Only that I am not sure which modes of enabling a lizard to speak are still functional under these biases. If a M15@4 Permanently Confer New Abilities would do it, then sure. For some reason, I was thinking that of course he would have skill at English, but of course (and here's the foolish assumption) he wouldn't be able to physically speak because of the construction of his vocal tract. It would be important to me that he have a voice, though, if only for the purposes of incantations, so if magic wouldn't do it, he'll speak with a specialized P15@1 Create Sound.
I wasn't thinking about it because most of our communication is still through mutual mind reading and/or telepathy, in most places and at most times (with a huge familiarity bonus, possibly with additional built-in bonuses from our magical relationship). I've been talking and reading to him as part of an English immersion program, but it makes sense that he'd talk in the presence of newly arrived verser.
If speech requires a skill roll of the psi or mag variety, he will not have spoken, for I'm quite sure I've taught him to be cautious of potential botches.
If he did not speak, he will have bowed (made a leg, nodded his head, whatever courteous gesture we worked out in advance that won't look ridiculous) instead.
Permanently confer new abilities permanently confers new abilities. If it had been used to enable him to speak in some world where it works, and it is a Bod skill, it will work in worlds where such a bod skill (B0@2 signal generation) works. I would assume that would be the skill you would have given him.
--M. J. Young
my reaction to the talking iguana would be to stare for a moment, then say "Wow, you must be one of a kind. Pleased to meet you too."
it would have the side effect of making me more inclined to believe Scott in the conversation to follow, and I was already pretty inclined to do so.
On the pronunciation of Discordia: you heard right both times. In the title of the book, I give it four syllables, but as the name of the Goddess I give it three. Not entirely sure why. It may be an "odd" pronunciation, but upon reflection it shouldn't be a surprising one; it's palatalization, a very common sound change across languages.
Also, in our world (the only one that doesn't exist) your interpretation of 'not having much truck with' may very well be more widely recognized than mine; it's just that V-me's default assumption in these cases is that the misunderstanding springs from variance in universe of origin. You like "on a lighter note;" he likes "where I come from."
Ugh, falling asleep. Shouldn't have left this thread this late. Apologies. Should be back (later) in the morning.
Hey, no worries. I'm in no hurry. "Hey, chill, maaaaaaan."
Heh.
In response to the suggestion that he's unique, Iggy gets what Scott might recognize as a puzzled look and says, "No, I'm an iguana. There are a lot of us where I come from, but don't seem to be any others here."
--M. J. Young
"That's true, Iggy, you're right. What he means, though, is that you're special - you're different from most iguanas in ways that people think are important. You can speak, which is something that most people think that only people can do. You're smarter than most iguanas, too, but that's not as easy to notice as your talking.
Turning back to Brock, I say, "I'm sure there are others like him, though, just as there are others like you and me. All it takes is the desire and the ability to better oneself - in some cases, as with Ignominious and me, with a starting push from others. I had some help from a man called the Architect, starting out, and Iggy had some help from me. But with forever ahead of us (as far as we know), I don't foresee any limits on what we can become."
__
I anticipate making multiple posts here, following the various threads of interaction. I'm glad you're not in any hurry, Brock.* I expect things will calm down a bit eventually, both on my side of the screen and in this here forum thread.
*Heh.
"True, that. I should have said I have never MET an iguana that can talk."
Here is the currently active threads of conversation.
"Oh, I hadn't thought of that. I have studied a lot of faiths, and the big common element in most is guidance on how to act, and a large dose of reverence. Of course, the biggest side effect of all that is hope, which is something a lot of people have difficulty getting for themselves."
"Oh, I dunno how other people use the truck phrase, I only ever read it once, and that's how it was used."
"Oh, Eris. Yeah, I know a lot about her. I didn't realize there is a religion with her as a patron, as opposed to a member of a pantheon. I've always wondered why they [the Greeks and Romans] thought chaos was a bad thing, really. It's really more of a force in the universe that brings about change. Without it, every day would be drab and repetitious-moreso than usual."
I get out Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction: A novel of the Old Republic and hand it to you, saying you may have it if you like.
You left off going to get your laptop.
questions for later-"So you mentioned this scriff substance earlier...."
I'm curious as to why you didn't bring Alice, but in character I don't even know about her.
I will mention that it is getting late in the afternoon; you are at the western end of the mountain, watching the sun descend toward the ocean. There are a few shore birds, but nothing in sight across the water.
