#tachni

[meltedmercury]

Centerspire perfec t size for put baby in to n\ap! inside very Soft and Comfort baby sleep soundly put baby in light temple. Put Baby In Centerspire. no problems ever in Centerspire because good Shape and Support for baby neck weak of big baby head. Acenterspire yes a place for a baby put baby in centerspire can trust Centerspire for giveing good love to baby. friend Centerspire

[crimeronan]

me to other writers: don't get too lost in the weeds of worldbuilding, it's not a huge deal if things don't make sense. you can't account for literally everything about how an entire civilization works. what you CAN do is consider various building blocks, answer those online questionnaires, and use tools to make your geography reasonable. if you have friends with niche areas of scientific or anthropological expertise you can get great feedback from them about what they'd consider important! also personally i think reading up a little on how trade systems and colonialism function is helpful especially for fantasy europe but that might not be relevant for you. relax! have fun with it!

me to me: [opening a worldbuilding document that's divided into multiple geopolitical sections with extensive drafted legislation and historical rights movements and various specific outlines of governing bodies] okay bitch. TODAY'S the day we resolve every possible question about fantasy disability access and fantasy ADA regulations on the fantasy leftist commune,

[crimeronan]

Sol’s cadre of well paid sex workers whose contracts she’s purchased and released so they can work for her for a good wage without being owned or beholden to anyone too, even the ones that didn’t know her as a teenager. Do people even KNOW all her employees own their own contracts or is that an industry secret

it's not an industry secret at all!

one of the first things sol did with her inheritance was hire lawyers and economists to help her restructure the contract system in the companies she'd inherited. politically, she's best known for her hardline position of "a company that can't afford to pay employees their minimum financial obligation is a company that can't afford to exist."

this has made a lot of people Big Mad.

sol doesn't make a secret of her employment practices bc it's a way of challenging other wealthy tachnins. she acts as though her way is the standard & is condescendingly pitying toward those who disagree. and when people Really get in her way, she wages a quiet economic war against them until they either capitulate or collapse. it's uhhhhh.... the ethical version of.... walmart destroying mom and pop shops..... i guess....

obviously there are certain people and politics that sol Can't fight. if there weren't then the story wouldn't have a plot. but she's Militantly anti-slavery & so well-known for her anti-slavery stance that it's basically Suicidal to approach her about selling anyone else's contracts.

[crimeronan]

In her dreams, everything was real.

Well, not quite real. Dreamscapes still twisted and turned. Letters and numbers rearranged themselves. Hallways became beaches became yawning open sky.

But in her dreams, she couldn't change the world. In her dreams, she was helpless to the whims of reality. If the dream wanted to give her a nice night out, all the better; if the dream wanted to give her blood and pain, the wounds stung no matter how hard she wished them away.

She was dreaming of refugees, now, endless crowds made of grief. In the dream, she took them by the hands and wiped away the smudges on their dirty faces and promised, "It's okay, it's okay, you're safe now," and they looked at her like a stranger. Like it was nothing. Like she hadn't spoken at all.

When she woke, the scene was the same. Caught between consciousness and dream, the view shifted. The purple walls and wide windows blurred into more of those restless, dissatisfied crowds, an entire landscape opening before her.

Devin's arms were wrapped around her waist, Devin's face buried in her hair, Devin's body a warm and comforting presence against her spine. Devin could not have seen the crowds, but the noise must have given them away; irritably, she said, "You're dreaming. Knock it off."

Nova disentangled herself from Devin, sitting up. The scene before her was twilight, choked in clouds of mist, the people indistinct and fuzzy. In the dream, they had all seemed so real; now, their clothes and hair and skin blurred into random facsimiles of a person. Gaunt-eyed women, tired men, timid children. A dozen different cultural outfits, all of which were guaranteed to be at least a little inaccurate, but it wasn't like anybody was here to judge.

Devin groaned, which seemed like a fair reaction to waking up in the middle of a war zone. "Nova, for fuck's sake."

Nova could dispel the image without any difficulty. But first, she rolled out of bed, toeing on her slippers. Her footsteps crunched on frosted grass.

