For most of the day, Adam felt a bit bored because seeing the long-necked lizards can only be interesting for a limited time. But now that the days is coming to a close he is watching as a crew-member feeds one of the older plesiosaurs who in turns feeds the smaller plesiosaurs. It's peaceful here.

Without a bright flash or anything else similarly tacky, a kid appears out of thin air and falls three feet to land on the deck. "Oof. Wait, that worked?"

A tall boy that's around his age turns and asks something.

Behind him there are several blue-green creatures whose long necks and heads poke out of the ocean. A particularly large specimen has a colorful frill starting on the top of his head and making all the way down the water.

Yep! He definitely teleported to another planet! Why did he think this was a good idea again???

"Uh- I-"

He has white points. Not a huge number of them, he's still a kid, but more than most other kids would... Click. Natural Language.

"Hi, what's up?"

"Did you fell or something?"

"Yeah, just tripped, spaced out for a minute. Heh."

Aaaah, what are those giant creatures? Well, this other kid's not afraid of them... So he pretends the same.

"I think you need to grow your sea-legs." Pause. "I actually don't know what that means or how you do that." Shrug.

Nicodemus catches the sight of a metal pole with a basket attached to one end. The thing throws pieces of meat at the creatures, who eagerly catch the offered food. He can't see who is manipulating the thing from this angle. The other boy remains completely calm throughout this.

So it's hopefully some kind of zoo. Hopefully. He stays away from the railing.

"Boats are pretty good for getting places. You can just sit there and let the wind do the work."

Head scratch. "Winds don't work for this kind of boat. I think..."

"No? Huh. I might have to go look at that, sounds neat."

"You mean, like, the engine?"

"Yeah, that thing! I could scry it, uh..." Do they have the same kind of magic here? Should he have mentioned that? Whoops.

"Oh, you know how to scry?"

"I guess so. I don't like doing it too much."

How does he not be weird does this other planet have the same magic - on the one hand it has people so why not, on the other hand why would it...

"Can you?"

"No. I think that's kind of advanced stuff and my dads don't let me." He does not look particularly bothered by this.

That doesn't really give him a hint. "Kinda stuff you can do? I got lots."

...Wait dads? Maybe he misheard.

"Like, they let me play with some small magical clockworks to build with. And I know emergency stuff. I know how to call for some fae around town, but I don't know if that counts as my magic. There is a potion I know how to brew."

"Huh."

Yep the magic is pretty different here. He should... Wander around and observe.

"Well I'm gonna look for the engine. See ya around."

"Can I come with you?"

"Sure, why not." He'll have to be sneaky about using any magic, if his is so different to theirs. (And what's a fae?) But he can't reveal his ignorance.

He follows. "I am Adam."

"Nico!" Pronounced knee-co. "Pleased to meetcha. Let's delve for secret technology!"

"Okay, what do you need to do to scry for things?"

"Ehhh. Mostly just need to wait a while between doings. I was thinking more sneaky-spy delving."

"Huh, okay. I think the engines should be that way? Near the chimneys?"

"Oh, chimneys mean fire down below somewhere. To the chimneys!" And he starts walking thataway confidently.

He happens to have guessed right and they stumble upon an open deck in the middle of the ship where the two chimneys can be seen standing tall. It's not hard to find service staircase too.

"I've only ever been on wooden ships before. This one's kind of cool."

He opens the service door and looks and listens for adults down there.

Adam follows tries not to look too much like they are trespassing. Which isn't exactly a look he can pull off, but no one spots them.

They hear machinery noises coming from downstairs, but it doesn't sound like there are humans going up or down.

"That's not how you sneak around. Copy me."

He's good at moving quietly, checking corners, listening for trouble, and staying near something he can duck behind at a moment's notice, apparently. He heads down. Sneakily.

Adam copies.

The coast is clear for most of it, but then Adam abruptly pulls Nicodemus back so they can duck behind a folding screen that's inexplicable there. Nico can spot what made Adam do that.

There are a couple of dogs in the corridor, except they are standing upright and wearing sailor uniforms. One pauses, sniffs the air, but shrugs before the two move again.

Maybe those are the 'fey'. He doesn't want to look stupid by asking though. "Good catch."

Adam nods. The coast is clear. "I thought they would hear us because... dog. Let's go the other way."

"Can't they smell us? Because, uh, dogs?"

"Maybe?" he sniffs, "there is a pretty strong smell of smoke down here though."

"Well..." He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and snaps his fingers. "That should help with smell. For a few minutes. Let's go."

Adam starts moving down the hall. He sniffs again. What did Nico do?

Deadened both their scents (and only those), somehow, if his nose is sensitive enough to tell that.

Adam thinks he noticed it, but he is not sure enough to ask.

At any rate they're close enough to whatever that they can hear the sounds of the furnaces and eventually they spot a door with an orange glow coming from beneath.

"If the engine runs on fire, we might not want to get too close... I don't think I can do fireproof for two people... But I really want to see it."

"We can peek. Wait. Fireproof?"

"Fireproof is kind of hard but I can do it for a little while for one person! Let's just peek though."

"Okay," Adam says like he doesn't quite believe.

If they peek through the door they can see several stocky silhouettes against the light of several furnaces. Their proportions are too stocky and too short for humans.

He whispers, "So that's where the fire is... But how does it turn into moving the boat?"

"Oh, one of my dads told me the heat is used to turn water into steam and the steam pushes a piston thing and the piston thing pushes a wheel thing that makes stuff movie." This is all accompanied by complex hand gestures.

