video broadcast. REAAADING RAAAAINBOW.

[collegedropout]

Who: Sam and you!
Broadcast: video.
Action: if you're someone aboard or visiting the red fish would like, just lemme know!
When: today! Jan. 17th. hurrah.

[Sam has been mostly settling in. Now that the planet's behind them and he's got a hardy collection of salt and a bundle of self-written notes about the icy world they left behind, he's gotten back into learning some sign language (to bug Coil with, of course, though he's obviously not so great yet; sorry Coil). Outside of that, Sam's gotta keep himself busy, okay? Okay.]

And now we're buckled in for this long-winded space roadtrip again, right? At least I'm out of pajamas for this one.

[Small favors. Has it really been a month since he popped up? Feels like just yesterday. It's been a hoot, being in motion. Sort of.]

I'm all for the power of technology, but I'm actually more a fan of physical, paper books. There's just a difference there that's hard to replace with a network device. Anybody have any they'd be willing to let me borrow? Or maybe even trade for, though I'm a little limited on goods, fair warning. Hell, if there's a place around here with an actual library, that'd be great; I wouldn't mind helping out there with extending it however I can, planet to planet. Keeping it updated. After all, there's an eternal stream of history, fiction, poetry — all from different worlds and universes. Why not take advantage of the circumstances and learn about all of that in our spare time?

Anyone who takes there time writing or recording information, let me know. We could maybe include it in whatever we already have, get some cataloging in place, maybe download things digitally into the system as a back-up? If we have the ability to yet.

[Hmm. He sounds amused for a moment when he continues:]

If you guys did have to pick a book or series or something to include in a collection around here, what would it be?

... Chances of finding it in the middle of some random galaxy is kind of low, but I'm pretty sure us being here was one in a million.

[Wait, another thing.]

We have kids on board, too, right? Maybe I'll look for some kids books at the next place. I can only imagine how bored they'll get, sitting around on a ship. It's not like this place is giving younger passengers a lot to do.

[guys he's a fucking nerd what do you expect out of him]

Comments

text

[experiencepoints]

Do we have any artist types around here?
Or, you know, a way to print them?
Should I send you the file?

text

[collegedropout]

You got me there. We'd have to ask for artists who'd be interested in that kind of thing.

Printing, no clue. But if you can, go ahead and send me a file. I'll look into it.

[experiencepoints]

We can also check on any planets we visit from now on.
But I think by the time a civilization has space travel, it's more likely they'd have moved away from paper books anyway.

[Attached to the message, though, is a file of a children's book.]

[collegedropout]

You say that, but the last planet we visited used old methods to hunt even though they have some relatively advanced technologies. Sometimes people like being a little old-fashioned. Reading a book off paper has a kind of charm to it.

[experiencepoints]

We have very different definitions of charm.
Unless there's something that can't be converted into electronic format, like spellbooks, I think the move away from analog technology is inevitable.

[collegedropout]

Well then, you've partially answered that one.

I use old lore books and spellbooks very often. Stuff you can't find on the usual tech.

[experiencepoints]

Unfortunately, there are no spellbooks up here.
Believe me, I've looked.

[collegedropout]

Not to worry. Last place I was at didn't have many, but sometimes they have a habit of appearing. We could always scan planets for any, too. Just to be thorough.

[experiencepoints]

No way that would work.
We don't get nice things here.
Any spells I'd actually want, the Atroma would never let us find.

[collegedropout]

You'd be surprised what shows up, and how much ingenuity people can work up.

The last place I was at felt pretty impossible, so I guess I'm not feeling too hopeless yet.

[experiencepoints]

What would we even scan for, to look for spellbooks?
I mean, I have a ton of spells I need to recover, and a few more I'd like to learn.
But in the first place, do we have scanning equipment?

[collegedropout]

If we don't have scanning equipment, he do it the old fashioned way.

Manual search.

[aka boring as fuck and tedious work

he is used to this]

[experiencepoints]

You want to manually search entire planets for spellbooks that may not even exist?
What spell could be worth that?

[collegedropout]

Yeah, sure. I don't have anything better to do.

Come on, where's your gameface?

[experiencepoints]

You don't want to know.
I don't know if you realize the scale you're talking about here.

[collegedropout]

I'll know when I try it. I like terrible odds, they remind me of home.

[experiencepoints]

Well, okay.
If you find a spellbook for Hover, let me know, that's the spell I want most right now.

[collegedropout]

Is Hover as obvious as it sounds, in practice?

[experiencepoints]

Target gains Hover status, which is exactly what it sounds like, yes. Float off the ground, ignore gravity within an upper limit, gain immunity to all ground-based attacks and traps.

Perhaps most importantly, makes you effectively taller.

[collegedropout]

Oh.

Is being taller an issue for you?

[heheh.]

[experiencepoints]

No.
Fire spells help with that.

[As in, if people get rude about how short she is, she will set them on fucking fire. Jerks.]

[collegedropout]

Note to self, put fire spells in a sturdy lockbox.

But I got it. No short jokes, then.

[Not that Sam usually does those out of politeness' sake. But it's been known to slip. Can you blame him really?]

[experiencepoints]

I'm sorry if you were under the impression that I don't have access to my fire spells right now.
Because I do.
Damn right there will be no jokes.

[collegedropout]

No jokes, scout's honor.

I'll have to warn the fleet at large. I'd hate to see anyone smoldering.

[experiencepoints]

Oh, no one's done it here yet, don't worry.
People are a bit smarter here, I guess.