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 Post Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2023 12:14 pm 
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Arkady nods. "And the tools for that, of course. Then it seems we can discuss buying radios and payment in kind when our landlady finishes her bath." He looks over at Vanire: "I am guessing that you will not object if the people guarding this place can call you by radio? It would be faster than having the call come through us."

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 Post Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2023 3:22 am 
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Sephrenia wrinkles her nose. "It couldn't enslave someone permanently through a camera," she says, "and I doubt that it could enslave someone to any positive action, but if Azash boosts the effect of that greenish glow in the right way, and the camera operator isn't particularly strong-willed, it might be able to get him to sit still and do nothing for a few minutes. Through a camera. ...I'm not certain, but that's in the class of things that may well be possible."

"Is it relevant?" asks Platime.

"No," admits Sephrenia. "The Seeker is no longer around, and there won't be another one - probably for years. At least for months." She gives Felix a nod. "General tricks are a good idea; tricks that Azash hasn't seen yet will be best. Also, the Seeker was... very easily guided by Azash; most of the other powerful beings that he could employ will have their own ideas on what should be done and how it should be done. Exploiting the differences between what the monster wants and what Azash wants is usually a very useful strategy."

"Having radios for people to call with is good," agrees Vanire. "However, we've recently had occasion to see how that line of communication can be interrupted - it will be good to have it, but we need to back it up with other means of communication as well."

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2023 1:03 pm 
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Arkady shrugs. "There are other ways to communicate instantly. Each have their own possible problems, but blocking them all would be very hard. And we can set up warnings to let you know if they're being blocked. He looks back at Platime: "One way would need a thin cable from here to the chapter house, mostly buried underground. It would not be bothered by even the worst weather, and be all but impossible to block without cutting it; but if people are likely to keep doing that then it would not be worth the effort."

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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2023 8:17 am 
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"What would the thin cable be made from?" asks Platime.

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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2023 9:08 am 
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Arkady pauses for a second, then says: Nothing anyone would recognize. It's mostly flexible glass fibers under a protective coating of something else, and it's about as thick as fine yarn unless we need to armor it. Or we could use a thin metal wire; but glass works better."

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 Post Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2023 3:30 am 
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Platime considers these options. "Flexible glass fibres shouldn't be too much of a problem. I could see someone being curious... but I believe I can probably dissuade that. Though a short length of similar cable, that can be used to demonstrate what's down there, would help in that regard. Metal, though - even a thin metal cable from here to the Chapterhouse would be quite a wealth of refined metal - the metal cable would be difficult to persuade people to leave alone."

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 Post Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2023 3:06 am 
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"It'll be easy enough to provide a sample, and the production method is cheap enough that we can afford to lose a little bit here or there. Of course if we really need to lay down copper line we can just pave over it with concrete. Once that hardens trying to get through it would take considerable and very loud effort."

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 Post Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2023 6:04 pm 
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Arkady turns back to look at Piper. "Perhaps you would be knowing. Can Azash make any metal he wants, or just gold?"

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 Post Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2023 3:16 am 
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Platime nods. A sample or two to show around will mean that no-one needs to dig up the cable in order to prove that it's useless.

Felix knows, of course, that with a bit of work he can set up a system that will not only tell you if a fibreoptic line is cut, but will tell you where the cut is (in terms of distance-from-the-start-of-the-cable); someone who knows the cable's route can then instantly tell a crisis team exactly where to go.

"Not just metals," says Piper. She wrinkles her nose. "Metals are boring to make, but easy. They're not fully real, of course, but they're real enough to fool even other gods, so the distinction is kind of academic. It's much more fun to make -" She reaches behind her own head and pulls, out of nowhere, a daisy. She hands the flower to Arkady.

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 Post Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2023 3:31 am 
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Felix thinks for a moment. He thinks he understands where Arkady is going with this.

"Are they real enough that they would continue to act like those metals, if said metals had special properties? Like, say, metals that die in such a way they give off poisonous light that humans can't see? Metals that are the same size as gold but are... say..."

Felix does some mental math.

"About 41 or 47 units heavier than gold?"

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 Post Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2023 5:39 pm 
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Arkady takes the flower and smiles, then tucks it into a shirt pocket so it's a crude boutonniere. "It's very pretty, but will it fool another flower? Can a bee use this to help another daisy go to seed? If I am holding still long enough for the bee, of course."

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 Post Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2023 5:18 am 
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"It's not real," says Piper. "You can see it, because I'm making the light that would be there if it was real. You could feel it when you held it, Arkady, because when your fingers pressed it, I pressed back as much as a flower stem would. But it's not there. There's no real flower. I'm not even trying very hard with that flower, so you'll see that it has no shadow. It has no scent. If I were doing a proper job of it, then it would have a shadow because I would block the light that would go through it - and I can make it have a scent as well, but -" she wrinkles up her nose - "that's a lot of work, to get that right. It would be way easier just to make you think it had a scent. And yes, if I was going to work really really hard on it, I could let a bee bring another daisy to seed with it. But - there is no flower there. It can't do anything that I couldn't do anyway. It doesn't exist. I just make it look like it does."

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 Post Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2023 5:21 pm 
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Arkady nods, and keeps his first thought to himself. "You said picking the impurities out of real gold is hard. But how quickly can it be done? If Azash had to pull a pound of real gold out of a ton of real quartz, how long would it take him?"

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2023 4:47 am 
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"It's not hard, it's tedious. You have to check each teeny-tiny little bit, and see if it's gold or not... it can be done quickly. But it's dead boring and you have to be paying attention all the time. It's way easier to make an illusion of gold."

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2023 9:30 pm 
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Arkady smiles, but it's not a happy smile. "Yes, Piper; you would get bored. But you know Azash. Would he get bored if the result is making a machine to kill people and destroy things?"

He glances over at the others. "Azash could have figured out by himself how to block radios. But if if the Terran Blackwell really is working for him, and if Blackwell hears what I've learned from Piper then decides to share his knowledge; then afterward the Zemoch could start working on some rather dangerous machines. So just in case, it would probably be best if we are not waiting years before we try to deal with His statue."

He shrugs, then adds "And before anyone is wondering: no, we did not bring any of those machines from Earth. There was no need."

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