"Nice. You can develop some extra senses through certain kinds of meditation or polymorphing here, but custom bodies like that are the domain of Assume True Persona or similar."

"I can actually manufacture samples of 24th century medicine in this body, if that would be useful to OTC - the legality of it is a bit questionable given the unholy mess that copyright law is, though."

"They'd almost definitely be interested. Most of our worlds aren't that far advanced - there's a big cluster around the second millenium A.D. and then a bunch of openly-magical worlds with different development."

"I wonder why. I'd think you'd find worlds from 60,000 BC and a million years in the future..."

"The sample of worlds we get is distinctly non-random, because we're looking for worlds with people, but why we get mostly twentieh century earths is unclear, much less why we occasionally get alts - has anyone told you about alts?"

"They have not! However the translation magic is working is rendering it into a fan-fiction term - same personality, different books."

"Same personality different worlds, here. Some people just crop up all over the place."

"...Hmm. Bizarre. Because of the same thing that so often gets Earth, is that the theory?"

"That's the theory. We think the search method is using the circumstances of specific people to tell whether a world is inhabitable or safe. Which is not ideal, but..."

"Alts must be like free forks, pre-diverged. I wonder if I have any."

"A good question! One of the phenomena that has been noticed is that - significant people, people with impact, are more likely to have alts. And you're here introducing a whole new world to the OTC. So it seems plausible you might have a couple."

"Perhaps there is a God of Gods, laying things out from the start in some grand design. But this is far too far into speculation. I'm curious what learning wizardry is like, visualization and math? It's possible you could design BDs and plug-mods to help the learning process, and then anyone 'stacked would have an easier time becoming a wizard. Surely more mass-produced magic is generally to the good."

"Oh certainly. We've been trying to mass-produce magicians for decades now but it's hard to copy over the necessary skills into a fork, it takes extremely custom hardware that makes it more of a "boutique" kind of industry. Holovid is already very helpful for instruction; BDs could be more so."

"Many people don't like plug-mods, including me, but they're useful for some things. They're... Neural shortcuts, say, something that does mental math for you right in your brain, fast as thought, up to and including spreadsheet work and statistical analysis and calculus. But the relevant skills tend to atrophy hard and if the plug is ever removed or goes wrong you might be in trouble."

"Mmm. Sounds a bit underdeveloped. I wouldn't risk it personally, but I know people who might - Hannah, for one."

"I may be a bit biased." Shrug. "Would you mind telling me how to get started with wizardry? I thought about learning Bardic yesterday, but when I'm like this wizardry appeals far more."

"Traditionally you take at least a university course. But I have some properly written teach-yourself manuals if you'd like to borrow them." She passes Changeling a book from nowhere; it's entitled "A No-Nonsense Guide To DIY Wizardry."

"...I probably shouldn't read that while on a social call, tempting as it is. Is-" She frowns slightly. "Is it rude to wonder what the other yous I've met are up to and whether I could go visit them?"

"No, not at all! We're to best approximation a family, it's like you're asking after my sisters."

"I had honestly expected to talk to Eva again, but this is fun too. At some point every person I know being a version of you will get old, even if it's also a fascinating mirror of me and my self-altering. Say, do you know who I should talk to to get my 'stack talking to the local internet? I don't really know how to use a phone or desktop, since my computer is in my head. I could read off some technical specifications, probably, if that helps."

"I'm the person to talk to there, actually, I'm a cybermagi. Give me those technical specs?"

"Uh..." It takes a minute of searching but eventually she manages to find the technical standard for 24th century internet and read it off in a slightly confused voice. The standard is weird and a bit counterintuitive, but not magic.

"That's going to take some adapting to... but I think I can manufacture you a hotspot adapter if you give me an hour or so."

"I would greatly appreciate it. Anything I can give you in return?" It's only polite.

"An hour of your time to talk shop about the possible transition? I want to be up on what's coming."