kaolinandbone | Tea in the Gardens and Antechambers

As the many multiversal guests are gated in, singly or in groups, a crowd slowly begins to form in the entry hall. Lioncourt looks up from her meditation break and claps her hands twice: in moments, a dozen automaton servants file out from the adjoining rooms, hands of gleaming white porcelain holding equally elegant china tea-sets. A pair of the automatons open the doors at the far end of the hall, revealing a tiered rose garden, the stone benches dotted here and there ringing a large central clearing.

"Tea is served, either here or in the gardens: I would appreciate it, however, if some of my guests might proceed onward so as to reduce crowding."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

voidsextant

Astra does headpats, after some gentle prodding.

From:

lurkingkobold

Well, it's not so much prodding as a gentle request - if they're not coming mostly on their own recognizance he kobold will settle for leaning comfortably on her.

From:

voidsextant

Astra really only needs some mild prompting to realize that headpats are required, and then she happily provides!

From:

lurkingkobold

Then there shall be headpats, and a happy kobold. ^^

From:

meletiti_entelecheiai

Aisilian grimaces.

"That would be quite valid, except... hm. I could say that the Excrucians are the ones attacking reality, but then I suppose you could say that the world is imposing sanity on Outside just by existing.

"I wonder if it would help things if we just... hid Creation."

He offers Lurking a smile. (It might be a slightly jealous smile.)

From:

lurkingkobold

The kobold appears to be too focused on the headpats to notice Aisilian. (Is she really? No.)

Edited Date: 2015-06-09 04:33 am (UTC)

From:

voidsextant

"That's... Like saying that you're trying to hide a lighthouse. Or an ocean. Or light. Or, or..."

Astra visibly fumbles for words.

"... Look, you're so far off the mark that you're not even wrong."

From:

meletiti_entelecheiai

Aisilian shrugs. "None of those are impossible. I could personally enact any of those, given sufficient mana."

He won't push for kobold headpats, obviously. He'll just sit here and d'aww in their general direction.

From:

voidsextant

"Yes, which is why that metaphor is wrong. Maybe the lighthouse one was closest: hiding reality defeats its purpose? No, that's not right either..." Astra growls under her breath.

"Look, your idea just isn't going to work, okay? It's obvious to me with a second's thought, but I just can't get it into voice-air-thought-language-reality-concepts."

From:

lurkingkobold

The kobold leans into Astra's hand, and speaks up.

"Am think is no problem of language - am know of problem of language, person do good of listen do of understand of any."

From:

voidsextant

Astra smiles. "Well, since he's talking to me, I feel like I ought to be polite enough to at least try."

She turns back to the red-haired man. "You said... that reality imposes sanity on the Outside. That is... technically true, but it's exactly as equally true to say that it imposes insanity on the Outside, just like it imposes 'Cats' and 'Death' and 'Eating' and 'Gravity' and 'Arguments.'"

From:

meletiti_entelecheiai

Aisilian nods. "Right. And that's... not ideal for either of us. The idea would be to replace all of that... imposition, with something minimal to nonexistent. The first thing that comes to mind is ... a Boundary. A Great Border around the multiverse, that is the only form of structure allowed to exist outside of it."

Edited Date: 2015-06-09 05:14 am (UTC)

From:

lurkingkobold

The kobold makes a small disgruntled sound, and her body language changes subtly - she's no longer participating in the conversation.

From:

voidsextant

Astra looks at Aisilian for a long, long moment...

Then bursts out in a helpless fit of laughter.

"Ffffhahahahaah YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE!"

She hugs Lurker close for a moment while she catches her breath, then shoofs her fur a little affectionately.

"Okay, maybe you were right, Lurker. I don't think this conversation is going anywhere very quickly."

Edited Date: 2015-06-09 05:27 am (UTC)

From:

meletiti_entelecheiai

Aisilian gives the kobold a dry look. "Yes, very well, you do not approve. The pre-existing options are either 'harm to the Excrucians that I do not understand and cannot or will not be explained to me and so am working to not understate,' or 'me, my friends, and everyone and everything I love ceases to exist in any recognizable form.' I am trying to find a third option."

He gives the same dry look to Astra. "Yes, and it is clearly not satisfactory, given that you know it exists and would prefer it didn't. How can we improve it?"

He's clearly not ready to give up yet, but it might not be up to him.

Edited Date: 2015-06-09 05:30 am (UTC)

From:

lurkingkobold

The kobold startles only slightly at Astra's sudden movement, and grins slightly at the fur-fluffing, then turns her attention to Aisilian with a level gaze.

"Third option: Listen of Astra person kind, if Astra say of thing, do of listen, not think of way of thing is of wrong, think of way of thing is of true."

From:

meletiti_entelecheiai

Aisilian shrugs helplessly. "It's not a matter of... not-true-ness, I'm perfectly generally willing to believe that anything she says is factually true. But somewhere along the line that leads to ... a goal I can't approve of, and I don't know if there is a flaw in her logic or if there's just a different premise way back at the beginning, and trying to talk her out of it seems rather rude on top of being difficult. So if I can make it not a problem - that just avoids it altogether."

Edited Date: 2015-06-09 06:05 am (UTC)

From:

voidsextant

Astra shrugs and nods.

"Yes, but you might have better luck constructing solutions to my problems if you involved me in them from the beginning. It's difficult for me to feel like you're respecting my agency when you come to me with a plan already-made."

From:

meletiti_entelecheiai

Aisilian - blinks. He seems genuinely confused at this point. "... Is that not what I am doing? I came up with the idea of hiding the Universe midway through this conversation... It is true that you have not had much input, but I have also not had much success in getting explanations of the problem that are not also so dense with memetic hazards that I ... well, end up with what I opened with, which was apparently completely off-target.."

"I... apologize, then? What have I missed, what are your problems? Hearing it from a sapient may help over hearing it from the world."

From:

voidsextant

"The problem is a hard problem. As your defenses naturally classify anything likely to convince you to destroy the universe as a memetic hazard, I can't explain: If I did, then you would likewise be unable to explain to others without convincing them. I can't show you how to start lying to yourself again after you know the truth: Even the Locust Court can't do that, burdened as it is with all the minutia of existing."

From:

meletiti_entelecheiai

Aisilian's face becomes remarkably flat at this. Apparently he doesn't think much of "you cannot comprehend the true form" as an argument.

From:

lurkingkobold

Oh, look, a thing that's about to explode. Maybe if she removes the reactants from each other it won't explode so badly. Purposely ignoring Aisilian, she nudges Astra to get her attention. "Am curious of? Am hear of is of danger, but, if listen, maybe do of tiny of say, do of careful of safe?"