looks expensive. Like a cathedral or something. Cars are complicated and I, uh, do not understand what is going on here."

He picks a device out of a pocket and presses a button - lights appears on one side. It goes back in a pocket.

"No signal, six twenty five... Email from boss, tomorrow's meeting... I can read, so there's that. I don't remember using anything hallucinatory, but if my memory is suspect, well... Maybe go ahead and give whatever explanation you were going to and I'll see how I feel about it after? This is highly irregular, you see. My worldview is toppled. Toppled, I say."

And sarcasm is a good way to keep the panic down while - as he's just starting to realize - this may be first contact. If he's not hallucinating or being pranked. Which he probably is. Priors against aliens are very, very strong.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. Tell me if it's overwhelming. We have transported you to another world - we call it Actana. Again, we are sorry. The planet went through a catastrophic event and is currently very hostile to life and we are searching for a new world for either permanent or temporary resettlement. Currently we are trying to achieve this by summoning people from other worlds and interviewing them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"So, end of the world, summoning people to see about evacuation targets."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. We tried other methods, but this is more efficient and controllable, despite the obvious downside of initiating contact this way. If you don't wish to answer questions about your world we still will send you back and keep you comfortable in the meantime, which shouldn't take more than a few hours and definitely won't take more than a few days. In exchange for your honesty, we are willing to compensate you. Terms negotiable, but payments include bringing you to full health, taking you to another location in your world, or giving you about a pound of precious materials."

Permalink Mark Unread

"One pound of gold is actually worth less than my wrecked car, if it is in fact destroyed and unrepairable, especially since I'm not likely to get fair market value for it without a lot of effort. You seem to have many capabilities and I have no idea what they are or where they might be limited. How are you intending to verify my honesty if I choose to answer questions? What kind of questions? How long?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Depending on how big your vehicle is we can fix its non-magical components in a few hours - we can bring it here without being an extra energy expenditure. We can take time to explain some things we can do, though, a lot of our resources are tied. The specific methods of verification depends on your statements - and the statements of other people from other worlds - but include visiting your world, taking more people from there to be interviewed and consensual use of emotion and thought reading. Additionally, incentives towards honesty, like extra payments. We also figure that if a random person from a random world lies to us to keep us away it's a sign that the world is in fact less welcoming than we would prefer to. And the opposite kind of deceit would be figured out soon enough."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Regarding the questions. We are trying to find a world that can host a part of our population at least for long enough that we can set up infra-structure to find other worlds to colonize ourselves. Even if you can't answer all of them, you could provide some guidance, so we can navigate your world and ask these questions to other people without causing an incident. There is no specific time, except that the magic keeping you here have cycles, at the end of eighth cycle it will take you home unless we do something to intervene."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Bringing my wrecked car here and fixing it would be very impressive, actually. Immigration may be a bit fraught. Slightly less so if you're leaving again, the sooner the better, and it'd depend on the country, and I imagine bribes would help make that go away. Most countries don't appreciate people suddenly appearing places, see, and I don't think any of you have filled out form I-140 and received a response from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service approving you for temporary residence, so."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Despite what suddenly bringing you here might suggest, we strongly prefer not to take actions that could be considered hostile." He says a bit tiredly. "If we take our people anywhere, it will be after we have talked with some authority first. We will fill forms if necessary. Some potential bribes we are willing to offer in exchange for residency include making a few dozen people young again, or bringing them back from the dead. We can also provide a portal network and a fraction of habitable worlds we discover for ourselves."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I am not a government official so I have little idea how that would work out. I may be able to help with the intermediary steps. But it sounds promising, especially if your world is truly ending... You had questions?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We did!" He tentatively smiles. "Do you want to leave the summoning circle and go somewhere more comfortable? That way we can summon your vehicle, assuming it fits in this room."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Just in case I would rather not explicitly agree to any deals, nor thank you, nor accept favors at this time. We have stories about this sort of thing that you pattern-match a bit. But if you see fit to show me somewhere else I would not object."

Permalink Mark Unread

He nods. "Leon, can you check if there is anything odd about him?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Leon, a man with pointy ears and unnaturally all green eyes has been squinting at Terence this whole time, and finally speaks. "Safe both ways. Not even anything like Vitek used to have."

Apparently this enough for people to do something, it's like there were glass walls around Terence, and he failed to notice until now, they slide with a stone-on-stone sound and then appear to dissolve. Some people appear to be ready to react if Terence tries anything untoward.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Follow me?"

Permalink Mark Unread

He does, staring around curiously at everything.

Permalink Mark Unread

There is another man, that is identical to the one that is leading him away. Furthermore, he is standing next to another four-armed tall man, identical to the one right in front of him. No one appears to be remarkable, at least not more remarkable than part animal-people from other worlds.

Permalink Mark Unread

He is led out of the room, down a curving corridor and through another room. The architecture is all made up of interlocking stones, though not as elaborate as the first room they were in. This room is made up of a warmer orange-brown stone and has a very tall window overlooking a forest, some gray mountains on the horizon and... a planet? Dark-purple and barely noticeable against the blue-ish gray of the sky.

"I am Dalfelins Dawn-seed-wind, but you may call me Eli. Would you like to take a seat?"

There are no chairs, instead he is offering some pillows around a low table. There are paper and some boxes on the table.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Well, I can probably remember 'Eli', at least..."

He sits crosslegged on the floor, neglecting any pillows. This whole situation is extremely strange. What's making the light? Is anything obviously magical around?

Permalink Mark Unread

Eli does not comment on Terence's choice of where to seat nor does he ask for a name. He takes a pillow to himself and takes out a dark-gray stick out of a box.

"Okay, anything you might get you more comfortable? Water? Food? Tell me if you need to interrupt the interview."