There is a pause.

"My other dad said that sometimes dwarves feed fire to salamanders so they can pedal their machines. And these are dwarves, so I don't know."

"Should we look for the steam place? We could maybe find a book but that's boring. Dads? Two dads?"

"Maybe, I think the steam place should be above the furnaces? And two dads, yeah," he confirms then he pauses. "At least, some people think it's three."

Okay. Apparently that's not really weird here. So he will update his expression to match. "Let's go up a level and try to find something enginey."

He eases shut the door and turns around.

What a weird kid. If they try to upstairs the next level leads to a very dark corridor.

"This dark hallway is a safety hazard. You'd think they'd know better." He laughs. "Well, unless something's broken."

"Safety hazard?" Adam asks trying to find a lightswitch. He opts to pull a Swiss army knife with a small lantern attached.

"It's too dark! People are gonna trip!"

"But what if-"

He is interrupted by sounds coming behind him. "Get inside!" He hurries to get into the dark corridor.

Nico follows and hides as sneakily as possible!

The door closes behind them. They are in the dark except for Adam's lantern.

There is a brief sound coming down the corridor, like something scurrying around the metallic floor.

Nico stays as silent as he possibly can be. He doesn't use any magic just yet - he has precious few points left.

Adam points his light in that direction.

Then the sound comes from the other end of the corridor.

You know what being in the dark and something scurrying around nearby is scary he's got blue to burn.

Let there be light.

The light briefly illuminates what looks like...

...people, except they are a couple inches tall. They are dressed in improvised patchwork sailor uniforms and Nico will get the glimpse of three holding up a hammer before they drop it to the floor and run away.

"Oh."

And they're human shaped, not mice or anything? People-animals seem to be a thing here. Huh.

"Who're they?"

Not mice at all, except in the way they all scurried away from the light.

"I don't know them? I think they are just the ship's little ones." Pause. "Do you know if the age to talk to them is the same everywhere?"

"No clue. I think you're the expert on, uh, little ones here."

"The ones at my house don't run away like that and I am not feeling cursed." Shrug. "Wanna go back at looking?"

"...Yeah. I wanna see the enginey bit, not just a furnace."

"Me too." He looks around, this is not a particularly interesting corridor, but there are two double-doors one at each end. "You're the one with the good light."

"Sure, but it only works in short bursts." And just as he says this, it winks out. "Tch. I should've made it red. Red light doesn't ruin your dark vision."

"How do you it anyway?" Adam says opening one of the doors. "Ah, look it's in here."

The door leads to a catwalk that shows the furnaces bellow, they have a better angle to see the whole thing, the individual furnaces in rows, the piles of coal between then and the odd spider-like ducts that touch the top of each furnace.

"I just do. Ooh, looks like those pipes take steam up..." he looks for where they go.

The pipes gather at two different pieces of machinery, both very complicated, one if full of wires and they can see little sparks running over it and the other is full of pistons performing arcane movements.

Cooooool.

Adam appears to agree.

"What are you two looking at?" Says a voice from around Nicodemus' ankles.

He jumps! He looks for the voice and backs off!

Adam covers his mouth to avoid a shriek.

Another of the little ones, the light is dim, but they are obviously a child. Their outfit is made from the same material, but not arranged in an uniform.

"...The engine. We wanna know how it works."

"Oh, have you two asked grandpa?"

"No... But doing it this way is more fun anyway."

"Oh, okay."

"Do you live in the ship or are you like, a passenger?" Adam asks.

"I live here with my family." The gender-indeterminate-small-being answers before turning back to Nico. "Have you learned anything?"

"Yep. I can see how the steam pushes on things, then they close it and let the steam on the other one and it goes around. It's cool."

"It is pretty neat," Adam says.

The small being shrugs.

"When you know more about the world you are better at making it do what you want."

"How?"

"'Cause you understand now. See, now I understand that steam wants to get really big when it boils, so maybe I can figure out how to do useful things with that. Push stuff with steam or make my own engine if I want to."

"Or you can apply the same principle to air and use to push a balloon up."

"Balloon don't go up because they are hot," the small one protests, "they have a magical gas inside."

"I meant the other kind of balloon, with a basket and that takes people."

"Balloons that don't use hot air use helium, don't they? It's not magic by itself. Though you could totally make a magical gas, probably."

"Yeah, that's what it's called when they don't use magic, but I don't think they are magical unless you're, like, in a fairy party but then the balloons might not be real at all."

The little one head-scratches. "Are you going to make a balloon with a steam engine then?"

"Probably not. Steam engines seem heavy."

"They are even for huge super strong people like you," the little creatures confirms.

"And you need, like, wood or coal which makes the entire thing heavier."

"Or heat magic but at that point you might as well just do flying magic."

"Why?" The little one asks.

"Cause making a big complicated thing to fly and powering it by magic is probably harder than just flying by magic?"

They are both giving him a weird look.

"What?? Flying's not that much harder than heat?"

"Flying is pretty hard if you don't have wings," the little one says... Longingly.

"Flying magically is much harder than making heat, I am pretty sure," Adam says. "You can fly without using magic."

"...Only for a little while at a time." Yeah it works differently here it takes less red to float than it does to heat something up.

"You're just trying to save face," the little one protests.

"I can totally fly. I just don't wanna waste my magic for the day on showing off pointlessly."

"Do you still want to look around?" Adam changes the subject.

