--- Kat ---
"Winter is closest," explained Grandma.
"Wait..." said Kat uncertainly. "If Winter is closer... why recomnd going through Sumr?"
"Weaver should be able to drop you off nearby," said Grandma. "Even those two can recognise that,"
"Um..." Pol interjected uncertainly. "It’s also because space is extra strange in Winter. Not that space is entirely consistent anywhere on the island... but Sumr is probably the most straightforward. It’s larger than it should be sure, and it can make the desert feel endless... but no one part of the desert is larger than the others.
"Winter on the other hand is filled with pits, usually with towns at the bottom, and they can be in completely different places from one day to the next. If you’re not prepared to trek through the night you might lose progress instead of gain it. There’s also the fact that Winter has so more monster threats and that the chill can really get into things... the desert, for all that it has monsters... they mostly hide under the sand or roam within it. There are a few flying monsters but not that many..."
Kat rubbed her eyes as she glanced over at the Weaver avatar. "Alright... can you send us over near Sumr if we decide to go that way?"
Weaver nodded. "It wouldn’t be too close, but within a few hours of full speed travel based on the speeds I’ve seen you use so far."
"Alright," Kat turned to Hedera. "Do you want to make the decision now?"
"Um... what do you an?" asked Hedera.
Kat shrugged. "It’s late in the day so we don’t necessarily need to leave right now... but admittedly I’m probably going to skip sleeping once again. So if you want to make the decision I could perhaps carry you as we start the trip. If you think you could sleep like that?"
"Err..." Hedera grimaced at the suggestion and ran a nervous set of fingers over her ears. "That doesn’t sound pleasant but... it’s possible. Is there a reason you want to leave early?"
Kat shrugged, "We have no idea how long it’s going to take to get through either way. I’m personally leaning towards heading into Winter and trying out luck for a day or two before committing to Spring but that might be wasting more ti than we can afford depending on how ssed up the area is. Plus, I’m basically immune to both heat and cold so neither is a major issue for and I can keep Lily warm or cool. You... not as much..."
"Well what’s the difference?" asked Hedera before pausing. "Err... for the cooling down. I can guess how you’d keep her warm."
"My demonic fire is ice aligned and I can use it to cool things. I could even cover her with it to keep her consistently cool... the issue is that I really have no proper experience with making sure it’s not attacking other people. I know I can keep Lily safe, and a few other close friends... but I don’t know where the line is. Sure we’re friendly right now... but is that enough? Would the agreent we made protect you? Would the fact we’re technically competing prevent it? I’d ask D.E.M.O.N.S but the fact we have Ugalaz in the tournant ans I can’t," explained Kat.
"Ah..." Hedera winced while sucking in a breath of air. "Yeah I wouldn’t want to be the one to test that. So... no keeping cool I guess?"
"Well I can always freeze sothing else and you can use THAT to cool yourself," admitted Kat. "Not sure how efficient it would be, but it’s possible at least."
"You’re not making this decision an easy one," groaned Hedera.
"Hey, if I thought the answer was obvious we wouldn’t be having the discussion, we’d have already decided," retorted Kat.
"Um..." Pol mumbled pulling the two’s vision towards him. "While this is all... interesting enough..." Kat felt her eye twitch. "I have lots of paperwork. If you’re accepting the terms, than I’d like to just... leave and let the other two deal with setting up the node."
Grandma rolled her eyes. "Go run back to your paperwork. I’ll send Skrool to get you if we need your input for sothing. You already picked the place right?"
"Right... um..." mumbled Pol.
At the sa ti as Skrool scoffed. "Volunteering for work, you old bat?"
"I’ve got old rickety knees. I can hardly be trusted to walk up those stairs to his office. Surely you wouldn’t ask an old lady like myself to do such work?" asked Grandma.
Skrool rolled his eyes but didn’t correct her either. Seeing this Pol awkwardly looked between everyone in the room, got up, bowed for so reason, and then walked out slightly too fast for Kat to believe paperwork was really his biggest concern. Still, it didn’t really change much at the end of the day. "So..." Kat slowly humd.
"I haven’t suddenly gained an easy answer for you Kat," sighed Hedera.
"Well, I already gave my suggestion but I’m not particularly attached to it. If you have a good counterpoint or even a diocre one I’d be happy to hear it," offered Kat.
Hedera went quiet and started to seriously consider it. Weaver’s avatar looked awkwardly around the room... and Kat wondered how much of that was for sure. For all that it had ’eyes’ there was no reason for them to be functional in the slightest. Weaver had proved she didn’t need them so why look around? It did at least give Kat sothing to focus on while waiting for Hedera’s decision.
[Honestly, I’m with you. It doesn’t matter too much, but heading to Winter is probably the best play. What I’m more interested in is if she wants to stick around here overnight or leave.]
*I’m not sure what I think about that. I don’t doubt there are plenty of ’quests’ to do here still but the counterpoint to that is that most of them won’t be available during the night. Perhaps more than I think, and maybe only later at night or early in the morning... but I’ve seen no evidence of that.*
[You could just... actually sleep? I know you’re fine for now but give it an extra day or two and you might start to feel the effects. Perhaps taking the chance to rest now that you KNOW for a fact that you’ll have that chance would be for the best?]
*Hmm... I’m not saying no... but I’m not saying yes either. I’ll see what Hedera decides to say and what sort of options she pushes for. I think that... maybe a nap could be in order instead. That would likely give an extra few days and if I just sprinkled in the occasional one or two hour nap I’ll be set to go for weeks.*
[I don’t like that you found a way to, arguably, get even less sleep by sleeping but it’s very on brand for you I suppose.]
Kat had a retorted lined up but Hedera’s loud sigh interrupted it. As Kat turned to look at the elf she sighed. "Urgh. I don’t love either if I’m telling the truth. Though back to the whole ’carrying while I sleep’ thing. How likely is that to actually GET any sleep?"
Kat shrugged. "The only person I’ve done that for is Lily and you probably know how she is by now."
"Able to sleep through the end of the world?" snarked Hedera.
"Not quite that bad... but not all that much better either. Yes, she can sleep through whatever she wants but is surprisingly good at knowing when she needs to be awake. Flying but keeping low will keep the ride fairly smooth but if we are attacked it’s not going to be ideal... or we get into fierce winds... and when we get to Winter it’s going to be cold. Quite a few things that could go wrong honestly," explained Kat.
"And staying here?" asked Hedera.
"Well Lily suggested I get so sleep now in case I can’t later," offered Kat. "I’m not sold on it but it would give sothing to do if I can’t find anyone that needs help at night. What I think I’d try for is running around before the sunset happens to get sothing I can work on overnight, or for a few hours into the night and then nap a bit. I don’t want to lose a whole night so early on... but I can admit that sleeping now where we’re safe and comfortable is probably for the best,"
"I can find sothing for you to do," added Grandma. "Maybe not personally, but I know a few people who WILL have jobs for you to do,"
Hedera smiled at the interjection. "Well... that settles it then right? We can spend the night here and you can sleep or not as you want with Grandma providing you so work..."
"I suppose so," sighed Kat. She’d been outvoted. "I’ll try and get at least a little bit of sleep I suppose..."
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