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Cam is out flying. There's a decent cloud of atmosphere around the gold plane, now, millenia of demons making air around themselves for comfort and not sealing it up because why would you bother. There's a small forest, here - the effect is kind of ruined by the lamps it has to grow under, but it's still pretty.
He feels an open summons and lets it grab him -
the Connecticut Yankee summons Demon Cam
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from_scratch
connecticut_yankee
"No to the boxes of money. Do you want part ownership in the railroad? You're entitled to some large percentage of it if you want a sixth-century income. Other than that side of things, I think we're ready to go."
from_scratch
"Ooh, yes please, I think we've more than demonstrated that I could benefit from the ability to employ people and you're probably more efficiently deployed as something other than my hiring manager if possible. Off I go, then."
Cam goes out, conjures up a nice big column of cloud, and takes off. It takes several hours to traverse the entire route, after which time he comes back.
Cam goes out, conjures up a nice big column of cloud, and takes off. It takes several hours to traverse the entire route, after which time he comes back.
connecticut_yankee
By the time he returns, the rest of the routes have been plotted. The northbound team has been equipped, instructed, and deployed to arrange for holes to be dug anywhere that recently turned blue. Other teams are ready to do the same eastward toward the Meonwara and south to Tintagel. It is, oddly enough, not quite the strangest public works project in recent history.
Clarence sees Cam first. "We've received some news from the nearer Mercian townships. Apparently you were a very convincing angel. Nearly everyone who heard believed the knights. The Church has yet to respond, but it would be strange for them to contradict something everyone agrees on."
Clarence sees Cam first. "We've received some news from the nearer Mercian townships. Apparently you were a very convincing angel. Nearly everyone who heard believed the knights. The Church has yet to respond, but it would be strange for them to contradict something everyone agrees on."
from_scratch
"Cool, keep me posted. I'll do the next route now unless you suddenly need loaves and fishes, or something."
connecticut_yankee
"Thank you, but we aren't currently in need of food or religious symbolism."
He hands Cam the map, and will take about fifteen seconds to realize that for all practical purposes he already had it.
He hands Cam the map, and will take about fifteen seconds to realize that for all practical purposes he already had it.
from_scratch
Cam takes it anyway, winks, and heads out.
By the time he is back it is probably dark.
By the time he is back it is probably dark.
connecticut_yankee
There are electric lights on, but they're pointed down at the more mundane road. The boy keeping watch hears Cam before he sees him.
"Eep! Oh good, it's you." He takes his hand off his revolver. "Did anyone ever tell you your wings sound like a terrifyingly large flying beast?"
"Eep! Oh good, it's you." He takes his hand off his revolver. "Did anyone ever tell you your wings sound like a terrifyingly large flying beast?"
from_scratch
"No one has ever told me that. If it's a problem I could make a new set with owl feathers."
connecticut_yankee
"You just surprised me, nothing worse.
The Boss asked to be woken when you returned; just knock on the second door to the right. And, could you maybe not tell anyone about the 'eep'?"
He opens the door.
The Boss asked to be woken when you returned; just knock on the second door to the right. And, could you maybe not tell anyone about the 'eep'?"
He opens the door.
connecticut_yankee
After a brief wait, it opens. Hank is on the other side, looking almost as if he had slept straight on to morning. He steps out.
"Welcome back! We've got some news, but first, how did the painting by numbers go?"
"Welcome back! We've got some news, but first, how did the painting by numbers go?"
from_scratch
"Perfectly well. There is now paint all over the place. It'll degrade inside of a year without harming the fish and wildlife populations, even."
connecticut_yankee
"Excellent. I hadn't thought about disposing of it once it's been dug up, so thanks for making it not a problem.
Word of the angel stunt is spreading fast. The knights talked to the priest in the first town the ran into, and nobody wants to tell tens of thousands of well-respected and better-armed knights that they've been taken in. So the papers spun that as an endorsement by the Church. Now anyone who's used to trusting news from a wire is reactivating their own electrics."
