what in the longdark spitting-pit is that

[inourhead]

This was a bad idea this was a bad idea this was a bad idea.

Holly runs as fast as she can but the demon's faster. She has no idea where Lightning's gotten to; maybe he found a tree to climb. She on the other hand has been diverted into a treeless hill and she's careening down a slope, trying very hard not to trip.

And the demon's gaining on her.

She's never seen anything like it and neither has Crystal; maybe Book knows what it is but Book's asleep. It's mostly mouth - it looks like a cross between a floorlength mirror of a mouth and a snake to propel the mouth along.

And Holly's not fast enough.

The mouth catches her.





But it doesn't hurt.

Where are we?

----


with Minus (kappa)

with Mark (kappa)

with Max (Benedict)

in Terraria (kappa)

with Emma (Marri)

with Erin (Rockeye)

Comments

[characterquarry]

The frog attempts to evade. Not very well. It's just a frog, after all.

[inourhead]

When Holly has it, she touches Lightning. He perks up. The frog droops. She lets it go.

[characterquarry]

"Not to bore you, Crystal, Lightning, but here I have interesting magic in front of me. Was that body-tiredness or mind-tiredness? What other kinds of things can be troported?"

[inourhead]

"Body-tiredness. Frogs haven't got minds to put mind-tiredness into and I can't touch Lightning's mind without doing tricky fancy stuff. They handle mind-tiredness by switching. Not like me and Crystal, but still."

[characterquarry]

She makes a thoughtful face. "Can you troport injuries and disease? Real miracle-quality healing powers need a Boon, but I know people with good regeneration from a Gift, they might be able to troport ailments on themselves and be fine in twenty seconds."

[inourhead]

"...Why would you put the injuries on a person?"

[characterquarry]

"Oh, right, animals. I like combining wishes in creative ways, so my first thoughts are always how to use more other magic. Sometimes it makes me miss the obvious."

[inourhead]

"Anyway, yes, diseases and injuries just like physical tiredness go in mice."

[characterquarry]

"If it turns out people here can wish to be able to troport, I think I'm going to get a loan and start a mouse-breeding business."

[inourhead]

"Most people aren't as good at it as me, but most everyone can at least drowse mice."

[characterquarry]

...Erin wishes to be able to troport, to know how to troport, and to be good at troporting, in that order of priority if they can't all fit into one Favor.

One of her dots disappears. She knows what to do, this time, and her jacket is now bright blue while her shirt is grey. "Tricky. I don't think my wish made me good at troporting, just... Able to do it."

[inourhead]

"Most people aren't good at it. I'm really, really good at it. I'm planning to be a pro, moving souls around and stuff."

[characterquarry]

"Hm. What else besides color and tiredness is relatively easy to troport? And are you guys planning to stay here? I'll have to get you signed up for public support, if so."

[inourhead]

"Size isn't so hard," says Lightning.

"It's not divided up like that, mostly. Colors are always easy, swaps are easier than transfers, anything with souls is the hardest, it's easier to swap between more similar things - that's why mice and not frogs most of the time and why I had to drowse the frog for Lightning - anyway it hadn't actually occurred to me that we could just not go home, but I guess we could stay, couldn't we?"

"We have families," Lightning objects.

"They'll live."

"I want to see mine again!"

Holly sighs. "And Lightning takes Book wherever he goes so we're going home, I guess, but maybe not right away, it's interesting here."

[characterquarry]

"Well, I think we may begin to bother some people if we keep talking right here. We should go give you a tour of the city. Lightning, do you want to try for wishes first?"

[inourhead]

"Just poke the water," Holly advises Lightning. "We can come back and have Book try later."

Lightning looks dubiously at the water, but touches it.

[characterquarry]

He gets five Favors. "That's... Way below average. Unfortunate, but there's no helping it."

[inourhead]

"The water god doesn't like you," teases Holly.

Lightning sighs. "If we're done having technical troportation conversations maybe Crystal can come out."

"Are we done having technical troportation conversations?" Holly asks Erin.

[characterquarry]

"For now yes, I'll have more questions later. It's a new magic system, I can't not have questions."

She leads them out the front of the temple, giving what is very likely a standard spiel about the city's history and culture. Gardens and stonework features heavily, and there are vehicles moving themselves around here and there.

[inourhead]

"What are those moving things?"

[characterquarry]

"They're..." She searches for a good word in her language, finds none, and decides to just use a loanword. "Buses. They are machines used to go from place to place, they burn fuel and somehow turn the heat that produces into motion. I don't know the details. There are also trains, which are like longer buses that move on rails, and cars, which are like buses but owned by individuals instead of the city."

[inourhead]

"Huh," says Crystal. "That sounds useful."

[characterquarry]

"They are useful! Something like two hundred years ago, some enterprising soul wished for a good way to move things from one factory to another, and then he know how to build a steam train, an early kind of train named that way because steam is what made it move. Buses and cars came later. It's apparently a bit of a problem getting enough fuel for them all, but they're more than useful enough for that to be worth the effort."

[inourhead]

"What kind of fuel do they need?"

[characterquarry]

"In theory anything that burns will do, but most things will break if you try to use, like, wood. Most things use a liquid called gasoline, I think they mine for it? Oh, there's also a sort of liquified oil-alcohol mixture made from starchy crops that's not very popular because it's cheaper to have someone wish to refill all the mined-out gasoline."