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[alchemistake]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, VARIAN. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 018.07.154.55 *** CHARACTER NAME/ALIAS has joined 018.07.154.55 <thealchemist>This thing is SO COOL okay- hey, hi, Varian here! If you're seeing this then you've reached my channel for messages. Leave me one if you need something!

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[alchemistake]

If we're talking just the arm without any moving parts...it should be ready in a couple days.

[He's hoping the sling he's devised to attach it to himself will work, but he'll adjust that too as necessary. It shouldn't be visible beneath his clothes either way.]

But getting it to work like an arm should might take another month, unless I can figure out a more graceful solution than some sort of pulley system. I might ask some people here who know more about circuits and things than I do...there's probably an easier way.

[Another reason he wanted a car to take apart: so he could study circuits and connections and things himself.

What Varian doesn't yet know is that fresh with his next round of changes, he'll be gifted his first bit of luck from the Fog God in the form of instinctual knowledge of a spell that should achieve what he wants...just maybe not perfectly at first.]

[yellecaster]

I know you can figure it out. All ya gotta do is learn how to do it, right?
You sound like a proper genius, the real deal.

And I'll support ya however I can, too.

[Mostly by, like, gifting him with scrap technology she finds while scavenging for decor...]

[alchemistake]

...thanks. That means a lot.

[Like geeze, way to flatter him...

Ruddiger would have probably rolled his eyes at that if he weren't already asleep thanks to a curry food coma.]

What's the junkyard like, by the way? I haven't had a chance to head there yet myself.

[yellecaster]

[No flattery intended - she just calls it how she sees it!
But his question gets a shrug.]

Dangerous, mostly. Lots of sharp metal an' broken glass juttin' outta piles of trash.
But there are a lotta big, broken-down machines, too. Think I saw a couple of robots?
I dunno - I confused'em for Pokémon at first, but they're not that at least.

We can go there together whenever you wanna check it out, if ya want? Wouldn't mind pickin' through for a bedframe or somethin'.
The sleepin' bag's nice, but kinda hurts after a few nights...

[alchemistake]

Hm, yeah...sounds like a junkyard alright-

[Can't have "junk" without the danger of cutting yourself on jagged metal or broken glass or something.

But that causes Varian's thoughts to come screeching to a complete halt because wait a minute-]

There are robots there?!

[yellecaster]

I said I think... could'a just been big toys, too. I don't know.
But they sure looked like robots.

[That's a fun fact that gets overlooked a lot - Bavan has robots, they're just... rare in the city itself.
So for a spare few to end up in the junkyard isn't completely unheard of.]

... I take it you're a robot kinda guy?

[alchemistake]

[I cannot BELIEVE nobody told me this!!]

Well, I wouldn't call myself an expert exactly, but...back home we unearthed an automaton protecting an underground part of Rapunzel's castle sometime last year- [Or maybe it was somewhere else, I can't remember exactly but the details don't matter.] -and after we stopped it from killing us, I was able to take the parts and reverse engineer them to build my own, new and improved versions. They were...pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

[He also used them as murder robots, but. Again, more details that don't matter.]

Basically what I'm saying is if I can find one mostly intact, I might be able to do the same here.

[yellecaster]

Now that's somethin' I'd wanna see. You'd make me one too, right?

[There's almost, almost a cheeky tone to that. Almost.]

I can't imagine you won't end up with too many of those things if you started buildin'em, though.

[alchemistake]

Assuming I found more than one? I'd be happy to work on a couple.

[Varian doesn't have quite the extensive robotics knowledge some people do here, so he can't just jump out there and build his own without any base to work with. Now, if he gets a little toutoring, that may change...]

As much as I'd much rather be back home, I gotta say...this place has some weird benefits I wasn't expecting. I mean, I at least have all of these technological breakthroughs to keep me busy.

[yellecaster]

...

[Her face goes a little soft hearing that, for some reason.]

Y'know... maybe somethin' I should ask Mana for is a Rotom.
I think you'd go nuts havin' one of those around; I've never had one myself, never even had a Rotom phone or somethin'... but they sound like the kinda Pokémon that's right up yer alley.

[alchemistake]

Rotom...?

[What's a PHONE...]

Well you can't just say that and not tell me what they're like, you know.

[yellecaster]

They're Pokémon, of course... but more than that, they're kinda part of everyday life, back home.
We'd use'em to power all sorts of things - phones, computers, you name it.
Every Pokémon Center would have one in the corner; a Rotomi, there for trainers to use if they need it.

But outside of that...

[She brings a hand up to her chin in thought for a second. How do you really describe a Rotom?]

... Well - they're Electric and Ghost types. They can possess stuff like ghosts, but power stuff like electricity?
I dunno how it works, exactly... but they can talk when they're doin' it, too. Dependin' on the machine, I guess.
I guess it'd be like if you made some kinda battery anythin' can use and gave it a personality to boot...

[alchemistake]

Wow...

[Look at that, he's already daydreaming about them. How come Marnie's world gets all the cool...technology creatures?

Or Pokemon, he guesses.]