Word of the angel stunt is spreading fast. The knights talked to the priest in the first town the ran into, and nobody wants to tell tens of thousands of well-respected and better-armed knights that they've been taken in. So the papers spun that as an endorsement by the Church. Now anyone who's used to trusting news from a wire is reactivating their own electrics."
connecticut_yankee
"I really don't know. We seem to have won. We could repeat the angel trick with someone who actually does speak for the Church.
And we can always use more infrastructure if you're up for that.
Or maybe we could permanently win the war with the Angles and Saxons and Picts and so on if you can supply a way to do that without killing many of them.
We aren't going to run out of things to do, but none are especially urgent."
And we can always use more infrastructure if you're up for that.
Or maybe we could permanently win the war with the Angles and Saxons and Picts and so on if you can supply a way to do that without killing many of them.
We aren't going to run out of things to do, but none are especially urgent."
connecticut_yankee
"It's a sort of halfhearted attempt to take territory from each other. Battles as such are rare, people just avoid going anywhere already occupied unless they think they have enough force to back it up. Fights happen when they're wrong, when they're right territory changes hands. Been going on as long as anyone can remember. Ah, and I strongly recommend not letting slip to anyone that we know this country as 'England.'"
from_scratch
Cam snorts. "Good to know. Is 'Britain' safe? I can sail in and trivially win battles, and I'm willing to do that against aggressors who don't have time-travelers and makers supporting their populations' quality of life, but I'd want to be assured of the twenty-second-century-standards humane treatment of anybody I'm going to drug until they fall over."
connecticut_yankee
"'Britain' or 'the Britons' means Arthur's people, yes.
I don't know twenty-second-century standards. I can promise no torture, but prisoners would be being not tortured in a sixth-century cell. I should hope that fails. Chained to the wall, bread and water, virtually no light, imprisonment permanent unless ransomed. That sort of thing.
But I don't think taking any reasonable quantity of prisoners would win the war by itself anyway, just gain some territory."
I don't know twenty-second-century standards. I can promise no torture, but prisoners would be being not tortured in a sixth-century cell. I should hope that fails. Chained to the wall, bread and water, virtually no light, imprisonment permanent unless ransomed. That sort of thing.
But I don't think taking any reasonable quantity of prisoners would win the war by itself anyway, just gain some territory."
from_scratch
"I take a dim view of killing people, especially given the uncertain status of the afterlife here. What did you have in mind for war-winning?"
connecticut_yankee
"With my own resources, winning a war would essentially mean killing everyone. You can see why I haven't done it.
There...aren't a lot of procedures for ending wars here. If we could locate and capture their kings, we might get them to recognize some borders for at least a few years. Do you know anything that can do that?"
There...aren't a lot of procedures for ending wars here. If we could locate and capture their kings, we might get them to recognize some borders for at least a few years. Do you know anything that can do that?"
from_scratch
"Not without pictures of the kings in question to go on. And by pictures I mean photographs sufficient for computer face recognition, so if you could get those you'd also know where the kings were and I could just pick them up and walk off with them."
connecticut_yankee
"And people casually asking where the king is in obviously foreign accents don't get to meet kings. Successive iterations of scaring people and demanding to see whoever they take orders from?
A gigantic wall would also set borders, but wouldn't be worth it even if it wouldn't have the same foundation problem."
A gigantic wall would also set borders, but wouldn't be worth it even if it wouldn't have the same foundation problem."
from_scratch
"Eh, if you just want something hard to get over I can do that without having to start it under the ground it particularly well. Make it bottom-heavy. It won't have to support trains. What would be the issue?"
connecticut_yankee
"Partly that putting a wall around a country sounds wrong somehow. I've been trying to tell the peasants they can work for a different lord if they want to, and while a wall doesn't contradict that it might send a different message.
More practically, I hope to have Britain be the one expanding. Not the typical, bloody way of course, but the wall would be a pointless inconvenience if it doesn't match the borders."
More practically, I hope to have Britain be the one expanding. Not the typical, bloody way of course, but the wall would be a pointless inconvenience if it doesn't match the borders."