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Luck, of some description.
Dec. 18th, 2015 09:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lurkingkobold"Curiosity did what, now" AU picking up from Dusk and Elarron going their separate ways in the forest.
lurkingkobold
Curiosity did what, now?
Nov. 22nd, 2015 10:06 amlurkingkoboldThe kobold's research cave is coming along nicely, after her previous adventure - the floor carefully flattened (by teleporting stone out) and softened (by teleporting sand in); the permanent portals to Deva and the cavern's exit, currently closed to anyone who doesn't know the passwords, but marked off, with spaces set aside for several more portals; her experimenting supplies tucked away behind further portals in her workspace; a small cache set up for her new translation necklace and any other magical items she might happen to find in her travels.
And, now, another portal, leading to another new world. She double-checks that she has her traveling gear - translation necklace, teleporting ring, twine - completes the spell, and peers through.
And, now, another portal, leading to another new world. She double-checks that she has her traveling gear - translation necklace, teleporting ring, twine - completes the spell, and peers through.
One Curious Kobold
Oct. 14th, 2015 05:23 pmlurkingkoboldIt's winter, and all is well with the tribe. Their new magic, an ability to make portals from one place to another, which was found by one of their members during the early-summer trip to meet with the other tribes in the area, let them both build up a decadent food stockpile and move to a much deeper part of the cave system without the worry of being unable to find their way back out. No-one has had to go hungry, and even the fiercest ice storm doesn't reach them; they are as content as kobolds can be.
Well, aside from their new mage, that is. She's bored, and curious. Making portals to known places is straightforward enough, with the magic she found, but that's far from the limit of what it can do... so one day, she slips away, portals off to a different cave system - one can't be too careful, after all - and experiments.
Temperature roughly the same... gravity roughly the same... air the same, not into stone or underwater or in a volcano or on top of a mountain... but, instead of patterning it after a place she knows, what happens if she only specifies those things, and lets the innate patterns of the spot she's casting on do the rest? Particularly this one part, which seems to specify the world...
She finishes the spell, and hesitates for just a moment before activating it.
Well, aside from their new mage, that is. She's bored, and curious. Making portals to known places is straightforward enough, with the magic she found, but that's far from the limit of what it can do... so one day, she slips away, portals off to a different cave system - one can't be too careful, after all - and experiments.
Temperature roughly the same... gravity roughly the same... air the same, not into stone or underwater or in a volcano or on top of a mountain... but, instead of patterning it after a place she knows, what happens if she only specifies those things, and lets the innate patterns of the spot she's casting on do the rest? Particularly this one part, which seems to specify the world...
She finishes the spell, and hesitates for just a moment before activating it.
poll_the_starsSo that was definitely a thing that happened. She adds 'find a way to keep people from teleporting to Facet' on her mental list of things to figure out. Because that could have ended much, much worse.
Honestly, it didn't really end well, as is. Or technically end. She's still standing in this room filled with catatonic tortured people, a brainwashed arcanist lackey, and an invisible kobold whose motivations are a little inscrutable. The government has likely gathered all of its big guns and have pointed them all right here, and will be here to do murderous things momentarily. And she still hasn't died. This is, surprisingly, inconvenient.
"If you get caught, they really rather thoroughly want to use you for their charming immortality ritual," Aisilian had written. "Don't get caught."
Master of reassurance and understatement, that one. 'Don't get caught.' Yeah, sure, no problem, it's just she's the most wanted criminal on the planet and now standing here holding the bag after Jinx went and got them all on high alert.
She could just leave. Go back to Nexus, take Eva up on her offer, go sun diving. Come back later, as a demon, take over the government.
... Hm.
No.
Upon reflection, this is an opportunity. Here she is, in the heart of her government's hellhole, and no one around to stop her from doing whatever she likes. For example, broadcasting to the entire world exactly what atrocities this government is committing.
She steals the communication crystals Kuvair's got on him. Severing their connection is required to do anything with them, so she does that too. A small flash of light each, and then she sets them aside for reconnection into the various networks later. She doesn't have her communication crystal hacking device on her, unfortunately, but she's arguably a master of plant craft. Making a new one is time consuming, but not impossible.
Her poisonous dart plants get sacrificed for the good of her empire. What's left of them is left in a pockmark in the floor to grow, fed by the nutrition tubes from the one pod that was broken into. It doesn't quite have the nutrition meant for a plant, but it's better than anything else present by a wide margin. She prods it a bit with plant craft to grow in the right direction she needs, and tells it speed, speed, speed, she doesn't need it to last, she needs it now. Obligingly, it grows, and while it's doing that she starts attaching communication crystals to networks. It's fiddly and hard to do long distance, but... Well, what has she been doing for the past several hundred years? This sort of fiddly detail work with crystal networks.
