Dinnertime [Open to Conquest]

[pennypincher]

Lemina had had a pretty boring Rest Day. She had slept in and missed the new arrivals, but it didn't look like anyone she knew was there anyway, which was mega-lame. Sooo she didn't really care.

Early in the evening, she headed into the cafeteria for dinner. Once she had some food loaded up on her tray, she looked for a place to sit. Huh. Was that... A bat?

(( She's sitting by Stellaluna for something we have planned, but anyone else can feel free to ambush Lemina on her way to the cafeteria, in the line for food, or whatever. ))

Comments

[vespertinity]

Pip had been carried to a big area in the "Conquest" nest that smelled sort of funny and was brought a mango, which she was currently munching on.

She hadn't seen any birds here at all, only a lot of the "humans". Some of them, like the one sharing her "room", looked a lot like Jane, but there were others that were all kinds of colors.

All of them so far had been nice, though, so she wasn't concerned at all.

[pennypincher]

Lemina sat down next to the bat, tilting her head curiously. "Huh, are you someone's pet? Whoever you belong to shouldn't have left you all alone."

She thought she was speaking rhetorically. Bats can't talk, after all.

[vespertinity]

A big human with long yellow feathers (Were they feathers? Maybe they were "shirt".) on its head sat down near Pip. While it was talking, Pip finished chewing so she could talk.

"Mama isn't here!"

[pennypincher]

Lemina had picked up her fork after she'd finished talking. When the bat opened its mouth and responded, she dropped it, jaw dropped in shock.

"Wh- You-- You're talking!"

No kidding.

"Wow, are you a student? Mega bizarre!"

[vespertinity]

"Of course I am."

Really, why wouldn't she be able to talk?

"What's a "student"? The humans outside the train-nest used that word too."

She took another bite out of the mango.

[pennypincher]

"Um... A student is someone who goes to school to learn things? That's where we are now, a school. Kind of."

Okay. A talking bat. No weirder than a talking cat, Lemina supposed.

"I'm Lemina Ausa. What's your name?"

[vespertinity]

More new words. The big nests are "schools"?

She swallowed.

"I'm Pip."

[pennypincher]

And Lemina smiled. That was a cute name, and she supposed Pip was cute herself. "Nice to meet you! But, um... Hey, how are you gonna play this Exaclan game? Can you even carry any weapons?"

[vespertinity]

Pip thought about it a moment. Why would she have to carry a weapon? "I already have claws on my feet. Don't you?"

[pennypincher]

"Uh... I have fingernails?" She glanced down at the back of one hand. "But I mean like, swords and guns and things! They're probably bigger than you are."

[vespertinity]

Pip looked up in confusion. "What are those?"

[pennypincher]

"They're weapons, duh." Lemina sighed. "I guess it doesn't matter, the odds are probably on you being a Weapon more often than not, right? Since most people are."

Jargon jargon jargon.

[vespertinity]

"If most people are, I probably will be too." Not that this is making much sense anymore. "But how can someone 'be' a weapon?"

[pennypincher]

Lemina sighed and slumped in her seat. "It's a whole lot of stupid complicated stuff and it's really dumb. There are magical weapons inside of us that Players can pull out of people-Weapons. And they use those to fight."

[vespertinity]

Huh. That sounded kind of like the dream Pip had on the train-nest. Even so, "That doesn't make sense at all."

[pennypincher]

"I know. You kind of get the hang of it after a few days? But it's still mega-weird. They gave you a book in the bag you had when you were on the train and it explains some stuff."

[vespertinity]

"What is a book? Is that like a shirt?"

[pennypincher]

Lemina hung her head dramatically, some of her hair dangling down into her food. "Uh. No. It's paper with words on it."

[vespertinity]

Pip mimicked Lemina, resting her head on a part of the mango she hadn't bitten into yet. "What's paper? How can you put words onto something?"

After a moment she took another bite from the mango, but went back to leaning her head on the dry part after she had swallowed.

[pennypincher]

And Lemina let out a long, put-upon sigh. "Never mind! This is so dumb. Why would they bring people here who don't even know such simple things?! Or-- are you a person? Can I call you that?"

