shiny new world

[mrsparkle]

Sadde's running.

Not for any particular reason, just because it's faster. He's been meaning to go to one of the capitals for a bit and now, he supposes, is as good a time as any.

And eventually he's not running anymore, because he's close enough to civilisation that someone might spot him. Not that he wouldn't be able to notice them by scent before they saw him, but still. And as he makes his way to the Norway capital at this more leisurely pace, he notices the tiny, shiny key. He walks towards it and picks it up and immediately notices just how magic it is. He can tell by the way the key feels like things, and different things depending on where it is.

He verifies that what the key feels like is consistent in absolute location by waving it around a bit and seeing that the same place always feels the same. "Huh," he murmurs to himself.

He straightens up and thinks. The first obvious thing to try is seeing whether it opens any doors - a universal skeleton key sounds like the kind of thing a magical key could be - but the second obvious thing can be tested right there and then. He pushes the key into thin air with some purpose, as if he wanted to unlock an invisible door, and then turns it, et voilà, the faintest of door-shaped outlines appears before him.

He locks the door, and it disappears. Unlocks it again, and there it is. So he pulls it open and sees-

Comments

[mrsparkle]

"I'm not completely having you on," he reassures this god amongst (im)mortals. "So, anyway, before I go any further, I think the most immediately relevant fact about my kind of vampire is that we have this magical soulmate thing going on where if I lay eyes on a person I'm mutually romantically compatible with I am instantly and magically in love with them forever. And that happened when I looked at you."

[from_scratch]

"I. Appreciate your bringing this to my attention."

[mrsparkle]

"Yes, I thought you would, given that you're the type of person I would fall in love with and who would fall in love with me."

[from_scratch]

"Do you have, like, a name."

[mrsparkle]

"Sadde, that's S-a-d-d-e, yes pretty weird I know. I presume you're Cam, from the thing over there with the other, uh, demons."

[from_scratch]

"Yeah, I'm Cam. Yes, we are all demons here except apparently you. And yours is not the weirdest name one encounters in a society where fully grown adults appear with no language skills or preexisting social connections on a routine basis."

[mrsparkle]

"That makes a lot of sense in hindsight," he comments. Also: he's not being immediately rejected by Cam! Ee. Eeeeee. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! "By the way, you don't seem surprised by the fact that you'd fall in love with a guy so I presume you're attracted to guys? Typically this magic soulmate thing selects for sexual compatibility but in my case I also have some extra magic that means I can shapeshift and I am often also female ssssooooo I didn't know how that'd interact." Is it obvious there's only one thing he can think about now?

[from_scratch]

"Uh, I'm bisexual, if that's what you mean..."

[mrsparkle]

"Yep, isn't that convenient, I think it's very convenient. Erm, sorry if I'm sounding a bit one-track here, I'm still getting used to being magically in love with you, can you tell me more about your world and daeva and demons and summoning and stuff?"

Do not jump his bones do not jump his bones you will break them and also that's not cool consent is a thing you can get him to fall for you the regular way even if that takes very long because you two are in fact compatible and aaaaaaaargh!

[from_scratch]

"Uh. Sure. So. There's three kinds of daeva, demons and angels and fairies. Demons make things, angels change things, fairies move things. All three can be summoned by humans in the mortal realm by drawing variously elaborate circular designs on the floor and then they can exchange goods and services for the hire of our cool magic powers. If a human summons somebody and then they die they become a daeva, exactly how it's determined which type is unclear but I suspect personality compatibility with the magic type; humans who die without having summoned anyone go to Limbo which is really boring and disappointing but not awful or anything. Daeva are indestructible and immortal and heal very rapidly from small injuries; Limboites actually get that too but no powers and their world doesn't have much in it to start out and unlike angels and demons they can't naturally fix that. We export a lot during the concordances, which are periods of smallish overlap between any pair of non-mortal worlds."

[mrsparkle]

"Can you qualify that? Making things and changing things and moving things? Can daeva summon other daeva? Can anyone summon Limboites? And how indestructible are we talking, here? You felt pretty squeezable," and also like heaven, we should touch again, in fact we should touch a lot for a very long time.

[from_scratch]

Cam makes an M&M in the palm of his hand, displays it, and eats it. "Making things," he repeats. "Angels can shrink or transmute or grow or attach or detach - trained right they're good healers. Fairies are telekinetic. Daeva can't summon, no summoning Limboites, and very indestructible but only past a certain point, like, if you shot me I'd bleed and fall over but I wouldn't crack my skull."

[mrsparkle]

"...that's cheating. That's really really cheating. What are the limitations on what you can make? Do you have to be seeing it? How much do you need to know about it?"

[from_scratch]

"No antimatter or anything created in motion, no, and depends if you're copying something or designing it."

[mrsparkle]

"Can you copy something you've never seen? Could you make, say, a vial of vampire venom?"

[from_scratch]

"Oh, and no inherent magical properties. But yes, things can be copied sight unseen as long as they're specified well enough and in a non-cheaty way - yes title and author of book, no 'first book published in 2100 with a redheaded editor.'"

[mrsparkle]

"...could you get a book from 2100 with more precise specification?"

[from_scratch]

"...yyyyyes? Uh, what year is it where you're from."

[mrsparkle]

"Uh, 2012, is this also the future."

[from_scratch]

"Welcome to 2159."

[mrsparkle]

"Yep, it's the future, I presume from that that you can't in fact make stuff from the future."

[from_scratch]

"Nope, no form of daeva gets precognition of any kind."

[mrsparkle]

"The shadow government where I'm from employs someone who can see possible futures. Our kinds of magic are really different." Can we stop talking now and start making out?

[from_scratch]

"The shadow government. I see. Well, that would be the sort of asset a shadow government would want to have."

[mrsparkle]

"Yup! They took over, uh, last year, relatively speaking. The previous shadow government was very terrible, but the new one's great, they're slowly peeling the Masquerade and making sure vampires don't kill humans and figuring out a way to make artificial blood that doesn't taste like death the way non-human blood does and their long-term goals seem to be making everyone who wants to one form or another of immortal."