She leaves the ordinary crystal networks alone. The majority of the populace isn't helpful to her purposes, and she doesn't want to cause mass upheaval anyway. Messy, painful - she's spent years avoiding that. She's not going to bumble into that problem now, when she's in the proverbial home stretch. Instead, she connects to the government's networks. The ones for the managers, in charge, but not in charge. The ones who would be the problems for a governmental coup. Information will trickle down, of course, but not quite so violently. For once, the absurdly thorough censoring will be a boon. It'll keep things from going to hell.
She sends a few Planar Messages to relevant people, while she works. Warnings, mostly. It is about to be a very, very good time to start a government coup.
She hasn't forgotten her kobold companion, but honestly, she really doesn't have time or the brain power to deal with her right now. She can just. Stay invisible. Over there. While Inavet sets this up.
Invisible kobold companion stays invisible, over there, while Inavet sets this up.
She combines the crystals (newly networked) with the newly grown device, and then she starts tying to figure out exactly how to approach this.
Honestly, it didn't really end well, as is. Or technically end. She's still standing in this room filled with catatonic tortured people, a brainwashed arcanist lackey, and an invisible kobold whose motivations are a little inscrutable. The government has likely gathered all of its big guns and have pointed them all right here, and will be here to do murderous things momentarily. And she still hasn't died. This is, surprisingly, inconvenient.
"If you get caught, they really rather thoroughly want to use you for their charming immortality ritual," Aisilian had written. "Don't get caught."
Master of reassurance and understatement, that one. 'Don't get caught.' Yeah, sure, no problem, it's just she's the most wanted criminal on the planet and now standing here holding the bag after Jinx went and got them all on high alert.
She could just leave. Go back to Nexus, take Eva up on her offer, go sun diving. Come back later, as a demon, take over the government.
... Hm.
No.
Upon reflection, this is an opportunity. Here she is, in the heart of her government's hellhole, and no one around to stop her from doing whatever she likes. For example, broadcasting to the entire world exactly what atrocities this government is committing.
She steals the communication crystals Kuvair's got on him. Severing their connection is required to do anything with them, so she does that too. A small flash of light each, and then she sets them aside for reconnection into the various networks later. She doesn't have her communication crystal hacking device on her, unfortunately, but she's arguably a master of plant craft. Making a new one is time consuming, but not impossible.
Her poisonous dart plants get sacrificed for the good of her empire. What's left of them is left in a pockmark in the floor to grow, fed by the nutrition tubes from the one pod that was broken into. It doesn't quite have the nutrition meant for a plant, but it's better than anything else present by a wide margin. She prods it a bit with plant craft to grow in the right direction she needs, and tells it speed, speed, speed, she doesn't need it to last, she needs it now. Obligingly, it grows, and while it's doing that she starts attaching communication crystals to networks. It's fiddly and hard to do long distance, but... Well, what has she been doing for the past several hundred years? This sort of fiddly detail work with crystal networks.
She leaves the ordinary crystal networks alone. The majority of the populace isn't helpful to her purposes, and she doesn't want to cause mass upheaval anyway. Messy, painful - she's spent years avoiding that. She's not going to bumble into that problem now, when she's in the proverbial home stretch. Instead, she connects to the government's networks. The ones for the managers, in charge, but not in charge. The ones who would be the problems for a governmental coup. Information will trickle down, of course, but not quite so violently. For once, the absurdly thorough censoring will be a boon. It'll keep things from going to hell.
She sends a few Planar Messages to relevant people, while she works. Warnings, mostly. It is about to be a very, very good time to start a government coup.
She hasn't forgotten her kobold companion, but honestly, she really doesn't have time or the brain power to deal with her right now. She can just. Stay invisible. Over there. While Inavet sets this up.
Invisible kobold companion stays invisible, over there, while Inavet sets this up.
She combines the crystals (newly networked) with the newly grown device, and then she starts tying to figure out exactly how to approach this.
