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earth reserves no blessing for the unblessed of heaven
Amentans in Milliways and also Amentans in Milliways
Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh.... I thought it would be weirder."

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Mika stares out the window, transfixed by the exploding stars, "I think it's just as weird as it should be!" He says, distracted. 

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Sefoni shifts uncomfortably, glancing back at the door, "Milliways is the place they got the magic from, right?" She asks. "Isn't it supposed to be... sort of dangerous?"

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Ita looks around, observing the various patrons worriedly.

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Tepam looks at the ground, worried. "Mom mentioned... it might not be a clean place."

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Sefoni makes a quiet 'eep' noise, and shifts farther away from the walls, "Not clean? But, it's supposed to be a place to eat, right? How could they not keep it clean?" 

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Mika tears his eyes away from the window at that, shifting on his feet as he looks around. "The Bar's supposed to be a person, right? They'd know if it wasn't clean, probably." He steps over to the bar counter a little gingerly, standing on his tiptoes to see over it, "Excuse me?"

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A napkin appears.

Hello! Would you like a drink? The first is free.

"Oooh!"

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"Oooh!!" Mika agrees, distracted by this offer. "What kinds of drinks do you have?"

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Sefoni huffs quietly, "Mika." 

 

 

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"Oh yeah, um, is it clean in here?" He adds. "Our parents were here before, and they said it maybe wasn't."

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"Actually clean. Clean by Amentan standards." Tepam adds.

That can be solved. And we offer a vast variety of drinks, but I am really good at guessing something the person will enjoy.

A tiny, one foot tall humanoid that appears almost entirely covered in glitter pops into view, flying with dragonfly wings.

Before they can express any reaction, they shoot a white glob that hits the middle of the room, detonates into a tiny mushroom cloud that covers everything with soap foam.

The foam doesn't sting their eyes, but still obstructs their vision and by the time the bubbles have dissolved (a few seconds) the creature is gone. And they feel like they just took a shower. There is an wonderful floral scent.

Permalink Mark Unread

"What..."

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Mika shakes his head, and then the rest of his body, blinking hard.

"...I guess it's clean, now?" He says after a moment, "Thanks!" He tells Bar. "I'll have whatever you think I'll like, then," he adds, getting back to the topic of drinks. "Something really different!"

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Sefoni is still blinking around in confusion, "What kind of person was that?" She asks, bewildered. 

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"Me too."

A tall teacup with something hot and foamy materializes, next to something that looks like milkshake layered in multiple colors. Tepam takes the milkshake and drinks it.

!!!

"This is delicious."

Thank you. And that was a soap bubble fairy. You should remain clean for the next few hours. You were already clean before, but being careful seemed expedient.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thank you," Sefoni says after reading this. She hesitantly orders something as well, asking for her favourite berry milkshake from home rather than anything more adventurous.

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Mika takes his drink, sipping at it carefully and getting foam all over his upper lip. "Mmmm," he hums, hugging his cup.

He looks around, licking the foam off, "We're supposed to go get someone, right? Cause the grown-ups will want to come see, especially now that it's clean. Except... we're stuck in the bunker garden," he realizes.

Permalink Mark Unread

Ita says quietly "Please..." to the Bar and gets something deep red and with bits of fruit. "We can't close the door and... Oh."

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"We can't even use our pocket everythings to send a message."

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"Should we just go, then?" Sefoni asks, looking around at the other patrons warily. 

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"We can't just go," Mika disagrees. "Even if we can't get anyone else, at least we're here! We should talk to people!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We could get more magic! We have to!"

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"Yeah!" He turns away from the Bar to look around the room for someone interesting to talk to.

Permalink Mark Unread

The room isn't full, but there's a fair spread of people, some on their own and a few in small groups. Nearby, a man is watching them with some concern just barely visible in his expression. He's pretty obviously non-amentan - if his dark hair didn't give it away, his blue-grey skin would have. The table's he's sat at has a few books spread out on it, interspersed by sealed bottles of variously coloured liquid, and a couple of plant pots. 

Permalink Mark Unread

"How about we talk to him?" Mika suggests to Tepam.

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"Ooh, colorful alien. Yes. We should." And without waiting, she comes over. "What are those things? Also, hi!"

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"Uh," he stalls. Small child, help!

"Hello," he tells the small child, recovering quickly, "In these bottles?" He asks, lifting one to show her, "They're potions. I'm an alchemist," he adds.

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Mika follows Tepam, and peers at the bottle from her side, "What are they for?" He asks.

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Sefoni stays back, but she eyes the plants curiously. She doesn't recognize any of them, which isn't really a surprise, but it makes them even more interesting than plants usually are.

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"...Many things," he says, eyes darting between the two of them for a moment, "This one increases the rate magicka recovers at," he says of the one he's holding.

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Ita will just keep Sefoni company.

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Blink. "Magicka? Like the one that uses enchantment tables?"

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"Yeees," he agrees, slowly, "Do you know of the magic used in Tamriel?" He asks, "I think I would have heard of people with hair like yours if you were native to my world." 

Permalink Mark Unread

"It could just sound alike?" Mika offers. "There's enchanting, and then there's a bunch of magic types, like Destruction and Illusion and Restoration and so on," he adds.

Permalink Mark Unread

"That does sound like it, yes. I still can't imagine I would have missed hearing of a race of people like you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You didn't. I don't think. My mom and his mom met someone from your world when they were pregnant with us."

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"Ah, and they received our magic from that person? Hm... I suppose if one could enter the world and be attached to Aetherius..." he trails off, and then shakes his head, "I suppose that person didn't have access to any alchemical ingredients, then, if you didn't know what these were?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't think so. What those plants do?" Tepam asks pointing at the nearest one.

Permalink Mark Unread

He glances at it, "That is Dragon's Tongue," he tells her, "Eaten plain the pollen increases heat resistance, and the leaves act as a catalyst in a number of enhancement potions, as well." He pauses, remembering that he's talking to kids, and then shrugs - if they don't understand it, maybe they'll go away; if they do, he could have an interesting conversation.

"All of these are alchemy ingredients," he adds then, motioning to the plants, "I'm working on altering a potion." 

Permalink Mark Unread

Mika looks up from where he's peering at the little blue flowers on another of the plants, "What kinda potion is it?"

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He clears his throat, "It's called Vaermina's Torpor. It allows a person to enter the mind of another in their dreams, with a number of other effects. I'm trying to make it... friendlier."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Friendlier how? Can it give people nightmares?"

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"In a way. The problem is that using it physically places the user into the dreamer's memories through their dreams, which opens a person up to Vaermina - she's the Daedric Prince of Dreams and Nightmares, which means she has a great deal of power but she can't use it on a person unless they agree to let her, usually. What I'm trying to do is add some sort of protection against her. It might not be possible, honestly, but it's an interesting project and it would be useful if it did work."

Permalink Mark Unread

Mika squints, some of this is going in one ear and out the other, "So it's for reading people's minds?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I suppose that's one use, yes. But the user also comes out where they were in the dream whenever the effects end. It's bottled teleportation with a few extra steps."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oooh, is it hard to make? Could it take you to another planet?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's very hard to make," he nods, "Some of the ingredients are very rare, but luckily the greenhouse I have access to has all of them. I have no idea if it could take you to another world, but a planet within the same world should work. Distance doesn't seem to matter."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Amentans really need new planets to expand to."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't think this would help you there. Even if you could grow the ingredients necessary for the potion, and alter it to remove Vaermina's influence, you would still need a person who had been to the planet you want to go to." He shrugs, "And then you'd need enough Torpor for everyone you wanted to transport. Portal spells would be more useful."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay..." he reaches out to poke another bottle, "Well, what else can you do with alchemy, then?"

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He catches his hand before it touches the bottle, picking it up to bring it closer so he can get a better look. "Oh, plenty. There's healing potions, stamina potions, potions to increase the amount of magicka you have access to for a time, invisibility potions, potions which sharpen eyesight, potions which clear your mind... It's as varied as any other magical field. And involves a lot more experimentation." 

Permalink Mark Unread

"Aww, I want it. Can you teach us?" Tepam says jumping up and down.

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Quietly, Ita whispers to Sefoni. "Took long enough."

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Sefoni giggles quietly, nodding.

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He blinks. "Well... I could try to teach you a few things," he agrees after a moment, looking around at the plants on his table, "Here," he reaches out and tugs a berry off a little potted bush, and one of the flowers off the dragon's tongue, "Snowberries increase resistance to all the elements a small amount, but mixed with dragon's tongue pollen they'll greatly increase how much heat you can resist." He crushes the berry between his fingers, carefully pulling some of the pollen off the flower and mixing them together in one hand, "Quick and dirty alchemy," he adds, before dropping the mess into a glass of water and applying a burst of magicka. The mess dissolves and the water tints a pale red.

"Give it a try," he offers her a berry and the flower.

Permalink Mark Unread

Grin. She does as instructed and zaps the concoction. Paying attention to any noticeable effects.

Permalink Mark Unread

As soon as she hits the water with magic, her berry and pollen mush dissolves and it tints a slightly darker red.

"Good," he tells her, smiling. "The effects of this one wouldn't be very strong," he adds, "But it's not nothing. If you're trying to make potions for people who actually work with fire, you want a full lab set-up. We'll have to make do with what I have, though - my door opens onto the greenhouse, so I can't access my lab."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sefoni inches forward, "Do... do you think we could grow your plants in our world?" She asks. "Our garden is on the other side of our door," she adds.

Permalink Mark Unread

He glances over at her, "I have no idea," he says, shrugging, "But... well, you could try. I have enough excess that you could transplant a few and take some cuttings with you, if you wanted. You'd have to make do without animal parts, but a fair amount of alchemy ingredients are plants."

