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boots, rumil, and epic land in competent!valarda
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They can't work out how to parameterize for "gods", not in a time frame that seems reasonable when the Valar might notice them at any moment. They settle for habitable and starfaring.

The first place they land is technically habitable and presumably starfaring. However, it is also apparently mid-war-of-some-kind and even Fëanáro can't figure out what the un-osanwëable hulks of metal are shouting at them in time to comply and those things they're holding seem to have already done disastrous things to the landscape. They jump again and now between Fëanáro's rescue mission and the escape attempts they're out of mana sufficient for jumping between them.

...

"This looks like where we jumped from -"

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He bounces her his view, which makes the similarities more pronounced; for instance, that there in the distance is definitely an Elven city built into a cliffside.

 

The light is still gold and silver blending in the sky, but distinctly different.

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"...the sky's different, the city's - shinier? - but I can't think of what about the spell would find us a... very similar patch of grass..."

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"...well these Valar aren't mad at us yet and we can jump out again tomorrow."

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"Yeah, I suppose we can camp out here and sleep - someone should stay up in case -"

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"I will."

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Bella looks nervously in the direction of the city but tries to get comfy on the grass.

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"We'll see anyone coming," he says.

 

An hour later he sees someone or something coming. It's a shiny metal bubble that maneuvers quite unlike a bird, but flies.

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Bella has managed to fall asleep.

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And ideally wouldn't be woken, since they need reasonably solid rest to get their mana back. But - 

Bella? I'm sorry - looks like someone's coming -

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- up she gets. I don't have enough to jump us, how long has it been -

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Only about an hour - bounce, since she probably can't see it yet - do you think it's dangerous like the kind in the other world -

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I don't know how to tell. If it gets closer I could tell if it's a mind...

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We should've hidden...

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I could've learned to do invisibility if I'd done arcana in college but I didn't, I didn't touch it the whole time -

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And as a result you are alive and that is very very good, it wasn't worth the risk - most metal things can't be war machines, people shouldn't get crueler with time, it doesn't make any sense -

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Is there actually anywhere to hide? Maybe it hasn't seen us yet.

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We could try to make it to the trees but they wouldn't help much if anyone's seriously looking -

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And we might be more noticeable if we move.

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Yes. 

The thing approaches, rapidly. It's large.

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It's within a mile -

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There's somebody on it. One person. I think an Elf.

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He relaxes slightly. So we just need to be unworthy of the note of the Valar and it'll probably be fine, Elves wouldn't - attack - can you distinguish an orc -

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Never tried - they are a little different but more like an Elf than anything else but I guess that could mean orc, shit -

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The rumbling of the approaching metal thing wakes Fëanáro. He blinks blearily at them - then sees the thing - 

 - wow - uh, is it coming at us -

 

 

It definitely appears to be coming at them!

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Yeah. - I don't think you have enough mana that we could pool it to jump again -

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- you can try -

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She taps him, but - No.

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Metal thing arcs gracefully in and lands a dozen feet in front of them.

 

The person who steps out is definitely an Elf. And - "hi, are you guys okay?" she says in a language that is definitely Quenya.

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...that's weird. She shrinks a little.

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"Hi. Yes, we're fine. Sorry if we - interrupted you -"

          "You looked kind of terrified and I couldn't ping you. You should probably have more water if you're camping out here this time of year. Ercassë, nice to meet you -"

"Uh, Sérono. If you happen to have water we'd appreciate it but we were actually going to leave at Mingling anyway."

         She looks vaguely confused. "You have a ride scheduled?"

"...yes?"

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She looks like an Elf. Bella is not sure why she does not read exactly like an Elf.

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           "Okay. You sure you don't want a ride in now?"

"Where are you going?"

          "South Falls, but I don't mind swinging up to Quenyava if you need the airport, I don't have flight clearance north of that."

"That's kind of you, but we don't need the airport."

          She's frowning. "Where are the kid's parents?"

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"I'm on vacation but they had to stay in the city."

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"Which city?"

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"...Quenyava?"

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"...ah-huh."

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Is Bella's hair over her ears no it is not and it's braided too tight for her to move it and make it look like the wind.

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"Why don't you come in, I'll call a bigger plane."

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She has a nonnative accent. She keeps her mouth shut.

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Calling a bigger plane doesn't seem to involve any visible outcomes. "I didn't catch your names?" she says to Bella and Fëanáro.

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"Uh. Náro."

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"- Mariel."

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"Okay! How'd you find the hiking?"

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"I didn't like it. Too slow."

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"It must've taken you a couple weeks to get all the way out here."

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"I wanted to get some sketches."

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"Have you been to Lórien? My wife's a photographer and she stops by there all the time."

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...nod.

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What's a photographer, he barely resists asking.

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"Thanks for the ride."

        "Of course. Do you know why I couldn't ping you, I've never heard of that happening before."

"No idea. We'll get it looked into."

       "I can check if it's fixed now -" Pause - "Nope. Oh, you might not be able to buy anything, you should check that before we drop you off."

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We don't have any urgent shopping, she suggests to Rúmil.

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"We don't have any urgent shopping," he says gratefully, "I'll check once we're home."

          "No, it's kind of a big deal, what if you're not backing up right?"

"That's terribly uncommon, isn't it?"

          "Honestly I've never heard of it but I've never not been able to ping someone elther - maybe it's my chip malfunctioning, can you ping each other -"

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Maybe if we say yes she'll be distracted fixing that?

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Good idea, he says guiltily. 

 

"Uh, yes, I can ping them fine -"

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"Works for me!"

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Nod nod!

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         "Huh. I wasn't having trouble with traffic control, and I ordered a new plane okay - or I thought I did - maybe Vanimë pushed me a new comm blessing and you guys have an incompatible standard? I thought they were trying to regulate that sort of thing, safety reasons..."

"Always takes some time to come up with rules for that sort of thing," Rúmil says solemnly. 

        "I thought it was one of those things the prince got outta the way before he finally settled down but I will admit I get all my politics from the magazine covers in the checkout aisle."

"Me too," Rúmil agrees.

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Tell her the plane woke us up and we're really tired, can we catch up on our nap - Yawn.

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"We were actually just going to sleep when you arrived, do you mind terribly if we catch up on our nap -"

       "Course not? Just... on the ground? You didn't bring sleepsacks or ...pillows or anything?"

"We find it very refreshing."

      "Okay. I'll let you know when the ride's here." And she turns away, frowning.

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Bella gets comfy.

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A while later a bigger metal thing wakes her up again.

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She tries tapping Fëanáro again - Not quite -

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If we are very resting on the trip -

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Depends how long it is.

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He gets onto the flying metal thing and tries to rest really hard.

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Bella leans on Rúmil to try to sleep more but doesn't manage it.

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The flying thing swoops through the sky towards another pretty Elven city, this one mostly glass and sculpted into the hillside! "Address?" Ercassë says.

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Just drop us off anywhere we haven't got the hiking out of our systems?

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Rúmil gratefully repeats this. The woman nods, hums, taps-taps - "oh, actually, I know someone in town who does chip troubleshooting, let's stop there."

The flying thing descends.

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Ugh ugh ugh

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And someone else comes out to meet it. Looks at them, says - "Rúmil?"

            "Uh. Hi!"

"And Mirelótë! Are you okay? You look terrible - oh no, what happened -"

             "Can we perhaps explain somewhere more private? And maybe in a few hours, we were interrupted in our sleep -"

"Yes, of course, come in - are you sure she doesn't need a doctor she looks like she needs a doctor -"

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Headshake.

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              "I had no idea you guys were in town! Whose kid are you watching -"

"Family friend -"

              "He looks like Curufinwë -"

"You know, I don't think anyone's told him that before, you should be flattered, son -"

They disembark. 

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aaaaaaaaaaaaah

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The person offers Bella-who-they-think-is-someone-else an arm. "Can I at least get you a glass of water or something -"

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...nod?

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Glass! Water! Chattering - "you can use the guest room, I'm not reading anything off you at all and it's really weird but I can run a diagnostic while you sleep -"

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...sip, sip.

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Guest room!

 

 

...and he makes a call to Tirion, asks a few questions, asked a few more panicked questions, gets the call transfered over to Valimar -

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"Hello?"

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"Hi! Uh - did you perchance fork recently."

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"Uh, no, why?"

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"Did Rúmil?"

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"No!"

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"There's a you and a Rúmil sleeping in my guest room and they're not married and they're not registering as - anything, it's like there's no one there - to sensors and they have what looks like a eleven or twelve year old?"

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"...I do not know why that would be. Does the kid look like anyone?"

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"Looks like the prince Curufinwë when he was a kid, sort of, I pulled up old pictures to make sure it wasn't just in my head and it definitely wasn't just in my head but it's not a fork of him at that age, I don't think..."

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"I have no information about this at all but I can come down..."

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"Oh, you don't have to if you'd rather not, I just didn't want you to get a call from enforcement out of the blue -"

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"I would have been very surprised. I'll be there, maybe Rúmil too if someone's pretending to be him."

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"Thanks so much!"

He hangs up. He runs another chip scan, idly. He gets some ice cream.

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"Dear? You wouldn't fork us without telling me, right?"

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"Hmm? - no. What happened -"

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"People who look like us, but not married, toting a child who more loosely resembles a young Curufinwë, have appeared mysteriously."

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"Well. That's very mysterious."

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"Very. Want to come investigate?"

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"Love to!"

 

Off they go.

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Knock knock.

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Door opens. "They're asleep, should I wake them?"

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"I'd like to know more details first."

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And so she can get an account of everything he knows, which isn't much. Picked up in the desert, quiet and nervous, accepted a ride here, the chip problem, their brief conversation...

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"How bizarre. I'd like to see them."

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He knocks on the door of his guest room. "There's someone here to meet you!"

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I didn't even fall asleep yet -

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"Can it wait until morning?"

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"I think it's urgent," he says uncertainly, and opens the door wider. 

 

There are definitely a Bella and a Rúmil. They are both Elves and they are married.

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Blink.

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"Huh."

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"Uh. Hello."

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"Hello. ...Oh, he doesn't look like Curufinwë, he looks like Fëanáro. The question is why."

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"It's a long story and we'd really much sooner explain once we've slept."

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"You don't really look tired," she points out.

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"This has all been a bit overwhelming."

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"Perhaps you could give me the quick version."

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"We aren't from here and that's why whatever you're trying doesn't work. Where we're from it's 1181. I take it it's - not."

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"...no. It is not. It's 1512." She looks at Bella. "Why don't you talk?"

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"Um."

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"It wouldn't be a short version if we got into that."

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"I would like you to feel comfortable enough to talk to me and I'm not sure why - well, why any of this but in particular why you're so reluctant to explain - we're not angry that you went around looking like us -"

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"A lot of well-intentioned people have in the past taken actions that nearly got us killed."

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"Are you unusually vulnerable in some way? We certainly aren't going to try to kill you."

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"That is also a reassurance well-intentioned people have given us before doing things that put us at great risk. In particular we don't want to be sent home or prevented from leaving here together."

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"Does sleeping have to do with leaving somehow?"

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"It gives us the option."

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"Will you talk to us after you've slept?"

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He looks uncertainly at Bella. "Are other people going to be brought into it?"

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"You've rather disconcerted your host but I can ask him not to distribute the news right away."

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"Then yes, we'll talk to you when we wake up."

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"All right. Sleep well."

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"Thank you. We're sorry for the trouble."

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"It's all right." And she backs out of the room and shuts the door.

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That was weird.

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Yeah. Should we stay, do you think?

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...bolt if we feel static?

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Sounds good. 

 

And they sleep.

 

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Mirelótë apologizes for the inconvenience to the owner of the house and asks that no one who might spook the visitors be involved yet.

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"Okay. Can I get you guys anything?"

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"We're fine, thank you, but how have you been -?"

Small talk ensues.

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Eventually the refugees wake up.

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What do we do-

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...talk to our lookalikes and jump again if we have to.

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Nod. Cling.

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Hug.

Out they go from the guest room.

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"Hello. I'm Mirelótë Ambela. And you?"

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"Isabella."

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"I'm Fëanáro."

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"Rúmil."

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"That might get confusing. And you're from - not the past, an alternate universe in which it is earlier?"

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"We think so."

