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There is a vast field of rock broken up by occasional piles of detritus and heaps of trash. There are mountains of it, and the smell is correspondingly vile. Most of what's left seems to be rusting metal, glass, and something weird and shiny and flexible.
Magic in the world-sized trash heap
(Off in the distance, towering vastly, vastly over the horizon, is a titanic city that fades into the clouds. It looks like it's literally flying. Small shapes float around it, and a little speck of dust that is actually a forty ton load of trash falls from some part of it, lazily crawling towards the surface like a raindrop on glass. There is a distant, dull roar from the city, all the mingled noise of machinery made indistinguishable by distance.)
There is a group of children picking over one of the nearby piles. This one, for example, is currently carefully taking apart a microwave for the touch-sensitive buttons, circuit boards controlling the timing, the little motor, door sensor switches, and of course the magnetron.
strand_of_the_weave
A woman appears just above one of the piles and falls onto the unstable pile dislodging some of it before catching herself with her flight magic. She's wearing a floral print blouse made of a thick but also very fine fabric and a pair of darker pants made of what looks to be the same material as well as a pair of thin black shoes that come up high enough that there's no skin visible around her ankles. A moment of thought cleans any bits of trash that stuck to her off her clothes. A quick check of the atmosphere has her keep up an air filter even as she drops the full atmospheric shield.
She takes a brief look around for anyone nearby and spots the children down below.
strand_of_the_weave
The gun probably isn't an issue but she hasn't checked for exotics so she can't discount it. Should she do that now? Probably. Are there any exotic materials or forces operating within a twenty meters of her outside of people's bodies? With a particular focus on that gun.
Yeah, bits of their equipment have faint glimmers of exotic material, including the gun's scope but not the main body or ammo.
strand_of_the_weave
Interesting. She makes sure her hands are visible and doesn't go directly towards them as she makes her way down. She considers doing an elven grace routine but that has a decent chance of looking uncanny instead of graceful so she just flies. She sets herself down a good ten meters away from them. "Hello," she calls knowing they almost certainly won't understand her.
She issues an authoritative sounding command and presses a button on a device on her belt.
strand_of_the_weave
She smiles and waves back. She will not approach them it seems like their leader sees her as a threat and she has time so she'll be patient. Are there any signs of what the exotics are doing? Are they having effects on the electromagnetic field or the kinetic properties of what they're a part of?
Looks like it's mostly kinetic; The exotic parts are tougher than they should be. They will hold up to heat better, too.
Would she like to see this glass marble with a flower inside it that he thinks is really cool?
(The leader says something exasperated to him, but he makes a sort of 'it's fine' gesture. Or possibly 'if she's going to hurt someone let it be me'.)
strand_of_the_weave
Ah, she probably doesn't need to worry then. Only probably though. She smiles again at the marble. These seem like bad conditions so it's a very promising sign that they still take the time to savor beauty.
How do so this next part without scaring them? It might just not be possible but she has to at least try she conjures a small illusion of the two of them. For the moment she'll just have both images stand still and gauge his reaction.
Ooh, it's like a projector!
(A truck rumbles into view around a distant trash pile, heading in this direction.)
strand_of_the_weave
She'll ignore it for the moment if he does. She shows the two of them saying things and then shaking their heads and a couple other gestures to mime confusion. Then she shows them with clasped hands and a bit of a lights show, then the two of them holding a piece of metal together for a few seconds and then them talking and nodding and smiling at each other.
They all glance at it and seem a bit relieved, actually.
Her illusion prompts some conversation between the urchins. And, eventually, a reluctant head-shake; No thanks.
strand_of_the_weave
Well that was probably too much to hope for. She closes her current illusion and shows two more. One is of her walking with the urchins and the other is of the her walking the opposite direction from them. She sets them both to replay on a loop.
They point at the truck, which is still pulling up to a stop.
(Truck has a good bit more exotics in it, along the same theme.)
It sounds like this person getting out of the truck wants to know whats going on!
The urchins treat them like a trusted authority figure.
strand_of_the_weave
Well then, maybe she misunderstood. She'll stop a good few steps back from the new arrival, close enough for easy conversation but not getting into their space.