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Tepam bounces. "That would be great!"

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"Well, then..." He pushes his chair back and motions to the door, "I'll have to give instructions from the door, and you'll need to be careful - some of the plants are poisonous, so you'll need gloves..." He hums, looking uncertain, "Maybe this isn't such a good idea," he mutters.

Permalink Mark Unread

"We can be careful," Mika insists, looking up from one of the books. There's a picture of the dragon's tongue flower carefully drawn on one of the open pages, and a few passages of information on the other.

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Sefoni nods, "We have gloves," she adds, pulling hers from her half-apron, "We were just gardening before this."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Better if Mika and Tepam try to learn things, while we deal with the plants?" Ita says waving her own gloves, she feels that transplanting possibly dangerous plants is clearly her and Sefoni's responsibility. "Are you interested in non-magic gardening?" Ita asks Erandur.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sounds like a plan," he agrees. "That book - Mika, was it?" (He nods) "Mika has is a good place to start," he tells Tepam. "It's a compendium of ingredients and their effects." He stands, "I'll get these two started in the greenhouse while you two work on that." 

Permalink Mark Unread

Mika moves over a bit to let Tepam take a look at the book, flipping back to the first page as he does.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm not very interested in non-magical gardening, no," he says in answer to the other question as he leads them towards the door, "Truth be told, I probably wouldn't do as much as I do if it wasn't so much more convenient than just gathering ingredients wild," he admits. 

Permalink Mark Unread

Ita nods. Not sure how to continue the conversation, so she will just follow instructions.

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He opens the door, and waves them inside, staying in the doorway himself. 

The greenhouse is a haven of lush flora of all sizes and shapes and colours, bushes and trees and vines and flowers and a small shadowy area for some mushrooms. The air is warm, humid, and filled with the scent of dirt and living things. The greenhouse is inside a dome of glass-filled metal hexagons, through which they can see the sky above and a vast snowy landscape stretching out around them in three directions, and an icy sea to the fourth. They appear to be at the top of a tall tower, which itself stands atop a mountain.

He directs them to the gardening supplies, and then instructs them on how to gather samples which they can plant in their own world, watching carefully when they start working on the more dangerous ones.

There's a lot of plants. It's going to take a while.

Permalink Mark Unread

Oooh. So nice. Ita asks if she can take a picture. 

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Tepam keeps up the reading pace. Doing her thing where she almost vibrates with excitement wherever magic is involved. 

Permalink Mark Unread

...Sure, she can take a picture. 

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Tep is adorable. Mika reads with her, occasionally giggling at her excitement. 

Permalink Mark Unread

They'll be able to get through the whole book and half-way through another (their benefactor directs them to a book on common potions) before the others finish transplanting. The plants cover several tables, and there's a small basket of carefully labeled seeds in cloth bags as well as a small pile of new books on yet another. 

Mika looks up as they bring in the last load, "Hey, you know you guys have this kind of magic now, too, right?" He points out.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ooh, that's right!"

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"What?" She nearly drops her everything. 

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Sefoni is also a bit alarmed by this information!

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"Yeah, you went to that world so you've got it, now. That's how it worked for our moms," he motions between himself and Tepam. 

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"...I know I said that five people wasn't a lot but I didn't mean I wanted to be one of the people with special magic almost no one else has," Sefoni says, unhappy. 

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Ita gasps. "I am going to make a lot of money!"

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"You sound oddly disappointed."

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"If I have this special magic they'll want me to do the kind of magic you do, instead of what I actually want to do," Sefoni tries to explain. "I want to make plants grow, and maybe heal people..." She looks around at the results of their work, "...Though, I guess we've got all these magic plants, now," she says, thoughtful. 

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"You were already going to make a bunch of money, probably," Mika reminds Ita, "We're all going to have twin magic. But having this magic will probably make more, it's true."

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"I know... but I have the Wealth blessing, and I think that explains it." She does not look exactly excited about it, just surprised.

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"Oh, hey, all of that reminds me. I don't suppose you know someone expecting twins or a newborn?" Tepam asks Erandur.

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He raises a brow at this apparent non-sequitur, "Not as far as I know, no." 

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Pout. "It can be any newborn, not just twins. We have magic that we could share but... just for those."

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"There are no newborns I could reach, I'm afraid," he tells her apologetically. "There is a single newborn child in the town at the bottom of the mountain, but I'd have to destroy one of the panels in the greenhouse, navigate the steep drop from the top of the tower, and then trek down the mountain to reach her mother. And I have my doubts that she'd be willing to come back up here in the same manner," he adds, amused by the idea.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, we don't have to bring the baby here for the blessing part."

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"We don't?"

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"No, we do like that at the island because it's cute and fun. But we can draw birth blessings from a distance and it worked."

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"...Well, alright then," he agrees. "What do these birth blessings do, exactly?"

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"You can use them to see what a baby's going to be like," Mika explains. "There's a set of blessing coins, and you draw three of them, and the three you get are the baby's blessings. Mine are Joy, Change, and Luck. So my mom new I was gonna be a lucky, happy person and probably kinda unpredictable," he grins. 

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, Ita got Wealth, so we knew she would find some way to make money. And someone who got birth blessed can draw blessings and get a sense of the near future. Like, if you draw inspiration you can expect to have some interesting idea in the near future. And the person can draw birth blessings for other newborns too." She fetches pen and paper and starts writing blessings down.

Permalink Mark Unread

He watches with mild interest, "Ah, divination. I suppose that could be useful. I'll have to let her mother know."

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Tepam nods.

Courage, Love and Wealth.

"Nice ones."

Permalink Mark Unread

"They are," he agrees. "I'm not sure how I'll explain this to her mother, but if all else fails I'm sure the little one will come up to the tower to visit the library, eventually, and I can let her know then." 

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, it is at least good news. And the little one can draw blessings for other people when she grows up."

Permalink Mark Unread

Eventually, they finish gathering all the samples they can gather and write down everything they can write down about alchemy.

By the end of it they are really sweaty and go upstairs for a shower.

Permalink Mark Unread

Even Sefoni can really only take so much dirt before it starts getting... itchy. And all the sweat is just gross. There's definitely downsides to doing a lot of gardening.

Permalink Mark Unread

A short time after they leave, a trio of newcomers enters the bar. 

They enjoy a quick meal, and then make their way back to the door to collect some more people from their world. 

Only... they seem to have run into a problem. 

 

"...Shit," he says again.

"...I guess we'll be moving up our time table," he adds absently after a moment, eyes wide as he stares into the hallway on the other side of the door.

Permalink Mark Unread

"What do you mean? It... it will work again, it needs to."

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"I don't know, Kenta... let's... let's go back to a table and take a moment to calm down and think."

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He... closes the door. "Right," he agrees, expression and voice oddly blank. Back to the tables.

"What... what do we do?" He asks once they're sitting down, panic starting to set in. "We were just talking about it- we're not ready-"

Permalink Mark Unread

"How about Mom, and Remi? Or just about everyone?"

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"I don't know Kenta. That might go away," he waves at the door, "or we might find a way back. Maybe Tobir will be able to open an interworld portal with a crystal big enough."

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"I can't believe we forgot- the door opens to your world. We just lived there so long... it kind of became home, even if we were going to go back to Amenta someday." He drops his head in his hands, "There's no way to know how long it's been there now, either. They could all be- but a Gabe would have to get a door eventually, right? Maybe if we just wait a bit..." 

Permalink Mark Unread

"Did the place look different? I don't remember that well. Maybe it was paused or slowed. We were never sure we caught every piece of the world communication thing."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well... luckily-" Heri pauses, "Well, possibly this cursed place's design, we have bits of cloning crystal with us. Maybe if we grow a Gabe it will give us door here eventually and then to Crystalsky."

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"I think it was pretty much the same. The furniture looked familiar? They would have rented the place to someone else if we were gone long." He nods at Heri, "We should still wait here, for a while. Maybe someone will find a door, and... we'll need resources now, anyways." 

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay... I bet we can work security, if nothing else. Maybe in the infirmary too. We can stay and gather resources, not indefinitely because Milliways. Do you think Red community leaders will collaborate with us? We might need to find a place to stay even if our former residences were unoccupied."

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Nodnod, "I could reach out to some of Uncle Remi's old contacts," he offers, "I met a few of them during the year it was just us." He frowns, "They probably won't recognize me, though," he notes. "That might be a problem."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah... we really don't have a legal identity back there."

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"We can just be all magical at the leaders. They are going to be scared, but I don't think they will go the cleans or something. Do we need legal identities?"

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"It might make some things easier," he frowns, "But I think we can work around it. At least the leaders won't think we're cleans, so long as Kenta's with us," he adds, tugging at his hair, which is a weird, mildly ambiguous purplish-red colour, like wine. "It'd definitely go better if they believed I was... well, myself, though. Or Remi, maybe. We were talking about illusion magic, earlier. That would solve the problem." 

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Heri tugs his own, more desatured shade of purplish-red. "We would need to avoid any inspection, but... I guess that was already true." Heri tells Kenta. "And, we can make disguise magic a priority."

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"Yeah," he looks around, "I guess we should... talk to some people, then." Does anyone look particularly magical?

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A graceful young man walks over to them. "Hello, I couldn't help hearing - because I have enhanced hearing - but you are you three concerned about people from Amenta, right?"

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Blink, "Uh, yeah." Pause, "Are you suggesting that there are some here?" He asks, alarmed. If any cleans have access to Milliways... 

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, a group of kids. They talked to someone that gave them plant-based alchemy magic. I was busy trying a different kind of magic - which didn't work - and didn't approach them at the time. But I heard theym talking. Do you mind if you can explain the thing more coherently?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, kids, that's... not so bad," he nods, "Yeah, we can do that.

