Through the Living Heir

It think Sequence survived one at the last party, which may be more recent. And of course prosthetics are unaffected, so that’s Rebus’s plan. (I assume taking too many nicks will still kill you, no matter how unimportant the places they strike. In fact, at least with Rebus I will make this the case, or else killing him will be very frustrating indeed) Rebus sent the utility fog in and picked up the paper, scanning the message. (He also took the Nullite, for study, and left a nanotech ansible and a replicator in case he needed to come back) He’d practically forgotten about that last paper… “I shall come back later, though it seems Rose wishes to speak with me. If you wish, I can facilitate parallel conversations so you two can continue.” “I had thought you were watching Bat… Regardless, I am going do to two things you would likely approve of. That being said, I will not contact Gail at this time. If I do everything you say I’m not an Antagonist anymore, simply the Dragon.” The doorbell to the cabin rang, though anything that might allow Tam to notice was suppressed. “I have felt the urge to do that in the past. Even now, though I suspect I will lose sight of both my goal and my message.” Rebus looked pained. “You may have good reasons. You may not. I need to know them if I am to convince you, or be convinced myself. And if you do decide to, I can safeguard that piece of your mind for when you need it.” Rebus grinned. “That was, in fact, one of the things I wanted to speak to you two about. Was it part of your trial for some reason?”

“There’s a reason I brought three of me. I was actually planning to speak to Tam and Bat - but I have some other things I can do.” Rebus thought he knew what it was, and was serious. “You may be wrong about that. But I am quite good a talking people into and out of things, if you would share.” Rebus, in a green lab coat, came up to them. “Cricket - how have you been? I trust you made it through whatever you had to do without my help.” Huh. I get even soul damage can heal eventually. Oh, yeah. It has sensors, assemblers, and can move around and lock together. Well yeah - actually Platypus was on that list. True.

Chaotic Darkness’s magic system boils down to “disintegrate everything I touch and everything in that direction”, with some additional corruption-related mechanics (turn people into withergeists through exposure to Chaotic Darkness and mess up magic systems someone corrupted already has, mainly). It messes with your mind and makes you want to destroy things, and slowly eats away at the souls of those it makes contact with, preventing wounds it inflict from being healed. Uh, and I believe one can bond with a withergeist to order them around and use the powers without being annihilated, at the cost of the slow corruption of your mind and soul, eventually making you an new withergeist. The Witherlord (the most powerful incarnation of Chaotic Darkness) has a few other powers I don’t know much about, but I’m not sure they’d be Shaping. That being said the Fragment of Corruption does sound like Chaotic Darkness, even if Shaping is just Chaotic, not Dark. The ceiling was now the floor - Taeidin was still standing on it, but it was right-side up. “Time is different there, true - years pass with those two words, while instants can warrant endless description and Authors can leave for a time and pick up the story again as though nothing had happened here. But they have merely one dimension of time, and the medium Narration uses is quite like that of their control. I can bring you briefly into Thread Perception, if you wish.” Rebus sent a tendril of nigh-invisible utility fog to investigate. Very true - I think Platypus, Thread extraction devices, time travel, Essence switching, and Balancium are the only sources. But unless you’re already a Narrator, where are you gonna get Prismite?

One of the lords from the Arcane Alliance teleported a floating tower somewhere near the Noom. Maybe this would be a better place to live.

It doesn’t honestly have to be fundamental if we can’t find a place to put it. Maybe the gem shattered into many many pieces, each one for a magic system that exists. The biggest four related to the Fundamental Essences and are together are enough to be read, a slightly smaller one is Shaping and has the knowledge they’re looking for, and others that exist could be used to access other information and powers. Maybe one fragment from the actual gem is needed, and it can emulate missing pieces or decrypt stored information if given a piece of the relevant magic. Or maybe that’s a terrible idea and it doesn’t even relate to what the gem is supposed to be.

“Hello.” Rebus didn’t think there was much else to say. “Well, I was thinking more along the lines of antimatter explosives. Perhaps we should check if I can get nanomachines through.” “If a pigeon came up to me, bared fangs, and walked away, I would never look at cities the same again - because pigeons seem so harmless the juxtaposition makes them all the more threatening. But that is beside the point - menace and intellect here are at cross-purposes. To attack someone for no reason, or to threaten them pointlessly, undermines my image as someone intelligent and honorable yet ruthless and manipulative. But you are right in that I should do something - remind people I exist and am plotting.” “In a dream you don’t think about your actions. You do things simply because. And you believe your reality.” Mordite-Prismite is the two Chaotic metals. Prismite is probably easier to acquire to Luxite, too. Rebus flew the little drone around, narrowing down the location that the compass was pointing to. “The fabric of reality is, in fact, incredibly useful to manipulate. Observe.” Rebus turned gravity upside down in a localized area and turned the air into breathable rock.

