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]

The strange feeling seems to continuously increase until suddenly she is floating in a black void with no sound, no smell. She doesn't even have proprioception. This state of affairs will last a while.

And Steel stands vigilantly near the circle, idly practicing sorcery, eating once in a while, setting alarms each time she sleeps, but never moving more than fifty feet away.

[imeanforever]

Well, this is really boring.

Promise thinks about stuff. She made sure she had stuff to think about, but five days is kind of pushing it. She inspects the sensory deprivation itself, which is interesting for almost twenty minutes. Sigh.

[sturdycoldsteel]

After a while (who knows just how long), she can tell that there isn't quite nothing there. It's not light, or sound, or smell. Maybe it's harmonics. Whatever it is, it hovers teasingly on the edge of her perception, never quite making itself clear.

[imeanforever]

Well, that's frustrating, which is different from boring, yay.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Whatever she's sensing doesn't seem to care. (At least it's not five days of hurt, right?)

Meanwhile, Steel continues to vigilantly guard the stone circle, setting an immobilization-and-loud-sound trap around it whenever she is called by sleep or other needs.

[alicornucopia]

The trap goes off.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Steel wakes up, determines the location of whoever set it off, and wreaths herself in a full-body force-shell shield before flying from the oak tree and dropping next to them from above. "Hello. My apologies for the spell, but I cannot allow anyone to cross this area."

[alicornucopia]

The fairy (eighteen inches high, magenta, wings that look like solidified sections of soap bubbles) is very cross. "There ought to be some sort of warning that there's a noisemaker here! My poor ears!" he yelps.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"The noisemaker is the warning. This area is not safe to wander through unless you have taken the correct precautions."

[alicornucopia]

"Not safe! What have you done to it, what's the matter?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"There's a stone circle nearby that traps whoever wanders into it. I'm trying to find a way to get my friend out of it and dismantle it, but meanwhile the best thing to do is keep others from blundering into the trap."

[alicornucopia]

"There wasn't a stone circle here that did that forty years ago!"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Well, there is now. Trust me, you don't want to verify a malicious spell's existence yourself."

[alicornucopia]

"I want to see it."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Very well. I will warn you not to approach too close to it. I am a sorcerer, and I will stop you if you try."

She walks to the circle, stopping a good five feet away.

[alicornucopia]

The tiny magenta fairy has a look at the circle, and the leaflet collapsed in it.

"Huh," he says. "How far above it does the danger extend?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"To the outer edge of the stones, and as tall as the trees here above and below it. I believe I will be able to extract her soon, but disabling the effect might take longer. I'm not going to leave it and let innocent fairies get trapped there helplessly, though."

[alicornucopia]

The magenta fairy nods and then flies away, giving the circle a berth.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Steel watches him leave, then goes back to guarding the place.

It's been a few days. Promise starts to see faint inklings of light, distant echoes of sound. These faint signals get stronger by the minute, but she only recovers (even wobblier than usual) control of her body when the forest around here is crystal-clear.

Steel doesn't seem to notice she's done.

[imeanforever]

Promise crawls out of the circle. She is so thirsty.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Sorcery usually doesn't generate claims, right? Steel hovers Promise's food and water over to her.

[imeanforever]

Promise gulps down the water until it is all gone. She takes the food out of the air and eats that a little more restrainedly.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Try seeing the bluestream. Just want to glance at it and it should happen."

[imeanforever]

Peek?

[sturdycoldsteel]

That strange sensation is back, but only part of it. It fills the air around her with something that gets interpreted on a visual level. But they're not colors and shapes and light.

(The things-that-are-not-colors are mostly not-blue for some reason)