1????????Soul Bound
1.3??????Making a Splash
1.3.2????An Allotropic Realignment
1.3.2.2? Meta four
Bungo: “Feel free to interrupt or tell me I’ve screwed up. The vessels are using a speed buff but it is still quite a trek from the Sanctum to Gobwell, and time in this room is going at the same speed as it does in the game.”
Wellington: “You mean the burrow application running on our tiaras is affecting our perception of time in the same fashion as it does when running Soul Bound?”
Bungo looked about to apologise, but was forestalled by an interruption from Alderney.
Alderney: “Yes Wellington, that is what Bungo means. Time itself isn’t actually being changed. You know that, I know that, and Bungo also knows that. But as long as everybody here understands what Bungo means, does it matter if the way he puts it isn’t literally true? Is it something we needed to discuss before we log in? His way of phrasing it had the advantage of being short.”
Wellington paused to think, all of his body freezing in place except for his fingers which twitched in sequence. It reminded Kafana of a computer displaying a small spinning image while it ran a self-diagnostic routine, to reassure the user “I’m still alive. I’ll get back to you eventually.”
Wellington: “You are correct, Alderney. I was working at Meta 4 for the last hour, and didn’t properly switch mindsets when I logged in. Thank you for pointing it out. Sorry Bungo.”
Kafana knew she shouldn’t ask now, but couldn’t help being curious. Wellington so rarely made mistakes.
Kafana: “Metaphor?”
Wellington: “I’ve just been reviewing proposed terminology guidelines for use by expert systems generating training materials for use by consortia of accreditation agencies wanting to certify the proficiency of the consultants advising existing tiara manufacturers on how to modify their processes in a way that enables them to produce tiaras able to provide a quantity of validatable evidence about their design and manufacture that are sufficient to demonstrate to others that they may justifiably rely upon it complying with the formally published Trustworthy Tiara standard that the Wombles and other reputable organisations have endorsed as being determined by a standard consensus of qualified peer-reviewers to be fit for the purpose of safeguarding minimal acceptable standards of mental autonomy as defined in accompanying documents. I’ve not yet picked a process for assembling the team who’ll do a good job of coordinating the effort to create those accompanying documents in a way that’s both transparent and widely accepted, but I’ve got an expert system working on how to weigh factors used in calculating the rating I’ll use to filter down the possible options.”
Blink.
Blink.
She didn’t understand. Did anyone? How was she meant to take responsibility for what Wellington did, if nobody but him could even understand it?
She looked desperately over at Alderney for translation, who took pity upon her and held up a hand, counting on her fingers as she explained.
Alderney: “Meta 0 - concrete stuff, like a tiara worthy of being trusted actually coming out the production line of a factory owned by Fundim.”
Alderney: “Meta 1 - an implementation plan, approved by Fundim’s CEO, on how to move from their current production setup to a state where they can achieve that.”
Alderney: “Meta 2 - having big consultancy firms, like GoodWood, ready and able to help Fundim, so that when the CEO presents his implementation plan to the board, they’ll believe him when he says the risks have been quantified and that the odds are in their favour.”
Alderney: “Meta 3 - preparing the training materials and certification agencies that GoodWood will need if they’re going to be able to persuade Fundim’s board that the consultants the CEO paid to help devise and signed off on his implementation plan, actually know what they’re talking about and can be trusted when they say it will work.”
Alderney: “Meta 4 - defining a process that will produce documentation about the Trustworthy Tiara protocol, that uses consistent terminology across the project and won’t confuse all the poor little auditors and systems analysts who get to sit through the boring training courses the expert systems will automatically generate from the documentation.”
Blink.
She still didn’t understand. She certainly didn’t understand why Wellington was working on this now, before he’d even written the protocol or created a team to write it, or whatever. But maybe she didn’t have to understand that, in order to provide support?This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
She’d heard enough to realise that Alderney understood and, as long as each Womble had at least one other person able to notice if the Womble was going insane or just having problems, and call in support before it caused a disaster, her role as the ultimate backup was clear - what she needed to do was make sure the lines of communication stayed open.
Kafana: “Thanks for explaining, Wellington. If you find yourself getting too lost in your own head, make sure you reach out to Alderney for a quick sanity-check. The same goes for all of us, I think. The more we make the others aware of what we’re thinking and working on, the more chances they have to spot opportunities to lend advice and assistance.”
Bulgaria nodded. “I’ll see if I can come up with some ways to make that easier. If anyone has ideas, chat with me later. But for now… Bungo.”
Bungo opened his mouth to speak then paused, glancing at each of them in turn with the leery hesitation of a postman at the garden gate of a house whose dog has already bitten him once. When nobody took the opportunity, he drew himself up and gamely continued.