"The overview is... Okay, so on Amenta, the people are divided into castes - blue, for governing, green, for intellectual stuff, yellow, for things that need... attention to detail, orange, for nurturing jobs like nursing and teaching, grey, for sports and police and military, purple, for agriculture and services and business, and red, for the dirty jobs, the ones that deal with death, garbage, and sewage - things that make you unclean. The rest of the castes treat the reds like shit. Literally. They treat shit better, actually, they just avoid it, where they'll sometimes beat a red to a pulp or kill us if we make them angry." He pauses, "We're reds," he adds, motioning between the three of them, "In case that wasn't obvious." 

Permalink Mark Unread

"I figured that much. Well, they mentioned having their door stuck on a bunker, so they can't contact people. But they also have magic, apparently. Some divination blessings, some kind of crystal magic, and some kind of twin magic, and the alchemy magic which apparently also includes spellcasting or at least it's acquired from the same world with spells."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...We have twin magic and crystal magic. Never heard of the other two."

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"When you say kids, you mean actual kids, not like, sixteen-year-olds? The twin magic comes in at sixteen, so if they already know they'll have it, maybe they even know more than we do," he frowns, glancing at Heri, "Damn, it sounds like we actually will have to deal with cleans with magic." He runs a hand through his hair, stressed, "That makes this... so much more complicated."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Gah!"

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"Sorry, dude. They were this tall? And they would be around ten if they were human?"

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"At least we have anti-magic crystals. Though, how did they get crystal magic, assuming it's the same..." Temple just shrugs at Heri. "Okay, we will need to be super-super careful. Pretend that we are not from Amenta if we meet them here." To Temple he says. "Millions might die."

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"Okay... I understood that it was serious business."

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"Yeah," he sighs, "And it's not so much the kids who are the problem, right now, as it is their parents. At least they can't contact them to let them into the bar." He shakes his head, "We'll have to keep an eye out for them. Maybe we can dye our hair for a bit, talk to them and see what we can learn." 

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, just dye black, could even pretend we are humans from Earth or something."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I have a hard time imagining us with black hair, but whatever. Whatever everything."

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Ack. Tobir flails internally for a moment, trying to figure out how to deal with Kenta being this stressed, and then shifts his chair over a bit to press against his side. 

"Sorry. Just for now. They don't even know we exist," he reminds everyone at the table, "We've got the upper hand." They just need to make sure they keep it. 

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"It can't be that hard. Like, kids are sneaky, but you can just avoid discuss anything too sensitive once I am no longer around to make sure you are not being spied upon."

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Kenta leans back.

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"Okay... so, we need to figure out what they have. And their resources. And work around that. Be very low-key with our own plan."

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He nods, "We were already planning on relying on stealth and just... being prepared to strike all at once, and leaving them with no idea where we went. So we don't have to change that." He sighs.

"So... What is your magic, exactly?" He asks the man, "You look... basically human," though he's definitely one of the most attractive humans Tobir's ever met, "but you've got enhanced senses?" 

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"Okay... so I am safe, but should let you know that I am half-human, half-vampire. Comes with a bunch of physical upgrades. In addition to that I have magical power, we call it witchcraft, that lets me do some metamagic manipulation."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Vampire..." He repeats, glancing to Heri and Kenta, "That's an earth legend, right? Something about... blood drinking, and bursting into flames in sunlight, and, uh... garlic?" That can't be right.

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"Right... basically, the only thing that the legends got right is that we drink blood. Well, technically the word was originally used for an unrelated folklore monster. I can eat regular food being only half vampire."

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"Well, that's..." He pushes the thought of blood drinking aside, "Anyway. What kind of metamagic? Also, hi, I'm Tobir Tisik, this is my brother Heri Osian and our cousin Kenta, who hasn't picked a jobname yet." 

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"Jobname? Like Smith or something? I am Temple. I can do things to people's magic after I have observed them long enough. Making their powers work differently, or even taking or swapping pieces."

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"Second names in the country we were born in are chosen based on our jobs, usually. Or aspirations. Mine means 'wheel', Heri's means 'equal share'. Can you do stuff to any kind of magic? Can you mess with ours?" He motions between himself and Heri. Maybe he can tell them something they don't know about the twin powers.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Our parents figured out how to give us the twin magic, but didn't write down all it could do."

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"It takes hours to get any noticeable result. But witchcraft is personality based. So, I would be interested and should be able to at least inform you anything you don't know."

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"Personality-based? I guess you must really like magic, then? Or are just generally curious. Should we use the powers so you can get a, um, 'look', at them?"

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"Yes, yes I do. Using your powers might help, but I want to know what else you have." He waves at the bag with all their crystals. "You have a lot of magic in there."

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"Sure, I guess," he shrugs, looking to Heri to see if he agrees.

"Most of the magic we do is with crystals, really. Our twin powers aren't useful as often. Here," he offers his arm to Temple, revealing his inner wrist as it's replaced with red-streaked-with-black crystal, "That's my personal enhanced crystal - everyone can make one, and they have unique powers. It lets anyone who has a copy of it create portals. Besides the enhanced ones, you can also use crystal magic to make copies of stuff if you crystalize them completely." He's probably welcome to take a look at the ones in the bag, assuming they're all okay with this.

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They are okay with this. They can explain what each crystal is able to do. And even do a practical presentation of the duplication effect.

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Temple is fascinated. "Okay... I want to learn this magic and figure yours out. It might be a good idea to rent a room or at least go outside for it?"

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He shrugs, "That sounds like a reasonable repayment for all the help?" He looks to the other two, "Let's rent a room?" He suggests as well, "We'll probably need one, anyway, if we're planning to stick around for a little while." 

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"Okay, let's grab some hair dye too. I guess we will need three sets, black, red and purple." He stands up to do those things.

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And once Things have been gathered, upstairs they go.

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And shortly after they leave, downstairs come the four amentan kids, fresh from the shower. Sefoni peers around at the people in the bar room, noticing that Erandur has left while they were upstairs. 

"Oh, that's too bad... I thought of some more questions about the plants," she sighs. "I can just figure them out myself, though, I think." She decides, putting the issue out of mind. 

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"People just come and go. And we can always talk to someone else?"

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"Yeah," she sighs again, but does look around at the other patrons.

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At a nearby table a conspicuously magical woman sits, poking at what looks like a holographic representation of a palace of some sort. Or, maybe not a palace. Certainly a very large building with a lot of gorgeously decorated rooms, though. She seems to glow with an inner light, flickering and flaring and wreathing her form in an aura of golden fire, but the chair she's sitting on seems unburnt.

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Ooooh, Tepam aproaches. "Are you magical? What is that? What are you doing? Also, hi!"

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She looks down at her, unsurprised by her approach, "Hello," she greets in return, smiling, and then proceeds to answer her questions in reverse order. "I'm working on my next project. This is one of my more useful powers, the ability to project the images I imagine into the air and manipulate them. I am, in fact, very magical." 

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"What kind of magical?" Mika asks, coming up beside Tepam and peering at the image on the table. It's very pretty.

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"I am The Architect," she answers, "The goddess of Architecture, patron of the hearth and home. My powers are those needed to grant my followers' prayers, and create homes for those without them." 

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Can you make homes anywhere? Or build them really, really tall?"

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"Both of those things," she nods. "So long as I'm not in the range of another god, or some other magical effect like the one in this in-between place. Far enough into another god's range I usually need their cooperation to work, as they need mine in my range." She looks the four children over, "You four are quite magical as well," she notes, "Are you here looking for more?"

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"We are! Do you have any magic that you can share?"

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"I do," she says, peering more closely at the four of them. "Hm... I believe I could give the four of you two Boons. Boons are items with useful magic attached to them," she explains, "They're meant to convince people to worship the god who gives them to them - though of course I can't expect that from the people I meet here."

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Pensive nod, "What kind could you make for us?" Mika asks. "And why only two?"

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"I can only make a limited number per day," she explains. "I don't control what kind of magic they offer, either, though it's always tied into my domain, somehow - planning and creating - and is always something which the receiver will find very useful."

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"Could you do something that creates magic?"

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She shakes her head, "That's much too powerful for a Boon, I'm afraid. Most of my Boons draw from the 'planning' portion of my domain, as well, though we won't know what you'll get until I make one for you. Would you like me to?" 

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"I would!" Tepam says bouncing.

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"Alright, come here, and hold out your hand."  

She holds out her own, her fiery aura settling into a more uniform glow as she does so. Slowly, the light gathers in the palm of her hand, becoming brighter and brighter until they have to look away. 

When they look back, she's holding a necklace of deep green gems set into a lattice of copper-coloured metal. 

"Oh, that's an interesting one," she murmurs, admiring it with a pleased smile. She offers it to Tepam. 

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"Oooh! Thank you!" She hugs The Architect. "What does this do?"

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"Why don't you try it and find out?" She suggests. "Just put it on, and want to activate it."

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She does. Necklace activate!

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The necklace activates! Out of the gems comes streams of multi-coloured light, quickly resolving into a three-dimensional grid. 

The Architect glances over at her palace hologram, and it dissolves into a similar display, "It seems like it's based on that power," she says, motioning towards it. "I think it has to do with your own magic, though. A design tool for spells."

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"Eeee! That! That is the best thing!" Tepam looks like she is about to explode with happiness.

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"Huh..." Ita says. "Thank you,"  that sounds very useful from what she understands from spell-sort magic. "Maybe... can we give her anything?" She is mostly directing that to other kids.

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"Umm... We could give her some of the plants? Or some of the enchanted stuff we have in the bunker garden?" 

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Sefoni would rather not give away any plants. "We've got warming things and cooling things and lights," she tells the goddess. 

