In the previous episode...
1.2.1??An Icy Welcome
The year is 2045 and six friends (the Wombles) who first met 15 years ago during a university course on “effective political activism” are playing online fully immersive virtual reality game called “Soul Bound” in order to publicise an apparently innocent online discussion forum, The Burrow, that is actually a key part of their plan to help spread resistance to encroaching dictatorship.
They are Nadine (who plays Kafana: a priestess, spell singer, and occasional cook), Lewis (who plays Bulgaria: an actor and necromancer), Alex (who plays Tomsk: a warrior), {not-yet-revealed} (who plays Bungo: a warrior and seer), Richard (who plays Wellington: a mage and merchant) and Heather (who plays Alderney, a scout and crafter).
In the city of Torello they befriend many NPCs (non-player characters) run by expert software systems so advanced they are nearly indistinguishable from the PCs (player characters) that the Wombles ally with (such as Mary-Lynn from Fra Gamal) or oppose (such as Kullervo from The Immortals).
As part of The Lovebirds quest chain to help two couples (Isabella+Flavio and Lelio+Vittoria) get married, the Wombles help Vittoria’s orphans set up an ice-cream business and plan a concert and beach volleyball tournament to advertise it. This is nearly disrupted by Kullervo killing Kafana and sending her spirit on a reputedly one-way journey to The Inferno (an afterlife populated by devils) but she wins freedom by unexpectedly managing to merge her mind with that of her Vessel (the expert system controlling her avatar while she’s not logged in) and the event is a success - but at a price: the termination of the merge state feels to Kafana like her soul has been torn in half.
In a daze, Kafana meets some broadcaster friends of Mary-Lynn (Kino, Omobono and Hachiko) and learns about player guilds in different regions of Covob (the game world): The Crew (finance), CraftySquId (crafting), Nevermere (role playing), The Path Less Travelled (solo play), Cute Justice (costumes), Cruel Vengeance (levelling), Screw Reality (shut-ins), Ultra Bombastic Tele Fantastics (social), Storm Power (gankers) and YoDaddy (trolls). They, in turn, start paying attention to her when, through the whims of Torello’s legal system, Kafana ends up as sole owner of the vast hoard of money and artifacts confiscated from The Immortals.
...now read on!
1??????????????Soul Bound
1.2????????????Taking Control
1.2.2??????????An Awakening Epiphany
1.2.2.1????????Expectations
Halfway though a lecture on "tropes", during Kafana''s second year at UCL, after spending a few minutes talking specifically about ones pairing a situation with an outcome, Dr Sharpe had introduce a name for the subtype ("causality tropes"), turned over a big egg timer, and then set his laptop to play an urgently ticking sound track even before they''d had time to read the slide that the screen behind the grinning lecturer was now displaying:
<blockquote>
Over the last year, both Harry and Sally have had twelve experiences of a lottery ticking being purchased for $1 and, for each ticket, the paired outcome (how much money was won, if any): "negative" ($0), "positive" ($10), or "life changing" - ($1,000,000).
Harry observed a positive outcome once and a negative outcome eleven times.
Sally observed a negative outcome once and a life changing outcome eleven times.
The disparity, in this case, wasn''t due to luck. It happened because Harry''s experiences came from reality (he watched a friend buy the tickets), while Sally''s experiences came from books and films which valued entertainment above accuracy.
CHALLENGE !
Before the whistle blows, write down at least five causality tropes with big disparities.
</blockquote>
Forty seconds later, when most of them had only just finished reading the instructions, they were all too distracted to notice Dr Sharpe palming a dented referee''s whistle or its transfer to his lips as that idle hand was casually raised to scratch at the side of his nose. So there was no warning before he blew, producing not some brief trill, but the sort of prolonged swelling rattle that rolled around the room with the finality of an angel''s trumpet.
*thump*
Bungo, who''d been sitting at the end of a row, had fallen out of his seat and was rubbing a bruised arm. He wasn''t the only student who''d jumped. Dr Sharpe looked up, a bit out of breath, to see rows of faces wearing startled expressions. He''d never stated that the whistle would only be blown when the sand ran out and the music finished. Yet, as he explained, that''s what they''d expected, without even being aware of why they''d formed the expectation or considering whether their previous experiences were a reliable guide in this particular situation.
