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It's a week or two before everything's nice and set up for searching for alts. All of the portals have been remade, spare mirrors have been created, and everyone that is allowed portal access gets a microchip. Even the gods. Rae accepts his without fuss, Perinixu - tolerates it. After a lot of questions. And a hefty donation from Cam in the form of another temple. Whatever, they managed it.
Cypress offers to do the scrying, but Prime shrugs him off. Which one of them is married and therefore has a wife to bang in his free time? Oh, right, yes, that's Cypress. Go, be free, twenty-something year old alt. Prime doesn't hate your happiness. (Much.) Now, if Prime gets married, they can divvy up the annoying work between themselves. But, not happening anytime soon, so he'll do it.
Exciting scrying happens. It involves lots of staring off into the distance and looking at places.
And then, he informs the various people arrayed around him in Pantheon:
"Found a set. A female Adarin, and a female Bell. Also a Zeviana and a - girl whom I don't recognize. And parents." Pause. "They're all living in the same house."
He dearly hopes they local Bell and Adarin are not siblings, that would make everyone uncomfortable. Oh, nope, look, the Bell and the Adarin just kissed. How quaint.
"Pretty sure they're not siblings," he clarifies. "Unless this is the plane of incest."
darkest_evening
dark_light
"I can afford nonmagical hirelings but I'd have to explain what they were doing, right? And my money's no good in your worlds, it's got daemons in the portraits of the dead presidents."
blink_and
"Bet we can grab the non-twin volunteers with the Junebugs once they realize what's going on."
point_b
"Do the Junebugs have much access to non-twin staff? Also, extra layer of 'what the hell are you doing' if we have to disclose the 'you might turn into a magic wingy person' risk."
castmyown
"I'm pretty sure," says Max, raising a hand, "That all of our dads are entirely nonmagical and would probably be fine with superpowers upon death. Er, Adarin dads, Bell dads I have no idea. But ours, definitely. So. Let's go get them?"
dark_light
"My mom's disqualified, same reason as me, but I can get my Charlie, shall we all disperse and collect parentals?"
dark_light
The final count, accelerated considerably by Flicker's ability to teleport within a given universe, is:
Five Verons (Cypress's, Prime's, Revival's, Conduit's, and Max's).
Four Charlies (Ice's, Flicker's, Katydid's, and Phix's).
Only one Renée (Flicker's) - the others being disqualified on account of being a witch, a spellbinder, and three different amounts of deceased. ("We could get back mine," Phix comments, "but I think she might want a little downtime rather than immediately meeting alts and summoning angels.")
Five Verons (Cypress's, Prime's, Revival's, Conduit's, and Max's).
Four Charlies (Ice's, Flicker's, Katydid's, and Phix's).
Only one Renée (Flicker's) - the others being disqualified on account of being a witch, a spellbinder, and three different amounts of deceased. ("We could get back mine," Phix comments, "but I think she might want a little downtime rather than immediately meeting alts and summoning angels.")
steppingup
The Verons look at each other.
"Going to have to say it," says one, identifiable only by his possum daemon from the others. "Weirdest experience of my life. Both of 'em, even. And that's saying something."
"Same," shrugs another.
"Roll with it?"
"There will be weirder things."
And that seems to be the extent of their reaction.
"Going to have to say it," says one, identifiable only by his possum daemon from the others. "Weirdest experience of my life. Both of 'em, even. And that's saying something."
"Same," shrugs another.
"Roll with it?"
"There will be weirder things."
And that seems to be the extent of their reaction.
from_scratch
"I'm gonna... number you, so the angels know who to go to in order to be dismissed," says Cam. "I think the efficient way to handle this is to have you all in a line here near the Earth portal in Inferno, in front of a sign outlining the deal on offer. Me and Revival and Zane will be over here, I'll make most of each circle and you finish them. You ask the angel if it agrees to the printed deal, if it doesn't you dismiss it, if it does you say 'deal' and then it'll go through Conduit's portal - Conduit, you're going to want to put the Gemini end closer to ground zero - and then Revival'll clear the circle away and I'll replace it and you do it again. In a few hours angels will start coming back, us demons will give them things within the parameters outlined by the original deal, and they will go back to their summoners and you will dismiss them. This takes a minute of concentration per angel. If an angel wants to stick around and do extra ash-busting that's fine. Keep a checklist of how many angels you have summoned so we don't lose any."
point_b
"We'll go warn the Junebugs and... can we get, like, air filtering helmets so I can take Conduit to somewhere above ground zero so the portal can have an end there?"
blink_and
"All right then. I'll need to re-make the portals, too, I can't keep them up forever. But I'll warn you before I drop and remake them, so it's not going to be a problem."
point_b
"Anybody want to come along and - you know what, Conduit and Revival should come with me to talk to Junebugs, because it's an instantly obvious thing about alts to explain where the hell the angels will come from and because you can prove that they work."
point_b
"Okay, off we go."
To Gemini with girl Adarins. Flicker flicker flicker.
The lady behind the Junebug office desk looks nonplussed by Older Winged Conduit.
"Hi, captain," says Flicker. "If you don't recognize me, I'm Flicker, this is Conduit, and this is Conduit's alternate-universe winged duplicate with different magical powers. Those magical powers are very good for ash-cloud-fixing. Conduit's going to put a portal over Ground Zero and lots of winged people are going to come in and turn ash into air."
To Gemini with girl Adarins. Flicker flicker flicker.
The lady behind the Junebug office desk looks nonplussed by Older Winged Conduit.
"Hi, captain," says Flicker. "If you don't recognize me, I'm Flicker, this is Conduit, and this is Conduit's alternate-universe winged duplicate with different magical powers. Those magical powers are very good for ash-cloud-fixing. Conduit's going to put a portal over Ground Zero and lots of winged people are going to come in and turn ash into air."
ask_nicely
Revival demonstrates by turning air into bright glitter, throwing it into the air, and then turning the assorted glitter back into air before it hits the ground.
"It's likely that we'll also help with ash cover in other areas, but it's important to manage Ground Zero first."
"It's likely that we'll also help with ash cover in other areas, but it's important to manage Ground Zero first."
point_b
"I'm not really asking permission, I'm just warning you so that people who know more about public relations than us can handle that when large quantities of winged people pour out from a portal over Yellowstone."
"Uh," says the Junebug captain.
"Do you need any of that repeated or clarified? Do you want to forward us to your CO, your twin, or a specialist officer?"
"...I think I got it. Thanks."
"Uh," says the Junebug captain.
"Do you need any of that repeated or clarified? Do you want to forward us to your CO, your twin, or a specialist officer?"
"...I think I got it. Thanks."