Mountain, meet Endbringer

[sturdycoldsteel]

The Fate who calls herself Mountain tried to convince some of her neighbors to allow the occasional mountain in their lands, for stability purposes.

"I meant no insult!" Dodge ball of lava. "I don't intend to interfere, you said no!" Dodge house-sized spear of ice. "I'm leaving peacefully, okay, so stop tearing up the tile!"

"You'll respawn at home. No permanent damage. You interrupted an important meeting, you need to learn a lesson about territory, mountain bitch." Dodge- no, fail to dodge a thrown tree, and then another ice ball. The next sphere of magma is what destroyed that form.




She wakes up, stripped of all her tools and enchantments and even clothes, and groans in pain.

Comments

[peterxy]

Alexandria watches this curiously, looking at the handiwork. "That reminds me of Myrddin's runes," she says, even if Celtana won't understand.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"They don't work. Nevermind." For the same reason. She smooths it over with her hands.

She's quiet for a long while. But as the ship passes over the Northwestern Passages of Canada she frowns, points down and mimes shaking.

[peterxy]

Alexandria frowns and speaks into her ear-crystal thing. There's quite some conversation there, then she says, "Now I'm really impressed." And mimes/expresses that using what's visible of her face and body language.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Shrug. "I'm a Fate. We feel the health of the world. Though I'm not sure why I'm even saying anything, since we don't understand each other."

[peterxy]

Alexandria reacts about as well as one would expect to after hearing such an extended sentence in a completely unknown language, but she does recognise a few of those words from other things she's said - eidetic memory and supersmarts - and repeat them to her, slowly.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Vocabulary lesson on things-easily-pointed-to then.

[peterxy]

Alexandria repeats them with very little in the way of an accent, and asks about more things, getting pencil and paper to draw things and ask about them, too.

[sturdycoldsteel]

She solicits the English versions of her words but doesn't remember them quite so readily. Grammar is a bit trickier than nouns and verbs, though.

This could cover the rest of the flight time quite easily.

[peterxy]

So it could. And, lacking any objections, so it will.

[sturdycoldsteel]

She does object eventually, asking for more food. "Fight was hard."

[peterxy]

More food is definitely available.

[sturdycoldsteel]

She keeps asking about other kinds of people, and is surprised that it's only humans.

She goggles a bit at the scale of the city, when they arrive. "...How many humans?"

[peterxy]

Alexandria has presumably taught and learnt how to both write and say numbers. "7.43 million, approximately."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"A lot... Farms on other-" something. "No. You don't have-" the same something.

[peterxy]

"What are-" something "-?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

Vague gesture. "Squares of land. Home, land is always square or triangle... But not here."

[peterxy]

"...squares in all directions? Not sphere?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Not spheres. And no... Melting, below. Square just ends. They fall sometimes. Fates like me, make more squares. Can't make squares above or below, won't attach to... World cloth?"

[peterxy]

That is far beyond what Alexandria would have expected of normal variance between worlds. "I see. That means I understand."

The plane slows down as it approaches the Protectorate headquarters, and enters the protective forcefield to land.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I don't understand. But staying still not understanding, not helping."

[peterxy]

She nods. "This is the Protectorate's temple," she says, approximating headquarters. "The Protectorate protects people from monsters and other things. We will try to find someone to help communicate."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Capes are organized. Good. I hope you fight less. Fates fighting can make hundreds of squares fall."

[peterxy]

Pause. "We fight more but we are less powerful."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"...Okay. Good overall. And this sphere is not as unstable as the squares, that helps. You want me to join the Protectorate? I might be willing, until this form dies and I respawn in one of my own temples. I hope whatever error sent me here is a one-time mistake. Need to learn more about both things..."

[peterxy]

Alexandria doesn't recognize some of those words, but infers from context. "We would be very glad to have you with us, but your power is perhaps not good for small things."