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"All right. - Isabella, you're not an Elf -"

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"My world doesn't have Elves. I'm a human."

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"- oh, you were hiding your accent. Well. What brings you all here?"

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"Bella landed in Arda from a horrible world. The Valar sent her back. We got her and ran away."

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"I see. Why did they do that?"

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"Because they're stupid and evil."

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...Ambela looks at Bella and Rúmil.

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"I invented a lot of things. They could break them whenever they wanted but they thought it was too fast. They thought I was a bad influence on Fëanáro. They wouldn't settle for just sending me to Endorë either."

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"I think Fëanáro's description is pretty fair."

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"Be that as it may it doesn't help me predict if the Valar here will make the same choices," Mirelótë says. "...Your world doesn't have a me? Natively?"

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"It does not. We are intending not to come to the attention of the Valar here."

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"That's understandable. Are there other differences you've noticed -? The chips, apparently..."

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"The sky is off, you have invented lots more things but that follows from how long it's been - the view from the flying thing was very weird - Bella can tell what species people are and you all register as approximately but not exactly Elves -"

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"How was the view weird?"

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He bounces it to her. The ground looked curved, like so! He hasn't flown at home but he knows what the horizon looks like; it'd be this.

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"You don't live on a sphere?"

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" - no? It seems like it'd be a little annoying, you couldn't see very far..."

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"I'm from a sphere."

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"Huh. A horrible sphere."

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"It punishes science. Doing experiments is always unproductive and often fatal. They sent me back to it after I'd already reverse-engineered a lot of magic. I don't know if I survived because they actually managed to protect me somehow or because I then carefully didn't do any wizardry at all until Fëanáro rescued me."

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"Oh."

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"It took me most of a Year she could have died."

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"I think I can be very confident that the Valar here would not do that but I won't suggest you test my expectation."

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"We wouldn't have expected it of ours, either."

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Nod. "Well, you probably don't want to stay in Valimar with us, but the local Fëanáro lives on the other side of the planet in Tirion, if you'd like to try him for longer term accommodations."

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He looks at Fëanáro and Bella. "We might consider it. How is he?"

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"Doing very well!"

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"It might be a little odd since he has grandchildren older than you," she tells smol Fëanáro.

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"Grandchildren??"

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"Three of 'em."

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"Huh. I guess he could explain all the new inventions and things to us."

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"Definitely the best place to go for that."

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"And the Valar won't panic and break everything?"

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"Well, inventing magical things might get their attention, which it sounds like you don't want, but I honestly would not expect that."

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"We'll be really quiet about any magic things we invent. Maybe we'll go to Endorë - do they pay attention in Endorë -"

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"Less, but Ulmo is usually there to do reembodiments and listen to miscellaneous requests."

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"We'll look into it," he tells Fëanáro.

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"It's a long trip, ours tried to go as a kid and got very very bored -"

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"Now he's planning to invent faster than light travel."

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"...light has a speed?"

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"Light has a speed, things mostly don't go faster than that, and it takes two and a half Years to get to Endorë from Valinor."

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"...it does not take that long back in our world."

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"- is Endorë on the same... flat thing... as Valinor is?"

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"Yes?"

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"Our Endorë is a separate sphere."

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"Oh."

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"We could probably -" he goes quiet on a warning glance from his Rúmil.

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Mirelótë looks curious but doesn't push it. "Anyway, if you'd rather go there, there are regular ships, but 'regular' means 'once a Year'. Or I suppose you could leave the same way you came - I assume that was magic -"

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Nod.

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"But I'm so terribly curious about you and feel it might be a waste if you just vanished never to be seen again."

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"We were kind of looking for a world without gods. We could maybe get you once we find one?"

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"I live in Valimar on purpose."

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"I could invent interdimensional communicators."

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"That would be more like it."

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"What do you do there?"

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"Funnily enough, I talk to the Valar a lot."

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"I won't tell them about you. They are not running a police state."

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"Thank you."

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"You're welcome."

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"How do we get to Tirion from here?"

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"A long train ride or a shorter plane ride."

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"What're those?"

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"- we had trains, when our Fëanáro was your age -"

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"Our history might have been slightly derailed by Bella's arrival?"

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"I suppose - well, a train is a string of connected wheeled vehicles pulled along by an engine in the first that go along tracks -"

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"They, uh. They didn't have wheels when I showed up."

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"...ah. That's different."

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"You had wheels by then?"

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"We had wheels before Fëanáro was even born. Before we even came to Valinor."

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"...huh."

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"Cool. - this place would look really awesome if it didn't have gods."

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"I assume I should not try too hard to defend them to you."

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"Yours might be better than that but we really thought ours were better than that."

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"You could read through some of the things they've done, see if they seem sensible to you. But you don't have to. They won't notice you."

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"Unless we do anything interesting."

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"What sort of interesting things were you doing?"

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"They objected particularly to the necklaces that fixed the time-slide effect."

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"...huh. Ours don't mind if we adjust that with blessings..."

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"They said everyone'd feel pressured to do it."

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"Plenty of people like it slow! And people fiddle with it when they go on vacation or if they want to match to coordinate on something."

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"What are blessings?"

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"They're - things - that go on our chips, so I suppose you wouldn't have them -"

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Headshakes.

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"There are a lot of them for improved memory or autonomic control or things like that, and marriage blessings with improved osanwë add-ons of various sorts."

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"And we would know if we had - chips? - "

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"Probably? I suppose you might have incompatible ones and somehow not know about them..."

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"How would we check?"

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"I suppose we could put your heads under a metal detector."

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Confusion!

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"Oooooohhh how do those work -"

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"Magnets. I was doing other things when they were invented and didn't look into it in detail."

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"What are magnets - do you have books on all this -"

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"They might use a different alphabet than the one you invented, Fëanáro -"

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"Oh - of course you'd invent the alphabet if there weren't one by the time you needed it -"

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"Bella had books with her and they were amazing."

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"Mirelótë invented the alphabet for us."

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"I invented an alphabet, dear, you invented the alphabet."

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Blink.

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"Mirelóte invented writing but people were too silly to appreciate her properly so I refined the letters to be more of an art form and then they were delighted to adopt it."

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"...I just landed with school textbooks and Fëanáro thought they were the most beautiful things ever so I taught him to read my native language and then he invented letters for Quenya."

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"Awwww!"

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Bounce bounce.

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"But it is terribly unlikely they would be the same letters."

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Mirelótë has a notetaking thingy on her person. She pulls it out of her pocket.

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"...they're the same."

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"That's weird."

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"I'm not sure it's actually stranger than the same people lined up similarly in worlds with such different geology and technology."

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"That's also really weird."

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"I'm not disputing that. I assume if you aren't Valar fans we shouldn't ask Eru about that, either."

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"He really exists?"

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"Yyyyep."

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" - interesting."

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"It explained a lot."

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"Oh?"

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"He likes tragedies but now he just reads books like a normal person."

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Small miserable noise.

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He shivers.

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"That explains the prophecies."

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"Prophecies -?"

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"Sometimes people get dreams about the future, and you can't share them and can't use them to change things? The Valar had a bunch about me and I kill a lot of people and die."

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"That sounds disturbing. We don't have those and our Fëanáro has not killed any people or ever died."

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"I could share them and they told me a bunch of them in case I could use them but then changed their minds about whether they wanted me doing anything."

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"Because they're stupid and evil."

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"They sound... weirdly reactionary and bad at communicating, certainly..."

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"Sending people who trusted you off to die when you are gods because they're disruptive is evil."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Are these even the same Valar - do you happen to know how the vote split -"

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"Vote?"

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"They - ours anyway - they have internal disagreements sometimes and if they don't come to a consensus when arguing they vote?"

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"If ours do that they haven't mentioned it - they disagree sometimes, definitely, but I'm not sure how those disagreements are resolved..."

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"Ours used to value the appearance of unanimity more than they do these days."

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Nod.

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"The ones who disagreed didn't do anything though."

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Nod. "I'm very sorry this happened to you."

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"Thanks."

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He clings to his Bella.

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Hug.

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"Anyway, we'd be happy to escort you to Tirion but people who know us will be confused about the apparent forking..."

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"Forking?"

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"With chips people's minds are stored as information. It can be copied and the copy can be embodied just like a chip from someone who's died can be reembodied, and then there are two. - do you have reembodiment, with no chips -"

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"Mandos can bring back the dead from his Halls, yes..."

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"Missing half their memories, tampered with..."

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"...ours has stopped that."

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"That's nice."

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"If only I'd landed a few hundred years later."

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"I don't know how much of it would have happened without Ambela."

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"...Ours were always well-intentioned -"

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"I thought ours were too."

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Nod.

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"We can go to Tirion invisible."

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"Ooh, you can do that? That would prevent excess attention all right."

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"I learned lots of sneaky spells when they were trying to stop me from going to rescue Bella."

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"- who was -?"

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"Everyone. They took away all my paper so I couldn't write."

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"It was really mean."

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"To - be fair to Fëanáro's parents," he says quietly, "he had loudly declared his intent to do something that everyone thought was very very likely to get him permanently killed and they had already tried to stop him by every other means."

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Nod.

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Hug.

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"They could've stopped me by bringing Bella back."

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"I was trying!"

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"Well, here I am now."

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"Because I went and got you."

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"Yes. Thank you. I was terrified for you."

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"I was terrified for you!"

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"...so is this a yes to going to Tirion?"

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"It sounds like a good idea to me."

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So they can arrange a shuttle.

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And he can invisible himself and Bella and his Rúmil.

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And on the way Mirelótë attempts to summarize the situation for Fëanáro and his family.

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Oh, poor things. You should drop them off at Nelyafinwë's, so the me has children his age around -

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They are of course very welcome but I have this feeling a small you whose world just invented the wheel is going to barricade himself in the study and treat other small children like moving obstacles that don't possess a high enough information density per interaction.

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Yes, that is my expectation too.

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It is possible Tyelperinquar would have a high enough information density per interaction though we're less set up for guests.

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Well, my inclination is to go to Fëanáro's first, substantially because I think the person who seems to be a version of me will want to hug him, and then present the idea of visiting alternate-universe-relatives but I can re-plan if that seems wise.

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I'm in the middle of something.

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Dear.

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He'll understand.

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His companions seem a little spooked, though.

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They'll probably understand too. We can start at Curufinwë's if he doesn't mind doing last-minute guest prep.

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I'll manage.

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So Mirelótë tells the visitors that the local Fëanáro ("You'll need nicknames as though you were forks - you too, Rúmils -") suggested going first to one of his kids' houses on the grounds that he thinks a small him will get along with the corresponding grandchild.

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"We don't really need company especially. Just a safe place to figure out where our spells went wrong."

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"Well, his house is also a safe place. I don't think Tyelperinquar will take it very personally if you'd rather work on your spells, although he probably will want to know what you're doing."

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"If he does them in public the Valar find out and then -"

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"...even our Valar didn't do anything to natives - did they -?"

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"I don't know because I was confined to my house with no paper and constant supervision and people screaming at me!"

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"They didn't."

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Bella hugs Fëanáro again.

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"Well, you've also been invited to the other house with grandkids, who are less likely to demand tutoring but more likely to get in your way. Your - not fork, your... alt? - is in the middle of something though."

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"Somewhere quiet where we can work is good."

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So she tells the local Fëanáro that they don't want to socialize and seem likely to just colonize a room and work on stuff, his house it is.

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And they look out the window at the weird curvy horizon.

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He bounces it for Bella. 

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I was in an airship on Materia once, sphere planets look like that from high up.

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It's a change. Do you think we should stay?

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She has a point that it would be a pity not to figure all this out but I'd like another place ready to go in case. Though we keep landing in places that were not what we had in mind and should probably try to reparameterize.

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Definitely. And maybe only do one jump a day, so we can handle problems when we arrive.

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Yeah. This one at least no one is obviously trying to kill us and the Valar aren't aware of us yet. We can come back to it if we land places we don't want to be.

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Yes. Maybe get a teleport and go to Endorë.

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Which only has one Vala on it, but he can't be everywhere at once...

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Exactly, and in general they seem temperamentally less inclined to interfere with things happening there...

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Ours do, but ours didn't bother sending Ulmo over a much shorter distance.