The light appears to be coming from sconces on the walls, the corridor was substantially less illuminated. From glancing at it, the ones in this room might have... square stones? The light source at least looks square.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I doubt you have coffee. I'm sure I'll have questions of my own soon. I am sort of... Thinking about possibilities right now."

Permalink Mark Unread

"A stimulant? We do have people that can create food, they are a bit overworked, but we are willing to make exceptions for the interviewed. One of my powers is the ability to restore people's wakefulness, a minute of contact is like eight minutes asleep."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That won't be necessary. Either thing. I rather couldn't do much about it if you were going to do unpleasant things to me, but there is still the general principle of wariness."

Permalink Mark Unread

Flinch. "I am sorry for the uncomfortable power dynamics. May we start? You mentioned an U.S. which the translation is giving me as United States, is that the politic unit we took you from?"

Permalink Mark Unread

He goes into Lecture Mode! If they ask about things a Wikipedia search couldn't find, he'll probably get more recalcitrant.

"The United States of America is a political unit considered to be one of the most richest and most powerful on my planet. It's a federated democracy, with an overall government that delegates many functions to the 'states' that make it up but retains a lot of central power. It's run out of Washington, D.C. There is a Congress, which debates and makes laws and is made up of several hundred people who are individually elected from the states. There is an executive branch, led by the President, which is charged with enforcing the laws, dealing with foreign countries, authorizing military action, overseeing governmental agencies, that sort of thing.

"The President is also elected, and appoints his subordinates. There is a judicial branch - the courts. They interpret the law when things are not clear, find the guilt or innocence of criminals and decide the punishments, and so on. Membership of the Supreme Court, head of the judicial branch, is a position held for life. New justices are assigned by the President when they die. Most people hold far more loyalty to the United States as a whole than their individual state, and the states don't have much power compared to the federal government."

Permalink Mark Unread

Eli nods and writes things down. "Would you recommend we focus our questions on the U.S. or is there another political unity that's more welcoming or a safer bet to accept us?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's probably a good idea to look at several but I know much less about any others..."

Permalink Mark Unread

He nods again and makes a note. "We can keep it on topic and investigate other countries later. What can you tell us about..." he appears to be chewing on the word "American? What can you tell us about the American culture and norms? Is there a difference between the treatment of humans and non-humans? Practice of magic? Taboos regarding religious practice, sexuality, nudity, waste management, funeral rites, gender roles and drug consumption?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Nonhuman sapients are... Unheard of but sometimes speculated about. Hurting animals needlessly is illegal and ones we think are more intelligent than others or that are near extinction get extra protections. Reactions will vary but generally positive I believe. You'll probably get some gawking, some paranoia, a bit of racism... But mostly acceptance. A lot of fans too. I really can't predict it. Uh, magic is also not a thing. However, scientific and engineering education and work is highly prized and valuable. You'll be exciting. There are a lot of taboos of varying strengths, maybe ask about specific situations?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Eli blinks. "Okay, pausing the taboo conversation for a bit. What do you mean you don't have magic?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We have never observed anything that could not be ultimately explained by scientific observation and resolved down to physical principles. Everything we do is - tools that use physics, designed through deep understanding of the way the world works. Teleporting people around defies the laws of physics as we know them, however, and magic is the word for that. Maybe you have a deeper understanding of the universe than we do. Maybe you have magic. I don't know."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We would define magic as a specific source of power. It exists in the world in lower quantities in the environment, or in higher quantities inside magical beings, like myself. I probably going to need to poke at the concepts more to be sure, but I don't think we are using the methods as you describe them. I know at least six people that can teleport, any law breaking they may have committed was towards institutional laws about breaking into people's homes."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The laws of physics aren't laws but - rules we've figured out about how the world, uh, works. If you have a - kind of energy - that you use to do things. You just. Have different physics than us. No big deal."

He looks like it's kind of a big deal, though.

Permalink Mark Unread

Eli sure thinks it's a big deal too, but from another angle. "That sounds like something we definitely need to check carefully. We did expect different magic, but... I don't think we can make progress on this topic unless we visit your world and for that we need to know what to do and what not to do. Back on taboos? Have you seen anything here that has offended you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Aside from the kidnapping? No, nothing in particular springs to mind. These things are sneaky, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sorry, again. If it helps, it's not something I ever considered doing before the world went to darkness. And I am aware of cultural clashes, we have thirty-five hundred people from all over Actana, things have not been easy. Let me see... nudity norms? What levels of covering or not covering your body would be acceptable and implications thereof?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Showing more skin is generally associated with being more casual and more flirtatious, but it depends on context. In almost all public contexts, most or all of your torso, plus hips to thighs, should be covered. Men have slightly less strict standards, upper bodies can be bare in a few more contexts, such as if doing manual labor. It is still unusual, but not quite as unacceptable as for women. Very tight or revealing clothing is also sexually connotated. When swimming, it's acceptable to wear less clothing, down to things that only cover the genitals and butt. Plus breasts, on women. Revealing clothing is not always unacceptable, but is almost never formal and respectable. Tattoos are not respectable. Failing to wear shoes outdoors is unusual, but not exactly taboo. Bare genitals or butts in public is never acceptable, and women's breasts very nearly almost never. I'm missing a lot of nuance but that should give you an idea."

Permalink Mark Unread

Eli nods as he writes down. He makes a quick drawing and is labelling the relevant areas.  "When you say never acceptable, do you mean that the person is shunned? Targeted for violence? Arrested?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Depends on context. Arrested is likely. Targeted for violence is also likely in some places. Avoided is almost certainty... Ah. It is extremely taboo to expose children to anything sexual, which extends to things connotated as sexual. Arrest and a bad reputation is almost certain and violence is possible if it seems like you are exposing a child to sexual things. Context matters as with everything, but, er, there are few contexts that allow it. Parents changing diapers or helping their own kids bathe, or legitimate accidents or misunderstandings, is about it."

