holy place

[she_sells_seashells]

My alternates tend to take over the world. Advice available. Rates negotiable.

Shell Bell puts up her sign and nibbles her most recent charity meal. Not potatoes! It is not potatoes. Or fish or clams. It is rice and curry and a fruity yogurt drink. That nice person told Bar she could use his tab for four meals, and this is meal number two.

Comments

[seewhathappens]

"Yes?" he answers immediately.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Oh, good. I'm on a beach right now, is that a good enough place to bury one of these or should I go inland?"

[seewhathappens]

"A beach will work fine."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Okay." She starts digging. "How deep?"

[seewhathappens]

"Deep enough that it's not likely to be accidentally dug up in the next few days."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Hmm..."

She eventually does go deeper inland, where the tide won't rearrange the depth as it pleases and where there aren't any tasty things someone besides her might think to dig up in the sand. She digs out a sloping pit a few feet deep, deposits a disc in it, and puts sand over it.

[seewhathappens]

"Thank you. That should do."

[she_sells_seashells]

"You're welcome. Um, I'd appreciate if you'd tell me what's going on, even though I've done all the parts you actually need help with now."

[seewhathappens]

"If you find somewhere safe to have a conversation with me every so often and say my name, I'll keep you updated on how much territory I've covered."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Great. Do the people on the other end know what you're doing?"

[seewhathappens]

"I've talked it over with my advisors, but I'm going to save the public announcements until I actually have the territory and know more about what the expanded empire will look like."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Makes sense." She sits on the sand. "Do you have lots of advisors? What do they know that you don't?"

[seewhathappens]

"It's not necessarily a matter of knowing things I don't. But there are people whose perspectives I value. Sometimes I explain a problem to them and they suggest solutions I hadn't thought of; sometimes they notice a problem before I do."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Makes sense. How many are there? Do they usually also have governmental/priesthood positions or not?"

[seewhathappens]

"Some of them are also my acolytes, because making someone an acolyte requires a certain degree of trust, and if I don't trust my advisors they usually don't stay my advisors for very long. Governors and priests are usually too busy to do very much advising, but I do consult governors on matters relating to their provinces, and priests are often very helpful to talk to. Right now I have twelve full-time advisors and three acolytes who kept their advisory badges."

[she_sells_seashells]

Nod nod. "How many acolytes do you have altogether?"

[seewhathappens]

"Currently? Sixty-two. It takes a lot to keep my domain covered and still have plenty to do embassy rotations. I've been thinking of doubling my number of bird manifestations to cover the gaps if my population keeps increasing; I'll probably have to use mostly bird manifestations to distribute immunities in your world at first, until I find good acolyte candidates."

[she_sells_seashells]

"People might not want to trust unusual birds. They seem a little too similar to mutts."

[seewhathappens]

"I can use human manifestations too, but the birds travel more easily. I suppose that's less of a problem in your world... I also find it's convenient to separate the purposes of each form in the eyes of the public. People are encouraged to come up to my bird manifestations and touch them unless I specifically say not to; not so for the human ones."

[she_sells_seashells]

"If you leave the trains intact or get ahold of a plane, your human forms will be able to get around pretty well. You could maybe wear different things depending on whether you're willing to be interrupted? Since you can move objects around. You could potentially get people to trust the birds but it'd be uphill."

[seewhathappens]

"I intend to get people to trust the birds, but in the meantime human manifestations will do."

[she_sells_seashells]

"If you get rid of all the preexisting mutts that would probably help. Especially tracker-jackers, those give me the shivers just thinking about them."

[seewhathappens]

"I expect to do that."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Good. How fast are you spreading out?"

[seewhathappens]

"Right now I'm still heading down to a reasonable depth. About a mile below sea level seems like it should do. I should start spreading out from there within the next few days. I'll get faster as I cover more ground."