your stare was holdin'

It is so bizarre how much this looks, superficially, like my planet when I was in my twenties, and then, surprise, slavery, talking cats, stars are dead people, world is flat, Roman Empire, birthday personalities, Jesus is alive and well.

The first thread featuring Astrocracy as a world and the source of most information pertaining to the setting.

Synopsis

Demon Cam is summoned by Fireheart. Over the course of endeavoring to improve the cats' lives, he discovers the differences between his home world and the world he's been summoned to.

Summary

Due to the thread being over 200 pages and still updating, the following summary is a work in progress.

initial summoning
  • Cam is summoned and discovers that he can now speak a language that consists of meowing.
    • He learns that cats can't understand human speech and of the clan/kittypet divide.
    • When consulting a video of a cat from Revelation meowing, he can't understand it. He discovers that one of the local human languages is extremely similar to English.
    • Cam offers to act as a liaison between the clans and the local humans; Fireheart needs to consult with other cats in ThunderClan about this. Cam agrees to wait.
  • While Fireheart, his summoner, requests permission from his clanmates to introduce Cam to them, Princess shows up to investigate. 
    • She doesn't find it surprising that Cam meows at her, but is surprised that he can say anything more advanced than "hello" and understand her when she speaks.
    • Cam refuses to tell her about any cats he already saw, to her frustration, but agrees to pass on to Cloudpaw and Fireheart that she was looking for them.
    • Fireheart returns with Sandstorm and Cinderpelt. When Cam passes along Princess' message, Fireheart and Sandstorm leave to find her, leaving Cam alone with Cinderpelt.
  • Cinderpelt has questions for Cam about human lifestyle and habits!
    • He answers her questions the best he can, revealing that he used to be a nonmagical human before he died, that he has demon powers, and that he has medical training that can be applied to said powers.
    • Cinderpelt asks Cam to heal her leg, which was injured in a car accident. He's willing to help, but cautious about anesthetizing her properly. They decide to wait until Fireheart and Sandstorm get back to proceed with the plan.
    • While they wait, Cam tells her about how humans practice medicine and introduces her to germ theory.
  • Fireheart, Sandstorm, and Princess return, Princess having gotten injured running away from a dog.
    • With Princess' permission, Cam cleans and repairs the cut on her foot. Also with her permission, he pets her, which she enjoys.
    • Cinderpelt asks to be healed next. Sandstorm and Fireheart are suspicious, mostly that Cam might try to demand payment that they wouldn't want to or be able to give. Cam assures them that he just wants to establish positive relations with the clans.
    • In lieu of poppyseeds, Cam wants to use lidocaine as a painkiller. A basement dweller test doesn't uncover any allergic reactions, but a test on Cinderpelt reveals that it doesn't work as a painkiller. She decides to do it very quickly with poppyseeds and a stick to bite on.
    • The operation is a success! Cam burns the basement dweller and injured leg and Cinderpelt takes her new leg out for a spin.
  • With that taken care of, the topic returns to whether Cam should act as a cat/human translator.
    • Princess, having many questions for her housefolk, is in favor. Sandstorm is more hesitant about the possibility of alerting the humans to the clans' existence. He proposes that the question be put on hold until the next Gathering, which will be held on the full moon.
    • Princess and Fireheart convince Sandstorm to allow Cam to talk to Princess' housefolk, as long as he doesn't bring up the topic of the clans. Cam agrees, since the situation could easily go wrong if handled poorly.
    • Concerned about the potential personhood of cat prey animals like voles and songbirds, Cam tries to convince the cats to allow him to make them demonic prey. All of the cats are extremely discomfited by this, especially when a plastic-wrapped sample Cam makes ends up tasting unpleasant to all the cats except Princess.
    • Fireheart decides that the stakes are high enough that he'll need to do some cat politics before even introducing Cam. They agree to meet at dawn of the next day and for Cam to make a day's worth of unwrapped prey that Fireheart, Cinderpelt, and Sandstorm can bring back to ThunderClan's camp.
visiting Princess' house
  • Princess and Cam set off to meet Princess' housefolk! En route, Cam hides his wings with a jacket and goes around to the front door so as to not arouse suspicion.
    • Jackie gets the door and is skeptical of Cam's claim that he can talk to Princess until he proves it by passing along a request for Princess to scratch Jackie. Princess (very gently) complies, convincing Jackie. She lets Cam in after making a brief phone call.
    • Cam passes along Princess' messages and gives Jackie a brief overview of some of his demonic abilities and traits.
    • Jackie, in the course of apologizing for holding Princess uncomfortably tightly, wonders aloud if that was her thing and explains to a curious Cam that she's a September 01 person. Calendar confusion and clarification ensues.
    • Further facts about the world come to light, including:
      • The human language that's extremely similar to Revelation!English is locally called Latin.
      • The Roman Empire is still kicking and has been for 785 years.
      • The world is flat, although there exist conspiracy theories about a spherical Earth.
      • Birthdays are a thing! Not for cats, though.
      • The stars are dead people, and their positions are responsible for things such as geminis and influenza. One can talk to the stars by taking a drug called omnilol. Space shuttles have not been invented.
      • Crystal healing is a thing! It's very complicated and involves birthstones and licensed professionals and sometimes herbs.
      • In addition to the sun and moon, which are always opposite each other, there is a moon-like celestial body known as Polaris that is responsible for the seasons.
    • Cam starts making plans, but before he can get very far, Jackie disclaims that she shouldn't provide any guidance or direction more specific than informing Cam of common knowledge lest she inadvertently invoke the summer solstice curse.
    • Jackie and Cam talk a little about the local Jesus, who is thirtyish and a vernal equinox and somewhat of a spiritual leader, and also works with a summer solstice named Judas. Jackie very deliberately refuses to have opinions on what, if anything, Cam should do with this information, and decides to cycle back to some of Cam's earlier questions.
    • Cam reads a book aimed at children under eight (the legal age to take omnilol) about how star clouds work and speculates with Jackie and Princess about why the formerly-human stars have never mentioned the sapient cats and about how long cats have been people.
    • Princess, disappointed and annoyed at being ignored, reminds Cam of her questions. He passes them along for Jackie to answer and decides to make a picture board so Princess and Jackie can communicate without relying on Cam as a relay.
    • Princess proves to be very, very quick at picking up written language! Cam switches gears from "set up picture board" to "teach her how to read and type Latin" and in the process of this discovers that sapient cats have human-like color vision.
  • While Princess works on the Latin program, Cam conjures a motorcycle and goes to a nearby animal shelter.
    • The receptionist lets him into the back to talk to the cats. The cats are very confused about a lot of things, such as:
      • Cam being able to talk!
      • Words like "universe," "acquisition," "language," and so on, though one cat spontaneously understands the word "spatially" shortly after asking what it means.
      • Why Cam is here.
    • Most, but not all, of the cats are able to talk to Cam. They describe the ones that can't as extremely quiet and mention that they've never picked up vocabulary from them. Nearly all the cats who can talk report that their parents could as well, but one mentions that its parents can't talk and that it spontaneously learned to talk one day.
    • None of the cats can read, including one who claims when asked to be able to read everything.
    • A local alt of Cricket exists, who reports becoming able to talk after taking "a very strange catnip trip." Cam asks the receptionist, who introduces herself as Ivy, to let him out. She's curious about the "some cats are people" card Cam made to test cat literacy, and because of this gives him leeway to stay until past closing time.
  • Cam decides to take Cricket home, to Ivy's relief. He doesn't have a standard pamphlet prepared, so he answers her questions instead.
    • Ivy confesses that she'd suspected the cats of being people for a while, having picked up that they meowed in clear conversational patterns. She's not sure what to do about it aside from continuing to advocate for their welfare.
    • She takes Cam's weirdness in stride, provided that he demonstrates himself competent to care for Cricket. He makes a lot of items on the shelter's donation list and makes her some movies and a flatdisk player in exchange for some local currency he can use to pay the adoption fee and passes along feedback from Cricket.
  • Cam returns to Jackie's place with Cricket in tow.
    • Jackie has been joined at home by Jordan and Ian.
    • Princess has made a fair amount of progress in learning Latin and is able to type with great enthusiasm (if limited vocabulary) about her feelings (Jackie and Ian and Jordan are great!) and desires (she wants to go outside and have treats). Ian and Jordan are all right with this until she requests the kind Nicholas gives her, which they suspect might be drugged. Cam gives her fish instead.
    • Cam and the local humans discuss differences between their worlds. Jordan in particular is fascinated by the concept of vacuum nearly everywhere.
    • Over the course of this conversation it comes out that Cam intends to set up a house in the woods. Princess pipes up to remind him not to build too close to any extant clan territory. Since he can't smell the boundaries and she only knows what ThunderClan's territory smells like, he decides to find an alternate solution.
omnilol trip 1
  • Cam and Cricket set out to a campground that Ian recommends, where Cam makes an RV. There he reads up about the state of the world:
    • He goes through a birthday guide book Ivy recommended him and learns about the autumn, winter, and spring solquinoxes and their reputations. He also learns about even people and people less odd than the solquinoxes.