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She chuckles, "You don't need to do that," she tells them, "I don't have much in the way of material needs, and all of those effects are ones I can recreate on my own. Helping others is much of the reason I come here," she explains. She looks between the other three children, "Now there's one more Boon I can give you," she says, watching to see how they decide who gets it. 

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Sefoni frowns, looking between Mika and Ita, "It's okay if I don't get one," she decides. "I've got a whole bunch of new plants to help grow."

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"Parik is already very jealous of me, and I don't want to make him more jealous."

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He hugs her. 

"Maybe something we can all use?" He suggests.

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"That would be better, yeah. The adults even like it more, I think."

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She smiles, "A good idea," she agrees. She holds out her hand again, the same effect as last time causing them to look away from the brightness. When they look back, they'll find... a book! 

"Ah!" She exclaims, running a hand over the green cover, decorated with a five-pointed star inside a pentagram, before offering it to Ita, "A recipe book, for your new plants! It's empty right now, but if you write down the ingredients you have it will tell you what you can make with them."

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Tepam bounces. "That's great!" Another hug.

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Hug! Tepam feels very warm and cozy as soon as she's touching the aura around her, like she's settled in front of a fireplace with a cup of warm cocoa in her hands. 

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That looks very nice. Mika will also hug her!

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Meanwhile, Sefoni peers over Ita's shoulder to get a look at the book, "Ooh, that will be useful," she agrees. "I bet there's potions that no one's figured out yet, or maybe just ones that aren't in the books Erandur gave us." 

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"Can it give us potions no one figured out?" Tepam asks The Architect.

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"It will, yes. It doesn't pull the recipes from elsewhere - it assembles all of the effects of the ingredients you have into all of the possible recipes."

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"Like a video game recipe book!"

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"Precisely," she agrees. 

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"Thank you so much," Sefoni tells her. 

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"You are all very welcome. Just be sure to put those to good use." 

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"We will!"

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They should go grab the list of ingredients they have and start writing them in! 

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While they do that, someone peers into the bar room from the door to the upstairs rooms, quickly backpedaling when he sees the four amentan kids inside, herding the three people behind him back as well.

"The kids are in there," Tobir explains. 

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"They are... and they are discussing magical ingredientes, that's cute."

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"Well, we already dyed our hair black, but maybe we should just go outside or something?"

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"We should probably... figure out what we're actually going to ask, before we talk to them. So yeah, let's just go outside for now." 

Outside. 

...Kind of nostalgic, actually. It looks pretty much exactly as he remembers. 

"Anyone around?" He asks Temple. 

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Temple listen. "Yeah, someone that way." He points.

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The someone comes walking out of the trees nearby shortly after he speaks, heading over to the lake to take a moment to greet its inhabitants. Despite his otherwise human-like appearance, the enormous gold-tipped brown wings mantled on his back suggest he might be something else. Temple at least might also be able to tell that his skin is not, actually, tinted gold, but rather covered by a thin golden aura which flares and retreats unpredictably, though stays within a few inches of his skin. 

After he's finished with the squid, he turns to look at the bar, waving once he notices them looking at him. 

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Tobir tentatively waves back.

"So... I know we came out here to talk about those kids, but..." 

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"I definitely want to meet the winged stranger."

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"Heh, why not?"

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The winged stranger seems to be interested in meeting them, as well, given that he's started towards them. 

"Hello!" He greets, once he's close enough to comfortably speak to the three amentans. "Good to see someone else out here. Did you know there's some amazing caves in those mountains?"

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"Oh," Temple looks over interested. "I did not. Found anything interesting?"

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He grins at him, delighted by the question, "There was this one chamber filled with pale blue and pink crystal pillars and spikes jutting out of the ceiling and floor, and one with a black lake which looked like it went as deep as this world, and another whose walls were perfectly smooth swirls of a hundred different colours... My favourite was probably the one with the glowing ceiling, though. I had to pull in my aura to actually see it properly, but it was so worth it." He rocks back on his heels a bit, wings flaring out slightly to stop him from falling, "It's a little off-putting how this place just loops back around if you keep going, but there's still enough to see to make taking a look around worthwhile."

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Heri makes a slightly pained expression at how much that reminds him of their secret lair. It's such a stupid thing to miss when compared to everything else.

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"That does sound amazing, what is up with the wings?"

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(Maybe it's a stupid thing to miss, but Heri's not alone in it.)

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He shifts the wings a bit, "Oh, they're my patronage symbol," he explains. "Gods in the world I come from eventually develop signs they associate with the concepts they're patrons of - I'm the god of change, but I'm also the patron of travelers and freedom. So, wings." He extends them out to show off the full wing-span, "I'm pretty pleased with them, myself." 

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"They sound really awesome! Also, the best domain to be a god of."

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"Definitely," he agrees. "Couldn't have picked a better one if I'd gotten to choose myself." He looks Temple over and grins, "I like you! Would you like a Boon?"

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"Sure, what is a Boon?"

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"They're usually small magical items, they're meant to tempt people to worship us. I usually just give them out to people I like, I don't actually have any worshippers, and I don't really want any, either. My Boons powers' are all themed around change," he adds, "Though I don't control the specifics. I've given everything from shapeshifting items to a cup that changes wine to water."

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Tobir cuts in briefly once he's finished talking, "Can you just give out as many magic items as you want?" 

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He turns to look at him, his eyes sweeping over the other two as well with mild interest, "No, I'm limited to one per person, unless someone devotes themselves to me." 

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"Do they need to be present? Or do they only for who made them? We have a few millions to save."

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"They'll work for anyone, usually, but the person I'm making one for needs to be close enough to take the item from my hand when I make it." Head tilt, "Refugees?" He asks, "Or... revolutionaries?" 

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"Revolutionaries," Tobir says. "Though... the people are sort of refugees. We'll definitely be changing a lot by saving them, though." He figures mentioning that fact will help their case.

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"Iiiinteresting." He grins, "Sure, I'll make you some, too." He looks at Temple, "But you first," he decides. 

He holds out a hand towards him, and his aura seems to flow down his body into his palm, concentrating into an orb of golden light so intense it's even a little painful for a half-vampire to look at. Not so much that he can't, but it definitely makes his eyes water a bit. 

After a moment, the light recedes, leaving behind an engraved silver ring, perfectly sized for Temple's ring finger. 

"Ooh," he giggles, and then offers it to it's intended recipient.

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"Oooh!" Temple bounces. "I wonder what it..."

He puts the ring on.

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"...does. What?" Temple looks down. "I am a girl."

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He- 

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-or rather, she, starts giggling again. "You should be able to switch back just by wanting to," she reassures Temple, "That's one's surprisingly common!" She doesn't actually find this very surprising at all. 

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"Huh... I guess that's... useful if you are curious and want to have babies yourself?"

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"Humans, or I guess part-humans sometimes want to be different physical sexes," Heri tells Kenta.

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Giggle. "I mean, I have always been curious about it, but I don't think it would have been in my top ten list. Still, this is interesting." Temple is feeling out the new body, while pondering questions about pronouns. "Also, you look great that way too." Temple tells the Wanderer.

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"Thanks! So do you." 

She looks at the other three, "You probably won't get the same thing, unless being a different gender would be very useful for your revolution. Boons usually turn out to be very useful, even if it's not obvious that they will be when I make them." 

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"We will hardly complain, uh... is there a price? Or downside associated with Boons?"

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She shakes her head, "No, it's-" she frowns, "Gods have to convince people to worship them. Most of us Vanish if we don't have any followers. Gods have to woo people over with gifts - the point of a Boon is to say, 'worship me and you can have more of this!' I don't need worshipers, but my Boons work the same way." 

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"Okay..." He feels vaguely uncomfortable getting stuff like this without paying back, except lives depend on it, so he will squash that feeling down. "Can I get one too then?"

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"I did say," she nods. "Here-" she holds out her hand again, aura shifting to form that orb of light once more. This time, it spills out of her hand in a waterfall of glowing gold, eventually coalescing into a long swatch of golden-brown cloth - though of course only Temple can stand the brightness well enough to watch it happen. 

"Oh, a bit of an edge case," she comments, handing it over. "I like it when my Boons do that. Cloak of Invisibility!" 

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Now that he is prepared, Heri just looks in the other direction. "Oooh, we were just discussing like that would be useful earlier today." He takes the cloak, inspects it for a moment before putting it on.

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As soon as the hood of the cloak covers his head, he vanishes to outside viewers. "Woah," Tobir says, stepping forward to poke at where Heri had been. His hand stops in thin air, and he traces one of Heri's invisible arms through it. "One invisible, one intangible," he grins, "I bet no one would even know I was there if I wore this while ghosted." 

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Heri tries to make a force field, to see if they are influenced. And then to cover Tobir with the cloak. "It would be perfect spying." And assassinations attempts.

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The forcefield is invisible if it's inside the cloak, and visible if not. It takes some serious squishing to fit both of them under it, but once Tobir is totally covered the invisibility spreads to him as well. 

"Definitely. Though, I don't think it'd be practical to do this while spying," he comments from where he's crouched down to fit. "Seems like it's a one-person cloak, really... Though you could probably fit some kids under here, too." 

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"Yes, it should be sized to fit you comfortably," she tells Heri. She nods at Temple, "You might have noticed the ring's the right size for your hand, still, even though your fingers are slimmer in that form? Like that. They're your Boons."

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"Ooh, interesting. Would it change size if I got fatter or slimmer?"

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"Yep! It fits you no matter what you look like. It won't change for anyone else, though." 

She bounces a bit on the balls of her feet, "Who's next?" She asks, looking between Tobir and Kenta. "Hmm... Your turn," she decides, pointing at the latter. She turns her hand to make a cup of her palm, and her aura flows down into it again. 