She had to be careful. Though the misty plain appeared to stretch to the horizon, she was still inside. It would suck to slam into the invisible windows or doors – she'd learned that lesson decades ago.

She caught a boy by the wrist. He was maybe ten years old, with light brown skin and curly black hair and a nose that looked just like Finn's. Nova tried not to think about what her and Devin's children might have looked like, in a different life, but her subconscious seemed to have other ideas.

She knelt down to get on his level, trying not to frighten him. He watched her warily, but didn't bolt.

Her voice was soft. "It's okay," she promised. "You're safe now."

And here, finally, the proof that she was really awake. The child's eyes widened, and then his mouth crumpled, and then he threw himself into Nova's arms. She lifted him up, cradling him against her, the warm weight of his body, the softness of his hair, indistinguishable from a real boy.

She let him go when her arms got tired. He hit the floor and dissolved, just like the frosted grass, just like the misty plains, just like the indistinct crowds of desperate people. What was left was just her, and Devin, and the morning light creeping through the windows.

"Next time you turn this place into a winter wonderland," Devin snapped, irritable as always, "fucking warn me so I can put a shirt on."

[crimeronan]

can we hear any facts abt novas therapist? this character fascinates me. deeply. what the hell is their job like. are they also a light magician??

nova's therapist is very underdeveloped and doesn't even have a name yet bc they mostly exist to amuse me. there's a throwaway bit in the silt verses where a pop psychology expert on the radio talks about how there's maladaptive psychopathic tendencies in the rebel protagonists who want to stop human sacrifice, because they are Taking Away The Joy Of Sacrificing People, which is something only a terrorist with an antisocial understanding of society could do. and that's..... the vibe. that is the vibe.

many of nova's therapist's antics are based on this real-life article in the guardian, which i reread every so often to cheer myself up. it thrills me to think about billionaires who lie awake at night knowing they're the scum of the earth and knowing they have no actual problems and knowing they're torturing millions of people for no reason and suffering psychological crises about it. i hope their suffering gets worse and worse and worse forever. amen

nova's therapist's job is to make nova feel better, and to make tachni's ultra-wealthy shareholders and city councilors feel better. to that end, i'm sure they're a light magician with unusual powers of "empathy," aka: influencing other people's thought processes n emotions.

the therapist's job is also to make sure that nova always adheres to the status quo, doesn't feel guilty about anything she does, and has psychological justifications for why everyone else is always the problem. nova's therapist thinks devin is an abusive psychopath who should be locked up under the centerspire, but allowances must of course be made for nova's bleeding heart, so they don't push about it.

what if your family and government paid a guy to tell you that you're a perfect angel goddess who's always doing the right thing, even when you feel like you might be doing the wrong thing. man. you'd feel so much better about your life and so much more self-assured. therapy is great!

[crimeronan]

one thing that's interested me in ur posts abt finn and rowan is that finn is the good-natured twin despite being a cop. is that meant to show doctors are worse than cops in this universe?

this question made me LAUGH. oh god. okay i AM the kind of writer who'd worldbuild "doctors are worse than cops" but that's..... not..... Exactly my intention here.

finn is good-natured because friendly cops are better at upholding Cop Institutions than cruel ones. most of my progressive neighbors don't want to defund the police, they just want to make sure the police are Nice. a cop who treats the public respectfully and is helpful is harder to say ACAB about, even if he's doing things like, say, wielding his power to torture people who annoy him & using friendliness to make people waive their right to a lawyer.

rowan is emotionally cold because cold doctors are clearly analytical and objective and better suited for positions of authority over patients. a cold doctor might not be nice to you, but he knows more about your body and your needs than you do, and if you disagree, it's because you're an overemotional asshole having histrionics over a fake illness.

rowan is similar in personality (the ruthlessness, the righteousness, the intelligence) to greg house. finn is similar in personality (the friendliness, the frustration, the casual abuse of power) to the protags of various cop shows.

so like. it IS on purpose, but. DECIDEDLY more layered than just "doctors in tachni suck but cops don't."

