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

[or_the_broken]

The man in the circle silently raises his eyebrows.

[alicornucopia]

"You can't co-cast a reversal, oh no, oh no -"

"...I'm going to get expelled," whimpers her roommate.

[or_the_broken]

"What - are you saying you can't send me back at all?" he says, slightly incredulously.

[alicornucopia]

"No - nononono, I'll be able to do it," says Korulen hastily. "It'll just, it'll take a while."

"I'm going to be expelllllled," whines the other.

"Shhh, Saasnil, no you won't, you're backup in case I don't squeak over the CC when I get my familiar, okay? You're not going to be expelled."

[or_the_broken]

"...Define 'a while', please."

[alicornucopia]

"Um, to do it safely, probably a couple of - months. But, but it's okay, I can tell my mom and she can make sure it's safe to let you out, and -"

"Don't tell your mom, what if we think of something else to do - can't we just send him -"

"We can't send anybody who's not native," says Korulen. "But we could send somebody else with messages - or a witch or a light maybe if it's that important to have your job covered - or whatever - my mom will make sure it's as okay as can be I'm sorry -"

"Don't tell her please -"

[or_the_broken]

He homes in on the important information here. "Safe to let me out? Of...?"

[alicornucopia]

"Of the circle. I think I have to tell my mom, we should not have done this, why did I let you talk me into this -"

"I'm sorry," wibbles Saasnil.

[or_the_broken]

"The circle," he repeats. He looks down, tracing the arc of its circumference with his eyes. One hand lifts toward, but does not touch, the invisible barrier in the air over the chalk; he closes his hand and his eyes and drops his arm to his side all in the same moment.

"Assuming you mean I'm literally trapped in here," he says, "then for my health and safety and the health and safety of anyone else nearby, you need to let me out immediately."

[alicornucopia]

"...are you saying you can do something to hurt us through the ward?" asks Korulen slowly.

[or_the_broken]

"I do not know one solitary fucking thing about your ward," he says through gritted teeth. "Please. Let. Me. Out."

[alicornucopia]

"We can't we can't the ward is there for a reason we can't until Mom checks you -"

[or_the_broken]

He loses the battle against temptation, opens his eyes, and feels for a wall.

It's right there in front of him, he can feel the curvature when he slides his hand just a little—

With a choked-off scream, and inhuman force and speed, he lunges at the wall behind him. The fact that he bounces back onto the floor doesn't seem to deter him in the slightest. Nor does the fact that his second attempt breaks all the fingers on his right hand. After that, he's moving too fast too constantly for the extent of the damage to be visible, and the screaming hits maximum volume about half a second in and doesn't get much more informative from there.

[alicornucopia]

Saasnil screams at the top of her lungs.

Korulen gets ahold of her mother.

The door opens and he's promptly doused in industrial-grade calm the fuck down at the command of the green-haired woman on the other side of it.

[or_the_broken]

There is no immediately visible change in either the screaming or the throwing himself at the ward. There is an immediately perceptible spike in how completely and totally off the rails he is under the calm Keo is projecting, but he was already close to the practical limit on the amount of stress his body and mind are capable of experiencing, so it's not as massive a spike as it could have been.

If anyone watching had the visual processing speed necessary to see him clearly, they would notice his movements becoming less desperate and more mechanical over the course of the next few seconds. He stops rebounding all over the inside of the ward and begins concentrating on a single narrow arc facing away from everyone else in the room - then on a single spot within that arc, chest-height on him if he were standing still, if he were capable of standing still right now - and finally, at the end of four or five seconds from the moment Keo started working at him, he ceases screaming abruptly and drops to the floor like a marionette whose strings have just been vaporized.

Most of the bones in his hands, wrists, and forearms are broken at least once each. His feet have fared better only because he was wearing shoes.

[alicornucopia]

"Are you capable of having a conversation?" Keo asks levelly, shooing the girls out of the room. They scamper.

[or_the_broken]

"Debatably," he says. His voice is rather hoarse, but still intelligible. "Nice trick."

[alicornucopia]

"I can get fancier with the mind tricks, if you need fancier and want me to."

[or_the_broken]

"How much fancier?"

[alicornucopia]

"I'll be surprised if you think up something too fancy for me. I can cut out the pain for you, if you want," she adds.

[or_the_broken]

"Mnh. Don't care," he says. "It's useful. Reminds me not to move." And he is indeed hardly moving. "What are the conditions that'll get me let out of here? And optionally some medical care? I can put myself back together from here without help but it'd be a brutal job and I'd rather not have to."

[alicornucopia]

"I have to be convinced that you're not going to be a danger or a liability, at least not more than balances against the inconvenience of looking after while you're in there. I can find that out to my satisfaction with the fancy mind tricks if you like. If I let you out, you can see a light about your injuries; I'd have to check the exact spell the girls used to say whether one will be able to work through this kind of ward or not."

[or_the_broken]

"'Light'?"

[alicornucopia]

"The local state of the art for healing. Magic."

[or_the_broken]

"Sounds convenient. What are your fancy mind tricks going to tell you about my danger levels?"