A whole new world

[aestrix]

There is a forest that likes to pretend that it's ordinary. It isn't, it's quite bizarre. Every night, in fact, zombies and other horrible monsters swarm this place, looking for people to kill. Not that they've found anyone, the forest itself is quite empty of residents. But they search anyway, during the night, shambling and groaning and occasionally leaving body parts lying around. Those disappear pretty quickly, but it still happens. Then the day comes, and they depart to who knows where, swearing (if mindless monsters could think, or in fact swear to anything in particular) that they'l be back the next night. Repeat ad nauseum.

It's currently in the day portion of this cycle of directionless attempts at violence. Maybe this day will be different from all of the others.

But then, probably not, it's a very boring island without anyone here.

Comments

[greatestgift]

Sable has a nice breakfast of exploded rabbit.

Ugh.

[aestrix]

Delicious, delicious exploded rabbit.

Shortly after breakfast, there's a feeling of someone has arrived.

[greatestgift]

...She opens her groundsense to its full range again. (Ugh ugh ow.) Where is someone?

[aestrix]

The someone is in the second little hut!

[greatestgift]

And, when she ventures close enough to tell for sure, the someone doesn't have a soul either.

She opens the someone's door. "Who're you?"

[aestrix]

"Sable, is it?" says - a not-person that looks like an old man with a fluffy white beard and a slightly stupid looking hat. He looks like he's already settled in. "I've heard good things, friend! I'm Gus."

[greatestgift]

"What are you for?"

She does not see any point in being polite to the horrible mindless person-things.

[aestrix]

"You want apples? You want carrots? You want pineapples? We got torches."

[greatestgift]

"I have torches too," she says. "I would love an apple. I can't live on rabbit."

[aestrix]

"Sword beats paper! Get one today."

He motions to her, and hefts a chest onto the table. He opens it, and - oh look, useful items to buy. He doesn't, actually, sell swords. Or apples. Or carrots. But he does sell various items, including:

A mining helmet

A piggy bank

An iron anvil

A bug net

A copper pickaxe and a copper axe

Torches

Two types of potions, one blue, one red

Wooden arrows and shurikens

Rope

[greatestgift]

Well, that will be useful if she loses her existing axe or pickaxe, she supposes.

"If I ask you what these things do are you going to make more inscrutable jokes about things you don't sell?"

[aestrix]

"Keep your eye on the prize, buy a lens!"

[greatestgift]

"That's a yes, then."

She contemplates the chest.

"How much do all these things cost?"

[aestrix]

He is surprisingly good at explaining how much things cost! And also he assures her that his prices are 'very reasonable.'

In short: the highest priced thing she can afford is an anvil. The mining helmet, piggy bank, and bug net are too expensive for her, and everything else she can buy a reasonable but not excessive number of.

[greatestgift]

"Okay then," says Sable.

She reaches out and closes the chest, to see how the merchant will react.

[aestrix]

"You have no idea how high dirt blocks sell for overseas."

[greatestgift]

"Is there anyone overseas to sell them to?" she wonders, drumming her fingers on the top of the chest.

[aestrix]

"Not even a Blood Moon can stop capitalism. Let's do some business."

[greatestgift]

"Nah," she says, and she grabs the chest and bolts.

[aestrix]

It turns out that, actually, a scrawny old man is not as fast as a twelve year old girl. It's really not a contest.

"My prices are very reasonable!" insists Gus, unable to keep up.

[greatestgift]

Sable declines to argue. She runs, ducks into a cave, scoops the entire contents of the chest into her pack, and 'listens' for Gus with groundsense.

[aestrix]

He declines to leave a certain radius of his designated home. "I hope a scrawny kid like you isn't all that's standing between us and Cthulu's Eye," he calls, aggrieved.

[greatestgift]

Nope. Not arguing with the horrible mindless person-things.

She experiments to find his radius and spends the afternoon building herself another house well outside of this area, then goes ore-hunting.

[aestrix]

Ores! Goodness, so many ores. Copper and iron and two ores she's not able to identify on her own.

(Gus eventually gives up and goes back to his house.)

[greatestgift]

She ventures over to ask Dylan about the strange ores.