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

[mssparkle]

"I didn't get much chance to actually test it, I was in the middle of doing that when soulmate magic hit me in the forehead and it kinda slipped my mind, but yes, we should. Why do they think you'd talk them out of their souls? How can you talk someone out of their soul?"

[from_scratch]

Cam heads for his shuttle. "When daeva are summoned it's generally to agree to a task and a payment. Traditionally you can pay a demon with your soul. A task/binding pair only gets set if the summoner and daeva agree on it."

[mssparkle]

She follows him but says, "Um," and gestures at her nakedness.

[from_scratch]

Cam hands her clothes. "Change on the way. You are very nimble, I believe in your ability to put on clothes in a shuttle."

[mssparkle]

She giggles. "Anyway, you were saying about people traditionally paying demons with their souls?"

[from_scratch]

"It's never actually happened. We can't take them. But a certain sort of demon thinks it's fun to mess with mortals like that."

[mssparkle]

She starts putting clothes on. "And simultaneously give everyone else a bad name and make it impossible for you to terraform Mars." Pause. "Should I maybe have wings and a tail?"

[from_scratch]

"Yeah, possibly, but I'd rather discuss design when we're not worrying about a two-week-old portal in a well-trafficked park. Tail's more optional than the wings. If anybody asks you can't decide on a color."

[mssparkle]

"Black. Definitely black."

And she eyes him like she didn't just spend two weeks having her way with him (and vice-versa) nigh-continuously.

[from_scratch]

"Right, but you're pretending you might want them red and gold or something."

Presently, he lands in the park.

[mssparkle]

And then they're out of the shuttle and Sadde skips over (at human speeds) to where her portal was and-

-there's nothing there.

[from_scratch]

"Okay, so either this is very promising and your key does not leave portals standing open or someone else has already closed it in a way that hopefully didn't include wandering through."

[mssparkle]

"When I opened it- I think it's easier for me to show you, let's go back to your shuttle."

[from_scratch]

"Okay. ...And back to my house, in case the portals are absolute in space, or something."

[mssparkle]

"Yeah, sure. I just wanted to show you how I made one disappear when I was testing, that only takes a few seconds."

[from_scratch]

"Sure." Back to his house.

[mssparkle]

So she uses the key, chooses a random spot to open a door, and unlocks. There's the door, shimmering. She locks it again, and it's gone.

[from_scratch]

"Okay. So maybe they wear off after an amount of time or something."

[mssparkle]

"Or maybe someone else found another key and locked it? That sounds improbable. We should test the wearing-off part, though."

[from_scratch]

"Yeah. Put one in the swimming pool room or something where we won't accidentally blunder into it."

[mssparkle]

She runs over to the swimming pool room and creates a door there.

[from_scratch]

Cam sticks a camera to the wall to watch it so they don't have to.

[mssparkle]

"...so I'm now stuck until I find a door back to my world, I guess."

[from_scratch]

"You can't make them to wherever you want?"

[mssparkle]

"I'm not sure. The key feels like stuff, depending on where it is, but it's a really vague feeling - I'm not sure if it's vaguer for non-vampires or just the same for everyone - and I haven't tested what this feeling means but my hunch is that it somehow correlates with what world the door will open to. Like I said, I didn't really test it much." She offers it to him.