I wouldn't want you to spend your coins on something for me, but they sound so cool. It must be convenient, having creatures like that around.

[yellecaster]

[Another slight nod.]

There are lots of Pokémon like that... some of them are even ancient, but still feel so modern, somehow. Like Toxtricity; it's got these things on its chest that it strums to generate electricity, they sound like guitars and look like punks...
But they've apparently been around for forever.

[Absently, she decides to reach out and start scratching Ruddiger behind the ear.]

I dunno how it is in other regions back home, but Galar's gone pretty far ahead when it comes to tech and usin' Pokémon to help us out, though.
Stuff like Corviknight taxis and Poké Jobs... we really live right alongside'em however we can.

I'm really missin' it.

[alchemistake]

[She might find the way Ruddiger's back foot kicks when she does that to be funny, even in his sleep.]

Mm...in that case, you've got to get Morpeko back.

[Like again, there's a moral dilemma to maybe be had about forcing people- or Pokemon- you care about to be in a place like this with you, but...Ruddiger is happier with Varian specifically, so it just made sense to him. He's sure it makes the same level of sense to Marnie.]

And then after that, the rest of your team. Since the coins show up every so often pretty regularly, I doubt it'll take long.

[yellecaster]

Yeah... I'm not sure what Morpeko's gonna do without me, you know?
Poor thing kinda relies on me...

[... And then something seems to dawn on her.]

Oh, man - what's everyone else gonna do with Morpeko?
I'm not there to keep it under control...

[alchemistake]

[Who's gonna tell 'em that it doesn't work that way.]

Uhh...I'm sure it's probably fine...? Ruddiger I think was okay until he got here...

[He'd ask him, but he's still unconscious.]

Is it usually a handful?

[Cause she said, like..."keep under control" not "watch over".]

[yellecaster]

[Her hand freezes in its scratching, the whole effect making her look like she's staring both at Ruddiger and nothing at the same time -
She actually ends up snapping up to look at Varian again like she'd been lost in thought.

... Probably imagine Spikemuth on fire with the news ticker saying "thousands dead" --]

- Uh, "a handful" might be a little... kind.
It's somethin' all Morpeko go through, not just mine - but usually, with their trainers, they're easier to maintain?
The thing is, though, when it's hungry...

It gets really, really mad.

[alchemistake]

[HAHA OOPS]

...oh. Uh. Maaybe...that should definitely be a priority, yeah.

[Please don't burn the city down in her absence, Morpeko...]

But you said you live someplace so...there are probably people there, right? I'm sure somebody's gotten hold of the little guy by now, so it won't be hungry.

[HE....hopes...]

[yellecaster]

I hope... my Bro can probably handle it, but I dunno if he knows how much it needs to eat...
Or how often.

[He's the one who caught it, sure, but it's been mostly up to Marnie all her life to keep the little flour sack full of evil in check.]

Usually, Morpeko's pretty good at keepin' food on hand - but I dunno if it knows how to get all that for itself, y'know?
So definitely a priority. Once I start gettin' those coins, they're all goin' toward bringin' Morpeko here with me.

I'll have to start stockin' this place up with food for serious, though. Lots of nuts an' seeds. Fruits n' berries, too.
Might be a bit of a task on my own...

[alchemistake]

[Geeze, how much can one little guy eat? Varian is picturing a creature MUCH bigger than Morpeko will turn out to be because of that.]

I'd say it might be worth starting a garden, but it might be tricky to grow things underground with no...sun...

[Just as he's saying that, an idea smacks him right in the face.]

Wait...of course! Elsa and Anna are nymphs! [And if Marnie doesn't answer fast enough, or even if she does:] You know, plant people! They can control plants and grow pretty much anything...I could ask if they could get some berry bushes or something growing around Solsikke, if there aren't any already.

[yellecaster]

[Now, that sounds awesome - like Roserade, almost - but at the same time...]

... Could they get'm growing down here?
'Cause I dunno what'd happen if Morpeko rampages without anythin' on hand nearby, y'know...

[alchemistake]

Mm...I could ask. I'm not sure if they can keep things alive regardless of where they are, or if they still need a normal amount of light and water and stuff...

[He presses his fingers to his chin, glancing back towards the corridor in the direction he entered from.]

Though, maybe they'd be abe to put some around the grates where the sun does come in. It'd be a little spread out, but better than having to go topside every time Morpeko got hungry. The little guy could just go raid them on his own, even.

[yellecaster]

Her own.

[Sure, it's more proper to use "it" and "its" when referring to Pokémon - but Morpeko's still a little lady.]

That sounds perfect, though. Add a little greenery to things down here, too... might even help clean up the water that keeps sittin' stagnant everywhere.
Even better - if we get'em growin' where their roots are down here and their leaves are up there, it could dry this place up entirely, don't you think?

[alchemistake]

R-right! Her own.

[Varian smiles weakly, glancing off to the side.]

I'll make sure to bring it up to them, though. They've both been so good to me already, I'm really going to have to come up with some way to repay them.

[Like damn Elsa got him his whole LAB back and then had the gall to call him family, it's almost too much.]

I think something like that might just be doable, though.