With one exception, Kafana had only faded memories of the following discussion, which had covered expectations about everything from defusing bombs to marriage proposals. But he''d returned again and again to the questions of how irrational expectations could be created even when the person knew that the sample of situation-outcome pairs being experienced had been systematically biased by the way it had been selected. One warning had been hammered into her so often that Kafana could still recite it word for word:
<blockquote>
Knowing about a danger doesn''t automatically protecting you from it.
</blockquote>
<hr>
It was a good attempt to make a ''dramatic exit''. In a film, it would have worked. Alas, as soon as the streamers had got a good 30 second shot of the Wombles walking away, they''d hurried to catch up with them.
Kafana felt a brief annoyance; first at the streamers for ''spooling'' the simple escape from the crowded Plaza that she''d been hoping for; then at film directors for ''fooling'' her. But no, films didn''t pretend to pick their stories randomly, and everybody knew it. She sighed and tried to gather some patience before they arrived. It was her fault for not heeding the old warning. Knowing about an unjustified change in your instinctive expectations was only half the job. You also had to make an effort to reverse the change.
The streamers trotted up, talking over each other as they apologised for leaving Kafana alone, after Alderney had warned them how fragile she was. Hachiko in particular felt guilty, because he’d experienced it first hand from the memories she’d given him, and declared that he personally owed her a debt that she should call upon at need.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
She looked at Wellington, who was a pool of calm by comparison. He was the most logical person she knew. How did keep his expectations grounded? Perhaps he just never acted on instinct.
Kafana smiled at the thought, then asked him to talk to Mary-Lynn on her behalf, to arrange a suitable arlife fee for the franchise and to work out a way to route the proceeds to Melchior. She silently counted minutes as the number of people needing the Wombles slowly reduced. Mary-Lynn and Alderney flipped out to work their mission control, Hachiko and Omobono returned to the crowds for further interviews and wrap-up segments, leaving only Kino to stay with the Wombles for the rest of the afternoon. And one last non-streamer with business blocking her path to freedom.
Emmanuelle went over the plan for the benefit of her and Bulgaria. Phase I would require 10 tallero, most of which would be used as seed money to start four companies that could be borrowed against and issue bonds. Firstly, a parent company which would employ Emmanuelle and various other specialists, hold a controlling number of voting tier shares in the other three companies, and provide services to them. Secondly, a real-estate company, which would purchase land, access rights or options there upon. Thirdly, a construction company which would secure contracts with the best master or higher level craftsmen it could, and hire adventurers interested in levelling up crafting skills to do work in exchange for training from the masters. And lastly an operating company, which would run the adventurer’s building and related services, and be the public face of the project. Phase II was even more complex.
{Melchior, sanity check this for me, please.}
[I have been doing so as they went along, observing through Wellington’s eyes. I think their implementation of your plan is both sound and flexible enough to cope with considerable unforeseen circumstances. The document you are looking at doesn’t list them, but Wellington has planned counter measures for an impressive number of possible contingencies. Whether it works or not, the odds are in your favour, and it still leaves at least 90% of your in-game wealth untouched.]
She signed. Hands were shaken, and the Project was officially launched. It felt a little like the initial rumblings before a rocket blast off from Earth, heading towards the Moon and beyond.
{Balthazar, add two new displays to my bier, tracking arlife and velife wealth, (past, current and projected) and the status of any related projects and risk factors. Oh, and consider what to do about information security if I invite anyone to visit the bier.}
There. She’d thought about security. Surely that would impress Wellington. She felt chuffed.
It was a good 20 minutes from the time of her announcement at the crater until they finally trooped over the bridge to Libri, leaving FraGamal to marshal the tear-down crews. The Zoo was near the northern bridge from Libri to Alto, and students waved merrily at them as they passed, but left a respectful distance rather than crowding them. Sheesh, you unleash just one ion cannon and people start treating you as dangerous. Surely the high master mages did far worse just by accident? Though, come to think of it, she’d never actually seen students jostling the high master mages either. Having teachers that could disintegrate students who fell asleep in lectures, leaving nothing behind except a pair of smoking boots, seemed to result in a remarkably respectful student body.