[crimeronan]

Do Nova and Devin have godly presence? Like, you can feel the air change when they walk in a room, or their moods affect the environment? If they do, can they control it? How would different people experience it?

wonderful question.

nova ABSOLUTELY has godly presence, particularly in the centerspire. she is often quite literally the brightest thing in the room & sometimes hurts to look at. always beautiful, always angelic, always looking 20 years old. sometimes with giant butterfly or bird wings if she's in the mood for extra whimsy. she cannot fly for real with these wings but she CAN transform the environment so that it Looks like everyone is floating in the middle of open sky, amongst wispy clouds and sunshine, with no ground in sight. she is not responsible for any vertigo this causes!

the centerspire itself shifts with nova's moods even when she's not in the room. it's a lot like an archfey playground in a seelie realm where nothing is real, except that there are certain real things, like chairs, and elevators, and walls. sometimes it does not look like there are chairs and elevators and walls But They Still Exist. And You Can Still Walk Into Them

devin has a certain amount of Presence in the centerspire, although i wouldn't say it's magic-based. it's just that she's a grumpy thundercloud in the middle of a sparkly flashy vegas casino. like this

devin's presence in the earth temple is much more muted. when she's not actively involved in anything magic-related, she is Just Some Guy. recognizable only because when you live in a little semi-utopian commune in the shadow of an Evil Death Empire, it makes sense to know who's in charge.

people know who devin is bc anyone who Doesn't know who devin is will eventually have someone tug on their sleeve and be like "hey.... psst..... see that unmoving lump in the corner?? that's god :)"

but devin doesn't really do many godly or regal things. devin's most commanding presence is actually when she's dealing with tachnin shareholders and council members who value callousness. then it's all "yup, here i am, a super frightening and entitled god who's hideously possessive of all these naive little cherubs, who i'm probably going to eat, or something. who cares. give me whatever the fuck i want"

at home she's like. do not look at me. can't you see i'm busy napping.

[crimeronan]

Are Robert and Winnie legally married? And how does that affect her citizenship/slavery status?

this is a fun question because it lets me talk about what marriage in tachni actually is!

when i was first worldbuilding out the legal system and family structures and such, i had a moment like, "i don't.... actually know if marriage exists here. if tachni is relatively poly-normative then monogamous marriage doesn't make much sense. and i also think it's boring"

and my friends were like "well, what's the system for property ownership and heirs and inheritance? because that's the practical purpose marriage serves in our society. if there are other systems in place then you don't need it"

unsurprisingly, that led me to thinking about the bonds people have within tachni's contract system. every individual has a legal obligation they need to fulfill in terms of their salary. if they can't find a job that makes this much money, then somebody who CAN afford that salary will buy their contract. and essentially own them as an enslaved party.

sol's circumstances were slightly unique in that she Never had a chance to own her own contract, because that's the nature of a contingency citizenship. citizenship that's contingent on working for the light temples (or a temple-sponsored corporation) until you die.

"marriage" in tachni basically means one person holds the other's contract, except it's in, like, a loving and ideal way, absolutely for sure we prommy. robert bought out winnie's contract (technically a legal gray area with a contingency citizenship, but the man's a city councilor and can do what he wants) because she was being abused in the light temples, and because she makes a good housewife, and he loved her, and such.

nova holds devin's contract because the legal obligation for a god is insurmountable unless you're born into generational wealth and have a very lucky investment porfolio. easy peasy for a god of luck!! yay :)

robert and winnie's marriage WAS unusual by tachnin standards, though, in the inheritance aspect. ordinarily an enslaved person does not stand to inherit their spouse's assets upon said spouse's death. robert fought a legal battle on winnie's behalf to make sure his assets would go to her upon his death & that she would Never be forced back to the light temples. when he died, she was granted an exception and allowed to essentially become a full tachnin citizen who owned her own contract.

said exceptions can only be granted by a city councilor & had to be codified by robert in the first place. unfortunately they're very rare now because about 90% of the other city councilors saw what happened between winnie and robert and went, "okayyy... so if we give Anyone Else a contingency exception, they're just going to murder their spouse. cool!!"