24 Lage 4385: Going Rassy

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I didn't do much yesterday except look at my scroll. Not look at it magically I mean that's what I did two days ago. Noooo yesterday I read it. Or rather I read what everyone else had been writing in the other versions of the scroll. See I'd been reading the responses from extradimensional nonprimes but then an actual monster from World Tree wrote something in it. GavinFox had warned me that I wouldn't want to read what the monster had written and it sounded pretty scary and GavinFox said the monster was branches and branches away so there wasn't any reason I'd need to know about it. So I decided I should stop looking at what they were saying on that entry before I got too curious and had to look and gave myself nightmares or something.

And there's LOTS of other stuff to look at in my scroll! I think it would take me more than a day just to read everything sythyry has written never mind all the rest of you! I looked mostly at the other Primes first and then at some of the entries from other dimensions and oh those were WEIRD. I mean some of them would be so normal and ordinary like vik_thor talking about missing his family or about killing a houseplant (I can totally oh yes relate to that!) and gardening and everything makes sense except the plant names are funny. Then there are others like gavinfox writing about people who are evil because they were taught at home (what?) or alex_muridae describing a play and it feels like I can only decipher every third word.

Still I loved reading all of it! It was so fascinating trying to figure out what was going on and being the Sapient from Another Dimension that was leaving comments in someone else's journal! Now I understand why nonprimes from other dimensions would look at mine. It's fun seeing what sapients from somewhere so different have to say. Even when it's similar to what Primes from Choinxiea have to say. Maybe especially when it is.

Just after dawn this morning, GloriousBlue got home from her shift at the Department of Flowing while I was lying in bed browsing through terrycloth's writings.

"You're up early." Glory went to the windows to close the thick curtains that block out the sunlight when she sleeps during the day. "Did you get a new job?"

"Nuh-uh." I was focused on Terrycloth's description of events in a world he was playing with (I think the polyhedrical Terrycloth must be a god in some other world; he was talking about playing this very complicated game with people's lives). The heroes were trying to fix the Magiador in their city which was failing and they were afraid their city was going to collapse (I guess it was like the ring of cities in Ketheria that are built on magic floating platforms around the trunk). It sounded scary! "I haven't gone to sleep yet actually."

She slithered out of her clothes and burrowed under the blankets. "Then go to sleep now, I'm tired even if you're not. You've been obsessed with that scroll ever since you finished it! Did you even go outside yesterday?"

"... yes? I went to see Voidsy."

"Again? You said you went to the temple of "Here" two days ago."

"Ohh. That was the day before yesterday?"

"Yes."

"Then no."

Glory wrinkled up her furry brown muzzle at me. "Are you turning Rassy on me? You need to do something besides read that scroll all day and all night, water-girl."

"Mmm." I was trying to imagine what a squirrel-satyr looked like.

"Like finding another job. I'm not paying your rent, you know."

"Mmm."

"I mean it! Do you have the lozens for it yet?" She rolled over and sat up on one arm to glare at me.

"It's not due for days. Why does everyone keep asking me about it now?" I dipped my pen into the inkwell to ask Terrycloth what a 'satyr' is. And miner-cats while I was at it. I think they're like Sleeth maybe?

"Because we know what you're like. And it's only three days away!"

"Uh huh." I finished writing. "Fine, fine, I'll look for work this afternoon."

GloriousBlue flopped back onto her pillow. "Good. Cover that light spell, will you? I want to sleep."

I yawned and dropped the cover over the light ball, then put my scroll back into its case. "G'night Glory-morey."

"G'day Delight."

---

So a little after mid-day Glory shook me awake. "Wakey-wakey, Delight-bright."

"Mrmph?" I rubbed at my eyes. "y'wanna go to a puppet show?"

"Nooooo but you want to find a job."

I curled up and pulled the blanket over my head. "Nooooo I don't."

"No no Delight, that's not right!" Glory yanked the covers off me. "In bed you can't lurk! Off you go to get work!"

I hunched over and covered my eyes with my hands. "This is funnier when I'm doing it to you."

"I disagree, Dee! Hup, up!"

Eventually I rolled out of bed and into clothing. At least GloriousBlue fed me before she shooed me out of the house.

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

The last time I had to find work it took me 50 interviews and six months and about halfway through I decided that no one would ever hire me and I'd just lie down in the snowbank until I froze to death.

But then I got cold.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Oh how awful you poor thing!

*gives you a squirmy Orren hug*

I hate looking for work but I've never had to look anywhere near that long usually I find something or other in a week or three.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Best of luck with your upcoming job search! Say, with your newfound interest in reading, maybe you should see if there're any librarian jobs opening up!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh that's a great idea I should do that! Thanks!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

It's WHAT they were taught, the *simple* fact of teaching at home doesn't do it, the "keeping your children completely away from society and indoctrinating them to hate the society that they would otherwise live in."

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

But that's a completely ridiculous thing to do! If that makes sense, it must be a nonprime insanity thing. Primes would never do anything that crazy.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

I agree it's crazy and utterly ridiculous. But it is a religious sort of crazy and they see the society that they are living in as depraved. And didn't Sythyry recently write about some kind of religious cult of PRIMES living in the verticals that were basically very hateful of the nearby city-states?

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I don't think they hated normal Prime society they just didn't want to live with them. And I'm sure they had a better reason than 'we just want to hate other Primes' even if Sythyrs didn't know what it was.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

I think a closer analogy would be, "We just want to hate all the Primes who live on this branch who aren't us, especially the nearest two city-states, for all of their societies have fallen into decadence and evil."