Permalink Mark Unread

More note-taking and frowning. "I am not sure the places here that assign sexual connotations to nudity have a greater sensitivity towards children being exposed to such things, though I wouldn't be surprised if that matches. Uh, if you stay here long enough it's highly likely you're going to see breasts from humanoids, or complete nudity from non-humanoids. Or complete nudity if you decide to use the larger bathing facilities. How much do you want to avoid that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Or at least don't get offended by them. I will be fine. Communal baths and locker rooms and are one of those contexts where things get a bit more relaxed, though they are not common in America, really. Are they gender segregated? Ours usually are."

Permalink Mark Unread

Eli makes a so-so gesture. "That's actually the norm most places, but not here. We put on dividers. We tried assigning different times to different groups, but it required more effort to coordinate than it was worth. Thank you for being understanding, and again, do tell us if anything - besides kidnapping - makes you uncomfortable. Uh, do you think there is going to be exceptions to different body plans? Or people with internal genitals?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Probably best to be conservative, to make a good impression? If there's nothing there, it'd still make people feel uncomfortable, I would imagine. Formal and respectable and conservative would be the right optics to have."

Permalink Mark Unread

Nod. "I am trying to be thorough in part because we do not know what respectable looks like from your perspective." Pause. "Also, I know some merfolk that would be bothered that I didn't ask." He shrugs. "We can debate any specifics after having more time to think. Moving on, are you comfortable discussing gender and sexual topics?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh very well, I suppose we must, musn't we? Fine. Though, I'm starting to get curious about you lot too - the world is ending you say, so what ended it? Might it happen to us?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's a fair question. Feel free to ask more. The world was ended by a group of entities of great power who have been locked and bound for a long time. They have been draining magic and life to break out, causing infertility. Then they covered the world in darkness and turned many into crystal covered monsters that attack and covert others. This was all so they could break free and then commit suicide, which made the monsters' infection slower and completely reversing the infertility problem." Pause. "That affected the planet but we are on the moon which didn't have that problem, by being out of their reach."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Great. Cthulu type deal." Sigh. "I am going to be very worried. I am totally unable to assess such things as a possible threat."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Cthulu? The shades are not that dangerous if you're mobile but they are everywhere."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Cthulu is a fictional evil god beyond human understanding, of which catching the barest glimpse is enough to drive the stoutest men to insanity. Fictional, I insist."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Alright, moving on. What are the genders norms in your world?" Pause. "Some people here are hermaphrodites, I don't know if that happens to humans that are not related to magical beings."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It is extremely rare and considered a dangerous medical condition, I believe. What exactly do you mean by gender norms? There are definitely - some - but..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh, I never heard of it being dangerous. In Actana, it's very common for a culture to build a lot of rules and attitudes around genders, one of which is that one gender is superior to the other and that it directly correlates to physical sex. There is variance, but it is very common for humans to think that men are supposed to lead and are superior for this and that arbitrary reason. While Faen," he points at his own ears, "inverted that with women on top. The various Giants' city-states believed in roles that by defaulted mapped into human ones but a woman could earn a male role and a man could step down to a female role. Except for the one city-state founded by hermaphrodites partially under the motivation that gender norms are stupid and anti-meritocratic. People who didn't fit the binary gender norms of male and female had varied degrees of acceptance."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Now that sounds familiar alright. There is a little bit of that but in modern days it's generally considered backward and barbaric to explicitly state that men are superior to women."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, good. Does this apply to non-men calling themselves superior?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. See... You get two rough camps. This is an oversimplification but it's a decent way to explain. Conservative and liberal. Conservatives generally believe men should be providers and women should be caretakers, are more religious, less accepting of homosexuality and anything that breaks the gender binary, disapprove of welfare programs, support the personal right to own weapons, are more racist and opposed to immigraton, support a strong military more, prefer less government powers and like personal freedoms, and probably some other things I'm forgetting. Liberals are largely the opposite of that. Again, oversimplifying."

Permalink Mark Unread

He makes some variously confused faces at this. "Okay. How do liberal acceptance of gender non-conformity interacts with the thing where women are providers and men are caretakers? They sound like Faen."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Liberals have the same gender roles but tend to believe they are not... Binidng. Or shouldn't be, at least. 'Gender equality' is a common term. You can get in trouble for firing someone specifically because they are a woman, or have dark skin - we judge race by skin color. That sort of thing."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ah, I understand that you qualified with 'oversimplifying', but be careful with that sort of broad statement. Humans here do associate coloration with race, or at least foreignness? Do dark-skinned people have something similar to women going on?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"'Blacks', a particular ethnic group are seen as low class and violent and prone to criminality, and looked down upon by some. Usually this is a subtle social cues thing. They also tend to be poorer. The other racial differences aren't as major or fraught. I'm just trying to cover things in a reasonable time frame. How would you explain your entire culture, hm?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Eli gives him a tired smile. "Well, that depends on whom I am trying to explain things to. If I don't know anything about their culture, I would try to be thorough." Pause. "For the sake of both honesty and clarity, I should mention: This is actually the longest proper interview out of four attempts."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What, nobody else was calm enough to be sensible about explaining things?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Pretty much. Ah, experimental magic like this tends to draw on connections and similarities unless you specify things carefully and sometimes even then. Which can be great in some ways, but... it wasn't that surprising when our first attempt brought us Vitek, who might be the last survivor of his world. We did an on the fly correction and that got us a couple during sexual relations. We changed things again, very thoroughly, against that happening. Third attempt got us a man that was very angry about the kidnapping and kept shouting obscenities about how the deity of his world would destroy us. We didn't manage to explain anything to that last one, but we did explain things to the other three in a less structured manner. Vitek is actually with us now. And the couple's world was apparently unwelcoming."