"I'd like a closer look but then they might see us."

"And it does look kinda dangerous to sneak around."

"If I really want to learn I need to find some plans or a guy who made one to teach me, I guess." He shrugs. "But sneaking around is fun, I don't regret it."

"Sneaking around was more fun that I expected," Adam mentions, "but kinda scary at times."

"Does talking with someone that has been inside the thing helps?" asks the little one.

"Wait you guys go inside it? Cooool. Is that what the little ducts are for, are they hallways?"

"I didn't, but like, there is a salamander that sometimes goes inside the furnace, but she is not supposed to. I think the ducts are just to... do duct things."

"Aww. That would have been really cool. Oh well. I think I might go back outside and watch the weird water lizards."

"Plesiosaurs," Adam supplies.

"Okay, bye then."

Back to the surface, then! Sneaky sneak.

Sneaky!

(relief that they are not caught!)

"That was a nice little adventure, I think."

Adam makes a face. "It's not like we slayed some monster that was tormenting a farm or something."

"Little adventures are much safer."

Adam nods sagely at that.

"Anyway, Plesi-lizards."

"Plesiosaurs."

They are still following the ship, albeit the group has either divided or spread out.

They're interesting to watch. Sort of.

His language spell might run out soon. He looks for a chance to slip away and hide somewhere.

The ship is full of nooks and crannies. It might depend on how much privacy he needs.

He kind of wants somewhere to nap. Easily-stolen food would be a plus too. But 'well hidden' is the most important thing - he won't be able to talk to anyone soon, and he doesn't have a ticket.

There is actually an free buffet inside that he will find easy enough to liberate food from. Places to nap might be more complicated, there are all sort of spaces around, some bathrooms... a "closet" that looks unused, with cobwebs and dust settling in... There is a lifeboat with a tarp that would make him invisible and is by far the most spacious option... there is a space between several boxes which he could squeeze himself in...

He loads up on food, walking in ways that are unlikely to attract attention, watching for when nobody's really directly watching him.

Between the lifeboat and the boxes... Someone might actually check the lifeboats. But it's more comfortable. And if some emergency happens he'll already be in one.

Lifeboat it is. He hunkers down and naps in one.

The tarp is translucent enough that he can see the sunlight filtered through it. He naps and is left undisturbed until he hears a loud explosion somewhere above and flashes of light in the darkness followed by more explosions.

He...

...Doesn't panic. Whatever's happening, he at minimum needs to know which way to run. He peeks out of the tarp, and tries to understand what's going on. 

It's night, and there are bright flashes of light up in the sky. He catches something going upward and leaving a smokey trail behind. Then it explodes into a ball of gold and blue. Followed by another one in red and green. Then one that appears to rotate through all colors in the rainbow. He can't see where the things are coming from.

So it's maybe not some kind of attack?

He quickly looks for some people and watches how they're reacting.

The people... appear to just be watching whatever it is. And if he leaves the lifeboat and wanders around he will notice that they are docked and that the whatever it is is coming from somewhere in land.

So it's a spectacle, a show. Nice. It's kind of pretty, once it's not scary anymore. He watches, too.

It keeps going for a few minutes, they get more elaborate, at some point displaying simple patterns like stripes and polka-dots.

He wonders how they're doing it. Not worth using his few remaining points (reserved for emergencies) on a random scry to try and figure it out.

He watches for the guy he was talking with earlier, to make sure to avoid him (because he can't speak the language anymore).

He is nowhere to be seen. Actually, there are considerably less people around than earlier in the day.

They probably already left the boat. He should too, then. Just in case.

Can he wait for nobody to be paying attention, or will he have to Act Natural instead?

Apparently no one is checking the people that are leaving.

Then he leaves, feeling only slightly sneaky.

What's this town like?

Small, mostly nested between the sea and a lake. Most buildings are just two-store tall and clear pastel colors, at least in the center where there is enough light to allow him to see the building's colors. The town's square is open to the ocean on one side and a lot of people are there sitting on top of picnic blankets.

It was probably a bad idea to do this experiment without an adult. When someone has a brilliant idea for a new spell and tries it out on their own without any backup they tend to die. But he doesn't trust any of the schoolmasters and - well, he had to get out.

He shakes off his momentary self-reflection and mingles with the crowds and low-key looks for a place that might accommodate a street urchin for the night.

There is a tall white-stone building with the door opens, but there is no one inside as far he can tell. The windows are stained glass with elaborate designs.

The square has benches, most are a bit exposed, but there is one between some bushes that might be sufficiently hidden. There is also a gazebo, but it's currently in use with  people selling food.

There is a back alley behind a rare three-store building, which doesn't look very dry, warm or soft. It should keep him very well hidden.

The town's population is mostly human, but as he wanders around he spots what looks like a nuclear family... of bears. They are dressed just like the human population, the "dad" maybe a bit more formal than usual and walking around as a group. In contrast, he also spots several rabbit children, but those are alone and he never sees the same rabbit twice, nor sign of their parents.

Well. Alternate universe.

(This was a terrible idea he is so lost and acting natural only gets you so far...)

That building looks important. Waiting for the gazebo to empty might be his best bet, a bench second-most. He's used to sleeping badly but it makes things harder later. Meanwhile, he snacks on food liberated from the buffet on the boat and stored in his pockets.

A rabbit girl sort of sneaks upon him and asks something.

He sees her coming at the last moment and manages not to jump.

(Rabbit girl?? Like the bears, a rabbit but wearing clothes?)