Koboldish Planar Ally
Jul. 28th, 2015 03:15 pmlurkingkoboldi think any1 who moves 2 ur world is going 2 want the assistive device. iiii don't think any1 is going 2 want any modification done 2 them if that were even possible.
we can probably pay 4 the assistive device somehow, and depending on how exactly it works we might want some 4 ppl that aren't moving 2 ur world.
in our world we have simoleans u get them from sacrificing stuff and u use them 2 instantiate stuff and we have a lot b/c transfiguration. also i make potions which u can't instantiate and i can trade them 4 other hard-to-get stuff. there is probably something that we can get here that would b valuable in ur world. unless we can transfer simoleans 2 u directly? u can't transfer them between planes here unless u r also transferring a household, so we could send some w/whoever u took in when they left. unless ur world is weird. ur world sounds weird.
Yeah, instantiating things with magic is /really hard/ here, unless you cheat by transmuting a pile of junk or something. Sending objects is probably a better bet.
And I can totally get you some motion sensor openers for doors and drawers cheap. Although I am not sure how to send them, except through the OTC, and I don't have any of their currencies..
I believe I could make Portals to your worlds to help you trade, if you wanted, sweeties.
As an alternative to assistive devices, we might be able to just give telekinesis-reliant species more finely-controlled telekinesis, which'd basically just give them the opposable thumbs they need to operate existing devices. Don't even need alethics for that - I betcha mage hand could do it!
--ChibE
Hm. That sounds reasonable.
The kobold gets out of bed, trundles downstairs, and retrieves a spellbook, sending a Planar Message as she goes: [[greeting] [identity: kobold] [spellbook [mage hand] [will give [in 10 minutes]]] [ideal reader: [dangerous life] [problem solver] [experienced]]]. After the requisite time, she sends the spellbook, and returns to bed.
Welcome home! Here's what you missed:
Jul. 22nd, 2015 11:44 amlurkingkoboldThe kobold sits at Miles' kitchen table, working. A spool of twine she found someplace sits just at the edge of easy reach, with her knife beside it; she's taken several lengths of twine from it already, and added a variety of knots to them and sometimes tied them to each other, and laid them out carefully.
The twine is just twine, and the knots are just knots; there aren't any words encoded in them for an outsider to see. But they're still a useful memory aide; six months ago the kobold used a single knotted rope much like these to remember which medicinal plants she needed to look for in her foraging, with each knot representing a plant. Today, she's thinking about a post for the forum - an overview of the various kinds of people who post there, and some thoughts on how to recognize people as people, and how it is and isn't okay to treat people, and what kinds of help might be available if someone's world isn't meeting those standards.
It's a lot to think about; she fully expects to still be at it when Miles gets home.
The twine is just twine, and the knots are just knots; there aren't any words encoded in them for an outsider to see. But they're still a useful memory aide; six months ago the kobold used a single knotted rope much like these to remember which medicinal plants she needed to look for in her foraging, with each knot representing a plant. Today, she's thinking about a post for the forum - an overview of the various kinds of people who post there, and some thoughts on how to recognize people as people, and how it is and isn't okay to treat people, and what kinds of help might be available if someone's world isn't meeting those standards.
It's a lot to think about; she fully expects to still be at it when Miles gets home.
lurkingkoboldThe scene: Miles' living room; Cordelia and the kobold sit on the couch, facing each other, with the kobold's mirror on the couch between them.
The kobold has the mirror read a thread, gives an explanation of what she found on her trip - the spiders are telepathic, she wasn't obviously a person because she's not; also, these spiders are small, but clearly capable of killing humans, she watched one take down a rat nearly that big - then has the mirror read another thread, and then a series of private messages between herself and Novelty:
When the private message thread is done, the kobold says, "I'm done trying to negotiate, this kind of thing never ends well. We need to do something, though."
The kobold has the mirror read a thread, gives an explanation of what she found on her trip - the spiders are telepathic, she wasn't obviously a person because she's not; also, these spiders are small, but clearly capable of killing humans, she watched one take down a rat nearly that big - then has the mirror read another thread, and then a series of private messages between herself and Novelty:
Hi!
There's another spider here, Queen Hot, who was asking about eating humans a while ago.
Do you know them? If you do, have you told them that they might be wrong about humans not being people?
She's the queen of my clan. I told her about humans and she said she doesn't think they're people but if she sees any she'll ask them for me. I told her maybe they're people who can't talk. She said she'll ask them about that too. I said she wasn't taking me seriously, this is important! So I told her I can trade some alive humans on the forum and she said okay she'll bring me any alive humans she finds, I should get a good trade. If she finds humans can you trade for them?
That's a good idea, but I think I have a better one - I have friends who are humans and don't talk the way you do; I can bring one of them to meet her and explain. Do you think that would work? How dangerous would it be for us?
I can get her to listen to you. She's very patient. But she might plan to eat you after.