Permalink Mark Unread

"No risk of that with me. You may want to add 'not operating any machinery or any vehicles' to your list, though... Before today I would have given you ten to one odds his god does not actually exist. But other universes rather throws that out the window, you can't expect your own rules to hold."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Indeed, I didn't quite believe our own myths, but apparently some of them were true and vengeful. So that world is on the bottom of our revisitation list." Eli ponders. "Do you want to switch things up a bit? Try me explaining things to see if it's more efficient?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, I'm rather unsure what your culture is, what the 'magic' can do - that could be revolutionary, back home - whether you'll make problems for the U.S. if you want to go that route..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Reasonable. I will address each topic separately. First thing worth explaining is that this group of people," he twirls his finger around, as if to indicate the ones in their immediate vicinity, "doing the summoning thing and trying to find a new world is primarily composed of a random assortment group of people that were forcibly taken years ago by a cult. That cult discovered an old portal to the moon and that being on it helped the infertility problem. Summarizing a lot. The cult is no more. Some decided to stay and settle the place, and maybe figure out what was going on with the infertility thing. One of us figured out how to reach other worlds, and after sometime perfecting that stumbled upon a world with these larges deposits of liquefied magic energy, which we used to powered up the process- Oh, sorry, this is supposed to be about my culture. My point is that my culture is a mix-match of unlikely friends from all over the globe. I am bisexual, I am dating multiple people without them being lied to, my grandparents would be horrified about this if the world wasn't ending and none of my parental figures has a problem with that. Like the people of Themarcia, I think that gender norms should be entirely optional. So should be clothes, though that is more on behalf of my twin than myself."

Permalink Mark Unread

Snrk. "Grandparents being horrified of things the youth thinks are perfectly alright may be a universal constant. So you found a vast fuel source? Long term you'll want to check if it will ever run out. We were very dependent as a civilization on fossilized hydrocarbons for a while - still are, somewhat, but trying to budge away from that."

Permalink Mark Unread

Fossilized hydrocarbons is sure a term. "Currently, lack of fuel isn't a problem. Uh, but noted. I am not sure if that's enough about my culture? I am kinda of an outlier in terms of opinions and outlook either way."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You burn them," he says in response to the unspoken question. "The heat is useful to cause machines to move, and we have a lot of machines, so extracting underground oil and coal is an industry employing millions of people. I don't expect to get a good sense of your peoples' culture aside from what questions you ask and how you behave. Perhaps tell me some of the biggest scandals and political issues you remember?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, sounds similar to steam machines. Impressive. On scandals. The Faen have been split into three major factions for the past three or so centuries and recently heirs to the two smaller ones of those three tried to join forces through political marriage, which was scandalous on multiple axis the Sun Court princess was only third in line even if popular, while the Storm Court prince was... the entire Storm Court side started because a prince wanted the throne without his sisters being ahead of line and that marriage implies one side submitting to the other ideology. Plus, they were ambushed and killed in ambiguous circumstances and basically the three sides are accusing the other two sides of conspiracy and treason, sparking active conflicts again. There has been pressure in many Giant city-states to allow people to get fertility help in exchange for indenturing of the resulting babies, which led to at least a few neighborhoods being burned down and at least one town losing all of its two hundred slaves. Which somewhat leads to the next thing because the Storm Court is trying to make an alliance with pirates - who are often ex-slaves - and Themarcia - who often trades with pirates, which is not good diplomacy with other Giant city-states or even with one's own subjects." Pause. "The Themarcian princess got someone and herself pregnant here on the moon, and the best compromise we managed, was making people agree to a series of duels after the babies were expected to be born."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sounds like 18th century Europe. Except for the giants.

"Hmm. Duels only exist in dramatic fiction these days. And democracies don't go in for political marriages and complicated dynasties nearly as much as the old monarchies did. Good on those two hundred slaves. Er, if they survived."

Permalink Mark Unread

Eli breaks into a smile that could rival the sun. "That's great to hear. All of it." Smile falls soon enough. "Even if they managed to escape and settle somewhere, they probably didn't survive the end of the world."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, the end of the world will do that." Sigh. "There was a time when we thought the United States and the Soviet Union would destroy the world by accident. We have extremely powerful weapons and both sides were - posturing, blustering, threatening. The Soviet Union collapsed and nobody is seriously concerned that these weapons will be used, at least not in all-out war, anymore."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Gah. At least yours survived. Vitek's world - summonee number one - didn't."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Indeed. The same technology gets used for power, as a replacement for coal and the like, sometimes. But even that causes dangerous disasters once in a while. I was a teenager when the Cold War ended for good."

Permalink Mark Unread

Eli nods. "How old are you? I am not good at judging human ages. Ah, we probably should figure out days and years lengths." They can presumably do that with some narrative math.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thirty eight."

 

"...It is even stranger that the days and hours and year lines up. For God's sake, we thought any aliens would be, well, really alien. Impossible to properly understand."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well were trying for similarity. And what do you mean with impossible to understand?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, not having the concept of time. Or perhaps living so long that our short, frail lives seem like the scurrying of ants. Or not having games and failing to understand anything other than the most efficient and direct approach. Or something. There is no reason to expect aliens ought to be similar to us."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Spirits. That sounds like spirits. Spirits are basically an idea sprouting a person around it like a seed. I don't know if that helps."

