alchemistake

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From:

yellecaster

... A neon sign? Don't you have those in your world?

[Alright, he's getting SOME emotion - namely some bugeyed surprise, just about the only face she does make from time to time.]

From:

alchemistake

[Varian shakes his head, though he doesn't seem offended by her surprise. He's found out that...his world is pretty behind, technologically.]

Iiii only just got hot running water working throughout the kingdom, if that gives you any idea.

Edited Date: 2020-07-24 04:00 am (UTC)

From:

yellecaster

[She actually winces a little at that, shaking her head a bit.]

Can't even imagine that... Spikemuth was pretty dark n' grimy, but even a place like that had some good technology kickin' about.
We were known for our neon. Right dark place, but it lit up so nice with all the neon signs everywhere.

[... Hence why she had to get at least one ASAP.]

Kingdoms and stuff, though... Galar apparently used to have a kingdom, a long, long time ago.
So your world's like that, huh?

From:

alchemistake

[Varian nods, eating a bit more of his curry between words because he forgot about it for a second there.]

Yeah. You see, we don't have cars, or laptops, or just computers in general really. No screens or holograms or...anything like that. We do have magic though, which some people I guess would consider advanced in a way...

[But Varian makes a face when he mentions it.]

But it's not as good as good old, regular science and technology. We're getting there, it's just...you know. I guess I never realized how far back in time we are.

And my home, it's called Old Corona. It's not even in the kingdom, so...things there are even less modernized. It's just a bunch of farmhands living off the land, for the most part.

From:

yellecaster

[And Marnie listens politely, nodding once or twice... though she still looks like she definitely doesn't like the idea.]

And this place is even worse off than my home was...
Y'know, on that thought, lemme make a suggestion: don't take the idea of cars back to yer kingdom unless you can wean'em off of the gas power.

Air here's so thick, I can hardly stand it. Galar was so much cleaner...

[It makes her wish she had a way to teach people how to switch, but like.
She's a sixteen-year-old girl from a walled-and-roofed city who probably hardly left home. She probably doesn't even know what the fuck a combustion engine IS.]

From:

alchemistake

No, yeah...I mean, I didn't realize that's what it was until people told me about cars and stuff. The air quality, I mean.

[It's different when that concept just flat out hasn't been invented yet, but Varian still has to wonder...]

I'd like to think there's a better way, though. You know...some kind of energy source that wouldn't be so excessive.

[He hates to say magic, but. It could be magic...]

I feel like we'll be using horses and carriages for a long time to come, though. Alchemists like me aren't really as plentiful in Corona as inventors and engineers are here. I...wanna say they used to be, back in Demanitus' time, but...

From:

yellecaster

Wish I could tell ya what to use instead, but where I come from, we get our power from some kinda particles just floatin' through the air.
Or somethin' like that.

[Not exactly easy to just suggest, especially when it's just known as "Galar particles".]

... Who's Demanitus? Someone important?

From:

alchemistake

Oh! Yeah, sorry. He's an ancient engineer from way before my time...and he saved our world from an evil sorceress by combining both alchemy and magic to create a machine he built deep in the mountains. Not only did it have the power to change the direction of the wind, but it contained a chamber with a portal that could trap evil spirits in completely different realms.

[He gestures with his spoon as he talks.]

I really wish I could have had the opportunity to meet him...there was a, uh. A complicated sort of spell thing he used to transfer his consciousness into a monkey, apparently? At least that's what Rapunzel told me...she and Eugene actually got to talk to him for just a little while.

[Any of this making sense yet Marnie, because it probably won't.]

From:

yellecaster

... I don't know what a monkey is.

[So no, it's not making any sense. At least she's honest!]

It sounds to me like he did a lot of important stuff for your world, at least. Can't say I followed any of it, but I don't need to, to get it.

Is he why you're tryin' to be an inventor?

From:

alchemistake

Nah.

[He shakes his head a little. Demanitus was never his original inspiration for inventing, because he really didn't know of his work as much early in his life. No, his priorities lay elsewhere...]

I wanted to make life better for the people in my village. And...I wanted to make my dad proud of me.

