syntropic

[lifes_sake]

Home again. [Tilly! We're back! How long were we out?]

Comments

[withmypowers]

"I haven't been able to acquire any good detail about this world's afterlife," says Tilly, "but I'm pretty sure at this point that it has some kind of a one."

[lifes_sake]

"That does appear to be the way things are not-Downsideable, based on a sample size of one that isn't this one."

[mind_game]

"Two. Aether has the same problem, although she knows more about her afterlife than you do."

[withmypowers]

"Interesting," says Tilly. "Should we investigate that more, I wonder? Do we know if resurrection works on locals? Is it safe to experiment?"

[lifes_sake]

"Before the Downside glitch was fixed that caused forking," says Cam, "and there are certainly worse-case scenarios - I'm not sure the set of people I want to resurrect and the set of people you could talk me into experimenting on even intersect."

[withmypowers]

"Then I think," says Matilda, "you should probably find out what your afterlife is like."

[lifes_sake]

"Yep. Tackling afterlives is a peal job, though, and I think everybody wants a settling period - well, enough of us do, anyway - that peal parties, let alone peal projects, are gonna have to sit for a few weeks."

[withmypowers]

"It can go on the to-do list," says Tilly. Her Adularia shimmers; she pauses, then smiles.

[lifes_sake]

Cam laughs. "Welcome to the magic book club."

[withmypowers]

"Yes," says Agent Honey, "I've been told you're in a similar situation to me and Adularia, but I didn't get details."

[lifes_sake]

Cam reaches into his backpack and takes out Grace. "This is mine." She turns into a hawk, on his shoulder, in a cascade of gold, and starts preening Cam's hair. "She's not very talkative with people other than me though."

[withmypowers]

"Neither is Adularia," say all three Matildas in chorus.

[lifes_sake]

"Have you," Cam says, "become a hive mind?"

[withmypowers]

"We have not!" says Matilda.

"We're just extremely similar," says Tilly.

"And sometimes the thing to say is just that obvious," says Agent Honey.

[lifes_sake]

"Well, Grace is a daemon, like Pathalan or Neptune, although they're both chattier - I think the part where she was a notebook who could not in fact talk to anyone other than me affected Grace some." He pets her feathers.

[withmypowers]

"Adularia just doesn't like talking to anyone other than - us," says Agent Honey. "And occasionally another Device."

[lifes_sake]

"Apparently most daemons that aren't chatty with people will talk to other daemons, but Grace doesn't even like to do that - I suppose she might if I desperately needed to talk to a daemon who wouldn't talk directly to me, if I was hanging out on Alethia."

Grace turns back into a notebook; he tucks her into his backpack again.

[withmypowers]

The Adularias shimmer.

"It's not impossible," says a new soft female voice that presumably belongs to them. "I just don't prefer it."

[lifes_sake]

"Understood. No need to put yourself out on my account," says Cam. "It is, however, nice to meet you; welcome to Syntropy, and I appreciate the incidental triple- backup syncing."

[withmypowers]

The Matildas grin.

"You're welcome," says Adularia serenely.

[lifes_sake]

"Or double in Wellspring's case, our new syncing solution is spread a little thin and only a majority of Belled worlds have instances," Cam allows. "How long has it been in Wellspring?"

[withmypowers]

"Not very long," says Matilda. "And the lack of contact doesn't affect me very much one way or the other. But it'll be nice to have my alts in reach."

Her Adularia shimmers.

[lifes_sake]

"Expect so, yeah."

[withmypowers]

"And there's that other project," says Matilda.

"Other project?" says Tilly.

"The Sunshine worlds have a - corrupted version of the Wellspring magical system," says Matilda. "It should be possible to uncorrupt it somewhat, if we get enough high-entanglement magic users spreading positive patterns."

"Ooooh," says Tilly.

[lifes_sake]

"That would be nice. Glass does not approve of those worlds at all. Although not as much as she does-not-approve of Materia, which has a whole separate issue."