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]

She undoes the fog. In fact, she removes the bluestream from the area completely - the mushrooms are already filling it back in, but it's a lot emptier than anything in the area for now. "Try it now."

[imeanforever]

A bright light glows in the spot. "Whoa, that went easy. What did you do?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I cleared out the bluestream completely, it was ugly there. The grass and mushrooms and even the rock are already filling it back in, though. Empty stream is almost as useless to me as fog, but apparently sorcery likes it."

[imeanforever]

"Sorcery loves it. It'd eliminate eighty percent of home turf advantage just like that if it were like that everywhere."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Well, if I haven't gone home, and you suddenly have a good reason to fight another sorcerer on her turf, and I agree with that reason..."

[imeanforever]

Promise giggles. "Not likely, but not impossible."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Would you mind if I built some stream-things in this clearing? It's as good as any other place around here for my sun-absorbing circle."

[imeanforever]

"This place is all right, I don't come through here often. For preference leave it at least close to how you found it. If you can't do that, fog is better than blank."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"No, I need to build specific structures for me to not start starving in a week. They're pretty different than what's here, River's river had a spot that was already close but I'm not going near her again. Should I find someplace further away?"

[imeanforever]

"I mean when you're all done, not while you're using it."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Undoing it is almost as hard as doing it in the first place. They're supposed to be permanent. I can put in the extra effort to reverse it when you have a portal for me, though."

[imeanforever]

"Drawing me a map would also work. I got a book on those while I was at the library anyway."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I could draw you lots of maps if I made a drawstream wherever you want me to map. That's a spot that makes it easy to manipulate liquids in fine detail, for example, ink. They're relatively easy to do and undo, I can make 'em wherever. And I can read the book later so it's in the format you expect. I want to learn sorcery in exchange, though."

[imeanforever]

"Sure. It takes a while to pick up, though, and the more things I'm trying to do the longer it will take me to learn to make a gate."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I have some food, I'll have sunlight energy in a few hours, I wasn't particularly needed at my current job, my parents barely remember I exist. Staying here for a while is an acceptable drawback to learning an entirely new sort of magic."

[imeanforever]

"All right."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"For now I've gotta make the suneater array, though." So Steel walks in circles around the clearing, glancing at trees and rocks and doing nothing particularly visible.

[imeanforever]

Promise gets to studying.

[sturdycoldsteel]

After a while, she comes back to Promise's tree, munching something mostly still wrapped in a shiny foil package. "Any chance I could get Intro to Sorcery now?"

[imeanforever]

"Sure. You'll have a substantial advantage being able to look at harmonics, because most of the hard part of sorcery, at least in the beginning stages, is accounting for everything affecting the space in which you hope to do the magic. So, if I make a fairylight -" She makes one, hovering above her hand. "I need to know what other light sources are going through this space, and the temperature and humidity and air currents, and then I need to make my best guess about the harmonics based on the fact that I am familiar with my tree and what putting a sorcerous working close to myself does and so on. But you can just look right at the harmonics - please don't change them inside my tree, I'm used to them and I'm not sure if the tree would like it - and account for them like you can everything else; most sorcerers have to map them in familiar locations by trial and error or deal with them as an invisible factor."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"So it's basically a matter of having good awareness and applying willpower? That's good, willpower is most of what using bluestream is like already."

She glares at a particular spot. After a few seconds a light appears.

[imeanforever]

"I wouldn't say... willpower... but, uh, it seems to be working for you? Unless that's your own kind of magic."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Yes, I ended up just using bluestream there. What would you say, if not willpower?"

[imeanforever]

"Clarity of intent? If you have that right you don't need to force it, it just goes."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Hm." She stares down the spot some more. It doesn't work.

"Well, expecting to get it in under a minute is a bit unrealistic. I'll go practice. If you want me to draw some harmonic maps, though, now's a good time to give me the book on it. I think I'll be able to figure out the structures they're talking about even without being able to do any sorcery quite yet."