Forty-two

Helmine rubbed her chin. "Home. Greater Marisch. Kingdom of Wies." It was slowly coming to her: if she really was in some... strange crossroad of some manner, all those asses who had been spouting tripe about there only being the World were -- wrong. She smirked. "What other options do I have, though?" the half-elf asked, focusing her eyes on Mendel.

"Wies kingdom? I don't know it personally," Mendel said politely. Everyone thought they were the centre of their own little universe (perhaps with the exception of Mendel, who arguably was) and as far as she was concerned, that was their right and privilege.

"The options are, at least for practical purposes, uncountable. For example, I've just spent some time in a pretty little world; full of verdant forests and wildernesses, interesting birdlife. Very interesting."

Not to mention that intriguing cryptoanthropological puzzle... so she didn't. Admitting you were making a holiday game of people's species was, Mendel seemed to remember, a faux pas.

"And not every option is safe?" Helmine asked almost rhetorically, most definitely of the opinion that she was the centre of her little universe. Why not? It was the only way she could physically see the world. "Because even if I still want to go home, I think I might just like this after all."

"That's the spirit!" Mendel said. It was surprising how few people truly got it. Perhaps this one had potential after all.

"Not all safe, of course, but Greater Marisch doesn't sound entirely undangerous either - if your first thought was that I'm was planning to lower your guard and steal your spinal fluid or something, I mean."

Helmine shrugged, smirked. "Reflex, Mendel. I'm not sure how well you would take to suddenly having your entire cosmology turned upsidedown. Surely you mustn't have always thought there to be more than one... world, as you say it. And blah, blah, blah. How does this work, then? I simply walk out or some such -- and what about returning?"

She punched herself very lightly in the stomach when it growled.

Mendel picked a chair off one of the other tables and sat on it. She said "When I was newly spawned, I thought there were five locations, no more, no fewer. I didn't know there were unofficial ways to get from one to the other, either. At that time I was too engrossed in my interests to care whether there were two, five, six, a hundred. I think my exact reaction was 'Oh'." She hung an arm over the chair back until it looked comfortable.

"If you walk along any of the roads - or cut across the landscape, of course - you'll end up somewhere. Sometimes people get turned around and end up back here, in which case you can simply try again. It seems there may be a knack to finding somewhere specific instead of somewhere general. I must admit I cheat...

"Are you ill?" she asked suddenly. Although perhaps it had been a ritual. Perhaps she should make a filter-changing noise too.

"No. My stomach's telling me I'm hungry. I'm persuading it to think otherwise," Helmine said, being about as caustic as she could. Further than that she didn't explain. "You might have seen it as an oh-worthy reaction. To me it's revolutionary. Whatever. Can you tell me more about this cheating? I'd rather be able to choose where I'm going, to be honest."

"Oh, hungry. That's right, people eat, don't they? Of course they do. Don't mind me. Come to think of it, this right here is a business that sells food.

"Cheating, well, I'd be surprised if you could cheat the way I do. There are plenty of others you could ask, though. There's that herd of sticklehindes; they come by the destroyed inn along the road every Tuesday to run their button club. Or there's the mage who bought this place. I think he's busy having woman trouble, or he might be finished with that by now. If you can wait a while, we get teleporters, tunnellers, water-curlers, even someone who came through in an airship."

The repairs for that had been extensive.

"Is that so? I'd love to see the menu, then. As much, almost, as I would love to see one of those... airships." She had no idea what a teleporter was, but she had a few guesses. Still, it didn't do to pretend she was stupid. "Hmmmh," she said, eager to go.

"Oh, ransack the kitchen. It's what I do," Mendel said. She remembered what she'd come in here for, disappeared back behind the counter and picked out one of those pottery cylinders. By way of payment, she dropped a hexagonal piece of what looked and sounded like light, semi-translucent crystal onto the bartop.

"Another tip. It's best to carry small denominations around here. It's complete chance whether they'll have change. The new places here always have that problem." Mendel changed her thumb into a more suitable shape and punched a hole in the top of the can.

"Really?" Helmine said and glanced at the case that held her rifle and the backpack. "I hope they take silver."

Then she stared at the can.

An indecipherable symbol was prominent on the side, along with some writing in what might have been the same alphabet. The outer surface, at least, looked like baked clay. The can was roughly cylindrical and painted with a green sunburst; the liquid inside was audibly frothing.

Mendel sipped at it without getting her lips wet (her thumb was back to normal, or at least elven). "Should do," she said.

"Great," she said. "I'll see to breakfast, then, Mendel." And thus did Helmine raid the kitchen. Some of the things didn't look familiar to her, but she returned with a fair bit of meat and a bit of vegetables on a plate. She did leave a bit of something on the bartop.

"So, Mendel. What are you?"

The elf was leaning on the edge of a table when Helmine returned. She seemed willing to reply. "I'm a shapeshifter. Which is to say, not a magician or anything. I was spawned that way, and so are the others like me. Takes practice, of course.

"You're an elf hybrid, is that right?"

"In a way," Helmine conceded a little coldly. "My parents are both 'hybrids'." She didn't have much to say after that. She even had a very long pause before responding to another Mendel said. The annoyed half-elf merely focused on the food, which for the record was very good.

"That's fantastic," Mendel said... with sincere enthusiasm and all that other annoying stuff.

Chew. Chew. Chew. Swallow. Pause. "What," she said, cold as midwinter.

"Parents. Children. Bloodlines. Changing with every generation. I mean, just look at you - beautiful." She wasn't looking at Helmine any more, rather somewhere off into middle distance. "Ah, none of you breeding species really realises how lucky you are."

She stopped eating altogether for a moment. Finally she decided it was... some kind of cultural thing. Maybe a species thing. She wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Thank you," Helmine said in a colourless tone, cold green eyes thoughtfully squinting. "I would guess that we do not." Creepy or not, keeping questionable personages happy was always smart.

"Not your fault, of course," Mendel affably allowed. "Most of my contemporaries find other species boring. They don't see the point of dealing with them as equals as well as on a professional basis, you know? My partner is better at all that diplomacy business. I just want to design things."