    • He then looks for information about star clouds not directed at children too young to legally interact with them. He learns a bit about the history of the world, particularly as pertains to humanity discovering things about magic, stars, and birthdays. Not much is known about the underlying mechanisms of these things, since the One is notoriously cagey.
  • Cam decides to try tripping on omnilol, with Cricket as his trip sitter.
    • His first try involves omnilol that he conjures and does not work. Suspecting that omnilol is magical and thus unconjurable, he goes to a drugstore about half an hour away from Chelford and picks up a dose, which works!
    • At first he looks for cats, but does not find any - searching for nonhuman star clouds only yields big clouds that aren't very human in their thought processes anymore. Trying for the most recently dead individual doesn't work because "who died most recently" keeps changing too quickly! He settles on talking to the closest non-cloud who wants to talk to him.
    • The resulting star is someone recently dead. They tell him that being dead is kind of like being high, without being able to go back - scary, but maybe it gets less scary when you're used to it. They plan to stay separate for a few more days to allow everyone who wanted to to say goodbye. They have a hope that a particular ex of theirs will show up before they merge so they can be petty to him.
    • They compare the feeling of staying single to not taking a sip from a glass of water in one's hand - not too hard, if you're paying attention, but increasingly hard over time as one gets "thirstier." Different people or clouds can be likened to different flavors of drinks, based on potential compatibility. One can also talk to parts of clouds, though it wouldn't be like talking to an individual person. The star compares this to the difference between an egg and a crumb from the cookie it's baked into.
    • They're curious and confused about why Cam is on a tiny dose intended for small children as an adult and become concerned when he confesses that not only has he never used omnilol, neither of his parents has either. He urges them to not worry about him or his safety.
    • As Cam's dose starts to wear off, he asks if there are any cats around. The star is unfamiliar with cats but, with Cam's permission, asks the One about it. The One isn't aware of any cat souls, but is aware of a couple hundred new stars (as in the physical representation of a dead person on the shell of the universe) without associated souls. Cam tries to find these but can't before his trip ends.
visiting RiverClan
  • At dawn, Cam and Cricket go out to meet with Fireheart. Cricket is rude to Fireheart, which does not seem to bother him.
    • Fireheart wants to know if Cam found out anything about the personhood of prey. Cam reports that everything he's found has suggested that prey animals are not people, and neither are most cats. He'd still like to be introduced to the clans, even absent a potential moral crisis.
    • Fireheart has a lot of questions about humans! He wants to know about writing, clothes, the purpose of collars on kittypets, cars, and how humans cope with not having a very good sense of smell.
    • Fireheart catches Cam up on some relevant cat politics, such as that RiverClan is going through a period of loss, that one of his friends, Graystripe, switched to RiverClan to be with his kits, and that the former deputy of FireClan who now leads ShadowClan betrayed ThunderClan.
    • Cam and Fireheart discuss StarClan briefly - Cam mentions that there doesn't seem to be communication between dead humans and dead cats. Fireheart finds this unsurprising and mentions that he's had prophetic dreams, which he doesn't feel comfortable disclosing at this time.
    • Cam has some questions that Fireheart thinks he should ask an elder, which he may have the opportunity to do so if invited to the next Gathering, between one and two weeks away. These questions include "how long have the clans been a thing" and "where did the warrior code come from."
  • Cam, Fireheart, and Cricket arrive at RiverClan's territory, where Leopardfur greets them. Once it's established that the prey concern is no longer pressing, she wants to know if Cam has any other business.
    • Fireheart asks after Crookedstar's condition and Cam offers to help, though he disclaims that he doesn't know as much about cat medicine as he does about the human kind.
    • Leopardfur asks him to do something about the water, which has been polluted by garbage. Cam proposes setting up a filtration fountain for RiverClan, putting up a "no dumping" sign at the river, and adding new fish to the river. Leopardfur agrees and leads Cam to their camp.
    • Cam places the fountain and some of the RiverClan cats bring Crookedstar out. He's in very poor condition and has pneumonia. Cam does everything he can, but Crookedstar dies.
  • While RiverClan buries Crookedstar, Mistyfoot leads Fireheart, Cam, and Cricket out of RiverClan territory to a spot near where Cam parked his RV.
    • Cam sets up the "no dumping" signs, replenishes the fish, and drags some garbage bags away from the riverbank.
    • Once this is done, Fireheart leads Cam to Fourtrees. On the way there, they talk about indestructibility and the positive impact Cam will have on clan life.
    • Representatives from WindClan arrive to speak with Cam. One of them, Gorsepaw, is very curious about Cricket. The leader, Tallstar, asks if Cam can do anything about the Thunderpath, since drivers frequently hit cats in a way that appears deliberate. Cam offers to make a bridge; Tallstar and Gorsepaw lead him to where he can do so.
    • On the way to do this, Cam talks about why humans do things, such as wanting cats to be kittypets. In turn, the cats explain some of the sentiment behind warrior disdain of kittypets.
  • Cam sets up the bridge, which the cats are pleased by once they test it out.
    • A pair of barn cats, Barley and Ravenpaw, come by to talk. They tell Cam about barn cat life and their histories.
    • Barley mentions that he grew up as a stray until he "woke up." Cam questions him about this, and Cricket causes some friction by chiming in. Firepaw leads Cam back to Fourtrees.
cat politics
  • On the way there, Firepaw mentions that Ravenpaw left ThunderClan after Tigerclaw tried to kill him. This prompts Cam to take notes on cat politics.
    • The current clan leadership is as follows:
      • ThunderClan is led by Bluestar, deputy Fireheart.
      • RiverClan is led by Leopardstar, deputy currently unchosen.
      • WindClan is led by Tallstar, deputy Mudclaw.
      • ShadowClan is led by Tigerstar, deputy Blackfoot.
    • Fireheart also mentions that ThunderClan's deputies before him were Redtail, Lionheart, and Tigerclaw, and that ShadowClan was led by Brokenstar (who was terrible) and, briefly, Nightstar.
    • Sunningrocks is a piece of territory near the river. It used to be contested, but RiverClan attacked it shortly after Fireheart joined ThunderClan. The ensuing battle resulted in the deaths of Oakheart, deputy of RiverClan, and Redtail and in ThunderClan claiming the territory.
      • Tigerclaw's account was that Oakheart killed Redtail and Tigerclaw killed Oakheart in revenge.
      • Ravenpaw's account was that Tigerclaw attacked Redtail.
      • It was later determined by ThunderClan that Oakheart had been killed by falling rocks.
    • At the time of the Sunningrocks battle, ShadowClan was under the leadership of Brokenstar, who became leader by framing ShadowClan's medicine cat, Yellowfang, for the murder of his father, then clan leader. Yellowfang joined ThunderClan after being exiled by ShadowClan. Things that happened under Brokenstar's leadership included:
      • ShadowClan expanding their hunting ground, driving WindClan out of their territory.
      • Sending kits into battle at half the age dictated by the warrior code and training them too harshly, causing several deaths.
      • Stealing replacement kits from ThunderClan, which killed Spottedleaf, ThunderClan's medicine cat, in the process. (Yellowfang succeeded Spottedleaf as medicine cat.)
    • ThunderClan retrieved the kits, helping ShadowClan oust Brokenstar in the process. At the same time, they helped Ravenpaw fake his death when he went to live with Barley by telling Tigerclaw that one of Brokenstar's patrols killed him, since Tigerclaw had been trying to get Ravenpaw killed by sending him on dangerous missions.
    • Bluestar sent Fireheart and Graystripe to help return WindClan to their territory. There was "trouble" (Fireheart's words) that resulted in the death of an unnamed RiverClan warrior. At this time Graystripe started seeing Silverstream. Several ThunderClan cats contracted whitecough, which in Bluestar's case evolved into greencough bad enough that she lost one of her lives. Cinderpelt also got into the car accident that injured her leg, which Fireheart believes was a trap Tigerclaw intended for Bluestar. Princess had a kit, Cloudpaw, whom she entrusted to ThunderClan.
    • A Gathering was canceled by StarClan covering the full moon with clouds because of tensions arising due to Brokenstar and some rogues allied with him trespassing on clan territory. Most of the warriors went to ShadowClan to confront the trespassers, leaving Yellowfang and Fireheart as the only adults in the camp when the rogues attacked. Despite being outnumbered, they won. Bluestar allowed Brokenstar, blinded and down to his last life, to live in the camp.
    • Later, ShadowClan and RiverClan tried again to drive out WindClan, and ThunderClan came to their defense. At some point during this period, Leopardfur attempted to kill Fireheart, which Tigerclaw saw and did nothing about.
    • Graystripe and Fireheart then looked into the circumstances surrounding Redtail's death. They discovered some RiverClan kits, who were drowning in the river due to recently-melted snow, and returned them to camp. At this point they learned from RiverClan that the river had been poisoned and offered to share some of their prey. However, Cloudpaw and Tigerclaw discovered them, and they were punished for violating the warrior code.