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

You know, if you really want to, you could use the extradimensional knowledge to find a job...

Look at it this way. The fact that you could go to the places that I "linked" you to means that you are connected to a tool that we call "The Internet". It is basically a place where we put the sum total of our knowledge. Of course it's also a place where there is a lot of drivel, silly opinions, useless games, nonsense, and pornography, but that's a side effect of what let us get the sum total of our knowledge on it in the first place -- basically letting anyone, be they individuals, groups, or institutions, put up whatever they could manage.

Now, Terra, or Earth, the planet in which I reside (I'll explain the cosmography to you MUCH later), has many many different basic rules of physics than the World Tree. That is both a blessing and a curse. It means that not everything we know will be useful, like how to make a very very hot furnace to make large amounts of high quality steel out of hematite (iron ore) rocks that we get from the ground. But some things are universal, like Pure Math.

Here's what I mean. Find a well paid, tenured professor researching pure math, who is working on a pure math problem, and has been for weeks, months, or years. Ask us about it in the journal. We will probably be able to show you a solution to said problem that our civilization figured out. Present the solution to this professor. Don't say where you got it. Say that if he wants further help from you, you will need to be a well paid research assistant.

Or, alternately, look at some of the recent statements we made in Sythyry's journal, about investing, economy, and moneymaking. A few hundred years ago, we had a system of economy and moneymaking and lending and investment and banking and such much like yours on the world tree. Then, we figured out how to dramatically surpass it, and drastically increase the amount of wealth of the entire system. And you have access to all the knowledge we accumulated and all the information on the mistakes we made and what worked and what didn't and all that.

Remember, you have access to the collected knowledge of a world that, because of necessity and the fact that it operates under different rules, has become much more advanced at certain fields than you all are... and, of course, much LESS advanced in other ways. That's what happens when the basic rules are different, of course! Not everything will be applicable, but a LOT of it will be.

So here's what I think happened. 'Here' wants to create chaos. Not the sort of chaos of screaming and people dying and that terrible stuff, I think Here wants to create *social* chaos from the rapid introduction of radical new ideas to a society. I mean, look at how Sythyry responded to our ideas about money and investing. Zie basically said, "Hmmm. You all might be right about all of that. But I can't see myself following your advice, so I am going to politely thank you for it and then decline to use it." Now look at YOU. You are an Orren. You LIKE talking to us! You are fascinated by what we have to say! You have lots less to lose by throwing yourself at risky new ideas that might or might not work out. Of COURSE 'Here' chose to link *you* to OUR INTERNET (!!) to stir things up and see what happened! And you just might end up getting really famous, wealthy, and/or powerful in the process.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Also! Sythyry's translator is a mathematician. =D

[zeeth_kyrah]

On the gripping hand, those of us with access to all this information have still managed to make a mess of things, thanks to entrenched interests, perverse incentives, and a lack of oversight.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

If this 'Internet' is what's getting your branch destroyed and everyone on it killed I'm not sure I want to use it! D:

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

No the internet itself isn't what is doing this, the problems with the culture and people that first made it is what is doing it. But the internet might help fix it!

[zeeth_kyrah]

Oh, it's not the access or the information (though there is misleading information out there), it's the misuse of it.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

And... how did you get from what he or I said that the branch is being destroyed and everyone on it killed??

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I didn't from what you said that was from something siege wrote in his scroll.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

*Checks*

Ohhh the methane thing.

Yea, that hasn't happened, and while SOME people believe that might happen, even the article he mentioned didn't seem to mention the severity that he expressed might be possible.

And, by the way, that HASN'T happened. And your world has suffered large scale natural, prime-made, and god-caused disasters, has it not? I remember something about a story of a huge zi ri made of metal, blessed by the god of durudor and causing all sorts of problems?

And besides, it wasn't the INTERNET that caused the (much lesser but still terrible) disaster that might, possibly, perhaps, but in an unlikely event, lead to that. It was one industry having utterly improper and insufficient regulation -- think of it as one guild getting far too cozy with the government and being allowed to do too many things...

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I don't know that sounds pretty scary although interesting in a way. I'll have to think about it. Also I don't think "Here" cares that much about what Primes do on the whole. My brother says he's not really a people-god you know?

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Maybe one of his elementals / demons / angels / whatever spearheaded the idea and helped most with the enchanting? It's just my interpretation of the what could be wanted, and is an offer if you want it! But yea, think about it all you want. Regardless if it is what 'Here' wants or not, what do you think of the ideas I just presented in general?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Who is Glorious Blue? Roommate, wife, sister, what?

I admit that I, too, have wasted afternoons here and there reading the incomprehensible reports of alien creatures.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Glory-morey is my roommate! We've been rooming together for eight months? I don't see that much of her because she works afternoons and nights and sleeps a lot of the day and I was getting up at dawn FOREVER while I was making the scroll.

[alex-muridae.livejournal.com]

Ah, I suppose I should be a little clearer about that bit of not-so-entertainment. To start, I was speaking cryptically. In two ways, actually; on the one hand, I was speaking from authority (my education was in natural science) and on the other hand I was trying not to give away the plot to anyone who actually wanted to see the drivel...for the most part. It was a bit of a tirade, but to say simply, I found it to be very poorly written, full of flaws and uninteresting. I could tell you more, but I would have to explain further about Natural Science here, and that would be neeping.

None the less, I'm a little proud that my little journal was visited by an extra-dimensional being.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh that makes sense! Rassies always hate it when plays get the facts about the Rassy's obsession wrong. *nods*