two kinds of mysterious floating rock

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick is minding his own business, collecting floatgrass and onions from a random island a fair bit south of the equator and wondering when it'll rain again, when someone rather rudely appears directly above him.

Comments

[greatestgift]

She yelps in startlement, but of all the places she could have appeared, midair is not the worst. Her black-and-white branch-and-cobweb wings stretch out to catch the air; her fall stabilizes and slows; she straightens out into a stable hover, wings flapping steadily.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick yelps too, and quicksteps to the side out of her way despite the fact that she is not falling anymore. She's still moving relative to the island, though, and fairly briskly.

"Excuse me! Whatever you're doing here, please try not to run into my ship!"

[greatestgift]

Well, the easiest way to manage that is to land on the island. So she does. Her wings fold up tidily.

"Where am I?"

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Um. This planet is called Cloudbank, this particular island does not have a name as far as I know. Where were you before you - appeared?"

[greatestgift]

"Terraria. I'm going to guess that means nothing to you."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"You guess correctly. Those wings look incredibly useful, how did you get them?"

[greatestgift]

"I killed a lot of horrifying monsters. Terraria is full of horrifying monsters, but for some reason they all emit useful artifacts when they die."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"That is... Strange. As far as I know Cloudbank's horrifying monsters don't emit useful artifacts, except insofar as they are useful artifacts. Meat, bone, that kind of thing. And I wouldn't describe the place as full of them."

[greatestgift]

"Terraria is a very strange place," she says. "I was trying to get home from there, but it seems like there was something wrong with my transportation method, because this sure doesn't look like home."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick nods. "Going somewhere specific is tricky, probably doubly so if you're crossing worlds to do it. It sounds like the next obvious steps are either try to fix whatever's wrong with your transportation method, or try to find a new place to call home."

[greatestgift]

"I'd like to go home, but I'd also like to avoid landing somewhere worse than 'midair above a floating island' next time. So it'll depend on how much I like this place and how well I think I can fix my mistakes, I guess."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Yeah, appearing forty klicks above or below here... Probably would have killed you. Maybe not if you have more stuff like those wings. Say, are those technology, or magic? The line can be pretty blurry sometimes."

[greatestgift]

"They're... Terrarian. I think of them as magic, anyway. I have the materials to make more sets, but only a limited amount... on the other hand, this seems like it might be the sort of world where wings are in high demand. And in theory it should be easier to go back and forth between here and Terraria than to go somewhere completely else, if I put together the right setup, but I'm not sure how much I trust that theory at the moment."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"If you could sell wings like that on any kind of scale, you would become very rich very quickly. I'd buy one myself, it looks a lot more reliable than my glider. Why spiderwebs, though? I could help you look at the theory if you have notes on it - I like theory."

[greatestgift]

"The spiderwebs are... sort of stylistic. There are other styles available. I just think these are prettiest."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"As long as they don't come with actual spiders."

[greatestgift]

"Certified spider-free."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Grand. Spiders are potentially messy and like to eat things that ought not to be eaten. I'm rather proud of my very-nearly-pest-free airship, you know."

[greatestgift]

"That seems like a good thing to be proud of!"

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"It really is. A tengram of prevention's worth a kilo of cure, and all that."

[greatestgift]

"Definitely."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Well, if you don't want to decide whether to stay here or try for home or go back to Terraria right away, my offer to review the theory of your transport magic or whatever will continue to be offered. Once I finish collecting the plants I need for today, at least."

[greatestgift]

"I can try to get it all written down in a mostly organized way. There aren't really any other people in Terraria, so I haven't had to explain it to anyone before."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"No people there? At all? Not just - living space is sparse and far away and it's hard to go from place to place so you don't see your friends very often, but no people at all?"

[greatestgift]

"No people there at all. Well. Some people have been there, I think. But that part is creepy and hard to explain. Would you like the creepy difficult explanation?"