"...Okay, I forgot about that."

She plays with utility magic for a bit until she manages a better peek at the magical workings of the runes, hidden inside the metal somehow, and starts transcribing them out into her handy-dandy grimoire.

"Going as fast as I can here, eff why eye."

Luna tries to relax a bit as she waits, but there's still a definite tension regarding the collar thing she's not thinking about. She's just lying here for no reason while nothing particularly interesting happens. It's fine. Nothing terrible is about to happen.

It's kind of scary, though... thinking about something else; that last confusing statement from Wynn is a good distraction!

"Eff why... what?"

"'For your information'. I speak internet, sorry."

Scribble scribble scribble compare correct scribble... Those steady hands the isekai'ing gave her are coming in handy for this...

That's not any less confusing? Maybe she shouldn't bug the Fox while she's looking at the collar doing something that Luna isn't thinking about, but she badly needs the distraction.

"What is internet?"

"Oh, uh... Talking to people who are far away. By writing or sharing pictures and stuff. It's uh... Hmm..." Writewritewrite. "Had code tutorials and stuff..."

That's a pretty good distraction! There's a connection slowly forming in Luna's mind, with people spending so much time sitting alone doing something boring... with the right trick, they can talk to each other from far away? Neat!

"Oh! People are talking far away? Are they helping?"

"No, no, no internet here. I miss it. I just uhhhhhh..."

Scribblescribble.

"I say a lot of things I learned there. Because they're funny or whatever."

Oh. That wasn't it, then? Or...

"You lost your internet, so you can't talk to far away people?"

Luna peers around at the nearby shelves, wondering where such a mysterious item might have gotten to.

"Yeah, when I got here."

...Sigh.

"When I started dreaming. No computers or phones or internet here."

She pauses briefly and cracks her knuckles before resuming her copying-patterns-down.

Ah, that makes sense!

"Back in your home, when not dreaming?"

Luna pauses for a moment, considering.

"It is okay. Luna and Fox will go back home when dream ends."

"I don't think so. I think we're here for good. But que sera, sera. It's fine."

Is she almost doooooone? She's starting to get more aware of how awkward this is. Whether Luna thinks it is or not.

"This is not a good dream to stay in. It should stop!"

There's a lot of runes to trace out, but Wynn has most of them by now? Then there'll be more work figuring out what the key needs to look like based on the differences, but there does seem to be a reasonable amount of similarity?

"We can make the, uh, dream better in the meantime. Like the meathouse. Almost done tracing these out, then I need to analyze it..."

"Okay. Luna will try."

She holds still while Wynn finishes tracing the runes.

"...Okay. Done."

She steps back and lets out a long breath.

"I need ... probably another day or two. And I might have to leave for a little while to go help someone else. I promised to check on them. I can scry and tell if they're ready, which is kind of like internet but just one person."

"Okay. Luna will wait."

Luna stretches and paces around the room a bit.

"Life is hard, isn't it."

Her heat isn't going away, but she's still determined to mostly ignore it. Runework! More of that!

And then at the evening, scrying the apothecary as promised.

Luna heads out for more hunting after a bit.

The runework continues to be a timesink, but a pattern is beginning to emerge. If Wynn had a month to spend on this, and maybe two more collars to test with, she could probably make a single magic item that would unlock any collar. She'd also need to figure out how to design an adjustable key to interface with the runework correctly and give the right responses... but the general problem seems just barely doable, while the specific problem is increasingly looking less like whether Wynn can make the key at all, and more whether or not she can manage it on her first try.

The same pattern of casting mana out across the world to scry the same semi-familiar location doesn't get much quicker... but the part where Wynn has to identify the right target within town does. And yes, that sure is some red smoke at the apothecary!

Oh, geez.

At least she knows the way now. And she snuck in once before... Just a couple days after that they might still be twitchy, but she can leave a note maybe? 'Come outside the walls to the patch of woods by the potato field tomorrow morning'...?

Either way, she packs her stuff and tries to nap on the bed... Aware that Luna might just literally sleep next to her but it's comfier, whatever. Next time she wakes up she can be off.

Wynn's rest is interrupted by a naked sleepy Luna cuddling up next to her.

Yep, just as expected!

She could just stay here and go back to sleep... But,

"No, that's asking for trouble." Yaaawn. "Luna, I'm going to go help that person I mentioned. I'll be back in a day or two."

That gets Luna's attention. She sits up a little, eyes more intent.

"Can Luna help?"

"-I'm not sure. Um. I took someone away from a plant that was keeping her - kind of like the collar but different - and I promised to take her back there safely, if she wanted, and take care of the plant seeds. When I checked on her she had done the thing that means it's time to come help... I don't know if I need help but I need to sneak in to a town and give her a note, then sneak back out. I'm not actually sure if you're faster than me? You're stronger, and get tired less, I think. But there also might be confusing or dangerous things that way, because there's a lot more people. I don't want to get you hurt... More than I did already." Sigh.

"Luna is fast and strong and sneaky! If there are bad things, Luna will kill them."

She says this with confidence, in a matter-of-fact tone... but then pauses to think about it for a bit.

"But if Luna can't help, Fox can say so."