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When it's safe to look once more, they find him holding a pocket watch.

"Woah. You guys are getting some interesting stuff!" He hands it to Kenta, "Try it, try it!" He says, bouncing with excitement. 

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"Oooh, let me see." Kenta takes the pocket watch thing and pushes the most visible button.

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The watch opens, revealing an exquisitely detailed face, all delicate golden filigree and glass showing off the movement of the tiny gears and some kind of golden dust (presumably magic) inside it. There are five hands, four of them moving at different speeds - based on the numbers around the face, one is tracking seconds, one tracking minutes, one tracking hours, and one tracking months - and the fifth is still, currently pointed at the twelve, and also at the number 4-18 which is written above it. There are five more numbers written on the same outermost ring, as well - 1-4, 2-8, 4-16, 20-80, and 40-160.

The Wanderer peers down at the face from over his shoulder, "That number'll go up as you get older," he tells Kenta, pointing at the 4-18. "Just move that hand and press the button again," he adds. 

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Okay. He moves the hand to 2-8 and presses the button.

"What?" He looks up at them.

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Really up, it turns out, because suddenly The Wanderer is the taller of the two. 

"Aw, you were a cute kid," he tells him, grinning. 

 

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Tiny Kenta. Tobir makes a small eee-like noise in his throat, then coughs, flushing.

"...So... is he actually a kid right now, or is it just an illusion or something?"

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"It's real," he assures Tobir, "It'll last an hour, or until he turns the hand to another setting and presses the button again."

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Tiny Kenta pouts. Then he takes out the watch and turns 4-16 and continues pouting. "Why did I get that?"

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"Well, your legal identity back in Amenta is just a kid. I guess it means we can all fit inside the cloak too? Assuming it works on more than one person."

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"Huh... I am ageless. What happens if I use the highest setting?"

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He shakes his head, "It wouldn't work," he tells Temple, "That one's tied to him," he explains. "The time it's counting isn't based on any world's clock," he adds to Kenta, "It's the time since you were born." 

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"You know, if we were careful about it I could probably just walk... with you, while intangible," Tobir points out. "So it can still cover all three of us, at least."

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"Sounds like a good emergence thing in a pinch."

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Kenta pockets his watch. "At least I won't have to deal with whatever is that you two will have to deal with to get your identities back."

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"Yeah..." Though without Roaja, they'll still have a problem. 

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"Okay! Just you left. Here we go," he holds out his palm one last time, the aura gathering once more, rising to a crescendo of light and then dimming, leaving behind... a mask. A half-mask which leaves the bottom half of the face bare, coloured a smooth dark blue with gold detailing. The eye holes look like the ones on theater masks, one turned upwards cheerily, and one turned downward gloomily - and there's a third hole set into the middle of the forehead which looks like a crescent moon. 

"Well, maybe this will help with that," he says, handing it over to Tobir.

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He takes it, examining it and then putting it on a little warily. Nothing happens for a long moment.

"...What does it do?" 

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"Imagine a face it would be useful to be able to turn into," The Wanderer offers. "Pick carefully, though, you've only got three."

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"Oh, wow, yeah-" 

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"-that'll be really useful." He looks down at his body, and then reaches up to touch his face. The mask seems to have vanished, though he can still feel it there. He brushes his hands down his body, twisting this way and that. 

"Huh. I think this is still my body, though. Good thing we're close in height..." He clears his throat, "So! I guess that doesn't solve the problem entirely, but at least I should be able to talk to Remi's contacts now."

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"And no Clean will ever touch you to find out."

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"Could he get a face by accident?" Temple asks The Wanderer.

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"It's pretty deliberate. He has to decide he wants to change to a new face while wearing the mask. I guess if he thought about a face and went 'wow, I wish I looked like that' but didn't mean to change to it, it might still happen? So... avoid that." 

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Back to his usual face, Tobir knocks his knuckles gently against the mask and hmms, "Are these things breakable?" 

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"No- well, if you die, your Boon breaks. But they won't so long as you're alive. Or if I die," he adds as an afterthought, "But that's pretty unlikely!"

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"Huh, does this means I can use my metamagic to poke and pull at it without it breaking? I mean, my metamagic really doesn't break things..."

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He grins, "Oh, metamagic! You should definitely try. I don't know how well it will work - on the one hand, Boons are usually pretty unchangeable, but on the other hand, it is my aura running that."

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Bounce! "I am gonna have so much fun!"

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"It looks like you already have, with the changing every two seconds thing."

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"I don't blame you!" She laughs, changing to match. "-Are you gonna go by she like that, or stick to he, or pick something else?" She thinks to ask. 

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"Huh... either way? I guess. I never had gender feelings before, except for wishing to know what it was like."

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"What a familiar feeling. I was born female, but I like the male body just as much. Sometimes I use different forms, but these two are my current favourites." She hums, "If I hadn't gotten change when I apotheosized, I probably would have picked something like it as one of my patronages." 

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"It isn't a choice?"

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"Your domain isn't. It always suits you, but you don't get conscious control of what it is. Even patronages can only sort of be called a choice. They're based partly on what you do with your power, and partly on what you like doing. Mostly what I do is go places, and I like helping people who are trapped, so those are my patronages. But if I started doing a lot more... I don't know, stealing or something, and I did that for a long enough time, one of them could be replaced by it."

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"Well... please don't steal. But interesting."

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"My magic is also sort of personality based but not under one's choice. Except that some of us can train it in certain directions."

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"Don't worry," she tells Heri, "I don't steal much anymore. I don't need to," she shrugs. "Mostly what I steal nowadays is people, if you can even count that." 

"What can you do with your magic, exactly? I can tell there's something change-y about it. You're very travel-y and freedom-y and change-y," she adds, "If I were a Shallow God - the kind that needs worshipers - I'd definitely be wooing you pretty hard."

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Giggle. "I can understand and change magic. Not very fast, magic is complicated and very tightly built. And maybe you should be wooing me. I have a new body to explore."

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"Temple figured out a part of our powers that we haven't," Heri says only processing Temple's last statement half-way through his own sentence.

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Tobir processes it fast enough that he doesn't add anything to Heri's sentence, instead looking from one immortal to the other with wide eyes for a moment. 

...Actually, on second thought, looking back on this conversation, he's not very surprised. 

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She giggles, both at Temple's suggestion and the twins' sudden realization, "Well, I can't say no to exploring new spaces, can I? What kind of travel god would I be, then?" She bounces a bit, "Do you want to come explore those caves some more with me? I bet there's more I didn't see, and if we find a spot we want to stop at for a while I can make it more comfortable while we're there." 

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"That sounds like it would be really fun."

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"I guess we will leave you guys to it."

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"Yep! Thanks for the help, I hope you two have... fun," he agrees, backing away a bit. 

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"You're very welcome," The Wanderer tells them, "Just make sure to put those to good use. Sow some chaos among your enemies and all that good stuff," she grins.

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"We will! Revolution here we go!"

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Heri pulls Kenta away a bit. "It was nice meeting you two! Have fun."

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"I am sure we will!"

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"This way," she says, and with a last wave to the trio, she takes Temple's hand and sets off into the trees.

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As they vanish into the forest, Tobir turns to the others, thinking back to what they were doing before they ran into The Wanderer.

"Oh yeah, those kids," he realizes, considering the subject for a moment. "...I think one thing we really need to know is how many of them there are. Are the four of them two sets of twins or something? Or are they all just one part, maybe? I didn't get a very good look, so I don't know if they looked much alike."

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"Yeah. I can do that. And we can't be sure they haven't acquired an adult in the meantime."

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"Yeah, we'll have to check that before we go in." He frowns, "I think the only... reasonable excuse for going up to them ourselves is asking if they have an adult around. And even then it's maybe... sort of iffy. Maybe they'd be drawn over if whoever goes in starts doing obvious magic at another table or something? We could use the crystal magic, we've got enough empowered crystals that we must have something they haven't seen." 

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"And I could pretend to be a kid too?"

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"Two plans. And I should first scout them invisibly, but I don't think they will conveniently talk about the cleans' resources and weakness."

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"Yeah," he weighs his mask in his hand for a moment, "Remi has red hair, and I don't think I want to use up another of my three faces for this - we should probably put more thought into the other ones. It... probably won't matter if they see our real faces, anyway. If they run into us in Amenta, and they even pay attention to how a bunch of reds look, they'd probably assume alts before assuming we're the same people." He nods, "So, you scout them out invisible, and then, assuming they don't start throwing exposition all over the place, the three of us can go into the bar. Kenta can go over to talk to them, and then either suggest they come talk to us or we can come over to... 'see what he's doing'?"

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Heri nods. "Good thing that Kenta's hair dye sticks through his forms. I guess we can pretend to be an Earth and ask questions about his world... maybe we should disclose being twins and be interested in their twin magic?"

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"It'd probably be a good way to get them to talk about that, yeah," he agrees. "Hm... anything else before we go in?" 

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"Huh... first rule of improv is 'yes, and'?"

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"Be careful. Uh, if I tug either of your elbows twice it means we should leave?"

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"Sounds good," he nods, "I'll do the same if I see something you don't." 

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"Alright," Heri takes a deep breath and pulls the invisibility cloak's hood over his head. He vanishes. "How do I look?"

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"Practically unnoticeable," Tobir assures him, "They should call us the ghost twins." 

Inside?

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Inside. Heri whispers when he walks ahead.

And he approaches the children, assuming they are visible.

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They do not seem to have found their own invisibility cloaks while the trio were gone. They're still talking about magical ingredients, too, one of them busy with copying a list of them into a book. It doesn't look like much time has passed in here since they left.