    • A few days before the next Gathering, Bluestar sent Tigerclaw, Longtail, and Fireheart to find a way to cross the still-flooded river. Tigerclaw sent Fireheart to cross the stream on a very narrow branch, which would have killed him had it not been for Longtail's actions. Because the river was still impassable, ShadowClan allowed ThunderClan to pass through their territory to Fourtrees, but announced at the Gathering that ThunderClan was sheltering Brokenstar and revoked permission to pass through their territory. RiverClan allowed ThunderClan passage, but shortly afterwards WindClan and ShadowClan attacked ThunderClan. On Bluestar's orders, ThunderClan defended Brokenstar, along with the rest of their camp.
    • After the battle, Silverstream died in childbirth, which led to Graystripe and their kits living with RiverClan. The kits nearly died as well, but Cinderpelt and Tigerclaw warmed them up enough to save them. Goldenflower, Tigerclaw's mate, nursed the kits.
    • Fireheart discovered Tigerclaw was meeting with rogues to create an ambush where he sent out all of ThunderClan's warriors at the same time, leaving their camp undefended. Fireheart saved Bluestar's life, and the RiverClan patrol sent to retrieve Graystripe's kits helped defend the camp. Brokenstar sided with the rogues, but died. Afterwards, Bluestar exiled Tigerclaw from ThunderClan and named Fireheart her deputy.
    • Later, Bluestar and Fireheart were stopped from going to the Moonstone, where clan leaders share dreams with StarClan, by a WindClan patrol led by Mudclaw and escorted back to their camp. There they met two ShadowClan cats begging for food and herbs, as their clan was suffering a plague. Cinderpelt, against Yellowfang's advice, helped the cats hide in ThunderClan territory away from camp and took care of them.
    • Cloudpaw, Fireheart's apprentice, would occasionally sneak out of clan territory to be fed by humans. This eventually resulted in him being taken away in a car, though ThunderClan was able to rescue him. After this, there was a fire in ThunderClan territory. Yellowfang, Patchpelt, and Halftail all died, but Fireheart was able to rescue Bramblekit, Tigerstar's son. RiverClan let ThunderClan stay in their territory and gave them medicine and prey, and at the next Gathering Fireheart stood in for Bluestar, who was still sick of smoke inhalation.
  • Caught up to the present day, Cam and Tigerheart discuss what to do about Tigerstar. It's at this point that Tigerstar reveals himself. He invites Cam to visit ShadowClan.
    • After Cam drops Cricket off at the RV, Tigerstar leads him to ShadowClan territory. En route, he implies that Fireheart's account is, if not dishonest, inaccurate. Cam offers to listen to his side of the story and do forensics; Tigerstar immediately accepts.
    • The first matter under investigation is Redtail's death. Cam conjures a series of dioramas, working backwards from the moment of Redtail's death. When put into a stop motion film, the sequence of events is as follows:
      • Oakheart and a grey cat (also from RiverClan, but unidentified) are sunning themselves together.
      • Redtail, Tigerclaw, and Ravenpaw arrive on scene, sparking a tense conversation that erupts into battle. Tigerclaw gains a scar on his muzzle during this battle.
      • Tigerclaw pins the grey RiverClan cat; Oakheart tackles Tigerclaw to get him off. When Tigerclaw recovers from this, Redtail is right behind him and Ravenpaw is hiding behind a bush.
      • A startled Tigerclaw attacks Redtail. Ravenpaw, terrified, runs away. Tigerclaw backs away, his ears flat and eyes wide.
      • Redtail bodychecks Oakheart into some falling rocks while Tigerclaw, his expression inscrutable to Cam, watches. Redtail and Oakheart die beneath the rocks.
    • Cam agrees that this is more ambiguous than Fireheart's account and asks for context on some more of Fireheart's claims. Tigerstar has reasonable-sounding explanations for all of them:
      • There is no possible way that any cat could have orchestrated the car accident that injured Cinderpelt aside from coordinating with humans. Tigerstar asserts that Cam is the first human he's spoken to.
      • The dangerous mission to Snakerocks hadn't been an attempt on Ravenpaw's life, but a routine hunting assessment that a group of warriors including Tigerclaw had supervised. Tigerstar notes that he was proud of Ravenpaw for catching an adder and that the medicine cats would have been able to help Ravenpaw in the event of a snakebite.
      • On the day that the river between ThunderClan territory and Fourtrees was flooded, Fireheart, being the lightest, was the best choice to test the tree branch. According to Tigerstar, the branch wasn't any more dangerous than going through ShadowClan territory.
      • He admits to having met with the rogues who later attacked ThunderClan's camp, but insists that he didn't coordinate or encourage the attack and was simply discussing the differences between rogue life and clan life. He claims that the attack, which he had nothing to do with, was an attempt to make up for having sided with Brokenstar, and that he'd set out more patrols in hopes of defending from them.
      • He also says that the rogues, who he accepted back into ShadowClan after gaining leadership, are integrating well and that most cats need structure and leadership to make up for difficulties with decision making.
      • He's deeply disturbed when Cam asks about him standing by while Leopardfur attacked Fireheart - according to him, it was during a battle and there were other cats who needed his help more. Conjuring reveals a battle of at least fifty cats, during which Fireheart is pinned by Leopardfur. Tigerclaw briefly glances over before intercepting someone else from attacking a dark brown tabby.
    • Cam asks Tigerstar if he knows why Fireheart is seemingly so determined to read ill intent into his actions.
      • Tigerstar demurs, but when pressed expresses an opinion that Fireheart's past as a kittypet has clouded his judgment - that he read ill intent into Tigerclaw's actions because kittypets love drama and hate rules.
      • Cam expresses an opinion that Tigerclaw's prejudice against kittypets caused friction between him and Fireheart.
      • Tigerstar defends himself, saying that he was fine with Cloudpaw, who was a small kit and less kittypet-socialized, and would have been fine with an adult with more experience and maturity than Fireheart, who was barely of apprenticing age.
      • He also tells Cam about a prophecy that "fire alone will save our clan" and opines that Bluestar jumped to conclusions based on little more than Fireheart's orange coat.
    • Tigerstar then demonstrates the cat ability to spontaneously Learn words and concepts. Cam has questions! Tigerstar doesn't have many answers - according to him all cats can do it and some say it's a gift from StarClan. Cam resolves to take a nap the next time it's convenient; Tigerstar gives him advice and philosophizes a bit about his attitudes towards StarClan.
    • Cam talks about his plans and a little about human lifestyles - how civilization is structured to enable artistic pursuits such as music, for instance. He plays some for Tigerstar, both manually and on a recording.
    • Tigerstar mentions that Bluestar is insane - easily confused and untrusting. A discussion about ages causes him to Learn how numbers with more than one digit work. They decide to set up a computer in ShadowClan's camp to make communication easier.
    • Tigerstar sends a message of utmost importance.
  • Tigerstar's business with Cam having concluded, he leads Cam back to where Fireheart is waiting.
    • Fireheart is nervous; Cam reassures him and offers to set up ThunderClan with a computer similar to ShadowClan's. Fireheart accepts and leads him to ThunderClan camp.
    • Once Cam is fairly confident he's out of Tigerstar's earshot, Cam brings up the contents of the Tigerstar conversation. He agrees that Tigerstar is prejudiced against cats with kittypet backgrounds, but believes it likely that Fireheart read into things, since Tigerclaw couldn't have possibly anticipated Cam's ability to check evidence.
    • Fireheart watches Cam's diorama videos. He isn't sure what to make of them - he agrees that the Sunningrocks incident looks like an accident, but still suspects Tigerclaw attempted to kill Ravenpaw, who saw what happened. Cam relays Tigerstar's perspective and Fireheart mentions that Tigerclaw had spread rumors that Ravenpaw was a traitor.
    • Fireheart is reluctant to believe that he might have jumped to conclusions about Tigerstar; Cam reassures him that since he's in a different clan then they'll likely have minimal contact and that he'll keep an eye out for everyone's safety. He then segues into the matter of Tigerstar's kits, but the decision to keep them in ThunderClan is fairly unambiguous, as Goldenflower is part of ThunderClan and Tigerclaw was as well when the kits were born. Cam floats the idea of visitation but does not press it.
    • Fireheart asks why Tigerclaw would have lied if Redtail's death had been an accident. Cam tells him that Tigerstar claimed that Blueheart told him to and shows him the transcript of his notes. Fireheart is incensed for a moment before he gets distracted by Learning to read. Fireheart believes that Learning is a gift from StarClan and that the recent influx of new concepts to Learn is a result of Cam's presence.
  • While Fireheart goes to camp to fetch some cats to talk to, Cam gets a message from Princess' household! They're curious about the potential personhood of a cat that lives on trains and occasionally shows up on the news.
    • Cam chats briefly with them over text before Bluestar shows up. She's a little cryptic and laconic, giving indirect answers to questions or lapsing entirely into silence.
    • Suddenly, hawk!!! Somehow carrying a kitten away! Cam uses his demon powers to get the cat safely down to the ground and heal its wounds. He has difficulty communicating with it, though, so he takes a picture to show the other cats.
    • The next cat he talks to is Brackenfur, who informs him that the kitten, Snowkit, is deaf! Enlightened, Cam leads Brackenfur to where Snowkit is attempting to hide. They're able to communicate a little, but Brackenfur has to translate because Snowkit doesn't know how to lower his voice to a human-audible pitch.