[vespertinity]

"Of course I'm a person." Wow, Lemina, that was rude. "I never knew humans before, and birds don't need these things."

[pennypincher]

Birds? Were bats birds? Well, they could fly, so Lemina supposed maybe they could be. She didn't really know. "I wonder if one of the teachers can teach you how to read? You might have to. The rule book is mega-important."

[vespertinity]

"I don't know what 'read' is, but if it's not carrying big weapons, then maybe." Especially if it's important.

[pennypincher]

If Lemina hung her head any lower, it would have landed face-first in her food.

"Um. So do you not remember that dream on the train at all? The weapon you have inside you, and the upgrades it has? Or any of that?"

[vespertinity]

"Oh, I remember that! It was real? That was a weapon? It looked like a really big stick."

[pennypincher]

"Yep! Well, I don't know if it was real or just some messed up freaky prophecy dream, but it's definitely your real weapon. Everyone has that dream." Hurray. "That's what a Player is gonna pull out of you to use in battle."

[vespertinity]

It didn't seem like that could really be inside Pip. But it somehow was in the dream, so maybe that could really happen. Though, if the dream was somehow real...

"You said most people are usually Weapons. Can someone be always a Weapon? But more like..." this was vague and difficult to recall, making it harder to explain, "like being a Weapon and not a Weapon at the same time."

[pennypincher]

"...I don't follow." Lemina tilted her head to glance over at the little bat. "Like a Weapon and a Player at the same time? I don't think so. Why?"

[vespertinity]

"It was in my dream. It seemed like it was part of my weapon." Maybe she was misremembering it, though.

[pennypincher]

"...huh. Maybe there's an upgrade that can do that?" Lemina had only skimmed the upgrades section of the rule book, honestly. "Oh, upgrades are these things you can buy that give your weapon extra powers. Like, mine can shoot elemental blasts!"

[vespertinity]

Elemental? Shoot? "Is that like... causing weather?" It sounded like an odd way to say gusts of wind, and yet sounded more dangerous.

[pennypincher]

"Um... sure." Ice was a kind of weather, she supposed. "Anyway, you get upgrades at the store in town. Do you know where it is?"

[vespertinity]

"I think so, if that was in the dream. But I can't get there. My wings haven't worked right since I woke up on the train-nest." It was kind of annoying, really.

[pennypincher]

"You can't fly? Wow, that's rough..."

Aha. Maybe Lemina could pull off a bit of mutual back-scratching here. "I know! I'll carry you there so you can buy it, if you do me a favor too."

[vespertinity]

"That sounds okay. Thanks!" ...wait. "What is a 'buy'?"

[pennypincher]

Lemina sighed, perhaps a bit too dramatically. Oh god. What. How.

"It means, um." If Pip didn't understand buying she wouldn't understand money either -- the poor soul -- so Lemina tried to put it in simple terms. "You trade things for the things you want. That's what we call an economy! Except that trading items back and forth would get too complicated -- Like, say you wanted some fruit and all you had to trade was some nuts, but the person selling... uh, who you're buying the fruit from doesn't want nuts. That's why we have this nifty thing called 'money'. You pay money for the fruit, and money can be used to buy literally anything you could want!"

[vespertinity]

That was really, really strange. "But there's fruit everywhere, and you never have to buy it." Now that Pip thought about it, though, she hadn't seen fruit growing here at all yet. It hadn't been long at all, sure, but it was kind of weird. She wasn't sure where fruit even came from; it seemed it had always just showed up back home.

"'Pay'. Is 'pay' like 'give' when 'buying'? Does fruit not grow here at all?" Her head was starting to hurt; it was too much information too quickly, and none of it made sense.

[pennypincher]

"Fruit is free here. It was just an example that I figured you'd understand." Bats like fruit, right? "Um, here we use money for stuff like clothes and upgrades."

[vespertinity]

Okay. Get upgrades by buying money to the shop. Sounds easy enough. "I think I get it." Kind of. "What does money look like? And what are clothes, are they important?