[His dad the farmhand, who time and again looked at him with disappointment after he'd accidentally blown up their basement, or set something in town on fire, or something that no doubt embarrassed the single father in front of everyone else...Varian wasn't a normal child, despite being driven and hardworking. It took him a lot of trial, error, and huge mistakes to earn that admiration.]

From:

yellecaster

...

[She runs her spoon around her dish through her curry, looking down at it. That's not...
Really something she can relate to. All she's had for a very, very long time is her brother, after all.
And Piers is proud of her no matter what she does - sometimes it's even smothering.

The other part, however...]

... I think I kinda get that? Wantin' to make life better for your village, I mean.
That was kinda my goal, too, back home. Kinda had my original plan yanked out from under me, but it's still somethin' I'm workin' towards.

From:

alchemistake

So what happened?

[Assuming she's willing to divulge...it sounds like there's a story here.]

From:

yellecaster

Well, y'see...

[Seems she's plenty willing to divulge. ... Probably because he's about her only friend, around here.]

Back in Galar, there's this thing called the Gym Challenge. Trainers like me get all suited up to take it on, complete with a jersey and everythin'.
You travel 'round the region, battle the Gym Leaders, and get their badges - and if you get all the badges in Galar, you get entered into the Champion Cup.

[She's almost looking wistful, now, as she talks.]

The Champion's a big deal where I come from. Lotta people look to the Champion like a hero, someone to look up to and a spot to strive for.
So if someone's a Champion... there's a good chance the place they come from would get a good bit of tourism.
That'd be enough to get some blood flowin' in even the shabbiest place.

But... I lost in the semifinals of the Cup. Very first match...

From:

alchemistake

[It's an interesting thing to hear about, since when Marnie says "battle" he thinks like...she's actually going in there and fighting people herself, which...doesn't seem right? She did mention she had a "team", so that likely has more to do with it than he understands.

Becoming Champion being a big deal in terms of Marnie getting more traffic in Spikemuth...it makes sense. So to hear she'd lost right at the very end...]

I'm sorry, Marnie. It sounds like it was a lot of work just to get that far.

From:

yellecaster

It was. Even with Team Yell tryin' to help, it was still pretty hard.
But I had a pretty good win streak up until the end, there!

[So she can't say she regrets it, or that she isn't proud of it.
Sure, there's no smile on her face, saying that - again with the dissonance, her voice cheery while her face decidedly isn't - but she's still clearly proud of herself.]

And I even took my big brother's offer; I'm Spikemuth's new Gym Leader, instead. I'll bring people into town just by bein' fun to watch and frustratin' to battle with, that's my next plan!
Maybe see if I can't get some real bleachers made for the crowd... all we have right now are stoops to sit on, but I know that's not enough for the kinda numbers I wanna pull in.

From:

alchemistake

If you could make this sewer system into a nice place to live, then I'd believe you could have a whole kingdom's worth of people visiting your home in no time, easy.

[Sure, Marnie may not be...at all a charismatic type of person, but when you have the determination to do something, you don't always need that.]

If you need any help brainstorming ideas to take home with you, let me know. Just give me a number and scale, and I could get some schematics for expansion written up for you in a day.

From:

yellecaster

[Varian... what a sweet talker. It's almost - almost - cute.
For now, though, she just shakes her head with her flat look gaining just a touch of softness.]

I'll probably take you up on that. That kinda thing really ain't my strong suit.
For now, though, I think I'd actually like yer help more down 'ere.

[She looks up at the ceiling a bit, looking at all the cracked stone and the exposed wires the poachers used for power...]

This place ain't the safest. I keep thinkin' about findin' ways to make it more liveable - not just for me, but for whoever.
Even a rundown place like this could end up useful for people who need it.

But I'd need help rewirin' things, gettin' things covered up an' out of the way...
I dunno how to do any of that, I just know it hurts to step on a wire that's got a hole in it.

From:

alchemistake

I could probably give it a look! Though, ah...fair warning...still getting used to the more modern power system around here.