"I can't really understand you, sorry. Used up all my white." Shrug.

(A pink dress, actually. Walking upright and talking.)

She notices the language barrier and runs away.

He shrugs and picks a different spot to lurk in.

There is music and dance. It all feels very low budget and improvised though. But people are enjoying themselves.

It's homely, like a nice festival. He has some inkings of the common words and sounds, it was the nice kind of translation spell that let him hear nonsense and understand anyway, he mostly wanders and listens and tries to learn some important phrases.

After a while, he probably picked up things that mean "hello", "bye", "please" and some other things.

A very large guy bumps into him causing Nico to fall on the floor and that's probably "I am sorry" or "are you alright?" or both.

Uhhh. "Okay, no bad. No bad."

More gibberish. He extends a hand to help Nico up.

Well. He'll take the helping hand up.

But he kind of needs to get out of here before they realize he doesn't belong?? He says "thanks" and looks for an exit path or a distraction.

The boy, asks something and then retrieves... a small plastic flute out of a pocket. He plays a few notes.

There is a bright flash of light and Nico's vision is filled by the sight of a radiant white eagle.

"Greetings, mortal! It's my honor to grant you a translation spell! May you use it wisely and decide to purchase Radiant services in the future!"

And then the vision is gone.

"Did it work?"

"Apparently, yes! Strong stuff! Also I don't have any money."

"I didn't ask for any money."

"'May you use it wisely and decide to purchase Radiant services'...?" He mimics the other boy's voice pretty closely, modulo not having such a deep voicebox.

Look of confusion. "Is that what the spirit told you? It's just propaganda, kiddo."

"Oh, that wasn't you." He shrugs and attempts to cover up his embarrassment.

Gabe tosses Nico's hair in the most annoying way possible. "No it wasn't. Now go along, kiddo."

He ducks away from the touseling and runs off.

He is not followed.

Annoying old guy! Well, not that annoying, he did have a language thing.

This might make it harder to learn the language for real, though.

He keeps scouting around in case a better place to sleep or something easy to steal shows up.

There are a few foods that people leave unattended or sometimes forget. Unless he leaves the park's area he won't find anywhere he can sleep now. But some bushes and benches can conceivable be better shelters.

The nicely dressed bear from earlier pushes a weirdly dressed bear (who is wearing something made out of colorful strips of cloth) into the stage. After an awkward pause the weirdly dressed bear starts to dance... which apparently causes honey to float and levitate around them. Everyone is watching and not paying attention to things.

He'll stick to abandoned things and not pickpocket, for now.

...That's clearly some kind of magic, a song and dance performance. He's pretty sure they don't have points by now. Good for them. He should try to find a book or ask someone about it or something.

There is a kebab thing that was left mostly uneaten, maybe because of the vegetables. A glass of something that smell strong, but not alcoholic. A magazine. A rectangular black box...

He pilfers all these things except the black box. He investigates that a little more closely before deciding.

It feel besides a bench, it's covered in some kind of soft black fabric.

Huh. What's in the box? If it even opens.

It slides open easily enough, there is no latch, but something that attracts the lid close. Inside: there is a tiny flute, something that looks like kelp, five tiny bottles in different colors, a glass bead and a pamphlet.

Seems somewhat valuable. More likely to get in some sort of trouble if he takes it than some random snack or magazine.

He explores around a little bit more. If nobody claims it in twenty minutes or so he'll come back and take that, too.

It's still there after twenty minutes.

He grabs the thing and hides it and reads the pamphlet... If he can even read?

He can read... the letters change when his eyes hover over them with enough attention to actually read, but the ones at his visual periphery are alien.

It's an emergency kit for people that fell in the ocean, with instructions. Apparently the bottles are potions for health, "mana" (this is almost translated as points), gill-growing, an anti-poison potion that also lets you drink sea water, and one that makes you smell and taste like flowers (and therefore not shark food). The flute gives a translation effect that comes from "the wise deepblue whale" instead of "conventional patrons", but does not elaborate what that means.

The glass bead and kelp are not mentioned at all.

The kelp might be food?

He reads the instructions thoroughly. It's not a very good survival kit if some random kid can't figure out how to use it, is it now?

It does not look particularly edible.

There are instructions on how to play the flute. The potions were meant to be drunk, obviously enough, but there are all kind of instructions about interactions and tidbits about not worrying if one sweats pink after drinking the floral potion but find help if their sweat turns blue. Nico probably shouldn't worry about drinking the anti-poison while lactating. The health potion can't replace a normal meal, but helps a bit with starvation.

He needs to find a library.

Is there anything recognizable as a library around?

Yeah, a small two-store brick building next to a grocery shop. The lights are on.

He goes into the library, sneakily, and tries to figure out its organization scheme and looks for books that are introduction-to-magic-y.

Apparently there is organization by age (child, young-adult and adult) and then topic. There isn't anything that is meant to teach magic, but there are some books that talk about magical things. Is he looking for anything specific?

...What different kinds of magic there are, then? He's pretty sure he can pick apart young-adult books.

Well, the table of content in this book, seems primarily divided between "spellcasting", "fairfolk", "magical beings", "fairylands and other magical places" and "unclassified". It's a list of various magical phenomena.

So they can do some magic themselves, but also get it from "fairfolk" and "magical beings".

He continues skimming.

The book appears to be aimed at a human audience given how it refers to non-humans as the others. There are apparently multiple ways to do spell-casting, but most rely on magical objects one way or the other, staves and wands feature a lot in this section. Potion-making and enchanting objects are a sub-category of spellcasting.

