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Time passes.
Isabella's robot army cleans up the remaining robotic forces of their hated enemies without casualties, obligingly repurposes themselves for helping with infrastructure and explaining what she finds in the computer systems, and is generally convenient and helpful.
Adarin finishes the armor silk spell. Isabella's set are cosmetically special - mostly black, but with forest-green twining over the fabric and edged with pale blue as though she's been accumulating frost. In them, she looks almost more like a witch-garb-inspired runway model than a witch, but she loves them and promptly switches to wearing them all the time. (He asked if she wanted to wait till Christmas. She said no, and then teased him that he'd have to think of something else for Christmas.) He makes more, but doesn't pretty them up; they're for other people.
The portal network and the personnel helping with it expands. The hub building is operational on schedule and the surfaces with portals in them are moved there after being temporarily closed on their far ends. The price point starts dropping. Isabella's staff starts making progress on getting the necessary permissions to put portals in foreign countries. Isabella acquires ludicrous amounts of money; she's waiting for slightly more ludicrous amounts before she pays back her loan, though.
Zeviana and Luzia continue to get along famously without that much in the way of Serious Relationship Conversation. Zeviana does useful things for the clan and makes friends and generally fits right in. Ranata shows her interesting places on the Earth; with the help of her nepotism-based access pass to the portal network, this is mostly within the United States to start, though teleportation makes other continents more convenient to get to than they might otherwise be. Still, most of her time is spent on clan lands, which makes it at best inconvenient to scry on her from New Kystle.
Path continues to touch Adarin occasionally, briefly, especially if Isabella's off somewhere; he seems to do it mostly for a sort of check-in with the comfort it provides. Sometimes and apparently for separate reasons he will solicit extended petting, which seems to be more recreational than soothing (it's possible to tell mostly because of the way Isabella will go limp and smiley and heavy-lidded wherever she is in the room when this occurs). Vern doesn't touch Isabella again. Isabella is unbothered; she doesn't expect it.
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dark_light
prodigal_miser
"Oh, well. Then touring depends on you. Do you want me to get used to starclad witches sooner, or later?"
dark_light
"Let's tour the place."
Isabella shows him around! It's big, and sparsely inhabited. There are some full-time residents, but most of the clan population is married at any given time and lives with husbands near or not so near - or just choose other dwellings for unrelated reasons, like Isabella's old teacher. There are houses, mostly against hillsides but one up a tree, and gardens for herbs and food intermittently tended, and while there's plenty of game, there's also a small domestic animal population even if you don't count the silkworms. There are rain barrels and uncultivated forest and fields, but only the central part with the most densely clustered installations has actual paths on the ground - witches get around by flying. Making a rough zigzag over the whole thing and pausing over the highlights takes about half an hour.
Isabella shows him around! It's big, and sparsely inhabited. There are some full-time residents, but most of the clan population is married at any given time and lives with husbands near or not so near - or just choose other dwellings for unrelated reasons, like Isabella's old teacher. There are houses, mostly against hillsides but one up a tree, and gardens for herbs and food intermittently tended, and while there's plenty of game, there's also a small domestic animal population even if you don't count the silkworms. There are rain barrels and uncultivated forest and fields, but only the central part with the most densely clustered installations has actual paths on the ground - witches get around by flying. Making a rough zigzag over the whole thing and pausing over the highlights takes about half an hour.
prodigal_miser
As predicted, Adarin spends a lot of the time looking at clouds.
When there aren't any naked witches present he quite enjoys the tour. He's a little confused as to why they would collect rain in barrels rather than using piping, but everything else seems to make sense. The lack of electricity (and the constant barrage of naked witches) makes him not want to live there, but it's perfectly nice to visit. It's interesting and has an aesthetic he can appreciate.
