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]

"All right. It's being handled," she says. "Is there anything else extremely urgent like that?"

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"No. Unpiloted objects and uncontrolled fire are the only really dangerous things I can think of, and I try not to use fire at all. But how is it being handled, exactly?"

[alicornucopia]

"My husband is drawing a sending circle, will be done in less than the described amount of time with plenty of safety margin, and will then - provided it's safe to do so - send me or one of our employees to go and puncture the cells and then be unsent."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Can you fly? Quickly? You'll need to catch it if they can only send you to where it was. And come to think of it cutting open the cells wouldn't be very safe, you might breathe the gas. You should just hold open the valves from the control room instead."

[alicornucopia]

"I can fly," says Keo, "but he can send me where it is now, so I shouldn't need to. He can put me in the control room. May I scan your mind to see which valves you mean, in case a description wouldn't be adequate?"

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Scan my mind? By magic, presumably? How thoroughly?"

[alicornucopia]

"Minimally invasively. I will also want to confirm the story about the runaway ship entire, and determine whether it would be safe to let you out of the circle, but I won't see anything I'm not looking for."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Fine, you can read my mind to confirm the story and find my ship's controls and see that I'm not going to attack anyone. I guess it's reassuring that you're asking for permission. But I'm only agreeing because lives might be in the balance, I wouldn't hold with random mindreading for no good reason if I could stop you."

[alicornucopia]

"If you didn't want to let me we'd have to confirm that your world was safe to visit some other way, and you'd have to stay in that circle, which would get very inconvenient very quickly, but I wouldn't do it without permission." She pauses, then smudges the chalk. The ward vanishes.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I want to have a long conversation about this very interesting world once my ship is safely crashed. But do please make sure nobody's going to die because I was summoned as quickly as possible."

[alicornucopia]

"The circle is in progress," she soothes.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick paces impatiently. He takes off his jacket and gets a better look at his broken glider. "Do I have to do anything in particular to help?"

[alicornucopia]

"No. You're stuck here for the near future. The school is responsible for you; I can put you in a spare room."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I meant to help kill my ship."

[alicornucopia]

"I've learned what I'll need to know, the circle's in progress, and you can't go along," she says. "If you'd rather not down the thing I could pick up from you how to bring it to a stop or anchor it or whatever it is you do, but if you want it killed it's all going to be handled."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"There's no safe long-term solution for me not being there, except downing it. Much as I regret throwing something as valuable as a ship away, it's not worth the risk. I don't suppose you could get my books off it first?"

[alicornucopia]

"I can grab as many as I can carry," she says. "I'll bring a bag."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Great. Thanks. You already know where they are." It's a statement, not a question.

"I'm just going to keep getting more and more nervous, don't mind me. Could I watch the circle-in-progress?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yes. This way. You may want to leave your broken glider."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

He leaves the broken glider and follows her. "Possibly a bad time to ask, but why green hair if you're going to dye it at all?"

[alicornucopia]

"I don't dye it," she says, smiling over her shoulder.

She leads him to a dead-end little room at the far end of the hallway, tells it, "Headmaster's office!" and thereby causes it to lurch to the left, then up.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

He keeps his balance effortlessly despite the lurching. "Yay, magic."

[alicornucopia]

"Don't try the stairs, by the way, they're badly enchanted."

After more lurching the door opens, showing an office where a man who looks like Korulen, down to the crazy ears, is drawing on the floor.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Don't try the stairs? How could badly enchanted stairs possibly be worse than trying to climb up the outside of the building or something?"

[alicornucopia]

"They'll trap you until someone magics you out," says the green-haired lady. "I'm not saying you should scale the building, just stick with the lifts. This is my husband Kanaat, by the way. And I'm Keo."