EVENT: A Certain Confession

[joybound]

Who: everybody!
When: Day 16, evening
Where: wherever you are

[As the sun sets and the new stars come out, there's a message on the ChainChat app. The username is new -- it's not The Construct, but it also doesn't have a profile attached, and doesn't accept private messages. It appears to be some different admin account.]

★: Hi everyone. Good news and bad news here. Good first: you should find your new train car attached as of this message! You guys wanted a garden, so hopefully you'll like this one.
★: As for the bad news: we're having a bit of a problem generating positive energy, so from now on we're adjusting the whole "sparks of light" thing. Starting tomorrow, you'll only get a payout when you consciously make a decision to increase your bonds. We're talking about increasing prices, too, but... one thing at a time.
★: Sorry for the bad timing.

[There's a pause, and then a follow-up.]

★: There are some things I ought to explain now, but I'm not sure where to start. Just be aware that things might get rougher in the future. And that Trials... I might've lied a little about those.
★: I'm sorry. This wasn't supposed to happen. Please try to hang in there.

[It's not a cheerful message, but on the upside, there is in fact a new train car at the end! On the outside it looks like one of the communal cars, with a stylized flower symbol on the door. Inside, however, it's a huge greenhouse. There are several different "rooms", each about 50 feet square, aligned to different climates. It also comes with various basic gardening tools - trowels, gloves, etc -- and enough seedlings to get started growing flowers and veggies. There's always (artificial) sunshine coming down through the glass roof, and the soil in the beds never loses fertility. There are even benches here and there -- it's not only a practical facility, but a nice place to relax!

More seeds and seedlings, equipment, and decor, can be bought via the sparks shop. You may in the meantime assume any simple plants you want are provided -- but they won't be re-issued for free if you kill them!]

[OOC: You can use this toplevel to reply to the prince's chat message. He'll respond for a limited time, but you can use this opportunity to uncover some major plot info! You're also more than welcome to talk to eachother -- it's a chat room and the conversations are public. The changes to the sparks system are outlined in this OOC comm announcement. Thank you!]

Comments

[bowtiedbones]

[Eliza's claimed the second floor of the clinic for a workspace again. she doesn't expect anyone to be using the pods tonight, so who's to mind if she covers the floor in chalked magic arrays and equations? it's a distraction from angry texting.



one of her new wolfish dragon skeletons is with her, but the other has wandered downstairs into the clinic proper and is nosing around curiously]

[ewestmarch]

[Emilia wanders in to restock and jumps a little when she sees the skeleton out on its own.]

Ah. Where's Eliza, hm?

[In that higher voice people use to talk to pets or babies.]

[bowtiedbones]

[It's Isildur, if she can tell the big difference between the two— his skeleton is all from one single individual, whereas Isolde has bones from multiple individuals.

He looks over his shoulder towards the stairs, then returns to shoving his big spikey head into a wastebin.]

[ewestmarch]

[Emilia climbs up the stairs and pokes her head into the second floor. Ah. Yep.]

I think your dragon is eating medical garbage, if that matters.

[bowtiedbones]

Is he in the trash again!?

[from downstairs, the guilty sound of the bin falling over and boney paws scrabbling away. somebody knows he's been caught!]

[ewestmarch]

[The corner of Emilia's mouth twitches.]

I'm not usually a snitch.

[It's a joke, just dry.]

[bowtiedbones]

Isildur! Get your boney butt up here!

[Isolde lifts her head alertly, this is great when SHE'S not the one in trouble]

[ewestmarch]

[Bustling rapidly up the stairs so she doesn't get knocked down by a hurrying dragon.]

Heh.

[Checking out all this work not-so-subtly, too.]

[bowtiedbones]

[a smart move! he is a big boy and he is SCRAMBLING]

Why were you in the trash! What's in the trash? Gross things, gross boy!

[mushing his skull's nonexistant cheeks while he tries to nose at her face apologetically. the chalked circles are all over the floor but, for all their giant prancing about, neither dragon steps on a single line.]

[ewestmarch]

This is sweet.

[Little smile.]

Sorry for interrupting.

[bowtiedbones]

He's sweet, but he's still gross!

[gives him a last affectionate shove, sending him to pounce on Isolde next]

I'm sorry he if he made a mess downstairs.

[ewestmarch]

I just assumed you wouldn't want him coming back with used bandages on his nose. It can be cleaned.

[bowtiedbones]

They'd be more than on his nose... They're skeletons, but they still want to chew on stuff. I've had to untangle so many weird things from his skull.

[ewestmarch]

They really act more like dogs than reptiles.

[bowtiedbones]

Dragons are a big group! They don't all act like these two.

[ewestmarch]

So you've said.

[Emilia settles on a counter, crosses her legs primly at the ankle.]

I've been thinking - would teach me? It would be a source of sparks for both of us, and the lack of a library is making me a little ...

[She raises her eyebrows and twitches her hands. Antsy. Cabin fever. Very bored.]

[bowtiedbones]

Oh! Sure! Did you want to learn something specific? Obviously I have my specialties, but I'm good on a lot of trivia.

[ewestmarch]

More of a regular arrangement. You seem to know the field... and I don't want to interrupt whatever you're doing.

[She frowns, her cracked lips twisting.]

I didn't get much formal education in magic. At this part of my life ...undeath... it's become increasingly important to learn whatever I can whenever I can.

[bowtiedbones]

I'm happy to teach what I can, even if it ends up being only theory, especially since a finalized education is important— for safety, if nothing else! That's a big part of why I have my own tutor at home at all.

But you'll have to remember that we're from two different magic systems. A lot of what you learn from me might end up being of no practical use to you.

[ewestmarch]

I know. Yours sounds better anyway. And if both of ours' work here, there's no reason I shouldn't be able to cast from it.

[maybe.]

[bowtiedbones]

There could be physical differences with how we process our magic flow, but that's easy enough to test for at a basic level. Do you do any array work already?

[ewestmarch]

I can summon demons with arrays, but it's pretty foolproof stuff. Copy the exact lines. I don't like doing it, anyway. They're little bastards.

[bowtiedbones]

Mmmm, yeah, that's a thing. Rote copying doesn't work in my system. It's not foolproof at all.

[ewestmarch]

My position right now is basically a lab technician. The qualified people do experiments, I just repeat procedures to fix the things someone else already made. I can do more than that -

[Frown.]

- but I can help with my current goals better where I am currently. So that's what they let me do.

[bowtiedbones]

Neither of those is really anything anyone does at home, but that's still good. We won't have to spend a week teaching you to draw a perfect circle.