A New Groove
18th of November 2006 A.D.
I can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time right? You ask yourself, pushing aside the awareness of slow-chew, something between gum and cotton candy now mostly synthetic and coming in a bewildering variety of tastes but originating in a sort of fern sap native to the Western Jungles where it had been the origin of a trade network to which many of the Consortiums of the City of Journeys still trace their vast wealth.
"Ameli could you call in a medivac for my friends, they were... captured by an enemy of mine. I managed to secure their release and he claimed they were unharmed, but do not trust the word to mean the same to him as it does to me and they
should have woken up." Catching yourself you breathe though your nose reminded with just as much thoroughness of all the ways Sanctuary in general and the medbay of the upper palace in particular have to treating magical ailments
In a matter of moments the tocatli woman summons a pair of air cushion stretchers and their attending paramedics to hoist your friends onto to the general buzzing of the remaining crowd of security personnel.
"Also does anyone have a secure slate?" you ask looking around.
Surprisingly it is the woman with the hair-implants, Firm Instigator of Peace, or Fip, who answers to the affirmative. Having even less fidelity than a low-jack slates are generally used by those who for personal or spiritual reasons have chosen to forego a machine-mind interface or who do not trust the local SUTRAs, neither of which makes much sense for a member of Palace security. The slate itself it is probably one of the most high-tech on the planet, a wafer thin thing of brass and beryl packed with magically cooled super-conductor that is still a generation maybe two ahead of what is commercially viable.
As the whole group sets off for medical, flanked by a very professional, but still off balance security detail you mentally switch gears to English and try to explain.
An diagram of an icy hemisphere, of a cyclone and an anticyclone forever locked in battle, their embrace birthing a belt of blue-green life appears n screen with two presses of the buttons, five great pillars of steel set in the points of a pentagram.
"These are the Fivefold Courts of Fate, we are here in the palace at the centre of the world and as far as I can tell from things I now remember Usum is not wrong, this is a place I made, at least the foundations of it are, the ice, the storms, the city pillars, at least I made it the way people are the architects of their dreams, there are bits that feel familiar without feeling like they are mine, the Dragon of Night and the Dragon of Light, the Brass Labyrinth some of the shapes of life maybe..."
"One of those shapes is human," your dad points out, cautiously.
"Right I definitely did not invent the human form," you laugh awkwardly, playing it up a little to make it clear you are not about to go super-villain on them, "Anyway dad do you remember when Father James died back in Denver and we all went to the funeral? Back in '94 I was six or something?"
"Yes," he answers, not sure where this is going.
The elevator dings softly as it arrives to take you down to the lower levels. Some things it seems are universal.
"I asked why people only have one life to be good or bad in when that is supposed to decide their eternal reward? If people are worth second chances why not third and fourth and so on?"
Another nod. For his part Harry has his eyes glued to the screen while you roll out image after image, not just schematics, but vid dramas and documentaries, grav-ball game recordings, the kind of things that are too varied, too complex, too mundane to be faked.
"And you said God can't give infinite chances because human life is finite?"
The elevator doors open onto an antechamber resounding with music at once pleasant and wholly alien to your ears like techno-punk performed via whale song, just normal popp-y music thankfully. You do not think you could deal with Covenant hymns right now. The stretchers go first, their attending doctors, one seta gently bobbing along and one human reading off vitals as they go.
"Well," you wave your hand between the brass doors and the tablet. "Welcome to the land of infinite second chances. If someone dies of anything beside specifically designed ritual meant to unbind them from the Wheel of Life and Death, which you have to go through serious counselling and self reflection to have access to, they come back absent whatever killed them."
I made a world where the cure to drug addiction is to OD. The realization hits you like a ton of bricks.
Firmly you shake off the intrusive thought. This is a world where there is always a way for people to get better, to come back. So what if that means they have to discorporate for a bit?
"Well," you dad sighs as he puts a hand on your shoulder, as though to assure himself that you are still solid. "This isn't where I thought I'd be this morning. But I am glad I can be here with you to help as I can. Who knows maybe you'll find some use for your old dad's advice even around here."
A giggle escapes you and if it sounds just a little hysterical well you like to think that is understandable. "No need to go all Full House folksy wisdom on me dad."
"Would
half-house be appropriate then?" he asks, still trying to put you at ease.
It works, you practically roll your eyes all the way back at the genuine article dad joke.
"It's a Nevernever realm, a big one, bigger than any I've heard of outside of Faerie, but I'm not an expert in things like that," Harry speaks up. "The people here, I'm not sure what you would call them. Denizens maybe? They feel like demons, but then so do you, that doesn't mean anything." The casual way he says it makes you feel warm inside. "We need to figure out the Way to get home once they get looked at..."
"Oh I can just will us home..." Before you can say more you notice one of the doctors take out a small brass stud about twice the size of a coin as he leans over Alec. A simple medical implant designed to read vitals and relay them to the physician of the kind no citizen of the Courts would think twice about.
"Stop!" The poor man freezes in his tracks so you do your best to moderate your tone as you explain implants, even the most common place are unknown where they come from.
"Pardon the impudence of one who wishes to understand only so that she may better serve you," Ameli says into the silence that follows. "But where do where did you travel from Majesty and who are your companions?"
What do you answer?
[] Try to explain Earth and the Spirit World as best you can
[] Just translate for Harry and dad introducing themselves, you can cover the shape of the cosmos later
[] Write in
OOC: That would have been the issue with just sending Izzy and Alec with the doctors, they would have no reason not to use devil-invested cybernetics to help with the diagnosis and treatment. Since you were there you could stop them, but since Molly was talking she had to roll perception (with ATB) to notice in time. 
