do: make introductions; don't: usurp the government

[giftedandtalented]

Tab goes home by door, right into Aelise's office. "Hello again."

Comments

[salus_populi]

"And did you have fun on your trip?" says Aelise.

[giftedandtalented]

"If I have to say 'I'm Tab, I'm new' one more time - which thankfully I don't expect to - I will become very consternated with my situation of being both Tab and new. But otherwise all is well. There are Kersibles on their way to everywhere and the welcoming committee has been found and they're going to patch this particular Jane-related problem, although I don't know if that will get all possible Jane-related problems, they don't exactly dare experiment on how to break her."

[salus_populi]

"Yes, I can see how that might be a thorny problem. In the meantime - still running with the 'resurrect Toronto' idea?"

[giftedandtalented]

"Ye-e-es, but first I'm going to see if I can't hire a Joker, either one of the two from Origin or maybe entice Corona back on the condition that he doesn't have to be anywhere near Chelsa. If I can't get one of those I need to live off the largesse of other Bells, which I can do - Pattern's been acquiring more coins than she uses for sixteen years from three and a half Jokers, and Brilliance is really high output, and Stella has spares too. Anneia and Sandre would also make good mints, Stella has alts of them on payroll, but I don't think I can convince them to work for me, at least not for the next few hundred years."

[salus_populi]

Aelise nods. "I'd like Anneia and Sandre made Harley-style immortal, if you don't mind and can get it done without letting them know you exist; I think they're good candidates for replacing him. And I expect I could probably get them to work for me, if all they had to do was funnel coins in my direction. So you're not without a local source even if you can't get a Joker to touch this world with a ten-foot pole."

[giftedandtalented]

"It's called 'torchable'. I can sneak up on Anneia, I think, if she's alone - I don't know about Sandre - we've never tested whether he can sense me through my Gift, and a Gift will cut through coined wards like butter most likely."

[salus_populi]

"Point," says Aelise. "I don't suppose I could have the distribution? That would solve a few problems."

[giftedandtalented]

"Involves traveling Downside and getting it from the admin - I only have torchability one meta level up, not two. D'you want to do that? She has the ability to read all the thoughts of the lifetime of anybody who gets near, especially if they're torchable - doesn't do it to Bells anymore, but I don't know about you. She's also generally omnipotent but that's the one thing she has a history of doing without asking first."

[salus_populi]

"Is there any reason to think that she will be interested in reading my thoughts in particular, or do anything about it if she does?"

[giftedandtalented]

"Interested not necessarily, do anything about it almost certainly not - she's not much for doing things, reportedly."

[salus_populi]

"Then I can probably risk it."

[giftedandtalented]

"Jane can take you there and back right now if you want."

[salus_populi]

"That would be convenient."

[giftedandtalented]

Tab reaches for her Janegem, then pauses. "Do you want your own one of these?"

[salus_populi]

"That... would also be convenient," she says. "Potentially."

[giftedandtalented]

"She can see and hear out of it but you can turn that off, there's a little switch," says Tab, "and then she can't do anything with it except mind the clock, and brainphone people in the relevant world even if there aren't other nodes. She has no yoinking-people-without-permission habit."

[mind_game]

[I'm very well-behaved,] agrees Jane.

[salus_populi]

"Good to know," says Aelise. "All right."

[giftedandtalented]

Tab hands over a square. "Unless you want me to make it? I don't know what you want the gem part to look like."

[salus_populi]

Aelise thinks for a moment, and then conjures an Imperial seal - a cylinder with the stylized globe from the Empire's flag, showing no continents and circled by the orbital ring, embossed on one end. This particular seal is made of silver, with a faceted black glass sphere enclosed in the upper part of the cylinder, showing through diamond-shaped cutouts all around the top. She hangs it around her neck.

"Does that work?"

[giftedandtalented]

"Yeah, sure." Tab makes an ansible with a matching gem as half; she twists them apart, Jane whisks away the ungemly half, and she swaps it in for the non-ansible one.

[salus_populi]

"Great. Okay. In that case - Downside?"

[mind_game]

[Coming right up.]

And here is the Bell office in the catacombs.

[salus_populi]

She brainphones the admin.

[Can I have the power to distribute torchability, please?]

[ending_of]

[Done.]