"I haven't met Sinnah but her reputation rather precedes her. Having a spell in common circulation named after her and all."

Hmm so this part sets up... And then it goes like this... But where- Oh, that's where-

"...So I've been thinking that the actual - energy shapes in the center, the resulting spellform- How do those get discovered? How the hell does one figure out Apprentice's Fry? Did someone literally try every possible permutation of eight runes, at some point, to see if any of them were interesting? What I'm getting at is, there are spells that rearrange molecules already. What if we don't need heat and pressure, and can just. Make a diamond out of carbon dust. Somehow. With an unknown geometric form. I don't really remember much organic chemistry... Something something covalent..."

"Carbons bond with carbons very readily, but diamonds are a metastable form - they have a particular crystal structure, I think it goes like -" she sketches - "this - or if you know what 'face-centered cubic' is, that -"

"But the thing is, they don't know how the rearranging works, I think?

"I don't know if it's possible to prove atoms exist with the state of the art as it is.  Which is why, while it would be fucking great to just rearrange some carbon like I'm playing Opus Magnum or Spacechem or something, I'm attempting to recreate the natural conditions diamonds form in instead."

"I...  Do wonder, but it's easier to work with heat and force than molecular bonds, for me, for now.  Because I can figure out the structure better.  Though if you do have an idea, by all means please do tell."

"...But, see, now I'm curious. Now I want to enroll in that school. Except I'll get fed up as hell inside of a month and walk right out again." Sigh. "Separating them out to two spells might be easier. One for a crushing ball of force, one for heat... I'm going to sketch out what absolutely maximized crushing force might look like on its own..."

"I can share my notes."

"...Hm.  I feel like we should make an anoxic environment first, speaking of force spells, but then that does raise the question of how - and whether it's worthwhile - to filter impurities..."

"Where are you getting the graphite? Well, I suppose it doesn't matter where it was mined if you can buy some in downtown market..."

"...I'd take graphite, but unless you know something I don't about what arrangements of carbon you can make diamonds out of, I hadn't been thinking of specifically graphite so much as anthracite.  Coal, that is.  Or charcoal.  Or...  Was coke more carbon...  And I know there was something about coal being vaguely sulfurous, there was a knifemaking show...

"...Anyway.  It just needs to be carbon.  So, hell, maybe even wood ash, depending on...  No, no, that's anything but carbon, I think.  But yes, the logistical question is real, I guess.  Still...  That can wait until we have the heat and pressure-chamber."

Back to trying to make sense of the pressurization spell then. The way it's set right now is so inelegant though... Hmm..............

Eventually Nicole will yawn, and belatedly notice it's getting on towards sunset.

Huh.

"I'm gonna sleep out here, in foxshape."

"Sure.  And you can borrow me for the shapeshifting whenever.  ...I should have left a note, I don't want to haul myself back into town at this hour...  Then again it's not like Weiya doesn't know how I get or that the gossip mill wouldn't have noticed us..."

...The pressure spell may be inelegant, but elegance comes second to Actually Working, no?  She doesn't like it either, though.  Perhaps it will percolate in their dreams.

"I actually can't do that one. I can change whenever I want, but it's always expensive. Well, going into human shape is, going back to fox is free. For some reason."

She stands and does a few quick stretches, tail flowing elegantly out of the way.

"There's an outdoor shrine a bit that way. Maybe five minutes' walk. I have feelings tee em about it but you might be comfier there, it's a Tamamo thing."

"...Well yeah, fox is the base state; human is - d'you remember electron orbitals?"

And as for the shrine: "I'm sure I'll live either way, but yeah, maybe I will pop over there to rest tonight."

"If we do pull this off we have got to become unfathomably rich and covered in decadent artifacts. So there's that to look forward to."

"I'm not going to go for decadent per se, but I really want to get my hands - or paws - on Tirran Empire technology, to see what can be done with it - and that sure would mean having a lot of buying power."

"Mm... Yeah. I might be interested in that once I have my flying ship."

She wobbles her ears for a bit, one up and the other down in rapid semaphore-like fidgeting, and adjusts her bag and-

-Changes into an enormous winged fox shape, her robe-thing fitting neatly around the wings and her messenger bag smoothly becoming a saddlebag type arrangement.

"....hooooolyshit that's.  Damn."

"...Gears.  Um.  Unrelated to anything."

"Should look into whether there's a magical solution for precision manufacturing, basically.  Gears.  And that might help with powered flight somehow, I don't know.  Haven't gotten that far.  Something about torque."

Well, enormous in terms of 'approximately dire wolf sized'. She shuffles low to the ground in playful-fox body language and boops Alicia's much smaller snoot before backing off a bit and cackling.

"I always forget how comfy it is. I think I got lucky with my fox shape, it's surprisingly easy to use tools. Look..."

She slowly opens the clasp of the bag. That paw is definitely more dexterous than it should be. Or did it really move at all? It's sort of hard to tell.

"I have a loose hypothesis that kitsunes get more traits they find cool, useful, or correct-feeling from the pool of possible traits than others."

Oh No.  Those Feelings She Is Having After The Playful Gesture Are Very Definitely Feelings Of Some Kind And She Does Not Know What Kind.

Anyway!

"...I would love to have hand-paws...  But it would kind of feel weird, to be honest.  Like cheating, somehow.  Besides, I do have magic.  And.  Considering that Tamamo takes at least enough of an active interest in these things to have specifically chosen to do the metaphysical work to enable me to cast spells like people that aren't kitsune do, as I understand it - yeah, I wouldn't be surprised."

"Chaotic Neutral or Chaotic Good, that's the question..."

(Yawn. Big toothy yawn.)

"Pretty sure she's CN, alas.  But, hm, CN by way of 'My adopted children are the most important thing - after my personal amusement? - and I will support their goals even if their goals are being a horrible person'?  ...Which doesn't really change much about the CN-ness, but...  Eh, hopefully informative?  ...As best I understand this.  Which may not be very well at all.  I've met a priestess - a kitsune priestess - but I didn't really get more than the Cliff's Notes god-descriptions."

"Well... I'm tired and thinking in runes. So I'm going to go to sleep..."

Pace, pace, here's a nice pile of leaf detritus for ground insulation. She starts pulling out the biggest rolled-up bit of her bags, which turns out to be a sort of very crude tent on short wooden poles.

"Here. I don't like leaving the tent unattended because I'm technically trespassing, probably, someone might... Mess with it. Agh... Well, it's not much harder to set up like this than as a human."

"I don't have your paws, but I do have lots of practice moving things with my mind, if you want help."

"Sure, thanks."

Between the two of them they can manage it in a few minutes. The tent material is treated leather and it has brass buttons instead of zippers, but it'll keep the rain and cold off, a bit.

"...If we're both foxes I don't mind if you also sleep here. Kitsune stick together, I guess?"

"Yeah, kitsune solidarity.  's a pretty big thing, I think?"  She would have said sisterhood...  But something about this sibling is pinging her gen-dar.