"...Nightshade... Nirnroot... Purple... Mountain... Flower..." Sefoni mutters under her breath as she writes. 

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Mika looks over her shoulder, reading the short summaries that show up underneath the ingredients as she writes, along with page numbers noting where they'll find the longer descriptions. 

"Oh, that's the singing plant," he says, pointing to the nirnroot. "Kinda weird how it does invisibility when it makes noise and glows," he muses.

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"I mean, if it controls light, it sort of makes sense. But magic is weird. And fun."

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"Huh, does it make silence too?" Ita peers.

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"The book Erandur gave us didn't say it did, but it looks like it does according to this one," he reaches out to trace that part of the brief description, jerking back when Sefoni absently whacks at his arm.

"I guess that does make sense, then."

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Tepam bounces. "Amazing! We could sneak out anywhere if we were both invisible and silent."

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Visible and silent, Heri feels slightly uncomfortable with this topic of conversation. But decides to stick around for a bit.

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"Maybe we could even visit the city!" He agrees. "I know the school's supposed to be going on some field trips this year, but it would be so much cooler if we could explore on our own."

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"Yeah, even I can't get to the city as much, but I would like for you guys to go too."

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"Uh... but it's kinda dangerous."

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"Not if we don't go during spring or summer. So long as there's no people who could be having twins walking around, we can't spread the twin magic." Pause, "Or do you mean it might be dangerous for us?"

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"I was talking about spreading twin magic to..." she does not like talking about reds and the mood is so nice, "anyone who shouldn't have it. But, maybe? Mom says that there are parts of town that are not good for raising kids."

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"So we don't go in spring or summer, and we avoid those areas," he says, as though it's that simple. 

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They are going to get themselves and other people killed.

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"Sounds like a great idea!"

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"Won't your moms know about the invisibility potions once we show them this, though?" Sefoni asks, pausing in her writing to shake out her wrist a bit. 

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"Oh, right. They might take anti-invisibility measures." Pout.

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Also pout. "I've never even been off the island. I don't wanna wait until they take us out on field trips... We've gotta wait almost a whole season for that!"

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"The island's so nice, though," Sefoni points out, "Why do you want to leave so badly?"

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Ita nods fervently. "I think the magic school kids live even better than rich kids living anywhere else. Regardless of caste. Even our blues."

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Heri makes a mental note about a school-full of magic kids on an island, which include blues, purples, grays and greens. There are probably yellows and oranges.

The notion of magic reds does not even cross his mind, he knows that if there were any... they were.

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"The island doesn't have everything that is nice. And not all the not-nice things are that bad."

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"Mhm! And did you see how high some of the buildings get? Imagine how far you could see from up there." 

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"You can see pretty far from the mountains, too, you know."

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"But we can't go to the places you can see from the mountains," Mika tries to explain.

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"And I want to do both."

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"Exactly." 

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Sefoni sighs, and goes back to copying out alchemy ingredients.

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Heri observes for a little longer and then returns to the others to tell his findings.

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"They called it a magic school? And twin magic spreads? Damn. That sounds like it suggests the problem's a lot bigger than just a few kids... If they're all these four's age, we'll have a time crunch but it's probably doable..." He frowns, "Yeah, we really need to know what kind of resources they're working with."

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"Yes, and since they are our age when we left Amenta., maybe our parents finding Milliways was involved? Though, I am pretty sure Remi would've told us about something this big if he knew."

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"Huh... should I go start operation me-pretending-to-be-a-kid-their-age?"

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"Yeah, sounds like actually talking to them is going to be the best way to figure this out." 

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"Okay." He pulls his pocket watch and turns into a kid.

 

He wanders towards the group of clean kids, pretending to be casual but trying to pay attention.

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Sefoni is still working on the book. 

"...White Cap... annnd... Yellow Mountain Flower. Whew!" She leans back from it and shakes her wrist out again, "I think that's everything," she tells the table. 

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Mika flips through the pages to double check, "Yeah, that's everything I'm pretty sure," he agrees. "Now we can see what potions we can make!"

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Kenta steps in their social circle. "Potions? Do you guys go into a magic school or something?"

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Surprised blink, then he grins, "Hi! The potions aren't part of it, but we do go to a magic school, yeah!"

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"Well, it's a school for magic kids. Most of us don't have our own magic yet."

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"Well, the four us do. But most of them don't."

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Kenta's eyes go wiide. "Uh, why do you have a school for magic kids without magic?"

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"Cause we're all gonna have magic. Or, the twins and triplets and stuff will," he offers Tepam a sheepish look, "But the others will still have crystal magic, at least, and Tep and Sefoni and Ita and I all have Nirn Magic." That's what Erandur had called his world.

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"Ah, what is Nirn magic?"

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"Lots of stuff. We have mana, and we can use it to cast spells like Flames and Oakskin and Summon Familiar and Healing Hands - or, our moms can," he motions between himself and Tepam, "We haven't learned that stuff yet. Tepam and I can do enchantments, though. Only glowing and warming and cooling stuff so far, but we'll be able to make our own someday, too!"

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"And we have a bunch of magic plants from that world, now," she taps the book, "This book tells us how to make potions with them."

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"And potions do a lot of what other kinds of magic does, except more portable."

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"Wow. That's a lot of things." He pauses and thinks. "You only got the plants now?"

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"Mhm. Tepam and Mika's moms came here once before they were born, and they visited Nirn then. You have to actually go there to get the magic, but they were pregnant with Mika and Tepam then, and that counts. Then we met someone from the same world just today, and he gave us the plants." 

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"Ah, so it's just the," he mentally counts, "six of you?"

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"And Mika's sister, who wasn't with us today."

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"Why not?"

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"She was upstairs making more light crystals for our garden. Our door goes to it, it's in an underground bunker. We can't call anyone from there and the only door out goes here, now, so it's just us in here."

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"It's even more terrible because for the first time ever, Mika didn't forget his Pocket Everything."

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"Don't be mean. It's really terrible, we can't even tell people."

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"I don't mind," Mika tells Ita, "It's true!" He tugs his Everything out of his pocket, "I think it might be cursed," he muses thoughtfully, poking at the screen.

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"At least we'll be bringing some good magic back with us... the book and the necklace and the plants. And maybe we'll find more? This is pretty bad, though... if the people in charge were here I bet they'd have gotten a lot more by now..."

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"Necklace?"

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Tepam shows it to him. "It lets us design spells. It's super convenient."

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"A goddess made it for her," Mika adds. "The book, too. It tells us what potions we can make with the ingredients we write in it." He tilts his head at Kenta, "What kinda world did you come from? Have you got any magic?"

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Blink. "I am from an Earth. Uh, a bad one. But my uncle has crystal magic."

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"A bad Earth? Are you here to get more magic to fix it? And you have crystal magic? Is it from your world, or did your uncle come to Milliways, too? Wait - is it even the same kind of crystal magic?" He glances at Tepam - she knows more about how the crystal magic works than he does. 

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"Magical crystals come in a blank variety that let you do some basic things, like using your life energy to make them grow, or absorb things to later duplicate them. And there is the empowered variety, which lets you do that, plus grant a power."

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"Yeah, that's the kind. It's not from my Earth, we met this clone dude who taught my uncle how to use it."

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"Cool! Our moms and the others probably met the same guy, or maybe a different clone? There were a lot of them, I think." He looks around the bar, "Is your uncle here, or did you get cut off, too?"

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"No, but my cousins are over there," Kenta points.

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Tobir waves when he notices the kids looking over at their table. 

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He waves back, "Do they have the crystal magic?" He glances at Tep - maybe they'll teach them! They're not allowed to learn it yet at home, but if they learned it in Milliways...

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"Oh, you haven't learned it yet?"

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"They won't let us until we're three - we're only two and a half, now."

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"Yeah, it's terrible."

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"Oh, okay. And that's all you guys have?"

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"Mmhm- wait, there's blessing coins, too! We can draw them to learn a bit about the future. We can't do that for people who aren't blessed, though - that's when you get blessings drawn for you just after you're born."

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"They tell you things about the future. Very vague things, but still useful to know. If you draw the luck blessing you can expect something good in the next week or two."

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"And the first three blessing you draw to a baby tell about their lives. I got Wealth, and I will likely make a lot of money."

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"Wow"

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"It's pretty cool, but not as cool as crystal magic." He looks over at the two at the other table again, and then slides out of his chair, "Come on, let's go talk to them!" 

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"Oh, okay."

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Unsure, Ita stands up to follow. So does Tepam.

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Sefoni hesitates, looking down at the book, and then reluctantly closes it and follows as well.

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Right, showtime.

"Hey Ken, who're these?" Tobir asks when they get close.

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"Oh, I just met these kids. These kids are from a magic school."

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"A magic school you say?" Heri says quirking an eyebrow.

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"More like a school for kids who are gonna be magic. Most of them aren't actually learning much magic, yet. Tep and me and my sister are the only ones who know any, though Ita and Sefoni can learn the kind we know now, too."

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"Huh. Why only you five?" 

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"Cause we're the only kids with that kind of magic," he sighs, a little annoyed to have to explain it all over again so soon. "Everyone else just has twin magic and blessings magic and they'll learn to use crystal magic later."

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"Kenta told us that you could teach us crystal magic!"

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"I did not!"

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"He didn't, but he said that you had it too?"

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"We do, yeah," he glances at Heri, "But we probably shouldn't teach you if your teachers haven't taught you yet. We weren't allowed to learn until we were th- twelve." 

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"Wow, how old are you?"

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"Eighteen - if that seems like a lot, your world might have different year lengths than ours, or we might grow at different speeds," he adds. 

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"That's a lot, yeah! We're only two and a half."

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"Ah, human years are shorter. But you are probably still too little."

