cooperation

[alicornucopia]

Two girls are moving their hands through the air and speaking together in perfect parallel.

Two girls are looking expectantly at a circle of red chalk on their floor.

Two girls have done something exceptionally stupid.

with Harry (andaisq)

with Isabella (Eva)

with Arcane (kappa)

with Miles (kappa)

with Nick (Rockeye)

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"He isn't, exactly. We're mindlinked," she says. "It's among my abilities. Another thing I can do with them is determine if it's safe to let you out of the circle, with your permission to perform a minimally invasive scan."

[andaisq]

At the mention of scanning he reflexively crawls as far away from her as he can within the confines of the circle. Minimally invasive sounds... vaguely promising, though. And he's getting sick of this circle.

"How minimally?" he asks, instead of "Get the hell away from me with your creepy psychic god-magic."

[alicornucopia]

"All I need to know is if you're liable to be violent or lawbreaking in a way that is more inconvenient to deal with than keeping you in this circle is likely to be. I can leave everything irrelevant to those questions completely alone."

[andaisq]

"That sounds all right," he allows. And it's not like there's a chance in Hell I could stop her, he adds mentally. He's pretty sure he's not violent or lawbreaking enough to cause significant trouble unless trouble is caused to him first.

[alicornucopia]

"This won't feel like anything. Just relax," she advises.

It doesn't feel like anything.

She steps forward and smudges the chalk line. "There you go. Unfortunately, we can't send you home yet, but you don't have to stay in the circle."

[andaisq]

"Well, thanks anyway," he says. With a glance down at his state of attire, he adds, "There any chance I could get some clothes? Preferably the clothes that I own?"

[alicornucopia]

"We can summon belongings, send things, even summon other people and then send them back - it's only you who's stuck," she says. "Let's get out of this particular room, first, though. Please maintain a hold on your towel. There are a lot of teenage girls on this hall."

Kanaat opens the door.

[andaisq]

Holding onto his towel is, at the moment, Harry's number one priority. He will guard this towel with his life. (Public nudity is a thing that happens to him, on a distressingly frequent basis, but he'd rather not make a hobby of it. Especially not with teenage girls involved.)

"So, I can say goodbye, or whatever I need to say, in person? That's... that's good. Thank you." Saying goodbye with a heartfelt letter was never going to sit well with him. Saying goodbye at all doesn't sit well with him, but there are ways and ways. Plus, if he ever gets back and he did just send a letter, Murphy would probably punch him. And it'd hurt.

[alicornucopia]

"I recommend sending letters first so that whoever we summon for you doesn't appear while they were in the middle of something," says Green Lady. "But yes. Also, you shouldn't expect to be stuck here forever. When Korulen has bound a familiar she will probably have enough channeling capacity to send you back without having to co-cast."

[andaisq]

Harry reddens slightly at the thought of inadvertently catching Karrin the same way they got him. Or, for that matter, Michael. "Yes, letters, good policy. Warnings to not be naked for a while."

He doesn't respond to her second point. He's long since learned that Murphy's Law is not just a suggestion. And he's a bit worried that by the time he gets back, it might not be a world he wants to live in. He's not bigheaded or anything, but it doesn't escape his notice that he's personally stopped the apocalypse four or five times in the past seven years.

[alicornucopia]

"Exactly."

At the end of the hall is a closet. Green Lady, her accessory, and Harry - assuming he obeys her gestured suggestion - enter this closet.

[andaisq]

Harry raises an eyebrow (or something like that - he's working on the expression, okay), but follows her in on the assumption that the closet is more than it appears. If she's going to store him in the supply cupboard, he reserves the right to be confused and irritated.

[alicornucopia]

There isn't any evidence of supply storage in the closet.

"Headmaster's office," she says, and it moves. Sideways.

[andaisq]

Harry lurches a bit, but takes it in his stride. "Is this technological, or do you just have enough magic lying around that you can be hilariously excessive with your enchanted items?"

[alicornucopia]

"The lift is magical," she says. "What's your name? I'm Keo and this is my husband Kanaat."

[andaisq]

"I'm Harry, nice to meet you," he responds. "You really weren't kidding about that "minimally invasive" thing, huh." He appreciates that. Unless this exchange was just to throw him off guard, but he's not dealing with Mab, here; he can afford to be slightly charitable with his assumptions.

[alicornucopia]

"Your name wasn't attached to any of my questions," she says.

The lift starts going down. Then forwards. Then up.

[andaisq]

Harry leans against the closet wall and enjoys the ride. It's been a while since he was on a rollercoaster or anything. Inertia is fun!

A thought strikes him. "So, how advanced is your technology here? Because wizards kind of mess up anything past the invention of the steam engine, and I'd rather not break all your stuff, you seem like nice people."

[alicornucopia]

"Well, I don't know what a steam engine is, if that answers your question," says Keo.

The lift comes to a halt and opens on an office with a lot of bookhelves and a desk and some chairs. Kanaat heads for the bookshelves and looks for a book.

[andaisq]

"That's reassuring."

Harry finds a chair and weighs the benefit of sitting down against potentially offending the dragony goddess woman by getting her chair wet. He eventually decides that he's tired enough that he doesn't care if she decides to smite him. As usual.

[alicornucopia]

She doesn't protest about the chair. She rummages in the desk and comes up with square paper and a stick of graphite (there's a rubber grip on it, but it's not wrapped in wood like a pencil). "For your letters," she says.

[andaisq]

"Thanks." He takes the stick and the paper and starts writing.

After a few minutes, he writes out a letter in a cramped, spidery hand, then folds it up and writes "KARRIN, READ THIS" at the top. "Can she respond?" he asks.

[alicornucopia]

"We can summon the paper back again after sending it. Leave room," suggests Keo.

Kanaat has found what he's looking for and is now drawing on the floor.

[andaisq]

Harry nods, then adds "Respond on back" to the note. He reconsiders, takes another sheet, folds it into the first, and scratches out "back" to replace it with "sheet attached". "Okay, I think we're good."

[alicornucopia]

"Did you give her a time constraint on writing back?" Keo asks. "We need to either know when to summon the letter back, or scry on her to find out, and the latter has several disadvantages."