fandomhighdorms | Magic Reserves, The Preserve, Wednesday Afternoon

"Thanks for coming," Karla said, once everyone had assembled and had a chance to grab something to eat and drink if they were so inclined. "So, those of us who were on the island a few weeks ago remember that great chunks of the island went missing before we were able to set everything aright--including most of the town and all of the restaurants. We were lucky that it didn't last long enough for there to be a food shortage--" in part because the cafeteria had remained, even if people would argue whether the cafeteria had anything that counted as edible in it "--but the point is there could have been. Considering most of us can be described as two-legged locusts, that would have been a serious problem."

"There are any number of reasons why we might get cut off from our usual supplies: an invasion, a trip that doesn't goes as planned, a bout of Fandom weird, whatever. But there are ways we can prepare without wringing our hands and bemoaning our fates: specifically, we can learn some basic skills to let us live off the land if such a thing ever happens. Hunting, gathering, knowledge of edible, medicinal and magical plants are all useful bits of knowledge to have and might serve to keep you and your friends alive should something unexpected happen."

It took Dolf a few seconds to realise the attention was now on him. It hadn't been more than a few weeks since the last time he'd had to speak before a large audience like this, and while they were vastly different people... he scraped his throat. "Hi, I'm Dolf," he started, "I'm here to lead Support Services from now on. Uh," and now that that was out of the way, he did feel a hint of nerves. Not so much because he didn't know where to go with this, but because he hadn't been here for all of these invasions, and he wasn't sure yet what to prepare for.

"...Like Karla said, it can be very important to know what you can eat," he segued, at last. "Some might already know what is good and what is not. Some might not. Meat is also important, so is hunting. If you are under attack, or have to come up with food yourself every day--" he struggled against the English language a little. "--it is important to know these things." He leaned down and picked some leaves off the ground. "This, you can eat, if you smash it enough," he said. "Other things can make tea. There is lots in the forest to be found if you're really hungry. Not just meat, but the plants. It takes work to recognize sometimes, but it's there."

He closed his mouth, exhausted with the language, but then opened it again to point at a few random plants around them. "Edible. Poison. Uh--" He blushed. "...don't try that."

Only then did he send a questioning look in someone else's direction. He'd completely forgotten about his nerves, and now he wondered if he'd said too much.

Tara didn't think he'd said too much, but it felt like time to step in. "And, um -- people who do magic can find supplies here, too." She knelt to pick a flower. "This one is in most protection spells. The bark of that tree helps find lost objects. And the red berries on that bush over there make a good base for love spells. Not that I think people should do love spells."

Karla shook her head at Tara's last comment and stepped forward again. "Yeah. Definitely avoid the love spells. But, no matter why you might find yourself out in a place like this, it's filled with things you can use to keep yourself fed, healthy, and stocked up on spells. So, today, we're going on a scavenger hunt in the Preserve. We've got some lists of common plants, herbs, and fungi that can be found in most similar areas. See what you can gather and harvest and bring it back to compare."

[~~Hold on for~~ OCD up! Co-written with the wonderful

life_inshadow,

swordsandsoccer, and

trigons_child.]

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Karla was pretty sure the beach was about ninety degrees away from where Dolf was pointing, but wasn't actually sure enough to correct him. Besides, the ocean was very big. He could still be right!

"Yup," she replied, grinning. "I arrived here last May. I'm part of a people called the Blood and we all have Craft--magic--to some extent. I was the only one here for awhile, but a few months ago, Cassidy arrived." She pointed to her fellow Queen. "She's from the same world I am, but a different Territory and a few years before me, chronologically."

Karla wasn't sure if she was from the same timeline or not, because she wasn't sure how to test for such things, other than hunting for the Cassidy in her time and seeing if she'd gone to Fandom.

"A few years before you," he echoed. "So a little bit like time travel?"

Dolf didn't mean to sound hopeful, honest, but the idea of someone else maybe having even an inkling how weird all of this was...

Karla shrugged. "I don't think so?" she said, tentative. "It's not like she got sent forward to Kaeleer in my time? More like...we both got sent sideways, to Fandom, and we just happen to come from different points in time. But when she goes home, she'll go to her time and not to mine. I think."

It was all kind of confusing.

"Still sounds like time travel," said Dolf, but this time he was laughing a little bit. Not out of spite, but still. "But I'll take your word for it."

"It gets really confusing when I add in that my time, at least, seems to travel double the speed of Fandom's. So I've been here a year, but two years have passed back home," Karla said, laughing along with him.

Dolf looked very puzzled by that indeed. After a moment, he said, "Maybe it's not time going fast, but that the machine isn't-- uh, precies? ... working right," he pondered. "It always takes you to tomorrow instead of today."

Karla shook her head. "No, because it passes that quickly when I'm there, too. It's kind of a benefit, though. I means I can go home after classes end on Friday, stay in Kaeleer for almost a week, and still be back in time for classes on Monday."

He shrugged a little. "Then the machine takes you back to an earlier place on the way back," he said. "Puts you there a year from now, then takes you back to almost the same place."

Time machines made more sense to him than time running faster or slower, which seemed physically impossible. Well. Unless you were on a spacecraft, wasn't it?

"Why does the machine change where it puts me back then?" Karla asked. "I know Bobby's world travels at a different speed entirely and Sookie's home is roughly the same speed as this one, and when I went to Ender's world, several months passed by in a week of Fandom time. Why would a machine change so much? Why would it care?"

"Machines... don't care," Dolf said, a little awkwardly, but only because it was hard to explain. "The only thing that matters to them is if... what you tell them to do is clear. If it isn't..." He waved his hands around. "...things can get weird."

"But why would it be programmed to bring us home to different times?" Karla asked. Machines and machinery were still very much things she didn't understand. "Doesn't it make more sense that if I'm traveling to a different world, time just works differently there?"

Dolf blinked. "Time works the same way everywhere," he said. "Rules of science."

Magic Reserves, The Preserve, Wednesday Afternoon

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