|| I Got Important at Work so that's killing my time

|| BRUSHBUDDY IS SO CUTE I'M GONNA DIE

Verina tilted her head. "Maybe you walked through a gateway and didn't notice. Or maybe you've been in a sonoro sphere for a long time!" Where to even start with Tacet Discords? She frowned. "They're like monsters. They terrorize people, and there are a lot of different kinds of them."

That's what people say when they wear a watch.

Total blank face. "Your librarian gives you trials?"

Oh. They remind me that I can eat food and that, like I take care of them, I also need to take care of myself.

|| holiday hell is over so I will be around more!

—— ——

Verina was moved. She smiled at Coco warmly. "I'd do anything I could if it meant I would be able to save my mother. If I can't save her, then, maybe I can help you save yours!"

"Yes..." the question made her wonder. "Have you not heard of them before? I thought everyone knew what a Tacet Discord was..." she trailed off, waiting for his answer.

|| watch me make danjin instead and then just make up the most absurd backstory /j

I can tell you what I know! But it might take a while... Do you have time?

"That's awful!" She emphaised with Coco. Her own mother had passed, and she realized that someone turned to stone was somehow worse. "That's almost worst than her dying. You're faced with the tantalizing possibility of her return, or the chance that she'll be a stone for forever... I'm sorry."

I smell some delicious cookies!

The word 'magic' still seemed a bit strange to her, like the magic from the old stories, before the Lament. Her brows furrowed briefly. "Someone to save? How so?"

She answered his question with an eager nod. "I do! I work in gardens all around Jinzhou... Tacet Discords have made me expand how far I go lately. They've been becoming more aggressive lately." Her lips pursed and she tucked away the disposable baggy her sandwich had been in. "I don't know why."

Introductions! One thing she managed to be so consistently bad at. "Verina! And your name?" The lunch she withdrew from the pack, then opened and eagerly grabbed the sandwich and began to eat.

The comparison made her laugh. "It's an unexpected stew! Why did you want to learn magic?"

That's okay. We can make connections with other people... I put all my energy into my plants and they help me keep focused and stay alive.

It would be! it would be so dark!

I'm an orphan, actually.

She mimicked his pose and thought about his comment. "I think I would make a bad trader," she countered, "cuz I'm too busy! I'm always in the garden." And in the backpack's side pocket sat her untouched lunch in a sealed bag. She smelled the tea and her stomach lurched, reminding her of her missed

That's weird. I know about Fortes and Resonance energy and Frequencies because of the Lament, but I haven't heard of this stuff. Or doing that stuff with it. Does the word Fractsidus mean anything to you?

"We don't either!" she exclaimed. "I've only met them in one place, and it's not like this place." Wherever this place is.

What's that?

Technically it's a stimulate that belongs to the methylxanthine class. It stimulates the central nervous system! And too much of it can be fatal.

...sort of.

Yes!

I am! You're welcome!

Hmm. Do you think protein coffee is a thing?

Wow! Big, thick socks?

"Olurggio?" Verina nodded. "I'll try and remember that! Thanks for letting me ask you so many questions!" SHe was sure to ask more in the future. "Have you ever met a vampire?"

It is!

[laughing, thinking this funny woman must be joking] What kind of shoes would you wear??

"So the brimmed hats are witches who might be evil, you're Coco, and you have a friend named Tartah who's a witch—but not an evil witch?—and you also have a friend named Quifrey? Qifrey?" Verina tapped her lips, her other hand on her hip, hoping she got the facts straight so far.

If I could photosynthesize *more* then I wouldn't have to waste food when I can't finish my plate... ...but then I wouldn't have to drink milk...

wouldn't you be worried if the star wasn't hot?

She was a lot more familiar with plants than with matter conversion, but turning sand into clouds felt like a process that would be time-consuming and ... weird. Physics-breaking? She shook her head to stop thinking about it. "That's so cool! Is Tartah your friend?"

"How did you make the clouds?" she asked, tilting her head and clasping her hands behind her back. A soundwave-shape oscillated on her chest, just above the hem of her dress, and a vine trailed to the ground from her back, visible most when she walked and it flopped along behind her. "Like cocoa?"

Well... I can't *force* you to eat more food. That's not kind. I can tempt you with some gourmet dishes that are impossible not to eat!

"I have stocks back at home." Verina started putting the bottles back into her backpack, then hoisted the backpack up and walked the short distance to him before she placed it back down on the ground. "I do like warm tea!" she responded brightly. "How about we trade? Some nice tea and a few

*MORE* meat.

whimy shmimsy, it's time to put some meat on those bones.

COFFEE BEANS AREN'T FOOD!

|| I never replied to this and I'm so sad

A nap? Verina's eyes widened in surprise. "Wow... it sounds like you went into a sonoro sphere. There are others like you? I'm getting ahead of myself! I'm Verina. It's a pleasure to meet you!" Suddenly she was all smiles. The flowers sprouting out of her ears and the large green bow on her head

Resonators should not be fighting dragons without a team. Or not at all! And not our age! Encore is a... special exclusion to the usual rules.

"Witches?" Verina thought of the word and the many associations that came with it, but then the other girl mentioned surviving a dragon fight, which seemed much more important. "A dragon! I heard of one, in Rinascita... why- you said 'survive', not 'beat'. How did you come across a dragon at all?"