That was unfortunate. Rebus considered breaking and entering, but that would be awkward on the off chance it wasn’t Platypus. I think Mordite-Prismite could also be possible, yielding what is effectively pure Chaos and should poof instantly. Platypus knows more about this part of the lore, honestly. I think you can probably ferment pineapple… Rebus was interested in the result. “I’m biding my time and watching them go around in circles, occasionally making cryptic threats. I’ve already set the seeds of their destruction, physically or emotionally. I destroyed much of Bat’s home, and am holding some of his people hostage of their own free will. I am willing to let the whole world burn as long as the few people I actually care about make it out alive. If it lets the people I care about make it out alive, I will burn it myself. But until it becomes necessary, I will not, because I am not fond of doing things meaninglessly.” Rebus said all of this impassively, with a friendly smile. Rebus briefly thought Symbol was talking about his idea, but then realized it was likely dreams. “No, I don’t need to. But to be able to actually let my mind wander and truly create…” A cameo, of yourself. You’re not actually there, but you can write yourself in, making a body for other characters to interact with.

Ooh, fun! We’ll see how much I can do this, but it seems interesting. Name: Will Aarons Designation: X-102 Experiment objective: immortality and mental enhancement (both portions are quite difficult to verify - he hasn’t had enough time to age significantly, and the IQ tests are being muddled by the fact that regularly performing them entails practice) Backstory: he got lost and walked into the wrong building, discovering the experiments. They were going to kill him, either directly or with especially dangerous testing, but he bluffed his way into an experiment of his choice by imply he knew what they were doing and that if they killed him they’d be revealed. He said, not untruthfully, that he wanted to live forever and learn everything, and has been helping with experiment concepts while trying to avoid hurting people. His natural personality of scattered, half-finished ideas allowed him to come up with it, but he didn’t think it through; his ruse is beginning to unravel, and frankly he wants out to start a more ethical program with what he’s managed to pick up.

Apparently I have an above-average number of legs. Most people do, actually.

Rebus, being a metaphysicist, followed the rambling - but unfortunately his Author understand the context enough to comment. “The Authors are physical people in what is - as far as I know - the real world. They live on a planet called Earth, which would seem very ordinary to us - magic is not real there, and they have a moderate tech level. As for how they control us, I’ll give an example: one sunny day, a tree named Harold decided to take a walk. If you proceed to say what Harold sees on his walk, and maybe invent someone to encounter and talk to him, it would be a pretty good demonstration of what the Authors do.” Rebus checked to make sure the period was statistically significant, then walked to a nearby rock and lifted it. Eof could see the future, after all… If he was on their side, underneath there should have been a key. Was that Eof? It might have been someone different… Rebus decided to void the contract he had made, since it was getting in the way without actually doing anything. He’d still honor the agreement, though - the actual agreement, not the word-twisted version. “Well, my goal is to prevent my destruction, and by extension the destruction of the Thread. By extension, my main focus at the moment is on the Plotblades of Antagonist and Protagonist. You, too, are helping Bat to grow into the latter role - if he acquires it, I acquire Antagonist. If I acquire Antagonist, since I’m not an omnicidal monster, the Thread becomes a safer place.” Rebus understood the feeling. Maybe… but no, that was ridiculous. Or perhaps it might not be… he would consider the idea - perhaps it might solve all their problems. But he wanted Symbol to know that he didn’t fake things, even if he was doing them for more than one reason. “I don’t dream. Thinking about it, I wish I could.”