Hm. Tell her I have five goats I'll give her if she doesn't try to eat us when we visit.
What are goats?
Goats are a kind of animal; four goats is about as much meat as me and my human friend together.
She wants one of the goats up front to see if they are good food.
When the private message thread is done, the kobold says, "I'm done trying to negotiate, this kind of thing never ends well. We need to do something, though."
Visitations
Jul. 20th, 2015 08:10 pmambrovimvorThere is a smallish stone room, with two beds, with a small pile of books between them, a table and chair, and on the table, some kind of laptop computer.
Anda taps out a last PM to the kobold and hits send.
She looks at Linsa who is sitting on the nearest bed, "Are you ready?"
"Let's do this."
Anda goes to sit on the bed next to Linsa to wait.
Anda taps out a last PM to the kobold and hits send.
She looks at Linsa who is sitting on the nearest bed, "Are you ready?"
"Let's do this."
Anda goes to sit on the bed next to Linsa to wait.
Don't expect mercy from my government
Jul. 10th, 2015 03:33 pmpoll_the_starsOne elf is starting to run out of time. The assassins plotting to kill her could show up any day now. She would really rather they didn't.
The irony doesn't escape her. She's still sending messages about her plans to sell off all of her lifespan and die to become a daeva with a lot of OTC currency. If she wanted, she could mint a ton of Ka, then let the assassins kill her. But the idea doesn't appeal. Some form of giving up, of letting them win. She's not often petty, but in this particular instance she thinks she'll indulge herself. Besides, it's not like they're the merciful type. She recalls Aisilian's perfect comprehensioned words. You were in quite a lot of pain...
No. No, she'll - not do that. She'll go spend a little while in Nexus.
She sends Miles a message.
The irony doesn't escape her. She's still sending messages about her plans to sell off all of her lifespan and die to become a daeva with a lot of OTC currency. If she wanted, she could mint a ton of Ka, then let the assassins kill her. But the idea doesn't appeal. Some form of giving up, of letting them win. She's not often petty, but in this particular instance she thinks she'll indulge herself. Besides, it's not like they're the merciful type. She recalls Aisilian's perfect comprehensioned words. You were in quite a lot of pain...
No. No, she'll - not do that. She'll go spend a little while in Nexus.
She sends Miles a message.
So everything is packed and I have everything I need with me to flee my dimension before I get assassinated. Is now a good time?
lurkingkoboldMagic.
It is kind of amazing. One might even say magical.
What is the kobold going to do with her new magic? Not sleep in, certainly.
How about... yes. Gate. She can gate to any place or any person she knows. The latter... probably not such a good idea, and certainly not without letting someone know where she's going, but the former, that has some potential. She's always been curious, and prone to exploring; she knows some really nice places.
If she hurries, she might get to watch the sun rise, even with the time difference.
A few hours and two sunrises later, it's nearly time to expect Miles for breakfast. She's prepared a bit of a spread - boiled eggs, muffins, bacon, hash browns, and she's got a batch of batter ready for pancakes when he shows up.
It is kind of amazing. One might even say magical.
What is the kobold going to do with her new magic? Not sleep in, certainly.
How about... yes. Gate. She can gate to any place or any person she knows. The latter... probably not such a good idea, and certainly not without letting someone know where she's going, but the former, that has some potential. She's always been curious, and prone to exploring; she knows some really nice places.
If she hurries, she might get to watch the sun rise, even with the time difference.
A few hours and two sunrises later, it's nearly time to expect Miles for breakfast. She's prepared a bit of a spread - boiled eggs, muffins, bacon, hash browns, and she's got a batch of batter ready for pancakes when he shows up.
lurkingkoboldSo, that was a party. It was nice, right up until it wasn't - almost like having a tribe again, if she didn't think too closely about it. But then it wasn't, and it really wasn't, and now here we are.
Here, in this case, is the floor of the closet of the room she's been sleeping in, in Miles' house, wrapped up as tight as she can manage in the blanket she took from the bed, waiting for her heart to calm enough that she can go back to sleep after a familiar and expected nightmare. The blanket is wrong - it's missing the smell and stiffness and most importantly the weight of the leather blanket she wishes she had - and the floor is wrong and the acoustics are wrong and being alone, with no other kobolds, is so wrong, and she wishes she could go home, just for a day, just for an hour, just for long enough to let everything be right again for a little while.
