picknicking

[dark_light]

There's something unutterably pleasant about landing in a bit of woods in the middle of Nowhere, Manitoba, removing a sandwich and an apple from her backpack and having a picnic before she's ready to move on. She could eat in midair, but it makes it too likely that she'll drop something and find it unrecoverable.

Path's on her knee, and her cloudpine is propped up against the tree next to her.

Comments

[prodigal_miser]

(Good, Adarin was worried about accidentally touching him. He's careful of Path's bubble of space, anyway.)

"I'm just going to need to stop being surprised by you being you, aren't I?" He decides to tease, once the hug has ended. "Is a thingamajig the proper technical term for a tremendously complicated magical item? I would have thought it would be 'doohickey' or a 'whatchamacallit.'"

[dark_light]

"Well, the stuffy scholars who inefficiently study non-missing alethiometers refer to them as 'artifacts', but that has the connotation that they're old and irreproducible, so your alethiometer accessories will not achieve the status for some time."

[prodigal_miser]

"Oh, well. There go my dreams of stuffy scholars calling something I made a thingamajig with a straight face. I'm crushed," says Adarin, not looking even remotely sad.

[dark_light]

"Oh, I'm not planning to let them at the thingamajigs. They keep one of the alethiometers in a heavily secured glass case in an art museum, where it talks to itself and does nothing else of use, twenty-four hours a day."

[prodigal_miser]

He makes a face. "They don't even make a look-alike replica that's useless for truth-telling to replace it with? That way the alethiometer could still do something of use, but they can show off what it looks like? That's stupid. As the creator of the thingamajig, I'm going to veto anyone trying to put it in a museum if there aren't more thingamajig pairs than there are alethiometers."

[dark_light]

Isabella giggles when he deploys the word "thingamajig" twice in a row. "Nah, the Louvre is big on authenticity and it's classifying the alethiometer as art. They have one in good condition and they are, I suppose, pretty."

[prodigal_miser]

"So what I'm hearing is that if I make a powerful magical item, I need to make it ugly so idiots don't put it in a museum rather than using it. Isabella, may I borrow the thingamajig? I need to make it bright pink."

He is teasing.

[dark_light]

"You have not seen some of what qualifies as art in some genres, I take it."

[prodigal_miser]

"Er. Probably not, no. Is this another thing I should be educated on?"

[dark_light]

"I doubt it has any practical value, but it might amuse you. There are museums of modern art where the idea of 'modern' is so opaque and divorced from attempting elegance or appeal of form that it's literally possible to mistake janitorial equipment for an exhibit."

[prodigal_miser]

"Ah. That sounds confusing. I'll maybe go get educated on it, later, but for right now... Eeeeh. Janitorial equipment doesn't appeal, at the moment," he shrugs. "Is there another idea for how I should spend my between-spell downtime?"

[dark_light]

"It's possible you should read an encyclopedia. Not cover to cover - maybe not even a paper one. I could take you to the library and you could go cruising through Wikipedia. Start with things that are in common use where you're from and proceed to whatever it says supplanted them."

[prodigal_miser]

"I have no idea what that is, but I agree that it'll be helpful!" he grins, then adds, "I'm going to get absurdly wealthy off of borrowing ideas that other people had and then using them to my own benefit, aren't I? That's completely diabolical, you're fantastic."

[dark_light]

"Oh, I have every intention of getting the alethiometer to find me some land in the middle of nowhere that I can claim without anybody contesting it and turning it into a portal hub with your kind assistance, off of which I shall profit enormously."

[prodigal_miser]

Adarin raises an eyebrow, pauses, and then - he cackles. "I approve," he manages, once he's recovered.

[dark_light]

"I would certainly hope so. There's still a little issue getting places to put the portals on the other ends, so I'll have to quiz the alethiometer and/or mine clan connections to various state or municipal governments, but it's definitely a doable project and every witch in the world will think I did it myself. I'll be able to get them to listen to anything I want to say between them guessing and me contradicting them."

[prodigal_miser]

He giggles, just a little. "It's a good thing I don't mind you taking credit for things I do if it helps a mutual goal, isn't it? Doooo I get a cut of the inevitable huge profits, or should I find other ways to make absurd amounts of money?"

[dark_light]

"I'll cut you in if that makes it easier to get you to make portals and I can help myself to a share of any readily collectable use you see of what I've been helping you with."

[prodigal_miser]

"Sure," he agrees. "I think I would have joined in on making portals with you anyway, because I am impressed and I support being diabolical for the sake of doing good things."

[dark_light]

"Is capitalism considered diabolical where you're from?"

[prodigal_miser]

"No, but cheating the system like we're planning to is."

He's still grinning. Oh man, is he excited.

[dark_light]

"There've been people benefiting from trade and new ideas they were the first of their cultures to find in another culture throughout history here on Earth. We're just the first to grab farther afield."

[prodigal_miser]

"Technically," he clarifies, "My people have actually done it before. But this is more viable than that other attempt, and hopefully will not end as badly."

[dark_light]

"Why, what happened last time?"

[prodigal_miser]

"Er. Well," he coughs. "Invasion? Fleeing to another plane to avoid nigh-certain death, madness, or slavery? That kind of thing."