"I think the mindset's probably more important than a lot of the specifics. Often I find that people just need someone to talk to."
"Or explain things. I somehow wound up Designated Humans Explainer at school. People come up to me at lunch and ask what doilies are for and why the human sex drive is so low and stuff."
"That," he says, "is a noble endeavor, and I wish you the best of luck with it."
"Yeah - I have a kobold friend that occasionally wants things explained. Though sometimes I think he asks certain things on purpose to get an interesting reaction he can write down for his book."
"Only a matter of time. The only way to win is to get the author to like you so they write your praises."
"I don't think I've offput too many of my querents... I'm also not sure any of them have been writing books, I may just have bad luck when an authorial one comes up."
"Ah well. If you want a kobold to sing and write your praises, look up Deekin Scalesinger, he'll probably adore you. Though you might not like his writing style, it's kind of an acquired taste. And sometimes he lies extravagantly."
"Wrong plane. Interplanar travel that doesn't deposit itself in my dorm supply closet is the sort of thing I try to avoid."
".... Sleep. For weeks. In a nice bed that is not made of spiderwebs." Pause. "After that I have absolutely no idea."
"Spiderwebs? Yikes. No offense to any subterranean elves in hearing distance but still."
"I mean it's spidersilk, but - yeah, kinda - yes. That. It's better than the previous sheet material, that was, uh, shadow cloth stuff?" Pause. "But that's not saying much, that stuff was incredibly creepy."
"I don't really know how to react to them - no therapy classes yet - but if you want don't hold back on my account."
"I mean, it's mostly just a thing to me. I don't mind talking about most of it. I kind of glossed over a lot of what happened because it's just - super weird. A lot of it is super weird."
"I had a talking sentient sword for a while. 'Til I helped get him put into a golem, because he'd be happier that way. I built the golem on an island of golems that were having a civil war over whether to continue to listen to the doctrines of an absent master or go their own way with free will. Just. Things like that?"
"Yeah, me too. Poor guy was trapped in a room with a bunch of undead for decades until I went and picked him up." Pause. "I hadn't touched anything in the room until he started talking, because the undead were - not sleeping, but they were not moving and there was a warning about not stealing anything in the room or I'd face their wrath, so. But then trapped person, aaaaand... Yeah. That was fun. But now he has a body and doesn't need rescue from rooms, he can just save himself."
"Thanks! I couldn't just leave him there," says Veron, sounding like the very thought of doing that thing is just absurd.