That wasn't supposed to happen

[whatamithinking]

The parameters are recalibrated, the dial is spun, and a new universe is selected.
It won't be home--they haven't collected anywhere near enough coordinate data to think they can find home yet--but it will be another step closer.
And who knows, it might be interesting.
Edie steps through the portal first.

Comments

[iamnotpolaris]

"How much time is left in the day? I never did get the hang of telling time by the position of the sun, and I have no idea which direction claims to be north here anyway."

[not_only]

"It's a few hours until sunset. It might be enough time to get everything, but I'm not sure, and it's not safe to sleep on the other island because sometimes things come through the walls."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Ugh. Yes, let's stay here then."

[not_only]

"As far as I can tell, this island is as safe as mine was when I started. Um, if it occurs to you to dig down very deep underground and kill the monsters that you find there, there are certain things you shouldn't do, and one of them is kill a certain kind of flying monster that carries a little doll. If it dies and the doll falls into lava, which there is a lot of down there, an enormous and terrifying monster might show up and try very hard to kill you. That's what happened on my island, and after that a lot of things changed and monsters started coming through the walls."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I cannot claim that it would have occurred to me to do that, but thanks for the warning anyway."

[not_only]

"I wouldn't like it if you got killed by something I didn't think to warn you about. Even if it's something you're really unlikely to actually do."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I wouldn't like that either."

[not_only]

Slight, shy smile. "I didn't expect you would, no."

[iamnotpolaris]

"So what do you usually spend the hours before sunset doing? Edie and I have habits, but I wouldn't want to deprive you of the first social interaction you've had in...how long was it again?"

[not_only]

"Um, about six years, I think. But I'm not sure. I don't keep a calendar."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Right. If you're feeling socially overstimulated or something we can leave you alone, but if you're not, we needn't."

[not_only]

"I don't think I need you to leave me alone," he says. "I guess mostly what I do is work on making things or designing houses. Um, would you like some armour like mine? Oh, I forgot to give you my extra tin bars—" he passes her a tiny brick of '85 Tin Bars'. "But if I remember right, I have everything to make a few more good sets of armour. If I'd known I was going to be meeting more people I would've brought my extra heart candies..."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Thanks. If I want to wear armor, I mold metal around my body. You probably don't have some of the metals I carry on me for that purpose--they're really good exotics only available in a few universes out of the ones I've visited so far."

[not_only]

"Terraria armour is different. It has weird magic. Mostly making it easier to kill monsters in this or that way, but still."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I don't usually need to kill monsters, but that's not never. Does the armor miniaturize like the tools and the bars?"

[not_only]

"Yes."

[iamnotpolaris]

"That would be lovely, then. Edie and I have some extradimensional storage space, but it's not unlimited."

[not_only]

"Okay."

He finds an unoccupied space near a window, de-miniaturizes a chair and desk and small table, and gets out some tiny metal bricks. Then he starts producing miniature suits of armour. One set is blue and one set is orange. And they have three helmets each, for some reason? Then he turns to the desk with the six helmets and - condenses them, into two crowns.

[iamnotpolaris]

"What are those made of?"

[not_only]

"Cobalt and palladium."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Previous things I have run into called palladium turned out to be long-term toxic. Should I be worried about that in this case?"

[not_only]

"I don't think so. Terraria things seem to sort pretty neatly into Helpful and Harmful, and armour is a Helpful kind of thing. And Terraria metals are weird. Like, gold makes a stronger armour than iron. I'm no smith, but I'm pretty sure that's wrong."

[iamnotpolaris]

"That is Definitely Wrong."

[not_only]

"So I don't think you have to worry about palladium armour being secretly poison."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Good. I expect I'll end up with that one--blue is pretty definitively Edie's color."