Rebus refilled the drink and waited to see if the relevant Author would write in a body. Rebus chuckled a little, thinking of his outfit - and what he had just done. He didn’t say anything, though. Rebus was a little sad about all those thoughts. She may have been right - certainly at the beginning of their relationship he had been simply trying to benefit himself - but that didn’t mean that causing her emotional pain and watching Lady Bug do the same made him feel good. In fact, it made him feel guilty for the first time in quite a while. “Not that I know. I cannot lie, actually - it would literally break my word.” Rebus probably should have expected that. He put the compass on a little drone and moved it away from the Narrator interference. The young man who had been thinking at Bacon came over to speak to him. “He does make sense, in a way. You simply have to jump to several conclusions, follow an addled chain of free association, determine what is legitimate figgldygrak, and then put together the resulting rebus in a way that makes sense. Earlier, for instance, he was saying that rather than a directive, he was inverted and rooted - in other words, especially imaginary.” Meat stabbed him with Nonsense, and went hurdling off into the distance. “Telekinetic parkour typos? It’s him in a way.” Alright. Let’s get you an idea, then! Perhaps we can make a list of properties that fluctuate continuously, and then ones that do not.

Huh. Cricket lost an eye, I think - I’m unsure why he chose Bacon specifically. The role eyeballs do sound useful, though. The young man roasting marshmallows was reading something on his phone, intermittently glancing at Bacon, and trying not to laugh. To answer your question, I might. Sleep deprivation is key, you understand. I’m thinking oddly, you see. In more ways than one, you could say. He does make sense - and has a job - but only behind obfuscation. He speaks much of the time in rebuses, though I am glad the reverse isn’t true. “Do you happen to do commissions? …Stable, sit, scallop, etc. makes talking like the rock you’re like and distressed. Or unpillow.” “Do you want more to drink? I can assemble basically anything from the air…” Rebus nodded at Cep’s decision. “Alright. I’ll tell you, and if you regret it I’m sure there’s someone around who can erase your memories. Just hope they don’t collide with a fever dream spirit.” He paused, realizing that separating his vital information from tangents was important, and setting up some sound cancellation so he didn’t give anyone an identity crisis they didn’t ask for. “In short, the world we live in is a story. It’s told by many people we call Authors - some of them are actually here at this party, or rather writing that they are here even though they can’t actually be - and has been going on for a very long time. Authors take responsibility for, and have Authority over, various character, writing what they do and what adventures they have. Some people - such as myself - can notice the things that the Authors are writing, and that’s why you received an invitation to this party, celebrating the fact that over 4000 pages have been written. You still kinda have free will, but you’re fictional, and so is everyone else. You’re a fairly important character, too, since you’re being written about rather than just mentioned.”

Rebus sealed the contract and grinned, though he didn’t say anything. Rebus switched hands so they could walk side-by-side, and looked at the renovated gardens. And into Symbol’s eyes. “Two things. The first is one thing - of your choice - that has the same value to me as the drink to him, and the second is an identity-crisis causing revelation about the nature of reality.” The green creature - which was still a creeper - walked back over. It started glowing and hissing again, and backed up until it stopped. Without tone, I have no way of telling if you’re being genuine or not. I’m inclined to guess no, but I’m legitimately trying to help you work your magic into the lore in a way that makes sense. I apologize if it came off as insulting rather than constructive - and honestly few of us have any idea what we’re doing. If you’ve been tracking the exchanges with Platypus, I have repeatedly been fully incorrect about lore I’ve been using for hundreds of pages, and he’s done some things that were pretty much unanimously called out as OP and not fitting with the rest of the lore. In short, we’re all here to have fun and make a story. Since we’d like it to make sense (most of the time, at least), we try to work together to identify when things don’t and help them make sense. If I’m going about this in a way that feels like a personal attack, I’m legitimately sorry and want to know how I can do better in the future. That was not, in fact, what Meat had been trying to say. He summoned the Plotblade Nonsense, cutting the sandwich in neither half nor two, but rather one. It turned into a penguin, exploded, was secretly a laser lawyer, said axioms that could be used to prove all of mathematics, and then became a quantum mechanical instrument - namely, a piece of paper with some holes in it. He’s planning to set up a larger device that keeps the needle in a vacuum and cancels out known sources of repulsion (as well as triangulates for distance so size can be estimated from strength, and of course position can be identified), but at the moment he is indeed standing at the front door next to Symbol. “Good. It is up to you whether you wish to risk it to know more about the world you live in - I am almost always available fairly quickly. And of course I owe you a gift.”