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"Aw, really? We can trade for it! We've got... magic plants and glowing and heating and cooling crystals..." He sighs, "I guess it's not a lot compared to crystal magic."

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"We're going to learn it eventually, Mika," Sefoni points out.

...Also, she really wishes he'd stop offering people their plants.

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Heri seizes the opportunity. "It's not, but tells us more of what your magic plants can do? Could they help find people? Or hide people?"

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"They can hide people, but I don't know about finding. We haven't read much of the recipe book, yet." 

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"There's a spell that does it, though. Do you guys need help finding someone?"

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"Uh, maybe."

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"I told them how our Earth has monsters. But I guess we might not go back there."

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"Oh, right. Yeah."

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"It's a bit of a lost cause," Tobir agrees, not showing any of his internal panic over his lack of knowledge about that particular world. He didn't spend a lot of time with most of those refugees, and usually wasn't talking about their horrible trauma world with them when he did.

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"It's that bad?" 

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"It's pretty bad, yeah. There's no one anywhere around our door for us to go back for." 

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"What about your dad?" Sefoni asks, eyes big and sad. 

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"He died a long time ago," Heri says bitterly.

He does not say because other clean people killed him.

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"Oh... I'm sorry," she says, stricken. 

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She wouldn't say that if she knew- he cuts the thought off, smiles at her, "Don't worry about it. Like he said, it was a long time ago." 

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Mika's pretty sure Kenta said 'my uncle has crystal magic'. Maybe it was a different uncle, though. 

"...So... do you have crystals with powers?" He asks, trying to break the somewhat awkward mood.

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"We do, we have things like crystals for protection against magical, physical effects, production of light, control over water, and a few others. We would really like something like teleportation if you have it. Or extra senses."

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Head shake, "We definitely don't have teleportation. Everyone on the island would know if we got that. I dunno about extra senses... I know we've got anti-magic, that's the one the clones gave our parents and uncles and aunts..." He shrugs. He's been so busy with Nirn magic he hasn't really paid attention to the crystal magic developments. 

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Tepam has been up to date on it. "My mother is too busy to get an empowered crystal, but my father, and my half-siblings' mothers both managed. Which got us shapeshifting, protection and translation. I think we have water control too, dispel light, and some weird destructive waves."

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Kenta blinks, the wide-eyed stares at Tepam.

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"Is there a problem?"

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"No..."

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...That's a familiar family arrangement. And a familiar enthusiasm for magic. That's a familiar face, too, now that he's looking, though obviously much younger than the one they'd seen earlier. 

Fuck. This is... a problem. If her alt is anything to go by, she's going to be a magical powerhouse in a few years' time. A magical powerhouse with an entire school of magic users at her back, and a clean's hatred for reds.

If they weren't in Milliways... maybe they could convince them to come out back for a magic demonstration-

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"That's a pretty nice list," he says briskly, "S'cuse me, I need to use the washroom." 

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"Uh..." Mika watches as he strides out of the room. "...Did you know someone who looked like Tep or something?" He asks, tentative. Maybe an alt who died. He frowns at that thought, unhappy at the idea of any Tep dying. 

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"No."

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"Yes."

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"Ummm..." He squints at them, "Well, one of you is lying." 

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"No... Just... don't talk about Temple with us."

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Temple. Huh. "Okay..." He glances over at the hallway the other guy had vanished down, and then back at them. "Is he gonna be okay? We didn't mean to make him sad..."

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"Maybe, do you mind if the two of us talked for a moment?"

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Headshake, "Let's go look through the book some more?" He suggests to the others. 

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Sefoni nods, slipping down from her chair with the book held tightly in her arms, and then heads towards another table.

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Once they are out of earshot. "That could've gone better."

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"You shouldn't have said that we met Tepam's alt. I think it's Temple."

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"Ah, I saw you did something and my reflex reaction was trying to reverse it. Sorry."

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"Okay, maybe we should go check on Tobir?"

They do that.

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He's not actually in the washroom, when they check. They'll find him outside, sitting back against a tree at the edge of the woods, coaxing a nearby bush into bloom with his plant control crystal. The flowers are a pretty light blue colour, tiny and delicate. 

He looks up at their approach, tries for a smile. "Hey. Was I gone long?"

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"No, we were just worried."

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"Right." He continues fiddling with the flowers for a moment, and then sighs. "You ever think about how far you'd go, to fix this?" 

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"What do you mean with far?"

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"I just... I had a thought, and it seemed like a smart idea, and then I realized it was actually horrible. Horrifying."

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"Huh, what was your idea?"

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"It was - okay, so, those kids - they're just kids right now, but in a couple years they're going to be even more powerful than we are right now. And that girl has gotta be an alt of Temple. I was thinking that I definitely never want to face a version of Temple with all that magic as an enemy. And then... how it would be so easy to lure them out of the safety of the bar room and just..." He looks down, refusing to make eye-contact, "...deal with the problem before it was even really a problem..." 

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"Wow. That's brutal."

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"Kenta! And Tobir... that was just a thought."

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"Yeah," he sighs. "Except part of me still thinks it sounds like a smart idea. But it's - that's too far, right? That's crossing a line. Killing kids. Even if they will grow up to be enemies one day." 

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"I know what you mean."

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...Hug?

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Hug.

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Hug. Ugh, he is so small. "That's what you get for overthinking things."

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Snort. "Guess so," he agrees. 

 

"...We should go over what we learned in there," he suggests after a long moment, "So we know if there's more we still need to ask them about."

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"Maybe we should get our story straight, first. Uh, they figured out that we know a Tepam alt."

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"That's not that bad, I don't think. People run into alts all the time in Milliways, or we could have known one in our world. I guess the... dramatic reaction I had might be a problem, though. What did you guys tell them? That she died or something?" 

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"Implied that we knew Tepam's alt and didn't want to talk about him for mysterious reasons."

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"Guess that works, too. If they press, we can just say we knew a local one for a bit and then he died?"

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"Ooh, ooh, I know. He was evil! And Tepam shouldn't access to any magic."

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"That sounds... it would complicate a very complicated situation."

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"I think we'd have to be pretty convincing to get them to agree that Tepam shouldn't have access to magic," he agrees. "It'd have to be a really good story, and there'd have to be no other way to make sure she didn't do the same thing. I don't think we know Temple well enough to do something like that. It'd be suspicious, too." 

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Pout. Very child-like pout.

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"Not even your mom falls for that pouting anymore. Anyway, our future plans probably should rely on vagueness. Honestly, if we are unlucky enough to cross paths with these people again we shouldn't even admit to have met them here if we can."

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"Yeah. Hopefully they'll just assume we're alts if they remember us at all." He looks down at Kenta, "You know you could change back now? Though, maybe we should find out what happens exactly if you stay like that for the full hour."

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"Oh, I didn't because they might walk in and see me with you guys?"

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"Uh... huh. Good point. We probably should have thought of that, that's going to be annoying for you."

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Shrug. "Wish, my Boon had more settings, but whatever."

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"We could try going into the woods a bit? Find somewhere they hopefully won't stumble on?"

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"Yeah. That would help."

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Off they go, then.

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Back in the bar, Sefoni blinks down at the book of recipes, realizing she's been reading the same sentence over and over for a few minutes.

She yawns, "I think we've been here for a while, now," she mentions to the others. "Are we going to rent a room? ...Can we rent a room?" She wonders. It's not like they have access to any money - they're two, and everything they need is provided for them on the island. 

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"Huh... let me ask."

Tepam goes over Bar, and returns shortly after. "Uh, we really can't stay overnight without an adult."

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"Ugh, really? But we can't get anyone..." 

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"Yeah, it's not even a money thing, but a legal thing? Bar follows our laws."

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"Does this mean we would get arrested?"

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"By who?" 

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"They have security, right? But... they'd probably just kick us out?"

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"Oh, yeah. That's probably it."

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"We could just push ourselves to the limit?"

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"Yeah, we can go a bit longer, and maybe there'll be something big in a few hours!" 

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She yawns a little wider, blinking her eyes hard, "I'm really tired though, and it's only us right now..."

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"You could go wait outside the door? Then it'll be no time at all."

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"I don't think that's how it works. And trying to make trades or get stuff while sleep sounds dangerous?"

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"No, I meant... if you're too tired, you can wait in our world and then we'll come out too when we're done?" 

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"Yeah!"

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"Uh, maybe Sefoni can go and I can stay with one of you?"

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"...Okay," Sefoni agrees after a moment of thought. "I'll leave the book? So you have something to do." She slides down from her chair, heading over to the door.

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"I'll go with you," Mika decides, a little reluctantly. "Come get me if you meet anyone interesting?" He asks Tepam.

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"We will!" Tepam says excitedly.

They hold the door to the bunker.

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And of course, the door opens immediately. To reveal a sleepy Ita, followed by a sleeping Tepam being cared by what can be more or less described as a vaguely humanoid creature made entirely out of pillows. The creature puts Tepam (on a pillow) gently on the bunker's floor. Followed by putting a similar pillow near where Ita is.

Ita lands on the pillow and starts to sleep promptly.

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"...I guess no one else interesting came in, huh?"

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"Guess not," Sefoni says, yawning. Those pillows look extremely soft and fluffy... she crawls up onto Ita's pillow and is shortly fast asleep as well.

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Sighing, Mika shrugs and then joins Tepam on hers, waving goodbye to the pillow person as they go back into the bar and close the door.

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Pillow being waves them with a pillow hand.

The pillows are, actually unbelievable soft and comfy. They just fall back to sleep.

 

Heri goes back outside. "Literally just caught them leaving. Or at least people that looked like them being carried by a pile of pillows arranged vaguely human-shape."

