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Ari is... so, so lost. He didn't know this amount of lost was physically possible. One minute he's in a briar maze deep in Winter picking frostberries for a pie, then he takes four left turns and he exits the briar and he's in a temperate forest. Not even any snow on the ground. He turns around and there's no thicket to be seen.
He puts the frostberry pouch in his backpack and mutters the incantation to open a Way back to the mortal realm; he might land somewhere dangerous, but better endangered in the mortal realm than completely lost in the Nevernever. And... nothing. Literally nothing happens, no backlash or fizzling or anything that would indicate that he fucked up a spell, but the kind of nothing that happens when you don't have a spell to cast.
In something of a panic, he tests that he still has magic by punching a nearby tree, which splinters and crashes to the ground. "So that's still working, I guess," he mutters. "Punching systems: still online."
So, recap: magic works, he just got snatched out of deep Winter territory and put into something that kind of looks like the Wyld, and the Ways are on the fritz. Either something big is screwing with him or he's very much not in Kansas anymore. Either way, he'd better figure out what the hell is going on.
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bitterchill
bitterchill
Ari snickers at this. He hops back up onto the snowbank to continue his work on the cottage spell.
After a moment he sticks his head over the side, mutters "Heiss!" and wiggles his fingers at Promise. The clothes feel a good deal warmer. He retreats back to his hillock.
After a moment he sticks his head over the side, mutters "Heiss!" and wiggles his fingers at Promise. The clothes feel a good deal warmer. He retreats back to his hillock.
bitterchill
Ari is happy! He does more work.
He pokes his head over again. "Can I get another cup of your blood when it's time to make the cottage? It'd be very handy."
bitterchill
"Yeah, should be easily enough for this. I might want more to make the underground workshop and the bigger house, but that's a while off. It's a pity blood loses its potency so quickly, I could use that stuff for everything if I got a stockpile going."
imeanforever
Promise warms up and feels out the harmonics of the area, occasionally testing small spells with no lasting effect (lights and little gusts of wind) to see how she's doing.
bitterchill
Ari occasionally pops in for progress checks and to warm up her clothes. He makes a lot of progress on the cottage spell, which is substantially easier with such an energy-dense power source.
imeanforever
And eventually:
"I think I know what I'm working with now. Where are you going to put the cottage and where should I put my warmth circle relative to it?"
"I think I know what I'm working with now. Where are you going to put the cottage and where should I put my warmth circle relative to it?"
bitterchill
"Doesn't much matter to me, there's no ley lines here or anything. You can put the warmth wherever and I'll work around it. Is it spherical?"
imeanforever
"Cylindrical. I could do a sphere if that would be more convenient for some reason?"
imeanforever
Since he doesn't seem to care where she puts it, she puts it right where she is. There is a faint whoosh as air pressure changes. Snow in her vicinity starts melting; she pulls his shirt off so she can free her wings, hover, and get his pants off without getting them wet, and hands them over.
bitterchill
Ari gratefully accepts his clothes and places them neatly into his backpack.
imeanforever
"Yes please. Even if I can't do it, it might be important if I'm going to do any sorcery that interacts with it."
bitterchill
Ari makes a valiant effort to explain it! He is pretty terrible at that, but it's possible Promise will be better at following along than Tacky Creep.
bitterchill
That will certainly help, though perhaps not as much as it should. Ari isn't great at answering clarifying questions. But he tries!
imeanforever
Promise quietly concludes that he is not an ideal teacher, but if he does try she can eventually triangulate what she expects to need to know for sorcerous purposes.
bitterchill
He gets to where he is now. "So really, all I need to get done is the safeties that keep the house from exploding like that illusion back at Tacky Creep's house did. Because that would be bad."