space oddity

[rockeye_stonetoe]

One day in fairyland, there is an immensely bright flash of light a about a mile above the ground. Something like a metal house is suddenly flying through as if it came through a portal, faster than all but the fastest fairies.

It's flying, not directly down, but still very much towards the ground. It does not take long for it to stop flying and start carving through earth and trees. Eventually it runs out of momentum near a certain lake. The thing seems to still be in one piece, which is rather miraculous considering the two miles of destroyed trees behind it.

After a few minutes, a mortal covered in unusually bulky clothes emerges from the thing. All that is visible is his face. He starts inspecting the outside of his space oddity.

Comments

[imeanforever]

"That would be good. Especially if you can show me how it's put together so I can repair it with magic as needed."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"You can watch me make it later. I see your river coming up ahead right now, though."

[imeanforever]

Promise looks. "Okay - a little to the left, on the far side of that bend, and we'll be just near my tree but not close enough that you might crash into it."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

And the ship comes down and settles where described. "Anything with ears within five or six miles knows we're here, by the way. Be quick." (not a real order)

[imeanforever]

"I will. Fifteen minutes, tops."

She flies away.

A fairy shorter than her with gaudy wings and blue hair comes up to investigate the ship while she's gone.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick's voice comes out of the ship. "Stay away for your own safety."

[alicornucopia]

She blinks, but doesn't leave.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick will watch the fairy carefully, and fire a warning shot at her if she gets within ten meters of the ship.

[alicornucopia]

She does eventually approach that closely.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

A beam of light and heat arcs past her and into a tree, close enough to feel warm but not close enough to burn. The tree becomes tinders.

[alicornucopia]

She squeaks and backs away, but doesn't leave.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

From inside the ship, "I don't want to have anything to do with you. Just leave me alone. I'll be gone in an hour, tops."

He's getting nervous. He turns on his scanners. Where's Promise? What other life forms are in this forest?

[alicornucopia]

The forest is very sparsely populated. There are literally no animals, and this fairy is the only one around for miles, except Promise, who is on her way back.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick prepares to fly as soon as she's back inside. The engines rotate and start making noise. And he keeps watching that other fairy.

[imeanforever]

Promise returns, exchanges a few words with the blue-haired fairy, and ducks into the ship.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

And the ship leaves. Very quickly.

"Apparently I now have a pathological fear of fairies that are not you."

[imeanforever]

"That was River. She's not very nice but she's not particularly smart either."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick is silent. His grip on the controls gets a little tighter.

After a couple of minutes, "We're well above the ground and the ship will fly itself for now. I'm going to go eat something, you do what you like."

[imeanforever]

Promise goes into the workshop and transmutes more fuel. She gets faster and faster at it.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

If she keeps going that quickly, the tank will be almost full by the time she gets tired.

And when she wakes up, Liam shows her step-by-step how to make a noise-machine. He puts on a sound-blocking helmet and tests it for a brief instant - it's painfully, blisteringly loud, made even worse by the echoes from being indoors.

[imeanforever]

She winces, fixes the damage to her hearing, and nods. "Thank you."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

And the ship continues moving at high speed away from queenscontinent. Liam asks her to make more fuel once every few hours (moving this fast burns through a lot of the stuff), and tells her every 250 miles of distance they put behind them. He also asks for sorcery lessons, if she doesn't mind giving them.

[imeanforever]

She doesn't mind, exactly, but:

"It takes a while to get anything to happen the first time you try. Even if you know your workspace like the back of your hand."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I don't have anything better to do. Most of my sensors can link directly into my mind, will they help?"

[imeanforever]

"...Maybe. I'm not sure. All right, so the usual introduction is a fairylight." She makes one: a little point of light in midair. "To make that, I had to note all the existing light sources and reflections that are passing through that space, pay attention to all the air currents passing through that space, and note the temperature and humidity. A lot of this gets automatic with practice, and doing this your first time in a moving vehicle isn't ideal because it means we're passing through a lot of different harmonics - you can't see those, nobody can, but they also affect casting, which means that when you're used to an area you can have a sense for how the harmonics are laid out there and factor them in."