--M. J. Young
The truck bit is dropped without comment. The religious bits are addressed with a comment along the lines of "you sound like you kind of have the right idea; hold on a sec while I run get the Principia."
I return with, not the laptop, but a printout held together with those jaw-like black paper clips. It's somewhere between twenty-five and fifty sheets of paper, single-sided printing but with two book pages per sheet. (The document can be found here.*) I also bring two oranges, a mango, and a six-inch knife.
"Now, this is just the text version - in the original, there's all kinds of hand-written notes in the margins, and stamps, and weird illustrations - 'Mr. Momomoto, famous Japanese, has swollowed his nose', a one-eyed pyramid with legs throwing up the numeral V sign, 'DO NOT FOLD, BEND, OR MUTILATE', that kind of thing - but this is from a Word document on my laptop, so they can't really capture that. They do the best they can, though. See, this here was originally scrawled in the margin.
"We don't have to look at this now, I mean, you can even keep this printout - I've got spares - but it'll be hard to read it once the sun goes down, and we can still talk and such in the dark."
__
"So, how long have you been around?"
"How long have I been around . . . ? A little less than a decade, for sure. I've actually been keeping a journal on my laptop since Day 1, Year A, but it's difficult to update it sometimes what with my lifestyle. I can only use it for more than a few hours in worlds where there's enough tech for an outlet, enough psi to recharge the battery or enough magic to run it without, and this island is lacking in all three.
"So, I can't check and know for sure here, but if I remember correctly, I've been in the 'Verse for nine years, two months and thirty-seven days. Um, that's Discordian months, so, seventy-three, one forty-six, that's nine years, one hundred eighty-three days. Oh, plus the time I've been here, so nine years, one hundred eighty-six as of nine twenty-five tongiht. Assuming I haven't made a clerical error somewhere." Smile.
"But yeah, I've been meaning to get an AC adapter that'll plug into my spear, but - well, no such luck. I'm thinking I'll just conjure one, next time I get a chance. Which won't be here."
__
I'm assuming stuff in bold isn't stuff I have to address until it's posted again non-bold. But I'll talk about Alice if you're still curious.
* The original Principia with notes in the margins and stamps and illustrations and such is here if you're curious, but V-me doesn't have that version.
bold is OOC. My character doesn't know about Alice. I am just a bit curious as to whether or not you really would take her with or not, given the choice.
I have read the Principia. I got curious when you mentioned it when I first got here, and went to read it. Thing that I was saying earlier though, my character didn't meet you until now, so never heard of it except some vague reference years ago. When I was reminding myself OOC that I hadn't, MJ had the idea to send you here. Heh.
Don't forget I am handing you Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction: A Novel of the Old Republic, and saying if you like it, you can keep it.
"Hey, thanks! I'll read this later."
"Okay, for the last question I have for now, You mentioned that the substance allowing us to travel the worlds when we die is called scriff. Is there anything else I should know about this scriff?
You've probably already figured out that all of my OOC stuff is italicized.
I knew you'd read it. It's just that your character hasn't, and this is your chance to talk to me about it and have the conversation become part of your character's history.
As for Alice, I just don't envision her coming with me. The bonds between people have to be pretty strong for an associate relationship to form ("I'll follow you anywhere, anytime, no matter what," like that), and while I'm sure she's interested in me, I'm not certain she's unhappy enough with her life to follow me out. It could go either way. On my part, I intend to write a will in which I leave her all the unspent cash I'm making at my job there in the event I verse out suddenly or otherwise disappear; given that, it seems like my character doesn't anticipate her coming with him. Also, my speculative history for this divergent has him versing out on a botch very soon after the thread leaves off (to spare me the awkwardness of writing the future of a world I'm currently playing in), so the relationship doesn't develop any further than what you see in the thread.
Lastly, I don't particularly want to bother running an NPC in this thread. Iggy is quite enough, thanks. That's not exactly a role-playing reason, but it's good enough for me. (Similarly, I have Dancing Princess in my world history, but the demons hand me my hind end. This has the dual merits of (1) sparing me the trouble of running a princess, and (2) explaining how on Earth I would manage to defeat those monsters. I've seen their stats, and they are frightening.)
"Hmm, speaking of reading, I have a book you might like. Ever watch Star Wars? I have a book about Darth Bane, a Sith Lord in the days of the Old Republic. It's from his perspective, so it is really interesting. I also have a pin drive with a ton of books on it."
