picknicking

[dark_light]

There's something unutterably pleasant about landing in a bit of woods in the middle of Nowhere, Manitoba, removing a sandwich and an apple from her backpack and having a picnic before she's ready to move on. She could eat in midair, but it makes it too likely that she'll drop something and find it unrecoverable.

Path's on her knee, and her cloudpine is propped up against the tree next to her.

Comments

[dark_light]

"We are, yes."

[prodigal_miser]

"I have access to magic - it's how I got here. But I don't count as a witch?"

[dark_light]

"Witches are all women," says Isabella archly.

[prodigal_miser]

"And there are no male magic users? At all?" asks Adarin. "That seems a strange distinction."

[dark_light]

"I didn't make the rules," she shrugs. "We're basically a species. If my parents had had a boy instead I'd just be a mortal, no magic."

[prodigal_miser]

The silver-haired man doesn't look pleased with this distinction. Strange as it is, he's glad he was born in his world. Life without magic would be terrible.

"For ours, if someone with magic has a child, the child is overwhelmingly likely to have it, too. But it weakens by generation if the line continues to propagate with... Er, mortals, as you call them. Us?" he shrugs. He counts as mortal, he's just not as mortal as other people.

[dark_light]

"That sounds inconvnient in its own way, although I suppose less so for you in particular."

[prodigal_miser]

He grins, just a little. "I am happy to take advantage of having magic, yes. It would be a pity if my sister were the only one to get it."

The kagu muses, "Perhaps it would be easier then, though."

This gives Adarin pause. "Perhaps," he manages, after some thought.

[dark_light]

"Does the place you're from have a name? I mean, this one doesn't so far as I know, so not having one would be reasonable, but it'd be convenient if it had."

[prodigal_miser]

"The world my people came from is called Kystle. The world we now live in we haven't thought of anything more creative for than 'New Kystle.' If it gains a new name, I'll update you," informs Adarin.

[dark_light]

"So world-hopping is fairly casual for you, then? What are you doing here?"

[prodigal_miser]

"Not as casual as it sounds. I'm something of a special case, which is why I'm here. Our new home's missing a plant used for a remedy that we neglected to bring with us through to our new home. Since going back to Kystle would be suicidal, I did a few scryings and - your world has the plant," he summarizes. "On that note, do you happen to know where a flower called Chamomile is? It looks like a daisy."

[dark_light]

"I don't know off the top of my head where to pick it wild. Will dried do?"

[prodigal_miser]

"Quite well, yes. Do you have some with you, or is there a place that sells it dried?" asks Adarin, smiling at his luck.

[dark_light]

"Not with me, but I could get it. Are you just going to take some chamomile and go home and never come back, is that the plan?"

[prodigal_miser]

"Well, if it's easy to come by then I'll probably be back in the future. Best to choose the plane you know rather than bumble into one you don't," he explains. "And I wasn't planning on leaving immediately, I would hurt myself so soon after travelling here."

"Not to mention," says the kagu, leaping from his shoulder onto the ground, flapping her wings a bit to land gracefully. She manages, flightless though she is. "We would both like to know as much as possible about daemons, now that I exist."

[dark_light]

"...Oh, perhaps you don't know - you mustn't let anybody else touch her. Or while you're here touch anybody else's daemon. Ever."

[prodigal_miser]

Adarin goes rather still. "What will happen?" he asks, gravely. It's obvious he's taking this seriously.

[dark_light]

"It... well, it's never happened to me, so I can't describe it exactly, but it feels - bad. Sometimes married couples do it and if they're close enough then it doesn't hurt, but you'd have to be really sure."

[prodigal_miser]

"Ah. I'll refrain from touching any daemon without being absolutely certain it's alright," says Adarin, with absolute seriousness. He peers at his kagu. "I will need to practice my shields, while I'm here. Lenora will no doubt try to pet you."

The kagu bobs her head in a nod. "They don't expect us back for a while. We're not risking harm," she explains. "We were heading off a problem at the source, not desperately searching for a cure."

[dark_light]

"If you do wind up separating she could just fly out of the way of anybody who tried to - pet her," says Isabella. "If this person wouldn't listen to just being told to back off, that is. How did your magic decide where in the world to put you? Why here, why not the middle of an interstate highway or in the ocean or Antarctica or midair or, for that matter, in a field of chamomile?"

[prodigal_miser]

"She is likely to not listen," says the kagu, gravely.

Adarin leans down to pet her, just a little. Pet, pet.

"That's the wording of my spell - If I spent so much power specifying that I wanted to be in a field of chamomile or next to a supply of it, I wouldn't be able to have enough to throw around on safety. Since I have something of a budget, I focused on arriving in a flat, stable place, where no large objects are moving towards me or nothing's likely to kill me on sight," he explains. "If I spent all that I can comfortably use to be next to my goal, I would be defenseless if I missed something."

He thinks. "Aside from that, I think it chose the closest spot that fit the criteria. In comparison to where I was coming from, that is."

[dark_light]

"...In what sense is this spot closer? Are you from another planet and it happened to be in that direction," she points straight up, "or is there something else going on?"

[prodigal_miser]

"It's... Somewhat hard to explain. Planes aren't directly next to each other, like, say, I am to my daemon. I'm technically from another planet, but it's more accurate to say that I'm from another plane. There are some places that are closer to others because of how each plane works - in basic terms, one plane can have any number of quirks to it that bring it closer to other planes in some senses, but further away from others in another sense. In the physical sense, this specific part of the world isn't any closer to any part of mine."

He motions around them! "This was, apparently, closest in terms of how easily it could be to get to in comparison to something in my plane. It was more similar, in terms neither of us could fully understand, or at least nothing I could understand, and I've studied it most of my life. There are planes that seem similar to us on the surface, but at the core are utterly, completely different."

The kagu decides to join in with, "It's a complicated subject. No one is quite sure how they work. Some are clustered together, some aren't - some are far, far away from each other but seem near the same."

[dark_light]

"Huh. Well, this is kind of the middle of nowhere. I flew here; does your magic let you fly?"