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One moment Loki is trying to kill the snake-monster before it gets any closer to civilization, and then next -
She jabs at its face, but with momentum intended to meet resistance, and there is none. With momentum intended to compensate for a dodge on the part of the creature, but it surges forward. She's engulfed, and then there is no snake, and there is no ground, and she's falling.
She gasps. The air is clean; she doesn't need to heal poison out of herself with each breath. She sees - floating land, of sorts, there, some kind of oddly geology-themed ship maybe. She could, potentially, turn Lævateinn into something with enough surface area to steer herself onto it rather than fall farther and suffer worse from the fall, but she just recently perfected a new...
She's a bird, a swift, and she catches the wind, and her spear is a twig clutched in her feet, and she wings her way to the land.
Rockeye's first glowfic. Loki (a Bell) falls on Nick in Cloudbank.
purposeful_glory
cloudwanderer
They set off, Nick waving farewell to the farmers. Unless something else interrupts the ship, it will arrive at an appropriately large town at mid-afternoon the next day.
The town is a fairly impressive sight, almost as vertical as it is horizontal. There are lots of parks and urban gardens and pretty wildlife in the surrounding islands. People move around on little cars suspended from ropes, or miniature balloon-like things. The ship dockyard has some three dozen vessels of widely varying size and design attached to it, which Nick's somewhat-battered houseship soon joins.
The town is a fairly impressive sight, almost as vertical as it is horizontal. There are lots of parks and urban gardens and pretty wildlife in the surrounding islands. People move around on little cars suspended from ropes, or miniature balloon-like things. The ship dockyard has some three dozen vessels of widely varying size and design attached to it, which Nick's somewhat-battered houseship soon joins.
cloudwanderer
Someone falls off one of the islands!
...And then stops falling a few seconds later. Upon closer inspection, there is a web of rope hanging under the entire town, held up by poles extending outward from the lowest and outermost islands.
It will take Nick a few hours to arrange for repairs to his ship and a buyer for the squid and all his other food and his tree.
Loki is free to walk around the town, handed a few wooden coins (yes, wooden, and marked with a peculiar symbol that seems to be on a lot of this town's buildings - a logo of sorts), and advised to return at sunset for the rest of her money.
...And then stops falling a few seconds later. Upon closer inspection, there is a web of rope hanging under the entire town, held up by poles extending outward from the lowest and outermost islands.
It will take Nick a few hours to arrange for repairs to his ship and a buyer for the squid and all his other food and his tree.
Loki is free to walk around the town, handed a few wooden coins (yes, wooden, and marked with a peculiar symbol that seems to be on a lot of this town's buildings - a logo of sorts), and advised to return at sunset for the rest of her money.
cloudwanderer
One might pay attention to the helpful maps posted here and there. Some of the larger islands have names, the one she's on right now is "Stairway." It's probably the most vertical, and seems to be a hub of sorts. If she wants glass and tools, why not try for the island labelled "Glissei's Glassware Workshop"?
cloudwanderer
If she takes the most obvious path, she'll arrive at a very pretty storefront labelled Glissei's, on an island near the bottom and outer edge of town, leading into a store that sells glass and things-containing-glass of all shapes and sizes and colors.
purposeful_glory
She has no reason to take a non-obvious path. She takes a look at the glasswares before trying to speak to anyone. Just double-checking on the telescopes.
cloudwanderer
There is a large, obvious sign in red lettering: "If you break any product, you will be responsible for paying recrafting fees or performing labor to account for same. Enforceable by Linral All-Town Agreement #32."
There are telescopes by a window, conveniently labelled 'for demonstration purposes'. They are mostly made of wood and what looks like bone apart from the glass bits, very bulky, and if she looks through one, she will observe that it has weak magnification, it is difficult to adjust the focus.
There are telescopes by a window, conveniently labelled 'for demonstration purposes'. They are mostly made of wood and what looks like bone apart from the glass bits, very bulky, and if she looks through one, she will observe that it has weak magnification, it is difficult to adjust the focus.
purposeful_glory
Okay, so she can't invent telescopes from scratch, but she can improve on them. If they can make mirrors. Are there mirrors?
cloudwanderer
There are mirrors. They are very expensive. They seem to be made entirely of glass and silver. The silver is probably what makes them so expensive.
purposeful_glory
Yes, that would tend to be an obstacle here. And they're probably not any more capable of getting aluminum. But they have them, and they could combine them to see a very long way away.
