witchcraft and sorcery

[witchwatcher]

For a brief moment, in a certain part of fairyland there is a tear that leads to the cold sky above a snow-covered hilly forest somewhere in the mortal world.

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[witchwatcher]

"If we go after individuals, years. But there is a king Neuroi, of sorts. It's huge, the size of a mountain. It lives inside a giant storm so we can't get near it, but we can watch it and see that it makes the smaller ones. Even if it can't control them after the fact you can tell it to stop making them."

[imeanforever]

"And Chatterbox can relay through this storm just fine."

[witchwatcher]

"It hasn't been tried through the storm specifically, but she can talk to anyone she can see, and I can copy both her, and Telescope's enhanced vision to see it through the clouds and rain. It'll be tricky, the relaying-voices thing is a lot harder than sending my own and listening. I'll need to practice."

[imeanforever]

"Okay. So... you can practice and I can grow my tree and when you're ready we can try it."

[witchwatcher]

"Sounds good. Straight home, then, Scatter?"

"I kinda wanted to explore for a bit again, but home is just as good."

"Bye, Promise." Poof.

[imeanforever]

Promise grows her tree. She grows it until she can just barely squish inside it, and then she does, and she grows it more.

She forces it into fruit. She missed her own haws and her own wood and her own safety.

[witchwatcher]

Safety is pretty good, isn't it?

Fighting monsters is not particularly safe. Scatter pops in, alone, bleeding, and flops to the ground in front of Promise's tree.

[imeanforever]

Promise does not immediately notice this. She is inside. Her tree does not have windows nor, at the moment, a door.

[witchwatcher]

She tries to yell. It doesn't really work. She fires the flintlock pistol in her non-burned hand at the dirt, that's pretty loud.

[imeanforever]

That gets Promise to peek out. And heal her.

[witchwatcher]

"Thank you. Sorry for barging in. A Neuroi caught me by surprise, and those were nasty wounds. If I went to a hospital I would have died, but I remembered that sorcery can do healing. So, thank you."

This uniform is different than the clothes she usually wears. It has some writing on it. One of the things written on it is a name.

[imeanforever]

"You're we-" Pause. "- wearing your name."

[witchwatcher]

"...Fuck." She covers it with her hand and looks around. "Most uniforms have names on them. It's not like I had time to change clothes before coming here. Damn it."

[imeanforever]

"I'm not going to hurt you."

[witchwatcher]

Scatter believes it. Mostly. If she was going to control her, the first word out of her mouth would have been 'stop' not 'you're wearing your name'.

"Even so. Not like I had much choice, but I wish I had at least thought of it." Sigh. "I'm gonna go back in a couple minutes. Anything you want to pass along to Copycat while I'm here?"

[imeanforever]

"Nothing in particular."

[witchwatcher]

"Okay. Thanks for the healing."

Time to go buy some earplugs. Or maybe to try and get herself cursed - voluntary curses that are still beneficial in some way do exist, and 'unable to hear orders' probably isn't even the weirdest thing the good cursers have been asked for. Though it would make military service awkward.

She rests for a minute and then disappears.

[imeanforever]

And Promise goes back into her tree.

[witchwatcher]

Four days later, Scatter and Copycat appear again and look for Promise.

[imeanforever]

Promise is harvesting roots. "Hi."

[witchwatcher]

"Hi. Scatter can't hear you right now, by the way. Chatterbox's special overrides earplugs, though. Since you saw her nametag, a good test would be if I try to relay an innocuous order from you to her."

[imeanforever]

"Pat your head," Promise says.

[witchwatcher]

Scatter pats her head. "So, that worked." She's louder than usual. Probably because she can't hear herself. "Do we go find a Neuroi now?"

"I think so, yes. Unless you have stuff to finish first, Promise?"

[imeanforever]

"I'd like to eat lunch. After that I'm all set."

[witchwatcher]

"We'll wait here. I brought a book. Don't want to go home, Scatter can't really spare the mana."