witchcraft and sorcery

[witchwatcher]

For a brief moment, in a certain part of fairyland there is a tear that leads to the cold sky above a snow-covered hilly forest somewhere in the mortal world.

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[witchwatcher]

There is venom in her voice, and it comes out as an enforced order. "Tell it to stop the storms, stop killing people-" She cuts herself off and starts taking deep breaths.

"And explain what the hell they thought they were doing," adds Scatter.

[imeanforever]

Promise starts flying slowly in the direction of the big Neuroi. "Did you mean to do that?" she hisses at Gren.

[witchwatcher]

"I rescind those two orders. No, it's just..." Pause. "I hate them. Didn't realize how deeply until just now. I'm sorry."

Scatter declines to comment.

[imeanforever]

Promise sighs. "I am better at phrasing orders than you and you really don't want to risk constraining how I address the Neuroi. I'll go talk to it."

She flies faster towards the big Neuroi.

[witchwatcher]

Scatter yells after her, "It's actually pretty far! You want a ride." It's not a question.

It really is very far away. That storm that is currently in the process of disappearing was big.

[imeanforever]

Promise comes back. "All right."

[witchwatcher]

"I can't be near Promise until I'm much calmer. I'll go to base. Tell them what's happened."

[witchwatcher]

Scatter glances at Promise and says, "Sure that's wise?" Copycat gives her a Look. "Right. Three, two, one, transport."

Scatter and Promise are now near the outer edge of the storm, which has already dissipated from a force of nature into nothing more than a strong wind. "Think it can hear you from here?"

[imeanforever]

"Maybe. Without inconveniencing me in any way, wave an appendage," she calls Neuroiward.

[neuroihive]

Something big seems to be moving behind all those clouds, but it's kind of hard to be sure.

[imeanforever]

"Slowly approach my position."

[witchwatcher]

Presumably the Neuroi starts approaching. Slowly.

Scatter says, "Never thought I'd see someone bossing around the unstoppable evil aliens."

[imeanforever]

"Well, now I have to keep a handle on it. It's potentially tricky, hostile vassals are sort of an advanced application of the practice."

[witchwatcher]

"Could it end up worse than before? If it feels provoked and finds a loophole?"

[imeanforever]

"That depends on how provoked it was before and how that affected what it did."

[witchwatcher]

"...Do you actually know the history of the war? It wouldn't be surprising for- Copycat to forget to tell you."

[imeanforever]

"I don't know much about it, no." Pause. "Slowly" may have been too loose a phrasing. "With no extraneous consequences arrive thirty feet in front of me within the next minute."

[witchwatcher]

"That storm showed up in the middle of o- Names. Some country names are used in other places. A densely populated country and started making little Neuroi that set fires and killed everything. This was 22 years ago. Everyone panicked, chaos and confusion on all levels. Witches and armies from all over the world eventually got organized into a defensive force, but not before they expanded quite a bit. They've been steadily pushing humans back since. And this giant storm messes with the weather all over the planet, makes farming a lot harder, so I wouldn't be surprised if they made more people starve than they ever killed directly."

[neuroihive]

Something BIG is approaching. It's probably larger than any moving thing Promise has seen before.

Scatter trails off in the middle of a sentence and looks a bit afraid, even knowing it's Promise's vassal.

[imeanforever]

Promise isn't scared.

She knows its name.

"Without extraneous consequences, say 'hello'," she attempts. This will be much less dicey if she can establish two-way communication.

[neuroihive]

'Extraneous consequences' includes potentially hurting the Witch nearby the winged one if it tries to speak in its usual way. It tries to use this fact to stay completely silent. Which doesn't work.

It rumbles a recognizable, quiet but still kind of screechy, "Hello."

[imeanforever]

"Answer all of my questions without extraneous action, honestly, completely, and succinctly. Operating under the assumption that I wish to minimize destruction to humans and resources of use to humans, what would I be best advised to order you to do?"

[neuroihive]

It tries to probe the limits of the orders, in particular investigating how much flex it has between 'completely' and 'succinctly'.

"Alter climate to suit human needs. Prevent or mitigate the effects of natural disasters." It tries to expand on the kinds of natural disasters it could prevent. "Such as earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, asteroid impacts. Prevent humans from harming humans or resources of use to humans. Defend this planet from all other Neuroi or help you use this command effect on all other Neuroi and issue similar orders."

[imeanforever]

"How many Neuroi are there that you don't directly control?"

[neuroihive]

"Exact number unknown. At least four hundred and fifty two. Likely to be at least one hundred thousand."