 

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not quite, but close-ish. We expected other evolved lifeforms to act really weird, at minimum."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Aside from spirits, the different magic species have some personality tendencies, but nothing that I wouldn't be too surprised to find in a human," Eli shrugs. "How weird are we talking about?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I've already give you the examples that readily spring to mind. I don't read a lot of science fiction anymore."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay, and it isn't really practical knowledge anyway. I guess I can explain what our magic can do then. Let me see... Easier to explain the sixty-four powers first. It's at least gives you some sense of what our magic can do. Each power belongs to an element, like Fire or Air, and a category like Sense or Movement." He starts drawing a 8 x 8 grid. "So there is Enhanced Sight, which is both Fire and a Sense, Enhanced Hearing, which is both Air and a Sense, Teleportation which is Fire and Movement, Flight which is Air and Movement. And so on, so there is every possible combination between an element and a category, following me so far?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Mm-hm. Very structured. How do you know there are sixty-four and not more you haven't found yet?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Good question. There are eight magic species: Spirits, Dragons, Faen, Giants, Phoenixes, Sea Serpents, Thunderbirds and Unicorns. Each has access to powers from either an element or a category. In the cases of Phoenixes, they get either Fire or Sense powers, and they are mostly random picked from the available known options. If there used to be more, it isn't the case now and given the magic's structure we would expect to be an even number of elements and with an equal number of categories."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Can you obser- Nevermind, I think I need to learn more before attempting to do science to magic."

Permalink Mark Unread

Eli nods. "Moving on. the Eight elements have opposite elements and species are vulnerable to each other's opposing elements. The pairs are Fire and Water, Air and Earth, Metal and Life, Mind and Magic. There isn't really any specific interaction between the categories, which are Sense, Defense, Movement, Blessings, Skill and... ugh, translation is a bit confused between using the term familiar or companion, I think I will go with companion. It gives the power to create a loyal, telepathically linked members of a magical species. Either one with two powers or two with one power each. Moving on, the other two categories are elemental control and... another translation problem... 'Might' powers? They are the strongest powers, so strong that using them leaves you tired."

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"I feel like I should be making a chart. Well, I'm sure you have some here and there. Ahh, translation woes. It's honestly almost as mind-boggling that whatever you're doing to deal with that is working as well as it is. Hmm - if you don't mind, how's this? Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Estoy cansado. Un, deux, trois. Watashi wa ningen. What happens if I think I know something in another language, but I'm wrong about it?"

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"We do have charts, some really elaborate, but they got displaced when we moved everything from the library to make room. This was the library wing - that's why there is a translation effect around. I don't speak German, but a native German speaker would hear German regardless. I know eight different languages. If you're tired we can take a break. Four, five, six, seven, eight. I am a three-quarters Faen one-quarter dragon. The translations can tell what dialect you're trying to speak and use thee rules of that, even if that diverges from intended meaning."

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"I am not actually tired. That was the one phrase of Spanish that leapt to mind. Uh, what kind of magic is summoning people?"

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"Primarily teleportation. With added bits of astral projection to allow it to take things instead of sending them, and a bit of various sensory effects so it doesn't summon random objects. A bit of portal magic so we can send you back easily and also Purification, so it rejects dangerous things. We also had a layer of wards that was a separate ritual entirely."

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"So you can end up with complicated and layered effects, even if the... Categories? Are limited to sixty four."

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"Through ritual magic you can. And even non-magical humans can use it. But it's much easier to work by branching from something already there or at least established."

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"Huh... I'm starting to feel like this conversation, while fascinating, is decreasingly relevant."

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"True. And we need to talk about potential problems with the U.S. I don't know what kind of problems you're expecting, but... some mixed blessings in this whole mess is that a great deal many central political figures are now in the same location and under siege by monsters. The larger part of spirits and dragons have fallen too, and they are the more complicated to deal with than the average magical person - personality wise that is. Our general hope is that you can take refugees somewhere with food, water and weather that we can magically make mild. Then we can spend our energy planning solutions and finding a number of habitable worlds that we can divide among the people involved. Some ways this can go bad from our end include: people switching alliances or doing things that force us to lock away the worlds; people abusing powers that you don't have means to fight back; cultural shocks that lead to violence and death... I am not sure if you had anything more specific in mind."

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"I'm expecting a lot of problems but I don't know which are actually likely or anything... Canada might be a good government to approach. America's northern neighbor, they have a lot of chilly unused remote wilderness and are generally regarded as relaxed and reasonable and friendly... Maybe you can put a dome on Mars instead and fill it with air or something."

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He makes another confused face. "Oh, a planet, not a god. Yeah, there is no way which placing thousands of people somewhere unfamiliar won't cause problems, fatal problems." He says gravely. "Canada sounds good from that description. Could you elaborate on the Mars idea? It doesn't have breathable atmosphere?"

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"We named the planets after gods, because of course we did. It's Earth's nearest neighbor planet. People talk about going to colonize the place eventually, sometimes. It has ground and gravity and a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere and is very cold, but it's very far away and you wouldn't get visitors without going and fetching them yourselves for years, minimum, if you set up there."

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"... It is at least worth as a place to exile the potentially dangerous. The dome idea might be practical, but requires air and weather controllers and purifiers. We can set up portals for food transport."

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"Oh, lovely, you have prisoners? ...I vaguely recall something about using the lava tunnels?"

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"We do, of course? I was mostly thinking of the less cooperative magical beings, specially dragons and spirits. Maybe the shape-shifting sea serpents that we trust less. Using lava tunnels, once emptied of lava, could be useful too, even if they are small enough to only work as cells."

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"Well. Of course you do. That will be fun to discuss with a government. Not. Er. I know basically nothing about colonizing Mars. I'm sure the internet would have interesting things to say about it, though of course there's no substitute for experts from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration."

