These Crafters have been having a problem with an aggressive dog in their territories and they're trying to decide what to do about it; unfortunately none of them are particularly good at training dogs so the obvious-to-them solution of 'someone catches the dog and works with them until they're not aggressive anymore' isn't likely to work, and they don't agree on whether the situation is bad enough to kill the dog over, they haven't actually bitten anyone yet but a couple of them think it's just a matter of time while the rest are hoping the dog will relax about people eventually. Nine thinks Daisy and Dusk could at least help with transporting the dog to someone more able to work with them, but none of the group knows anyone they think would agree to do it.

Rebecca wonders if there might be someone farther afield willing, if there are advertisements or listings with the library? She can cover large distances very quickly. Alternately if there's remote but hospitable wilderness somewhere she could drop it off there, but that seems like a impermanent solution, unless the location is remote enough that no one is likely to meet the dog within the dog's lifetime.

(The library really doesn't do anything but provide books and magazines, Daisy sends privately.)

If she wants to find someone who'd take the dog or a remote enough place that they won't bother anyone, they all agree that that sounds like a good solution to the problem. One of them volunteers to try to trap them and keep them fed for a few days if she's going to look.

Maybe the chat room will help! However many people are there multiplied their social circles is probably enough to find someone who likes working with dogs.

Maybe! They did ask the crows if they knew of anyone but they aren't perfectly reliable and maybe the chatroom people will know someone farther away than the local crows go.

Should she send a letter by crow to the one who volunteered for dog-trapping when she comes up with something?

She can just come by anytime during the day and send a crow in to let her know she's there, or set off a noisemaker at the border; her territory is up that way past the green and orange patterned Crafter's one.

Will do.

The glances at Daisy and Nine. They should get working on the computer, then. Do they think that's reason enough to go ask the Crafter for a set of equipment now instead of later?

They should definitely honor the request to give notice first, but yeah, Daisy thinks it's reasonable to get the equipment sooner rather than later. Does Rebecca still want to try to learn enough of the language to write her own letter?

Maybe someone else can write it, but she'll endeavor to get as fluent as possible in the day before they actually collect?

That sounds reasonable; she'll send the letter off now, then.

She has crafting material tucked away in a storage compartment in her chassis, compressed down into little pellets; it only takes her a couple minutes to produce a rolled sheet of it and write up most of the letter. It'd be polite to tell the Crafter how to recognize them, though, and that usually means describing their identifying personal pattern; does Rebecca want to pick one, or just have Daisy describe the outfit she plans to wear tomorrow, or do something else, or skip it altogether? It's not a problem to skip it if Daisy goes with her, Daisy's identifiable enough.

Her first thought is Alexandria's dark gray tesselating tower motif that's used for her more understated merchandise...

...but, actually, she doesn't want to use that.

Instead, she flashes an image of what she'll wear tomorrow to Daisy: the dark green outfit she wears to less formal functions and a large hiking rucksack.

Sure, that works. When she's done with the letter she crafts a handful of fertilizer and spreads it at the base of a snap bean plant, one of several food plants growing around the edge of the clearing, to fast-grow some beans so she has something to pay a messenger bird with. Once that's taken care of, it doesn't take long to get the letter sent on its way.

Then she should make her way back soon so she can start studying, then. Did Daisy or Nine want to do anything else? She'll find the green and orange patterned Crafter when she has news, if they're good with the plan.

Daisy is ready to go; Nine takes a quick look around before coming to the same conclusion. Daisy updates Nine on what they've been doing as they head home, relaying the conversation to Rebecca as well; she concludes with a comment that with Rebecca's interest in the magic they're probably going to need to either expand the workroom or make her her own, if she's staying.

How tinkers often work back home is they have personal workshops to focus, but also a larger shared workshop to do collaborations and put their extra junk in. Does that sound like it might work? She's working off a model where real estate isn't very expensive here.

They definitely have room, as long as she gets along well enough with Dusk for it.

Right, that. Rebecca and Dusk still haven't had a chance to really talk; they should find some time to get to know each other. Daisy said Dusk would be up by noon, right? What do they usually do during the day?

Dusk is usually more social during the day and likes time to herself at night, and aside from that it varies; she does spend a lot of time in the workroom during the day, or they'll do chores around the house that need an extra pair of hands or things like that. She might not want someone new around today in particular, too.

Because it's after the day of the remembrance ceremony, or...?

She can make herself scarce if that's the mood for today.

Daisy won't be sure until she sees what Dusk is like at breakfast, but her suspicion is because of that, yes. If Rebecca wants to hang out in the guest house Daisy can come let her know what's happening once she's figured it out; she should have at least one translation ready for her by the time Dusk wakes up, anyway.

Yes, Rebecca can probably scrounge up some relevant reference texts from Earth reasonably quickly by cosplaying English professors.

Daisy'll get something printed up from the library to translate, then. Does she want to start with one of the fleshcrafting books, or something simpler to try to learn the language from it?

Does she have something like... someone's travel memoirs? For a broad vocabulary base. And then a fleshcrafting book after that would be good.