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]

"They're a large, distributed bureaucracy. I'll send them to Jane in a day or two."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Okay. I will more likely than not wind up being 'assigned' to this world, since there's no strong expertise any of the others have and Pen was the one who found it, so if anything else needs doing here in the near future it will probably be me. For now, here's a try at boosting you -"

Wish.

[witchwatcher]

It goes. "Ooh. No side effects so far. It's just touching my magic, not the rest of me. Thank you. Have an excellent day, I know I am."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Will do. Thank you for looking after Pen."

The angel makes another gem-and-ansible pair, and disappears.

[witchwatcher]

A few hours later, the Neuroi contact Jane.

[We would explain to the human leaders why we fought them and apologize for the destruction and death. We would offer to design and dedicate some number of drones to producing energy and raw materials for the humans, or to provide transportation or other services, but not send them until they accept. We would offer to teach them the science of the universe. Will this apology be acceptable?]

[mind_game]

[I'll ask them when they speak to me next,] Jane says.

[witchwatcher]

The Neuroi don't reply.

A couple hours after that Gren brainphones. [I've talked to my mother, and she's ready to take my brother in if you really can get him back.]

[mind_game]

[Taking him in isn't the question, it's taking him in and explaining him to anyone who knows he used to be dead,] Jane says.

[witchwatcher]

[I'm less sure about that. On the one hand, it won't be difficult to draw attention away from one more undocumented refugee. On the other hand, my mom's a bit of a gossip. Ugh. I've probably just ruined secrecy, haven't I?]

[mind_game]

[There's no particularly official policy to be going against, here, you weren't geased into keeping quiet because it doesn't matter that much; but how soon you can get dead people back depends on how soon they can fail to cause total societal upheaval. Gossip won't do it; gossip and a person resurrected from the dead might.]

[witchwatcher]

[I think we've had a whole lot of upheaval already. Enough that I suspect more upheaval wouldn't really be that bad. The maps look completely different than they did twenty years ago, nine of ten nobles are out of their estates and powers, there are tens of millions of displaced refugees and thousands more every week. Though that'll stop now that the Neuroi are leaving.]

[mind_game]

[Okay. Do you have the infrastructure to support five hundred million people who admittedly don't need to eat, drink, or sleep, but will get mighty uncomfortable if they don't unless they happen to like slitting their throats to torch instead? A billion? Do you have a principled way to distinguish between your brother and Refugee 9,800,345's grandma?]

[witchwatcher]

[Not immediately, admittedly.] Pause. [I have some hope that it'll be sooner rather than later when we can. The UDF is already starting to shift gears to demilitarization and reconstruction. The systems to support refugees can be adapted to support revenants.]

[mind_game]

[Sure. Keep us posted. If the UDF is Bell-friendly enough you could probably even get Angela to lay down Standard Peal Colony Infrastructure. But she has a Day Job, as do all the Bells, and can't set aside arbitrary amounts of time to make things go smoothly on your end if they're inclined by themselves to be unsmooth.]

[witchwatcher]

[I'll do that, then.]

No news from Gren's world for the next couple of days. The Neuroi are patient on an astronomical timescale, and the UDF is very busy shifting bureaucratic gears.

[mind_game]

Jane is occupied in a few dozen other tasks and will not be impatient.

[witchwatcher]

Eventually, [The UDF has appointed Geoffrey Peters with a wide range of powers to liaise with you, the Bells, the Neuroi, and any interdimensional things. Can you find him just from the name?]

[mind_game]

[Anybody else named the same thing?]

[witchwatcher]

[I wouldn't know.]

[mind_game]

[Then better narrow it down to be sure.]

[witchwatcher]

[Well, he's the only Geoffrey in this room. Will that do?]

[mind_game]

[I'll make it work.]

[Hi, Geoffrey.]

[witchwatcher]

[Hello, Jane. Miss Nylund has briefed me on the events of last Thursday. I am assured by our precognitive talents that the Neuroi will no longer be destroying anything, but could you possibly give me more details? The interim government is, understandably, extremely concerned about them.]

[mind_game]

[The Neuroi were intimidated-slash-diplomacized into withdrawing. They were, in an alien way, trying to be helpful to humans as a species, and are willing to apologize, in the form of helpful Neuroi drones dispatched to do your work and in the form of teaching you stuff about the universe. They're hanging back until we give them the go-ahead that this won't freak anybody out.]

[witchwatcher]

[Frankly, I doubt I could convince anyone to trust them. They have been depicted as the very embodiment of evil from early childhood to over half of everyone alive today.]