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]

"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?