[Things like wires and electricity...it's all really new, you know? But Varian's already made huge strides in figuring it out. He wouldn't be able to call himself much of an engineer if he couldn't figure it out.]

Though uh...you're positive everything the Poachers had got cleaned up from down here, right? The last thing we need is me accidentally busting a pipe that has more awful shapeshifting gas inside.

Edited Date: 2020-07-24 11:20 pm (UTC)

From:

yellecaster

Yeah. It's all cleaned up; there are some chemicals an' things still, but they're somewhere safe right now.
From what I've heard they're pretty much useless, too... I paid a group in whatever they found to clean this place up for me, and one of'em was a scientist.

[If Flug has uses for it, she wasn't told - and doesn't care to know, either way.]

Aside from that, though...

From:

yellecaster

[Suddenly, though, she perks - and she reaches past Ruddiger to grab her backpack sitting nearby, pulling that over to rifle through.]

Actually, that reminds me! I found somethin' down 'ere after I'd come back to clear it out after all that gas an' all that, and I think it's somethin' you might wanna see...

[From there? She pulls out a little vial, no bigger than the end of a person's thumb.
It's not marked beyond some handwritten medical-looking label that's hard to read, but it's probably clear what it's full of, considering he'd been at the receiving end of a dose of it before getting locked up in one of the cells down here.]

What d'you reckon it is?

From:

alchemistake

[Varian's not too surprised, hearing that. There are a lot more sciencey types living here in Ryslig than he might have first thought...

Varian blinks, setting his bowl in his lap so he can very carefully take the vial from Marnie, holding it gingerly between his thumb and forefinger. It's very delicate, but it's clearly meant to be used as a dosage. Specifically, for a monster strapped down and injected with it...

He swallows against the lump that suddenly appears in his throat.]

I'd have to run tests to be sure, but...I can almost guarantee without it that this is a dose of their immortality drug. It must have gotten left behind in the chaos...

From:

yellecaster

[She's patient, letting him look it over like that - and she even looks it over herself, leaning around to look at it where he's got it pinched between his fingers.]

... So...
What does it do? Same stuff as that gas?

From:

alchemistake

Yeah. It depowers you if you have any abilities tied to whatever monster you're turning into...and it makes it so you can't die. No matter what.

[He turns it over briefly, watching the liquid turn inside the vial. It's such a small amount...to think just this little could do so much tells Varian plenty without even needing to study it terribly close.]

I doubt they would have left this behind on purpose.

[He returns the vial to Marnie, but he doesn't just hand it back. He puts it in her palm, going so far as to close her fingers orotectively around it.]

Whatever you do, don't let the wrong person know you have this. I'm not saying the others can't be trusted, but...even with an antidote, this serum can wreck havoc. Especially if it's reproduced.

Edited (why cant I type) Date: 2020-07-25 12:02 am (UTC)

From:

yellecaster

...

[Her hand now closed around it, she looks down at her fist for a moment or two... before moving to put it in an inside pocket of her jacket, someplace much safer than her backpack.]

Does that mean you trust me with it? I mean, y'don't know me that well.
Who's to say I'm not just some awful little punk makin' her home under the city where no one can get at'er?

[She looks up at him from the tops of her eyes saying this, not bothering to lift her head. It's a very pointed sort of look.]

From:

alchemistake

[Varian goes silent for a moment at that, because being asked if he trusts anyone is...a very tall order. Varian doesn't trust easily. And when he does, he's wary with it. He treats it like a skittish animal, these days; something that can easily slip through his fingers or be broken. A different perspective has given him a better outlook on that since, but...

A huge betrayal sticks with you. It's hard to say, especially in such a dangerous place as Ryslig, if Varian was betrayed in such a way now...if he'd ever be able to look past it.

He exhales on a sigh after he notices Ruddiger watching him carefully, noting the long pause.]

I'm not going to lie to you. I don't know if I trust you for sure, yet. But what I do know is that I don't completely distrust you.

[...okay he knows that sounds. Backwards, but hear him out.]

You could have easily taken advantage of me fighting off that Poacher in the sewers to escape, but you didn't. You had no reason to stay.