    • When they reach ThunderClan camp, Cam returns Snowkit to his mama, Speckletail. He gives himself a pitch-adjustment hearing aid just in time to overhear some unkind gossip about Snowkit's chances of survival and about himself.
    • Bluestar arrives at camp, thanks Cam for saving Snowkit, and declares that StarClan must be at war with ThunderClan. This is a pretty controversial statement! The cats argue about it; in the course of explaining to Snowkit what's going on Cam sets up the ThunderClan computer.
  • Fireheart returns, thanking Cam for the computer and for saving Snowkit. After confirming that Cam doesn't have any more specific business, he sends Cloudpaw to escort Cam back to where Princess lives.
    • Cam asks Cloudpaw, who earlier had expressed a sentiment that StarClan was made up, asks for elaboration. Cloudpaw is surprised - he's mostly been under the impression that allusions to StarClan were metaphorical. He asks if the Dark Forest is an actual belief as well. Cam, not having heard of it before now, is unsure.
    • Cloudpaw has questions for Cam about humans! Why humans keep dogs, for instance, and cats. He swears Cam to secrecy before allowing him to pet him.
    • They talk a little about family structures, with Cloudpaw gushing about how great his mate, Brightpaw, is.
omnilol trip 2
  • Since the humans have some money for him, Cam stops by instead of returning directly to his RV. Princess rushes out to talk to Cloudpaw, since he's her son and she thought he was dead.
    • Jordan lets Cam in and gives him the money. They talk a little about human politics! Jordan explains about Arbiters, and about seasonchanges in general.
    • While talking to Cam about his omnilol trip, Jordan gets an idea! A jidacursed idea, unfortunately.
    • Ian rushes the summer solqs out of the house so that he, as a nonjida who independently derived it, can unproblematically convey the idea to Cam. The idea is making bodies for stars to inhabit. Cam, assured by Ian that he's not locking them all into horrible doom, decides to test it! After making a snazzy motorcycle for the household.
    • Princess and Cloudpaw return! Princess gets a fishy treat for being so fast to pick up Latin; Cloudpaw gets a treat as well but ultimately decides to bring it back to camp.
  • The jidas return. Cam tells them about his plan. Jordan wants to tag along; Jackie decides to stay home.
    • Since Jordan doesn't have a better test subject in mind, Cam decides to pitch the star he talked to earlier on the idea. They're skeptical but play along, asking to be put in a younger, prettier, and uninjured body and telling Cam where to find a picture.
    • Cam conjures a body to spec! After nothing happens for twenty minutes, he decides to try again at a higher altitude. This time it eventually works, although the former star is unhappy and uncomfortable. She complains of feeling cold and pins-and-needlesy. He gives her a heated blanket and lets her take a nap.
    • When she wakes up she's feeling much better, asking Cam if he's single. He gently turns her down and, in the process of figuring out where to put her, mentions the railway cat. Since their first conversation, she's learned that a winter solquinox, now deceased and part of a star cloud, tried twice to uplift cats and apparently succeeded.
    • The process of getting Ashley, the resurrectee, back to Londinium is somewhat complicated - she doesn't feel up to walking, biking, or being driven and is disoriented enough by existing in a body again that she's contemplating re-killing herself, which she doesn't want to put her family through. On the plus side, she's confident that future resurectees will have a more pleasant experience, since unnatural things get easier over time.
    • Once she's up to it, Cam wheels Ashley to a pay phone to call her uncle Dexter. He comes to pick her up and is not entirely convinced that she didn't fake her death, though she assures him that she's being fully serious. Cam declines to go home with them but asks Ashley to keep him posted.
Londinium trip 1
  • After letting Jordan & company know how it went, Cam sets out to look for the railway cat.
    • The first cat he finds is a calico talking with a police officer in the "who's a good kitty?" fashion of a human who does not expect to be understood by the cat they're talking to. (Meanwhile, a different calico, which the first calico claims to not know, makes off with a fish.) Cat cuts in, startling the calico and causing the police officer to pretend they weren't talking to a cat.
    • After the second calico steals another fish Cam offers the first calico and any friends they care to invite unlimited fish in exchange for a chat elsewhere. The first calico solicits proof and then leads Cam to a somewhat derelict building, where they are joined by the second cat.
    • They talk a little about language - different terms than "Twoleg" and "tailless" for non-cat people, strategies for obtaining food now that Cam and his demon powers are an option, the calicos' history with the kind of human who would hit a cat for annoying them.
    • The three are joined by a nearly all-black cat who has a trained raven. Mister Mistoffelees (who, despite the name, is a girl) is more adorned than other cats, having a spiked collar, a little jacket, and mechanical hands operable by kitty paw. She's also been able to teach her housefolk some catspeak! She asks Cam for a computer when he mentions that he's given those to some other cats and Cam agrees to give one to her housefolk, which is not clever enough for her liking.
    • Mungojerrie, the first calico, brings up that he wants to be seen as a male cat. Cam makes him a collar with a sufficiently masculine nametag, as well as a collar for Rumpleteazer, calico #2, when she asks.
  • This business concluded, Mister Mistoffelees takes Cam to visit her housefolk. They talk a little about her raven, Presto, whose intelligence is unknown - it can repeat catspeak words by rote, but only to Mistoffelees and her housefolk, and it says it doesn't know how many wings it has when asked.
    • When they arrive, Mistoffelees unsuccessfully tries to get Cam to open the door with his demon powers. She decides to SCREAM instead, judging Cam's initial knock to have been insufficiently loud. This successfully summons her housefolk!
    • Mistoffelees, as part of convincing her Cam can communicate with her, asks why she LIED and said her name was "Mom." She says that she wanted to take her role as a parent seriously, but doesn't mind being called by name, which is Ellie.
    • Ellie takes Cam up to her apartment so they can have a more extended conversation. She's curious, but deferential, because she's a slave. Cam very bravely restrains himself from taking off to buy off and free as many slaves as the economy will allow, because Ellie might have a valid reason for Not That that he wouldn't necessarily know because he's been here for roughly a day.
    • Ellie's of the opinion that slavery will most likely phase out on its own with the ending of material scarcity, since most slaves are enslaved due to financial reasons that she expects to become less pressing. She also expects that mass-manumitting all the slaves will cause power outages, since the power grid is powered nearly entirely on slave labor due to the convenience of training kids in extremely technical skills and nothing else from a young age.
    • Ellie expresses a pessimistic outlook on her geminis as a whole. Cam remarks that he's met a disproportionate number of New Year's Eve folk, which she says is common due to parents aiming for the autumnal equinox and chickening out at the last minute. She alludes to Verona, which Ashley had mentioned previously.
linguistics ghost kitten
  • Cam gives Ellie a phone so they can keep communicating and returns to Chelford. Cam catches Jordan up on his goings-on and has him pass on a request that larger starclouds temporarily hold back on merging with individual stars.
    • While Jordan does this, Cam decides to take a nap. He's immediately pulled into a lucid dream, and he has company. Said company has been looking forward to speaking with him - which they do so in English, rather than catspeak - immensely. (Tremendously, boundlessly, extensively!)
    • The linguistics ghost kitten advises Cam to pass along summoning instructions as soon as possible, as Bluestar may die soon, which would lead to Fireheart being promoted to Firestar and dying in the process of gaining nine lives. They explain that they don't have a name, because they died too young to gain one in life and want to pick the best possible name for themselves.
    • They request that Cam have Princess start the process of machine translation, since while they have to manually grant literacy (among other things) to cats they still have no headway on teaching catspeak to humans. They're in charge of the department that handles Learning, at least as pertains to words, because they were one of the first uplifted cats and died before they were able to communicate with anyone, so they made it their mission to ensure all cats could talk to each other.
    • Cam has some more concrete curiosities, like whether Bluestar is insane or Tigerstar is evil, but the linguistics ghost kitten can't answer them because of StarClan politics! Cam assures them that he'll try to not show particular favor or disfavor to any one clan, for instance by giving WindClan and RiverClan computers.
    • It transpires that there are cats in other departments who want to talk to Cam; the linguistics ghost kitten just happens to have dibs. It also transpires that the dream is time-dilated, though the linguistics ghost kitten cautions Cam against relying on anything he conjures as an information source, since dream conjurations might not match up with reality.
    • Cam gets some more information that doesn't pertain to cat politics, such as:
      • How long there have been people-cats! LGK isn't sure, since they only got numbers yesterday, but estimates that the Clans came first about fiftyish local years ago and the Londinium bunch, known as the Jellicles, shortly after. The Clans and the Jellicles are the results of two strains of uplifting catnip, the former of which produced asexual cats.
      • So far, all uplifted cats have stayed on the island of Britannia, though some kittypets have moved outside Chelford and Londinium with their human families.
      • The universe is limited to the interior of the shell with nothing, not even void, outside.
      • The cat afterlife is pretty big! StarClan is where the former Clan cats live; the Jellicles have their own section called the Heavyside Layer and are working on reincarnation. The linguistics ghost kitten predicts that former kittypets will opt for reincarnation more than former Clan cats, particularly since the afterlife can simulate humans but the simulations aren't people.
      • Along with the linguistics department, there are prophecy departments and medicine departments! The linguistics ghost kitten is fond of the medicine department.
