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

[from_scratch]

"Except you can use it to fly, right? How fast?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"About one and a half, maybe one and three-quarters measures a minute, on a good road." (This is about forty-five miles an hour)

She pivots her head. "Oh, the pattern I made inside the ship is falling behind us after all, just much more slowly."

[from_scratch]

"This suggests that it still cares about the frame of reference of the planet. Mind going higher?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Not at all. But I need to be back in Opri three days from now, so no long journeys, please."

[from_scratch]

"Sure, I won't try that far, I just want to break orbit and see what that does."

Up up up until it's no longer "up" but "away". Italian, meanwhile.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Prepositions and conjugation give Steel some trouble. Vocabulary mostly does not.

When they're far away enough to be clear of any lingering fog, she stares at the closer of the two small moons. "I can tell where the planet is easily from here, it's a circle of bluestream-fog. But if the moons have any, it's incredibly thin."

She makes a few steam-things. "Anything too distant from the ship just... Collapses into fog that spreads out into nothingness immediately. If I go closer, it holds together a little longer. The lightball I made inside the ship is steadily wearing away at the edges, too, but it's not drifting around."

She walks a few feet. "...That completely destroyed the lightball. At home they can last for months before needing shoring up, even if you walk through them all the time."

[from_scratch]

"But it's not falling behind, like we're flying away from it and it can't keep up, it's just disintegrating?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Yeah, it's just disintegrating. And adding to the fog in the ship, which is seeping outside the ship. That stuff outside is really thin but it isn't falling behind either."

[from_scratch]

"Okay. So... close to the planet, magic wants to stay stationary relative to the planet. Farther away from the planet, it wants that harder. Far, far away from the planet, it doesn't realize there is anything to want and sees no reason to behave at all. To anthropomorphize."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I think it more wants to be stationary relative to the largest or nearest-by clump of physical stuff. Like... It seemed like it was trying to be stationary relative to our ship, but that effect lost to the planet's bigness. Can we land on one of the moons?"

[from_scratch]

"Sure." He fiddles with the instrument panel, and descends to the largest moon.

[sturdycoldsteel]

She does some stream on the way down. The moon behaves much like the planet: Once they get reasonably close to it, the stream starts drifting to the reverse of the ship's relative velocity.

Once they land, she builds some more things and glances at them between Italian practice once in a while. "My patterns are holding up better than they did in the middle of nothingness, but not as well as on the planet. This is starting to get tiring, though, I'm done testing things for now. Would you mind making me a nice, hot pastry?"

[from_scratch]

"Are you allergic to anything?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Hm. Not as far as I know, but I don't know all the things you might put in food to be allergic to."

[from_scratch]

"Probably safer if you're more specific so I can copy something you've had before, then. I can deal with an allergic reaction but I'm sure you'd rather I didn't have to."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Indeed. How about a pear shortbread cake, filled with cranberry preserves. Made by 'The Orchard Bakery' at Opri, 382 Echo Street, 4th floor, Suite 3, if you need a specific example."

[from_scratch]

Pear shortbread cake with cranberry appears, complete with paper plate; he hands it over.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Paper. Because it's disposable, right?" She takes a bite. "Ah, tastes like it's fresh from the oven. Thanks ever so. Any new hypotheses on the bluestream?"

[from_scratch]

"Maybe it just likes matter and life separately in different way. Planets and butterflies alike. Moon's smaller than a planet, spaceship is very little compared to either..."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"It seems like it likes sticking to matter, and life makes it. But hey, people have been trying to figure out what the bluestream is for centuries. Even with otherworldly knowledge and a damn spaceship, it's a bit impatient to think you'll figure it out in a day. Incidentally, I'm starting to get tired of not being able to make even little magic things stick around."

[from_scratch]

"Right, back down we go. I can probably find where we took off from, but you might want to help navigate when we're up closer." Up up and away from this moon.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Some of my stuff is still where we took off. Nothing private. You could land us closer to Opri and let someone else find and use it if you don't mind replacing it. Then again, may as well go get it because anywhere near the city will be harder to hide this thing. Where we took off is a fair bit to the west and a little to the north of where a certain canyon splits into two canyons. I'll point out the specific trail I was following when we get lower."

[from_scratch]

"Mm-hm."

Towards and down, down, down.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Italian practice! She speaks Italian (slowly and carefully, to pronounce everything right) when giving final directions.

"There is the Opri-Nel big road. I took a left two road past that house... Then I took the trail that passes the hill that looks like a lumpy pear... A-ha, I see the flat rock I made to test that spell." Point.

[from_scratch]

And Cam lands near the rock. When they have exited the ship, he considers it thoughtfully, then makes a tarp and a layer of sod that blends in with the landscape over it. "That should do for now unless it's obvious in bluestream or something."