trade my soul for a wish

[from_scratch]

This is a successor to "call me maybe", which is getting crowded.

Cam is dipping a grilled cheese sandwich into a bowl of tomato soup when he feels the summons. He goes ahead and grabs it. Doesn't even drop the sandwich.


with Mark (kappa)

with Adanya (Aestrix)

with Sable (kappa)

with Ari (andaisq)

with Metella (kappa)

with Miles (kappa)

with Isabella (Eva)

with Steel (Rockeye)

with Daphne (Maggie)

with Edie (Maggie)

Comments

[sturdycoldsteel]

"We can do scar tissue. We can remove muscles, if we do it carefully, but not put them back. Thanks for the caution."

She takes a piece of paper and four multicolored bottles of ink and telekinetically sketches. It's startlingly detailed for how little time it's taking, though perhaps the magic helps with that.

The end result looks a lot like a cross between a fairy's wings and an angel's. With longer than average, relatively unfluffy angel wings as a base, the feathers are colored vibrantly in a symmetrical rainbow pattern. She has the joints and feather types for each section correct, mostly.

"It'll be great to fly without needing magic to stay up, I suspect. Magic dampens your emotions."

[from_scratch]

"That doesn't sound like any fun," Cam says. "Okay, I can do these - I might have to deviate from your design on the internals here and there to make sure they'll get you in the air, but they'll look like this and handle about how you're expecting. ...Your shirt has a back."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"It can be useful, too. If I'm about to do something I'd regret, I sometimes remember to hover or slightly warm up a cubic mile of rock or something instead. Ah. Yes, it does, and so do my flying leathers. This may have to wait until I find a tailor unless you want to appear clothes for me on top of wings."

[from_scratch]

"I can get you a new shirt," says Cam. "Specs on the new shirt?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Like this one, cut for extra back muscle and wing holes?"

[from_scratch]

"There are front muscles too," Cam says. "Have to anchor the whole thing. It may affect your balance, too - improved mine, but mine was shit to begin with."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I can catch myself with magic by changing the next half-foot into a tiny section of road-magic if I fall. A sort of - clip or button to help getting it on and off over the wings would be nice, though. It won't change my overall shape too much, right? No looking like a barrel or anything."

[from_scratch]

"Nah. I mean, I could do a neater job if I were an angel, but that'd also take a lot longer. You'll maybe need to replace more of your wardrobe but you'll be about the same shape. I was thinking halter top style? Tie it at the small of the back and behind your neck?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"That'll work. I might need new flying leathers for winter, but that can wait. Thank you, by the way."

[from_scratch]

"Hey, no problem." He hands her a new shirt and turns his back, whistling.

[sturdycoldsteel]

She walks down the other side of the slope a ways, and is back a couple of minutes later. "Will it hurt at all?"

[from_scratch]

"Not directly. It'll feel very weird, and if your nocioception is wired atypically it might make you tense up enough to hurt that way. I can sedate you if you're concerned."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Unless your sedatives can wear off in five minutes, I'll take my chances. I am confused about what you might want as payment, since you could just make a mountain of Silver Circles."

[from_scratch]

"I usually work for book recommendations, but I do not need any today. I just plan to be here long enough that this amount of work is nothing compared to your ongoing goodwill, you know? Say when."

[sturdycoldsteel]

She closes her eyes. "When."

[from_scratch]

It feels really, really weird.

The wings appear folded heavy and soft against her back, but she can move them as soon as they appear.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"...Huh. I was watching the bluestream as you did that. I could tell you were doing something, but no further detail than 'something'."

The wings extend. "And this is pretty strange." They flap a couple of times, in a way that does not get much lift. "I like it. Gonna get used to them a little more before trying to fly, though."

[from_scratch]

"Flying might take some work. You can catch yourself if you flub it, I guess."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"But if I catch myself out here I'll get tired and weak, which likely does not make for good flying. I'll wait till there's a road, and I can fly with bluestream if I fuck up doing it with wings. They're very pretty, though, and I'm getting proprioception. Convenient. Thanks again. I've no interest in a tail, though."

[from_scratch]

"Suit yourself." Wag. "I like mine, but they're not universal even in Hell."

[sturdycoldsteel]

She goes back to pacing around her circle, presumably doing magic to the space within it. The wings flare once in a while as she gets used to balancing with them, and accounting for the extra drag on normal movement.

"Are you going to be particularly bored if I finish my experiment before going somewhere less wilderness-y? I predict two, maybe three hours."

[from_scratch]

"Recommend me a book," shrugs Cam. "Actually, recommend me a library, more efficient that way."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Eh. Fiction or non?"

[from_scratch]

"Do separate libraries have those?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"A whole library is a lot of books, and I don't want to be responsible for including things you'd be bored by. Alright, try Opri Grande's main library. It's a university for shapers."