"Well, sure. I'm always on the lookout for more reading material. I just picked up a bunch of books pretty recently, though, and I'm in the middle of reading A Series of Unfortunate Events to Ignominious; I might not get to it for a while, so you might want to hang on to it.
"As for the pin drive - is that like a USB storage device? - I don't want to turn on my laptop any more than I have to, seeing as I can't recharge the battery here. I don't need it here, but I might in the next world. Well, I guess if they're really useful books . . . what have you got?"
Don't forget I am handing you Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction: A Novel of the Old Republic, and saying if you like it, you can keep it.
I look Brock in the eye. "Are you sure? You won't ever get it back, more than likely, and it might prove useful to you if you keep it." I'm not taking the offered book just yet, waiting for his response.
"Okay, for the last question I have for now, You mentioned that the substance allowing us to travel the worlds when we die is called scriff. Is there anything else I should know about this scriff?
"Well, it's kind of important, so you should know everything you can, I guess. I'll tell what I know . . ."
(continuing with the Scriff in the next post, when I get 'round to writing it)
"Well, I have lots of books. The books on my pin drive are not the kind you would ever need for more than entertainment. It's all fantasy and science fiction novels, and roleplaying game info I keep around. Why would it be risky to turn on your computer? As long as it has power it should be fine. I mean, I understand you won't get to recharge it for awhile, but..." character doesn't know about biases for tech and bod, doesn't understand yet. The character will read the Principia at the next opportunity when the conversation dies down. I can read in fairly low light conditions, and if the moon is out and even a little bright, I will be able to read it.
"I don't know why Darth Bane would be useful to me for more than entertainment, unless I end up in the world of Star Wars, heh. I have 44 Star Wars books by various authors on my pin drive. I have been collecting ebooks for a long, long time."
"Oh, and that reminds me. Why is it our stuff comes with us when we die? I was always told that you can't bring it with when you die" Insert cheeky grin here.
EDIT:"A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men"-Willy Wonka
"I don't know why Darth Bane would be useful to me for more than entertainment, unless I end up in the world of Star Wars, heh. I have 44 Star Wars books by various authors on my pin drive. I have been collecting ebooks for a long, long time."
"You seriously never know. First off, it's a physical book, which makes it useful in different ways than the stuff on your pin drive. It's got untreated paper for pages, which means you could use it for tender, and it would probably last you quite a while. It's got treated paper for the cover, which you can't burn but could be more useful for other things. Also, it's a book written in English, which if you're in a place where English isn't written means you could pass it off as a spell book on a bluff. It's typewritten, which is a proof of concept if you end up in a world without Gutenberg. Hell, it's a fantasy, which could be useful in explaining the concept to someone if you end up in place without non-fiction. And anyways, real books are valuable some places, never mind what's in them, and that paperback is a lot lighter to carry around than the gold bullion it would be worth.
"I'm just saying. Give your stuff away if that's what you want to do, but it is your stuff. I'm not out to swindle you."
Why would it be risky to turn on your computer? As long as it has power it should be fine. I mean, I understand you won't get to recharge it for awhile, but..."
"It's not that it's risky to turn it on. It's just risky to assume that I'll be able to recharge it before the next time I really need it. It could be that right after this island explodes, I'll be in a place where I can't create electricity but I can manipulate and amplify existing energy, and so a dead battery is worth a lot less to me than a charged one.
"I know it seems a little stingy or paranoid to you now, but I've gotten into the habit of not using my resources for frivolous things. There's plenty of time for that later, when the particular resource in question happens to be limitless. Given the nature of my life now, that time is sure to come sooner or later.
"I'll think about your pin drive though. Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you whether or not I want to boot up my laptop so we can trade files. I've got some jazz that was a great comfort to me in a psi-Orwellian police state where non-boring music had been killed in its infancy; it could be a fair exchange."
"Oh, and that reminds me. Why is it our stuff comes with us when we die? I was always told that you can't bring it with when you die" Insert cheeky grin here.
"Lesson one: don't listen to the ignorant.
"But, more to the point, it's the same reason your mind comes with you, or why your whole body keeps its shape and configuration. The scriff did it. You've got scriff in you, and scriff in your stuff, and all that scriff is attuned to itself so that it all stays together. It likes being together, and it likes being stable. When you get mangled up enough to be killed, that's unstable. The scriff can't have that, so it packs its bags (that is, you, your mind, and your stuff), heads somewhere else, and puts you back together again - stable this time. That's why when you versed in you weren't electrocuted anymore, by the way. That's also why I don't have five giant scars across my face, here - " I make a raking motion from my left temple down to my right jaw - " where that demon clawed through my skull that one time. It's like when you're building something out of wooden blocks and it falls down; you put it back to the way it was before you added that last block that knocked it over.