When there aren't any naked witches present he quite enjoys the tour. He's a little confused as to why they would collect rain in barrels rather than using piping, but everything else seems to make sense. The lack of electricity (and the constant barrage of naked witches) makes him not want to live there, but it's perfectly nice to visit. It's interesting and has an aesthetic he can appreciate.
dark_light
"So that's clan lands," concludes Isabella, when they are hovering over the beach. (There are naked witches, but they are mostly underwater, swimming around.)
prodigal_miser
"Thank you for showing me. Clan lands are lovely, though I don't think I'd want to live here."
(He is focusing on Isabella, rather than naked witches. She's prettier than the clouds.)
(He is focusing on Isabella, rather than naked witches. She's prettier than the clouds.)
dark_light
"Yeah, I wouldn't either. The ones who live here full time and are less than a hundred and fifty years old spend a lot of time in nearby mortal settlements, charging their phones and eating things other than meat and vegetables and doing things other than flying around and swimming and hunting and gardening. I am considerably less than a hundred and fifty years old."
prodigal_miser
Adarin snickers. "Indeed you are. Though the visual of you hunting things is kind of funny."
dark_light
"I did it a bit when I was around - oh, twelve - just as part of being well-roundedly witchy. I'm a decent archer, I got a pheasant once, got a deer once, mostly just shadowed better hunters who were willing to have me along. It's just not that fun for me, though."
prodigal_miser
"I don't think I'd find it very much fun, either. Though I might be surprised, if I tried it, I suppose."
dark_light
"It's much more sitting-and-waiting than you'd think. I mean, on a cloud-pine you can run down pretty much any critter, but the usual method is to just sort of park and hold still and wait for something to come out."
prodigal_miser
Adarin laughs. "Oh yes, not the kind of thing you'd enjoy. That reminds me, I still need to try out fishing."
dark_light
"Because you like sitting still holding a stick for ages so much."
prodigal_miser
"I haven't tried it before, I don't know if I'd like it or not! I might think it's the best thing ever and bring home a freezer full of fish every Sunday. Neither of us know, yet."
prodigal_miser
"That's the spirit! Thank you for supporting hypothetical me if I turn out to love fishing."
dark_light
"I daresay you could pick up lots of hobbies I see no appeal in and I'd love you anyhow."
prodigal_miser
Adarin giggles. "Thank you, I have been holding in the urge to pick up lots of hobbies that don't appeal to you. Like knitting, fishing, hunting - quick, what are other hobbies you don't like personally, I need to revel in my freedom."
prodigal_miser
"... This is somewhat dampened by having no idea what pixel art, geocaching, or squaredancing are. Golf is a game, right? And parkour is building - leaping, climbing... things? I still need to work on absorbing the culture, I haven't managed it entirely."
dark_light
"Pixel art is making pictures out of the teeniest pieces of digital images. Geocaching is some weird thing where there's designated locations and people leave stuff there for other people to find. Squaredancing involves being arranged with three other people squarewise and following dancing-related instructions on how to interact with them issued by somebody whose job it is to issue those instructions. Golf is a game, involves thwacking little balls into little holes that are very far away with a stick. Parkour is... hard to explain, find online videos or something."
prodigal_miser
"Huh. Okay. Thank you, one day I will just know what all of these things are and I won't have to ask. On that day, I will find something you don't know about my culture and explain it to you. The tides will turn, Isabella."
dark_light
"You know we don't have to do it in that order, right? You already explained to me Dead Rat Medicine and the prolonged drunken parties and how your months make so much more sense."
prodigal_miser
"Shhhh. Shh, my dear, Dead Rat Medicine and prolonged drunken parties won't be what you know our culture by. The months making sense is amazing, though, please feel free to judge my culture by that one."
dark_light
"Okay, tell me something else nice about your culture," she says, and she gives him a peck of a kiss and wheels the cloudpine around to fly back to Seattle.
prodigal_miser
"Okay. Couples will sometimes get glass-baubles, and put candles or some other light source inside them. Then, we set them out on lakes or other bodies of water to float away. It's supposed to be lucky if both of them are taken in the same direction."