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It still wouldn't necessarily be safe to go public with magic but it might be a safer place to live quietly out of the way.

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Which isn't what we're looking for long-term but it'd be a reasonable vantage point for tinkering with the spell and jumping from.

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Yes. Long-term we are going somewhere where we don't have to hide. Just - that might turn out to be a little hard to find.

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Oh well.

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At least you're out of Materia.

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Yes.

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Sigh.

 

They fly towards a city with graceful steel building hundreds of stories tall.

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Wow.

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"It's so pretty!!"

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"Yeah, wow. Very science fantasy."

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"I am glad to know things would have gotten nicer eventually. Too bad how I'd be dead."

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Hug.

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"It sounds like here you are alive and happy."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And busy. Or is this not an unusually interesting event, by local standards -?"

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"It is, he just gets like that."

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"Me too."

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"Do you think he'll want to come with us, once we explain?"

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"Probably."

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"It might be useful to have someone who knows things about science fantasy things and how they work."

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"And he'll want magic."

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"As long as he visits sometimes."

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"If he's willing to risk it we wouldn't stop him!"

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"It honestly does sound like our Valar are different."

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"I hope so."

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"Are you planning to check somehow?"

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"Maybe. From farther away."

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"Like a dimension away."

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Nod.

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"Okay."

Shuttle shuttle.

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Shuttle lands! The city is even prettier up close.

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And Ambela and her husband can lead their alts and the smol invisibly through the city to Fëanáro's.

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It's clearly older than most of the city around it and a little out of the way. It's quiet.

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Knock knock.

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Door opens! No one is on the other side.

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She shows them in and shows them where stuff is and demonstrates the plumbing and kitchen appliances and tells them where not to go when the residents are busy. "Do you need anything?"

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"I don't think so. Thank you very much."

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"All right - we have an apartment two blocks over, that way," point, "that we stay in when we're in Tirion, third floor in the blue building if you need us."

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"Can we osanwë you?"

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"...without chips?"

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"...I'm still not clear on what chips are or what they do but if they're needed for osanwë we definitely have them..."

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"They're how we do it - Ainur don't have chips though, and can osanwë just fine. Try it?"

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Hello?

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Hello! Yes, feel free to osanwë me if something comes up.

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Thanks!

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And off they go.

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And they settle in, not entirely comfortably, and - "Okay. What do we want to do first?"

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"...I'm actually hungry."

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"Food would be okay."

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"Do you suppose Mirelótë showing us the microwave means we are allowed to raid the kitchen."

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"Yeah definitely."

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So Bella makes them all lunch, and then glances at the boxes of books and stuff they've been hauling around and digs through the boxes to get her crystal ball and do some notetaking.

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And he eats and bounces and explores the house and then starts disassembling the microwave.

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...Bella giggles and works on spell parameters.

Permalink Mark Unread

Once the microwave is disassembled he will help with that, he made the spell and it's a bit messy and he might have some ideas.

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And then a door will open and - "Oh, hello. There're models online, you know -"

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Bounce! Cling! "Hi! Is that a word for the science ethernet we haven't got it figured out yet -"

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"Science ethernet?"

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Concept bounce - "it's nice to meet you we have magic you can leave if you want -"

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"The ethernet is a network between crystal balls and pocket mirrors that lets them talk to them."

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" - yeah, we've got that, but without magic, we haven't got any magic except the Valar and Maiar, which are presumed to be."

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"...it's nice to meet you," she adds, "I'm Bella."

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"Hi! You don't look like a fork of Mirelóte exactly..."

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"I've been told I look awful, yes. I'm not an Elf."

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"Not awful, just - inexact. What are you?"

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"A human."

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"Nice to meet you. Where did you all come from?"

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"I'm from a world called Materia and there was a magical accident that sent me to... Flat Arda... and that's where these two are from."

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"...magical accident? These are other planets? Do you know where?"

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"Other planes, not other planets. My home planet is surrounded by a crystal sphere that keeps out the gibbering horrors, I am pretty sure you cannot traverse space here to there."

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" - huh. How many planes are there, do you know?"

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"At least thirty, so, lots."

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"And how do you get between them, how does your world know of them all..."

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"My world has a lot of magic and some of it can move stuff between planes. All the planes they know about there are subject to the same anti-science effect so they haven't ranged beyond a limited set."

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"Anti-science effect?"

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"It's horrible."

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Fervent nodding.

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"Okay. We're pretty well-positioned to start planar exploration, I should think, how'd you get here from your world -"

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"- Mirelótë's right, you need nicknames. Fëanáro invented a spell for it so he could rescue me."

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"I wanna be nicknamed Epic."

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"- how's the magic work, is it transmissible, are all of the other planes doing well or do any of them urgently need reaching..."

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"That last is not exhausted by those options do not try to reach anti-science planes it is a miracle Epic survived the time it took to pack and I specifically kept language books around as a precaution for exactly that."

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Shrug. "I'm not that fussed about dying."

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"Or worse, there's worse to be had."

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"And people live there?'

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"Feel free to try to evacuate it from. Outside. The. Universe."

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"Yes, it makes sense to work somewhere where science does, calm down."

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"Sorry."

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He looks confused.

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"It has been a stressful few days."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Then find a spa or something. Do you want a lecture on the last couple centuries of technology, Epic -"

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"Yeah! - don't be mean to Bella she's really good and smart."

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"Is that so. The most important thing you need to know about is electricity -" and he pulls up a screen and starts talking, with models to demonstrate.

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It's interesting but it does not seem paced for audiences who are not named Fëanáro. She works on the spell parameters instead after a few minutes.

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They'll be at this for hours.

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Are you doing all right?

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I'm okay. I'll feel better once we can find somewhere that has science and no Valar or killer robots.

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Me too. You wouldn't think those would be outrageous criteria.

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Well, if you'd asked me when I was eighteen if science was an outrageous criterion...

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He shakes his head. I wouldn't have expected no Valar to be a sticking point.

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Maybe Valar cause science, or something.

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I hope there are other things that cause science, then.

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I hope so too.

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If not maybe we can live in Endorë and quietly invent things.

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Still an improvement.

Permalink Mark Unread

Yeah. It'd be okay. Not good enough.

Permalink Mark Unread

Well, eventually we could go live on a different sphere without even one Vala on it, once we had enough magic worked out..

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Yeah. You're still unaging, right?

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I think so but it's still technically possible I'm just one of those people who ages really well.

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Can your magic fix that, if so?

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Not in Materia.

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Well. That can't stop us now.

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Nod.

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I'm so sorry. 

Permalink Mark Unread

What for -?

Permalink Mark Unread

I should have warned you to leave for Endorë or something -

Permalink Mark Unread

There wasn't warning.

Permalink Mark Unread

If we'd been more paranoid maybe there would have been.

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Maybe. I don't blame you.

Permalink Mark Unread

I know. But still. It happened, and there might have been something I could have done, and I'm sorry.

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Thank you.

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Getting anywhere on better parameters?

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I might be able to exclude Valar, but not gods in general yet...

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Valar are probably less bad than average for gods, because of the being slow and not paying much attention...

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Yeah. This place might be the best we can do.

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I think we should do a couple more jumps to check. But if it is, that's okay, Endorë until we can make a sphere of our own.

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Sounds like a plan.

Why do you think the - you and the me if she is a me - like the Valar here -

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It's possible their Valar are better. It's possible their Valar haven't had a chance to be catastrophically wrong - I liked ours, when all they'd done was stop Melkor and invite us to paradise...

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It's later, here, and they've invented more things even if they aren't magic...

Permalink Mark Unread

Yes, but maybe they went very very slow. And apparently there aren't any prophecies.

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Yeah.

Permalink Mark Unread

It might be that these ones are better. I just don't want to place any weight on ice that looks thicker than the last ice we tried standing on -

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Yeah.

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Squeeze.

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"So," he says a few hours later when his alt is listening to a recording of an orcish translation of the Ainulindale, frowning, "how does magic work?"

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"Wizardry? - do you not have magic songs here, that just occurred to me as an implication of all your magic being Ainur -"

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" - we don't. Magic songs?"

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"I don't sing well enough to do most of them..."

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He does! Now there's a windstorm.

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"Huh. No, that's not a thing, we'd have noticed - how do you do it, what can you do -"

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He lists things.

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Bella has notes on it from when she was investigating for the first time.

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"These are useful," he says, sounding slightly surprised. "I should get Macalaurë, he'll be delighted."

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"Who's that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"My son."

Permalink Mark Unread

Nod. "Anyway, so there's magic songs and there's magic jewelry, native to the flat Arda, but I can't do the jewelry one at all, it needs osanwë - the magic kind, I bet the chip kind doesn't do it - and I don't have it, I just sort of pretend with subtle arts."

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"Huh. Yes, we don't have any magic. How does the jewelry version work -"

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He explains!!!

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She has notes on that too.

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"Have you developed spells for teleporting between planets in the same universe?"

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"No, it hasn't come up before, but it should be doable."

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He shakes his head and laughs.

Permalink Mark Unread

"What?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I've spent the last twenty years figuring out how to do it without magic."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...oh."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Anyone can learn the magic?"

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"Yeah. Well, some people don't get anywhere but that seems to be a general intelligence thing."

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"How do you learn it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Somebody walks you through scrolls for the easiest kind of spell and you go from there."

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"Excellent, let's go."

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"...I'll have to find one, hang on -"

She rummages around in the boxes. Telekinesis is involved.

Permalink Mark Unread

He waits something resembling patiently.

Permalink Mark Unread

She turns up a scroll for Prestidigitation and starts explaining it.

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Then he will learn magic! And be very pleased about it! "You should put this online, with a video tutorial if needed -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Can't, the Valar might be stupid."

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"- why, does it do something really dangerous?"

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"This one doesn't. Some of them can. I haven't invented any combat spells but they're a big thing in Materia. Anyway, they might do something stupid even if there weren't any actually dangerous magic in circulation."

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"I don't really think so. They don't interfere with our internal affairs."

Permalink Mark Unread

"They broke a bunch of stuff in the flat Arda."

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"Why?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It was going too fast for them and they didn't think people should get to opt out of the time slide en masse."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...that's bizarre. Whyever not?"

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"In case people who liked it slow felt pressured to keep up."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, did you not have a good system to prevent poverty and everything in place?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It was a gift economy? It worked fine..."

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"...then I have no idea why they'd do that. Maybe talk to Nelyo or something." And he goes back to trying to learn the cantrip.

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She helps until he has it.

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He bounces around gleefully, of course. "How useful!!"

Permalink Mark Unread

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"You should really talk with Nelyafinwë. About sharing it. What else are there scrolls for..."

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Bella digs up three more. "I can make more with the right ink and stuff."

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"I can place an order, what's the right ink?"

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She recites scroll ink parameters.

Permalink Mark Unread

He does something mysterious at a glowing screen - "should drop them off this evening."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...cool."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Anything else?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Brushes and parchment."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Specifics?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She has those too.

Permalink Mark Unread

Then those, too, will be delivered. "Did Mirelótë explain everything to you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Define 'everything'?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Enough that you're comfortable going about your business?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We want to be inconspicuous... so there's not very much business to go about."

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"This city has ten million people, no one's going to blink at you. But all right."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The second person we met recognized us and thought I was Mirelótë afflicted with some disease or something."

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"And divorced! He must have been so confused. The magic doesn't do illusions so you look different?"

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"- she's - they're - married?" Pause. "Elves here can get divorced? Illusions are possible but I don't know a good one."

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"Elves can get divorced. They really, really don't, and Mirelótë in particular is rather the last person I'd expect, but it's allowed ever since Eru admitted it was only prohibited for tragic reasons."

Permalink Mark Unread

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"My mother's back."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh good! Bella saved mine - how'd they fix yours -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The Valar changed oaths so they can't be binding over future actions anymore."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...that's good of them..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, freed all the orcs too. Even Melkor was glad."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...huh."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It has drawbacks but it's much safer. In the end the polling was very supportive of the change."

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"They polled people."

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"Hmm? Yeah, of course, it affected us! They were going to do it just for people who individually wanted it, if the population was split enough, but defaulting to off for new people and once we talked it through we just thought making the change uniformly as a society was more elegant..."

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"They almost don't sound like Valar. But last time I got told that the local gods weren't like the ones I was used to and believed it, it was - bad."

