planetary

[dark_light]

Over the next week, Isabella gets the alethiometer to tell her that the planets they looked at don't contain microorganisms that know what to do with a human body (although the one with the giant bugs has some multicellular parasites that might be able to make do with the foreign macro-scale features of a human body if they got the chance). "The present", it includes in one of its answer phrasings, which is kind of worrying. But Adarin makes enough progress with his scry in little enough time that it's worth the double-check.

Isabella also hires ticket-takers, gives them little pots of ink to verify the authenticity of the passes she handed out, and opens the Los Angeles - New York route for the employees of her three companies of choice and anyone who shells out a cool fifteen thousand dollars per round trip (ten K for a one-way). This is steep, but it's within an order of magnitude of what people sometimes pay for short-notice first-class cross-country flights - with less novelty and more hassle. Albeit she doesn't supply inflight meals. She expects to have to raise the price when more people hear about it in response to volume and then be able to drop it again.

By the time the thing has been open for a few days she's fired and replaced one ticket-taker and the others have settled into a routine that she's willing to try out leaving unsupervised for awhile.

If Adarin's up for some up close and personal planet shopping and his results suggest it'll go well, anyway.

Comments

[dark_light]

"It is not far off!"

[prodigal_miser]

"Slander! Lies! Misdirection and - and more lies."

[dark_light]

"But at least there were no statistics!"

[prodigal_miser]

"I'll take solace in that fact. There are no statistics. Just lots of lies."

[dark_light]

"...I keep making references without checking to see if you'll get them. There's a phrase, 'lies, damned lies, and statistics'."

[prodigal_miser]

"Is there really? Why are statistics worse than lies and damned lies? I don't like them much, but... They're not terrible? I guess?"

[dark_light]

"Well, if you make up or even just creatively present and interpret your statistics, you can sound very convincing anyway."

[prodigal_miser]

"Ah. That... Makes sense and is terrible. Okay, at least there were no statistics."

[dark_light]

"How fortunate."

[prodigal_miser]

"Yes. Not to worry, I may be evil, but... I'll stay away from statistics. Also lies. I'm not really good at those."

[dark_light]

"I don't know that I've ever seen you even try to lie," observes Isabella.

[prodigal_miser]

"I don't like lying," he explains. "So I avoid it. Being bad at it helps."

[dark_light]

"I can be very misleading with the truth. I'm only good at lying if I know in advance I'm going to have to do it, I'm terrible if surprised."

[prodigal_miser]

"Right, I do the truth misleading thing if I have to, as you saw with your parents, but actual straight-up lying - no. Can't do it."

[dark_light]

Nuzzle. "Oh well."

[prodigal_miser]

"You're crushed, I know," says Adarin dryly.

[dark_light]

"What I really need in my life is a guy who will convincingly deceive me! Obviously you're inadequate."

[prodigal_miser]

"I will never recover from the shame. Please, forgive me."

[dark_light]

"Perhaps we can rebuild if you lie about something, like, right now. Only I'd be expecting it. I suppose there are grade-schooler games designed to handle this kind of problem..."

[prodigal_miser]

"Um. My... Hair is pink?" Adarin tries. "Did that work?"

(He is really not good at this.)

[dark_light]

"No. There's a game called 'two truths and a lie', where you make three statements and people try to guess which one is a lie, maybe that would help."

[prodigal_miser]

"Er, maybe? I don't think I want to get good at lying, either, though."

[dark_light]

"Okay." Pause. "Truth or Dare is a game in the same vein."

[prodigal_miser]

"Eh. If it's based around lying like the last one I will probably not be all for it," points out Adarin gently.

[dark_light]

"It doesn't involve lying, but you might not like it anyway."