    • Cam and the linguistics ghost kitten set up a way for the linguistics ghost kitten to get in touch with Cam: he'll tell Cricket the word "somnolent" and the LGK can send him the meaning of the word to signal Cam to take a nap. LGK once again cautions Cam against letting anyone know how straightforward they are, so StarClan can keep up its Mysterious and Serious image.
  • With all that out of the way, Cam wakes up. He makes arrangements with Cricket - namely, the contact plan and setting up a summoning circle in the event of Fireheart's death.
    • He sets Princess to the task of reviewing machine translation between catspeak and Latin for bugs.
    • Jackie reports on what Jordan's been getting up to. The One declined the request to not merge with singlets, but she expects this to not be a problem because other than about a third of winter solquinoxes, most singlets don't go straight for the One anyway.
    • Also, there's a star cloud that wants to try resurrection! It's provided specs for the twenty-eight required bodies, but it's complicated enough (and Jordan's high enough) that Cam decides to talk to the cloud himself.
omnilol trip 3
  • Assured by various stars-via-Jordan that a slightly increased dose will be fine by his sensibilities, Cam once again takes some omnilol.
  • Having been wished luck by the One, Cam sobers up and solicits the checked-up Felicity genome from Jordan.
    • Getting Felicity into the conjured bodies goes more smoothly than before, though one of her cheerfully reports that she's extremely uncomfortable, even with the heater cranked up. She requests Cam play some gentle music while they return to the cylinder.
    • Once they land, Felicity requests Tasks, some of which she's already come up with in advance, such as reading up on Revelation so she can proactively keep him apprised of differences, looking for land to purchase so Cam can set up a non-RV base of operations, and getting high to pass on that Cam can embody people and look for good candidates. Cam approves of these Tasks and helps her get started.
Londinium trip 2
  • Cam conjures his mail and finds an in-progress letter from Ellie, who's got some bleeding back wounds staining her shirt.
    • Alarmed, he jets off with a Felicity to possibly rescue her. She's in her apartment and mostly in good condition and apologetically explains to Cam that she got whipped for having suspicious jewelry. She's mostly upset because she had a pretty much perfect record before now and won't anymore, even if the whipping gets cleared up.
    • When Cam offers to heal her, she requests that he make some crystals. They work, but he patches her skin up anyway.
    • They talk about going in for a tour of the power plant - they're leaning towards going immediately until Felicity tells Ellie, as someone who's at least a third geminis with her, that she should unwind with a cozy warm drink before going into a stressful situation similar to one where she just got whipped. Cam makes her a mug of silver tea (read: hot water in a mug) and she tops off in her healing array.
    • Cam goes to put the crystals away - incorrectly. Ellie stops him before he accidentally causes a magic crystal disaster.
    • Felicity proposes keeping one or more of her bodies in Londinium full time so she can act as a relay to Cam, along with perhaps another person in case something is up with the embodiment setup, wink wink. Ellie freaks out a little, especially when Cam offers to manumit and hire her. Felicity proposes that, rather than attempting to get a tour of the power plant; Cam conjure a model of it that has diamonds instead of potentially dangerous crystals.
    • They decide to wake Mr Mistoffelees up and head out to the hotel. Mr Mistoffelees wants a chiplock computer; Cam says they'll have to figure out how to make those safely interface with locals, cats, and locals who are cats.
  • Once at the hotel, they get themselves set up.
    • Felicity gives Cam an overview of how money works in the Roman Empire: one gold piece is eight silver pieces, one silver piece is eight copper pieces, and copper pieces themselves can be broken physically into eight. There are also black pieces, which are variable fractions of copper pieces based on how the economy's doing.
    • Due to disposal awkwardness concerns, Cam decides to start with maps of the power plant rather than full models. In the process of giving Cam a virtual walkthrough, Ellie has the idea for Cam to conjure batteries, which locally are tiny delicate arrays that have much better longevity but lower output that makes them typically not worth using at scale when combined with how delicate they are.
    • They decide that it'll be best to manumit Ellie so she can work as a power consultant full-time. Since Cam doesn't have a legal identity with which to buy-and-free her yet, he decides to call up Jesus. Jesus approves of the manumission plan and agrees to send someone in his network to meet up with Cam outside city hall, as he's presently on a different continent.
    • Cam also discusses potential aspects of Jesus' future and discovers that he's planning to get publicly executed by the Empire (while high) to advance some goals of his. He asks that Cam wait long enough to bring him back that it'll be clear that he did, in fact, die.
  • Cam and Ellie leave the hotel to buy a phone and pawn off various conjured valuables at different consignment shops until they have enough gold.
    • They head to city hall and meet Jesus' associate, who turns out to be one of his geminis. He helps them fill out the manumission form and pay the fee. It goes pretty smoothly - there's a tacky "I was manumitted today!" sticker, even.
    • Cam exchanges contact information with Elevation and supplies Felicity and Ellie with computers and other essentials.
kitty computer distribution
  • Once that's taken care of, Cam heads back to Chelford so he can distribute more computers for the clans.
    • He does some misdirection so as to not accidentally let on to Felicity that the clan cats exist, then drives out to WindClan territory. A cat meets him and leads him to where he can talk to someone with more authority.
    • She's curious what computers are for - his first definition, "devices that manipulate information," makes her think that they're for lying to each other, but she quickly Learns the actual definition. She's still skeptical about the technology, suspecting that it might be used to conspire against WindClan. Cam assures her that he will do his best to help if things seem to be heading south.
    • Tallstar meets up with them and agrees to receive a computer, though setting it up is somewhat logistically complicated by the need to keep it dry. He's able to set it up and explain its use without too much hassle, though.
    • Once this is done, Tallstar has Morningflower, the cat who first met up with Cam, escort him back. While walking, he hums to fill the silence. Morningflower asks what he's doing and he explains, both about humming in specific and about doing things because they're pretty in general.
    • Morningflower tries humming what Cam was humming. He tries to hum along, but she stops when he does this because he's better at it than her. She decides to listen (mostly) silently to him humming and singing a variety of tunes, saying it'll be best for her learning.
  • Morningflower bids Cam farewell when they reach the border with RiverClan. Cam soon meets Graystripe.
    • Graystripe concludes that Leopardstar will probably be okay with Cam setting up a computer at camp, since he already set up a fountain.
    • Graystripe is excited about computers, especially about the idea of being able to send secure messages. Cam mentions that some of the other clan cats were more worried about secret messages than excited.
    • They talk a little about the brief period of time between Cam first wondering if prey animals were people and Cam learning that they weren't - Graystripe mentions that a lot of cats were very worried about it, which Cam expresses mild surprise at since he hadn't seen it firsthand. Graystripe theorizes that possibly Learning about the concept of personhood separately from cathood helped with the cats' moral reasoning.
    • Cam asks Graystripe how cat names work, specifically how they seem to change them to have the appropriate suffix, like -kit and -star. Graystripe explains:
      • Kits are something-kit, apprentices are something-paw, leaders are something-star, and everyone else is something-something.
      • The first part of the name is typically, but not universally, consistent throughout a cat's life.
      • A warrior's full name is announced by the clan leader at their warrior ceremony. Sometimes it's obvious what a kit's full warrior name will be, but it's not declared in advance.
      • Clan leaders also choose the first parts of kits' names, though the parents can give input.
    • Cam explains how human names work, at least in his home culture. This makes Graystripe sad because it reminds him of his dead mate. Cam expresses condolences, which Graystripe thanks him for, as well as for helping with the poisoned river.
    • They talk a little about the afterlife. Graystripe mentions that he's passively suicidal and mainly sticking around to help raise his kits. He asks Cam not to tell Fireheart, who would worry, or to tell other cats that he frequently visits Fireheart.
    • By the time they arrive at camp, a whole lot of kittens have Learned about computers and are extremely excited about the possibilities. Cam shows them how computer games work, which enchants both the kittens and a proud Graystripe.
at the campground
  • Once confident in RiverClan's ability to take care of the computer, Mistyfoot escorts Cam back to the border. He bikes back to the campground.
    • When he arrives, the campground's owner is busy talking to a Felicity about his shuttle. She's concerned about the possibility of people coming to gawk at it. Cam assures her that he'll move it to someplace he owns as soon as there exists someplace he owns.
    • She suspects Cam of being a winter solstice. Telling her his calendar is different and showing her his wings doesn't do much to dispel this impression, but demonstrating his conjuration abilities with a hot dog does.
    • He offers to pay rent with his arbitrary material objects, which she refuses on the basis of the campsite being free and also of it probably being a bad idea to have received anything valuable from him if people come to her looking for him. Overall, she wants to minimize the amount of trouble she could potentially get into.
    • She obliquely offers to sell the campground to Cam - it's still being surveyed, but she expects the value to clock in at one to two hundred gold.
    • She's also curious about Felicity, suspecting that she's a clone since she saw a bunch of Felciities through binoculars. Cam is perturbed by this but she's unapologetic, mostly since she tends to spy more on birds than on campgoers.
    • Eventually she heads back to her house, telling them they can contact her there if the need arises. (She doesn't have a phone.)
  • Cam and Felicity have a chat about star-related things, as well as things about the broader world.
