alicornutopia

To the MP, when he realizes the connection and investigates: Ask Aaeeihhyleekatheeei. She's met me. I just didn't know I was me at the time.

He investigates empathic signatures, and tells Keo: They need a place and I don't have a place. Same reason you can't talk to the wizarding reservoir. It's possible I could give myself one but I have no way to know it wouldn't wreck me somehow.

The tea can be sped up a bit - no good things to be done about stage fright - the miracle can have some luck - the boy in Drast can have his very own flying-potted chocolate vine - the priestess he decides not to interfere with - the witch gets a rainbow-sparkle-delivered stack of potion recipe books with bookmarks highlighting things that sell well and don't depend on solved problems - the wolfrider's elk will have perfect bones - that arvi and in fact that arvi's entire species can have a luck-blessing for avoiding predation.

The MP is bewildered, but he calls his daughter.

Keo gives up. She goes to order a case of nutrition potions suitable for feeding to an unconscious person.

The chocolate plant is very pleasing to its recipient. The witch is offended.

Farmer's daughter in Orzon doesn't want the chickens to attack her when she goes after their eggs - lady in Erubia wants revenge on her ex - a beneficiary in Ryganaav of the freely-available-sex-change magic wants to pass for some out-of-town born-that-way man in the new part of Pridetaal he has run away to and if it's not too much trouble wants a way to see his sisters again someday - a mother in Saraan wants her son to quit taking so many drugs - a teenager in Nirlan wishes her parents gave a shit that she is taking so many drugs - a theatergoer in Pra Verian wants the pretty dancer to look at him - a guy in Aveha wants to skip the part where he fights with his girlfriend and go straight to the makeup sex - a florist in Mistal wants the roses to stop pricking her -

Luck for the farmer - nothing for the vengeful ex -

The man in Ryganaav gets the offer of a camel, a beard, some new clothes, and a talent for languages that will let him flawlessly mimic any accent he likes. And a whispered message: "I am Kindness. I can't be everywhere at once, but if you ask me to help you find your sisters someday, and I hear you, I will."

The mother's son in Saraan doesn't have a problem worth solving - the teenager in Nirlan definitely does: she can have the choice of whether to become completely unaffected by her problem substances, without withdrawal, or have it arranged that her parents will certainly notice - skip, skip - the florist now has the magical property that plants cannot harm her, whether with their sharp parts or otherwise.

The Ryganaavlan fellow takes what he's offered and whispers thanks. The Nirlani girl takes the bailout and chucks her paraphenalia and goes for a run. The florist doesn't notice right away.

Thiies has gotten ahold of Leekath and she's telling him what she knows, which is less than he'd like but more than he had a couple degrees ago.

A little miracle whose parents have not shown up in a timely fashion wants her favorite tutor from the house to adopt her. A sprite in Corenta wants lots of nectar for her hive. A dragon who's just had his two thousandth birthday party wants not to have the prospect of unexpectedly dropping dead at any moment hanging over his head. An arvi wants Grandfather to come visit soon. A boy in Tava wishes he wasn't allergic to peanuts. A girl in Pra Verian thinks wolves are beautiful and wishes there was a domesticated version.

The little miracle's situation looks complicated - the sprite gets luck -

What the hell is with this fucking species?

He investigates. He determines that the reason why dragons unexpectedly drop dead is that they leak all their damn magic after a while. He decides that when that happens in future, the dragon in question is going to replace it as fast as it goes, acquire a faint miracle-swirl pattern on their scales in the process, and stop growing at that point so they don't eventually get bigger than the planet. He notifies the birthday dragon and the dragon council - and Keo, why not - that draconic death by old age has been solved, signed, Teah; there are enough of his little flying notes flapping around now that he takes the opportunity to make sure all of them can be asked to sit down and shut up by their intended recipients.

The arvi's Grandfather - hah. The arvi's Grandfather gets a little flying note telling him that his small fuzzy friends miss him, signed, Teah. The boy in Tava ceases to be allergic to peanuts and is notified in writing. The girl in Pra Verian - do dogs just not exist here? Dogs just don't exist here, apparently. The girl in Pra Verian gets a rainbow-sparkle-delivered book of pictures of dogs, with a short introduction explaining that they exist in another world.

