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]

"Maybe it is from a world of box people," says the younger girl. "But try convincing Nemaar of that."

"Maybe. I don't know. Maybe it's dangerous and wants to trick us into breaking the ward, the book was crawling with warnings about how you never break the ward, blah blah. But I don't really feel like breaking the ward so that'd be a weird sort of trick."

[cardistry]

...hm. Ward? What's that supposed to mean, exactly? It doesn't seem to match the concepts he's familiar with. He listens some more, with what attention he can spare from the struggle.

[alicornucopia]

"Hey box person," pipes up the younger girl, "no way you're getting out of the circle, but we'll send you home soon as we can show Nemaar what we want to show him."

[cardistry]

No way he's—? Fuck that. He tries a teleport, destination: anywhere else.

It doesn't work.

The next step will kind of complicate his inanimate object impression, but right now he's a little too freaked out to care: he deploys his spell diagram, rainbow-hued counter-rotating five-pointed figures inscribed in concentric circles, and tries a dimensional transfer.

That doesn't work either.

A glint of light flashes rapidly along one of his upward-facing edges in an involuntary expression of dismay. The spell diagram fades.

[alicornucopia]

"Well, it's doing something," muses the older girl. "I dunno what though. And I don't know why, and even if we could get to do it whenever, it probably wouldn't convince Nemaar."

"It was pretty, whatever it was," says the younger.

[cardistry]

Brilliance is deeply worried. Which means he has to spend another few seconds getting ahold of himself. But—fuck, do they even know what they've done? It really doesn't look like it.

[alicornucopia]

"It was," agrees the older girl.

"So now what?" asks the younger.

"I dunno. Let it sit another degree, I guess, we'll have time to try it again even if we don't catch Nemaar right after he comes out of class."

[cardistry]

No. No. Definitely not. No. No way could he handle being left here, trapped—

"You have to send me back," says the box, in perfectly fluent Leraal and an urgent, strained voice. "Right now."

[alicornucopia]

"...Why?" asks the younger girl.

[cardistry]

"I can't— I hate being trapped," he says, and he means it to be the beginning of an explanation, but instead what comes out next is "I can't stand it I can't stand it Ican'tstandit—" scaling up into a wordless wail.

[alicornucopia]

The girls are momentarily stunned into silence, and then the older one says, "I should have known this was a bad idea - okay, shush, we have to be able to hear each other when we co-" She stops.

"Korulen?" asks the younger.

"...co-cast the reversal. You can't co-cast a reversal. I should have known this was a bad idea, this was such a bad idea."

[cardistry]

Brilliance manages to stop screaming around when Korulen trails off midsentence. He doesn't say anything else immediately, because he is trying very very hard not to freak out in any destructive ways.

[alicornucopia]

"What do we do?" exclaims the younger girl. "We don't have the CC to do it alone, even you, what do we do, what do we do, do we just let it out -"

"No - no - I think I have to tell my parents," says Korulen, sounding wretched.

"I'll get expelled," whimpers her roommate.

[cardistry]

"Let me out, please let me out," he says desperately, "I'll go far away and I won't come back, just let me out—" He cuts himself off before he can start screaming again, but little gleams of panicked light skate along his edges, faster and faster.

[alicornucopia]

"We can't we can't we can't Saasnil don't touch the chalk, I'll get Mom -"

"We're in soooo much trouble," whimpers Saasnil.

And a moment later, the door opens, and there is a green-haired but otherwise human-looking woman there, looking alarmed and severe.

[cardistry]

"Please let me out," says an extremely agitated Brilliance.

[alicornucopia]

"I can only do that if you aren't dangerous," says the woman. "May I check? I'll see nothing else."

[cardistry]

"I'm a lot more dangerous in here than I would be a couple worlds away!" he says, just barely this side of terrified yelling.

[alicornucopia]

There is a press of - enforced calm, smoothing over Brilliance's emotional world.

"I cannot let you out without checking. May I check?"

[cardistry]

"Don't - whatever you're doing - don't do that - don't mess with my mind," he says, calmer but still under significant strain, "I have seriously had enough of people messing with my mind - check whatever the hell you want to as long as it gets me out of here."

[alicornucopia]

The calm dissipates.

Whatever else she's doing isn't visible.

"Not safe," she concludes. "Unless you'll let me fix your - mental accessory."

[cardistry]

The tail end of the enormous freakout he was being prevented from having about her mental meddling flares, then fades. Brilliance remains in control of himself; he even calms down a little, relative to before she empathed him.

"Mental accessory?" he says incredulously. "Is that what you're calling it?"

[alicornucopia]

"I was being minimally invasive. I didn't look into what you'd call it. I can turn it off if you want to let me."

[cardistry]

"...what, just like that? Seriously? How?"

[alicornucopia]

"She's Keo," says Saasnil.

"I can do a lot of things," says Keo levelly. "Yes, just like that."