    • Cam's curious about Nudge's deal; Felicity explains to the best of her ability. Nudge is entirely composed of summer solstices, who all become psychic after death as long as they don't merge with anyone who isn't a summer solstice. (Summer solstices who merge with non-solstice clouds lose not only their psychicness but all memories of psychicness.)
    • There isn't really any other gemini-specific magic at the time; stars as a whole are of course responsible for things like omnilol and crystals being magic. Felicity compares the experience of doing magic as a star to trying to, without breaking it or getting it caught on yourself, twine strands of cobwebs into thread into yarn into rope with which you tie a net strong enough to hold humanity. The stars are currently trying to set up magic so that it's easier for individual humans to affect the world.
    • Felicity feels like she's walking a tightrope with respect to how she wants to behave - she's aware that how she behaves will almost certainly set wider norms for how incarnated star clouds will behave and doesn't want to exert that influence carelessly. She's also aware that there are some downsides to star modes of interaction, like being condescending due to having vastly more life experience than living singlets, but doesn't want to discard everything about it.
    • Felicity suspects that a lot of star clouds picked up their conversational patterns from the One, but asking where that came from would likely result in it being cryptic since it doesn't typically answer questions about itself. It does answer questions about its components, such as cat uplift lady and the vast majority of dead humans. Felicity estimates that everyone older than a cubennium (512 years) and the majority of those older than a strong year (256 years) have merged up with it.
      • The Roman Empire has been trying to push the millennium, or 1000 local years, but it's relatively unpopular and considered awkward.
      • Astrological ages (2048 years) are a thing. They have themes, roughly:
        • The first recorded age was Gemini: the beginning of sapient life and of civilization.
        • Next came Cancer: learning that humans can affect the environment negatively and take steps to avoid that.
        • Currently they're towards the end of the age of Leo: acknowledging the worth of mortal lives inherently, not just as the larval stage of stars.
    • Also, locals age faster than humans in Revelation! That is, physical development lines up with the number of years experienced such that eight-year-olds and sixty-four-year-olds match between worlds even though the time lived is different. Local pregnancies last almost exactly one year, though.
    • It's unclear how sapient life began, as the One won't say and there isn't a fossil record. There's any evolution, though, since new kinds of parasites keep trying to pop up and star clouds keep having to swat them.
    • The seasonality of genetics comes up again and is expanded upon: a baby born more than a local month before or after a year from conception will not have a soul and be a basement dweller, which is why Felicity is the largest spread of birthdays currently possible: September 01, October 01, and October 40. If they want to get wider spreads possible they'll have to hire a winter solstice.
    • Cam reads up some more about genetics and discovers:
      • Heredity has been known for a long time, though it's a little weaker than in Revelation given that birthday attractors are a thing.
      • Genetics specifically was discovered about a local century ago.
      • The genome strands have names like FNA (Fundamental Notation for being Alive), SSNA (Species Similarities Notation for being Alive), and DNA (Difference Notation for being Alive).
      • There are genes for coloration and other physical appearance things, as well as a birthday gene that manifests when the soul attaches.
      • Lots of things that are genetic in Revelation, like alcohol and lactose tolerance, are either based on birthday or unvarying.
      • Gene therapy is a thing, mostly practiced by winter solstices and looked down on by greater society. Autumnal equinoxes also practice gene therapy to pretty themselves up in a way that is mostly not commented on by greater society.
    • Cam then reads up on human geopolitics.
      • The Roman Empire consists of a pretty large amount of land across the local versions of Europe, northern Africa, western Asia, and North America. It uses Latin for everything.
      • The Association of Realists Republican Empire, or ARRE, covers most of the rest of local!Asia, including the Indian subcontinent. The dominant language is Surran.
      • Local!Australia is called Pacificis and only surfaced a few octades ago after spending a few strong years underwater. Now it's home to a culture dedicated to philosophy.
      • The rest of the landmass is taken up by an alliance of different nations called Archipelago. Verona, the New Year's country, is arguably part of this alliance. There are five or six languages at play here.
      • Besides the main languages of Latin and Surran, there are a bunch of other languages in use from the countries that the Roman Empire and ARRE conquered, including Paroleblo, which is the Esperanto-equivalent mentioned by Nudge.
      • The Roman Empire and ARRE are definitely not at war, but there is a board game championship that's getting a disproportionate amount of media attention.
  • It is finally sunset of Cam's first full day in this new world.
    • He makes dinner for Felicities. She talks a little about the differences between being a starcloud and having bodies - she feels emotions more strongly, and her individual bodies have a degree of emotional inertia that leads to her feeling conflicted as a whole.
    • They decide to put out feelers for winter solstices to help them with the genetics project. Felicity uses the subject of payment to segue into mentioning that Verona has a dedicated fund for, roughly, bribing people like Cam into not smiting the autumnal equinox as a collective or knocking them out and spriiting them away to some luxurious prison facility where they couldn't harm anyone else.
    • Felicity advises Cam test his invulnerability to local hazards like crystal magic, drugs, and disresonant essential oils (secreted by crystals) before attempting to collect the Verona bribe. He's able to Just Say No to omnilol; Ellie whips up a wing-hurting array for him to test. Cam can definitely feel it, but his indestructibiilty wins. Felicity also tries, just for fun, before he disassembles the array.
    • They talk a little about queerness, which is broadly seen as an odd thing. There exist any queer even people, but they're seen as defying the natural order.
on autumn equinoxes
  • Rather than send an e-mail and face potential delays, Cam sets out to a New Year's lounge to talk with a Veronan representative.
    • The first unoccupied solstice Cam talks to happens to be Nicholas, who gives Princess the best treats. He has not been drugging them and says it isn't hard to figure out what a cat likes and doesn't like. But that's not really on the topic of the appeasement fund.
    • Nicholas is appropriately impressed by the implied extent of Cam's powers when he tells him how to contact him; he's also interested in striking up a smaller deal with Cam while they wait on the larger bribe. Due to lacking geminis, Cam doesn't have proof of his trustworthiness on hand, but he can provide a comprehensive description of his abilities.
    • After Cam explains, Nicholas is mostly interested in what sorts of things Cam expects to be valuable in a post-demon economy that are still conjurable and in his general goals.
    • He's also curious about if there's a version of the One for cats, which Cam deflects about. He tentatively concludes based on Cam's expressed opinions that he, personally, hasn't done anything that Cam would strongly disapprove of.
  • Since Nicholas doesn't personally have a lot of sway, his business with Cam concludes pretty quickly. Cam returns the charms and goes out to chat with a Felicity who's stargazing outside the shuttle.
    • They talk a little about astronomy and the differences between local astronomy, local astrology, and Cam's astronomy.
    • Felicity asks Cam what his general impression of his time in the lounge was. Cam describes the experience and the people as fine, which somewhat discomfits her, as one of her components was once owned by and married to one. Cam agrees that it isn't surprising that Verona is the way it is, though he also expects that a randomly selected group of people from his world put in the same position would behave similarly.
    • He conjures her some relevant history textbooks and goes off to read about the autumn equinox, including:
      • A memoir by a Roman slave who escaped to Verona and had a normal life for a few weeks until he was drugged at a grocery store. He spent over a year with the solq who drugged him until he managed to escape to Archipelago, which he isn't entirely sure wasn't allowed by the solquinox.
      • A study of romance novels catering to the dark fantasy of having an autumn equinox for a boyfriend! Initially, the autumn equinoxes in the genre were somewhat unrealistically interested in physical affection, though more recent instances are more accurate. Recently, the genre underwent a split between novels that leaned into the horror of being locked in a basement or forced to bear solquinox children or murdered and novels that leaned into the softer fantasy of being set up with a better life and non-autumn equinox romantic partner. Some of these novels have the autumn solqs credited as coauthors.
      • Reviews for a catalogue-based drug order service. Most of the drugs are for recreational use, though there are also reviews for stimulants, nootropics, and poisons. (Most of the poison reviews are from dead summer solstices.)
      • An article from half a century ago about a small trend of people drugging autumn equinoxes to try and dissuade them from drugging everyone else all the time. This had the result of the specific autumn equinoxes immediately committing suicide and joining up with the One.
      • A press release disavowing a specific autumn equinox who illegally kidnapped and tortured someone outside Verona and reminding everyone that their birthday actually has a much lower crime rate than everyone else does.
      • Some research documentation for drugs and also (uncredited) for collaboration with winter solstices.
    • Cam looks for explanations of new year birthday behavior and mostly finds evasive nonanswers and transcripts from ones who were drugged with truth serum. There's evidence that the birthday in question is unhappy with the existence of these transcripts, as physical copies were met with rapid destruction. He asks Nicholas if he thinks that Cam has a good enough reason to not be considered impolite for reading them anyway; Nicholas thinks not, but forwards the conversation (with permission) to Veronan representatives.
    • Felicity returns, having concluded that even people are pretty much the same as most people back home, for Cam. They talk a little about the inevitability inherent to oddness, the way that differences between individual instances of an odd birthday are ultimately superficial trimmings around a common, immutable core.
    • Cam gets a book recommendation from Felicity about eugeminics, since Nicholas had asked his opinion earlier.
