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]

"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.

[beheld_beauty]

"Your mate's desire to visit my world is currently my point of leverage for getting access to yours," Rose points out. "Doing it out of order so he can pick someone to interview seems like it might require more assurances. My confidence in the permanence of torching is the fact that I cannot undo it, the administrator of Downside claims that it is indelible, and my alt who can see magic and something called 'metacausality' agrees with her. To you I imagine any of those testimonies are just so many words."

[aestrix]

The dragons exchange a look, along with a silent conversation. The lady-dragon turns back to Rose when it's complete.

Then I will give you new leverage. Forget a simple visit. Our priority has changed. If you can defeat death - we would have it for our children. If you don't offer it for either of us, fine. Our safety is not our main goal. If you want to not let him into your world for an 'interview' - that's also fine. But we would need some other unbiased testimony before we begin to trust you. I don't know of another way to find that then picking someone unconnected to you than one of us finding it ourselves. If I must, I will do it, though I don't like even being here.

[beheld_beauty]

"If you want only my assurance that they will not remain dead forever as the epilogue to their lives, you can have that with the anchor in your world, which I will give freely and gladly, and need nothing more except patience. We are not going to deliberately leave anyone dead forever if that is not the person's own undiluted wish; the only question is what order we retrieve the deceased in and how long it takes to make someplace that is safe and comfortable for them. If you want them rendered torchable now, as opposed to whenever your world rises to the top of the general Bell to-do list and your children rise to the top of the world's - I will need to learn more, because that would give them a striking advantage over anyone else they encounter and that is something not to be taken lightly."

[aestrix]

Procellor considers her. Then he says carefully, Would you like to meet them?

[beheld_beauty]

"It would presumably help."

[aestrix]

His mate nods, I will retrieve them, then. However...

Her voice changes to a growl, and she gives Rose the mother of all death glares. If you harm them, you will regret it. I do not care how immortal you may be. You will regret it.

She gets a little nuzzle from her mate, for her trouble. Then she and said mate crumple back to human form - and go to retrieve children. Procellor holds the door, while she does the actual retrieval. They've stopped caring about freaking out the locals, and just leave the kids in dragon form rather than putting them under illusions, though the dragonness herself has to in order to fit through the door.

They return, hatchlings in tow. They're no bigger than four feet tall, all of them. In comparison to their parents, they're adorable.

One is a lighter grey than its father, another is a deep purple with swirling designs decorating its scales, and the last is a sort of black that changes to a blue in certain types of light. Each of them looks quite innocent. Also, cute.

[campanas]

"Aw!" exclaims Pen. "Did the one dragon Daddy look that way when he a baby?"

[beheld_beauty]

"You would have to ask Ansharil what he looked like when he was a baby; I don't know off the top of my head," Rose tells Pen. "Hello. I'm Belle, or Rose, either is fine. What are all your names?"