[Wild Roses] Sun Queen
Title: unfair advantages
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Phoebe, a Hand
Prompt: 'floods', a Hand, and Phoebe - non list requests
Word Count: 383
Rating: all ages
Notes: sometime during the Sun Queen's Reign.
The Hand blinked a few times at the gently dripping mud.
" . . I'm reasonably sure there was a flood there ten minutes ago," he said, very calmly, and did not look at his barely-smirking Queen, who'd dropped out of the air.
"Have you heard of the gradient effect?" she inquired, politely curious. He would be prepared to bet that her feet weren't actually touching the ground.
"Water flowing downhill, for example?"
"Something like," she agreed, sketching patterns in the air that glowed faintly gold in afterimages. "Generally it describes the tendency for something to flow from abundance to lack--heat from fire to stone, or salt from the sea to freshwater. But in this particular instance, it describes the flow from flood to drought."
He considered his Queen, briefly, then closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose hard. "You're going to tell me that you took a high floodtide, let it flow out of its burst banks, into a clear sky over someplace in the middle of a dry summer. And I'm going to have to believe you, because there's a distinct lack of flood rushing through these evacuated streets."
"Essentially correct, if a bit off in the details." The corners of her mouth quirked up as he glared at her, dropping his hand to his side.
"Majesty?"
"Oui?" she replied innocently.
"Why, exactly, was I rushed out here to coordinate an evacuation when you can redirect the flood before it ever reaches a place it can cause damage?"
"First and foremost," she held up a finger, covered in some animal's claw tied in place with gold filigree, "because I will not always be here to move water. Secondly, because I wasn't sure the water would be moving fast enough for this trick to work. And, thirdly," her smile thinned to a flat line. "Because I doubt you would approve of me dropping someone to their death because they happened to be up to their knees in water I was moving."
He blinked. Blinked again, then had to nod.
" . . . can you do anything about the mud?" he asked eventually, jerking a thumb at the street he was standing by and she was probably floating over.
She stared at him for a second, then burst into laughter.
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Phoebe, a Hand
Prompt: 'floods', a Hand, and Phoebe - non list requests
Word Count: 383
Rating: all ages
Notes: sometime during the Sun Queen's Reign.
The Hand blinked a few times at the gently dripping mud.
" . . I'm reasonably sure there was a flood there ten minutes ago," he said, very calmly, and did not look at his barely-smirking Queen, who'd dropped out of the air.
"Have you heard of the gradient effect?" she inquired, politely curious. He would be prepared to bet that her feet weren't actually touching the ground.
"Water flowing downhill, for example?"
"Something like," she agreed, sketching patterns in the air that glowed faintly gold in afterimages. "Generally it describes the tendency for something to flow from abundance to lack--heat from fire to stone, or salt from the sea to freshwater. But in this particular instance, it describes the flow from flood to drought."
He considered his Queen, briefly, then closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose hard. "You're going to tell me that you took a high floodtide, let it flow out of its burst banks, into a clear sky over someplace in the middle of a dry summer. And I'm going to have to believe you, because there's a distinct lack of flood rushing through these evacuated streets."
"Essentially correct, if a bit off in the details." The corners of her mouth quirked up as he glared at her, dropping his hand to his side.
"Majesty?"
"Oui?" she replied innocently.
"Why, exactly, was I rushed out here to coordinate an evacuation when you can redirect the flood before it ever reaches a place it can cause damage?"
"First and foremost," she held up a finger, covered in some animal's claw tied in place with gold filigree, "because I will not always be here to move water. Secondly, because I wasn't sure the water would be moving fast enough for this trick to work. And, thirdly," her smile thinned to a flat line. "Because I doubt you would approve of me dropping someone to their death because they happened to be up to their knees in water I was moving."
He blinked. Blinked again, then had to nod.
" . . . can you do anything about the mud?" he asked eventually, jerking a thumb at the street he was standing by and she was probably floating over.
She stared at him for a second, then burst into laughter.