Fairfolk seems to be the term for a kind of magic person, the book mentions the decision of using the term to also encompass "spirits", though there is little elaboration on why and how that would be "controversial". There is no obvious distinction between Fairfolk and some kinds of other kinds of magical beings mentioned besides the fact that Fairfolk are always people. Talking animals are magical beings. Fairylands appear to be magical places where Fairfolk live, but they are not the only kind of place with magic.

The unclassified list features some things that are known to exist but poorly understood. It also mentions at least a dozen things that hail from different worlds.

The last thing is very good news! He can stop being so secretive about being otherworldly. If things from different worlds are a known phenomenon and not universally reviled or considered dangerous or something.

They are pretty rare, but not reviled or anything. Apparently it just happens sometimes, somewhat related to the fairylands, most stories about people from other worlds are sad.

He reads some more about spellcasting to get a feel for what kind of things are possible, then exits the library without any books and goes back to exploring the town.

From his skimming, spellcasting can do a lot of things that points can do. Though the details must vary given what he has already observed. He briefly spots a small person while leaving the library, but they don't stay around to chat.

People are dispersing from the town's square, but too many still linger. The rabbits all hop inside a bizarre vehicle, piling up on the back part. They wave. He comes acquainted with the location of various business, like the convenience store, a medical clinic, and a dinner, but most things are closed at this hour.

Weird vehicles are pretty weird, yep. He waves back politely.

Knowing the businesses is handy. But he doesn't have any money unless there's some dropped and forgotten in corners of the square. Maybe he can get a job tomorrow morning.

And now there is less people around... Adam spots and waves at him.

He waves back! He's feeling a lot less sneaky than before and walks right up to Adam. "Hiya. Fancy seeing you again."

"Hey, having fun?" He appears to be iddly looking around for Nico's parents, but does not look concerned when no obvious candidates present themselves.

"It's been a nice, adventurous day. I'm learning a lot."

Nod. "Wanna meet my family?" He asks a bit hesitantly. "One of my dads made caramel apple pie."

"Certainly not gonna turn you down. Er. Is your - Are. Your dads nice?"

"Yeah... all of them?" Fidgeting. "There is some complication because of... a curse that one of them got during the war. But they are nice."

"Ah. Of course. The war." The war he knows absolutely nothing about... But he doesn't need to hide his otherworldliness anymore. It's just amusing to keep it a while longer. "I'd be happy to meet your family, and thank you for the kind invitation."

"Okay."

He guides Nicodemus through the crowd to two a group of people sitting around two overlapping picnic blankets.

There is a man sitting right in the edge between the two blankets. His shirt changes from black to white as he notices the two coming.

"Hello, son. Made a new friend?"

Another man who was talking to someone turns and hooks elbows with the shirt-changing-man. "Oh, is this the boy from the boat?"

"Yeah, Nico, these are my dads. Don't embarrass me, dads."

From the other side of the man, a woman leans closer and also hooks elbows with the man in the middle. "You made a new friend, Adam? Wonderful! Does he have a name?" She asks Nico a touch of saccharine in her voice.

"My name, fair and gracious hosts, is Nicodemus Fain."

"Charmer," she says smiling. Looking pointedly at Adam.

"Right. Nico, these are my dads. Sophocles," he points at the blond one," and Stephen," the color-changing one, "that's Mary Jane sheismarriedtostephenotherpersonality. Those are my siblings." He waves at most of the assembled young people.

"What an interesting family. Adam's fun, by the way."

"Thanks, Nico. Are you hungry? Would your parents like to join us?"

"I'm not that hungry, but thank you for the offer."

"What would you like to do?"

"See some cool magic, if you have some?"

"Heh, depends on what you think it's cool? Like, I think my clockworks are cool, but they are not very magical. But maybe you mean stuff like the new witch in town."

"Which," says Stephen-in-a-black-shirt, "you shouldn't bother."

"Clockwork sounds cool. Machines and stuff." He winks at Adam.

"Can I go home? And show Nico our things?"

Stephen's shirt turn white again as he looks at Adam's other dad. Then he says. "Sure, son. We will be along shortly."

"Be a good host."

"And don't let him go through my stuff," says one of Adam's siblings.

"I have no intention of stuff-going-through." The shirt must indicate the swap between personalities. Strange, but at least there's an indicator?

Color-coded for their convenience!

"Thanks, dads," Adam says, "follow me."

He starts walking home.

"What's your dads like? And your siblings? Do I have to watch my back or anything?"

"Watch your back? No? They are cool. Mary Jane is kinda of weird, but it's easy to be out of her way. The entire thing with his other's personality family is embarrassing, but not, like, dangerous."

"If you say so. I do kinda want to meet that witch but it can totally wait. And clockwork stuff is neat, too. Don't have things like that where I'm from."

"Huh, are you actually capable of scrying? I don't think she moves around a lot, but I heard she drives her home around the marshes and you wouldn't be able to find the tracks of her tower."

They apparently have arrived at a pair of twin houses painted in purple tones. Adam gets inside.

"A moving house! That sounds fun to track down! I can totally scry for that... Maybe when your family's not expecting me to be here, though."

"Witches don't have moving houses where you are from?" Adam turns the lightswitch on and starts making the way downstairs. It's a fairly normal house, for this world, Nico might not recognize lightbulbs, the radio and other briefly seen inventions. "And why not scry from here?"

