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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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Action: somewhere in the pre-event timeline

[missleadingquestions]

[SINCE I'M DOING THIS AS THE PLOT BEGINS feel free to put this one on the back burner if you need]

[Maya's good at keeping promises, and wasn't kidding about knowing where Solsikke is! The addition of the lab, of course, is surprising since she's seen it so many times without the lab, but hey. Makes it obvious where she should go.

So, with comic books in tow, Maya approaches the door, knocks, and yells—]

Yoooooooooo! Mr. Varian! Are you home?

[....She's polite enough to have let him know she's coming over AND to address him like a professional... But still gonna yell at his door nbd.]

[alchemistake]

[YOU ARE TOTALLY FINE it's not like Varian is exactly active rn lmao]

[Varian is indeed home, which is fortunate considering Maya already came all this way. He's here most of the time since the sun hurts now, but then again it wasn't like he didn't already spend most of his days as a hermit...]

I'm down here, yeah! Come in!

[He waves a hand even though he knows she can't see him yet, turning his attention back to a little cylindrical object he's tinkering away with on his desk.]

[missleadingquestions]

[Maya definitely doesn't mind the sunlessness even if she isn't averse to the sun; what other opportunities does she have to glow but in the absence of light? It's cool when you're own glowing pool toy. Maya also doesn't have a problem welcoming herself on in, looking far too much at, well, everything. She's not a very look-but-don't-touch person. This might have been a mistake.]

Wow, it really is like some kind of mad scientist lab down here,

[She laughs a little while she says it, obviously not bothered.]

[alchemistake]

I'll take that as a compliment.

[Varian replies as he flicks his goggles up from his face, letting them rest just in front of the two spikes growing from his forehead.

He'll definitely be keeping his eye out for unprompted touching though, because in Varian's lab that's a BIG no.]

Wow...so you're bioluminescent, huh? I read that some merfolk could do that, but I haven't had a chance yet to see it for myself.

[missleadingquestions]

[Luckily, the question distracts Maya from prodding at something precarious just in time.]

Hm? Yeah! Isn't it cool? Me and Dandy and I think even Marco glows.

[She pokes both of her cheeks instead and the glowing magatamas there, though to Varian they might more represent the shapes magatamas are based on; pulled fangs.]

Tadah!

[alchemistake]

Wooow. You know, this might require further study. I've been working with experimenting with different kinds of lighting in alchemy, like neon...trying to figure out something natural would be cool too.

[BUT she didn't come here for him to just be nerdy at her about her changes.]

But uh! Make yourself at home, mind the mess...and please, keep your hands to yourself. No offense.

[missleadingquestions]

[Maya's hands go up as if to show she's not touching anything, forcing a smile that absolutely doesn't show how much she definitely doesn't want to touch things just because he's told her not to.

Who is the child here]

Gotcha!

Oh, by the way.

[distracting herself from that by doing what she came here to do, Maya produces one of those Steel Samurai manga she was so excited about.]

Ta-dah! I brought the first few books in the series, just in case you're a quick reader.

[alchemistake]

[The Goblin reaches out to gently take one of the manga in hand, delicate so as not to wrinkle the pages or bend the cover. It's quite unlike anything he's seen before as far as books go...it's not like a regular hardback, or even a flyer. And of course he doesn't know yet you're supposed to read it backwards, but he'll get there eventually.]

Woah. This...has a lot of pictures in it, doesn't it?

[He comments as he flips to a random page, realizing straight away that the actual words are minimal compared to the drawings inside.]

[missleadingquestions]

[Exuberant about the possibility of spreading the comic bug even further, Maya nods, hair baubles bouncing as she does.]

The whole thing's pictures! With speech bubbles. The pictures tell the story instead. See?

[Maya points on the page he's opened to.]

That big guy there? He's the Steel Samurai— kind of like a robot Knight— and the guy he's cutting through is an agent of the Evil Magistrate.