      • Even before people figured out about birthdays, there were superstitions about it, some, but not all, of which have held up. People also did an amount of aiming about this!
      • Methods of eugeminics are described along two axes: sharp vs flat and soft vs hard. Sharp methods of eugeminicide target living people, flat methods only prevent or encourage births, soft methods are light and non-forceful, and hard methods involve actual laws.
      • The One consistently refuses to express an opinion, even cryptically, about how many of each birthday there should be in the long run. That doesn't stop people from trying to divine its opinion, of course.
      • People have all sorts of different opinions on whether parents should aim, ranging from people who think that aiming and astrological knowledge are Wrong and that one should avoid knowing or planning what days they have potentially procreative sex on to people who think that one should find the exact best match(es) for oneself and one's partner.
      • The very least popular birthday, even over several strong years, is Unuary 31. This happened without any particular social pressure, because the birthday itself is just plain unpopular! Its geminis have a reputation for being untrustworthy - being extremely generous unpromptedly and then turning around to demand repayment, for instance. They tend to be cruel to children as well, even their own geminis. Felicity's opinion is that Cam might be able to deal with them despite this, though it may be tricky.
    • Felicity asks where Cam was planning to stow resurrectees who can't easily return to their old lives or a cushy PA position. They discuss the logistics of underground caverns - Cam's worried about health effects in a way that confuses her until they sort out the confusion. She recommends playing to the image of science fiction with massive futuristic cities carved out of the side of the cylinder.
    • Cam does some conjuring and finds that there are already subterranean caverns, so he doesn't have to worry about excavation yet.
omnilol trip 4
  • Cam decides to get in touch with Nudge to get further advice. Felicity has been wanting to find out about omnilol/embodied cloud interaction anyway, so she joins him.
    • Nudge is waiting for Cam and wishes him happy birthdays, as the day the tag was uploaded (September 13th, 2022) was the thirty-fifth birthday of a Bell born in 1987, one day after the tenth anniversary of Effulgence beginning, and four days after the first anniversary of the thread! This, naturally, goes over Cam's head. Nudge says not to worry about it.
    • Cam asks what to expect if he installs elevators for purposes of cavern access. Nudge's expectation is that the governments will be unhappy about this but the citizens won't. Cam asks what exactly will make the governments unhappy - Nudge doesn't know but cautions that he can't see everything.
    • In terms of more miscellaneous advice, Nudge lets Cam know that the very top caverns will be too cold for human habitation, that very good guardrails should be heavily installed, and that locals can be hired to run shuttle services unproblematically.
    • Cam asks about chiplocks. Right now they're a definite no go, but effort from autumn and winter solquinoxen may be able to solve that. Also, Cam should be more careful with the food he provides locals and lean towards "natural" ingredients.
    • Nudge also corrects Cam on some of the terminology: miasma instead of atmosphere; circular instead of global. Cam hopes that any slip-ups will cast him as charmingly foreign; Nudge lets him know that he definitely counts as odd.
    • Cam asks if Nudge would ever be up for incarnation. He would not, as that would reinstate his curse and also he would lose his memories until he next died. He can't really provide much more detail, since that might also jeapordize his memories. On the plus side, he feels he's got a much better deal than other instances of his template.
    • On the topic of templates, Nudge has some cosmically guaranteed nicknames for Cam to use so he isn't stuck on clunky terms like "tetrinary seasonchange" or "September oh-one" or whatever! Nicknames include:
      • Jidas, for the summer solstice. J and D for the name attractor, IA for ineffective altruism.
      • Soups, for New Year's Eve. (Which, for the record, there aren't as many proportionally as Ellie led Cam to believe; they just have an attractor for being around talking animals.)
      • Chevron for New Year's Day, because they and the letters in their names are pointy.
      • Starch, short for "starchild," for the winter solstice.
      • Flooded, for the vernal equinox.
    • Felicity has been listening in on the conversation, just not participating because only one of her is high and she hasn't had much to say anyway. (Starclouds tend to do a lot of backchannel as well, especially bigger ones.)
    • They start wrapping up business - talking about how Ashley (who will write to Cam tomorrow) is doing, resurrection in general, potential cavern names, and taking Cricket to a zoo. (Nudge advises Cam to show pictures of the zoo to Fireheart.)
    • Nudge offers Cam his present! He can't tell Cam too directly, since if he figures it out he won't be able to have it, but he can give a pitch that he composed in advance. (He can also give glowfic readers a shout-out. Hi, Nudge!) Felicity transcribes Nudge's pitch for Cam to look over later; Nudge can't provide more information than he already has.
    • Nudge passes on some messages he almost forgot to:
      • Starches are autoxenophilic and suchly will tend to be into Cam's wings and tail.
      • Ellie is an unusually well-propagandized slave.
      • Ellie and Mr Mistoffelees managed to make the latter's mechanical hands even across their language barrier and are as such particularly well-suited to designing more assistive devices for cats.
      • He can't comment on Tigerstar's character but he did invent refrigeration and quarantine, for cats.
      • Half of the person-tortoiseshell cats are trans.
      • He wants Cam to pass on scritches to the linguistics ghost kitten.
    • Nudge doesn't know if summoning or dismissing other daeva will work. If it does, though, it'll be possible to bring local magic to Revelation, since a nonmagic crystal that spends time in the world will become magic and magic crystals can be used to magic-ify nonmagic ones. Nudge promises to look out for possible personnel recommendations in the crystal magic department other than Ellie, although she's already a very good consultant.
  • Soon after Cam sobers up, a Felicity comes by with a copy of the pitch.
    • She mentions a comment Nudge made about Cam doing a really good sad and an even better shitposting. Neither of them are sure what this means.
    • They talk about opportunities for Cam to make money while they wait on the appeasement fund, such as hiring people to keep stars company so they don't merge or healing amputees. Cam floats the idea of batteries but Felicity doesn't expect that to catch on as quickly, since currently there aren't many battery designs.
    • Cam, forgetting that it's nighttime, asks Felicity to look for hospitals to start at while he takes Cricket to the zoo. Felicity gently informs him of the flaw in this plan and they talk a little about time zones.
  • Cam decides instead to go out to the edge and check for environmental hazards
    • A Felicity comes along, prompting Cam to ask if she'd like some more living space than the existing camper/shuttle situation. They design a larger living space - a felicityper, if you will.
    • Felicity catches Cam up on some differences in words used for directions:
      • "East" and "west" are cromulent Latin terms, but they're only used for relative positioning in the vein of "widdershins" and "clockwise," respectively.
      • Absolute directions are adon (the "up" direction on maps), cortal (90° widdershins of adon), aset (180° from adon), and fital (90° clockwise of adon).
      • The sun rises adon on the first of the month, cortal a week after that, aset a week after that, and fital the week after that.
    • They talk about where to pick the first cavern, in terms of distance to landmasses. Cam's leaning towards someplace near Pacifis, since there's a lot of land on the landmass that would be readily developable, but Felicity's less certain because the politics might be Weird.
    • Cam assures her that he can just make an island instead, though he'll want to figure out first how to make sure the displaced water doesn't cause flooding. They float possibilities like installing a drainage hole or summoning angels, which leads them to talk about considerations for adopting children out to other summoned daeva.
    • When they get there, they see airplanes flying out past the edge! They usually come out to dump garbage or as a tourist attraction. The way that local gravity works ensures that this doesn't create a horrible aircraft-sucking vortex.
    • They also observe the moon's apparent phase shifting and Felicity explains how it works - half of it is lit up, half of it isn't; it rotates as it orbits the cylinder in such a way that causes the phases to be a thing. On the first of each month it's new as seen from the north.
Atriama
  • While surveying the naturally-occurring caverns, Cam spots one that appears to be inhabited. They fly in to investigate.
    • The cave's inhabitant, who doesn't speak much Latin, is a winter solstice who's very excited to see Felicity. She has Cam call one of the others of herself so she can translate, since she shares a language (Barbliic) with the solq.
    • He explains that he was recreationally exploring when his hot air balloon caught fire. This is lucky, since luck is locally a real phenomenon. It isn't particularly big, but you can give yourself bonuses by having a lot of lucky items.
    • Cam demonstrates his abilities by making a little raincloud to put out the flaming balloon wreckage, vastly impressing Isaac. He wants to join in on colonizing the caverns; Cam lets him tag along in exploring the cavern. (Inside his shuttle, since the cavern is extremely deep with rough terrain and also cold, on account of being very close to the antarctic celestum ring.)
    • Isaac helps identify at what point the caverns are no longer hazardously cold on account of antarctic ring proximity. He's still having trouble breathing - Cam offers him some medicine before remembering that medicine differs between worlds. (Predictably, this does not dissuade him.)
    • Cam's surprised by the first habitable cave they find having a lot of stuff in it - mementos, not a failed colonization attempt. (There are skeletons, but Isaac says those were interred there on purpose after death.) Isaac advises Cam to make sure that, if he moves any of them, they're still publicly visible and visitable.
    • Isaac is confused about how spherical settlement works; Felicity decides she should probably whip up an explanation on Cam's world(s) tailored to local understanding of how the world works.
