Almost like flying

[what_greater_weapon]

Zinseyn sometimes wishes she could pass as Aluvai reliably, but then if she could pass Aluvai reliably, she would have some other problems besides just getting to the inside of the planet. Or, maybe, if she was too good at passing as Aluvai she'd be unable to get to the outside of the planet. Which would be just as annoying. Only being able to go to certain places because people will want to kill you is just annoying as a concept.

She does know how to play up her more Aluvai traits, though. This helps a bit. Usually she plays them down - long hair covering the hint of a point in her ears, the type of smile that doesn't show the hint of fang. Here, though, she'll play it up, though pulling her hair back in a ponytail's all she can do. It's not like she can drag out her Aluvai father and go, "No, wait, see, I am actually part Aluvai, just, the other part is Ceirene!" Not without causing some... problems.

She would like to avoid those problems. See; why she isn't taking the elevator. Awkward questions. Possible chance of rampant racism. And climbing is fun, and there's no place more interesting to climb than one of these chasms. There's no other place where she can get as close as one can get to flying without a pair of wings. If she were on an elevator, they would - make it professional, boring. She is not on an elevator. So when she climbs down far enough that she's stopped being insistently pulled downward and is instead weightless, she can just hang out here. And be weightless.

When she first did this, she was very careful to stay near the edges of the chasm. Very careful to not go careening off into the open air with no way to stop.

Well, she's now had more practice with this, and has learned that with careful application of rope and climbing materials and planning, and with a certain fearlessness towards scrapes and scratches, you can fly. Sort of. Kind of. Eh, it'll do until she figures out what she has to do to get a proper pair of wings and be able to fly anywhere. Better than nothing. And it's sort of like a reward, for a lot of hard work getting there.

So Zinseyn is enjoying herself a relaxing float before going into Aluvanna proper, carefully attached with multiple ropes to multiple places so she doesn't go floating off to someplace strange. The climb up is always the hardest part, and there is literally nowhere to go but up. Not being fully rested before it is a bad call. Besides, this is relaxing.

And then it stops being relaxing, when down suddenly reasserts itself so strongly that she thinks she must have fallen through a portal, because down does not hit you randomly like that. She opens her eyes to check her ropes, see what went wrong, and finds them all cut. She lands painlessly on soft grass before she can even think to scream. She stares at the blue sky above her, even though she left hers hours ago. Even though there's a lot of rock between her and it, now. Even though it is impossible.

She sits up. Must have found a secret portal to a Sphere, she thinks, brushing herself off. Strange that the ropes were broken, though, her mother's portal doesn't do that. Some aspect of the Sphere that's responsible...?

Standing, she looks around.

"Hello?" she calls.

Comments

[pythbox]

"The Dye Vat is 5 Gold. The Silver Dye is 1 Gold," he says.

[what_greater_weapon]

Dye vat. Hm.

"What can I use the dye vat for? Dyeing things?"

[pythbox]

"At the Dye Vat, you can craft dyes and paints!"

[what_greater_weapon]

Okay, so that is the thing she'll want to buy. She'll investigate it, after checking to see if she has other things to spend her money on.

"Thanks for the help. You're in the wrong place, though. I made you a house in the dungeon."

[pythbox]

"A new home? For me? Thank you, dear friend!"

He puts his tray away (it vanishes as abruptly as it appeared) and strolls off to the dungeon.

[what_greater_weapon]

That's hilarious.

She giggles a bit, and then looking around at the rest of her house for any other nonpersons that mistakenly thought her home was an appropriate place to wander about.

[pythbox]

No others yet!

[what_greater_weapon]

Good. Time to check the dungeon, then.

[pythbox]

Apart from Bradley and the dye vendor, there's some guy in a coat and hat.

When he sees Zinseyn, he says, "I'm Gilbert, and I'm here to do business!"

[what_greater_weapon]

"Well, what do you sell?"

[pythbox]

He produces a tray, plainer in design than the dye trader's, and holds it for her to see.

"You want apples? You want carrots? You want pineapples? We got torches," he says.

The tray holds a number of tiny items.

[what_greater_weapon]

Ooo.

The mining helmet and piggy bank look the most interesting, even if she's not entirely sure what the piggy bank does. Everything else she recognizes and already has - or, in the case of the pickaxe and axe, has a better version of. Rope might be useful, but she's got plenty of it right now. She has torches and chests and really doesn't need any of this. But the mining helmet might be nice.

Hm. She has 7 gold and a smattering of silver and copper. So not enough to buy everything valuable from this guy and the dye merchant, but enough to buy a mining helmet or a dye vat, and a piggy bank either way. But then, she was going to start figuring out if she could steal or not, so it's probably a smarter investment to buy the dye vat and then attempt to steal from the merchant in case hostile action loses the trades for her forever.

"Thanks," she says to the merchant, and then she finds where the dye trader is.

[pythbox]

"I am Hiram, the Dye Trader," he greets her.

[what_greater_weapon]

"Hi! May I buy a dye vat?" She holds up the single golden coin that represents seven gold.

[pythbox]

"Yes, yes!" He picks up the tiny dye vat, hands it to her, and somehow pulls 5 Gold out of her 7 Gold coin. Another, identical tiny dye vat appears on the tray, and the gold coin in Hiram's hand vanishes. "Enjoy your new Dye Vat!"

[what_greater_weapon]

That was interesting.

"Thank you."

Just to see if he cares, she reaches over and pokes the tray with an index finger.

[pythbox]

"The only kind of wood I would bother dyeing is RICH Mahogany. Dyeing any other wood is such a waste," he says.

[what_greater_weapon]

"I do have a fondness for rich mahogany," she agrees, conversationally.

She grabs the tray with both hands, and yanks. Hers now!

[pythbox]

"Thief! Thief!" cries Hiram, lunging clumsily after her in an attempt to grab back his tray.

[what_greater_weapon]

"Yep!"

Out the door she runs - she's faster than him, especially with her shoes, it's not hard to avoid being grabbed. She closes it behind her, and with a hand still on the tray, finds her dirt block and blocks it up so he can't get out.

Any reaction from the others?

[pythbox]

The others are untroubled by the faint cries of "Thief! Thief!" from within Hiram's room.

[what_greater_weapon]

Well, that worked beautifully.

But she doesn't know if he'll forgive her eventually, so she'll hold off on stealing from the merchant for now. Let's just investigate her current haul. She buys a piggy bank, pockets it, and heads out of the dungeon to sit down and figure out just what she stole.

Can she get past the smokey glass lid to the tiny vials inside? She's so curious.

[pythbox]

The lid has a moderately tricky catch, but opens up eventually to reveal fifteen tiny vials, many with bizarre properties.

Curiously, there seems to be space in the box for many more vials.

[what_greater_weapon]

... How odd. Maybe more will show up later? It seems... un-Terrarian to have an incorrectly sized box. Hm. Well, doesn't matter now.

She picks up purple dye that she finds pretty. What can she do with this?

[pythbox]

It calls itself the Reflective Obsidian Dye and asserts that she can use it to dye items! For example, here's what all the Terrarian armour she is currently wearing would look like in Reflective Obsidian.