cooperation | Glowfic Constellation

kaolinandbone

Feels exactly the same. My tentative hypothesis at this point is that spirits don't exist here, which ought to be impossible, but you people live on a cube and have only half a moon, so...

It's not thick enough to be a cube. Is your moon spherical?

kaolinandbone

It's close enough that it doesn't make much of a difference. Hm. If thresholds don't exist here, then... It might be possible for me to be out in real sunlight.

Isabella's thought-voice drops out for almost a degree.

Would you care to drop in and manipulate the curtain on my window for me so I can see if your sun hates me as much as my local one?

Saasnil will come by and do that for you in a moment.

A bit later, the door opens and the younger summoner tiptoes sheepishly in.

kaolinandbone

Isabella waves. "Hello there." She takes a moment to fix in her mind that Sassnil is apparently this particular young woman, rather than the other one. "Would you mind getting the curtains for me?" She slings her parasol over her shoulder, opening it with the same motion, then twirls it, the pink petals dappled on the paper swirling prettily.

Saasnil nods and goes around the circle, to the window, and draws the curtains open.

kaolinandbone

Isabella looks at Saasnil and bites her lip. "If this goes badly, I could be on fire soon. Would you arrange to have a bucket of water ready to send?"

"Uh - yeah. Korulen's at the circle, I'll tell Keo to tell her."

kaolinandbone

Isabella nods. "Don't worry, I wouldn't do this if I thought I was likely to really seriously harm myself. I've gotten used to being on fire."

She tilts her head. "That is really a sad truth to have to say out loud. Anyway, feel free to look away: I am about to stick the back of my hand in this beam of sunlight and see if I start to spontaneously combust. Whenever you have water ready, of course. Just in case."

She waits for Keo's relay. Massively powerful telepathic dragons are also rather convenient when they're not being unsettling and intimidating.

Bucket ready.

kaolinandbone

Isabella winches in anticipation, and thrusts her hand into the beam of sunlight.

Absolutely nothing happens.

Isabella keeps her hand there for a long moment, just to make sure.

More nothing happens.

"... It would appear that your local sunlight does not burn me."

Isabella sits down in her chair. She looks a bit overwhelmed.

"It burns local vampires," says Saasnil. "Unless they have a spell on, or clothes."

kaolinandbone

"Well, apparently the reason I get set on fire is different from the reason your local vampires get set on fire."

Isabella's eyes are rather far away at the moment.

"Do... you need anything else?" asks Saasnil.

kaolinandbone

"I need your scary dragon lady of a mother to Geas me as soon as possible so I can get out of this circle and be in the sun, did you realize I have never been out on a really properly sunny day for decades?

"Keo's Korulen's mom, not mine," says Saasnil. "But I'll tell her you want her, anyway."

And Saasnil walks out of the room and Keo teleports into it.

kaolinandbone

Isabella rubs her head sheepishly. "Uh, tell Sassnil I'm sorry for confusing her with her... Friend. I'm usually better with names and faces than this, but..." She shrugs.

"Anyway. I can go and walk in the sun in this world and it will not kill me. This is worth having psychic surgery done to me for, especially since you seem to be a trustworthy sort of person."

"All right. How much do you want to know about it before I do it?"

kaolinandbone

Isabella closes her eyes. Her fingernails dig into her palms, and for a brief moment they seem sharper.

Then she lets out a breath and sits back down in her chair.

"Good question. Being in a state of intense desire is probably not the best time for a doctor's consultation regarding psychic surgery."

She opens her eyes again.

"Okay, one: how long does this sort of thing take. Two, are there any significant risks. Three, how assuredly and quickly can you reverse it?"

"It'll take me less than a degree once I start unless your mind works in some very unexpected ways. I do not have psychic accidents, but if I find something I don't understand it could interact in a way I'm not expecting. I will be able to completely undo whatever I do, and I was also planning for the entire thing to snap on its own upon your return home in a loosely hypnotic fashion."

kaolinandbone

Isabella gets up, then realizes there's no room to pace and sits back down again. "Alright, okay. What sort of things are you likely to ban me from doing?"

"Biting people, exerting your own mental influence on anyone, performing your 'sorcery' on any person who doesn't know what they're doing and agree to it, committing things legally defined as assault in general."

kaolinandbone

"Do I get a self-defense clause? There do exist things and people in this universe capable of killing me if they attempted to, and I'd prefer not to die stupidly because I was incapable of fighting back. Or, for that matter, dominating them and thereby stopping them from hurting me without having to risk physically injuring them."

"There's some flex around self-defense. You're very unlikely to be attacked, if you stay within the country and don't harass people, but if it happens you can fight back if escape is implausible. You can also ping me for help, of course, I don't have a range limit."

kaolinandbone