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

[eversomuchfun]

"That's what I was thinking, yes. That and raiding assorted hell dimensions for useful recruits. A lot depends on which spells and artifacts turn out to be practically accessible to us, but interdimensional transportation could be a promising avenue on multiple levels."

[imeanforever]

"I'd rather not make my stand against slave labor with the use of slave labor."

[eversomuchfun]

"Well, that's fair, but it seems at least possible that you might be able to find more people who are interested in helping of their own volition."

[imeanforever]

"Possible. I have... no personnel management skills that do not derive from watching Thorn."

[eversomuchfun]

"And I'm not much better, but there's got to be some better solution here than 'oh, well, slave labour or nothing'," he says. "Further thought may be required."

[imeanforever]

"Oh no. Thought."

[eversomuchfun]

Giggle.

[imeanforever]

"Are you anticipating getting some specific sort of use out of hell dimension residents as opposed to standard humans?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Access to a wider variety of magical traditions. Assorted useful magical properties. Higher chance of stumbling across someone awful enough that you're willing to enslave them and powerful enough to be definitely worth enslaving."

[imeanforever]

"Magical... traditions?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Different cultures develop different ways of doing magic, usually with different specializations and underexplored areas, often appearing to work on completely different principles, yet bizarrely cross-compatible whenever anyone bothers to learn more than one. There is, as usual, no credible explanation for this whatsoever."

[imeanforever]

"I think I like sorcery better, but it seems like the magic here can do more different things and from more flexible initial conditions."

[eversomuchfun]

"I'm not familiar with sorcery and I'm only very broadly familiar with the local stuff, but that fits with the impression I've been getting."

[imeanforever]

"I might offer to teach you if there weren't so much else to do and if it didn't take years to get anywhere very useful and if you weren't devoid of moral feeling and motivated entirely by boredom."

[eversomuchfun]

"You might be surprised how little effect the lack of moral feeling manages to have," he says. "But I take your point about the rest."

[imeanforever]

"I am very impressed with how little it is affecting things! But I do not know how permanent to expect this charming state to be."

[eversomuchfun]

"Wait and see. I'm convinced of my stability but communicating the evidence seems intractable."

[imeanforever]

"Just a little. We'll see."

[eversomuchfun]

"And I'd better start putting these books away if I want to be back in the crypt before dawn," he adds.

[imeanforever]

"Oh, I had quite lost track of time. Of course. Maybe my gate will be settled by now."

[eversomuchfun]

"One can hope."

He puts away all the books exactly where he got them.

[imeanforever]

And Promise flutters after him back to the crypt.

[eversomuchfun]

Where they can check on her gate.

[imeanforever]

There it is.

She steps through.

She comes back with a tree branch. "I can sleep there over... day. Should be safe enough as long as I don't go out. But the food I had is all shriveled up to nothing and I can only get so many haws to grow on the inside of the tree without the outside moving suspiciously, so I do need to be fed again."

[eversomuchfun]

Shrug. Plants and plant derivatives.