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Shrug. "I don't like gods much, that's why we settled on the opposite side of the planet."

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Nod.

Permalink Mark Unread

He leaves.

Permalink Mark Unread

 

"Well, that's interesting."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I want to be so powerful no one can squish me instead of counting on it that they probably wouldn't do something like that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sure, but in the meantime..."

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"In the meantime here is probably an okay place to stay."

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Nod.

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"Electricity's really cool."

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"I didn't really follow the explanation."

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Then she will get another, slower one! With illusion demonstrations - "I learned this spell so I could write after they took away my paper" -

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"Makes sense, it must have been hard to invent it when you couldn't write -"

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Fervent nod. "It was horrible - I was so scared you were dead -"

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Squeeze.

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Squeeze. "Let's go flying."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Invisibly?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sure."

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Invisible flying!!!

Permalink Mark Unread

It has been way too long.

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I can imagine.

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Swoop.

 

 

And then not to Epic - Do they look married the same way the kind from flat Arda do?

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Yes. Can you not see it even when I bounce it to you?

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I never got used to recognizing it.

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It looks the same as back home; no one would think anything of it.

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Zoom.

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Should I have forewarned you?

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No, it's okay, more information would've been a bit much.

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I would really like to know if she's for sure - a you -

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She... might be? I can actually pick up a similarity between you and the other you and the two Fëanáros but I don't read myself the same way.

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Are there questions you could ask that would confirm it?

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Maybe, I'm not sure what should be expected to match regardless of - everything -

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You had very different life experiences, true.

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And different species and she'd be a lot older.

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Yeah. She can be assumed to like singing more and walk fine without boots and so on, but that's not - the thing I'd want to know -

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Exactly.

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Wouldn't you notice, though? The key bits, if she's you aside from the different experiences -

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If there's some direct reason she's so fond of the Valar I'd have to get pretty invasive to know.

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You'd want - a not-mind-controlled version of you - to rescue one who was, right?

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Yes...

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Would you mind a you checking if they didn't have another way to be sure?

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- for a very rigorous definition of not having another way. And I'd have to know she was a me, too, not somebody who just - resembles me -

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He nods invisibly, remembers that won't work, and sends worried agreement.

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The you is a you though, he might be able to help figure it out?

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I can ask him. Do you know what you'd want me to ask?

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Not sure. Too much stuff I don't know.

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We've got time.

 

They fly. They go home and get dinner. Their scrolls and inks are delivered.

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Bella paints scrolls.

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He reads histories.

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He figures out the science ethernet!!!

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"Maybe we can hook up crystal balls to it."

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"That'd be cool. I don't have any idea how you'd go about it."

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"Well, how does it work without crystal balls in?"

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Explanation!

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"I bet we can. - After fixing the planar transit though."

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Nodnod.

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So she gets back to work on that and has dinner and crashes for the night.

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In the morning someone knocks on the door.

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She can open it from across the room.

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Then she will see a tall Elf with red hair who beams at the tiny Fëanáro. "Hi! I'm Maitimo -"

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"Epic!"

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"Rúmil - we haven't picked nicknames."

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"You should, it's confusing. Bella."

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"It's nice to meet you all! I decided to stop in because my father is something of a neglectful host when in the middle of inventing lightleapers - honestly, something of a neglectful host even when not in the middle of inventing lightleapers - and it seemed like you could possibly stand some hosting. I brought breakfast, if anyone would like some." It smells delicious.

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"I was just figuring out what to make but I think whatever you've got there will improve on it."

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Plate of food! "Welcome to Tirion. I take it I shouldn't exactly give you the speech I'd give someone just off the ship from Endorë but it seems like possibly a decent starting point, if you're from 1181 and a world with some changes besides."

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"Lots of changes. I imported the concept of the wheel. And glass. And writing."

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"Mirelóte invented writing. I do not know if she had anything to do with glass or the wheel."

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"My world already had all of them. And other things, but those were reproducible without magic, which I had to reverse-engineer."

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"I am very interested in hearing about your world."

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"It has a monetary economy and a lot of kinds of magic plus the subtle arts. It has gods that are worse than either set of Valar and lots of different sapient species and even more political units all of which fight a lot. It and all the planes it normally contacts punish experimentation and science and progress has to be made without but for rich people in developed countries the standard of living is pretty okay."

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"Yikes. What's the best approach to fixing it?"

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"Invent a spell to summon people out of it and evacuate. Carefully. The magic takes pretty well to science once they can be combined so you'd have some powerful folks on your hands."

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"More than Melkor?"

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"If you got everybody? Yes. There's gods and god-tier things. If you skipped them it would take a while but I can't promise they wouldn't get there."

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He frowns. "Okay. The only worlds you know of are these ones and the anti-science ones?"

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"And the one we came through on our way in where stuff tried to kill us."

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"Any guesses as to how many there are?"

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"No clue. More, I imagine."

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"Maybe we'll start contact with ones that don't have Melkors, then. Assuming there are others that require improvement."

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"Didn't stay long enough to see if the world we came through had one of those."

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"So distance scrying should be a priority, sounds like."

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"Interworld. They're different problems."

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"Okay. We will count ourselves very fortunate you found us."

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"We've barely even done anything yet."

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"You alerted us to the existence of other worlds! That's tremendous."

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"All right, we did do that."

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"If the resemblance to Mirelóte is more than passing you will do all kinds of other things but allow us at least to be terribly excited about that."

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"I'm not sure how to tell if it is or not. I can tell with Rúmil and Fëanáro by subtle arts but I don't read myself by subtle arts like that."

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"Hmmm... when I give Ambela presents my default is commissioning her memory blessings, though she'll also enjoy tickets to performances of classic plays, she's waiting to have children until we have faster-than-light travel to Endorë, she writes a lot, she - thinks highly of herself, not at all in a bad way, she's really good at explaining things when people have very different backgrounds or starting assumptions..."

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"Uh-huh."

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"Useful? Should I go on -"

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"Yes please."

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"Writes a lot, I think every day, she says she'll stop if we ever get memory completely perfect but until then it's how she straightens her thoughts out, she and Rúmil were very instrumental in helping Finwë handle his grief at my grandmother's death and raise Fëanáro well, she really gets how to talk to him, about lost her mind at Mandos when she found out he was trying to fix the dead -"

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He giggles.

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"She was very civil. Talked them into stopping the correction therapy, too. She had a major hand in writing the Oath Reform Act, she pushed pretty hard for decentralized resurrections too..."

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"...she's an only child, she does not drink alcohol, she talks in her sleep..."

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"Okay, yeah. Minus, um, effectively talking Valar into anything."

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"You were used to gods who would squish you for having the nerve to have an opinion about whether they ought to!"

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"I mean, yes. But it would have been a useful skill apparently!"

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"How long did it take her?"

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"I think it was 220 Years before we started seeing real progress. By 300 they were very easy to talk to and good at taking advice, and from there they improved everything about Valinor, pretty rapidly."

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"Okay, I feel better now."

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"Does the other set need some sense talked into them?"

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"I did get Lórien's permission to restore the fuzzed-over memories people came out of Mandos with if they wanted. Couldn't undo the other editing."

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"That's really good, though, congratulations. How can you do that, exactly?"

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"I'm a subtle artist. I have a therapy license and mental powers and telekinesis. I borrow osanwë as a protocol around people who use it though, I don't read private thoughts."

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"You had just said you think you're an alternate universe version of Ambela, so I was not too worried. You could read thoughts, though? Melkor might agree to someone doing it, he wants to prove he's really reformed..."

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"I don't know how it'd work with a Vala; it'd be a really bad idea to try it on a god from my world."

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Nod. "Your world sounds terrible. I'm so glad you got out."

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"Thanks."

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"Hopefully we can get everyone else out safely."

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"Yeah. My parents are still alive."

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" - people die often enough that their continued being-alive is noteworthy?"

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"Humans do, we're not immortal."

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"Meaning -"

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"...meaning by default we get old and die? There are species in Materia that don't do that, but we're not one of them. Our Valar slowed me way down and I think that's still in effect though."

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"Yikes."

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"Humans were prophesied to show up in flat Arda too, but I guess if you don't have prophecies here we'd be a new idea."

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"If Eru dropped humans here Varda would go 'Eru, dear, how about a poetry contest where the prize is a new apartment in downtown Tirion? And all the contestants really want the apartment and will be so crushed if they lose.' And then they would go over and make them immortal and if the whole thing wasn't done before a single human died they would publish a discussion of how they'd failed to handle the situation well and how they planned to do better."

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"That sounds very nice. But, uh, the last time I went from a world with bad gods to a world with better gods I thought it was safe and showed up when they called me and they sent me to Materia while I begged on bended knee not to die because I was pretty sure the universe would obliterate me when I landed. So."

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"By all means stay very far away from them. Just - this universe will not have species which die for no reason. It won't happen."

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Nod.

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"And I hope you'll let us help with affairs with other planes, I understand you'd be afraid of getting the attention of the Valar but it sounds like the other planes need some aid."

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"I couldn't begin to stop you, I already taught your father some cantrips, there'd be no dissuading him."

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"You could distract him for a few Years with languages."

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"The only one I know that he doesn't is Pax. It will take him a week."

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"I packed the language books!"

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"All right, a month."

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Giggle.

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"You know what's out there, we don't, we'll listen to you if you have guidance on being careful. But - yeah, we should do something. We thought everyone everywhere was safe and they're not."

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Nod. "I've been trying to further refine the planehopping spell's parameterization. Didn't manage to figure out 'no gods' in a timely manner - I guess finding this plane was good but still."

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"Planes without gods are places we can probably accomplish a lot without added complications, yeah."

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"And I will be less on edge if I know where to go to find one of those."

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"Good skill."

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"Thanks."

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And he goes off to find his father.

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"Shall we go over to our alts'?"

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"And do what?"

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"Compare life histories?"

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Nod.

"Epic, you want to stay or come along?"

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"I'm reading!"

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"Okay. Enjoy."

Couple blocks that way blue building - there.

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They knock!

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And are let in!

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"Maitimo described you in some more detail and I think we are actually alts not just lookalikes even though I can't confirm directly," Bella tells Mirelótë.

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"I'd been taking that as approximately a given, I'm not sure how else you'd have my appearance and wind up with the company you're keeping."

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He laughs.

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"...and we thought we'd come compare life stories."

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"I was born in Endorë a few years before we left for Valinor. Came up with a serviceable shorthand form of writing when I was little, but it didn't catch on till Rúmil smoothed out the characters later, not pretty enough. My parents were divided on whether to follow Finwë; I broke the tie in favor - and on the way over I got to know Oromë and decided that the Valar, being the most concentrated sources of ability to do anything around, were very important and I needed to figure them out. So I did. Aulë was often near Tirion and he was one of the easier ones to talk to so I started with him, growing up, but moved to Valimar when I was an adult to be convenient to the lot of them. I've already described my confidence in the end product but take your time. I've known our Fëanáro since he was a baby and he used to pop by when I was in town even when he'd run away from home. Eventually after a hundred Years Rúmil admitted he had feelings for me -" She glances in a sort of prospective reproach at the visiting Rúmil - "and we got married somewhat less than a hundred Years later and honeymooned on Endorë and that's the most recent major life milestone which isn't about being charmed by other people's children or making further incremental Vala-related progress..."

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"They're really doing very well now - the Valar, that is, not other peoples' children, although like the Valar all of Fëanáro's grandchildren have theory of mind and understand why not to mindcontrol people."

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"I wound up having to route through appealing to Eru's design decisions up until the point where Eru was discovered to be. Himself."

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"I wonder if the Erus are the same."

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Shiver. "I hope not."

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"...you don't have chips but your Valar can do memory editing, did they roll you back or - not -?"

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"I declined their assistance, except for putting back memories that had been tampered with or erased. They're not very good at anything else yet."

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"Aha."

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"I'm all right. It's been a long time."

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"All right."

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"You rolled back?"

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"Yes."

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"Attempts at rescue forks don't go well."

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"It's not a very nice place."

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"But there weren't any whole mes around to do the me-ing, and I got better."

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"Well, I'm glad of that."

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"Bella was too, no one had explained anything to her, just pointed her to a plot of land and said 'you should get a house there!' and wished her well."