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Well, the word internet sure makes him blink. "Your world is very interestingly different. And we expect a lot of fun things to discuss. How much of a hassle is it going to be to talk to people of that National Aeronautics and Space Administration?"

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"You can probably tempt some by being from another world, but I don't know anyone there and if you cold-call them claiming to be an alien they'll just think you're pulling a prank. Hmm..."

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"I mean, we could do a very showy and indirect display of power. Writing in the sky with my weather powers, maybe? And then cold-call them if they want to meet aliens. What is a cold-call? Also, elaborate on the internet?"

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"I was sort of trying to test how much context you get. Cold calling is contacting someone remotely, by telephone - which transmits audio over long distances to targets chosen by a number you type in - without having any kind of personal connection or introduction. It can be annoying. The internet is... Many devices that can display and manipulate information all sending the information to each other. Sort of like an ethereal library that anyone can put a new book - website - into. Though it all runs on real hardware that someone has to pay to keep working. I work with telephones, fixing and maintaining the systems that run the whole network."

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"Ooh. The context I got was something like connected network of number-based machines? Which prompted a gut reaction that all the nerds I know would be very interested in it. My gut reaction is confirmed and compounded. Is it hard to get an internet? and telephone network?"

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"I have never tried to build a new internet from scratch before and honestly that sounds like a fascinating project. You'd need to buy a lot of things. Telephone network is probably easier, but I might be biased since I work with those."

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"It definitely sounds like a long-term and complicated project. The nerds won't be deterred. Did it take you long to learn your trade?"

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"Electrical engineering is the relevant academic credential. Formally speaking, it's a four-year course in college - formalized institutions of learning. Plus we have universal or nearly-so education - starting from the age of about six until about eighteen. College comes after the end of 'high school'. But I was also a nerd both before and after college and learned a lot of what I know now working in the industry."

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Eli nods along. "That still sounds like a very practical time frame for something that I just heard of. Oh- your car is about to be summoned here." He tilts his head.

There is a pause and Eli flinches about the same time there is a slight tremor on the ground. "Well, we got all the pieces. Is there anything inside you might want sooner rather than later?"

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"Black backpack has my laptop computer in it, if you want to see the shiny tech in action? Perhaps you will figure out how to make electricity with magic in time to keep using it for a while - the battery will last for an hour or so. It's old. D'you have a sense I don't? You seem oddly well informed about what's happening elsewhere."

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Eli focus for a bit. "It broke. But we can just get the one of the people that were going to fix your car to fix it. And I can make electricity quite easily." He illustrates this with small sparks between his fingers. "Do you want some tea, since we are bringing things over? I can sense the weather through my weather power. But I know this stuff because... well, I have a companion, it's complicated, but one of the four-armed giants that you saw is a copy of my mind in a companion's body - which isn't the standard, but my life definitely isn't standard. We can communicate through telepathy."

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"...Questions for days. For weeks. How does the repairing work, anyway? Perhaps you should grab the case in my trunk as well. My work tools. See if you can replicate wall outlet current so you don't fry my electronics. Does repairing a book restore the words written in it? Ah, tea, sure, why not."

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"Okay, passing that along." He will report what else is in there in case Terence wants it as well. "Repairing brings objects to a past state based on the intentions of the last time they have been purposefully worked over by a person. Though, 'worked over' can be very indirect. The magic will both try to bring the object back to that state and possibly improve upon it. There are blurred lines, like when someone breaks a piece of something and then uses the broken piece to create something new. In which case, the magic defaults to the newer change, but can directed to an older state if the user is aware of what the old state was. Repairing a book does restore the words written in it, yes? If we fry anything it can be fixed, but I understand if you don't want to risk it. It's not possible to half-craft something and use this to take it all the way. It's possible to use it to duplicate things, but that often leaves the magic confused and can lead to loss of function in the separated parts."

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"Electronic storage contains data written to extreme precision, sometimes as small as a few dozen nanometers. I'm not sure what odds to place that your repair can restore fragmented drive disks. Can duplicating things make more material or energy than one started with?"

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"Okay. With something that small I don't know. Duplicating can create more materials, yes."

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"That's a potential complication and potential route for profit at the same time. The most paranoid generals might be worried you could duplicate a nuclear weapon. I doubt that would actually come up, but it's what my mind lept to... Rare metals can be sold for a lot of money too, and if you destabilize things by making them less rare that could annoy people, too. Something to be at least slightly cautious about."

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"Nuclear is… explosion through something related to transmutation? I should note that it is easier to duplicate stuff if you have base materials for it and you have to take steps to make the separated pieces not join each other or further damage themselves while trying to join each other. You also can only fix so much without a fraction of the original and triplicating is exponentially harder. That all said. The real danger of instability is from the transmutation gift which can directly change matter. I am gonna guess most gemstones are expensive where you are from too? They should be a bigger issue than rare metals."

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There is a knock at the door and someone's head peeks through the half open door. It is a... maybe thirteen feet tall boy, hard to tell his age, he is wearing what could be a blacksmith apron. "Hi? May I come in?"

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"It's your not-library, Eli. Can he come in? -Oh, by the way, I've decided to stop acting suspicious and act as if you are all in good faith and real. Doing otherwise sounds annoying and complicated and not even particularly helpful in the counterfactual that you are tricking me somehow."

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"You could have said no if you wanted to?" Eli asks a bit nonplussed "And thank you. I will try not to have been retroactively trying to trick you someway. Come in, Adamos. How is the laptop?"

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He comes inside, holding the laptop, like a toy in his oversized hands. He also brought Terrence's tools. "Here. From the little feedback I am getting, it feels way more intricate than anything I have touched," he manages to sound excited, tired and shy all the same time.