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"...Well that's convenient, I guess, even if we didn't learn everything we meant to. Guess you can switch back to your actual age again," he adds to Ken.

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"Hell yes!" And he grows. "Gosh, I missed these guns." He flexes his arms.

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"I always forget how chubby you were as a kid." Heri says pulling back his hood.

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He's briefly distracted by the flexing, then shakes his head, grinning, "You make a pretty cute kid, but I definitely like you better this way." 

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"As you should!"

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"Maybe we should get inside."

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"Right, yeah," he nods for good measure. Into the bar! 

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The bar is empty, unless that pillow over there is a creature. 

(It's not.)

"I guess we might take the chance to eat?"

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"It has been a while," he agrees, heading over to the bar. 

Once food is acquired, they can grab a table. Nom! 

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While they nom, someone opens the door, steps just inside, stops in his tracks, and makes a very confused noise. 

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"Magical bar! Sometimes it just shows up."

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"What- that's. Not how magic works." Still, he steps further inside, staring around, and stopping again to stare out the window at the explosions. 

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They let him observe for a bit. "Milliways, this place, gets people from all worlds. All sorts of magic."

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He lets out an amazed breath, still staring out the window, and then turns back to the trio, "A place where people from all worlds come. That... sounds sort of familiar? I think someone mentioned something like it to me, once..." He frowns, trying to remember, but sets the thought aside for later after a moment.

"What is your world - worlds? - like, then?" 

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"We were born on Amenta but we grew up in Crystalsky - two different worlds. Amenta's got castes and no magic and a big overpopulation problem 'cause amentans want way more kids than most species. We don't really know what most of Crystalsky's like cause the part we grew up in was cut off from the rest, but there's crystal magic which lets you copy things and make a personal crystal with an extra power. How about you?" 

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"Huh." He's absorbs this for a second.

"Uh... No idea what the world is called. I'm from Welce, it's a kingdom with a king and a council of five made up of the Primes, who are the only five magic users in the world. The king rules and the coucil mostly advises. We've also got blessing coins. There's 43 of them, everyone gets three when they're born, they tell you a bit about what the person will be like. You can draw them to get an idea of what's going to happen in the near future."

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"Oh, we met some people that met some people with that kind of magic."

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"Really? Did they mention any names?"

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"Well, they did, but the full story is that their parents met some people that are likely from your world."

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"Hm. I guess I'll have to ask around - I can get my door back, right? Or will I have to burn my way out through the library wall or something?"

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"Uh. No need to burn. When you leave the door will take you back to where you came and your door will return to normal. Though you might not ever see Milliways again. So, stick around for a bit."

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"Great. Sure, I'll stick around, I guess..." He joins them at their table, setting the leather side bag he was carrying onto the ground.

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"We didn't actually get to see the kids doing any of that divination magic - do you mind showing us?" 

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"Mm, no, that's fine. You need birth blessings to do it yorself, but Primes can draw them for adults, so we can do that too- hang on," he lifts his bag up onto the table and pulls out a finely bound notebook, which he flips open to the blank pages at the back. He tears three of them out and starts writing out the blessings. 

"There's five categories which most of the blessings fall under," he explains as he works, "And people usually fall under them too, at least those with birth blessings do. Elay, Hunti, Sweela, Coru, Torz, each have eight, and then there's three extraordinary blessings. Usually if you draw three birth blessings from one element the kid you're drawing for will probably be that one, but it varies more when you get a variety..."

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"Cool? Can you draw mine?"

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"Yeah," he rips the pages up and shuffles around the improvised blessing coins into a pile on the table. Then he draws. 

"Beauty, Loyalty... and Strength." He glances up, blinks, "Woah, that's weird," he mutters, then, louder, he adds, "You're Elay." 

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"Oh, cool. Those are fitting." Kenta says flexing his biceps.

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Heri supposes that they don't have a "sex" blessing. "It really does. Could you do mine?"

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"Coming right up," he draws, "Endurance, Certainty, and Honour. I don't even have to look at you to guess Hunti," he glances up, "Yep. Endurance is Torz, and Honour is Elay, but that's a very Hunti spread..."

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"Huh... I am surprised. Seriously, surprised."

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Lucas squints at him.

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"No, those are definitely right," Tobir assures him, patting Heri on the shoulder. "Me next?" 

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"...Right." Last but not least: Determination, Vision, Change. He looks up at Tobir. "...None of those are Sweela, but you are." 

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"Huh... yeah, I can see that. Does this means he will change things?"

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"It can. It means change will play a big part in his life. He's the sort of person who changes things. You've got a vision of the way things should be, and you're determined to change the world to match." 

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"Well, I'm definitely going to do my best. We all will." 

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He nods, "And... if I were to interpret yours," he tells Heri, "I'd guess that you know what's right, and you'll endure hardship to make it so. Honour and certainty and endurance. It's pretty open to interpretation, though, and I'm not the best Prime for figuring out which interpretation it is."

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"Makes sense. And I am attached to these two and really hot."

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"Uh, yeah, I guess- I mean," he pauses, shrugs, "That sounds about right."

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Snort. "So what does being Sweela mean, anyway?"

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"Sweela's associated with fire and mind - those are the powers the Sweela Prime gets. We're... creative and emotional and intelligent and extroverted, and have awful tempers. Or at least, that's the stereotype. I'm not sure I'd call myself extroverted, and I'm supposed to be the Sweela. So take that with a grain of salt." 

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"Are those categories fixed? I mean, does Sweela-ness ever changes over time?"

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"As far as I can tell, no. The elements have been the same for as log as they've existed - which is longer than we have records." 

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"What being Hunti or Elay mean?"

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"Hunti's wood and bone, stubborn, confident, sure, brave. It's hard to change a Hunti's mind. Elay's air and soul, they're happy and kind and insightful, but tend to have their heads in the clouds." 

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"So... I am a air-headed beauty. Nice."

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"Uh, I guess? They're stereotypes," he reminds them.

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"Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason."

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"Kenta is not exactly the kind of person to take this sort of things seriously, anyway... thank you. Do you think there is anything we could do for you?"

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"...That crystal magic. Can you share it?" 

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"Oh, we can. We are more stringy about sharing empowered crystals, but we might trade those as well."

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"I'd appreciate it. We're... in the middle of a crisis back home, and we could really use more magic users than just the Primes."

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"What kind of crisis?"

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"...The King's shit. He's got enough support that we can't just remove him from power, though, and our rulers are made immune to the Primes' powers when they're coronated." 

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"Huh. This is why most places change to democracies. ...but not the point. We will teach you."

And he gives him a summary of crystal magic.

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"You won't get any arguments from me there," he says. 

He pays close attention, and proves to be a quick learner. 

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"Did you want to try drawing blessings yourselves, now that you can?" He asks absently once he's gotten the hang of the basics, staring thoughtfully crystal beneath the skin on the back of his hand. 

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"Good idea."

Heri draws a travel for Tobir and a Loyalty for Kenta.

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Tobir reaches into the pile next, and draws a Travel for Kenta, and a Determination for Heri.

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Kenta draws a Travel for Heri and Resolve for Tobir.

"Huh."

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"...Okay, so that's a lot of Travels. What does that mean?"

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"You're asking me? I don't know. Do you have plans to travel?"

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"Well, we've gotta go back to Amenta eventually."

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"Then I guess it means you'll be going back soon, and you'll be resolved, determined, and loyal respectively when you do. It doesn't sound like you'll be leaving because you're in danger, though," he adds, "You'd probably have drawn endurance or surprise, if so." 

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"Honestly, I am surprised we didn't draw endurance." He looks at the blessings. "I suppose that's a good sign? Couldn't expect a Luck either way."

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"Okay, but... the coins say we'll be leaving soon, and probably of our own volition. So is it inevitable? Now that we know we have to go?"

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"More like the opposite, actually. It's just what would happen if you continue as you are now. A good example is the contraceptive spread - we put a limited set into the bowl, consisting of surprise, fertility, health, and luck. If you draw anything but the last two, you know that if you have sex right then with the opposite sex, whichever of you is capable of it might get pregnant. So if you don't want that, you don't have sex then, and that future is averted."

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"Huh. At least it makes some computational sense." He looks around. "Might be a good idea to buy some extra food? Otherwise. I don't want to push our luck with Milliways. Not again."

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"Push your luck?"

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"Yeah. Don't stay too long, don't use it as a... base of operations or anything, just don't hinge your plans on the place cooperating with them. Whoever or whatever is in charge doesn't like it, and things tend to go... very badly, for the people who push." 

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"How long is too long?" He asks, glancing at the door warily.

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"Hard to say." He's been thinking about this, actually, "The way I've been figuring it works is, Milliways is a bar, and it has a hotel upstairs. It's a transitional place, you know? Somewhere to stay on your way from one place to another, or to visit to meet people. It's not a place where you should be setting up permanently." As annoying as that is.

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"Maybe using it for trade was itself not as good of an idea. I don't know. But, just be... temporary about anything you do."

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"Alright. I'll keep that in mind."

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"I think we've actually got the things we thought of earlier, whe we were coming up with useful magic," Tobir mentions. "Invisibility, some kind of illusion- even if the Boons aren't the kind we can use on everyone we want to evacuate. I guess... we probably should go. First, though, yeah. Food." 

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They grab some relatively transportable variety of food choices and turn half of it into crystal. 

"Good luck with your king."

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"Thanks. Hopefully luck'll only play a small part. But good luck changing your world, too." 

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"Yeah," Tobir agrees, "Thanks." He waves, and then opens the door, revealing his and Remi's apartment from all those years ago. 

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"Good luck to you too."

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Kenta carries their belongs through the door. "Yeah, I hope you depose you bad king."

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And once they're all through, Tobir closes the door behind them.