delta v over delta t when there is no t

[ertia]

In a bar, there is a girl.

She looks like she has saved up all of her decadent and slothful impulses for a solid decade and is indulging them all at once. She is sprawled on a couch with a book she's only half-reading, and an ice cream sundae, and smiiiiiiling.

Comments

[sicaria]

"I have no suggestions," she says; and then pauses, tilts her head consideringly, and amends, "I have one suggestion but it's more of a whim than a considered recommendation and anyway he is dead."

[ertia]

"Oh, we can do resurrections. But whim is probably not the correct way to manage a succession plan."

[sicaria]

"Whether or not he would make a good candidate for actual rulership, he would have unparalleled value as a figurehead of revolution... and I want to talk to him," she says. "How convenient is resurrection?"

[ertia]

"Entirely. Shall I add him to the conversation? Who is he?"

[sicaria]

"Jewel. This year's male tribute from District One. He played to the cameras to make sure all eyes would be on him and his actions could not easily be censored out of the live broadcast, and then deliberately stepped off his platform during the countdown. They explode when you do that."

[ertia]

"I see. Well, I suppose if he just really wanted to be dead he can be mildly inconvenienced and if he had other reasons he'll find the situation encouraging." Jewel: exist.

[no_return]

Jewel: exists.

He appears wearing an expression of serene triumph, which fades into mild startlement; he looks around at everyone present and then finally raises his eyebrows at Sherlock.

[sicaria]

"Hello," says Sherlock. "I found this omnipotent sorceress, who has just resurrected you. How would you feel about ruling Panem?"

[no_return]

"...I feel like I maybe need more context?" is what he settles on after a few seconds.

[ertia]

"Time in Panem is currently paused because we are here in this interdimensional bar. I and my partner Milan here are from other dimensions, we're sorcerers, I'm omnipotent, and Sherlock over there thought you'd be a useful addition to the conversation of how to apply an omnipotent sorceress to Panem and the problem that it is."

[no_return]

"Good call," he says. "How long's it been since I went up? How are people taking it?"

[sicaria]

"Three months. Poorly. If you meant to subtly destabilize support for the Hunger Games in the Capitol, you have succeeded. There's been nothing overt, but... when I thought of you in relation to the rulership of Panem it was with the thought that you've done more to solve the problem than I could conceive of managing with my previous resources, and you did it in a single gesture without any help at all."

[no_return]

He grins. "Score."

[ertia]

"The problems to solve, even under the assumption that you wish to rule Panem and can convince me you're the right person for the job, are at least in part: what to do with the Capitolites, especially any of them who have friends in the Districts; what to do with District-native Peacekeepers; the exact nature of the arbitrary material luxury to install for the people of your world; who else ought to stop being dead and how to organize them in a society unaccustomed to resurrection; and with what magical assistance rulership of Panem should be wielded."

[no_return]

"What am I working with here? When you say you're omnipotent does that mean if I'm convincing enough I get to be omnipotent too?"

[first_and_final]

"How convincing do you expect to be?"

[no_return]

He shrugs and smiles. "Getting put in charge of the country wasn't exactly what I was aiming for, but if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it right, you know?"

[ertia]

"One of my few practical as opposed to ethical limits is that I actually can't transfer the omnipotence or Milan would already have a copy," says Kithabel. "I can get you into the magic system in which I am omnipotent but then you'd have to work very hard for a very long time to get any good at it. I suppose we could theoretically resurrect a unicorn and see if they can identify a potential source-of-omnipotence-person for you but it's sort of an extreme solution and you'd have to be astonishingly convincing."

[no_return]

"Well, here's how things look from my perspective," he says. "Panem is enormously fucked up. I didn't have much to work with, so I decided to get out of the game the best way I knew how. But now here I am all surprisingly not dead, and you're talking about who should be taking over the country, and it doesn't look like you're getting any other volunteers. So sure, I'll take it. And I'll do the best I can with it, and that means if I can become omnipotent first, I should."

[ertia]

"The bar for me trusting you with omnipotence is at least an order of magnitude higher than the bar for me trusting you with a country and some magical tools to keep it under control."

[no_return]

"But we have all the time in the world, right? So there's no rush, I don't have to convince you in the next five minutes."

[first_and_final]

"I do like your style, what little of it I've seen so far," says Milan.

[ertia]

"It's true, there's no rush, although I'm not sure how you'd best convince me that you're suitable for omnipotence with the stakes available here in Milliways."

[no_return]

Jewel shrugs. "You're the one who's omnipotent. Can't you read my mind or something?"

[ertia]

"...Well, I could, but that would be one of my ethical limitations."