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kaylee has them now
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"It is," she says.  "Just - it didn't even take a hex.  I figured we could raise the dead with these but I didn't expect - it'd be that easy - I'm really glad we paused time."

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"Me too," says C, and he glances at the other two of him.  "Us too."

B: "Good day, good news.  Think it's time for us to turn in."

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"All right."

 

"...thank you so much, Leo."

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They all grin.

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They meet again in Kaylee's tower the next day.  Leo C shows up alone.

"Right now I'm the point-Leo on talking over our plans with you," he says, "and A and B are working on making more coins.  We might switch out in the future, or we might work out some kinda hive-mind situation.  We wanna avoid having just one of us diverging from the others by having the closest relationship with you."

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"Yeah, I - really didn't think about that sort of thing, when we were planning for forking you - how we'd handle having more than one of you around, interpersonally."

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"It's okay.  Neither did we.  But we don't mind keeping each other in the same place socially by sharing memories around, if it comes to that.  Right now I think you don't have to worry about it too much."

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"All right, if you're sure."

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"One of us will let you know if we become less sure."

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Businesslike: "So what were we in the middle of yesterday, when we did the resurrection test?"

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" - talking about what conditions I'd want to resume time under.  Handling resurrecting the dead was a prerequisite for that.  ...I think I read that something like a hundred billion humans have ever lived, and ideally I'd like to bring them all back eventually, plus any non-H-sapiens moral patients if we figure out some principled way to figure out who those are, but I can't imagine it's feasible to set up a system that will let us do that perfectly from inside paused-time with no - test-cases or anything."

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"Does that include all the - well, I could name any number of extremely evil historical figures..."

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She - exhales.

 

"I have - almost always thought that if I were omnipotent I would resurrect everyone who's ever lived - even if I had to put them in solitary confinement forever I could at least let them choose between that and death.  It's never sat right with me to kill someone - really to hurt someone at all - if you didn't need to to save more lives, or fix some bigger problem.  And I think when we're this powerful the line between killing someone and - letting them stay dead - kind of dissolves for me.  Maybe not all the way.  I don't have to bring everyone back as soon as we unpause time.  But in the long run, not being-going-to resurrect someone, eventually, when we're omnipotent enough - means condemning them to death, in a way that doesn't feel all that different to condemning them to death if they were still alive."

 

"But I do sometimes wonder if I only feel this way because nothing - evil enough - has happened to me personally, or anyone close enough to me."

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"I think there are people to whom evil things have happened that agree with you," Leo says.  "But you're gonna piss some people off if you resurrect - "

He stops.

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"You can say the examples you're thinking of," she says.  "If I'm going to wield this kind of power and do the kinds of things I'm going to do I have to be equal to talking about horrible things."

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He - nods.

"You're gonna piss some people off if you resurrect Hitler, or their rapist who they killed in self defense."

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She nods soberly.

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"And I'm not telling you not to," he says.  "And I'm not telling you to by telling you that I'm not telling you not to.  I'm just - observing the consideration."

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"Yeah.  You can observe the consideration without - declaring whether you're fighting for or against the side that would cite that consideration."

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"Exactly."

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She stands, and turns away, toward the railing of the platform, toward the wide sunset-window beyond it.

 

"I'm wondering if I need to found a country."

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"Oh?"

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"I'm - twining together a few trains of thought," she says.  "My focus has been on resurrection, but one of the other conditions I had for unpausing time was setting up a system for getting people out of unsafe situations even if they weren't about to die.  In my most starry-eyed visions - we flip the switch, and everyone comes back, and everyone on Earth - gets a little note or hears a little voice, if you're not safe where you are or you're not comfortable where you are or you can't bear to live like you're living, I can give you something better.  We flip the switch and every homeless person is offered a home, every abused kid or abused partner is offered a sanctuary."

"And if I am going to push magic as far as I can, to improve as many people's lives as much as I can - building something from the ground up might be easier, in some ways, than trying to interface with and modify existing institutions.  Especially if I want to go as fast as I can, to get as many people to post-scarcity as I can as soon as possible.  Which I still kinda do."

"And.  If I am eventually going to resurrect dictators, or war criminals, or even just people who were executed - it might go over better if I can take responsibility for them."

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"Mmm, a place where we're sovereign might be a useful thing to have, but I think we want to avoid... a situation where anyone who dies gets forcibly relocated there, de facto, even if they're allowed to immigrate right back."

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