spellbinders | (no subject)

Who: Vern, Geir, and you
Where: The western slopes of the Hub mountain
When: Day 86
Open/Closed: Open

[after Jay's mapping trip of the day before, two of the party returned to the mountain's southwestern slopes. they're looking for a cave, and after that exploratory trip, they think they know more or less where they'll find one. it takes some searching slightly north of where the mapping team left off, but Vern and Geir eventually find a location that will work for their purposes… with a few caveats.

((reply to either open prompt or make your own! Vern and Geir will both reply.))

finding the cave - locked to Geir
[they've been over this section of the mountain three times, augh. everything is too small, too small, too small -- are there any caves that are actually a decent size around here?

("small" is very relative when you're traveling with a dragon.)

For reference: "A cave that fits the size and water parameters can be located near the western mountain-front. There are plenty of small tunnels from animals (or some other source) that can allow for smoke to go into them, but it may not be the most difficult cave to access.

The cave itself a fair amount of boar bones, which may indicate that it's some sort of boar death site. This also means there's not exactly a pleasant smell in the cave, but they can potentially burn the smell out with flowers or shrubbery."]

taking out the trash - ota
[the cave that they eventually find and claim needs some work, by any stretch of the imagination. it's located on the western mountain front only a few minutes north of where the mapping party left off, and it's perfect in several respects: big enough for Geir, sufficient ventilation from small animal tunnels to make a fire without worrying, fresh running water from a deep stream only a few feet from the entrance…

the problem is the smell. right now, Geir is shoveling bones and dessicated boar bits out of the entrance, while Vern winces and tries to weave pads out of grasses to start his scrubbing.]

How many of those things died in here?!

[unfortunately, Geir isn't being particularly private in his mental grumbling, and both his commentary -- and Vern's shushing -- occasionally get transmitted over the network. feel free to track him and Vern down, or just mentally yell at them.]

pool boy and maid service - ota
[now that all of the bones are lying in inelegant piles in their front yard instead of in their living room, Vern has started his self-appointed task of scrubbing the smell of death off their walls and floor, as well as figuring out how to build a fire to start smoking the smell out. Geir, on the other hand, is digging in the middle of the stream like a lunatic. they’re both making a lot of noise, the smoke is pretty obvious, and the trail through the woods to their new front door is a lot more open and inviting than they'd prefer… they’re very noticeable if you’re exploring yourself and happen to come around this area.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I would not call it magic. It is... something from my world.

[ The Singularity, the will of the Earth itself. Even if he has borne it, he still doesn't understand much of it. ]

And what's that when it's at home, in the terms of your world?

[he's being nosy, though it's a dispassionate sort of curiosity rather than a desperate need to know]

[ Is Vern ready for Science? ]

Dissolution by bio-assimilation, I believe.

[he has the vocabulary but there isn't a ton of sciencey science in high fantasy norse myth land; he also needs a few moments to work the meaning out into something he can parse]

You destroy things by absorbing them into your body?

[ At least he doesn't have to go into the detail of explaining. That's good. ]

Something of the sort, yes.

Well, it certainly gets the job done, cleaning-wise. Though I have to question your choices slightly to apply it to decaying meat gunk, because: yuck. I am grateful and clearly up to my elbows in it myself, so I feel extra qualified to go yuck.

I can render it harmless. Don't worry about it.

[ He's also sort of accidentally eating the stone too so that is also. A thing. ]

It's not the harm I was worried about exactly. I guess you have a strong stomach? Or a strong...whatever...

[what is the term for a stomach when you apparently eat through your hands. he doesn't know.]

Absorption?

[ It's all assimilated into his own cells, so it doesn't matter to him. ]

Yes. Body stomach. Whatever the strange alien term for that is.

[huffs]

[ Strange alien.... well, it's the truth, but it still draws silence from him.

He'll just close his eyes for a few moments ]

[cocks his head at him]

If I'm being too nosy, just say so. I can't feel if I am nor not from you, which is honestly sort of a relief, but also means I get to fall back on my normal unmagical social graces to talk to you. And they're bad.

[ Vern is frank, which he appreciates. He would have smiled, if he was one to smile easily. ]

Oh. You're not. Sorry, I don't talk a lot.

[ But if Vern is Geir's closest friend, then he has to make an effort. ]

Where did you come from?

Okay, fair enough.

[he hums a little at the topic change, though, almost pushing his glasses up his face before remembering his hands have grass juice and boar yuck all over them]

...I'm from the realm of Midgard, but no place in particular there that has a name for a few years now, sorry. I was a traveler for a few years before meeting Geir.

[ The name rings a slight bell, if only because it was Norse and that was where Fenrir originated from. ]

I see. I was from Earth. [ A pause. ] My world had no magic, so this is still new to me.

I've never heard of a realm named Earth, sorry...well, no one else here seems to be from the Tree as Geir and I know it, so. Maybe that's to be expected.

[sigh!!]

Maybe it's for the best your world didn't have magic. It seems to confuse the issue a lot.

It seems very complicated.

[ This he says carefully. ]

I wish it had a system, like science.

. . . it probably could. The Tree has its rules . . . mages don't have a lot of support to actually consolidate what they know, though, so there isn't a lot that's definitive, that everyone knows. I only know as much as I do because I--did a lot of research.

[ That brings to mind an idea, though: ]

Could you teach me magic?

I could try? I have no idea, literally no one in my life has ever asked me that one before.