chalk

[alicornucopia]

In Paraasilan, Esmaar, a pair of roommates are about to break a rule that, compared to the one about running in the corridors or even the one about unlicensed teleportation, is there for a good reason.

In unison, they complete their shared spell.

~~~

with Adarin (Aestrix)

with Ekador (kappa)

with Brilliance (kappa)

with the admin (kappa)

with Teah (kappa)

with Katran (lambda)

with Hall (kappa)

with Joy (kappa)

with Kalinda (Christy Hotwater)

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"Right then."

When Leekath detaches, Kaylo gets up and leaves. She sits down, listening intently.

[cardistry]

"What are you hearing?" he asks.

Currently it's physical specs - his dormant form is a box of such-and-such dimensions, bearing the Bicycle logo in red and blue, containing fifty-four cards including one ace of spades, one ace of clubs, one ace of hearts, one ace of diamonds...

[alicornucopia]

"You can be a box this big," she gestures, "with cards that aren't like local cards, in it, when you're dormant, but you could change the details of what it looks like..."

[cardistry]

"Soooo you're not crazy," he says. "Why's Kaylo think you're crazy?"

[alicornucopia]

"Everyone thinks I'm crazy. Me and all the other hearers."

[cardistry]

"Aren't there things where you could just show them? I guess not everybody walks around with their alternate form specs hanging out, but still... it's just weird, that other guy was so insistent, he even got mad about it, but he's totally blatantly wrong. I mean, I guess there's a chance you were just spying on me earlier. I dunno, tell me something else."

[alicornucopia]

"Well, I think a lot of us do go crazy," says Leekath frankly. "Your name is whatever word means 'brilliance' in the language you're speaking and you can do them all even Draconic as a native feature of being your kind of thing and you picked it yourself and you can also be a staff that's shaped like this -" She wavers a hand through the air in the correct curve.

[cardistry]

"Yeah, you're totally reading my specs," he says. "That's weird. I wonder if that guy will write me off if I tell him he's wrong about the hearing thing. He was kinda fun to talk to about magic stuff. I guess this is magic stuff, I don't know what else it could be."

[alicornucopia]

"It is. I don't know if Kaylo in particular is convinceable. I haven't tried very hard with him."

[cardistry]

"Well," shrugs Brilliance, "guess I'll find out if it comes up. But okay, what's the draw of reading my specs? Is it just that I'm made of weird new magic, or what?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yes. And you're also the only person I've ever been able to hear. It only works with things, usually."

[cardistry]

"I'm a magical Device. Guess that counts. So how's it work? What languages does the me-voice speak? Does it just kind of ramble about me in no particular order or is it organized somehow?"

[alicornucopia]

"All hhikiiias talk in vampire. It does exactly the rambling unless I ask questions."

[cardistry]

"You can ask questions? Like what?"

[alicornucopia]

"I'm not sure what to ask. I've never been listening to a person before. I don't know if I can - read your mind or what."

[cardistry]

Brilliance contemplates this prospect. "That would be an extra helping of weird on top of the weird that's already going on."

He nibbles up some more food, randomly chosen from his selection. Leekath probably won't need magical powers to tell that this pleases him immensely.

[alicornucopia]

"It would," agrees Leekath. She tilts her head. "You're turning all the food into magical energy. That's interesting."

[cardistry]

"Yep! Not a lot of magical energy, but whatever, it's not like that's why I'm doing it."

[alicornucopia]

She nods.

[cardistry]

A thought occurs to him. "If it's all in vampire, you're not getting much specialized vocabulary - can it tell you how much magical energy I check out at? What units does it use if it can?"

[alicornucopia]

"Hmm?" Pause. "It's - well, the voice I hear is in vampire, but I get more information than is really in the words. I know how much but I don't have a number or units."

[cardistry]

"Huh. Okay, what other scary stuff are you getting?"

[alicornucopia]

"It's still coming in all linear, I don't know everything instantly. You were made by a group of people, eight of whom were involved magically - I don't know who else might have been helping them because they didn't leave the kind of imprint on you the hhikiiia is talking about now - you really like ice cream..."

[cardistry]

"I do really like ice cream, that's definitely true. I really like most food, I've only started having it today, it's an experience."

[alicornucopia]

"You don't need food, or air, or a specific temperature - I don't think I'm mostly going to be finding anything that's news to you unless you tell me what to ask."