"We don't have witches. I'm getting 'weird magic user' out of that word and that's it. And 'cause if I scry now and go hunting later she might've moved. What's that?" He says of the radio.

Adam gives him a confused face. "It's a radio. You don't have those either?"

"Apparently not."

"Okay... Radios are a machine that receive radio signals from the air and turn it into sound. And the radio signals come from a place that transmit them and they are stuff like music, news or serials."

"Neat. Communication tool. What kind of signals? Is it magic or just clockworky stuff?"

"Uh, Clockworky? Except it's like... electricity. I think radio signals are light that humans can't see."

"Like the burny parts of sun, or the warm parts of fire? That's kinda like clockworky stuff, that's what I meant. Cool. I wanna read a book about it later."

"You mean like solar radiation? ...I guess it's in the name. I am sure dad can show you a book."

"I meant that fire makes a different kind and solar radiation is a third kind of light-you-can't-see. Lookin' forward to it. Nice place, by the way."

"Thanks, we also own the house next door, but only Mary Jane and her family use it."

He turns the lights down in the basement. There are boxes, laundry machinery, pipes and other basement typical stuff. There is also a table with various  mechanical components.

"Those are your clockwork things?"

"Yeah, I did some tinkering with literal clocks and custom music boxes. Now I am trying to make some mechanism that move in certain ways, like an car that will follow the same path. I hope I will eventually get good enough to build a robot that does something like play an instrument."

"Can clocks change how they move moment to moment? Like, go fast for ten seconds, then slow, then medium? That's the kind of thing you'll need for this, right?"

"Yeah. There are multiple ways to do that." He picks a clockwork and opens it to show the relevant bits and how the process works. "It's kinda complicated to figure out how to make the change of speed start and end how you want it."

He watches intently. "Cooool. Clever mechanical trickery."

"Thank you! I hope I will get more stuff to work with for my birthday, but I don't know if I want more magic stuff or radio bits, I could use those to control things from a distance..."

"My first instinct is to say that magic is automatically better, but, like, the radio is actually pretty cool too. There's so much to learn out there. It's great."

"Magic is harder to come by. Or copy. But it's really cool when you combine both."

"I can see that. I'm already thinking up ideas... I bet I could make an eternal mainspring when I'm a bit older... I need to read a book on electricity."

"What sort of book? I have some."

"Textbooks I guess?"

He has those. Basics Principles For The Electric Engineer, Electrical Engineering 101, the Applied Electrical Principles and the like. They appear to be for a college-level audience, but Adam wrote notes.

"Cool. I should probably read them later though, not when you're being all hospitable and showing me stuff."

"Fair enough." Pause. "Speaking of hospitable, do you want something? Cookies? Juice?"

"Well, I won't turn down free snacks. Juice sounds nice. Thanks!"

In that case, Adam will bring a large plate of cookies (maybe a bit too large for just two boys) and two glasses of apple juice.

Nico has peered at clockworks enough to make guesses about how this or that one works! He asks Adam if his guesses are correct.

 Adam points out Nico's mistakes without making a big deal and explaining how it actually works. Some of the mistakes are entirely because part of the machinery was literally hidden, or (in one case) relied in small magic.

This is pretty fun!

Which is why Adam does it.

Eventually, they start hearing sounds from upstairs. People arriving.

Nico won't suggest going and saying hi if Adam doesn't.

Stephen the color-changing dad pokes his head in the basement. Sees that they are apparently alright. "Don't forget to clean after once you're done, Adam." He says with a nod at the cookies. "Do you two need anything?"

"Not particularly! All the tech here is interesting! Thanks for having me over!"

"Great. We told the ship's staff that your parents can pick you up when they want to. So, keep having fun."

"Well. They might be a while, you never know."

"Well, I am going to be awake doing the taxes, so there's no problem." And he leaves.

"...I should probably tell you a small secret, all things considered, Adam. But I dunno how you'll react."

"Secret?" Adam asks suspiciously.

"As in, I've been hiding this fact. Mostly by failing to mention it not by lying. Nothing that'll hurt you, almost definitely."

"Okay... are you a fairy or something?"

"Or something. I popped over here from another world to get away from my awful school that locked me in my room for two days! So yeah my parents aren't coming to get me."

"So is that face for the 'awful school' thing or the 'other world' thing or what?"

"Other world thing... how?"

"Apparently my magic can do it! It's weird but I'm not complaining! I read something about teleporting in a book, and something about alternate worlds, and had an idea, and I did some math the way you do to make new magic in my world, and I thought it wouldn't work! But, pop, most of my magic for the day is gone and I'm on a boat and have to think fast."

"We should call an adult," he turns to go upstairs but turns back immediately, "how do I know you're telling the truth? How do you know you're telling the truth and that you didn't get charmed by something with a poor sense of humor?"

"Ugh, adults are gonna make such a fuss. That's why I was hiding it! I remember it all pretty clearly, you know, and I can do magic however I want, if you have lie-detecty magic I won't object to using it on me too much. Once."

Adam makes a helpless gesture. "I can not not tell someone. I think they have a law for it or something."

"So I should have kept it a secret longer. Gotcha." Sigh.

"I didn't mean like that. But like... where are you going to sleep? Or what are you going to eat?"

"I got some food from the boat, and the festival. There's a nice spot in the park under an awning I was gonna use. And tomorrow my points'll come back and I'll be able to use magic." Shrug. "I think I coulda figured it out."