He sits down at Eli's side, and Eli reaches to touch Adamos' elbow. Some tiredness goes away. The items are gently put down on the table between them.

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"Yes, they're mass-produced, thousands all alike, in many steps with very intricate machinery. With our tech level it's usually easier to replace electronics whole instead of trying to repair things." He tries to turn the laptop on.

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Adamos leans over, looming over Terence and observes. "Oooh," he says when the laptop starts to turn on.

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"Less looming," Eli says patting the boy's knee. "Our guest never saw a Giant before today."

Adamos stops looming, but finds a sitting where he can watch the laptop turn on.

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Words flash on the screen in rapid succession.

"Only in fiction, but I try to be accepting. So - There are many layers of abstraction to computer programming. First, it loads the BIOS. That's a relatively simple program that is designed to verify that all the hardware is functioning and responding correctly, you can change some details and do diagnostics with it too. Then, if everything seems alright BIOS tries to load the operating system, which is one of the most abstract layers. The operating system lets you load other programs - games, word processor, calculator, an internet browser, programming apps to make new programs - swap between them, look at files, and actually use the computer. It can take a few minutes since it's loading many books' worth of information off of the hard drive into a faster form of storage that doesn't last when it's turned off... But I have an expensive version which is faster."

A pleasant chime plays as a logo is replaced with- "The log-in screen. I use the mouse to click my name, and then type in a password. A code I have memorized so that other people can't use it if they steal it, or hopefully anyway." He looms in over the keyboard to type this in.

"So! I can't look things up right now since there's no internet connection, but what do you want to see?"

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Eli pulls Adamos away during the password typing part, though the boy quickly notices the need for privacy and doesn't take a peek.

Adamos wants to see everything, being less interest in games and more interested in the programming apps than one might expect from a teenager of any world. He asks many questions and comes up with fairly insightful deductions about user interface and how the programs might work. There is a dopey sort of grin in his face during all this.

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Eli will be impressed by the shiny and flashy pretty pictures, and let Adamos take the lead on this. At least until Terrence gets tired of it.

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Explanations continue for a while!

 

"The battery is running low... I should probably get home at some point. I have been... Trying not to think about it."

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"We can give you some time to prepare if that would be helpful. Sorry, for putting that weight on you."

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"Are we going to send dad or Temperance? Or maybe some human?"

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"Oh, I'm sure this is probably more important than the dozen or two things I ought to be fixing at work tomorrow, isn't it? It would be helpful if I could at least contact them and tell them I'm cashing in my vacation time."

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"Sure. Do you want a few days to get your affairs straight? We are probably going to need time ourselves too." Eli tells Terence, to Adamos. "We will see who is available then. And the already abused limits of our host."

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"Is there a good way to contact you without a full summoning? Also, I should probably see what sort of shape my car's in - really unfortunate I was driving at the time. Cars are convenient, but can be dangerous."

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"They got most of the front third in place and the rest of the damage was fixing up cracks. At least last time I saw it."

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"When we send you we can add some writing materials that we can summon back. The act of summoning things can be used for communication too if we agree to summon something as a code. We can also send things to where the writing material is or to your general vicinity, but those are more likely to go wrong like what happened to your car."

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"They can send someone to set up something safer on your side, but that involves sending someone for at least a day, I think."

Eli nods.

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"Hmm. How urgent is it to get you some place to evacuate to? Nobody's actively dying for lack of space or anything, right?"

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"No one is actively dying because of that. The people on the moon, have many months if we decide to not go down again to rescue more and not offer supplies to the ones that won't or can't be moved."

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"They were talking about trying again, even if your world turns out to be accepting. Just to have more options."

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"Yes, you should probably do that. More options is usually better. Well. Tomorrow is Friday, and Saturday is after that. The weekend is a period of no work and rest, lasting two days. Saturday and Sunday. Friday evening is a good time to send someone to my house for a day. I can take home writing materials and write on them once it's a good time to receive someone?"

What is he getting himself into? Still, can't pass this opportunity up.

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"Sounds like a plan. And that gives us a comfortable time window. Do you have any preference against receiving shapeshifters? Or in general preferences regarding the people we should send?"

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"What kind of shapeshifting? ...Ideally, someone who can fit into places designed for humans. They can rest in my house. How much space is needed to set up a summoning relay or whatever you call it?"

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"They are limited into staying as living flesh and having forms that are capable of staying alive. They are capable of changing into specific people, animals or create new forms combining things, the latter are limited by one's skill, but they are quite skilled. I understand if you don't want to take them in, but they are nice. It would be a summoning beacon to make it easier to land in the right place. There is no minimal limited, but if the space is too small we shouldn't be able to send people. They will be fine, but show up at the nearest empty space instead."

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"I think the first visitor to my dimension ought to be someone with flashy or useful but not really harmful powers, if possible... You know what, I just realized, my boss is friends with a state Senator. So I do have a contact who can get you talking to the government in a reasonable number of steps. Better than walking up to a government building, at least."

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"We might need some time to figure out who to send, given that there is also the constraint of looking human at a glance. Temperance still sounds like the default candidate. ...My boyfriend might be a good pick, he is half-giant, but can change size."

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"I feel in over my head. I'm trying to roll with it, but I think I need some time to process."

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"I am so sorry. Do you want a pause? Anything we can do to help?"

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"To be perfectly honest I want to go home, with writing materials you can summon back, and an intact car, and pick this up again tomorrow afternoon."

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Eli nods. "We will get to it then," he stands up. "I will provide everything. Stay and breathe a little."

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Adamos also stands up.

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"I am not risking suffocation, I assure you. Just developing a headache thinking about plans for the future."