Bungo: “Riiiiight. Kafana, two big things have happened since you were last in-game, that you ought to be aware of. Firstly, Nevermere successfully completed the special event that the devs staged to explain their guild members arriving en masse at Mezelay, the capital city of the Burgundish Benevolence. Their guild leader, Gwenifer, achieved tier 1 in social ranking. She’s the first player on Covob to manage it, so she also gained some global reputation and everyone online saw it announced.”
She nodded, not yet understanding the immediate relevance, but encouraging him to continue.
Bungo: “Well, that triggered a big discussion in The Burrow’s Workshop forum, trying to analyse the game mechanics involved. It turns out the level of your Ruler profession depends upon how many individuals are pledged to you, directly or indirectly, and how strongly they are pledged. Tier 1 requires about 1000, and each tier above that requires 5 times more than the previous tier. It doesn’t matter if the individuals are players or NPCs and Nevermere live for immersive roleplay. When they rounded off the event with dramatic speeches and a mass swearing of fealty to Gwenifer, it triggered the mechanism and Princess Liselle promptly granted Gwenifer formal status as a noble of her court, in recognition of the ‘nobility of character’ Gwenifer had now demonstrated in word and deed. Nevermere are a large guild. Actual rank also requires level but, if Gwenifer had reached level 40, she might have gone straight up to tier 2. She’ll probably get there eventually, but I’m guessing there will be a delay between promotions because the Princess will require new deeds to justify her actions.”
Tomsk and Alderney were grinning, and Kafana started to put the pieces together.
Bungo: “So, anyway, I talked with Alderney and we decided it was a good time to go public with the idea of trying to get you social ranking too. CraftySquId approved, as did several other guilds in Torello. They’ve all been facing problems caused by the aristocrats and politicians not taking them seriously.”
Kafana: “So when Vessel-Alderney wrote ‘Baronetess Vessel-Kafana’ ?”
Bungo: “She was teasing. You’re not a noble yet. But you do now have the Ruler profession, at a high enough tier to be made a Baronetess. In a few days you’ll have sufficient pledges to become a Baroness which, unlike Gwenifer, you are high enough level for. All it will need then is a chance to start the formal process and sufficient owed favours or high levels of reputation with the right people or factions for the process to succeed. In the case of Torello, the right people are the Marquis of the city, Lord Ugolino Trinci, and the members of the ruling council - chiefly the Counts and their districts.”
Kafana: “Anything specific you want me to do or not do?”
Bungo: “Your new profession will probably increase the cap on some of your skills and change how they’re organised. You should take a look, decide what you’d like to practice, and let me know. Oh, and avoid annoying any of the Counts.”
She was being railroaded. As usual. But he’d put a lot of work into it and she couldn’t really disagree with his plan. Also, the chocolate cake had been tasty. She did her best to send a feeling of approval in his direction and, by the way he relaxed, she judged her attempt a success. Go me!
Kafana: “Good job! What’s the other big thing?”
Bungo: “We completed the quest: A Sailors’ Revenge. We haven’t released our recordings yet, because we don’t want to risk Lord Ruffo finding out before you’re safely ennobled, but it went pretty smoothly. Bulgaria found some actors willing to dress up as us and eat a nice meal on the balcony of the Speckled Dove. He also wrote them a script to perform, and your Vessel used sonic magic to make their voices sound like ours. Except on fake-Bungo. I’m sure my voice doesn’t really sound like that. Anyway, as far as we can tell, everyone in Torello thinks Captain Lazarillo initiated the attack. The Valorosa set sail within an hour of the raid ending, heading for Uddel in the Teutonic League. Nobody’s going to be able to question him or his crew for at least a fortnight.”
Kafana: “Awesome, all of you. Was it fun? Get any nice rewards?”
Tomsk: “Alderney crafted a special CheonGo drum for me. It takes a bit of assembly, but I can fine tune the frequency it vibrates at.”
Wellington: “I adapted your sound amplification spell for use with subsonic frequencies, and worked with Vessel-Kafana on setting the building’s foundations to resonate with the drum. We’ve been practicing reality magic together, and she’s as confident at it as you are. Also, I’ve got a recording of a mental message from her, that she asked me to pass onto you when you’ve time for it.”
Bulgaria: “We didn’t catch their top assassins. When your danger sense skill is high enough, the warnings it gives are more detailed and happen earlier. But we now know more about them, and we discovered a collection of detailed critiques of past assassinations that they use for training purposes. Alas, if they kept records of who paid for which assassinations, someone destroyed or removed them.”
Alderney: “Bulgaria searched the offices. I wasn’t that ambitious. I volunteered to search their workshop and laboratory.”
Bulgaria: “And?”
Alderney looked positively smug as she left them hanging a moment, before opening her mouth...