blood sweat tear

[imeanforever]

He's moving her to a different court to see if it'll improve her attitude. She's allowed to fly. It's been a long, long time since she was allowed to -

She is only allowed to fly to her destination, not anywhere else. She notices that she is not where she should be, that she cannot progress to where she was told to go, and she careens out of control when her wings won't flap anymore, and she crashes.

---

with Miles (kappa)

with Minus (kappa)

Comments

[thisvorlunatic]

"Okay, good," he says. "Then I guess you can get your stuff."

Pause. Small sigh.

"I'm eventually going to need to tell other mortals you exist. Sooner rather than later would be somewhat preferable. If I approach the problem from the optimal direction I think can limit the number of people who find out about you to my mother, my father, my emperor, and my boss. Having one of these people find out about you accidentally would be... awkward. But I don't want to go around informing people of your existence without your knowledge and permission."

[imeanforever]

"What are they going to want to do about me, and can they make you do anything about me?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Well, the Emperor's going to want to trade for those portals but he'll be perfectly content to wait for them; out of everyone I know, I think he has the strongest understanding of the inherent responsibilities of a situation like this. My boss will freak out about the fact that you could fairly casually conquer the planet by wandering around asking people politely for their names, but while he can tell me to do things about that and by custom I am supposed to do as he says, in practice this wouldn't be the first time I disagreed with the decisions of someone whose orders I am supposed to follow. As long as you do not actually proceed to conquer the planet, I don't think he'll even threaten me with particularly dire consequences if I tell him to fuck off."

[imeanforever]

"I could buy a planet, apparently, if I want a planet I wouldn't go for conquest as a first choice. Mostly I want a tree. I should probably go get a branch now."

[thisvorlunatic]

"A completely reasonable set of priorities."

[imeanforever]

Promise smiles a little, and then goes and hops through her gate. To outward observation she just vanishes.

Ten minutes later she is back with a tree branch and a full bag that looks like it was made of a flower petal.

[thisvorlunatic]

Silver has played a bunch more of his game in this time.

"Everything all right?"

[imeanforever]

"I didn't look outside the tree, but it didn't seem to have been damaged. And I got a branch to grow on the inside for me to take off."

[thisvorlunatic]

"That seems like it went as well as can be expected, then. Where do you think you'll put the tree?"

[imeanforever]

"Wherever would be convenient for you to have a big tree, I guess. Near the lake? Is it all right if I grow some fairy food here or would someone accidentally eat it?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"It's not impossible that someone might accidentally eat it, but it seems like an acceptable risk, at least if we mark off a little plot for you with a fence or something so it's obvious that the plants in question belong to someone. That's the sort of thing I could ask my parents to help arrange, if you can't produce a fence on short notice yourself. As for location, I can think of a few spots I could show you."

[imeanforever]

"Once my tree is big enough I can make wood come off it in any shape I want and make a fence. Let's see some places?"

[thisvorlunatic]

Places! They are suitable to house a tree, and for the tree in question to be surrounded by a little plot of land for growing things in. Of the places, the one nearest the lake is also the one with the best affordance for conveniently-fenced extra growing space.

[imeanforever]

Promise plants her branch there.

The harmonics are flat. She can make it grow fast once she's had a good look at the place.

[thisvorlunatic]

Gosh. Tree.

[imeanforever]

Yes. Tree.

She doesn't force it quite big enough to sleep in, right away; she plants some other seeds in an aesthetically pleasing manner, far enough off that they won't be shaded too often once her tree is living-space-sized, and sprouts those.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I should definitely tell the Emperor about you soon if I want to minimize the degree of fuss involved," says Silver.

[imeanforever]

"...Okay."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I'll go call him. I would appreciate if you avoided listening, in case he says any names before I explain."

[imeanforever]

"I'll stay out here and have lunch."

She makes something fruit. She picks and eats a fruit.

[thisvorlunatic]

And Silver goes back inside and presumably communicates with his emperor.

(The first word out of his mouth is 'Sire' and Gregor just freezes. Miles makes heavy use of the phrase 'please humour me' over the following several minutes, but by the end of it Gregor has adjusted to the new paradigm and is omitting all names and namelike terms from everything he says. He requests proof, in a particularly imperial tone of voice, but allows that... Silver... can take his time producing same, under the circumstances. As predicted, he understands Miles's reaction perfectly.)

Some time later, he emerges from the house and checks on Promise.

[imeanforever]

Promise is leaning on her tree, munching berries that fall from its branches straight into her outstretched hand one at a time.

[thisvorlunatic]

...well that's an extremely endearing image.

"I have told the Emperor about you," he reports. "He reacted exactly as expected. Sometime in the next few days I should tell my mother, and she might want to acquire some proof that you can do magic, which she can then convey to him, but there's no rush on that; the Emperor understood my concerns."

[imeanforever]

"I don't mind proving I can do magic. It's certainly not hard to do here."

[thisvorlunatic]

"That's convenient, then. I'll ask Mother to nickname herself and come by."