we worship certain symbols

[dark_light]

Amariah stays on the dock in slow-time till she has her afterlife completely designed, and then she and Sue and Kas leave, to wait for coins from Brilliance, while Aianon tells stories to the harpies.

And then coins land in her hand with a note from Jane that they're declawed.

"Damn," she says, admiring the aurora pattern as it shifts through the kissing starfish. "Ten pointed coins. He did it."

Comments

[dark_light]

"...Oh boy."

[truthwright]

"Yep."

[dark_light]

"I'm so, so tempted to scoop them up whether they want it or not - but - well, I don't have any plans that hinge directly on the old land being empty. The door can stay; I'll just have the one there perpetually lead to here and they can come in whenever they change their minds. Or forget why they're staying, I guess."

[truthwright]

He laughs. "Yeah, good plan."

[dark_light]

"All right then. And anybody here who wants those shades' company won't have to wait all that long, because -" She brings the world up to quarter-speed relative to the standard time of the worldsheaf, leisurely but not so preposterously sluggish. And she turns to the harpies. "Let me know if this is too fast - if you're getting too many requests for exit to handle - and I can slow it down some, but I think the dream-visits and the need to get several live people to simultaneously vouch for you will probably respectively placate and slow down most of them."

[pythbox]

"Sure," says Calliope, shrugging her now sleek and well-groomed wings.

[dark_light]

She adds them all to the brainphone, upgrading it as she does with another viral upgrade to permit communication between worlds within a sheaf. [And let me know like so if you need anything else. Are you set for now?]

[pythbox]

[Yep!] says Calliope. [I'm gonna go find somebody to tell me stories!]

And with a general murmur of agreement, the flock disperses.

[dark_light]

[Wait, I need to bring you Downside to see the admin so you can make departing shades able to torch,] says Amariah.

[pythbox]

"Sounded like you were done," says Calliope, circling back. The other harpies follow her lead again.

[dark_light]

"Nearly so." Amariah taps her bracelet.

[mind_game]

Jane can compensate for modest amounts of time dilation; the infancy of the ansible network on Peace was used almost exclusively to communicate with ships in relativistic transit. Yoink!

[dark_light]

[Hey admin, I adjusted my afterlife, I'd like you to make some harpies able to render people torchable.]

[ending_of]

[Done.]

[dark_light]

[Thanks!] And another tap to the bracelet and they're back. "Please try to usually have one of you near these doors. Gaps of an hour or two aren't a problem, though."

[pythbox]

"Okay!" says Calliope cheerfully. The other harpies leave; she stays put.

[dark_light]

And that would seem to be that.

Amariah takes Kas by the hand and departs the New Afterlife.

[truthwright]

"So does this mean you're God now?"

[dark_light]

"Maybe. If Jane is then I probably qualify."

[truthwright]

He kisses her.

[dark_light]

Mmm, kisses.

[endragoned]

It seems that it is time for Amariah's guests to depart.

[pythbox]

Sue drops the link and goes home.

[small_magics]

Goodbye, Alethia.