mortal is as mortal does

[imeanforever]

Promise is looking for dewdrops. She has just learned to candy them herself - it's not hard, if she does it in her own tree instead of in the field. So she's brushing the droplets into a little wooden cup. They blend together but she can separate them out again later.

Comments

[pythbox]

The gate is in the middle of a semicircle of flat grey rock at the base of the cliffs, very close to the door at the base of the tower. To her left, a scattering of smallish houses come up to the perimeter of the semicircle and stop; to her right, it gives out on bare dirt with a couple of buildings barely visible in the distance; the largest building visible that isn't the tower is directly in front of her, along the middle third of the semicircle's perimeter, and it says LIBRARY in large black letters on the side facing her.

That seems like it might be a good place to start.

[imeanforever]

Promise lands and goes into the library.

[lookingforwardtoit]

There is a mortal - well, for values of 'mortal' that apply here - sitting in the lobby, reading a book. She looks up when Promise walks in.

She blinks.

She peers at the wings.

"Okay, that's new."

[imeanforever]

"What is? Leaflets? I'm told this is an afterlife, and we're immortal, so that makes sense."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Ooookay. How'd you get here, then?"

[imeanforever]

"I made a gate. The person in the tower accidentally found my world and needed help getting back, and I came along to have a look around."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"...Which person in the tower?"

[imeanforever]

"Are there several? She's up at the top, the bit with the windows."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Really?"

[imeanforever]

"Is there some reason why she is less likely than anyone else to have fallen through a tear into Fairyland? According to her it's the first time a tear has ever happened, you'd think it would be equally unprecedented regardless."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"I've never heard of Fairyland, but I've heard of the person at the top of the tower. Out of all the people in this afterlife, and there are a lot, I would have thought she'd be the least likely to talk to anyone who might ever talk to me."

[imeanforever]

"Well, she couldn't get home on her own, and I found her first. Is there some reason I shouldn't be talking to you?"

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Not that I can think of. It's more that the admin has a low-key reputation for being somebody you don't talk about if you can help it, let alone try to talk to."

[imeanforever]

"She didn't ask me not to talk about her. She wasn't very chatty while she was waiting for me to figure out the gate and sitting in my tree the entire time, but she never told me not to talk to her either."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Okay... uh. What are you doing in the Downside library?"

[imeanforever]

"Talking to you, so far. It was the biggest most obvious building. And it's a library. I'm collecting information about this place. So I know what I think of letting her have access to another mortal world to collect from."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"I mean... if the other option was not existing, most people I know would prefer what they've got," she says.

[imeanforever]

"Okay, so that's good to know. I might also go back to her with suggestions, apparently it's been a long time since the place has been updated and I'm meddlesome, but at least it's better than that unfortunate dying thing mortals do without afterlives to go to."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"I can think of plenty of suggestions," she snorts. "Not sure how likely she is to listen to any of them."

[imeanforever]

"Well, you might as well tell me, mightn't you?"

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Okay. Let's start with: disband the judges and torturers and rescind their special powers, double the minimum starting residence size... that'd go a long way by itself."

[imeanforever]

"The judges and the who."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"The torturers. Did she not mention those? She must have at least heard of them, because she's where all the special powers come from..."

[imeanforever]

"She did not mention them. Or judges, either, but that term is less immediately alarming."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"Honestly, of the two, the judges piss me off more. I have friends who are torturers."