Back to the little miracle: she's talked to the tutor, but he wanted to wait a while longer for her parents. Where are the parents? Sex marathon. And what did it look like when they sent little Shirra's egg away? Because if it looked like the last pair, he's not even going to bother interrupting them.

The dragon council, as a matter of policy, consists entirely of dragons who are over two thousand years old. They are now inclined to take his notes at face value so they immediately start arguing about whether to institute term limits or something instead of just having turnover whenever somebody kicks it or resigns.

The arvi's Grandfather is at work. He reads the note and immediately snatches it out of the air and shreds it, embarrassed, worried that somebody might have seen it.

The Tavan boy goes out and buys peanut ice cream.

The girl wants a puppy, now. One of that kind. (She is pointing at the Shetland sheepdog.)

Shirra's parents laid a two-egg clutch. When they observed that one of the eggs was striped:

"We can't keep it. The other one - and your sister would go out of her mind about it, with her little one -"

"And we live in a city. We can't move, not with your job."

"Petar house is closest."

"Do they get visitors...?"

"When I was a hatchling I stowed away in my parents' luggage to see where they were going when they traveled. If the other one lives, if she's like that..."

"Right. Right."

(Shirra's clutchmate is alive, looks exactly like her, and is having a sleepover with a school friend.)

Edited 2014-05-07 21:34 (UTC)

Little Shirra's parents get a flying note: Sorry to interrupt, but you might want to catch up with the news from the dragon council. -Teah

Little Shirra gets one too: Your parents haven't heard about the miracles yet. They might want to come get you when they do. -Teah

The girl who wants a puppy can have the choice between one that is properly biological with all attendant complications, and one that is magic.

Shirra's parents are alarmed! This is kind of a mood-killer! But okay, if it's all that important, they will contact a line rep.

Magic puppy. Like, duh.

Magic puppy! It's terribly fluffy and soft. And it looooves her.

Back to the recently resurrected in Reverni, now that he's not talking to anyone and remembers them again - he can bring more people back if they're still asking.

They haven't let up; they keep encouraging each other when one of them is inclined to give up.

They want a whole list, something like a dozen in total, but at least it's all in one group - he grabs onto a prayer, makes sure of his count, appears them a note that says Resurrection takes time; I'm working on it now in the local language but signed Teah in Draconic, and dives into the past.

Something like five degrees later, they can have the entire parade of requested spouses and relatives, appearing in one long coiling swirl of mist. And now he'd better check on the rest of the world.

And now they are all happy. The first wisher is a dragon; she reads the name and understands what it means.

A woman in Baveria doesn't want to be pregnant anymore. Narax has managed to get to his wife and rather than continue to argue with the hospital staff he has teleported her to his house in Imilaat, where they are kissing. A boy in Mekand who is not of a flying species wishes to be able to fly. A pixie in Orzon could use a CC boost. Shirra's parents have got ahold of his line rep and heard the news and are currently flying to Corenta. A lady in Rannde wishes it would stop raining.

The woman in Baveria gets the choice of whether or not to cease being pregnant. The boy in Mekand can have wings, Snitchlike in their spare design and ability to lift a weight far greater than their surface area should allow, able to fold up neatly and comfortably to fit beneath clothing. The pixie can have the reservoir's attention. The rain in Rannde can be gently shooed.

The pregnant lady ceases. The boy swoops into the air.

A girl in Larotia wants to get to her music lesson on time. A man in Aveha wishes he hadn't screwed up in his knitting project a hundred rows ago. A lady in Mekand wants a pretty dress for an upcoming party. An old woman in Mryne wishes her singing voice was as good as it was when she was young. A zoologist in Ebrene wants to find one of those butterflies her friend said he saw that doesn't correspond to any known species. A boy in Imminthal wishes there weren't too many jellyfish around to go swimming. A man in Imilaat wishes people would stop closing the main street to have parades when he has places to be.