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"And made me go see Aulë to get my knife safety-enchanted first thing too. And did not understand why I might be scared of gods or kings, or worried about how to get anything to eat in a strange place with no money - Rúmil got me acclimated really well."

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"Scared of kings?"

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"Human kings are frequently paranoid, petty, and violent and would not have appreciated a sudden accidental appearance in their palace."

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He flinches. "You must have been terrified."

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"It didn't help that Fëanáro asked me not to tell anybody he was hiding in my guest room. On my lap."

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He sighs fondly.

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"It was adorable, yes."

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"I'm sorry, I'm sure it was also very stressful."

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"Yeah, I didn't like the idea of being caught in a royal disagreement. It was okay though."

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"Elf kings are not very petty or paranoid. Though I didn't think especially highly of Elu Thingol."

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"Haven't met him. I think I've heard the name, somebody in Endorë people would've earwired?"

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"Olwë, the King of Alqualondë, is his brother. Fëanáro's family spends a fair bit of time in Alqualondë, one of his half-brothers married Olwë's daughter and they're where the space program is headquartered. Anyway, Elu Thingol is not a bad King but 'petty and paranoid' wouldn't be too unfair."

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"But unlikely to execute accidental visitors, probably."

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He shudders. "Human kings would do that?"

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"Some of them, sure, they'd think I was an assassin or something."

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He looks even more confused. But - "oh, and when you die you can't be resurrected" -

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"We can if it's not old age or something exotic but it's expensive and assassins going after a king might have something exotic. Wouldn't help that I'm a subtle artist."

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"That's not common?"

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"Not very."

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"What else does it let you do?"

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She levitates a pen from a nearby table and spins it around in the air. "That, and lots of - not quite freeform but close to it mind stuff, like faking osanwë over short range."

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"If you wanted to do therapy here you certainly could, but it seems like there are more exciting things on the horizon."

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"Therapy was my nice safe career in Materia. I wasn't bad at it and the other Arda kind of really needed anyone who knew what they were doing but maybe it's less necessary here."

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"Our Valar are certainly a lot better. You don't need a career at all, really, if you just want some time off - or if you're mostly raising Fëanáro - neither Mirelótë nor I exactly are employed..."

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"Every now and then one of us publishes a book, but yes, everything we'd need more than baseline money for we just already have or wind up getting as presents."

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"They don't use money at all in the other Arda, they mostly thought it sounded awful."

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"Well, we didn't use to, but - we might just have more people than the other Arda? I could imagine never picking it up with a smaller population. Anyway, it was first used to allocate anything scarce and eventually we learned from the Dwarves how useful it is to have markets to communicate what people want so the most desired things get made more. That part still works even if everyone gets a generous allowance, if you did it without that it would be awful."

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"Yeah. It's much easier than polling everyone constantly about how much of which things they'd want, but obviously it only works if everyone has enough to start with."

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"Well, my world does it without that part."

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"Your world sounds terrible."

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"I'm not going to argue with you."

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"I hope you find one more to your liking and are safe and happy there."

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"Thanks."

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And then he will get all of Mirelótë's favorite foods to see if Bella likes them and put on one of her favorite movies.

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Bella likes most of the food and enjoys the movie (although it's a little slow-paced and low-plot for her). It is interesting that you can do movies without magic.

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"You can do them with magic?"

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"I can't personally, I haven't gone into illusion stuff much, but Materia has movies."

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"What are human movies like?"

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"I've only seen the one Elf movie but I'm going to guess they're quippier and denser and less arty and have more fighting dragons in them."

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"I cannot think of any movies with dragon-fighting," he agrees. "Lots of tragedies, occasional romances..."

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"We do have those but it is pretty common to work dragon-fighting in."

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And cultural exchange continues for a few hours!

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(When there is another movie underway Mirelótë unobtrusively tells visiting-Rúmil Don't wait a hundred Years. Even I thought that was silly and she's not an Elf.)

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Okay. Thank you.

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You're welcome.

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He tentatively puts an arm around Bella and watches the movie.

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Flop.

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It's nice to be at least mostly safe.

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Yep.

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Should we head back, check what Fëanáro's up to?

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Yeah, probably. He might be disassembling more appliances.

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He might've done the whole house. 

And they thank their hosts!

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"Come back any time."

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"We will!" And invisibly home!

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What is Epic up to?

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He is flopped on the floor with his alt and someone she won't recognize (unless she checks for alt-ness, then it's a Nerdanel), talking magic very fast and very excitedly!

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That's a Nerdanel, she tells Rúmil.

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Huh. Well, I suppose he didn't have however-many children himself.

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I wouldn't have put it past him.

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He laughs. The magic-workers do not notice they are being observed.

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Then they can be left be and Bella can get back to work.

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A while later he will come for snuggles.

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Snuggles! "We're pretty sure Mirelótë is in fact a me."

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"That makes sense, since you look the same."

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"Yeah, but I couldn't check directly. Also she likes the Valar so much because she has been patiently explaining to them for hundreds of Years how to not suck and eventually it sank in."

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"So probably they're actually okay?"

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"Probably."

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"Let's still find somewhere we can go if they're not."

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"That's the plan."

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"I was so scared you were dead."

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Hug. "It wasn't so bad."

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"Yes it was."

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"Okay it was terrible but I coped, I went to school and learned things and had a job and stuff."

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"I did not really cope."

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Squeeze.

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"But I did learn magic. And I got you and now everything's okay."

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"Mm-hm. Did you know that they have movies here without magic?"

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"Huh. Are they any good?"

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"They're a little Elfy for me but very pretty."

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"Once we have a backup world maybe we can watch some."

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"Sure. You want to look over what I've got so far?"

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Snuggle. "Yeah."

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Here's her progress so far.

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He has suggestions!!

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And eventually maybe they can get it working! Who wants to do the honors?

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"I'll go. I'll be back in a few minutes, even if it's really nice -"

 

And he jumps.

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What a pretty planet. Not too densely populated.

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And nothing appears to be shooting at anybody as far as he can see (and he can see a long way). It's curved like the new Arda. 

 

He jumps back and reports this.

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"No obvious signs of divinity either?"

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"No, though I'm not sure how you'd identify it at first glance, we might have to talk to some people."

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"And it had some? I'm not actually sure these parameters guarantee an inhabited planet, just one that's been visited."

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"Yep! Humans and winged humans, looked like."

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"Huh, winged humans. Magic or science or just random winged humans or not sure?"

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"Detecting magic on them didn't turn anything up but it's possible it wouldn't for all kinds of magic and they were really far off."

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"Well, we can find out. Go now or sleep on it?"

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"Let's sleep on it. Just in case."

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Nod.

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So the next morning they leave a note for their alts and jump back to the winged people planet.

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It continues to have humans and winged humans and be round.

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And not look nearly as stunning and high-tech as the new Arda, but no gods is such a selling point! "Should we go talk to people?"

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"Suppose so. Is there like a very small group of them somewhere so I can knock them out if suddenly violence?"

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He scans.

 

There, in the distance, are four or five humans travelling. None are winged. "That way."

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"How much of a hike are we talking about here?" She starts that way.

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"We might want to fly."

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"But not so far that we won't have the mana to go back if we fly?"

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He bounces her the location. "We'd be fine."

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So into the air they rise.

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And people-wards!

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The people are on horses and have wagons full of vegetables and crates of eggs. They are surprised to see attractive winglessly flying strangers in bizarre outfits, reasonably enough.

One of them says something.

Bella replies, We don't speak your language. Is it okay if we talk like this? If you think back at me I can hear that without hearing anything else you're thinking.

...Okay, replies one, and she bounces it to the Elves.

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He quietly echoes the thing they said to himself.

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But my friend here is very good at languages and would probably like it if you also spoke aloud while thinking at me, she goes on.

"...okay," repeats the same person. "Erm, what do you want -? We just have carrots and potatoes and eggs."

...we are not thieves, we're travelers and we don't know where we'd like to go next so we thought we'd ask the first people we saw.

"Oh. Um. We're going to Velora..."

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He copies quietly, beaming and bouncing in midair.

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What's in Velora?

"A big market... sometimes angels come down from the Eyrie."

Angels are the people with wings?

"Yeah."

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"Sometimes angels come down to Velora from the Eyrie? Sometimes angels come down to the market? What do angels want?'

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"...pretty much what most folks want... except they don't do their own shopping for the basic stuff."

He's working on the language, just correct his grammar if he gets one wrong.

"...oh."

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"What do most folks want? They don't do their own shopping?"

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The locals blink at him.

Do you think it's safe for very strange strangers to go to Velora?

"Probably... I mean, don't make the angels mad."

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"What make the angels mad?"

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"Makes. Breaking.. the law...?"

Is the law pretty common sense?

"I think so. Don't steal stuff, and such."

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"Breaking the law makes the angels mad. The Eyrie makes the angels come. Going to Velora I think so."

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"I think the angels go to the Eyrie on their own... last bit doesn't make sense..."

What is the Eyrie exactly?

"It's an angel hold, the angels and their people live up in it."

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"Their people?"

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"Their servants and girlfriends and mortal kids."

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He echoes this. "Angels not mortal?"

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"Angels aren't mortals," corrects the local.

Do they live forever?

"Oh, no, they're just beloved of Jovah, and all."

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"Jovah?"

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"The god? I guess if you're from another star you might have another one. The Edori say there's a god for every star."

Hm.

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How did this happen again.

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I don't know!

And, including the locals: What's Jovah like?

"Oh, he's good to us, sends rain when the angels ask and knows all our names..." He rolls up his sleeve and pats a jewel in his arm. It's pretty, if you like jewels embedded in arms.

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It's freaky. Why are there stupid gods everywhere.

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Check the place out or abort?

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If we're staying let's always make sure all of us have enough mana to jump back, no planning for overnights.

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I don't have the language yet.

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May we come with you to Velora?

"...Okay."

Thank you.

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They land. May as well save mana. He chatters at them the whole way.

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They are fairly indulgent about this behavior. He can learn Samarian.

Velora looks bright and bustling if slightly messy and undeveloped to Bella. The Elves probably have higher standards.

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It's ugly and not science fantasy at all but the language is good.

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"Isabella!" calls a voice across a crowd. Somebody is waving at Bella.

 

What.

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Maybe you are everywhere.

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"Oh, you're not Isabella," says the approaching person. "Sorry."

What did she say do you know those words -

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Oh, you're not Isabella, sorry.

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Bella smiles awkwardly and shrugs.

"You look exactly like a mortal version of her though," says the person, "you'd almost think - no, I'm pretty sure I'd know if she had a secret mortal sister -"

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He translates all of this except 'secret' which is a new word.

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"Anyway, I'm Serah," says the person.

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"Hi! I'm Fëanáro, this is Rúmil, this is Mariel, we are new!"

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"Well, welcome to Velora!"

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"Thank you! Do you like it here?"

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"Yeah, I come down here all the time."

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"Down here?"

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"I live in the Eyrie."

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"With the angels?"

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"Yeah, my dad and my brother are angels."

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Nodnod. "Is there a part of the world that has more, uh, spaceships than this?"

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"Huh?"

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"We're looking for spaceships."

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"I don't know what you mean."

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"That's okay."

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Might as well meet my angel alt long as we're here.

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Yeah. But I want to figure out how our parameterization was so bad. 

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Maybe some other civilization on some other star has spaceships.

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Maybe the space program is new?

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We should get a teleport working then we can teleport to the spaceships.

 

"We want to meet Isabella, would that be possible?"

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"Sure, she's going to pick me up. This way."

She shoulders through the crowd.

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They follow.

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And when they've been waiting a few minutes an angel spirals down. She is surprised.

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Is she the same as Mirelótë -

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Yep.

Hi! I'm a version of you from another universe!

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"Um..."

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I am not reading your mind but you can reply to me by thinking at me and I'll get just that.

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Can I take Serah home and come back to talk to you?

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Sure.

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So the angel Isabella scoops up Serah and takes a running start and flies her up the mountain.

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They try again to detect magic, and do not get any. "It's weird to see a you with loose hair."

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"I had my hair down when you first met me."

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"That was a really long time ago though and I didn't know you so it wasn't like seeing someone I knew hairloose."

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"I'm sure she'll braid it if I explain."

