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]

"Hell looks really weird. That is so not a sentence I'd ever expected to ever utter."

[from_scratch]

"Hell is very tacky. We can all make anything on a whim and getting rid of it is a lot harder and there's no incentive to recycle. One day someone wanted to make an enormous plane of gold. Now a lot of demons hang out on it. There are some planets nearish by but mostly it's the plane of gold."

[mrsparkle]

Sadde's eyes are on Cam's but he's also watching his lips moving and thinking about just how kissable they are and part of him idly thanks the gods of vampire magic that his brain is so good at multitasking, if he were human he'd probably not have heard a single word Cam said.

That is such a great face.

"How does gravity even work, there?"

[from_scratch]

"Normally. There's math behind the plane of gold but I don't have it memorized."

[mrsparkle]

...a thing occurs to Sadde. It took this long to occur because he's been focusing on other things, but now he notices another part of his brain has been insistently trying to tell him this thing. That part is now all the parts, and the thing is: Cam is shirtless. He should really be devoting more attention to this fact than he's been.

"So the plane of gold is actually large enough to generate its own gravitational field? That's actually really cool."

(Thank the gods of vampire magic that he can see Cam's shirtless glory without having to actually look at it.)

[from_scratch]

"Yeah, it's a big plane of gold."

Cam lands on a little tiny planetoid with mysteriously Earth-normal gravity. There is a house on it.

[mrsparkle]

"...black hole inside it?" he guesses.

[from_scratch]

"Yup! I don't like having close neighbors who can suddenly make architectural additions at any scale." Cam lets him in. The house is cozy and attractive and not tacky at all.

[mrsparkle]

"Your house is pretty cozy and attractive and not tacky at all," he comments.

[from_scratch]

"Thank you. Er, if vampires need toilets please let me know and I'll hook something up; daeva do not."

[mrsparkle]

"Vampires do not, either. I should add that to my mental bucket list of vampire superpowers."

[from_scratch]

Snort. "Make yourself comfy. Can I get you some blood or anything?"

[mrsparkle]

"Nope, I can generate mine and tend to keep myself full enough to slosh, especially when I expect to be around humans."

[from_scratch]

"Is being around humans a particular issue?"

[mrsparkle]

"Disadvantage number one or two, depending on how you're counting it, of being a vampire is that humans smell, look, and taste appetising enough to turn otherwise upstanding people into serial murderers. The other disadvantage number one or two is that the turning process consists in three days of pure agony that would be enough to kill a human, and that agony doesn't even disappear from your throat and flares whenever you smell human. You eventually get used to it, especially on an animal diet, but the first year's tough."

[from_scratch]

"...Do I smell like a human?"

[mrsparkle]

"Er, I had my sense of smell turned off, but," sniff, "not quite. Subtle difference, I think supersenses may be necessary to notice it."

[from_scratch]

"Do I smell appetizing?"

[mrsparkle]

"Um. Yeah. But the thought of even trying to do anything that could constitute hurting you makes me want to go hide in a black hole or something."

[from_scratch]

"Please do not crawl into my garbage chute."

[mrsparkle]

"I'll refrain from doing so. Futures where I spend time around you are definitely preferable to futures where I'm part of a singularity."

[from_scratch]

"...Speaking of, do vampires suffer from radiation poisoning?"

[mrsparkle]

"Nope, not unless there's enough radiation to actually set us on fire, why?"

[from_scratch]

"'Cause there's enough shielding around my black hole not to interfere with electronics but not enough that it would be a great idea for a human to be here for long periods. But you don't seem to be catching fire so you're fine, apparently."

[mrsparkle]

"Apparently!" He beams.