"Oh, but you were asking about your stuff. If you don't believe me that you've got scriff in your gear, I can prove it to you. Wanna play Find the Novel?"
I pick up the Star Wars novel during that last question.
"A book as valuable as gold? Wow, I am really underestimating the possibilities of these universes. Hmmm. As to the files on my pin drive, I was just saying you can have them if you want, but I'm in no rush to get any files for me. It's full anyway."
"So the scriff bonds together, and when it fused with me, everything that I consider to be part of me, my self, my stuff, and possibly very close people, will come with me, because in a way, those things are fused to my own being, my mind, and bear importance? Interesting. No, I already noticed the directional sense, so no need to play Find the Novel, heh."
"So, if the universes are all different, there is no guarantee that what I see is the same as what I identify it as. For example, are those coconuts really coconuts? How can I tell? I hope you won't say trial and error; that seems rather risky..."
"So the scriff bonds together, and when it fused with me, everything that I consider to be part of me, my self, my stuff, and possibly very close people, will come with me, because in a way, those things are fused to my own being, my mind, and bear importance?
"Well, supposedly it's your central nervous system that's infected primarily, and everything else is pulled along with that. So, if someone burns your books, you don't verse out, and if you die in a fire a month later, the ashes come with you. But if you die in fire which also consumes your books, you verse out and your stuff is fine. I have had Iggy verse out without me. When I eventually died in that world, he wasn't there for me in the next, and I had to wait to meet up with him in the world after that. Every time I've versed out, though, Iggy has versed out immediately. You see? Your body is primary. Everything else is just . . . attached."
"No, I already noticed the directional sense, so no need to play Find the Novel, heh."
"Well, I also thought it would give me an excuse to wander off for a bit and give Iggy a chance to challenge you to Nine Men's Morris or something; we're kind of been leaving him out of the conversation, with all this Verser Orientation kind of talk. No matter, there'll be time later."
"So, if the universes are all different, there is no guarantee that what I see is the same as what I identify it as. For example, are those coconuts really coconuts? How can I tell? I hope you won't say trial and error; that seems rather risky..."
"How do you tell? Well, what's important to you about it being a coconut? If you need it to be a coconut because you want something round and hard, check to see if it's round and hard. If you need it to be a coconut because they're safe to eat, run a tox screen. What I mean is, no, you can't be sure, but if it walks, quacks, smells, and undergoes meiosis like a duck . . . anyway. Usually, familiar-looking things are familiar. It's just sometimes that they're not. Learn to check. There's all kinds of skills you can pick up for gathering information about your surroundings. Develop a habit of caution and skepticism. But, don't fall into the trap of assuming all possibilities are equally likely, either; that's a good way to lose your head and start acting like you habitually fly over cuckoos' nests."
Iggy says, "Form follows function. We read that somewhere. If it looks like fruit it's probably fruit. It looks like fruit because it wants to be eaten by something. Maybe you're not the thing that can eat it, but there's at least a chance you can eat it, too."
--M. J. Young
"A cogent point! But there's also at least a chance that it only looks like fruit as a camouflage for what it really is - possibly a defense mechanism or a way to preemptively take down predators. Remember the exploding pineapples?" (I'm quite sure Iggy remembers the exploding pineapples.) "I'm not sure what would eat those. Probably those started out as fruit, then adapted to fill a different function; their appearance was likely vestigial, just left over from when, in past generations, they really were meant to be eaten.
"To be fair, though, I'm pretty sure that universe was Gamma World. That in itself counts as an extenuating circumstance. Usually, Iggy's advice is very good.
"I guess the thing to do is to take precautions that don't interfere with your primary course of action. That is, prepare for it to be not what you expect, but not in a way that causes you to approach it fundamentally differently than you would if it were what you expect. For example: I have the psionic ability to purge my body of toxins. In worlds where it works, I use it after every time I eat or drink anything. Cautious, but it doesn't get in the way of what's probably the best thing to do."
"Well, this is a lot to mull over. Hey, thanks for taking so much time out of your day for me. I'll quit bothering you now, heh."
Assuming Scott has nothing more to say to this, and there is light enough to read still, I'll settle down and read the Principia. When I read it in real life, it took me about an hour.
You have enough time to read the printout; the sun is touching the oceanic horizon by the time you have completed it, lighting sky and water in brilliant colors.
