Almost like flying

[what_greater_weapon]

Zinseyn sometimes wishes she could pass as Aluvai reliably, but then if she could pass Aluvai reliably, she would have some other problems besides just getting to the inside of the planet. Or, maybe, if she was too good at passing as Aluvai she'd be unable to get to the outside of the planet. Which would be just as annoying. Only being able to go to certain places because people will want to kill you is just annoying as a concept.

She does know how to play up her more Aluvai traits, though. This helps a bit. Usually she plays them down - long hair covering the hint of a point in her ears, the type of smile that doesn't show the hint of fang. Here, though, she'll play it up, though pulling her hair back in a ponytail's all she can do. It's not like she can drag out her Aluvai father and go, "No, wait, see, I am actually part Aluvai, just, the other part is Ceirene!" Not without causing some... problems.

She would like to avoid those problems. See; why she isn't taking the elevator. Awkward questions. Possible chance of rampant racism. And climbing is fun, and there's no place more interesting to climb than one of these chasms. There's no other place where she can get as close as one can get to flying without a pair of wings. If she were on an elevator, they would - make it professional, boring. She is not on an elevator. So when she climbs down far enough that she's stopped being insistently pulled downward and is instead weightless, she can just hang out here. And be weightless.

When she first did this, she was very careful to stay near the edges of the chasm. Very careful to not go careening off into the open air with no way to stop.

Well, she's now had more practice with this, and has learned that with careful application of rope and climbing materials and planning, and with a certain fearlessness towards scrapes and scratches, you can fly. Sort of. Kind of. Eh, it'll do until she figures out what she has to do to get a proper pair of wings and be able to fly anywhere. Better than nothing. And it's sort of like a reward, for a lot of hard work getting there.

So Zinseyn is enjoying herself a relaxing float before going into Aluvanna proper, carefully attached with multiple ropes to multiple places so she doesn't go floating off to someplace strange. The climb up is always the hardest part, and there is literally nowhere to go but up. Not being fully rested before it is a bad call. Besides, this is relaxing.

And then it stops being relaxing, when down suddenly reasserts itself so strongly that she thinks she must have fallen through a portal, because down does not hit you randomly like that. She opens her eyes to check her ropes, see what went wrong, and finds them all cut. She lands painlessly on soft grass before she can even think to scream. She stares at the blue sky above her, even though she left hers hours ago. Even though there's a lot of rock between her and it, now. Even though it is impossible.

She sits up. Must have found a secret portal to a Sphere, she thinks, brushing herself off. Strange that the ropes were broken, though, her mother's portal doesn't do that. Some aspect of the Sphere that's responsible...?

Standing, she looks around.

"Hello?" she calls.

Comments

[pythbox]

"You should stay indoors at night. It is very dangerous to be wandering around in the dark," the not-a-person says as it fails to keep up with her.

[what_greater_weapon]

"Noted."

Stalk stalk stalk stalk keep up with her now asshole.

[pythbox]

The not-a-person falls far behind. Now she cannot even see it behind her.



A blue blob hops past. It's bigger than the green blobs.

It lands on a bunny.

The bunny is now splattered all over its immediate environs. The blue blob does not appear to notice. It hops right along.

[what_greater_weapon]

Well that's alarming.

But the blobs do not seem particularly inclined to attack her. Maybe they start getting hungry at night.

How can she have an indoors by the time night falls?

...

She starts looking for caves.

[pythbox]

There's one over there! It contains rows of strangely similar clay pots.

[what_greater_weapon]

Why?

She checks inside the clay pots. What is this, the most bizarre cookie stash of all time?

[pythbox]

Inside pot number one: A flask of bright red fluid!

Inside pot number two: Several short lengths of rope!

Inside pot number three: A small bright green rod!

Inside pot number four: Another, identical flask of bright red fluid!

Inside pot number five: A small pile of copper coins in an unfamiliar style!

Inside pot number six: A few wooden arrows!

[what_greater_weapon]

None of these things are ordinary things to keep in pots. Or even sane things to keep in pots. Who keeps rope in a pot? Who keeps a vial of bright red fluid in a pot? Crazy people. She suspects the not-a-person.

She sighs, and goes to pick up the rope and bright green rod. These at least look useful.

[pythbox]

Well, first of all, when she reaches into the pot and grabs its contents, the pot cracks apart into pieces, splashing into the small puddle that surrounds these two pots.

Second, when she retrieves the bright green rod, it comes with a helpful little mental notification that she is holding an object representing 3 Glowsticks, and if she chooses she can throw one of them at a time.

