universal star visitor brilliant start!

[incanted]

Eventually Bella and Lexi go to bed - they have to coordinate this; Bella's a reasonably sound sleeper but Lexi's not, so if Bella goes to sleep first Lexi won't be able to drop off with all the random nouns and if Bella goes to sleep second Lexi will wake up when she's trying to sneak around. They get up, and they get ready for school.

+Morning, Brilliance,+ says Bella while she's brushing her teeth.

Comments

[cardistry]

Brilliance is quiet for a moment, his spiral grooves glowing faintly in all the colours of his mana.

Then Bella's shimmer brightens, wavers, and settles back down.

"Okay," he says, "there. With me hooked in, it's draining slower than you replenish."

[incanted]

"Will that still be true if I start flying?"

[cardistry]

"It will if I'm hooked into the flying too," he says.

[incanted]

"Cool. Let's go see some colorful sand."

[cardistry]

His signature counter-rotating circle-pentagram-star appears on the floor, brightens steadily for about a second, and then emits one soft radiant burst of light.

And they are standing on a vast flat expanse of glittering sand that reflects the very Earthlike setting sun in millions of colours.

[incanted]

"Oh, this place is pretty," marvels Bella.

[cardistry]

"I know, I love it!" says Brilliance.

[incanted]

"I wanna fly around, can you hook into that without jacketing me?" Bella asks.

[cardistry]

"Sure, Flight," he says casually. The sprays of mana feathers appear at Bella's heels without the accompanying sense of effort.

[incanted]

She rockets into the sky, whooping.

[cardistry]

Brilliance giggles.

[incanted]

Eventually she calms down and lands in the pretty sand and consults her list of things. "Okay, I bet you want me to prioritize seeing if I can conjure food, that'll solve a certain quandary you have if I can."

[cardistry]

"Yeah, that'd be awesome," he agrees.

[incanted]

"Hmm. I might as well start with sweet potatoes," Bella laughs. "People mostly eat them cooked, but I don't even know if I can conjure them raw, so I'll try that first."

She envisions a sweet potato. She wishes one to exist.

"Sweet potato!" she intones.

[cardistry]

It does not work.

"Huh, that was weird," says Brilliance. "I think it needs a long-form incantation. Try it again, but with a full sentence, something where you could substitute something else for 'sweet potato' and it'd still sound like sense."

[incanted]

"I command a sweet potato to exist!" Bella attempts.

[cardistry]

It still doesn't work.

"Huh," Brilliance repeats. "Okay. It could work, there's a spell trying to happen there, but you're just not quite pulling it off. Do you wanna figure out why, or try something else?"

[incanted]

"I wanna figure out why, I've only tried this twice, that's too early to give up," laughs Bella, "what do I try next?"

[cardistry]

"I'm not totally sure this will make anything better," says Brilliance, "but maybe a long-form incantation that is more specific about the sweet potato being food?"

[incanted]

"Specific about it being food like how? Also does anything happen if an incantation is false, like if I say 'I want to eat a sweet potato' when actually I want you to eat a sweet potato?"

[cardistry]

"I'm not sure exactly," he says, "like I said, I'm going out on a limb here. I don't think a false incantation makes a difference as long as it doesn't confuse you about what you're trying to do with the spell."

[incanted]

Bella nibbles her lip, then goes ahead and tries: "I want to eat a sweet potato."

[cardistry]

"...Okay," says Brilliance. "So what I'm getting here is, the spell's not coming together because you don't have a good enough feel for how it should work. My best guess is if you work on easier spells that have to do with matter manipulation, and get those down pretty good, and then come back and try some simple conjuring and work up from there, it'll work much better."

[incanted]

"Okay, matter manipulation like - sorting the sand by color, or making colorful sandcastles, or melting it into colorful glass? Can you be more specific?" asks Bella, bouncing on her toes.

[cardistry]

Brilliance laughs.

"I'd go with sorting, then glass, then sandcastles, I think. And cast through me, you'll use less mana and I can analyze the spells easier."