Where are you planning to sleep, or are you?
--M. J. Young
I sleep for 6 hours on average. How long have I been conscious? I need to know whether I am tired or not. I usually sleep during the day unless I have some obligation during the day to do. When the moon rises, is it giving off a lot of light, sufficient to see with? If I'm not tired yet, I think I'd like to walk along the beaches, and just sort of explore, ya know?
accidental double post
I'll ask these questions later-likely tomorrow.
Fnord?
Region of Thud?
Hidden temple of the happy Jesus?
What's with the concern that people are cabbages? Someone find the cabbage people? Or did I miss something in here *points to book*
I already know about a lot of these above questions, but the character doesn't.
GREATER POOP: Are you really serious or what?
MAL-2: Sometimes I take humor seriously. Sometimes I take seriousness humorously. Either way it is irrelevant.
GP: Maybe you are just crazy.
M2: Indeed! But do not reject these teaching as false because I am crazy. The reason that I am crazy is because they are true.
GP: Is Eris true?
M2: Everything is true.
GP: Even false things?
M2: Even false things are true.
GP: How can that be?
M2: I don't know man, I didn't do it.
GP: Why do you deal with so many negatives?
M2: To dissolve them.
GP: Will you develop that point?
M2: No.
GP: Is there an essential meaning behind POEE?
M2: There is a Zen Story about a student who asked a Master to explain the meaning of Buddhism. The Master's reply was "Three pounds of flax."
GP: Is that the answer to my question?
M2: No, of course not. That is just illustrative. The answer to your question is FIVE TONS OF FLAX!
I'm likely dividing my time between general Tur Ki Foo practice and finishing the chapter of The Miserable Mill that I was in the middle of reading to Ignominious.
I won't say anything about sleeping accommodations unless Brock does. I don't know what sort of customs he has, and he might have universe lag.
I'm somewhat amused that Brock is assuming a moon.
moons are what I am used to. Unless you mean there might be a new moon and so no light, to which I say-hadn't thought of that, was in a hurry to post before my connection died.
That's what I thought first, but that wasn't as amusing. And if you'd been on the island long enough to observe a tide (or evidence of one), the assumption would just be good sense. Personally, I don't know if there's a moon or not (though my character must); I imagine there is, but the thought struck me that there needn't be.
My impression is that you arrived around ten in the morning, and it is now perhaps seven at night, so that's nine hours that you have been awake in this universe, plus however long you were awake up to the moment you versed out at home. The brief unconsciousness you experienced during the verse-out is more like fainting than sleep, and does not count as rest.
The crescent moon follows the sun below the horizon just before dark. It is a slightly different color from the moon with which you are familiar, but about the same size.
That incidentally means that the tide is out, if anyone cares.
--M. J. Young
I'll just go to sleep then. It strikes me that this universe lag could get quite interesting.
Your side of the island is in the shadow of itself when you awaken, the sunlight casting a stretched silhouette of the mountain, complete with wispy plume, across the ocean to the west.
--M. J. Young
Okay, If Scott is awake, I will ask him about the following:
"What does Fnord mean?
"What is the Region of Thud?
"What is the Hidden temple of the happy Jesus?
"What's with the concern that people are cabbages? Someone find the cabbage people? Or did I miss something in here?" *points to book*
If he isn't awake, I'll walk along the beach examining any lifeforms as i come across them (and recognize them as such). This includes the vegetation. I am looking specifically for things I don't recognize.
Since Scott has not posted and I figure you'll take your walk eventually, I'll assume he is asleep until he posts, at which time you have your conversation, which you can place retroactively before the walk or conveniently after, as you desire.
I do not know how familiar you would be with tropical plant life; nothing is here that is not found also on similar islands in our world. Also, there are clearly three ways seeds get here:
- drifting on the air, like milkweed seeds;
- floating in the ocean currents until finding a shore, like cocoanuts and probably grasses;
- traveling in the belly of a bird, like berry seeds.
--M. J. Young
Oh--not much in the way of animal life, and nearly all of it in the water or close to it.
--M. J. Young
Huh. Scott didn't post.
Well, anyway, my computer stopped working after 9 years of faithful service, and I have to go to the library for internet access. I will be posting somewhat irregularly for awhile.
So, had I not met Scott, I probably would have taken some time to realize this is another world, if indeed it is. Nothing I haven't read about before-so far.