She can't, of course. In the light of day, with her new strange almost-tribe, she doesn't even want to, wouldn't want to even if she could. But here, now, in the dark, in this space that is right only in that it's less wrong than her other options, that it's small enough and closed enough that when she wakes, shaking, she can be sure that she is alone, that no one has snuck up on her - here and now, she would trade it all for the smell of cookfire smoke and the sound of a hundred sleeping bodies.
Remembering helps, a little. Even if she can't be there now, tribe is something she had, something she knows like breathing, like heartbeat. She can't be there, but, if she was.... it would sound like this, and it would look like this, and it would feel like this...
Eventually, her breathing slows, and she drifts back to sleep.
Here, in this case, is the floor of the closet of the room she's been sleeping in, in Miles' house, wrapped up as tight as she can manage in the blanket she took from the bed, waiting for her heart to calm enough that she can go back to sleep after a familiar and expected nightmare. The blanket is wrong - it's missing the smell and stiffness and most importantly the weight of the leather blanket she wishes she had - and the floor is wrong and the acoustics are wrong and being alone, with no other kobolds, is so wrong, and she wishes she could go home, just for a day, just for an hour, just for long enough to let everything be right again for a little while.
She can't, of course. In the light of day, with her new strange almost-tribe, she doesn't even want to, wouldn't want to even if she could. But here, now, in the dark, in this space that is right only in that it's less wrong than her other options, that it's small enough and closed enough that when she wakes, shaking, she can be sure that she is alone, that no one has snuck up on her - here and now, she would trade it all for the smell of cookfire smoke and the sound of a hundred sleeping bodies.
Remembering helps, a little. Even if she can't be there now, tribe is something she had, something she knows like breathing, like heartbeat. She can't be there, but, if she was.... it would sound like this, and it would look like this, and it would feel like this...
Eventually, her breathing slows, and she drifts back to sleep.
methods and tools
Jun. 30th, 2015 10:42 pmonwhatwingswedareaspireThe gate opens in an small space. Through a doorway ahead is a mid-sized room, scattered with chairs. One wall, directly across from the doorway to the incoming gates area, is made of some clear material. On the other side of it is another room, with a metallic floor raised slightly above the first one's, with a half-dozen complex diagrams and space for many more.
The way into there appears to be through a decontamination room to the left. There is a door on the right into the rest of the base. Embedded in the wall to the left is the door to the outgoing gate area.
Both rooms are windowless and otherwise minimally decorated.
(Observant guests may note that the gravity is about a third of what they are used to.)
The way into there appears to be through a decontamination room to the left. There is a door on the right into the rest of the base. Embedded in the wall to the left is the door to the outgoing gate area.
Both rooms are windowless and otherwise minimally decorated.
(Observant guests may note that the gravity is about a third of what they are used to.)
Small Lurker in Milliways
Jun. 25th, 2015 11:05 amlurkingkoboldHere is a kobold.
To people familiar with the species, it's obviously a young one, not quite three feet tall to the adults' three and a half foot average. Its fur is blueish-grey and relatively dull, a sign that it hasn't been eating properly recently, though it's not thin. It's wearing a simple animal-skin skirt and carrying a stick, not quite long enough to serve as a walking stick, but useful for shielding itself from the worst of the undergrowth at least.
It is moving through the forest at speed, not following any path, and then suddenly it is elsewhere. After a few minutes, it notices the difference in the light; after a few more, it notices that the trees are subtly wrong - wrong species, wrong growth patterns, wrong in subtler ways that defy describing, but that tell the kobold that it is not in the forest where it grew up.
After even more minutes, it stops, having come to a clearing. There is a building, which, despite not being alarmingly large, cannot be traveled around.
The kobold does not have permission to enter the building.
The kobold cannot go back to where it was.
The kobold sits, and waits.
To people familiar with the species, it's obviously a young one, not quite three feet tall to the adults' three and a half foot average. Its fur is blueish-grey and relatively dull, a sign that it hasn't been eating properly recently, though it's not thin. It's wearing a simple animal-skin skirt and carrying a stick, not quite long enough to serve as a walking stick, but useful for shielding itself from the worst of the undergrowth at least.
It is moving through the forest at speed, not following any path, and then suddenly it is elsewhere. After a few minutes, it notices the difference in the light; after a few more, it notices that the trees are subtly wrong - wrong species, wrong growth patterns, wrong in subtler ways that defy describing, but that tell the kobold that it is not in the forest where it grew up.
After even more minutes, it stops, having come to a clearing. There is a building, which, despite not being alarmingly large, cannot be traveled around.
The kobold does not have permission to enter the building.
The kobold cannot go back to where it was.
The kobold sits, and waits.