The girl in Larotia will get to her music lesson on time, courtesy of a rainbow-sparkling teleportation. The man's knitting fixes itself, glimmering with coloured lights. The lady in Mekand receives, after he spends a moment getting to know local fashion and her taste, the dress of her dreams. The old woman receives a solid health blessing and particular attention to rejuvenating her voice. The zoologist can have a little mechanical butterfly, closely resembling the species in question, that 'knows' where nearby members are and will happily lead her to them. The jellyfish are called away on urgent business. The man in Imilaat receives the choice of one rainbow-sparkling teleportation to whatever destination he likes.

That one garnet dragon who loaned him shoes wants - contradictorily enough - all the incomprehensible new magic to slow the hell down, and - his parents back.

Huh. He pulls their history to get a sense of the grievances involved - his direct memory is still very fuzzy about his mortal life - looks up the deaths of the parents in question, and prepares to bestow upon Kaylo his very own flying note: You might wanna go outside. -Teah

Because his parents' natural forms won't fit in the school building.

It takes him about a degree to pull them out of the past and reconstruct them just outside the building.

And just as he's about to send the note and let go of the prayer... it occurs to him that here's someone who obviously has an interest in figuring out magic, and he kind of has a problem with not understanding his own magic on any level deeper than the strictly practical.

He adds a postscript. Feel like helping me figure out how I work? I can't do anything that's not answering a prayer. If you want to talk—want to talk.

Kaylo doesn't get back to him for a while, because he has parents outside to reunite with and catch up on things and complain about his aunt to.

Ten degrees (and numerous small-scale run-of-the-mill wishes from around the world) later, when they are flying to Corenta to have a word with the aunt, Kaylo's back in his room.

"Like this?" he asks the air, concentrating. "Is this working? Testing, testing? Teah?"

"Yep. Hi." He speaks Draconic - it's the most expressive language available, therefore faster to speak in between miscellaneous prayers - and instead of his usual no-human-in-particular whisper, he uses his body's voice, now that he knows what it sounds like. It's a surprisingly comfortable fit. He supposes it shouldn't be surprising.

"Looks like you're not in the loop about some stuff - the human who borrowed your shoes earlier was me, in some kind of mortal incarnation. I didn't know I was him until a vampire hearer - those are legit, by the way, I don't know when the news will be getting out but all the vampires should know it by now - tracked him down through a note I gave her; he didn't know he was me until Keo asked him why he was calling himself 'Teah', and then he collapsed. He's permanently asleep now, which means I'm permanently active; I'm awake while he's asleep, I figured out that much. I can find out plenty about your world's magic just by looking but I get damn little looking at myself, and I want to figure out what the limits are and if I can get around any of them. If I can, I want to be on all the time here and at home. That probably sounds a little like hell to you, but I promise it's possible to get used to me, and I'm not going to keep making huge sweeping changes one after the other forever. That's only because there's so many sweeping changes around here begging for me to make them. Did you hear dragons aren't gonna die of old age anymore?"

He keeps half a proverbial eye on Kaylo's response while he catches up with miscellaneous prayers.

Edited 2014-05-08 00:27 (UTC)

"No, I did not hear that," says Kaylo to thin air. "Can I get a list of what you've been doing - and what prompts it - and any 'prayers' you heard and didn't do anything about and what you know about why - see if there's a pattern?"

"Sure, hold that thought while I take care of some other stuff and I'll come back and give you one."

A couple of ticks later, Kaylo gets a full itemized list of answered prayers and the unanswered ones that he remembers, with notes on motivation and limitations. It's a little terse, but still pretty comprehensive. Also mostly in Draconic, except where he quotes things he said in a different language.

Kaylo starts reading. When he gets a couple dozen items down he says, "Why is it brain stuff is so hard?"

Edited 2014-05-08 01:53 (UTC)

"Complicated, finicky - most other stuff I can fudge some details, brain stuff is all details. Resurrection's actually some of the easiest brain stuff around, because it's just a copy job, but it still takes ages compared to almost anything else."

Reading, reading, "But you figured out dementia as an entire category before? How long did it take?"

"About a month from the first prayer - some planning and figuring and looking at how stuff worked, some waiting for somebody else to make the prayer once I had it. I got lucky with it; it was easier than it could've been."

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