Dinner: Rock Site Found

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne went down to dinner the same day she was asked about making a spell to exchange for a translation collar for Less with her laptop. She had looked up a bunch of rock sites and had them all saved under her favorites so she could see if Less recognized them. Hopefully she would run into him sometime during dinner.

Reaching the Dining Hall, she grabbed a burger, fries, noodles, and a slice of chocolate cake. Sitting down at the closest table, she looked to see if anyone else was around yet.

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen walked into the hall with her dance bag over her shoulder. She saw Mellianne and waved. She put some chicken, fruit, and the usual cup of tea on her tray and headed over to the table.

"Hullo!" she said cheerfully. "How are you?"

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne waved back. "Hi! And fine. I'm just hoping to find Less so he can identify the focus rock he was telling me about."

She took a bite of her burger. "What about you?"

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less Than Beta was nothing if not predictable, so it should have come to no surprise that for his meal he chose a steak and mashed potatoes drowned in butter. When he arrived at Kahlen and Mellianne's table, he found out to his chagrin that he had taken margarine instead of the fat-laden condiment he normally liked.

"Hello!" he said, hiding his annoyance under a cover of cheerfulness. "Aren't you worried that something will spill on your laptop?" He somewhat fitfully picked at his potatoes with his fork.

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

"I'm pretty goo," Kahlen said to Mellianne as she started to cut her chicken.

She had a mouthful of chicken when Less arrived at the table. Much to her annoyance, she said something with her mouth full. "Hewwo, Leff. Whaff up?"

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne smiled at Less. "Hi Less. And no, not really. I have it out of the way, none of the foods I got are spillable. And my soda," remembering it, she pulled it out of her bag and set it on the opposite side of her food as her laptop, "isn't near my laptop."

She paused as she took another bite of her burger. When she finished chewing and swallowing, she spoke up again. "And I found a few rock sites. I'll pull up the pictures in a minute to see if you recognize them as being focus stones. That alright with you?"

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less finally stopped picking at his potatoes and sawed off a rather too-large piece of his steak. "Oh? Let me see," he said as he moved around to sit next to the elven girl.

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen swallowed and peered over at Mellianne's laptop. "Whatcha lookin' at?"

She heard them talking about focus stones a while ago, but she never paid much attention. She didn't have magic, so it didn't really concern her. But her curiosity was piqued.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne brought up the first site, and put it on to the picture section. There were about 25 different pictures on the screen at the moment. With a click of a button, she could make the next 25 show up. She turned the laptop towards Less and turned to Kahlen.

"We're trying to find a focus stone so I can attach a spell to it. If we do that, we can trade it to a local were tribe and get a translation collar for Less for the hunt."

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen nodded. "Makes sense, I suppose."

She sat back and continued to eat her dinner.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less set his fork down so he could lean over to look without the danger of stabbing someone in the ribs. He pointed out a few of the pictures, but was not savvy enough to hover his finger in the air instead of poking the screen itself. "That one looks pretty strong, as does that one there. This one is a little too asymmetrical to make a good focus stone, but it's shape means you can easily tie it to something for ease of carry or to pattern it to others. In general, the more glitters the better."

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne looked at the ones he pointed out. "Any chance of finding one with more glitter? Cause if there is, I'll load the next set of pictures."

She finished off her burger and fries and started on her salad.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less nodded. "That would be nice," he said. "However, you don't want one like that one on the bottom. See the layers? Those will slide right off the instant you try to do anything with it, which is bad. You want the glitters to be trapped in other rock, so that that doesn't happen."

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne didn't quite get what Less was talking about with the sliding, but she clicked the next button and also decided that she was definitely going to have to buy a cleaning cloth. "How about on this page?"

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

He perused that page as well, then finally extended a finger. "That one would be perfect. It would depend on how far in the glitters go, of course, but if they extend all the way through then you could hold in a very powerful spell and still be able to pattern it to others. Do you have any catgut?"

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen was listening to the conversation about rocks. She knew next to nothing about rocks, except that they were, well, rocks.

"Ew. Catgut? What's that used for?" she asked, making a face. She was glad she'd finished most of her food. If she found out that catgut was really cats' guts, she didn't think she'd feel very well.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

"It's used to tie things. You wrap it around the stone when it's still wet, and when it dries it shrinks so that it doesn't come untied. It takes some time to prepare, though." Less' pack used a simplified process due to the lack of readily available lye, but it still took enough time that he'd rather use ordinary string than wait to make a fresh batch out of rabbit intestines.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne's face turned a little pale. "Um. No I don't. What is it made out of? And why would we need it for this?" She wasn't sure she really wanted to know what it was. But maybe there would be a substitute she could use if she didn't like the answer, but needed it anyways.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

"It's a type of cord made from intestines," explained Less Than Beta. "Generally, when you have a spell trapped in a focus stone, it's good to tie it to something so that you don't lose it. In addition, it's possible to use multiple focus stones to hold a too-big same spell or to make a new one. Those also have to be tied together."

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne was trying really hard not to show any sign of how working with intestines made her feel a little queasy. "Um, well does anything else work in place of catgut? Cause as I don't hunt or anything like that, I don't really have a way of getting a hold of intestines." She really hoped there was an alternative.

[Scott Logan]

Scott looked up from where he was eating a plate of spaghetti further down the table.

"Sorry, did I hear you say you were looking for catgut?" he said. "I have some extra gut strings for my violin you might be able to use. I mainly play on steel strings anyway. Only problem is they're pretty short, only about a foot long."

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne finished her food and started to sip her soda. "Hmm. I don't know. I don't even know if it has to be catgut." She turned to Less. "Does it have to be catgut or even a certain length Less?"

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less poked at his potatoes. "Well, no. But it's very handy. The materials matter only when mixing multiple spells, and you're only using one."

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

"This magic stuff is complicated," Kahlen said, sipping her tea. Her own healing powers weren't that complex- get hurt, body fixes itself.

"Does all magic require a focus stone for spells like that?"

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne shook her head. "This is the first I've heard of focus stones actually. From the type I'm used to, usually the mage doesn't need to set the spell into anything because they can put limits on it and all that with they're own magic. And the spells are usually the type that are put onto objects or they're not. So it's made into the spell, or it would be weird to put it into the object, so it's not. Since my magic is something that I have to consciously do, the focus stone is necessary for it to work without me around. Though most of that is just what I have guessed. You could ask the magic teacher we have if you want a better explanation."

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen nodded. "I suppose I see. I don't think I really need to ask the teacher. I do find it interesting that there are so many different kinds of magic and different ways to use it."

Kahlen poked at a piece of pineapple. "Well, I hope your spell works. It sounds interesting."

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less took a bite of his now-cold potatoes and made a face. "Focus stones are good for holding magic. I'm only speaking for wild magic in this next statement, but focus stones are usually only used to hold and combine spells, not to cast them."