well-behaved doors

[campanas]

Pen' was just going to go practice singing. (She likes singing. The words are all lined up for her already and she doesn't get them wrong.) But this doesn't look like the practice room. So it's probably the magic restaurant.

Pen knows about the magic restaurant! You can go in it, and get food or things to drink (she has bracelets!) and then you just go back out the door and it's been no time at all and you're right where you went in.

She goes in. She is going to have cake.

Comments

[beheld_beauty]

"It's not a matter of a toll. I don't need anything. If I had a standard procedure for inviting anyone but my own alts and their personal friends and relatives into Rêverie you would be interacting with that procedure, and not me." She tilts her head. "Perhaps I'll let you visit if you show me into your own world via Milliways when you are ready to return to it."

[aestrix]

Hrmmm, says the dragon. Very well. But I make no promises to my world's safety. I am not responsible for others of my kind. My mate and hatchlings, I could guarantee won't try to eat you, but the others - they do as they please.

He pauses, then adds, If you do visit, they will all want to hear of your world, and you will be interesting because you are a human that does magic. It's unheard of.

[beheld_beauty]

"I don't have immediate plans to visit. Just to plant an anchor in the world so I can find it later when mine has been remodeled to my satisfaction. The anchor doesn't have to be destructible. Or generally accessible."

[aestrix]

Ah. What kind of anchor? And what do you plan on doing, once you have free access to my world?

[beheld_beauty]

"A little piece of Jane, here. My template likes to find things that need fixing or improving, and then do that. In a very general sense."

[aestrix]

And you're asking me to add my world to the 'fixing' list, says the dragon, bluntly. What does fixing or improving entail? Would any who oppose you be put to death? If that were the case, I'd have to refuse you.

[beheld_beauty]

Rose looks him over cursorily. "In the unlikely event that I had to kill anyone, I'd resurrect them once I had a safe place to put them and they reached the top of the to-resurrect list. Resurrecting people falls under the category of fixing."

[aestrix]

Hrrm he ponders. I will be honest, since you are being such, it seems. I am thinking of a dragon's priorities, here. If you want to improve the human's lives, fine, be my guest. Many are interesting and should remain so. But many of my kind have killed to get the things we want - would you try to return them? You'd very quickly have a war on your hands.

[beheld_beauty]

"I would not bring them all back at the same time, or put them in anything liable to become a war zone. Credit me with that much sense."

[aestrix]

I meant the things that were stolen, or claimed, he explains.

[beheld_beauty]

"It sounds as though it would require careful thought. The dead would keep while I or one of my alts learned enough about the situation to make a decision," shrugs Rose. "Perhaps we'd just duplicate everything under dispute."

[aestrix]

That would be acceptable. I think I shall... Tentatively accept. With the caveat that I can destroy the anchor, if your 'improvements' start sending the world into a civil war.

He sets his head on the ground, and gives Pen a brief look.

I have hatchlings to raise - a warzone is not a proper place.

[beheld_beauty]

"I wasn't planning to tell you where it was going to be," remarks Rose. "Let alone leave an avenue for its destruction. And while just one would suffice for rendering the world accessible later, by the time we started working on anything there would be more."

[aestrix]

I see, says the dragon who definitely has a name that no one present has asked for. Then you ask me to accept on faith alone? I do not know you. I do not know how your improvements would affect my home, or whether or not you plan simple invasion and tyranny.

[beheld_beauty]

"Moments ago you were asking a person who answers to me and not to you and is the sole reliable method of travel between worlds to put you in mine, which you have heard described solely and briefly by an eight-year-old who has visited a tiny part of it for less than one week in total. If you in fact suspect me of such things, your behavior would be beyond foolish."

[aestrix]

There is a far difference between putting myself at risk, and putting what would be my entire family at risk, he replies. Me I will do, and have done. Them, no. I would not be so callous with them.

He sounds vaguely insulted.

[beheld_beauty]

"Your priorities are your own. At any rate, I am not disposed to destruction or cruelty unless sorely provoked."

[aestrix]

I do not know that no one in my world would provoke you. There are many who would try.

The dragon eyes her. I think, before I agree to let you have an entrance into my home - I should at the very least ask my mate. She deserves to know, and have input.

[beheld_beauty]

"Provocation would have to be both severe and impossible to handle through lesser recourse. If you would like to do consult others first, far be it from me to interrupt you."

[aestrix]

I see, he says, nodding. He raises his head, then there's a hum in the air - and the dragon is crushed, crumpled into a much smaller form. It's vaguely disconcerting, but not disgusting - when he's done, he appears to be human, again.

I will go retrieve her.

Then he turns, and goes back to the door. Open, head poke out.

Dear-heart, he calls to his mate. There is a matter which needs your counsel. He sends a mental summary. His magic speaky thing is convenient, like that. It only takes a moment.

She considers. Then, she replies, Wait, I will be along shortly.


In a few minutes, the man would return to Rose and Pen, a woman beside him. She does not give off the friendly feel that her mate does - everything about her is cold, unyielding, quiet. The minute she can, she drops the illusion and her form tears back into being a dragon. She's as huge as her mate, with dark wings and scales that look like a clear night sky, complete with patterns of stars and galaxies. She eyes them both with ice-blue piercing eyes. Her mate joins her in dragon-form, and drapes a wing over her for support.

Procellor has told me of what you promise, she says, her voice echoey and quiet. You have said that you will defeat death, make the world better. Offer proof, then a promise that our children would be safe from death's clutches. Or, conversely, from yours.

[beheld_beauty]

"What sort of proof would you like?"

[campanas]

"Pretty," admires Pen.

[aestrix]

The dragonness looks at Pen with vague approval. Yes, she says, a little smugly. Dragons are not known to be humble. Then she turns to Rose.

How do you cheat death? Is it something that's reversible? she asks. If it's something that can be taken back, that you can hold over our heads, then no. I would also like to speak to those from your world, or from others that you are in the process of improving. It seems smart to check your methods.

[beheld_beauty]

"Some time ago, my alts took over the management of an afterlife shared by a few dozen worlds, called Downside. People within this afterlife do something called 'torching': on suffering lethal damage, they reset to a healthy state on the spot. My alts and I can now distribute torching to anyone we choose, and for most worlds, including yours, we can also add that world to the sphere of Downside's influence by granting any person from it the ability to torch. Torchability is permanent and indelible; if I needed to get someone who was torchable out of my way, I could render them unconscious or put them far away from anything that they could influence to bother me, but it would be beyond any power we know of to destroy them outright. I'm personally overseeing only my native world at this time; others of me are managing their own, and yours would be added to the waiting list if you will allow me into it long enough to leave an anchor. Will my apprentice do or do you want to speak to someone with less of a personal connection to myself?"

[aestrix]

Your apprentice, and also - I think someone my mate would choose himself, on a visit to your world. I would like to prevent bias, if that's at all possible. Do you have proof of 'torching's' permanence?

Her mate nods in agreement.