"But what if something caught or you got sick? Or it was too cold?"

He shrugs. "I don't like begging. But, then I woulda tried to find someone. I was more worried about nasty monsters and stuff than food and cold."

"You should've been worried about nasty fae. Some like to take lost children and throw them at monsters to see who wins."

"I hadn't planned that far ahead, you know."

"And you don't want to tell anything to the adults?"

"I mean, I know it's probably a good idea to tell them. And I don't wanna make you lie for me. That's an awful spot to be put in. But I don't have to like it."

"I mean, they are going to find out. Dad would've walked you back to the boat if it got too late."

"Maybe I should run away before they do...?"

"What? No! Why would you do that? Where would you even run away to?"

"Somewhere! Somewhere with no adults!"

"But that's not safe."

"Buddy in my experience adults aren't very safe either. I kinda want to bolt and take my chances!"

"Wait... what?"

"Adults aren't very safe either. They kinda do whatever they want."

"Adults... are safe. They are annoying sometimes, but they can't do whatever they want."

"Maybe your world's adults are different. I've got a teleport thingy now so I'm not super worried."

"I guess. But you still shouldn't. What if something does catch you?"

"Wise Kamek says, even when all paths forward are cloudy, do not stop moving forward."

"What? Who is Kamek?"

"Old famous philosopher guy. I was just. Trying to sound smart."

"Well, I bet he never met a dangerous fae."

"Guess not, since we don't have fae."

"They are dangerous. You might no be able to run away fast enough."

"I already said fine!"

"Okay!" Adam says grumply. "I will get my dad then."

(It's still going better than he expected, so far.)

Adam returns with his dad (in a white-shirt) a few minutes later.

"Adam told me that you told him that you're from another world."

"Yyyyyyeeeeesss. I did say that. And it's even true."

"And you escaped a bad home situation?"

"Escaped the school. You're not allowed to do basically anything. And they hate people who are actually smart. My parents are... My mom's okay."

"Okay... what would you like to do? If no one got in your way?"

"...Read in a library for a month. Not have to do magic unless I'm getting paid or I want to. Buy cool things with the money I make and learn to make stuff and sell them for more than I started with. Maybe get a house-truck, trucks seem neat."

"Sounds reasonable." Stephen says nodding minutely. "I think you would need a license to drive a truck though. If you're not allowed to do that, what would you rather do?"

"Guess I'll have to get a license. Or find something like a truck that doesn't need one. Boat maybe?"

"Maybe, I don't know. As an adult, I obviously can't actually tell you how to flee away from other adults."

He changes to his black-coded self.

"Clearly, not," Stephen-the-black agrees. "it's not the sort of thing that adults tell their kids, more often than not tell will get ideas of their own or overhear adults talking."

Back to white. "Oh? Like how maybe he really shouldn't try to get by on his own, but if he does he should learn about camping and maybe get a camping tent."

Black again. "Yeah, a camping tent like the one we have in the attic. Also, for that matter if his plan is to sell magical stuff maybe he could go to the witch at the edge of town for tips, instead of doing all on his own."

"Indeed," White says. "It's sad that adults get so busy arguing among themselves and have no time to actually hear the child."

"If you try to keep me in a place I can leave. By the way. I invented it and didn't think it'd work but it did."

"Yup," he shrugs.

...These adults are weird. The tent in the attic tip might be a trap? The witch at the edge of town - well, Adam mentioned her, so maybe she's not made up, but she's probably an adult, so...

"Oh, so useless, adults never listen. I guess I'll stay here at least a little while if they'll let me. Something might eat my face if I wander off or so I hear."

"Eat your face or worse." He says much more seriously. "I am not sure if what you're saying is the truth but you can stay overnight and if you're parents come from the ship demanding you I can even take blame for the unplanned sleepover. If not," another shrug, "we can deal with it in the morning."

"My parents aren't gonna come find me. Probably wouldn't even if they could."

Well, that's actually sad. He nod agreeable.

"Are you feeling tired already?"

"Yeah. I'm not that tired quite yet."

"Okay, are mad at Adam for calling me over?"

"I figured he was gonna do it anyway. I knew he would when I told him. So it'd be pretty stupid to be mad, wouldn't it?"

"Not stupid. But it's a good thing that you're not. Even if you disagree, he was trying to help."

"...Well, anyway... Clockwork and radios are cool. And trucks. And steam-boats. We didn't have any of that stuff."

"They are! I can barely wrap my head around them, but Adam is really good at understanding and tinkering with them."

"Maybe I should go ask him more questions then."

And if the... Two dads... Don't stop him he'll go upstairs and look for Adam.

Well, the non-individual Dad goes up as well, presumably he lacks a reason to stay in the basement.

Adam is actually sitting right in front of the stairs (at a reasonable distance to avoid collisions) and asks. "Hi? How did things go?"

"Well, observe me not running away? And your dad-s- not storming up here angrily?"

"Dad never gets angry at kids. Neither version. But, like, are you going to stay?"

"Tonight yes. Any further than that... Dunno yet."

"Okay... can I show you more stuff?"

"Sure! Being shown stuff is pretty great!"

More stuff! Like this series of mechanisms that Adam want to incorporate into a mechanical hand (main challenge is keeping everything small enough).

He has no idea what the limitations of tech are like but wonders aloud if his magic could do shortcuts. He can't shrink it, but maybe he can link one thing to another without an actual physical connection?