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"Maybe she'll know where the spaceships are."

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"Maybe!"

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"Or maybe she needs rescuing from her god too!"

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"She didn't look stressed out but it's possible."

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"Did you look stressed all the time in Materia?"

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"Well, I would have if someone who looked like me had stopped me in the street and said they were an alternate universe version of me."

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"Because it was probably someone evil?"

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"Even if it wasn't I don't think a me who wasn't used to the place would do very well there."

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"Ambela might go try explaining to the gods how to not suck!"

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"Exactly!"

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And they wait for new Bella to return.

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She reappears presently. So - Mariel?

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My middle name, my first is also Isabella but I go by Bella. Can you talk aloud while you send to me so Fëanáro can work on your language some more?

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"Um, all right."

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"I like languages. I learn them -" fast? - "We landed today and I am making sentences that are usually right mostly. In a few more days the sentences will be right entirely."

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"...'Entirely right', and 'usually mostly right'," she says. "But that's very fast."

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"I'm an Elf. We love languages. We make ours beautiful like art and we find all the other ones beautiful like - mountains and oceans - is beautiful."

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"Are beautiful, not is beautiful. - Bella, you're not an Elf, are you -"

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"No, I'm a human mostly like the kind you have around here, but I have otherworldly powers."

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"She's a therapist!"

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I'm a subtle artist. Which in my original world meant I could learn to be a therapist.

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"I don't have any powers aside from being an angel."

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"We can teach your our magic. What powers are being an angel?"

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"Well, I can fly. And angels don't get sick and we're warm enough even at high altitudes and we're very strong. Is your magic hard to learn?"

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Not very, it takes a while but you can make pretty constant meaningful progress.

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"We've been at it for two Years and we can teleport between dimensions and fly and go invisible and make a bungalow and stuff."

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"That explains how you got here. Were you looking for me?"

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We were actually looking for a world with space travel and no gods. This. Doesn't seem to be one.

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"We're really sick of gods and want a fallback dimension without anyone who can squish us."

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"...if you're accustomed to that being a common problem that makes sense."

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Nod.

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Nod.

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Nod.

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"Is it comforting or not that if I lay claim to the personal ability to direct Jovah's wrath -"

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I could use less wrath in my life but if somebody has the authority to point it you're better than some random person.

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"Well, it's angels in general, actually."

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Then yeah that doesn't really help.

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What does Jovah's wrath do?

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"Lightning bolts. They're not called down often. And he only throws them unbidden under very specific circumstances."

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The interdimensional visitors do not look thrilled.

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"...that's probably not what you want to hear if you're specifically looking for godless universes. But you can reasonably expect not to be lightning bolted for as long as you're here, anyway."

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"Where're the spaceships?"

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"I have no idea. I've never heard of a spaceship. Jovah took our ancestors to Samaria from another place, I suppose it's possible that doing so in his cupped hands is a metaphor?"

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"I don't think a god would use spaceships."

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The science fantasy Valar pretty much did.

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And the locals here haven't got to the point of inventing their own, I suppose. Sigh.

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"You can ask Jovah questions through an oracle intermediary if -" She looks at Bella. "Or you can not do that."

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We'll not come to Jovah's attention, I think.

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"Okay. Well, Jovah doesn't pay particular attention to the Eyrie but I'm concerned that if we bring you all up there people will think my parents had a mortal child and abandoned her to the streets of Velora and this would not be a fair reputation for them to acquire."

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" - people do that???"

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"...well, my parents wouldn't, but sometimes it happens. There's Eyrie-funded residential schools for stray children since the angelica Rachel set them up."

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"Their parents abandon them?"

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"Or sometimes the parents don't get along particularly well and the mother runs off with the baby and then something happens to her, but either's possible."

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"- I guess a Jovah who doesn't do anything about abandoned children is better than a Jovah that does things, because then he'd probably do stupid evil things?"

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"...what would you be expecting him to do about them?"

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"Uh, make all the plants edible so they don't starve and the climate around them temperate so they're not cold, and reembody their parents if they died or help them if they need help..."

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"Jovah does drop seeds and change the weather when angels ask but he doesn't - reembody - people."

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"Even the Valar do that and they're stupid and evil."

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"I think I'm missing some background."

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The Valar are a kind of god that two worlds we've been through have. One set banished me back to my dangerous and terrible world and Fëanáro had to rescue me. But they put dead people in new bodies. Mentally tampered with sometimes though.

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"Well. Jovah doesn't mentally tamper with people either."

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"Good. The other set of Valar don't either, Ambela taught them."

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"Ambela?"

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"There's one of us who's an Elf."

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"She's five thousand years old and she spent all of it talking her gods into being nicer."

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"That's a very long time."

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"Elves are very patient."

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"Samaria hasn't even been settled that long."

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"Ardas get people about four thousand years before I'm born."

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"Those are the two worlds with Valar and the same sort of world arrangement except for some differences which are surprisingly cosmetic."

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"The one from the future has cool future stuff."

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"Like what?"

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Don't have the vocabulary - computers and spaceships and little shuttle things and movies and microwaves -

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"Ooh. I don't know what most of those things would be called either."

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"You can visit and learn if you don't mind the gods."

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"It doesn't sound as though they'd be very likely to trouble me, am I wrong?"

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"Ours kicked Bella out but I guess getting kicked here wouldn't be too bad and Ambela thinks hers are nicer."

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"I wouldn't want to move permanently away from here anyway, there aren't enough angels as it is."

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"What are angels needed for?"

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"We direct Jovah to adjust the weather and send medicine if there's sickness or seeds if there's crop failure. He hears us better and we travel more easily."

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"Maybe the nice Valar'll make you stop dying of being old, then there'd be enough."

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"Presumably they'd do the same thing for the mortals and there would need to be more of us to manage more petitions."

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"...yeah probably. Why can't Jovah hear mortals?"

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"They can't fly. There's some places they can go to be heard well enough, and if we carry them up they can be heard there too, though."

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"So you could just give them the flying things the other Arda has."

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"That might work, if they weren't enclosed."

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"I bet they can make not enclosed ones even if the one we were in was enclosed. Or we can fly, with wizardry."

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"Then if you learned the prayers you could get Jovah to adjust the weather for you too."

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"Don't want to meet any more gods but you can teach your people magic and then you won't be short angels."

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"I'd be inclined to ask an oracle first just in case it turned out to be a bad idea for some reason."

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"What do oracles do?"

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"They write Jovah messages and get answers. I can wait to ask until you've gone if you prefer."

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Nod nod.

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She has a little notebook in her pocket and writes this down.

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"We also have magic songs, do you have those?"

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"Not unless the prayers count. What do they do?"

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"All kinds of things - wind, waterwalking, balance, quiet a baby, send off or lure closer wild animals..."

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"And they'd work here?"

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He tries singing up a wind.

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It works! "That's lovely!"

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"Thank you!"

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"You sing like an angel."

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Elves are really good singers. Angels are that good?

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"We have to be, if we get a note wrong the prayers won't work!"

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Elves just love to sing.

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"We do too. Up at the Eyrie there's always singing."

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It sounds lovely. But Jovah pays more attention there?

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"Not especially. It is high up but it's inside a mountain."

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They look at each other uncertainly.

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"There's nothing you'd need to see up there particularly, I just thought I'd mention the harmonies. I'm sorry you've had such bad experiences with gods but I'd love to hear all about the other worlds."

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If we're going to keep finding more of me I should keep summary writeups or something.

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We can have a handout. I wonder if this world has a Fëanáro or a me.

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"I don't recognize you and those aren't Samarian names... they might work as Edori names, I don't know... is there a sort of place you'd expect to be found?"

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Both Fëanáros so far have been the crown prince of a country, and I an advisor to their family - the names wouldn't match, the other one of you two isn't named Isabella, Isabella wouldn't work in Quenya...

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"The only people on Samaria who do anything like princes are Jansai, and even they answer to the Archangel..."

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The Noldor answer to the Valar, so that doesn't inherently rule it out. It's too bad there's no way to check without being recognized as somebody.

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"I could go to Breven and look around, I guess, but I wouldn't be guaranteed to run into yous."

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It is hardly urgent. If you have a Fëanáro I am sure he'll make a name for himself.

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"Doing what? Linguistics? There are only four languages to be had."

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"I also invented an alphabet for Quenya and in the other Arda the me invented -" he counts on his fingers - "the telescope, the movable-type printing press, the telegraph, the lightbulb, the first algorithm for efficient sorting, parallel processing, satellite television, nuclear power, faster-than-light travel..."

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"...well, I know the person who invented the lightbulb here, but he's married to an oracle..."

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Great.

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"We can always meet him some other time."

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"Sure. The printing press we had when Samaria was settled, and telescopes, and I don't know the other things."

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"We're really bad at this parameterization thing, apparently."

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I didn't even cast the spell this time or I'd think it was prioritizing finding alts for some reason!

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Finding alts is great but we just want a nice godless world first.

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I know! The spell seems not to!

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Well, we can always start again.

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Eventually we may have to consider the possibility that all worlds have gods.

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...maybe, yeah. 

 

Ugh.

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At least some of them are less dangerous.

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Yeah. But it's not fair.

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It's not. Maybe we'll just have to make a pocket world and grow it for a really long time.

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"You can do that?"

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Yeah!

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Magic can do pretty much anything once you can do science to it!

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"...can you normally not do that?"

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"No because Bella's first world is horrible and eats you."

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"...huh?"

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The world punishes attempts to systematically figure it out or exploit its regularities, often fatally. We've made a lot of progress but all by other means.

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"And the Valar sent her back."

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"- why?"

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"Because they're stupid and evil."

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I don't think any of me are going to find that a satisfactory explanation, Fëanáro. They were concerned about my effect on the pace and stability of things, I'd introduced magic and they weren't used to things changing that fast.

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Sigh.

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"Was it dangerous or something?"

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I wasn't introducing spells intended to hurt people but it could've been. That wasn't the problem though, they could disable specific magic if they didn't like it.

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"They were just jerks."

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I don't disagree with you but it's useful to be able to predict what kinds of jerky things they will do more specifically.

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He scowls but nods.

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We could bring you back to Mirelótë's world and you could meet her, if you don't have anywhere to be right now.

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I'd need to cancel a couple of things but then I'm free.

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You'll like their world it's pretty.

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You can see whether you or Mirelótë sings better.

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"Sure, why not. I'll be back in a little bit."

And she flies off.

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"Do you think gods are necessary somehow? Maybe there wouldn't be people without gods?"

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"That would be really frustrating. I do kind of wonder if killer robot world had gods but don't want to go back and check."

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"Maybe one of the chip Elves who are easier to resurrect can explore it."

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"Maybe some of them will think that sounds fun."

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"They'll want to stop the war, wars are bad."

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"Maybe robots have wars for fun, like skirmish players."

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"...maybe.  We should check."

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"It would be very embarrassing if we just ruined all their fun for no reason."

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"Were they people, did you check?"

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"I didn't sense peopleness from them but it could be subtle arts just doesn't work on them for some reason."

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"Maybe. We should set up in Endorë in the world with the nice Valar, if we're going to be stuck places with gods forever..."

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"How many times should we accidentally find gods before giving up?"

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"...don't know. One of these times it's going to go much worse than it has so far."

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"Yeah, we could've landed a little closer to the robots..."

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"Or in a world like yours that pays attention..."

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"Eegh."

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"Maybe we don't jump more until things get bad or we figure out what's going on."

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"I just - can't figure out what went wrong."

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"Maybe there aren't other worlds that have the things we were looking for?"

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"They might exist somewhere else. If some other planet has aliens with spaceships...but that doesn't explain the god."

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"There might be edge cases, demigods or whatever, but a god who controls the weather and stuff isn't that."

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"Not really, no. Though he seems - limited in scope, at least."

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"Yeah. And he does what angels tell him to, it didn't sound like he went around doing most things of his own accord."

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"It might be the best we can do but - how frustrating if so."

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"Yeah."

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Hug. Sigh. "But we also didn't get spaceships, and that seems even less likely to go wrong or be hard to fulfill than the 'no gods'."

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"We might have got spaceships with robots world and we did get spaceships with the spherical Arda and there could be aliens with spaceships here. Next time we can try to aim near the spaceships?"

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"That seems like a good idea."