Still, with this kind of materials cost she's going to have to have a collaborator or some interim sort of work. She goes out of the shop and wanders a bit more.
Still, with this kind of materials cost she's going to have to have a collaborator or some interim sort of work. She goes out of the shop and wanders a bit more.
cloudwanderer
There are tool shops, and clothes shops, and bakeries, and herbalists, and a lot of recycling workshops that will buy various used-up materials (like paper, wood shavings, or food waste) and sell other things at a slightly higher price.
purposeful_glory
She takes note of how the recyclers like things categorized so that when she has anything to throw out she can do it in an orderly manner, and looks at what tools they have in the shops.
cloudwanderer
Paper and wood is its own category. There are a lot of plastic objects floating around, since some plastics can be derived from organic things, and there are two main categories of plastic. Glass is its own category. 'Safe' organic waste is a category, as opposed to 'other' organic waste. The boundary is defined in helpful signs. Clothes are their own category. Metal things are generally not given to recycling workshops but sold to or repaired by private crafters. Broken floatcoral can be sold to construction firms.
The best tools are made of bone, the rest are wooden. Metal is too valuable to be used for tools, generally. (Nick's tools were all bone) One can find most purely mechanical tools one wants, from axes to hammers to pliers to shovels to wrenches - though one might have to visit a specialist shop to find, for example, a particular kind of scissors.
The best tools are made of bone, the rest are wooden. Metal is too valuable to be used for tools, generally. (Nick's tools were all bone) One can find most purely mechanical tools one wants, from axes to hammers to pliers to shovels to wrenches - though one might have to visit a specialist shop to find, for example, a particular kind of scissors.
purposeful_glory
Interesting. Lævateinn can take the place of many but not all conventional tools, but it's good to have an idea of what everyone else is using.
She gets hungry. What's for eating around here?
She gets hungry. What's for eating around here?
cloudwanderer
Fruit and vegetables and bread things are cheap, meat is sharply expensive. If she wants alcohol, that's cheap enough. She can't afford meat.
purposeful_glory
That'll be a change. She doesn't want alcohol. She'll take a veggie pie and a fruit tart. Maybe she should hunt things. If she flew more or less straight up over an island, killed something in midair...? She'd still need a way to transport it from wherever she caught it to a buyer, which means a ship, which is probably out of her reach for now.
cloudwanderer
The veggie pie and fruit tart take about half of the money Nick pre-paid her. What little meat there is mostly comes from livestock. Milk and eggs are likewise surprisingly pricy.
Someone tries to steal the rest of her money by casually picking her pocket when they think Loki's not looking.
Someone tries to steal the rest of her money by casually picking her pocket when they think Loki's not looking.
purposeful_glory
She's been around long enough - and had to maneuver invisibly often enough - to cultivate an awareness of the people around her.
She grabs his wrist. She will not be letting go of his wrist.
"Really," she says. "My first day in town. Really."
She grabs his wrist. She will not be letting go of his wrist.
"Really," she says. "My first day in town. Really."
cloudwanderer
He tries to wrench out of her hold and flee. He makes enough noise that, even failing, they attract attention.
"Fuck. Look, I need to eat. My daughter needs to eat. Our farm burned down to bare rock, I don't have anywhere to go."
He does seem to be pretty underfed, and his clothes are scruffy. But he's shaking too much for that to seem like the whole and unaltered truth.
"Fuck. Look, I need to eat. My daughter needs to eat. Our farm burned down to bare rock, I don't have anywhere to go."
He does seem to be pretty underfed, and his clothes are scruffy. But he's shaking too much for that to seem like the whole and unaltered truth.
cloudwanderer
"No, a loan was. But I lost that, too. Bad luck." He glances over to the door and swears again when he sees some sort of official marching toward the table, wearing a green uniform stamped with the town logo.
"Ma'am, sir, please explain this unpleasant situation."
"Ma'am, sir, please explain this unpleasant situation."
purposeful_glory
"This gentleman is telling me his life story," says Loki, smiling. "Excuse me, I'm new in town, I assume you're some kind of official because you match the currency but perhaps you could clarify?"