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In Paraasilan, Esmaar, a pair of roommates are about to break a rule that, compared to the one about running in the corridors or even the one about unlicensed teleportation, is there for a good reason.
In unison, they complete their shared spell.
Hall in Elcenia
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"Are you capable of having a conversation?" Keo asks levelly, shooing the girls out of the room. They scamper.
or-the-broken
"Debatably," he says. His voice is rather hoarse, but still intelligible. "Nice trick."
"I can get fancier with the mind tricks, if you need fancier and want me to."
"I'll be surprised if you think up something too fancy for me. I can cut out the pain for you, if you want," she adds.
or-the-broken
"Mnh. Don't care," he says. "It's useful. Reminds me not to move." And he is indeed hardly moving. "What are the conditions that'll get me let out of here? And optionally some medical care? I can put myself back together from here without help but it'd be a brutal job and I'd rather not have to."
"I have to be convinced that you're not going to be a danger or a liability, at least not more than balances against the inconvenience of looking after while you're in there. I can find that out to my satisfaction with the fancy mind tricks if you like. If I let you out, you can see a light about your injuries; I'd have to check the exact spell the girls used to say whether one will be able to work through this kind of ward or not."
"The local state of the art for healing. Magic."
or-the-broken
"Sounds convenient. What are your fancy mind tricks going to tell you about my danger levels?"
"I'm mostly interested in whether you go in for gratuitous lawbreaking that the school will be on the hook for and if you're liable to hurt anyone."
or-the-broken
"No and not likely," he says. "Check that if you want."
He is telling the truth on both counts. He's willing to break laws that interfere with his survival, or that are so pointless and unenforceable it's not worth it to comply, but strongly prefers to avoid trouble otherwise; he has a similar approach to violence, and has been receiving a strong impression that he is far enough away from home not to have to worry about the major threat likely to incite violence from him in the name of survival.
There is the matter of what happens when you lock him in an enclosed space with no way to leave, but that's an extremely specific situation and, as proven here, more likely to hurt him than anyone else. It would be dangerous to enclose him in a ward and then get in there with him; he has worked on this problem enough that, contrary to his overcautious warning to the children, in the heat of the moment when rational decisionmaking is beyond him he will choose escape over causing harm whenever both are available.
He is telling the truth on both counts. He's willing to break laws that interfere with his survival, or that are so pointless and unenforceable it's not worth it to comply, but strongly prefers to avoid trouble otherwise; he has a similar approach to violence, and has been receiving a strong impression that he is far enough away from home not to have to worry about the major threat likely to incite violence from him in the name of survival.
There is the matter of what happens when you lock him in an enclosed space with no way to leave, but that's an extremely specific situation and, as proven here, more likely to hurt him than anyone else. It would be dangerous to enclose him in a ward and then get in there with him; he has worked on this problem enough that, contrary to his overcautious warning to the children, in the heat of the moment when rational decisionmaking is beyond him he will choose escape over causing harm whenever both are available.
"Okay," says Keo, and she smudges the chalk. "I don't know how I'm going to explain you to the light, but she'll treat you anyway. If you'll touch my hand I can teleport you there."
or-the-broken
"Mnh."
That's doable. Not pleasantly, but doable. He moves his hand the absolute minimum amount required to touch hers.
That's doable. Not pleasantly, but doable. He moves his hand the absolute minimum amount required to touch hers.
It's not far. She teleports them to the light office, where there is a light, who is presently all aflutter.
"Oh my goodness! Stars and planets, oh my goodness!" She cups her hands together and makes a bubblegum-pink ball of sparks, which she presses to the nearest available extremity of the visitor.
"Oh my goodness! Stars and planets, oh my goodness!" She cups her hands together and makes a bubblegum-pink ball of sparks, which she presses to the nearest available extremity of the visitor.
or-the-broken
And—all better, just like that.
He smiles and sits up, rolling his shoulders and opening and closing his hands to check functionality.
"Nice trick," he remarks. "The kid mentioned sending somebody like this to cover for my job?"
He smiles and sits up, rolling his shoulders and opening and closing his hands to check functionality.
"Nice trick," he remarks. "The kid mentioned sending somebody like this to cover for my job?"
"...I don't know how feasible that would be, but it's not impossible a volunteer could be found. What's your job exactly?"
or-the-broken
"I fix injured people. Not as efficiently as this, but more efficiently than pretty much anyone else whose job it is to fix injured people."
"And you think your workplace would take pretty well to a light standing in for you while you're here?" asks Keo.
or-the-broken
"They wouldn't handle it well, but they'd handle it. If I'm going to be here for months I'd rather they had an explanation and the explanation might as well come with a stand-in."
"Okay. What's the place like? The easiest way to get ahold of a light to send would be to give a student an extra credit project, but I can't send a student anywhere very dangerous."
"I'm still going to need more detail than that for a permission packet to send home to a family. Also, this isn't a lightcraft school - the student would be getting their educational value out of what amounts to an anthropology assignment about wherever you're from - so there's also a question of how well they'd be able to accomplish that at the same time as picking up your shifts. If the answer is 'not well' I may have to just ask one of the school lights -"
"Oh not me, no," says bubblegum-pink light, "I don't want to go haring off anywhere -"
"The night shift one or the part-time one, maybe, and then replace that position temporarily with a student who happens to be a light. What's your name, by the way?" Keo inquires of the summonee.
"Oh not me, no," says bubblegum-pink light, "I don't want to go haring off anywhere -"
"The night shift one or the part-time one, maybe, and then replace that position temporarily with a student who happens to be a light. What's your name, by the way?" Keo inquires of the summonee.
or-the-broken
"Miroslav Hall," he says. "Dr. Hall. Someone who can do my job this quickly would definitely have time to research whatever their heart desired on the side. And working in a hospital is plenty safe. For that matter - something one of the kids said implied lights don't work on lights? How good is whatever you've got that patches that problem? If you get me some of the equipment my stand-in won't be using, I could help with that. My specialty's injury, not illness, but I'm good at injury. Don't know how useful I'd be, but I'm offering."
"Lights don't work on themselves or each other," says Keo, "so it's possible you'd be useful at a lights' crisis center somewhere."
"Erm," says the bubblegum-pink light. "I'm starting to wonder if your - stand-in - won't need to be a trained light? Five-year-olds can heal but you have to know what you're doing to address anything complicated like objects embedded in a wound or - well, I guess if you deal with injuries and not rehabilitation it wouldn't have to be someone who knows the procedures for scars and stumps and implants and the like. But still. None of the three of us on staff know how to take anything more complicated than a splinter out of a wound."