Eventually, I will get thirsty and walk to the flowing water for a drink. Didn't yoy say there was a cave up here? Do I see it?
It is difficult not to see the cave, as there is a plume of steam rising from it.
A freshwater stream comes from somewhere above on the face of the mountain, and flows over the top of the opening of this cave, splashing down into a pool. The water in the stream above the cave is cool and clear, but it mixes in the pool with condensation from the cave walls, and water pours both into the cave and down toward the beach. There is a stream running back into the cave, the floor of which gradually curves downward more steeply, and from somewhere in its interior copious steam rises, condensing on the walls to feed the stream and the pool, or rising into the sky. The pool is warm, somewhere between a warm bath and a hot tub.
--M. J. Young
Cool! Close to a natural hot tub! I'll remember this!
Anyway, I'd like to go deeper in the cave, and see where the steam is coming from.
I probably slept late due to staying up later than usual to finish the martial arts practice that Brock delayed with his arrival and inquiries. Now, I am making a sandcastle. For me, sandcastles are fortresses, built on the high tide line or just below and meant to withstand the tide at least once. At present, I have merely a deep hole and a large pile of increasingly damp sand.
Answers to questions, presumably asked after Brock leaves the cave and sees me digging:
What does Fnord mean?
"What? Sorry, I didn't catch that."
What is the Region of Thud?
"It's mostly metaphorical, as near as I can tell."
What is the Hidden temple of the happy Jesus?
"Dunno, never found it. Wait, do you mean that sect mentioned in the book thing? Is that in the margins somewhere? I found a web page for it back home, but I wasn't terribly impressed. Not everyone's wisdom is equally communicable."
"What's with the concern that people are cabbages? Someone find the cabbage people? Or did I miss something in here?" *points to book*
"Ah, it's not so much that people are cabbages, it's that they could be cabbages. Or rather, if someone you met was just a cabbage disguised as a person, how would you know? That's why for all the really important rituals, everyone has to get naked first - or at least once during the ritual, anyway. You know, just to make sure.
"Really, on one level I think the message is about how, if you couldn't tell a person from a cabbage all dressed up - what does that say about us? Shouldn't people behave in a way that that isn't true?"
I'm not sure what Iggy's doing. Possibly he is sunning himself on the rocks, and/or practicing Flesh Armor.
The cave is damp and hot, very like a sauna. The stone floor and walls are slick with water. As you ingress (is that a word?), temperature and humidity slowly increase, the surfaces remain slick, and the slope toward the interior also increases. Oh, and the available light decreases. Since you're doing this in the morning, though, it's pretty dark anyway--the entrance is still in the shadow of the island. In the late afternoon the declining sun would shine more directly into this cave.
--M. J. Young
I see pretty well in low-light conditions, but if it becomes completely dark at any point, I'll leave. Further, if the temperature gets around 90 degrees F, I'm leaving. I don't like hot, and I was only mildly curious.
When I leave, I make a beeline for Scott's camp and ask him the aforementioned questions, as well as:
"So, anything you need help with around camp? I'm a fair hand at plant identification, I know what a few useful wilderness resources are and where they are commonly found, but you don't really seem to need help in food-gathering or anything. You're stuff and skills from other universes seems to have you pretty well set."
"Yeah, I'm pretty much good. If anything, feel free to mooch off of me. I don't think we'll be here long enough that you'll be much of a drain on my resources, and anyway I'm not using much that doesn't grow here or isn't otherwise renewable. My spear is solar powered, the food and fuel are local . . . tell you what, though, if you have any spices or seasonings, I'd be grateful to you if you'd share. They're harder to stock up on than you'd think.
"It's funny, my last universe was basically an infinite kitchen, but the seasonings there - well, let's just say they were an acquired taste. At best. And not one I cared to acquire."
I'll also mention that if he's not comfortable mooching, I can try to give him some pointers on how I'm doing things, although my methods might not work for everyone. "I'm not a very good Boy Scout anymore, so I'm entirely too reliant on magic, even here. And I'm not sure how much background you have in the arcane, or how well you'd take to my instruction."
__
Edit (to Brock): Just in case you didn't see it, the answers to your previous questions are in my last post, just before MJ's most recent one.
Oh, I'm sure the temperature is at least ninety standing by the pool, and it gets hotter as you move within. This is, after all, a tropical island with a volcanic core.
I have some hope that I can introduce the new player to this scenario in a day or two real time, so I'm not pushing; but I won't keep him there too long, so hopefully next week we'll move to something else happening.
--M. J. Young