Most of the other things in this strange place can be explained by a very eccentric Unfading person who has done some weird shit to their Sphere. This... really can't.

[what_greater_weapon]

No. No it can't.

Zinseyn experimentally throws a glowstick.

[pythbox]

The act of 'throwing' a glowstick doesn't actually involve letting the 3 Glowsticks leave her hand. But now she is holding 2 Glowsticks, and there is a bright green rod tumbling through the air. It lands on the floor of the cave, and glows bright green.



The shards of the pot are gradually fading from existence.

[what_greater_weapon]

Okay.

Crazy world, fine. She will deal with it. First priority: it is not safe to be outdoors at night. She needs to understand how this place of insanity works, as quickly as she can, and then she needs to hole up in the cave for the night.

What was it the not-a-person said? Chopping down trees?

She gets the copper axe, and she goes outside to try chopping down trees. She goes far enough away from the cave she'll be holing up in that the fallen trees won't hit anything she cares about, but - tree. Cutting down. At least to try it.

[pythbox]

A chopped-down tree falls apart into a multitude of tiny wooden cubes, which whiffle together into a single cube when they touch each other while falling to the ground.

When she picks it up, it tells her she is holding 12 Wood and if she likes she may place wood blocks in the world by looking where she wishes them to go and deciding to put them there.

Oh, and she can also make a Workbench. Whatever that is. The mental image seems to be of a small low table.

[what_greater_weapon]

That seems worth making.

But she thinks right now it is more important to gather resources. She can possibly barricade the cave she's planning to stay in, or just pass on staying in the cave entirely and go make a house. She chops more trees. Making a Workbench can come later. Chop chop chop chop chop chop.

She stays away from the blobs. She chops down trees until she has over two hundred Wood, deems that to be probably enough for now, and turns to return to the cave.

She breaks every pot present, picks up all of the items, and decides that her willingness to live in a cave for a little while depends on how nice she can make the cave. She tests the pickaxe on the dirt, to see if she can renovate it in any way.

[pythbox]

The pickaxe turns out to cubify two feet by two feet by two feet of dirt at a time. Now she has 1 Dirt.

[what_greater_weapon]

Okay.

She digs out the floor, replaces it with wood (because it is much nicer to stand on, and less likely to get her bitten by bugs) and makes a Workbench and puts it neatly against the wall. What does this do?

[pythbox]

It allows her to make more things!

[what_greater_weapon]

Yes it does. Okay then.

She makes a bunch of wooden walls and a door, and classes the place up. Wooden walls instead of the cave ones, and a wall with a door in it instead of the mouth of the cave. She then makes a table and a chair, and sticks them in the corner, and organizes most of her stuff on the table so she knows what she has and how she can use it.

Okay. What next? She technically has water already, though she doesn't think it's safe to drink. She still has her canteen, and some food, she is reasonably set there for a while. She can make a fire, but that's not advised while she's in a place that is now entirely made out of wood.

...

She should figure out how she fares against the blobs of the world. So she knows just how completely fucked she is.

She gets the copper shortsword and the axe if she needs a backup, and she carefully steps outside her shelter to find the smallest blob available and see if stabbing it does anything in particular.

[pythbox]

Stabbing the blob repeatedly causes it to explode in a shower of goo, releasing several copper coins in the local style and a couple of tiny balls of blobstuff.

The balls of blobstuff, when whiffled together and held, proclaim themselves to be 2 Gel.

And now she can make a torch, if she likes.

[what_greater_weapon]

Well there's only one thing to do, isn't there.

She makes a torch. Does it just - instantly create fire?

[pythbox]

A bright heatless fire, ceaselessly burning on the end of a wooden stick!

[what_greater_weapon]

Right.

She makes a tiny experimental fire station, where she puts a torch on a blocked wood that is three blocks high, and sees if it catches fire.

It does not.

This is bizarre and strange, but fine by her.

Back to the Zincave she goes. She lights the place up with torches so she can see.

[pythbox]

Now her cave interior is lit! How nice.

[what_greater_weapon]

Yes, very nice.

It's actually starting to get late in the evening by now. Soon the sun will be setting.

Well. Last minute preparations.

She creates several sets of wooden barricades between the table and the door, and then knocks out the back wall, digs out another (much smaller) room, adds a door to this room, and then fancies up this room, too. So she can cower in comfort, if it turns out that she does need to cower.

Right then. Bring it, night. Zinseyn's relatively ready for you.

[pythbox]

There is a muffled sound from the next room.

Almost like a certain familiar voice saying...

"In order for a room to be considered a home, it needs to have a door, chair, table, and a light source. Make sure the house has walls as well."