well that was certainly something | Glowfic Constellation

sonofsnow

"Oh, good. More for me, then."

missnicegirl

"If lots of people here ate locusts then we could get them at a grocery store, but since people don't, they'll be harder to find," Matilda explains.

sonofsnow

"Thrill of the hunt!" Ari counters. "Or just dowsing. Dowsing works too."

missnicegirl

"I don't actually know for sure if there are any locusts close enough to my house to find by walking around and looking for them. I've never tried."

sonofsnow

"Eh. You can get anywhere from anywhere, if you've got a few days and the right magic. Or, uh... Mom could."

He frowns, then shakes his head irritably. "Fuck that. You've got cheaty bullshit magic, and I've got gumption. We could get to Quor'Toth if that's where the crickets were."

missnicegirl

"If you're that intent on your crickets, I'll see what I can do."

sonofsnow

"Eh, at this point it's a matter of pride. But seriously, locusts are great, you've got to try some. I'll honey-fry a bushel or so once we've quested for them, your mom can share." He considers. "Unless she's evil? If your mom's evil we don't have to give her any locusts."

missnicegirl

"Jenny isn't evil."

sonofsnow

"Excellent!"

(Ari elects to keep an eye on her anyway. He's heard that before. From himself, like, yesterday.)

missnicegirl

"Jenny's aunt was evil, but then she ran away and now she doesn't bother us anymore."

sonofsnow

"I'm not sure I follow. By 'was evil' d'you mean you got rid of her evil bits, she's dead, she's oathbound not to hurt you..."

missnicegirl

"She thinks Jenny's dad's ghost will murder her if she ever hurts Jenny again."

sonofsnow

"Oh! I thought you'd just let her run away. Yes, yes, ghost threats are perfectly sensible if properly enforced."

missnicegirl

"Jenny's dad's ghost isn't real," Matilda clarifies, "but the Trunchbull doesn't know that, and something will certainly happen to her if I ever hear of her hurting anyone."

sonofsnow

"Oh, sure. I'm confident you could handle a pissed-off human, no matter how nasty. Unless she's got your cheaty magic too?"

missnicegirl

"No one has my magic except for me."

sonofsnow

"...Well, that seems like the kind of thing that changes fast. Have you checked? With your cheaty magic?"

missnicegirl

"Until today my magic also didn't do anything except move things around," she says.

sonofsnow

"Okay, so how about you try to teach it to look at itself, and then we trot off to a population center and make sure that nobody who isn't a happy friendly smart girl has the game-breaking magic? Just, you know, as a precaution. Or you could try remote-scrying for it, even, I don't know that it'd work with your magics but we've no reason to put limits on it."

missnicegirl

"That's an interesting idea but I'm not sure exactly how it would work," she says thoughtfully.

sonofsnow

"Would it help if I showed you how I'd do it with my own magic? Divination's easy, I could pull it off without that much prep."

missnicegirl

"Sure."

sonofsnow

Ari dashes outside again, then comes back with a chunk of clear rock crystal. (Where he found it is anyone's guess.) He shapes it into a sharp-edged convex lens, then clenches his fist around it until blood drips down his arm, chanting something about sight beyond sight. When he opens his hand, the lens is clean and looks no different to normal vision.

"Here you go! It shows you the flows of magic. Although apparently there aren't really any flows of my kind of magic around here except the ones I'm using."

missnicegirl

"...Would you like me to heal that?" she inquires, on observing that his hand is still cut. The lens floats over so she can inspect it.

sonofsnow