The Oasis

[greatcleavage]

What the heck was he doing here?

Beneath the shade of the palm fronds, Roy stared out at the desert that stretched out in every direction. Somehow he'd found himself here, against all logic. A weird sidequest? A dream? Maybe he was dead again and his spirit had been hijacked.

Well, what could he do but wait and see what came along? The oasis showed signs of being used by travelers, so he wouldn't be stuck here forever anyway...

Comments

[najaran]

"Well.... Master Horowitz would know best...."

[greatcleavage]

"I'm asking you, though." Plus he wasn't sure he agreed with her there.

[najaran]

"Oh... so this is a test..." her shoulders slumped. "Well.... magic is anything that can't be done with science and stuff, right?" she asked, considering. "And... I guess being a Cepter is using magic, since not everyone can do it, even if they have the cards?"

[greatcleavage]

"Hmm, well, that's a start. So magic is a process by which the laws of physics in general are bent, then." Please don't say that was too complicated.

[najaran]

"Laws of physics?" She frowned. "How do you bend a law? The paper it's written on?"

Don't mind the soft sobbing noises coming from her staff.

[greatcleavage]

"You perform an action that is ordinarily in violation of that law." Thank you, Elan, for teaching him patience.

[najaran]

"Wouldn't that be breaking the law?" she asked, with a frown.

[greatcleavage]

"Let's not take the concept of 'law' too literally here. Fundamental precept of physics, let's say."

[najaran]

The staff was listening intently. Najaran... seemed more lost. "Physics?"

[greatcleavage]

Okay, now this was getting into weird territory. "You know, the rules that reality operates on? Gravity? Temperature? Motion? Base Attack Bonus?"

ROFL

[najaran]

"Base attack bonus?"

Even Gooligan seemed confused by that one.

[greatcleavage]

"You, uh." There was no delicate way to ask this. "You... are familiar with the core rulebooks, right?"

[najaran]

"Core... is that some sort of cook book?"

[greatcleavage]

Oh. Oh dear.

"You know, I think we may be coming at this from too great a distance to easily bridge," Roy said, doing his best to hide his alarm at such a statement.

[najaran]

"Well that was why you were explaining it, right?"

[greatcleavage]

"Well, I was certainly trying, but I'm not exactly sure how to at this point. I was presuming we had an adequately shared common ground of understanding, but..." How could he even begin?

[najaran]

Her shoulder slumped. "But I;'m too stupid to understand?" she guessed.

[greatcleavage]

"No one who can wield powers like you do," Roy said, fire coming back into his voice, "is stupid. You and I just know very different things."

[najaran]

She blinked startled several times, then softened into a grateful smile, tears in her eyes as she swallowed. "Thank you," she whispered. She lifted her hands to her chest and her deck flew into her fingers, pressed to herself. "But my cards get the credit," she said softly, gratitude in every word. "Every card, the people who gave them to me... They're the strength I have to keep going. I couldn't do much of anything without them."

Gooligan, balancing carefully on his point looked about to say something, then decided to stay quiet to see how this went.

[greatcleavage]

"You're their summoner, though. You're the one who calls on them and directs them. So they need you as much as you need them. Give them all the credit they're due," Roy said, "but don't dismiss yourself."

I really need mum's help making icons for this

[najaran]

She gave him a small teary smile. "Thank you," she said softly.

[greatcleavage]

Gods. Who'd spent all this time telling a girl who could wield numerous and powerful summons that she was stupid? Naive and not terribly educated, maybe, but Roy had meant what he said. Stupid people couldn't master the skills she'd shown.

"It's just too bad you don't have something like a flying carpet or a griffon mount in those cards, though," he said, trying to steer the conversation away from sensitive things.

[najaran]

She blinked a few times, then pulled her deck away from her hands flipping through it quickly. Then she grinned, lifting one card as the rest flew behind her to their resting spot. "Betcha Thunderbeak could carry us if we asked nicely!"

[greatcleavage]

"I -- you know what, why don't we try that instead of waiting or walking?" Call it a crazy idea on his part.

[najaran]

"Sure!" She threw the card into the air and it broke apart as the creature came out of it. It was a huge creature like a cross between a pterodactyl and a phoenix, all tight skin over bones and muscles with a huge wingspan. It landed beside them, kicking up sand as it did, then its huge head went and nuzzled Najaran. She flung her arms around that huge head and hugged it.