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"Hopefully nobody thinks we're hijacking the ship if we appear actually on it."

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"Maybe we go invisibly."

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"That wouldn't hide us from a subtle artist, let alone an unfamiliar variety of alien, and it might seem unfriendly."

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"It might make it harder to aim, though."

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"That's true. It's hard to make tradeoffs when we don't know anything about whose spaceships we'll land near."

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"Maybe it's worth getting interdimensional scrying before we try for more worlds."

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"Then we could also land closer to alts, maybe, instead of relying on being recognized - we might have missed this one if we'd landed closer to a different town."

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"Yeah. Closer to alts if they exist and out of danger."

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Nod. "Have to prioritize whose alts, in case they're not close together."

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"We can look at everyone, see who looks safe to drop in on."

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"Yeah, but if they all are - all of ours in spherical Valinor would've been -"

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"It might not make sense to prioritize mes. Because of Utumno."

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"Okay."

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Hug.

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Hug.

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He is chattering with locals in an improving approximation of their language.

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The locals don't recognize his accent or know who he is but are mostly willing to identify stuff he points at.

And soon the angel Isabella is back.

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"Ready to come to round Arda?"

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"Mm-hm! I can stay for a couple of days."

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Teleport back! To the courtyard of his alt's house. It has an excellent view of the city skyline.

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"Oh, wow."

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"I can call Mirelótë over."

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"Science is great."

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"...Bella and company found another me, dear. With wings but no you."

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"Another! Already! Let's go say hello, of course."

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So over they go. "Hello!"

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Bella translates.

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"Hello. I was not expecting you to be so tall."

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"Too bad!"

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"What's the story with the wings?"

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"It's not really a story. I was born with them. I'm an angel, so is my mother."

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"We found another world with gods. Hers controls the weather when she sings for it. Or other angels."

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"I thought you were looking for worlds without gods?"

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"We were."

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"We're just really bad at that! Apparently!"

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"Oh dear, I'm sorry."

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"And if there are spaceships in Isabella's world she doesn't know where! It's a problem."

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"We're gonna try targetting for nearer the spaceships."

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"We're going to try scrying instead of jumping."

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"Both good ideas. Welcome to Tirion, new visitor!. If you'd like our world in diplomatic contact with yours we can probably arrange that."

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"I should probably check with an oracle first but it sounds like a good idea to me."

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"An oracle?"

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"Oracles can communicate directly with Jovah in a more sophisticated format than singing for weather; they write him messages and he replies."

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"Ah. He doesn't take audiences?"

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"Not in person, no."

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"You can email our gods but you can also go climb Taniquetil or yell at an ocean and they'll say hello. Thanks to Ambela. She worked very hard on them."

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"Email?"

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"Ah, write a message using technology."

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"Ah. There's three interfaces, one for each Samarian province, and an oracle in each one. I spent a year with the oracle Peninnah once."

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"Do the interfaces require specialized knowledge to operate?"

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"Yes, they're in the settlers' language and a little fiddly to use even if you can read that fine."

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"Settlers' language?"

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"Samaria was settled hundreds of years ago and our language has changed a lot, but the interfaces haven't. Oracles are people who receive the ability to read the settlers' language. Usually an acolyte of an existing oracle but not always."

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"I wanna learn it."

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"You're not usually supposed to go learn it on purpose."

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"Would Jovah squish me?"

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"Jovah would not squish you, you would just offend people."

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"Well I don't care about that."

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"I do."

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"I wouldn't tell people I knew you, then."

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"...I don't mean I care whether people are offended at me, I mean I care whether people are offended."

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"Why?"

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Is he always like that.

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Yeah, just keep explaining.

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"They'd be offended because it matters to them, and it's not nice to decide that other things ought to matter to them instead and they should only get those things."

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"If keeping languages secret matters to people then I guess I won't go yelling the language in their faces but I really don't think that's a good enough reason not to learn it. It matters to my parents that I be happy and small in Valinor and do what I'm told but it mattering to them doesn't make me bad for not doing it, even if it matters a lot, even if it matters more than anything."

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"You belong to yourself. The language belongs to the oracles and they use it to tell who's supposed to be oracle after them."

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"Languages don't belong to anyone and I still don't see how it'd be worse at doing that if I learned it."

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"If you don't think languages can belong to someone you might teach people and then lots of people would know it and they couldn't use knowing it as an indicator. Why couldn't it belong to them?"

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"- the point of things belonging to people is that they should be able to trust that if they put lots of work into something it will be where they left it. If not for that we wouldn't have property at all. I do not see how that applies to languages."

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"...that's not exactly why we have property on Samaria. People own lots of things they didn't work on."

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"If they traded them for things they worked on that makes sense as an extension."

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"The language is a gift," tries Isabella. "Jovah gives it to people who are supposed to be oracles."

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"How does Jovah give it to them?"

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"The way Peninnah explained it she had some odd dreams and afterwards she could read over the previous oracle's shoulder."

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"If someone wrote a song for someone else and they wanted it to just be for the two of them and not let anyone else hear it, that would be fair, but if someone else happened to be a mile away and heard them composing the song, that person wouldn't be doing anything wrong either."

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"...You can hear that far? Anyway, you weren't planning anything nearly that innocent."

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"I just want to see how much I pick up from being around the oracle."

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"They don't speak it, they just write it to Jovah."

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"It would be wrong to read peoples' private notes. I wouldn't do that."

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"Okay, good."

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"But if I do find people speaking the language elsewhere or a textbook or something I'm gonna learn it."

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Sigh. "Maybe you can start with Edori and Jansai."

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"Cool! Where do I go to learn those?"

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"Most Edori live on Ysral, the other continent on my planet. Jansai move around but their city is Breven."

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"I'll go tomorrow once I have enough mana!"

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"The Edori are very friendly; the Jansai you might need to be a little careful with."

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"Careful of what?"

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"Of them not being very nice. I don't think you'd be in any specific danger but they're less likely to just accept your presence at face value."

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"Okay. Will people understand if we say we're from a different star?"

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"More or less. Jovah brought us to Samaria from elsewhere, everyone knows that. People might assume you're from somewhere terribly war-torn, that being what is supposed to have been the matter with elsewhere."

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"That was a long time ago, though, right?"

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"A few hundred years, but we still know it happened and no one has come by to remark that it's all over now."

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"I mean, my world did have a war a few hundred years ago, and inventing travel between stars takes a long time. - also that probably explains the spaceships, probably one of the other worlds has spaceships."

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"Seems likely."

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"It's a good thing we landed near you or we might never've found you."

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"Mmhm!"

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"I'm curious about these weather songs."

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"I assume they won't work here, but all right -"

She sings.

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They don't work here. The Elves think they're very pretty, though.

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"Bella was curious if I sing as well as you or not," Isabella tells Mirelótë.

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"I think just shy, but I'm pretty old, lots of practice."

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"When you're five thousand you'll probably sing as good! And maybe Jovah'll be as helpful as the nice Valar supposedly are."

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"Is there some way I can actually address your skepticism on that? Do you want my transcripts of explaining to Lórien why he should stop modifying gay people or something?"

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"Modifying who?"

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"It was once not allowed here to marry people of the same sex, which some people are inclined to do otherwise, and the Valar used to change the inclination instead of the rule."

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"That's a thing? Huh. Well. Yeah, I don't see how modifying them would help anything."

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"I don't understand how that works, they can marry? Could they always?"

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"- we have marriage blessings on our chips, which are almost all gender neutral in design and were restricted solely by convention. I assume you must do something else."

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"I'm confused."

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"Elves do magical soul marriage. Or science chip marriage, I guess. On my world it's just announcing you're married like I assume it is on yours."

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Nod.

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"Magic soul marriage is between a man and a woman, social changes would be nice but wouldn't touch that."

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"Well, that sounds inconvenient. They should still adjust exactly what they mean by 'voluntary', but I guess if one couldn't get married otherwise and didn't yet have anyone in mind some people might go for it even in an environment of more acceptance."

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He nods.

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He is bored by this topic and idly changing the colors of things.

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This is fascinating! "I hope Jovah doesn't think it's a terrible idea to have magic in Samaria."

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"It does healing. If he'd care about that."

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"He drops medicine when we need it, so I don't think he'd object to that part, if he had a problem it would be more likely to have to do with how it might be turned into a weapon."

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"That worried the Valar also, that and general - disruptiveness."

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"Well. He won't banish anybody for asking, that's what the oracles are there for."

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"That's good. We'll stay here while you ask, though, I think."

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"That's fine. Are there any other things I should ask while I'm at Sinai?"

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"Ask about technology too, maybe?"

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"What about it? We're allowed to invent things, just not weapons."

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"Lightleapers? That would let you go visit the other suns?"

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"Okay, those I'm not sure."

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"We don't have any weapons but we have those."

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"I'll ask."

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"Good skill."

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"Huh?"

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" - with bringing your questions to Jovah?"

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"It doesn't call for much skill."

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"It's the customary expression of well wishes for a task with an uncertain result."

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"Oh. Thank you."

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"Hopefully Jovah isn't mean and stupid!"

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"...right."

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He squeezes Fëanáro's shoulder.

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And before she goes and does that all the Bellas swap life stories!

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And he finishes up Boots' story by explaining how there were protests around Mandos and people were talking about leaving for Endorë but no one was getting Bella and when he tried they took away all his books and paper and ink so he'd have nothing to write on and when he drew it in the air they stopped leaving him alone ever and when he figured out how to do it invisibly in the air then he could finally make progress and it took eight years but he got Bella and they went jumping for somewhere where nothing could smite them.

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"- that was very brave," says Mirelótë after a silence.

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"They were going to let her die and all she did was give our world nice things and we promised her she was safe -"

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Hug.

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Hug.

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"This all happened this week," he explains to the angel Isabella. "I expect we'll get less paranoid around gods with more time."

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"That's reasonable."

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"Is there anything you want to see while you're here?"

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"What is there to see? I don't know if anyone would object if I just flew around..."

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"They'd be curious but there are Maiar who do that occasionally, you'd be fine. The city, airports - Tirion doesn't have a spaceport, wrong latitude for it - computers, movies, you could visit Taniquetil if you're interested, the Valar might be able to do something about the - dying thing -"

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"We have an afterlife, it's not as obvious as it would otherwise be. What are computers and movies?"

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He was around when they were invented and can give a pretty good explanation for someone from somewhere where they haven't been! And there is a screen right here to demonstrate, too.

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"Interfaces are a little like that. Glass with light behind them."

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"Huh. How do oracles write with them?"

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"Buttons with letters."

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"That's interesting. The Valar didn't really invent electricity ahead of us but I can see how if they had they might have used it for things, and maybe not have taught us immediately..."

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"The music machines in the Eyrie and Monteverde run on electricity too. They ran out of it a little while before I was born, just in time to hook them up to generators Caleb invented. I didn't know interfaces were electrical but it makes sense."

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"The Valar were split on how much technology to teach us as compared to how much to let us learn on our own. Perhaps Jovah is the more independence-minded kind."

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"The settlers had a lot of technology but gave it up."

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"Why?"

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"They believed it was contributing to the ongoing problem they were having with warfare and wanted a clean start."

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"I suppose if warfare was an ongoing problem maybe that'd be a reasonable measure to take."

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Nod.

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"But it's definitely possible to have lots of technology without warfare."

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"It's very encouraging!"

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"Elves are a very peaceful people but even the orcs haven't really had wars in a long time."

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"What are orcs?"

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"A very long time ago our world had a - bad god - and one of the things he did was breed Elves into orcs, who were magically bound to serve him. Orcs have more - societal problems - than Elves but they haven't had wars or anything."

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"...a bad god sounds like a serious problem."

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"The good gods stopped him. But it was very bad until they did. And now he's explained why he did it, and it can't happen again."

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"Why did he do it?"

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" - our world had, uh, has, a bigger god, who designed the whole thing from the beginning. And he enjoys horrible tragedies, so his grand design was - very satisfying as a tragic story but pretty terrible to live. And the evil god, Melkor, was angry with the plan and decided to see if he could derail it by any means possible. Including being even more horrible but less satisfyingly so in case that's what it took to break fate."

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"We talked the bigger god into not being omnipotent anymore. And Melkor is in prison."

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"Good."