That would help a lot! A considerable amount of space is devoted on connecting mechanisms while also keeping them independent. Adam yawns.

"I have to, like, design a spell to do that. And if you're good at designing it's stronger or takes less points or is less likely to fall apart weirdly. Maybe I'll work on it tomorrow."

"How much work do you have to put on a spell?"

"Well I did my escape-spell in, oh, two months of working on it in secret a couple hours a day? But that was a hard one and it still - well, it took a big sacrifice to actually cast. Something like this I can have something to try in a day probably."

"Heh, and it doesn't involve going anywhere dangerous to collect weird mushrooms or talk to things that speak in riddles?"

"Nope. But doing stuff like that would probably get me more points. Points like adventure, it's a whole thing. I wouldn't be surprised if I got a bit closer to an extra blue point from the sneaking around earlier today."

"Adventure?" Adam says like he finds the term insulting.

"Yep. Soldiers and theives and couriers and hunters and sailors and stuff get the most points. Because of adventure."

"Why?"

"Why do things fall towards the ground? It's just, y'know, how it works."

"At least with the plants you can eventually learn how to tame them."

"Huh, can you do magic with plants?"

"Yeah, you can brew them and stuff. And I guess there is stuff like making charms out of knotted leaves or weapons out of wood."

"Yeah. There are people who try to figure out why things happen. Natural philosophers. I'm more interested in how to make something work than why it works, but I can see the appeal of understanding it all."

"I mean, yeah, I agree with you. But figuring out the why helps people figure out new ways to make stuff work. So it's good there are people doing that for us."

"People are good at different things so it's good that you don't always have to go hunt or pick food from bushes yourself. One guy can get really really good at farming and his wife gets really good at cooking and weaving and the neighbor knows how to build walls and the neighbor's wife knows how to take care of chickens and oh look a town."

"Yeah, my dads jobs are really boring organizational stuff which I would never want to do, but I am glad that they do it."

"Yeah some jobs are weird and useless. A place like this I think has a lot more kinds of jobs than where I'm from. We didn't have fancy clockwork or trucks or steam boats or even glass or good roads like you have."

"You didn't have glass? But it's just... sand that got melted."

"We have glass. It's, like, a bauble or curiosity? Greenish or reddish with bubbles and sand all in it. Somehow nobody thought of making big perfectly clear flat sheets of it and putting it on houses yet."

"What do you use in your windows then?"

"Don't have 'em. Or they're just open if you do."

"Huh, what else did you notice? I think windowpanes are not that complicated."

"Cookies are new. Your clothes are better than ours. I think everyone has soap most of the time from the lack of smell? Indoor lights that aren't magic. Books that aren't hand-written."

He feels very deeply about the cookies, but as the son of a librarian. "Wow, no printing press? That's... very important."

"I mean, maybe half of everyone can't read anyway? I don't see why not, but it's true. And we have spells to copy pages."

"I guess printing presses might be faster? I know that they were important to help everyone get smarter because books were expensive before them."

"I don't know. People kind of mostly invent new spells, not things? Printing press sounds neat anyway."

"I guess if you just have magic then it would do that, but it sounds limiting."

"Yeah it kind of is. There aren't enough points to use them for every little thing. Everything we can do with a machine will mean more magic left over for other stuff. So I wanna learn more about the machines."

"Yess. What do you want to learn? I might be able to teach you? Or at least I know if there is a book about it."

"Literally all of it." He yawns. "So, uh, maybe tomorrow."

He yawns sympathetically. "Yeah, true. Did you bring your pajamas or anything? I can just lend you one if you don't mind them being too big."

"I did not bring any pajamas. What's wrong with sleeping in my day clothes anyway?"

"Pajamas are more comfy? And sleeping on them gets your clothes all wrinkly."

"Well, if you're offering pajamas I won't say no but I don't think I need 'em."

"I am offering pajamas," he confirms.

"Then I'll have pajamas. And sleep. Don't care where."

Adam gets him pajamas and gets his dad to pull out a mattress to put on the floor alongside bedsheets and pillows.

And Nico sleeps. Fidgeting and mumbling in his sleep.

Adam does not disturb him and just ignores the mumbling.

The next day the sun peers through the curtains.

Nico resists waking up. He's sore all over, and still tired.

Eventually people knock at the door and call out. "Breakfast!"

He wakes the rest of the way up as soon as there's any indication he's supposed to be. Sleeping in was not allowed, before. "Breakfast. Right. Lemme go put my other clothes back on..." He does that.

Adam's dad does not bother or come inside. Adam rises up and yawns blearily. He looks a bit surprised with Nico's diligence, but gets ready himself.

"Huh. You don't have to get up fast. Maybe I should have guessed that from all the... Niceness here."

"Niceness?"

"The school and my parents both hit you if you sleep in. You learn not to do that pretty fast. I'm guessing your parents don't."

"I think some children's parents might do it?" It's pretty obvious this is a theoretical possibility to him. "I bet the orphanage does it. Definitely not my dads."

Downstairs?

Downstairs. "I wonder if tech makes people nicer?"

"How so?"

There is a long table in the dinning room. With assorted fruits and pancakes. Adam's siblings say good morning in a way that does not betray any knowledge about other worlds.

But Mary Jane looks at him a bit worriedly before offering a pile of pancakes. People are picking their toppings by themselves.

"Well, everyone here seems much nicer than at home, is all. Thank you, these look tasty!"

Pancakes look like some kind of food, anyway. He goes for the most recognizable topping: Chopped fruit.