    • Cam surveys the cave with drones and conjuration of rock samples. A lot of the minerals are unfamiliar to Cam, so he solicits a recommendation from Felicity to bone up on materials science. He designs the city, taking aesthetic if not architectural inspiration from local ideas of what ~futuristic~ means.
    • Cam talks with Isaac a little about plans for the city, which Cam predictably plans to call Atriama. Isaac is intensely interested in living there, to the point of being willing to fake his death or actually die if required. (It isn't.) Cam takes him up in the shuttle so he can watch him install the elevators.
  • Once this is done: city! Isaac and Felicity help Cam move all the mementos into a museum so Cam can convert the mouth of the cavern into a transit hub.
    • Felicity proposes digitizing some of the paper mementos; Isaac volunteers to look through them to find any information (such as a personal ad that may lead to an alive person being hounded) that should be redacted.
    • Felicity advises Cam of things to be aware of when dealing with starches, such as their tendency to disregard their own boundaries if they think it'll get them something they want more and their predicted obsession with getting wings. Cam's curious how local humans will handle flying with their weaker lungs; Felicity hasn't tried yet.
    • They decide that, as a start, they'll put half of Felicity in the city and see if they need to move any more up or down.
  • At this point, there isn't anything left to do before Cam can resurrect people. They start with a batch of fifteen, judging that it's the biggest size that's easily manageable at this point in time.
    • Cam makes a shuttle that can go out to the shell (since targeting specific stars isn't actually an issue) and loads it up with bodies, choosing the first fifteen people on Felicity's provided spreadsheet who don't want any specific alterations. A Felicity topside gets high to coordinate with the resurrectees-to-be.
    • While the first fifteen get situated in their bodies, Cam works on fifteen more, this time ones who wanted changes to their bodies. Alteration requests include better eyesight, different noses, different genitals, different ages, longer hair, and for one's bad back to be fixed. Cam reluctantly allows a request to be instantiated underweight but passes on that if the requester dies of anorexia or similar he won't do it again.
    • The first fifteen folks arrive. They're doing better than Ashley was, but they're still shaky and some of them are crying. One tried unsuccessfully to get out of his wheelchair on the way to the elevator but can move around okay once Cam helps him up.
    • Cam provides refreshments and lets them know that they can claim whatever apartments suit them. Some of them are sufficiently overwhelmed that they're not up to making decisions like "where they want to have their apartment" so Cam makes a waiting room so they can lie down immediately.
    • There are some more communication gaps that Cam works through more or less successfully before the next batch. They have similar issues, though this time Cam and Felicity are more prepared to handle them.
  • Cam heads back topside to set up some shipping infrastructure in Antarctica and collect some more Felicities.
    • Since she wants to top off her omnilol supply, she has Cam make her a 756 Honda Accord so she can drive to the drugstore herself.
    • On the way to the elevator, Cam thanks Felicity for her help. They talk a bit about post-resurrection syndrome and how sleeping has seemed to help. Cam considers making the basement dwellers already sleepy, which prompts Felicity to propose heading out right now to collect some winter solstices.
mothing
  • There's a convenient compound of them, actually, whose address is known to Felicity. She directs Cam to land inside.
    • The first starch they meet is thrilled by Cam's pitch. She leads him and Felicity in so she can fetch some of her geminis.
    • Silas and Simon are both pretty chill, even though it's the middle of the night, especially when Cam offers to conjure them some coffee.
    • They talk a little about the friendly kidnapping - Cam objects to calling it that because he's trying to keep it consensual, which doesn't really compute to the starches because to them, Cam being a cool demon from another universe counts as them consenting even if he hadn't asked in advance.
    • Cam asks about Sam, Sadie, Silas, Simon, and Sidney's name thing, which is in fact a thing, if not as absolutely as the jidathing.
    • Once the starches meet other Felicities, Cam has to dissuade them from killing themselves to merge and/or get resurrection perks - at least in the short term.
  • Once everyone's on the shuttle, Cam takes off.
    • He inadvertently offends the winter solstices with a comment, which prompts Felicity to showcase her progress on a pamphlet to introduce locals to Cam's whole deal. The pamphlet includes Cam's mail label, though she suggests Cam come up with a different label for official purposes.
    • The starchildren read the pamphlets excitedly! Once up to speed, they start brainstorming ways to make resurrectees come out sleepy. Sydney proposes chamomile tea; Cam likes the idea except for how it'll cause bladder fullness. She quizzes him a little on his capabilities; ultimately they decide to go with the chamomile option until they decide on something better.
    • Since all the alive starches are bravely refraining from killing themselves to help with the experiment, Felicity sounds out a dead one for the role. Naturally, they're happy to participate, so Cam shuffles them in on the next batch.
    • Simon wants to know if any cats are citizens of Atriama. They aren't yet; Felicity decides to go to some animal shelters once it's daytime, possibly with help from Princess or, less desirably, Cricket.
    • Cam asks about the starches' specialties in hopes of shaking out nicknames. He learns about the local reported-but-not-actually-true phenomenon of angelic possession, which involved stars taking over living bodies, and about Sadie's project of figuring out a drug to induce lucid dreaming. Ultimately, though, he decides to just call them by last name.
  • Cam drops a couple of the solstices off at the elevator and pilots the rest to Atriama on the shuttle.
    • The prospective winter resurrectee asks, through Felicity, what sorts of transhuman traits are on offer. Cam's okay with wings and extra arms like what Felicity has, though weirder alterations run higher risks of complications. Fortunately, one of those complications is cancer, which locals don't have.
    • The test subject, since they're being a test subject, proposes that they get loaded up with as many alterations as are potentially reasonable, so that they can find out the limits sooner rather than later. As such, they ask about an extra pair of arms, all their arms split at the elbow, wings, a tail, unique coloration, pointed ears, digitigrade legs, fangs, horns, being really tall, sensory enhancements…
    • Cam doesn't actually know how to do split arms but the coloration, pointed ears, height enhancement, digitigrade legs, fangs, and horns are doable, as are general furriness and hooves on digitigrade legs. He recommends technological solutions for sensory enhancements, which have the bonus of working with alive people. He distributes enhanced hearing earbuds to the starchildren and Sydney, who knows how to put in contact lenses, volunteers to teach her geminis how to use them so they can have visual enhancements too.
    • The hearing aids work well enough that Simon (who's been experiencing the effects of Cam's chadly-caffeine coffee) requests Sydney's help in coming up with an anti-migraine drug for Cam to conjure. They have a brief conversation about Cam's limits with regards to interactions with the local magic system. Felicity pipes in that she's pretty sure the only relevant things that Cam can't make are omnilol and essential oils.
  • The shuttle-riders arrive at Atriama. Some Felicities head off to nap and man the lobby; the starches set out into the city after Cam loads them up with computers and lets them know about Isaac.
    • Cam touches base with the resurrectee to finalize the body plan, then brings in the next batch. The starch is very pleased with the results, even if she's not really able to be put in a regular wheelchair and has to have Cam pilot her to the lawn, where she flops.
    • The rest of the resurrections proceed smoothly, with Cam helping Felicity wheel sleepy resurrectees to the waiting area (at least until the still-alive starches get back and start helping) and processing other requests. Eventually they get to the end of the queue, which includes a handful of children. Cam's a little dismayed about this, but there isn't much to be done until morning, so he sends the shuttle out.
    • Cam and Feliicty talk a little about what her components did before they joined up with her, both alive and in death. Felicity tells Cam her former names and about what she knows now of the jidapsychicness.
    • The last batch arrives. One of the kids, an eight-year-old who was possibly murdered, didn't want to be sleepy or go in the receiving building, so Cam talks with him in person.
    • He wants to pick out an apartment and live by himself, at least for a while, but is worried about not having enough things. Cam assures him that the apartments are pre-furnished and, when the prospect of picking up food himself spooks him, that he can accompany him to an apartment and stock it up with food using conjuration.
  • Cam and Ethan head over with a Felicity.
    • Felicity agrees to live next door to Ethan until he's picked out a roommate who's an adult that he likes. Cam stocks Ethan's pantry with chicken and lime jello cups and macaroni and cheese and popcorn… and some vegetables, too.
    • Felicity proposes summoning a Wistful Parent as a roommate candidate for Ethan; they summon-and-dismiss Mrindeh in the next-door apartment, then re-summon Mrindeh so she can sound him out for compatibility with other Wistful Parents.
    • The conversation goes well, though Ethan clarifies that he'd prefer an adult friend to someone who would try to parent him. They talk a little about his suspicion that he had been filicided and whether they should file an anonymous tip. (Ethan doesn't want his parents to know where he is, but he also thinks they should get whipped appropriately if they did, in fact, kill him.)
    • Mrindeh brings the topic back to babies and the acquisition thereof. Felicity doesn't think that embodying singlet babies is going to work for the next little while, due to the difficulty on the star's part and the communication gap, but clouds comprised of babies and/or toddlers or slaves who wouldn't be missed by their birth parents might work.
    • Mrindeh's intrigued by the possibility of a baby cloud and wants to try with one that's about three big. Felicity starts shopping around, as it were. Cam gets Ethan set up with a movie and a glass of water before he leaves to fetch Princess, assuring him that he'll only be gone for a few hours and that Felicity will be next door for any requests in the meantime.
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