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

[aestrix]

Ah, sorry. I was waiting until she got here, says the dragon-man. He gets up, and opens the door! Outside, it looks like a normal village. Some people have been attracted by the strange goings-on outside of this specific door, though, due to the uncaring entrance by a dragon and her three hatchlings. A few people are visibly terrified.

Is singing fun? It makes pretty sounds! says Ilayse.

[campanas]

"Is so fun! And I words easier when songs, because all writed already."

[beheld_beauty]

Rose taps the largest jewel in her bracelet.

[thaumobabble]

And here is a woman who looks exactly like her, only perhaps five years older, not as pretty on top of that, and dressed entirely differently.

"Here I am, why are those people so spooked?"

[aestrix]

"My wife wasn't very subtle in her entrance. Hello," says Procellor, switching to verbal language. He's got to get back in the habit of it if he's going to be looking human.

Pyranir looks up at Glass. Are you her sister? he asks, curiously. He has not had this whole thing explained to him. That's okay, he'll figure it out eventually.

Ilayse is happy to keep chatting with Pen! Yay! I like playing with magic, I'm good with wind!

[thaumobabble]

"I'm her alt," says Glass, squinting through the door. "We are much alike except for being from different worlds."

[campanas]

"What do you do when you wind?" asks Pen.

[beheld_beauty]

"What's the world like?" Rose asks Glass.

[thaumobabble]

"It's got its share of nastiness, which is very much concentrated in the dragons, I am not sure about this project of yours. My dragons have a penchant for treasure-hoarding too, but I think these guys are literally insatiable, which can't help. It'd be a perfectly nice world if it didn't have any dragons in it at all, but I suppose picking them all up and putting them somewhere else would be a complicated project."

[beheld_beauty]

"Safe for Jane, safe for standard-ward visitors?"

[thaumobabble]

"The world is, nothing will happen if you just walk through the door. If you want to know if the dragons can punch through your defenses usefully, you want Aurora, not me, if you want to be sure, but - there's some metacausality I don't really like floating around them. Sort of like Callahan's attractor for invariably winning lethal contests, but toned down. They don't have to win, but if you're in a fight with them it does have to be a fight, they've got a metacausal conspiracy objecting to circumventing them completely. I really don't think I like the idea of combining that with torching when they have to share space with humans, however cute the babies are."

[aestrix]

Yvae looks especially sad. Procellor frowns. "If you put the anchor down without permission, and without fulfilling the 'immortality to our children' part of the bargain, there will be a problem," he says, carefully. It's not a threat, but it is a warning. "If you don't do either, then I suppose I'll be disappointed, but we won't have a quarrel."

Ilayse jumps up and down a little. I do this! she says, and a little breeze swooshes around Pen.

Procellor glances at her, then warns, "Be careful, sweetie. Indoors that could be a problem."

Sorry, daddy, says Ilayse.

[thaumobabble]

"With any luck there's a mutually agreeable situation, but finding it means negotiating with the reality that exists, not a fiction," says Glass. "For example, if we just moved all the humans in the world to some part of it that did not have any dragons or any avenue for dragons to use to travel there, I'd have fewer misgivings about immortalizing some dragons. Moving the dragons would also work but I think you guys would be harder to move. You can close the door now, by the way, I've had a good look at the world and you're right here to be a dragon example."

[beheld_beauty]

"Does the insatiable hoarding thing look like it admits of editing, or should we call Lazarus for a consult on that...?"

[thaumobabble]

"Mmmm..." Glass squints at Procellor.

[aestrix]

Procellor closes the door. He looks between Glass and Rose. "Er. I don't mind being a test subject? If it kills me, though, wifey outside will not be pleased. But if my species has an 'insatiable hoarding' tendency, which I honestly think is completely true, I wouldn't mind being free of it."

[thaumobabble]

"I don't think it's attached to anything that could kill you, and I do think we could change it, if you agree - I think the agreeing is important."

[beheld_beauty]

"Is that sufficient to render them reasonably close to harmless, do you think? In disposition if not in theory."

[thaumobabble]

"It'd go a long way. They're not inherently murderous as a species."

[aestrix]

Procellor shrugs. "Alright then. Hit me with the magic fixer-thing, I consent if it'll let my children have immortality."

[thaumobabble]

"It's not a direct step from here to there. You're the test subject for the procedure, but your kids will have to agree to the change too for them to be safe as immortals."

[aestrix]

He shrugs again. "Okay, fine. But you test on me first, understand? If it goes wrong then I'll just be the results of the failed attempt and they'll be fine."

Yvae noses him, worried. He pats her, a little.

[thaumobabble]

"That's fine. I really don't think it will harm you."

[beheld_beauty]

"I would feel safer about it if Lazarus were consulted. When we tried editing Ansharil... well, we should have called Lazarus first then and I will do it now. You understand."

Glass does understand, Lazarus is fetched, Lazarus confirms Glass's diagnosis, Lazarus goes away again.

"All right. Are you ready?" Rose asks Procellor.

[aestrix]

Procellor nods. "Ready. I'm thinking very consenting thoughts."