does not anymore work

[campanas]

Here, in a place where she is quite an unexpected sight, is:

an eight year old girl with brown-flecked white wings, looking dismayed and lost.

with Prime (Aestrix)

with Edie and Emily (Maggie)

with Gloria (Maggie)

with Gren (Rockeye)

Comments

[witchwatcher]

"How many of you are there? At least three so far, and Pen said there were at least ninety-two worlds..."

[beheld_beauty]

"Most worlds don't have Bells. Most worlds on that list we just inherited when we took over our afterlife, and we discover new ones periodically - our current typical discovery mechanism yields Bells more often than not because we have a way to funnel new Bells in our direction that doesn't bother with anyone else. There are sixteen of us in contact right now."

[witchwatcher]

"And you're all probably just a few steps away from being benevolent gods. The multiverse doesn't know what's gonna hit it."

[jovahs_heiress]

"The question of whether we're gods or not depends a lot on what kind of distinction you're using the word to draw. I assumed control of an entity that most people on my planet worship and I think I'm doing a better job with the position."

[beheld_beauty]

"And the question of what the multiverse may or may not know is still above our pay grade. Glass - who will be finished playing cards with her children in a moment - is our best peek."

[witchwatcher]

"You're all carrying ridiculous amounts of power. That's sufficiently deific to count to me, even if you can't do literally anything. I'm not gonna ask to be an equal, but I kinda want an aura - how hard would it be to convince you I won't abuse the piece of your magic collection that gave you that?"

"I second the sentiment," Lytee comments.

[beheld_beauty]

"Enchanting, which is actually native to this world, is one of our more versatile forms of shareable magic. It can substitute for our default utility magic in a pinch - and I use it preferentially because I had it first, and so does one other Bell. Using the upper levels of its power, however, requires unusual personnel assistance, intense powers of concentration, a magical upgrade, or unethical behavior. And you have to do a lot of enchanting to get an aura. We have a shortcut for auras, which incidentally doesn't require very much skill either, but then you'd still have the ability to enchant in non-aura ways. And torching means you could survive a lot of untutored trial and error."

[witchwatcher]

"...You're talking about the pain? Yes, that's a significant limitation. I do suspect I'll be unusually good at learning magic - my special ability is to copy the stuff. I can't grab any of yours yet, it's too different from what Witches have, but I can understand it some."

[thaumobabble]

A new Bell appears.

[beheld_beauty]

"We try to be a little careful about handing out magic. We don't know any alts of you - do we, Glass?"

[thaumobabble]

"Nope, new and new and new moiety to boot. So the alts you don't have can't vouch for you."

[witchwatcher]

"Understandable. Will seeing my history help convince you? You have past-scrying in there somewhere, I think."

[thaumobabble]

"Yes, but it's time-consuming. If you don't have a privacy issue at all, Jane or Elspeth can judgesight you - that's a total copy of your history from your perspective copied into them."

[witchwatcher]

Gren nods. "That'll be fine."

Lytee looks nervous. "You won't tell anyone else what you see? Just use it to decide how much to trust me?"

[mind_game]

[I can keep a secret. Elspeth kiiiinda can't.]

[witchwatcher]

[It's not a secret, precisely, just something I don't want going around too far. Go ahead, if you want.]

[mind_game]

Bam. Judgesight.

[witchwatcher]

Lytee is a smidge selfish, and less attached to people than your average person. She joined the fight against Neuroi for the pay more than out of civic duty, but she doesn't hurt people out of spite and is not impulsive. She had been trying to scheme her way to a higher position in the local power structure, but only so she had more resources and freedom to use them. She probably won't use anything they give her unethically, at least. Especially if she knows there's a higher authority to answer to.

Gren is curious and determined. Her life goal seems to be learning more things, only to be interrupted constantly by the obligation to help save the world. She's fought bravely and stoically against the Neuroi. She's not prone to anger, and when she does get angry she's perfectly capable of channeling it into something nondestructive. She's a bit impulsive and careless sometimes, and possibly a little lazy, but is careful and cautious with her own magic. She wants her brother back, and after that nothing in particular. She can definitely be trusted to use magic ethically.

[mind_game]

[Gren's all to the good,] Jane reports. [Lytee I'd maybe worry about if there's a contact loss and nobody to theoretically keep an eye on her.]

[witchwatcher]

[Is contact loss likely?]

[mind_game]

[It's happened. We've patched the obvious ways for it to happen again, but if, say, we give Pen one of my gems in case she goes astray, and she does in fact get lost again, and it's another hostile-to-my-medium world, then I go down. That doesn't totally cut off contact because you exist, Shell Bell may be able to force the Milliways door to your world, and there are people who can do a thing called 'freecasting'; what it would do is disconnect your timestream from the one I keep synced up. Oh, and depending on how your teleporting works this may have happened already.]

[witchwatcher]

[I expect to effectively live forever now, and I expect that if I ever lose contact with your group and regain it later, which is inevitable because I expect to live forever, you will investigate my activities for the duration. I'll behave.]

[mind_game]

[Sounds plausible to me.]

[witchwatcher]

"Getting back to the original point, Glass, what do you think about increasing Witches' mana?"

[thaumobabble]

"...Hm? Oh, that looks totally straightforward. It's a substance, you want there to be more of it, we should be able to do that and if it turns out we can't trying won't hurt anything."