we are not truly immortal

[dark_light]

After Glass's party is over with, Amariah and Kas go home.

Amariah fetches down their alethiometers.

"It's about time I took care of Alethia's afterlife, whatever it may be," she says quietly. "What can the alethiometer tell you about what I'll find?"

Comments

[pythbox]

The harpy who said that scowls and turns away.

"No, stay, stay," says Calliope. "Tell us what happened next!"

[lifes_sake]

"Maybe you should vote," suggests Cam. "Or whatever it is you do to make decisions amongst yourselves. After all, you live here, and I'm a visitor."

[pythbox]

"We don't do anything like that," says Calliope.

"I want to hear you," says one of the more neutral harpies.

"Me too!" says another.

They all crowd closer, leaving the former heckler perched in her tree, torn between offended dignity and hunger.

[lifes_sake]

"That sounds like something very near consensus," smiles Cam, and he goes on with his story. He even does impressions of Iggy's dialogue, and then he gets to the part where there was an attempt on his life, continuing to speak in slow-caramel sentences and play for suspense.

He pauses, right before it is unclear if he survives the story or not. (After all, he's from another world, and the harpies are quite familiar with people continuing to exist after death.)

"Amariah," he wonders aloud, "how much time do we have?"

[dark_light]

She takes his hint.

"Well," she says, "we can block off all the time in the world for negotiations... I don't know about just plain storytime..."

[truthwright]

"You got somewhere to be, sweetie?" interrupts Kas. "'Cause I don't."

[endragoned]

"Nor do I," says Aianon, stretching his wings and flicking his tail idly from side to side. "Finish your story, Cam. I have many more to tell after it."

[lifes_sake]

[Do you guys have a plan or do you just really care about not annoying the harpies?]

[dark_light]

[Yeah, I mean, better they sit here listening to storytime than they go terrorize the dead people, all else being equal, but meanwhile the dead people are still cold and tired and missing their daemons, I want to make progress.]

[endragoned]

[Not annoying the harpies is a fine plan,] says Aianon. [Better than yours.]

[truthwright]

[You tried asking what they want and you didn't find it out that way. There's other ways. Leave it to us.]

[dark_light]

[Does it interfere with your idea if I start poking around the edges of this place, looking for how I'm going to put the daemons back?]

[truthwright]

[Yeah, but don't start grabbing up masses of dead people yet. That'll get 'em screaming for sure.]

[dark_light]

[Okay.]

[lifes_sake]

Cam goes on with his story.

[dark_light]

Amariah solicits a copy of Sherlock's route from the dock to the land of the dead, in case she needs to make a trip out of the place to make wishes.

[sicaria]

She provides it.

[pythbox]

By the time Cam finishes his story, all the harpies are listening with their full attention again, even the grumblers.

"Thank you," Calliope murmurs. The others murmur agreement.

[lifes_sake]

"You're welcome," says Cam.

[dark_light]

Amariah has spent this interval processing Sherlock's information. She doesn't perfectly understand how space works here, but she has it well enough to lift off and lead Cam away to let the Jokers take over talking to the harpies. The two Bells make for shore and start following it.

[pythbox]

They find no more harpies on the way.

[endragoned]

Meanwhile, Aianon is telling stories.

He has twelve thousand years of them. He will not run out.

[dark_light]

Amariah is curious when storytime becomes actually-figuring-out-what-to-do-with-harpies time, but she can give it a while. She sticks with Cam while they trace the shoreline. The topography is weird but it doesn't shift; distances in multiple directions don't add up right but tracing the same sequence of movements always leads to the same landmarks, same shore features. The shades exist on an island, judging by what happens when the shore is flown along. Estimating its size is futile, of course.

[endragoned]

Storytime is interspersed with conversation; Kas and Aianon express an interest in knowing the harpies' history, and in bits and pieces, they learn it. Most of what they get is not of immediate practical value, but it builds a picture, and the picture shows them how to find out what it is the harpies want.

[pythbox]

It's Calliope who finally says, after gentle coaxing and aimless conversation and many, many stories, after the Jokers admit that ambition is a thing they almost entirely lack:

"We have a purpose now. Something real, something true, something important, even if your friends don't like it. It's no good just giving us these stories, tasty as they are. We need a job that means something, or there's just no point."

The other four all nod.