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"This was all many thousands of years ago."

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"I have no idea what was going on in my world thousands of years ago."

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"Everyone just dies, huh."

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"Yes. Angels call humans 'mortals' but we're not much harder to kill and don't live much longer."

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He shakes his head. "What is the afterlife like?"

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"The Librera doesn't go into much detail."

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"Librera?"

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"It's the book the settlers wrote about the precepts of our religion."

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"It sounds interesting."

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"It's honestly a little dry in places, but it's important."

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"Is there a way we can read it?"

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"I didn't bring a copy, but I can get a spare the next time I'm at the Eyrie and give it to you later."

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"Thanks!"

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And Isabella flies around invisibly looking at things and gets summaries of what stuff is and tells them about her world (the arm embedded jewels are called Kisses, they are installed in babies yes with painkillers and do not grow there, yes her world has birth control but it doesn't work perfectly and also angels don't use it because they need more angels and this has troubling social effects down the road but they're working on it, no Jovah doesn't have a rule about gay people she just didn't know they existed, huh isn't it interesting that Mirelótë is bisexual when neither Isabella is, etc. etc.) and then she is escorted home with some scrolls to try if Jovah says she may.

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"I can't figure out what we did wrong with the parameterization."

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"Yeah, even looking at it knowing it didn't work I don't see the mistake."

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"Exactly. And that's really upsetting, it could've been somewhere much worse -"

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"Maybe we should let it sit a bit, look more at the worlds we've already found. Maybe it'll jump out at us after a week of not beating our heads against it."

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"Valar don't move fast, we're probably safe for a week."

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"Yep. Also, this time we know not to show up if we get a summons to Taniquetil, that's our cue to go to Samaria and try Jovah's intervention-mostly-only-on-demand model."

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Fervent nod.

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Hug. "Which means we should figure out how to call your parents and tell them we're all right."

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"I left them a note."

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"He did. It said 'I'm going to get Bella and if I die it's your fault'."

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"That is not a reassuring note. Rúmil, did you by any chance improve on that before we left."

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"Yes, but I still think finding a way to contact his parents is a good idea."

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Nod. "Modified earwire's probably the easiest way."

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"It won't let the Valar tug us back or anything?"

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"...I don't think so but I'm apparently not doing very well on predicting how spells will turn out this week and it might have more to do with how Valar work than how the spell works anyway. I'm not actually certain they couldn't do that without the presence of an earwire, honestly, they didn't have an active connection of any kind to Materia when they kicked me out."

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Nod. "Well. Let's get to work on that, then we'll know if most spells are behaving as we expect."

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Yup. Earwire notes from her old crystal ball and off they go.

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It's nice, quietly working on things again, reasonably far from the Valar.

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It is!

It takes a few days. Bella takes breaks to hang out with Mirelótë; she likes having an alt.

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Having an alt is really nice! Epic's continues teaching his technology.

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And eventually they have an earwire and Epic should call his parents. ...Or maybe Rúmil should call them first so Epic doesn't say something like "if I had died it would have been all your fault but instead I'm just running away forever".

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That sounds good.

 

He calls.

He tells them that Fëanáro is safe and happy and that they are in fact in another Arda where he will have a little more space to explore himself, hopefully. They don't have plans to return but they'll keep in touch. Fëanáro's parents are very upset.

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Good or bad idea to consult local Finwë and Miriel on handling this situation? ...Mostly a question of whether they'd alert the Valar.

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"Maybe our alts would know."

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Mirelótë's expert opinion is that Finwë might in fact do something like that, but since his Fëanáro ran away for a while too he might have useful input if they wanted to risk it anyway.

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...I am not inclined to risk it anyway, are you?

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I'd sooner try it with Miriel but this one was busy being dead while their Fëanáro was away.

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Maybe we can let our set talk to the adult Fëanáro?

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That might work better.

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They talk. The adult Fëanáro offers to video the small Fëanáro so his parents don't miss his childhood; this goes over reasonably well.

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That is a good idea. Bella starts to map out the steps of a project to get videos onto crystal balls.

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He will delightedly help.

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Good, then it will be faster. Does the technology on Endorë match if they wind up settling there?

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Endorë is not as advanced but still a perfectly nice place to live.

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Right, but is she going to need to redo all the spells if she wants to put videos taken on Endorë on crystal balls.

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Oh, format conversion between Endorë video cameras and Valinor ones will be easily worked out now that there's more transit back and forth.

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Cool.

Now that they have interdimensional earwires they should catch up with Isabella, who is not yet expecting them and will be pleasantly surprised.

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The oracle Alleluia gave me a very funny look but Jovah says magic is fine and nonviolent technology is fine and contact with nonwarlike peoples from other stars is fine. I've started with the scrolls.

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Oh, that's excellent news.

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The current Archangel is reasonably good at his job but I have some hope of being the next one; I'm not sure if it would make more sense to wait until then before publicizing anything broadly so I can coordinate it.

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I suppose since you have an afterlife and a way to prevent accidental children it's not as if horrible things are happening while you wait. A slower rollout probably makes more sense. 

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I suppose I could be very presumptuous and see if Jovah has picked Linus's successor for sure yet but he almost never does it this early in someone's tenure.

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The competent Valar might well be willing to make Linus and everyone else immortal, does that complicate things?

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Archangels don't reign until they die, they reign for twenty years.

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How long are your years?

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They turn out to be similar to Endorë years.

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That seems a very reasonable wait.

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I have a little trouble with it but it's not intolerable.

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And there's lots of learning you can do secretly.

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I'm looking forward to that!

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Even looking back on it in retrospect they can't figure out what went wrong with the jump.

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I'd think it was Jovah pulling you so you could meet me but that really doesn't seem like the sort of thing he'd do. And Alleluia will definitely think something's up if I go to her with another batch of weird questions. I could go to Penninah instead I guess if it seems worth asking.

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We might check whether our other spells are going wrong somehow.

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The earwires work exactly as projected and I haven't had a cantrip go wrong and we haven't turned visible or fallen out of the sky unexpectedly -

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Yeah. Maybe it's something about Fëanäro's spell design?

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Like what?

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I don't know. It looks all right to me but he was clearly making it in a hurry, maybe something else about it is off...

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It looks all right to me too but we could try from scratch. If we wanted to do it really really from scratch I could block out your memory of this one while you did a new one and put it back after but that's probably overkill.

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Probably. And yet, gods everywhere. 

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Everywhere! Like pigeons!

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He giggles. I missed you.  I'm glad you're okay.

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I missed you too.

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Somehow we'll figure it out, be safe.

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And get out everybody else who needs out.

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That too.

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So do you wanna try working up a spell without remembering how the first one was put together?

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Sure!

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So she goes and muffles the applicable memories.

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And he gets to work on it. The original took Fëanáro eight years, though admittedly with some complications. It's a good project while they're between other things but not likely to immediately yield results.

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Well, that was with a time slide.

Bella works on intraworld teleportation to get to Endorë.

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He goes to Endorë one day by jumping to Samaria and then there. He comes back the next day and tells them excitedly that orc cities are kinda pretty in their own way and the Elf ones aren't as shiny but are still very nice and it's pretty from the air and so on.

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"Oh good! And the earwires'll let us talk to our alts no problem."

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"Yeah! And we can invent more stuff and be farther from the Valar."

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"Far as need be."

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"I just want to teach everyone magic and not be scared of what they'll do."

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Nod. Hug.

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"I'm picking up a couple orcish languages. They're cool."

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"Are the orcs nice?"

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"Yeah! Ugly, but perfectly nice. They have lots of kids."

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"How many is lots?"

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"Just...kids, running around everywhere. Two grownup orcs and then an almost grown orc kid and then orcs at every age between that and a tiny orc baby."

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"Huh. I guess they like kids. ...They have the thing where they don't have accidental kids, right?"

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"- I assume so..."

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"Iiiiif they don't I can reinvent the ring of protection."

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Nodnod.

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She makes a to-do list item about asking orcs personal questions.

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"They all use currency? Do they use the chips for it?"

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"Dunno."

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"The Dwarves don't have chips so they must have some alternative we can use if we need to exchange things there."

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"Did you see Dwarves, Fëanáro?"

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"No but I wasn't especially looking."

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"Well, I bet they trade with orcs. And Elves."

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"It does seem like the kind of thing they'd do."

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"Exactly."

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"How's the teleport?"

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"I think halfway done."

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He peeks at the notes.

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Here they are! She's trying to make it pretty mana-efficient in case they want to bring substantial numbers.

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Makes sense. He looks at it for a while and hums to himself and then has suggestions.

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He's very helpful.

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Good. He missed her a lot.

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It was mutual.

Teleportation spell!

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Endorë!

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"Where d'you think we should go?"

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"Maybe make ourselves a place away from everything, since we can teleport..."

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"Do you know where is away from everything?"

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"No idea."

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"So where do we find a map, I guess."

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"We can probably just ask in the city."

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"Mirelótë said they mostly don't speak Quenya here, do you have what they do speak down yet? Or I guess they might not notice if we pretended to have the same kind of osanwë..."

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"Thindarin! Well, Falathrim but that's really just a difference in dialect, and it's related to Quenya so it hardly even counted as learning a language, just learning a lot of sound changes...we'll be obviously from Valinor but we don't mind that, right?"

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"I think that's fine."

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"We should probably walk over instead of flying, though."

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Nod.

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It's a long walk. He endeavors to teach them Thindarin along the way. 

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They endeavor to learn.

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And someone pulls over a car and asks if they need a ride.

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Seems harmless?

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I think so. "Yes, thank you."

          "Oh, are you from Valinor? What are they up to there these days?"

"They figured out a faster way to get here, I think you'll be seeing a lot more people soon."

         "Huh. Well, welcome." He blinks between Rúmil and Bella confusedly. 

"Fëanáro is a family friend," Rúmil says.

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"Fëanor. In Thindarin."

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"Is that just translating the meaning...?"

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"Yeah and Fëanáro wouldn't be an acceptable sound cluster."

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Bella giggles and gets in the car.

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Cityward! Brithombar is mostly in brick and flagstone. It's pretty.

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It is! Does the person giving them a lift know where they find an atlas?

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"For tourists? Probably any of the little shops on Main Street, but those'll be overpriced, maybe the parchment central at the mall has some pretty ones?"

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"Okay, and do you know where I can exchange a Valian promissory script for local cash in whatever form Dwarves use?"

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"Uh, no idea, maybe the Khazad-dum embassy?"

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"Where's that?"

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"Downtown? Couple blocks south of Main and Palace, I think."

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"Could you drop us there?"

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"Can't drive downtown but I can leave you pretty close, sure."

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"Thanks!"

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And they are dropped off pretty close and pointed in the correct direction!

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And off they go to see if the embassy does the relevant form of currency exchange!

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The embassy is kind of astonished, this variety of promissory script hasn't been used here in five or ten Years - "and they're all chipped in Valinor, right?" but manage eventually to figure out how to give them some paper money for it. The whole staff gets involved in the mission with great enthusiasm.

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Bella appreciates that.

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They are wished well and offered a variety of travel agencies and convenient services while they're in the city.

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That's useful to keep in mind! Possibly one of these services can offer a map.

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Maps of the city are easy to find, maps of the country only slightly less so, maps of the whole planet no one has any on hand but they can run and get some.

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Yes please.

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They are found!

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And they can be paid for in this paper money they have from Mirelótë's promissory note! And then they can start looking for some nowhere to be in.

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Endorë has a population of around five and a half billion and plenty of nowhere.

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Here is some nowhere that is inland and temperate. How about that.

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"Looks good."

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Pop!

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No one appears to be around! It's pretty.

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"We should fly around, make sure we're not near a campsite or something."

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Flying!!

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Looks clear to me, but I'm a human...

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I can't see any signs of anyone.

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Yeah, looks okay. Could always be an incorporeal Maia but not likely...

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Is there a way to check beside yelling 'hi, incorporeal Maia'!?

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Did any of your magic detection flag them?

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I was never able to get it to.

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Then no.

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Yell and unnecessarily attract attention from any passing through or don't yell and miss any resident? she asks wryly.

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Let's just not draw attention.

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So she lands and surveys for bungalow sites.

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There are plenty of candidates. No Maiar materialize.

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Bungalow.

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It's cozy.