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

[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.]

[mind_game]

[Well, you can send them to mine things in uninhabited areas and send only a handful of particularly even-keeled people to fetch the products from drop sites, if you like.]

[witchwatcher]

[That could work, yes. It would probably help if they learned English and talked to us. On another note, the I would like to know what kind of standards the interim government should meet before you're willing to consider mass distribution of immortality or resurrections. The UDF may be disbanding soon, a lot of administration is still up in the air, so we're keeping the idea that such things are possible quiet for now. But we want to implement them sooner rather than later if at all possible.]

[mind_game]

[Immortality is a lower bar than resurrections. All you have to do is also let us distribute the brainphone with it, so nobody gets into a situation where they're repeatedly torching and can't call for help, and have some reason to believe that people won't riot in the streets about it. Resurrections you need all that and to be able to support the projected population of resurrectees without abusing their ability to live by suicide alone, but we can take care of that part to a sort of one-size-fits-all standard with an empty spot and permission to put magic stuff on it. Another planet, if necessary, with portals thereto.]

[witchwatcher]

[I am not literally in charge of the entire United Force, but I imagine permission to put things on another planet won't be a problem. Thanks for the information. Can I get back to you in an hour or two?]

[mind_game]

[Sure.]