175th page

[curseshit]

The rain stops eventually and you find yourself in a forest much younger than the one you just walked through. The moss is nearly gone and the sun shines through the branches.

They're not just any other trees. They're apple trees! Cute, right? Judging by the (somewhat) straight lines someone planted them. Underneath the trees you find baskets full of freshly-picked apples and since you can hear voices, the people who picked them aren't that far away. The map isn't showing any tracks of your next destination yet, so you might as well ask if they know of a B&B nearby.

[ mission: inspect the voices. ]

Comments

[sawedoff]

[smiles and sends him on his way once he's wrangled himself a drink and turns back to him with a raise of his eyebrows]

Well there's somethin to be said for their hospitality anyway. Here's to it not going all to hell.

[tilts glass out for him]

[inenochian]

[ do you even realize you just completely became that kid's spankbank material for like, the next year. ]

[ looks at his cup of cider where he's wiggling it. oh right. social drinking etiquette. reaches over to tap his bottle very softly against the cup. ]

To...[ looks around for something to add to the toast. ] Daniel Jackson getting some control over his tendency to overshare.

[sawedoff]

[gives him a really dude look over the top of the glass]

Yeah, when it freezes over.

[downs himself a hearty swallow before leaning over to pat his knee and getting up]

Looks like we're on the move. C'mon.

[inenochian]

[ downs the remaining contents of the bottle and looks around for a good place to put it. no? no?

just holds onto it...then...
gets up. ]

It looks like a prosperous settlement. I'll take care of resupplying. [ maybe barter for another wagon. he does have all of that stolen alderwood bank money still stashed away. ]

[sawedoff]

Take your time, the map is. Can't figure out which way's next.

[talking about it like it's a sentient thing, that's not weird at all. well it does self-update. maybe it's cus he draws on it so much. it's being passive aggressive. takes another swill while they trail behind the funtrain]

[inenochian]

[ falls into synched steps with him. ]

Do you think it's because we might have exited the forest at the wrong angle? Is it trying to...recalibrate? [ magical GPS. ]

[sawedoff]

Like a TomTom? Y'got me. Might as well park it in town n let the herd kick their boots off for a bit. You know the last time it did this was when we got the Hellraiser box?

[could be connected. or it could just be a fran plot.]

[inenochian]

[ that we still don't know anything about? that one? ]

[ but kicking off boots sounds good. good things happen when boots are kicked off. ]

If there's any institute of learning here, we could show them the box. As natives, they may be able to make something of it that we can't.

[sawedoff]

Yeah, but stick to the plan. First things first, figure out how to shut Hoggle's shoddy spellwork down. Probably-cursed-boxes can wait.

[triage, prioritize, etc. of course none of this matters since they'll be too busy baking and having affairs]

[inenochian]

[ a cursed box might be able to hold a curse. if they can't end the spell, maybe they can contain it. ]

The lack of organization is annoying. Why can't these people have a centralized location for their powerful spellworkers. Like a town just for them. Or a school.

[sawedoff]

Yeah a town full of bunny killing wand waving psychopaths, sign me up for that.

[shoots him a double-take like glance. stop reading sam's harry potter. real life isn't hogwarts]

[inenochian]

[ shhhh we're establishing foreshadowing. ]

A town full of experts. [ scrunches nose at his pessimism. ]