what in the longdark spitting-pit is that

inourhead

"Now" and "later" come easily; "day" takes a while for the girls to get used to, even after they seem clear on the general concept of a routinely scheduled visit by the same sun over and over.

when_spoken_to

Well, even if they don't have a day, they must have some form of time system? Surely? Emma breaks down days into smaller pieces, hours and minutes and so forth, and explains those instead.

She will, if pressed, have no reasonable explanation why they come in weird groupings, other than, "three, five, eight, good numbers."

inourhead

Holly and Crystal figure out how to say "sand", and draw a recognizable hourglass, and say that at home they keep time by "sands". (Plurals are not as confusing as verb tenses.) They seem to conclude after prolonged observation that a sand is about one and a half hours, maybe, probably.

when_spoken_to

That's an easy enough conversion, even for Emma. But for the sake of acclimatizing Holly and Crystal, she uses both in conversation, to get them used to hours.

She fetches them both sandwiches for lunch, and vanishes for a couple of hours ("one sand and a little") to practice her Malinquan with her tutor. Her father has recently started to expand his holdings out of Soche-Tas into Malinqua, and as his backup (but perfectly trustworthy) translator, Emma's studies have altered accordingly.

But Emma does well in her tutoring session- she's not even behind in her studies thanks to Holly and Crystal, not really. They've taken up lots of her time, it's true, but it's time they woke her up for when she would otherwise have been sleeping. No loss to her.

And upon her mother's return home, permission for a "shopping expedition" is obtained. Once Alli and Jenny arrive, they can start looking for Book.

honestly_determined

They are not perfectly prompt, but they are very close.

"Sorry," Alli yawns as they walk in. "Mom couldn't find the ledgers again. We had to dig them up. So noooooow... where are we going?"

when_spoken_to

Emma starts to explain, realizes she has a lot of updating to do, and starts from the beginning. Holly and Crystal are two people, with the aforementioned names; they have a brother, named Book, who is in the same body as their friend and who might have been caught by- Emma's not clear on this part- whatever sent Holly and Crystal here, and that they'll be looking for him in the rest of Chialto; and all the other various details of Holly and Crystal's world that she's managed to extract in the past day.

"...so. Yeah, that's Holly and Book," she finishes. "I was thinking we could try the river? If he didn't wind up in a house, or the people weren't friendly, he'd have to go to the riverbank, I think."

joyful_soul

"Waiiiiit," Jenny laughs, "slower, my brain has to catch up to all of this!"

Once she's thought about it, she declares that Emma has had the "coolest day ever," and expresses her deep and abiding jealousy of the "no tiredness" trick Crystal used on Emma. Then she backs Emma. Riverbank it is.

honestly_determined

"The elements must like you," Alli chuckles. "You're a Lalindar, and you get the cool house guest. She does magic! Only Primes do that, that's wicked."

She has no objections to the riverbank plan, but she does have an addition. "Blessings first, anyone?" she suggests.

joyful_soul

"Oooh! Yes please, yes please!"

inourhead

Holly and Crystal study when left to their own devices, and blink along politely when this mostly incomprehensible conversation occurs.

when_spoken_to

To the temple it is, then. There's one close by the house, so it will be their first stop. Really, there's one "fairly close" to every house in Chialto, but Emma's pleased by the convenience nonetheless.

"We'll go choose coins from a bowl, and the coins say things, and the things the coins say will tell us what types of things we will see soon," Emma says slowly to Holly and Crystal, attempting to explain as they walk. (But she's used to blessings being incomprehensible to foreigners, so she won't take it personally if Holly and Crystal just stare at her blankly.)

joyful_soul

Jenny attempts to follow the speech patterns Emma's using, with questionable success. "And your parents ask three people to give you coins when you're a baby, and those coins say things about you," she adds cheerfully, offering the girls her necklace. It's a plain one, really just simple beads on a string, but Jeny likes her blessings and she wants to show them off. (She used to have the actual coins on the string, but they were too heavy and were getting worn down. Beads it is.)

"See? That's love," she points to them one by one, "and joy, and beauty."

inourhead

Holly isn't following most of this, but she takes occasional notes when she understands something well enough to want to be able to review it later.

when_spoken_to

Emma watches with a smile. "I can say this all again later if you want," she offers to- hmm. "Also. Still Holly? Crystal?"

Last she checked it was Holly, but she is now realizing that was quite a while ago.

joyful_soul

"Oooooh, Emma, we should ask for blessings for them!" Jenny says insistently.

inourhead

"Holly," says Holly, "now."

joyful_soul

"Hi Holly!" Jenny says agreeably. "Let's go! You need blessing coins. They're important!"

honestly_determined

"So you know, Holly," Alli contributes, "Jenny really likes blessing coins."

joyful_soul

Jenny simply sticks out her tongue at Alli and dances off. There's enough people on the streets, mostly on their ways home from work, that she collects two strangers without much trouble; one woman who looks like she's probably a shopkeeper's assistant, and an older man who is more well-dressed but also surprisingly intoxicated for the hour. Emma's "bodyguard" is roped into the spot of the third stranger.

And then they are in the temple, and Jenny asks the strangers sweetly to please pull blessings for "two newly arrived girls."

inourhead

Holly, puzzled, accepts a talent, a clarity, and a persistence; she pockets them. Crystal emerges and takes a kindness, an intelligence, and a loyalty.

joyful_soul

"Those are good coins!" Jenny tells them encouragingly. "I guess Holly's pretty sweela?" she asks Emma as an aside, who has more familiarity with the girls to go on.

when_spoken_to

"Um..." Emma shrugs. "I can't really tell them apart. I still have to ask who I'm talking to, when I think of it. You saw. But they're sweela sometimes, I guess, yeah."

They have, in fact, been at least slightly of each element at one point or another; there's two of them, and they're not One Element the way a Welchin would be, and Emma did just spend almost twenty four straight hours with them. But since they are, again, not Welchin, Emma hardly imagines it will matter.

honestly_determined

Meanwhile, Alli is cheerfully drawing blessings for everyone else. Crystal gets a patience, an endurance, and a time, while Holly gets a hope, an resilience, and a time. Emma is handed a change (no surprise there), a creativity, and a patience. Jenny receives a hope, a kindness and a joy.

"Have you ever not gotten a joy?" Alli asks Jenny with a laugh as she hands her her coins.

joyful_soul

"Not that I know of!" Jenny replies, unbothered. "I like my joys."

And she draws coins for Alli: a kindness, a persistence, and an honesty.

"And look, see? You get honesty a lot, too."

honestly_determined