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Eli nods. "I will set things up then. Do you want to wait here? Actually, it might be a good idea for you to check your car's progress."

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"Very well." He stands up. "Offering to fix someone's wrecked car or electronic device and successfully doing it is a nice, constructive, non-threatening display of magic, come to think of it!"

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"True. ...The beings that can do that are either unicorns or giants. Or hybrids of those. Which one do you think would be better to send over?"

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"There's some very positive mythology built up around unicorns, and less positive myths about giants. Which is... Strange, that we'd have concepts that match up with the kinds of beings that exist here. Unicorns - shaped like horses, a single horn on the head, magic relating to purification or protection in some way, pure and innocent and harmless. That's the mythos for us, anyway."

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"Oh. It's not a coincidence. I don't think. The magic draws on connections and even weak ones can have effect. Vitek's world also had myths about species like ours. Unicorns are not innocent and harmless, but have a stereotype of being non-confrontational and team players. Their power set does include things like purification, granting protection and similar beneficial effects."

They get back to the summoning room and his car. Which is in fact in one piece, except for some glass panes that are quickly un-cracking themselves.

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"...Not qualified for this, but that is seriously impressive, everyone. Let's see if it turns on."

He opens the door and leans in, pulling keys out of his pocket, and tries.

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Various people acknowledge the compliment at various level of gratitude.

It works perfectly. Maybe even better than before if there was any problem beforehand.

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He turns it off again.

"Uh, on the general principle of making people aware of appropriate warnings, you should not run any combustion engine in a confined or poorly-ventilated space for long. Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide builds up. It's even sometimes a method of relatively painless suicide... Ahem! So, just to recap the plan I'll be ready to receive a unicorn in about twenty-four hours, to set up a summoning beacon and possibly be introduced to a colleague I know, who knows a senator? I'll write on a notepad you give me and you can summon back once I am ready. Can the beacon be moved once made? I can get food or prepare a place for my guest to stay if I know what to prepare."

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People have been busying themselves, presumably, to prepare for his departure.

"We might send someone else to do the summoning beacon part, but they don't need to stick around for long if we time it right. We will send the unicorn with them. The beacon can be movable, and it's better if it's a single non-foldable object, but we might come up with something that can be folded. Otherwise, that sounds like the plan."

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"If it can fit into the trunk or the back seats, here, that would be convenient. Though I might have to rent a truck to get a unicorn places, anyway." Deep breath. "It's Eli, right? I'm bad at names at the best of times, and this is not the best of times. Like I've said a dozen times already... This is surreal."

It's a smallish SUV, so the trunk is not tiny.

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"Eli, yes. No worry if you forget and sorry for the overwhelming situation, again. That should be big enough to fit most unicorns."

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"I meant the beacon but alright. So. Home, now?"

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"Oh, silly me. Yes, that should be big enough for the beacon. And home now, just a second."

They get him the writing implements (thick paper leafs with graphite stick).

Then they can get on with the inverted summoning ritual. Which apparently involves a lot of dancing and chanting accompanied by a light show, their bodies leaving an after-image as they move around-

And then he is back on Earth.

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With his car in a dirt field on the side of a small road. No cops seem to be around, at least, so perhaps nobody noticed his mysterious absence? One can hope, anyway. 

...Is he very sure he isn't tripping or anything.

His phone buzzes with two emails as it finds the network again. Both spam.

Yes, he's very sure he is not tripping or anything. He drives home, worries about colonialism or magic interacting badly with technology or paranoia a lot, puts in a distracted day of work, tells Sarah Hensdale that he might have a unique opportunity relating to some new innovations to discuss with her, away from the office, this is not a come-on or anything, it's possibly political is all and she knows people and the possible implications more than this stuffy engineer does. Please? Would some time this weekend be good?

She is a little suspicious about how vague he is being but suggests a time on Saturday.

He writes a short message on the paper with the graphite stick when he gets home from work in the evening.

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They reply. There is a fourteen-year old unicorn with the gifts of repairing and purification which should do for the demonstration. They want to send Temperance for the beacon, since Ida (the unicorn) lacks hands for the finer details. He won't stay for very long.

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He writes that he is putting the paper in a good spot to land and sets it down in his garage.

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Eventually, there is a light show.

Now there are two more beings in his garage.

One is an equine-like creature the size of a large-dog, with a single horn made of what looks like white crystal, wearing what could be considered the horse-body equivalent of a dress. Her mane is orange, and her body is an almost lustrous ivory.

The other looks like a human boy, maybe ten years old, wrapped in a toga-like veil that looks too big for his frame. "Hello! I am Temperance and this is Ida."

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They are in a two-car garage, though empty of cars. Shelving along the walls holds various generic suburban Stuff, including a lawnmower, a pair of bicycles, garden tools, a ladder, and a shelf full of old computer equipment. It's kind of dusty.

"Hello! Terence. I, uh, remain ill-equipped for this sort of thing but will do my best. My house isn't really suited to a unicorn and the garage might get unpleasantly hot - it's a place to put your car out of the rain not a place to live in - but do let me know if you need anything?"

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"Hello." Ida says. "I will try not to bother you too much."

Temperance hops down from the unicorn, except the movement is part stepping down and part growing his legs until they reach the ground. He looks around in a very child-like manner even as his body catches up with his legs, and he is now adult-sized.

"Can I perform the ritual here then? Do you want to watch?"

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"-Shapeshifting your mass down to make it easier to come here? I'm vaguely surprised that works if that's what you were doing. And, ah, sure."

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"Correct! There was some minor technicalities that made advantageous for me to be riding Ida, and we didn't want to tire her back."

He pulls a piece of chalk from a fold and walks around the room, apparently measuring it.