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]

"Well, that... makes sense."

[imeanforever]

"But if it's still going in another fifteen or twenty minutes that will mean it's getting air from here, even though it's definitely not enough of it to make a noticeable draft."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah."

[imeanforever]

"My tree here doesn't have windows either. I hope you didn't think I was suffocating in my sleep."

[thisvorlunatic]

Snort. "I assumed that you had some solution or other. You don't strike me as the sort of person who would forget to include air holes in your dwellings if you needed them."

[imeanforever]

[thisvorlunatic]

[imeanforever]

Eventually Promise goes and checks on the candle. She brings it out of her tree unlit. "Doesn't transmit air."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Okay, that's a very comforting result."

[imeanforever]

"It's also a lot warmer here than in my tree, so I think I would have noticed anyway, but yes."

[thisvorlunatic]

"When it comes to things that might potentially send significant portions of my planet's atmosphere spewing into an infinite void, I like to be sure."

[imeanforever]

"That is reasonable."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I'm glad you think so."

[imeanforever]

"Anyway, to make a gate I need a geographic-features-based unique description. It helps to have been there or at least seen a good map or drawing."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I can produce lovely holos of many potential destinations. Hmm. So it seems like we have an outline for the first set of tests: I fetch a shuttle, you construct a gate big enough to fit it through that leads somewhere very very far above some remote part of Fairyland, then we take the shuttle through that and you make another gate to a described location in a nearby system and we take the shuttle through that and verify that it worked...?"

[imeanforever]

"Yes. Possibly with days between the last two steps."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Right. I'll go see about that shuttle, then."

He goes and sees about the shuttle. Copper shows up to deliver it. It's definitely bigger than the lightflyer, but still smaller than the house.

"If you're short on interesting ways to pass the time while these gates settle, I could teach you to fly these vehicles," Silver mentions.

[imeanforever]

"Is it hard if one is unfamiliar with them?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"The lightflyer's the easier of the two. I don't honestly know how hard either one would be for someone as unfamiliar with them as you are."

[imeanforever]

"Well, I'll pay attention when you fly it. How big do you need the gate and how high up?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"I've been thinking about that..."

He has a suitable spot picked out for the gate, low enough and in an awkward enough location that no one will take their lightflyer through it by accident on their way to the house, high enough and flyable enough for the shuttle to navigate without mowing down any trees.

[imeanforever]

Promise outlines it in fairylights to confirm she has the right idea, then: gate. She flies up to throw a rock through it. "Instant settle," she calls down.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Convenient!"

To the shuttle they go, then. Silver manipulates assorted controls and causes it to fly through the ring of fairylights.

[imeanforever]

They are several miles above an expanse of color.

It's hard to make out the individual flowers, but nothing else is that bright. They cluster enough to be more than noise even at this distance, though; yellows and blues cascading down one hill and reds and purples pooling in the valley, pastels swirling into the distance, jewel tones blooming from trees and being carried on the wind over a sea of sunset blossoms, petals floating so thick on the river that winds through the landscape that it's a flowing band of white and pink and cyan and gold.

The shuttle is airtight, but it looks like if you cracked the hull it'd smell of nectar.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Wow," says Silver.