A̷F̴T̵E̶R̴M̴A̷T̶H̷

[champion_link]

[It's Link who's in the dining room this time, the wall leading to it perfectly clear so he can be seen. He's sitting with a large plate of sandwiches, though the triangles are perfectly cut with no crust and with no dripping peanut butter or jelly.]

[In contrast to his usual pleasant look, he looks... somber. His shoulders are hunched and his hair is starting to pull out of its neat ponytail. He's breathing slowly, and just gestures towards the sandwiches.]

Comments

[katzenpfote]

Eh. I'm not sure my jacket can get much worse. It was actually cleaned relatively recently, but a lot of the dark spots are from where I got hit in battle. Jester can mend it if we're not in battle, but the stains are harder to get out.

... You definitely deserve her. You're a good man, King.

[Is that weird to say, if he was a human? ... Well, it's already out of his mouth.]

[unwittingking]

That’s not too surprising. It’s hard to get blood stains out of clothing back home too, I think. I believe what can get it out without making a worse stain is...hydrogen peroxide? Not fully sure about that, though. Didn’t really watch or read that many crime stories.

[And if it’s weird to say that, King isn’t mentioning it, instead opting to squeeze Caleb’s hand a bit and smile again.]

Thanks. I...I really appreciate it.

[katzenpfote]

Eh. I don't mind it so much... it's been with me for a number of years. I stole it, originally. The coat it once was... it was a heavy traveling coat, and I modified it a little bit. I'm fond of it now, though.

[He just gives the barest hint of a smile. No need to push King more.]

[unwittingking]

Still good to know if you ever decide to get them out-or someone else in the Nein prefers not to have blood stains.

Is that all? Or has that coat been through even more of a journey than most people?

[It’s a bit teasing, but he is curious. And he’s grateful, to say the least, that Caleb is being so reassuring.]

[katzenpfote]

Eh, I've been shot, hit by a number of spells, stabbed, devoured by a beast or two, run across lava... it's been with me for many adventures. Most of the more extreme ones were with the Nein, but I definitely had been shot before joining up with them.

[unwittingking]

…I know I'm going to regret it, but I just can't help but ask how you managed to survive being eaten, even if you were swallowed whole.

[The other things he can see someone surviving, even running across lava, but that one...he can't resist the curiosity.]

[katzenpfote]

Oh. Well. It helps when you have a number of friends with very sharp swords who can get you out quickly. And if you are able to do a little bit of internal, yourself.

Or turn into a very large animal.

[unwittingking]

Yeah, that does usually help, now that I think about it.

[He should've thought about Sharknado.]

You've got spells that can turn you into a large animal?

[katzenpfote]

[He just grins slightly.]

I am a transmutation wizard. I would be a poor one if I did not know how to use Polymorph.

[unwittingking]

Huh. I guess I should've asked more questions about what type of magic you do.

Does that include the usual transmutation kind of thing with creating gold? Or is even that still impossible?

[katzenpfote]

Ah... I have not heard of a spell that can do that, but it is theoretically possible I can change wood, stone, iron, copper, or silver to any other material of that list. I used it to merge an iron dagger with a canonball once in order to use it as a weight to get down to the ocean floor.

We had Water Breathing on, don't worry.

[unwittingking]

Sounds more useful than gold, at least since it doesn't do much on it's own.

[What does gold do by itself? Nothing. It's just a pretty metal that's also the softest metal. Pathetic.]

So, water breathing, alarm spells, and barrier magic...seems like I get the short end of the stick more often than I thought.

[Seems like every other world has cool magic that's useful and doesn't give him a migraine. Why can't his?]

[katzenpfote]

Well, maybe. But there are types of magic I cannot do at all. I'm useless for healing people other than shoving a potion in their face.

[unwittingking]

Can’t be perfect at everything, I guess. At least you can make potions.

[The most he can do is regular first aid stuff, and that might not be so useful compared to magic.]

[katzenpfote]

... To be honest, I just followed the instructions I found in there. I'm not really an alchemist or someone who can brew potions. Caduceus has some training but it's usually more convenient to buy them at a shop.

[unwittingking]

You know plants though, don’t you? Even with instructions, I’d probably mix up some deadly poisonous berry for a blueberry.

[Accept the praise. You better than him. Deal with it.]

[katzenpfote]

Eh... mostly poisons, and even then that was more Astrid's specialty than mine.

[He winces, but then shakes it off.]

[unwittingking]

[He winces as well, but brushes it off quick enough as well.]

Still good in a survival situation. If you don’t recognize a plant, it’s less likely to kill you. It’s a lot more than I can do, anyway.

[Please can we just talk about your good qualities Caleb? It’s the easier thing to focus on. Or at least the thing he wants to focus on most.]

[katzenpfote]

[He ducks his head a bit and chuckles softly.]

Well. At least you know how to deal with technology from different worlds better than me.

[unwittingking]

[He lets out a small laugh.]

I guess, but it’s not much. Some of it’s just self-explanatory and some of it isn’t that different from what I’m used to.

[And some of it is just stuff he’s straight up seen from movies, or very similar to it.]

[katzenpfote]

Don't sell yourself short either, King. You know you're good at things, too.

[unwittingking]

I’ll...I’ll try. Not sure how easy that’s going to be though, at this point.