How come that one takes three days?

Because it's - more conditional, a solution to a specific problem rather than something that I was definitely going to need no matter what? It was already holding space in reserve for the imaginary strangers thing, and protecting itself against being touched was probably something it was always going to do when it got powerful enough, and the privacy-exception stuff was all changes to an existing power and that's faster than growing a new one.

Makes sense. So you can heal the whole world now?

Yeah.

His soul is still growing, but he can feel the approximate size of his healing aura in it and it's comfortably planet-spanning already.

I should get that sensory power that Dawn-shining has, it's kind of important to be able to see what you're doing when you can work at this kind of scale, even if all I can do right now is heal...

Sounds good.

Snuggle. Love you. I'm glad my soul acknowledged you.

I remain baffled by what it uses for criteria.

It makes sense to me but not in a very - legible way, I don't think.

Clearly not.

Yeah.

Oh well.

It's - it looks different from Dawn-shining's blazing sun of a soul, when he looks at it. The gold is paler; the heart of it glows brightest, and the brightness fades softly outward until at the outermost edges it almost doesn't glow at all. It's not damage or debasement, not anything of the kind - it's just an aesthetic distinction, a nod to his chosen soulname. He likes it. It's beautiful this way.

Okay. Do we need to talk about anything else?

I'm - not sure, getting high and achieving godhood was kind of distracting... nothing jumps out at me, at least.

All right. Go play around being a god or something.

Okay.

He lets out his healing aura. It floods the planet, pale gold touched with blue. And, that being really the only playing around with godlike power he can do at the moment, he goes to find some other way to occupy his time.

He's so happy about the healing aura. He gets back to work.

Raika-seren has a quiet day off, reading and walking around the city. He goes to Nuime the next day and installs its internet. His father congratulates him, even though he left his soul with Maitimo and it's not there to shine deifically. He pulls another all-nighter, returns home midafternoon of the following day, reports his success, and contemplates taking another day off before he goes to install Dawn's. It seems prudent.

He decides he'd like to manifest his soul. It seems so useful. When everyone is busy figuring out which operations can be simplified by the internet, he heads over to Nuimë to do that.

If he'd like a comfortable room in the palace where he can sit undisturbed for several hours, that can absolutely be arranged.

That would be useful, thank you.

Here it is.

Meanwhile in Independence:

Raika-seren's day off is going well. He reads a little, he walks around the palace and admires how much of Maitimo he can see in it, he curls up in bed and delightedly contemplates how much he loves Maitimo. He's so glad his soul acknowledged him, it's so good.

Sigh. Tivarante apparently finds it flattering. Midnight wonders if he can condition him out of it. He takes Raika-seren's soul.

And now his entire soul is filled with how much he loves Maitimo, and he feels good and cozy and happy and safe, wrapped up in the overwhelming sense of Maitimo's presence. If Maitimo wanted to condition him out of contemplating his love, this was perhaps not the best method.

The invisible strangers thing! He can do that!

It's shatteringly awful, all the more so because he had no idea it was coming, he was completely unprepared - the other thing, with the identity song, was so vast and alien he almost couldn't process it at all, it hurt more but it touched him less; this kind of torture does not have that problem - he clings to the sense of Maitimo's presence, because it's a genuine comfort in the face of this agony, because he loves him, because he knows he'll forgive him, but - he feels a little betrayed, to be hurt like this with no warning at all, and 'a little' at soul-touching scales is enormous - if this is how his trust is rewarded, maybe he was right not to feel it -