“I will accept that deal, though I reserve the right to reverse it should circumstances make it unwise.” Rebus shook the hand again, almost mirroring the man’s actions. Rebus is being a little tricky. He’s also wondering what happened to Symbol. “I am relevant because I do things that are interesting, to remain relevant. Knowledge of those who determine relevance tends to cause mental breakdowns, but I am long through with mine, and you may be able to accept it.” Rebus took the drink and drank it, wishing to determine whether poison played a part in the other man’s manner. He himself would be unaffected - the nanomachines could analyze it and prevent any negative effects. A piano fell from the sky, squishing Meat. He was fine, of course - puns were harmless to him. “Yes - math is about right. Or perhaps sad dirt trees - more so than the others. Sasquatch, sandwiches, slander, serpent, interference.”

“I am Rebus - Narrator, metaphysicist, microplanetary ruler, and bargain-maker, among other things. Some of those other things are perhaps alarming - if I told you might try to kill me or run away, but they’re not actually all that relevant right now.” Rebus smiled at him, almost enjoying the reaction he was getting. “I would take such a thing, if you’d give it to me. If you’d like, in return you may have something I similarly enjoy but could easily share.” @Kaladin Stormcursed I don’t know, being dark and light both feel like properties to me, even if they don’t make any sense together. Arguably, being called smokite is a property, and being able to be manipulated by Shapers definitely is. And having a color, a shape, texture, dissolving into smoke, arguably being in a place… if you try to cut out every property, you end up with something that can’t be seen, felt, or interacted with, but also can’t be invisible or intangible, because those are properties too. “I shall do the same, and we can mutually pretend we don’t believe the other to be ignorant and perhaps deluded.” Rebus realized that was perhaps a bit blunt, but this man was similar enough to him he thought he could take it - and deserved it. “Regardless, I believe we may share some goals. We can help each other, to mutual benefit.” “You’re quite good yourself - maybe I can teach you sometime.” Rebus grinned. His heart was beating once at half second, as always, but many emotions he didn’t usually feel were mixing together within him. “I would be honored.” “It be human meat!” Said a pirate who was walking by. Hopefully he was following the conversation and not saying that for unrelated reasons.

The green creature turned white briefly with a hissing noise, then ran away for a moment.

A tall green creature with small legs wandered over.

Rebus raised an eyebrow. “Of course I do. That doesn’t mean I cannot know things that you do not - at least under the definition of Author that I know of, you cannot be one. Even the Authors at the party aren’t really Authors.” Rebus had learned to dance a slightly more conventional way, though most people couldn’t have clones practice different things in parallel. And he was quite good. But isn’t any category you try to give it a property? And the changing, for that matter. Great! (Rebus is going the other direction, just saying. Just like how if I wanted to go south I could follow that end of the magnet) Rebus checked to see if the Prismite was being deflected away from the house. “Many letters, actually. The important ones are at. And dreams, of course - the bit of you that wasn’t is.” Meat the Minstrel actually did look a bit like Bacon. Not the same - in fact, they didn’t especially share any features - but he gave off an impression of almost-Baconness. “That is because you are important - or more precisely relevant.” A man in a green-trimmed lab coat - Rebus, of course - had walked up behind them while they weren’t paying attention. Perhaps they weren’t at the party, but locality wasn’t too important to one such as he.

'Twas vacation. I think there was some sort of discount for this week, since only a few places had off from school. Well, considering the existence of characters such as Eof and Selppaenip, I probably should have gotten it, but in my defense most of the time he's only called Muin. That's pretty clever, actually (unfortunately there are some people - well, rabbits - in the Thread who can change the wavelength of light). And yes, the Thread does grow when things are in it, though there are ways to reach an end. I'll remember to ask your input the next time I have such a problem. Smokite also feels kinda generally chaotic to me, since it shifts, changes, and dissipates, and makes other things change when used. Perhaps it may be chaotic, but then Shapers/Corruptors impose order onto it?

“A very strange one.” Rebus said. “Most Authors spend their time in the real world, though I suppose several did come to the party. They usually do tell secrets they have if you investigate, since their entire goal is to write and create. And I’ve never heard of an Author being a Narrator beforehand.” Rebus smiled, pulling Symbol into the dance. Rebus did so. “The Darkalloy repels Prismite, if you recall. Thus…” he gestured, constructing a compass-like device with a bit of Prismite at the end of the needle, “if this gets near it the needle should point away. If we want to do this large-scale, we can put it in a vacuum and do some triangulation, but it should work for the moment.” There were some games, of the video, ball, and board variants - fewer teens were around than I would have liked, but it was still pretty fun. And the ship was large enough that the outer rim could serve as a track.

