random pointless swirls

[sturdycoldsteel]

The shaper known as Steel is flying down the right side of a road, shoring up the edges of the bluestream that lets her lift herself off the ground as she goes. Sure, she'll be a bit clumsy and weak when she gets to Opri, but she's not planning on doing much more stream-shaping today, so might as well.

She glances at the bluestream (the magical vision blinds her physical vision for a short moment, but not long enough to crash into anything) and determines that this next crossroads is where she needs to turn. She tilts to the right...

...And lands on a patch of orange grass in a forest clearing. This is not the town of Opri. She opens her eyes and ears to the bluestream, trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

The bluestream here isn't a nice, orderly, useful pattern like on the roads, or the formless fog that it usually decays to after a while. Instead it's a riot of random patterns swirling around, wispy and confused and obviously not designed to do anything useful.

Steel, deaf and blind for a few seconds thanks to her peek at the bluestream, stands very still and is very confused.

Comments

[sturdycoldsteel]

"If you like." She flies back to the clearing, following a strangely irregular and wobbly path.

[imeanforever]

The fairy follows her. "You look like you've got a tank of cider in you, wobbling like that. Are you new to flying?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"No, I'm following the patterns in the bluestream. I can only fly if there's enough aligned threads, but they're all tangled up in this world so I have to go back and forth and back again or just give up and walk."

[imeanforever]

"Huh. Well, at least your magic works here. Sorcery supposedly doesn't work in the mortal world at all."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I imagine I'd have to see some sorcery to even start to guess why."

[imeanforever]

"If you come back to my tree I can show you some."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Sounds like a plan."

Here they are at the patch of orange grass. She lands and carefully inspects it. After a few moments, she stops moving and starts staring blankly at nothing in particular.

[imeanforever]

"Um, mortal?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

She does not respond. After about fifteen seconds, she snaps out of it. "Damn, I can't make heads or tails of this place. Even if there's something important here, I can't tell what it is."

[imeanforever]

"If there's a gate here and that's what got you, you'd want to go back the way you came, across wherever you arrived. Can you retrace your steps...?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I was flying at the time. Let's try..." She flies, back and forth, several times at slightly varying altitudes and positions.

"Nothing doing, apparently. Do you have some paper and something to write with? I could draw the local bluestream - it might help. Probably not, but maybe."

[imeanforever]

"I have paper at home."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"My memory will have to do, then. Lead the way?"

[imeanforever]

"Sure."

Off she flutters into the forest. "You should probably have a nickname. Something that has no relationship to your real name. Mine is Promise."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"How is my 'real name' defined, exactly? I already have my trade name - the name I use whenever I'm doing magic."

[imeanforever]

"The first full name you were ever named."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Ah. Then my trade name will do just fine. It's 'Steel'. Nice to meet you, Promise."

[imeanforever]

"Likewise. Although I do hope I can get you home soon. It's dangerous here for mortals."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"It definitely sounds that way. It would be a really nice place to live if not for the slave thing. The bluestream is so much easier to work with here. I bent it a little to help me fly - it was almost effortless compared to pushing back the endless fog it wants to be back home."

[imeanforever]

"I wonder why. What is the bluestream?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"It's... The framework that lets shapers do magic. It's everywhere, you just can't see it unless you're a shaper and you sacrifice your ability to see the physical world for a little bit. We can't do anything with the stream when it's just fog, but by sacrificing some or all of our ability to use muscles for a while we can shape it in ways that allow almost anyone to use magic. Roads have flying-shaped bluestream, hospitals have healing-shaped bluestream, and so on. That's why I was complaining about the stream here - it's in patterns, not fog, but the patterns are close to useless. I was wondering why someone bothered making them. Now I think they're naturally occurring."

[imeanforever]

"Sounds almost like harmonics."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Maybe they're the same thing. What are harmonics?"

[imeanforever]

"Harmonics are a sorcery-affecting feature of locations which vary depending on what's nearby and other factors. But nobody can see them. There's a way to map them but I don't know it - I mean, I don't know the conventions to write it down usefully; I know the lay of the harmonics around my tree and foraging grounds."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Will you be much inconvenienced if the harmonics change? Because if not, there's an obvious test here."