letter to cam #17

[thisvorlunatic]

You would not believe the month I've had.

I really did mean to get back to you within a few weeks of my last message, but circumstances intervened. On the other hand, it seems to have worked out all right this way, because there's an Ash and Stars tour coming up and I'm not dead yet. How would you like to attend a concert in addition to raiding the comm nets?

Comments

[thisvorlunatic]

"Certainly. Perhaps not trivially, but certainly doable."

[from_scratch]

"Tempting."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I'd think about it for a while if I were you. For one thing, if I'd self-duplicated before my trip to the taieli monument, all of me would've had to wander around in there for approximately nine days being collectively evaluated for suitability before it decided whether to give me the magic."

[from_scratch]

"Heh. Noted. ...Oh, hey, new language."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah, the monument gave me that too while I was at it. I think mostly because none of the other languages I speak had the appropriate specialized vocabulary - I can translate it all right, 'taieli' makes a decent loanword, the ainelin all translate to nice short fairly comprehensible terms with a bit of thought, but it definitely helps to be able to think in a language that grew up around it all."

[from_scratch]

"It's a pretty language. I wonder if the monument would re-teach it to me, I probably don't have your exact vocabulary."

[thisvorlunatic]

"That's not so much its job, but if you went there you could find out. That's another thing I'd recommend thinking about for a while first, though. The evaluation process got a bit intense on me - I get a strong sense it's not at all the same for everyone, so you may not face exactly the same troubles I did, but if you are susceptible to boredom or sensory deprivation or attacks of self-doubt, I wouldn't recommend it. And if you are susceptible to some other distressing situation I haven't thought of, the monument might throw it at you to see if you respond adequately. It wants to find out if people are responsible enough to handle extremely powerful and potentially destructive magic, and it favours nondestructive methods but I wouldn't describe it as especially nice."

[from_scratch]

"Would I not be able to conjure things? For the boredom. I imagine it won't necessarily help if it does sensory deprivation."

[thisvorlunatic]

"You'd be able to. I'm not sure that plunking down in a chair and reading books for nine days would exactly reflect well on you. It didn't make me wander its empty interior for nine full days out of spite, or anything, it just left me alone for long enough to see what I did, and what I did was 'fret and climb the walls' - semi-literally, there were a lot of ramps - but also 'try to figure out what might be appropriate behaviour and do that', and it seems like I got points for the effort."

[from_scratch]

"What a weird test of character."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Well, I didn't build the thing."

[from_scratch]

"Naturally. I'm still tempted if the option's open. I could just do nothing but sit around - or whatever - for nine days if that seemed to be the price of extra magic powers."

[thisvorlunatic]

"They are very extra magic powers."

[from_scratch]

"Which is appealing! The set I have is getting a little samey, you know?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"I understand completely."

[from_scratch]

"I thought you might."

[thisvorlunatic]

He grins.

[from_scratch]

"...What is the test of character I have to pass with you to even get access to the place?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"All complaints and warnings and jokes aside, I respect the monument's methods enough that I'm not hugely inclined to play gatekeeper to the gatekeeper. Even on the off chance that you are secretly a vandal at heart and decide to fill it with black holes, this will only be moderately inconvenient to clean up. Also, you will note that you are currently standing unbound on my very favourite planet."

[from_scratch]

Cam carefully bends down to pat the floor. Pat, pat.

[thisvorlunatic]

...Miles cracks up.

[from_scratch]

"So how do I get there, and can I do it right after the concert?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"I will send you there via interdimensional portal, and yes you can."

[from_scratch]

"I have no tail. I wag it in spirit."

[thisvorlunatic]

"So noted."