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

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I've been to towns that ban fire, or ban alcohol or something, but there's always a good reason. Fires can get out of hand really fast, and it's a lot easier to fall off if you're drunk. Unless using magic, like, rots your brain or something it seems a lot more dangerous to not have it, right?"

[alicornucopia]

"It doesn't rot our brains," Korulen says, almost indignant. "It's against their religion, is the trouble."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Religion, huh. Those are troublesome. I never saw the point myself."

[alicornucopia]

"Me either," shrugs Korulen, "but lots of people do, and the one in Ryganaav in particular bans magic, and being a nonhuman too."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"...They kill nonhumans? And nonhumans from other countries put up with this?"

[alicornucopia]

"There are practically no non-humans there, anymore," Korulen says. "I think there are some leonines still, but the leonines will use magic - anyway, we take refugees, anyone who approaches the border and wants in."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Yup, Ryganaav sounds pretty terrible. I'm not sure if it's comforting or not that this world isn't necessarily safer than mine everywhere."

[alicornucopia]

"It's nice here though."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Well, apart from that place does most of the world live in relative safety and abundance? I think it would be a terrible shame if there were just one or two cities with all the shiny magic, and everyone else had to scrabble in the dirt to survive. Esmaar takes refugees, you said, so, probably?"

[alicornucopia]

"Erubia doesn't allow wizardry, I think witchcraft too, but they'll allow other kinds of magic so it's not that bad - less convenient but at least they have lights. And yeah, it's really easy to immigrate to Esmaar most of the time once you get here. And there are some private charities that help with getting here."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Good, good. Say, how many people live in Esmaar? And how many in the rest of Elcenia? Cloudbank is too spread out to get a good estimate, but it's probably something like two to five million people over the whole world."

[alicornucopia]

"Um, I remember the world has like... ten billion people? Something like that. Esmaar I don't remember exactly, maybe a couple hundred million. We have plenty of people our size but not that many fey, they like places that get more rain - having a lot of fey will drive up a population fast because they're little."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick stops walking.

[alicornucopia]

"Your world sounds really tiny. This city has a couple million people."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

He shakes his head. "My world's not tiny, or at least I don't think so. It's just more than 99% uninhabitable. You can't live on the solid land in my world, it's hotter than an oven down there and the air is poisonous. So everyone has to live dozens of klicks above it on piles of this sort of - floating rock. Here, I have some in my pocket."

He produces the rock. It floats upward when he lets it go, moving sideways in the breeze until he catches it. "That isn't magic, by the way. It floats on air by being lighter than it, the same way things float on water."

[alicornucopia]

"Weird," says Korulen. "I wonder where it would go if it just kept floating until it was out of the range of the planet's down-magic."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"...Down-magic. Does air get thinner as you go up? If so, it'll stop when the air is thin enough. I think it would just keep going if the air is the same all the way up, though."

[alicornucopia]

"The air's the same everywhere," says Korulen.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I think I need to find a physics textbook."

[alicornucopia]

Korulen looks puzzled, insofar as it is possible to read facial expressions on a toothy lizard face.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Or a magic textbook. One or the other. Because I give up trying to understand how this place works, everything I've seen so far you explain is because magic."

They're getting close to the school now.

[alicornucopia]

"I mean, it's a school, there's lots of textbooks."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Then it's a good place for me to spend the rest of the day. My glider's still in your room, what's left of it anyway. Could we go get it from yours and then drop everything off in mine?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yeah, sure."

Korulen even in dragon form is small enough to fit through doors, and the lift it voice operated, so she just stays like that to avoid carrying his bags until they get to his room. Then she shifts and puts everything on the floor.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Have a nice day. Be careful with magic." Nick looks around. Does the room contain a flat surface other than the floor large enough to lay out his glider on?