View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
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.
+ Show First Post
bitterchill
bitterchill
He safeties large numbers of safeties. It takes him a few minutes; thaumaturgically speaking, one "don't explode please" clause is much like another, and this isn't the first high-power spell he's done with an unstable component.
Finally he taps his pencil against the paper and says, "Yeah, that's good. We're good here. I can do this."
imeanforever
Promise holds out her arm. "You can't cut me anymore, but if you give me a knife I can do it. Also if you want to experiment with that limitation this is as good an occasion as any."
bitterchill
"Most of my ideas involve enchanted objects that move on their own. They'll take some time to make. You can do it, here." He finds a good-sized rock nearby and turns it into a knife, then finds another to turn into the bowl. He hands her the knife and holds the bowl under her elbow.
imeanforever
Promise grits her teeth and nicks her arm and dribbles blood into the bowl. "Say when."
bitterchill
Once the bowl has filled to the appropriate point, Ari bandages her up with his pocket clay. He sets the bowl on the ground. "You want the restorative ritual, right?"
imeanforever
"I think I've got it -" And a moment later she is healed, although there is still a blodge of blood on her arm.
imeanforever
"Mm-hm." She reaches into the melting snow and gets a handful and wipes the blood off her arm with it.
bitterchill
Ari sets about crafting the circle he's going to use to construct their darling little cottage. It's pretty complex, but it's not the monster it'd be if he had to work with human or animal blood as his sole power source. Fairy blood is like rocket fuel, it works miracles. Most of the work he has to do now is making sure it's consumed bit by bit to fuel the spell, instead of going all at once and turning this little clearing into Tunguska. But he can do that!
He sets up the circle. He draws runes at a few choice spots in the blood, then leaves the remainder in a designated circle. He sits cross-legged at its center (several feet away from the edge of the Promise's hotspot) and begins chanting. There's less symbolism and more repetition in this chant. He tells the heavy, solid stone far beneath the earth to rise and flow like air to the surface. He tells it to do so for a good five minutes in a slow, even monotone, until he decides he has a sufficient amount. Then he tells it to raise itself high above its mother soil, to become walls and a roof and on and on. This step takes him almost half an hour of chanting, which includes periodic pauses to drink some snow.
By the end, there is a cottage. It's not particularly large, only four mid-sized rooms, and its construction is geometrically simple, but it will keep out the snow. One of the rooms is only partly in contact with Promise's circle; it can be assumed that this one is designated as Ari's room.
He sets up the circle. He draws runes at a few choice spots in the blood, then leaves the remainder in a designated circle. He sits cross-legged at its center (several feet away from the edge of the Promise's hotspot) and begins chanting. There's less symbolism and more repetition in this chant. He tells the heavy, solid stone far beneath the earth to rise and flow like air to the surface. He tells it to do so for a good five minutes in a slow, even monotone, until he decides he has a sufficient amount. Then he tells it to raise itself high above its mother soil, to become walls and a roof and on and on. This step takes him almost half an hour of chanting, which includes periodic pauses to drink some snow.
By the end, there is a cottage. It's not particularly large, only four mid-sized rooms, and its construction is geometrically simple, but it will keep out the snow. One of the rooms is only partly in contact with Promise's circle; it can be assumed that this one is designated as Ari's room.
bitterchill
"Thanks!" he chirps.
He picks up the bowl and checks it for residual blood. There's a small, but not negligible, quantity of liquid at the bottom. "Huh, that's even more potent than I'd thought. Wow. I can use the rest of this, right?"
He picks up the bowl and checks it for residual blood. There's a small, but not negligible, quantity of liquid at the bottom. "Huh, that's even more potent than I'd thought. Wow. I can use the rest of this, right?"
imeanforever
"I can't exactly put it back where it came from. What are you going to do?"
bitterchill
"Vaguely sinister experiments! And maybe a ward. If I mix a drop of this with a drop of my blood and sprinkle it on the witch hazel I can make a ward that'll hedge out anybody who isn't a wizard or a leaflet unless they're accompanied by same, that sound worthwhile?"
imeanforever
"Yes. I'm not the only leaflet there is, but no others are known vassals or allies of anyone who dislikes us."
bitterchill
"Nice. I'll set about that, then." He digs the powdered witch hazel out of his backpack, goes into the house, and pours it in the shape of a rune in the front doorway. He pricks his finger, drips his blood onto the rune, and carefully drips a tiny drop of Promise's on in the same spot. He chants for a while.
The rune ignites; a shimmering bubble of force spreads out and clings to the walls, then fades from view. The flaming witch hazel is consumed entirely, leaving a scorched rune in the doorway. "All done!" calls Ari, and scampers off to his room to perform vaguely sinister experiments.
imeanforever
"What kind of experiments are you doing?" Promise asks, following.
bitterchill
"Mostly checking for a more precise reading on the power density, but I'd also like to see if there's a particular school it'd be better for. I'm thiiiiiinking it might have an affinity for psychomancy, actually. So I'm going to try to come up with a low-risk test for that. Maybe a few seconds of happy?"
bitterchill
"Well, I can't do it to you. And wouldn't; you don't seem keen on the idea of people messing with your head, can't imagine why."
imeanforever
"Yes, I just wasn't clear before that the spells could be performed reflexively."
bitterchill
"Ah. Yes, they can. Don't know about the memory wipe, that seems like it might go off in a weird way. And I wouldn't want to test anything bigger than this on myself anyway, not 'til I was sure I had it cold."
imeanforever
"Do you need to be spotted in case something with your reflexive mind magic does go awry?"
bitterchill
"Hm. Yes, please. Rather not melt my brainpan on my first day of freedom."
imeanforever
"I don't know how to stop you from melting your brainpan, but if you were disoriented or something afterwards I could tell you what had happened. If you know how I can stop you from unwanted melting, though, do tell."