<hr>
The wall surrounding The Zoo was circular, 50 meters high and maybe 400 meters in diameter; it looked to be made of perfectly normal stone blocks. Standing outside the wooden gate waiting for them, was a portly elderly gentleman with a bushy moustache, grey hair and red cheeks. He was wearing a waistcoat and leather overalls; a tiny pixie was sitting on his shoulders wearing matching clothes, kicking her feet in boredom. She tugged his ear and, when he looked up and saw them, his face lit up in an open smile of delight.
“Welcome to The Zoo.” he said, “I am Gustav, and my little friend here is Snowbell.”
Alderney: “Oh! I read a magazine article about you both. They put on a show of your work in a gallery in New York. ‘The New Fabergé’. ”
Kino: “Allow me to introduce you. Alderney, this is Gustav, who was elected the leader of the CraftySquId guild by a nearly unanimous vote. He and Snowbell don’t make eggs. They make works of art, that happen to also be eggs.”
Gustav: “Kino, a pleasure as always. And thank you for getting it right.” he sighed, “So many talk as though I was the sole crafter and Snowbell was a tool, rather than my equal and a crafter in her own right.”
Snowbell nodded firmly.
Snowbell: “He is better at design, but I am better at implementation. Smaller hands, you see.” she waved them, showing not a wand in her hand, but a tiny chisel. “We complement each other.”
It was Gustav’s turn to nod.
Gustav: “Alas, I have not yet found a master crafter in Torello who impresses me sufficiently to be willing to apprentice to them. I fear I may have to travel to Kalzburg. I was here today to talk to a taming mentor, and when Johannes mentioned that he’d seen omens of you heading this way, I took the opportunity to volunteer to guide you around.”
He shook his head. “Terribly impolite of me, I know, but I couldn’t help it. I’m insatiably curious, and I’ve been hearing so much about you Wombles. Forgive me?”
Bulgaria: “Nothing to forgive, and delighted to meet you. Shall we head inside?”
Gustav: “Ah, about that. This zoo is not like other zoos. There’s a safety tip you need to know before you enter. You see, Lady Dieconeura is probably the most dangerous and powerful person in Torello. She’s very old, she’s a High Master Mage in reality magic and inside The Zoo she has absolute authority. It is in the statute books. She may kill you at any time, in any way she chooses, for any or no reason at all, and it is perfectly legal for her to do so. Luckily, she likes visitors if they’re well intentioned, so when you first meet her, it is important to greet her in the way she expects.”
Tomsk: “Good advice. What does she expect? A bow? A handshake?”
Gustav gave a sly grin: “Well, you could try that I suppose. But personally I scritch her behind her ears.”
Snowbell added: “And don’t touch her wings! Wings are very sensitive and easy to damage. Just because something is beautiful, that does not mean you have permission to touch it.” She flew up and stood on top of Gustav’s head facing away from them, spreading her own translucent sparkling wings to emphasise her point.
Tomsk laughed, enjoying the joke, and mimed taking a hit: “My fault for assuming ‘person’ meant Covadan. Please, tell us more about Lady Dieconeura.”
Gustav: “She’s a gestalt being. A single mind spread among multiple bodies. The bodies are a particular chimaera, in this case a cross between a feline and a dragonfly. She’s cute and friendly; people find it easy to forget that she’s at least as smart as we are, because she doesn’t talk. She is, however, a touch empath, and the way to get anything done in the Zoo is to give her a nice stroke and let her read what you want. If you absolutely have to block your mind, you can try talking to her, but it doesn’t work nearly as well, and she’s likely not to trust you.”
Snowbell: “Stay well away from the trees. They’re hers, and she doesn’t share.” she pouted a little.
Wellington looked a bit regretfully at his athame, but kept it on. “I take it The Zoo uses reality magic somehow?”
Gustav: “Yes indeed, but it will be easier to explain once you’ve seen. There’s one last safety tip, but that can wait until later. Let’s go on in.”
He opened the gate and they filed inside.