Yeah, it was fun! The ocean itself wasn’t very interesting (it is kinda all the same, unless you’re actually down in it), but we went to an island on two of the days, and the boat was pretty big and had some stuff to do. Yup . We were learning about this in biology, actually - apparently coral, crustaceans, and mollusks all have trouble building shells in acidic waters. Yeah, maybe. Conceptualizing such a thing is hard, of course. Life and death, creation and destruction, and literal light and darkness are kinda hard to combine without making an oxymoron.

“Good. I like it when people are paying attention to what is happening around them.” Rebus smiled back. “Though I am a Narrator, I’m actually spread rather thin. But with skill and ingenuity, I am formidable, if not powerful. That is more impressive, in some ways. I’ve heard you may be both.” “I’m glad you’re still here.” Rebus kept smiling at her - if he blushed he would have. Heir kept roasting his marshmallow, and wondered what music was being played so he would know what kind of dancing he should write. “Well, the easiest way would be to simply find Eof, but I’ve had an idea for detecting Platypus - and it should work from out here.” What I was saying is that the little bit of smokite I’ve seen doesn’t feel like it fits. I may be completely wrong on that point, but if I’m not we can change how it will be to match Chaotic Order better, or work together to find a better category for it. I don’t think new thing was the problem, I think the problem was it being a new thing that changes the old things. HI! ARE WE USING ALL CAPS? I’m doing well - I am only slightly sunburned. My ocean voyage was very interesting - I saw a reef and some rays! There was very good food, but no internet, so I could not be here.

That can make sense, though I’d argue there are even more variables than that. Most of them are simply a product of what people tend to make, but categorizing and extrapolating is rather fun. So, my intent with Chaotic Order was not merely the center, or even instability, but rather a specific concept where chaos and order can overlap and flow into one another. If you’re familiar with, say, the Mandelbrot Set, you might have an idea of what I’m talking about. Orderly rules - there are literally only three steps that you repeat - but the resulting shape could rightly be called chaotic. Similarly, if you roll two dice - an explicitly random action - and write down the totals, you eventually end up with a very regular pattern when you graph the results. Emergent phenomena - orderly behaviors coming from chaotic conditions and rules, or chaotic patterns arising from simple interactions - are what I intended Ordered Chaos to be about; results that seem to be almost out of nowhere when you consider the components, like how when you burn hydrogen and oxygen (which are both gasses) you get water (which is a liquid). It makes sense chemically and follows underlying rules, but if you compare the ingredients it seems bizarre. Ordered Chaos is meant to be a melding of the two concepts - the space between a random mess and a regular lattice, where you get interesting, novel shapes that are in a way both random and regular. Things like this can be more complex than either randomness or repeating patterns, through incorporating both parts. Anyway, if that made no sense, what I mean is that Ordered Chaos was intended to be a specific concept, and not merely an unstable middle point. That does work - we can come up with some sort of structure and order, then enforce it irregularly to make magic systems. Magics should have interactions, and being fundamental isn’t a prerequisite for affecting and relating to the fundamentals. I think there was actually a whole family of magics that could be supercharged with Prismite, at one point. “I think many do - you are correct in the former, but only time will tell for the latter.” Rebus absently admired the vocabulary used in the description, though he wasn’t that impressed with the man himself. Rebus took her hand with a genuine smile. That was quite helpful - Jack put it away for later. I suppose. The Ennullers are fairly easy to contact, if Xino is around (it’s almost safer to talk to them, actually - accidentally breaking the rules set by the people who can delete you from reality is to be avoided). The person roasting a marshmallow also clapped his hands, but as quiet applause rather than a magical gesture. Meat was still rather stunned. “You’re me? I’m the same, except with more letters.” “Right here,” Rebus said, “since my Author has cell service again. I’m glad to see nothing I needed to be a part of finished without me - I think I can resume as if nothing happened.” He smiled at her, then looked around. “Why, exactly, are you looking for Platypus at Eof’s house? I’d be glad to help, of course.”

Shaping/Corruption was Dragon’s (it was necessary to force the two metals to touch, but could be substituted with many different things, and doesn’t need to be fundament for the thing to work), but Abstraction is the weapon Rebus got from the Dreamsmith (so it’s other Dragon’s, aka mine). It does about what you’d expect, and was needed to keep the initial Chaos and Order for dissipating before they combined. Well, there’s Light, Order, and Chaos, though those may not be very useful. And if Rebus gets his hands on more Darkalloy and a Plotblade nobody wants, he might try to allow Plotium with an Essence.