what in the longdark spitting-pit is that

[inourhead]

This was a bad idea this was a bad idea this was a bad idea.

Holly runs as fast as she can but the demon's faster. She has no idea where Lightning's gotten to; maybe he found a tree to climb. She on the other hand has been diverted into a treeless hill and she's careening down a slope, trying very hard not to trip.

And the demon's gaining on her.

She's never seen anything like it and neither has Crystal; maybe Book knows what it is but Book's asleep. It's mostly mouth - it looks like a cross between a floorlength mirror of a mouth and a snake to propel the mouth along.

And Holly's not fast enough.

The mouth catches her.





But it doesn't hurt.

Where are we?

----


with Minus (kappa)

with Mark (kappa)

with Max (Benedict)

in Terraria (kappa)

with Emma (Marri)

with Erin (Rockeye)

Comments

[characterquarry]

"They are useful! Something like two hundred years ago, some enterprising soul wished for a good way to move things from one factory to another, and then he know how to build a steam train, an early kind of train named that way because steam is what made it move. Buses and cars came later. It's apparently a bit of a problem getting enough fuel for them all, but they're more than useful enough for that to be worth the effort."

[inourhead]

"What kind of fuel do they need?"

[characterquarry]

"In theory anything that burns will do, but most things will break if you try to use, like, wood. Most things use a liquid called gasoline, I think they mine for it? Oh, there's also a sort of liquified oil-alcohol mixture made from starchy crops that's not very popular because it's cheaper to have someone wish to refill all the mined-out gasoline."

[inourhead]

"You might be good enough at troportation to do liquid quantities, now that you can."

[characterquarry]

"I'll definitely try it later, but right now I'm going to get you four on welfare. I'm unsure if they'll treat you as two people or four... Physically, you have the needs of two people, plus you need some mice. Well, exceptions can be made, I'm sure."

[inourhead]

"We're not going to be here that long and we have troportable nonperishables, but non-troported food would be nice," sighs Crystal.

[characterquarry]

She goes back to explaining things about the city and society found here.

After a few minutes, "We can ride the bus to the government offices from here, or we could just keep walking if you want. Can you troport solids? Say, sizes of two different kinds of metal?"

[inourhead]

"Not walking would also be nice," says Crystal.

"We can do sizes," confirms Lightning.

[characterquarry]

"The bus will be here in..." She checks a watch, which has not been explained yet, "About eight minutes. I'll be right back, gotta go get something."


She's back with a large iron candlestick. "I'll be using it for an experiment later, the other thing is at my house."

[inourhead]

"What's the other thing?" asks Crystal.

[characterquarry]

"A gold necklace."

The bus arrives. Erin shows the driver something, and then shows everyone where to sit.

[inourhead]

"Troporting sizes mostly only works between things that are at least sort of the same shape," says Crystal. "I mean, Holly thinks she could do a necklace and a candlestick but I probably couldn't."

[characterquarry]

"Would squares or bars work better, then?" The bus moves forward, then turns left. Pretty quickly. Erin grabs a rail to avoid being tossed around.

[inourhead]

The visitors were not expecting this and do get tossed. Lightning catches Crystal, who blushes. "Um," she says, "yes, if both things were squares or bars. So you don't just want a little candlestick or a big necklace?"

[characterquarry]

"Sorry, forgot to warn you about the jerking around. No, what I want is more gold and more silver."

[inourhead]

"Well, then it would be easier just to swap the materials," says Crystal. "If you don't mind having your gold in candlestick shape."

[characterquarry]

"No, that won't matter." Now the bus is going over a very impressive-looking bridge, which is over a wide river containing several ships.

[inourhead]

"What are you going to do with the gold?" asks Lightning.

[characterquarry]

"It's more valuable than iron, here. I'm going to sell it. This won't work forever, of course, once troporting is semi-common supply and demand will even it out. And if I don't cash in on magical arbitrage, someone will."

[inourhead]

"Oh, I guess without troporting that kind of thing would happen," muses Crystal.

[characterquarry]

"Abusing economics with magic can be fun, as long as it doesn't break anything important."

[inourhead]

"If you say so."

[characterquarry]

Erin hums a little tune under her breath. The bus turns again. "We're almost there, now."

[inourhead]

Lightning murmurs something softly to Crystal, and she pats him on the arm and murmurs back.

[characterquarry]

Erin doesn't pry.

The bus stops. Unlike the previous times the bus stopped, Erin says, "Time to get out." She leads them into a large building full of official-looking people using offices of all sorts.

As she navigates to a particular section of the place, she asks, "Do you want to learn the local language? Right now I'm your interpreter, but it may become inconvenient if you stay here long enough. A wish would do it, or you could try the long way."