THREE HUNDRED ONE: Cups, Bowls, and Unknown Wizards
Next Chapter: June 24 (approximate)
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The songs were all old favorites, and the singers were everybody who felt like joining in for a time. Alden had hidden his interface to reduce distractions while he played Three-fingered Thief, so he had no translations. Sometimes he understood what they were singing about, but often it was only noise, lively or dreamy in turns.
His left hand swept through the cloud of rising and falling game pieces, catching tans to match the number he’d bet he could collect this round. At the same time, his right hand dropped a mix of colors onto the discs in front of him. They’d fly up and join the pieces in play, hopping up and down between discs as if they were bouncy balls, though they were nothing of the sort. Hard and translucent, they were more like marbles with one flattened side to keep them from rolling around when they were on the table. They represented coins or jewels, depending on who was explaining the story behind the game. Hopefully, the colors he’d chosen would give Dazm-lin trouble as they moved toward her. If you missed your bet or touched a wrong-colored piece, then you won nothing for the round.
Alden wasn’t ready for much strategizing, but he did like plucking the pieces out of the air. His pile was growing, so he wasn’t losing despite all the conflicting advice he was getting from random people who wandered over, drinks in hand, to help the human out.
When he had a reprieve from those helpful sorts, as he did right now, he could enjoy himself more and take in his surroundings. The singing. The sweet smell he now recognized as the local wine and the charred licorice scent that wafted through the whole pavilion whenever they were preparing more of the sausage Kayda-lin liked. The sound of voice after voice welcoming Esh-erdi home, congratulating or celebrating him.
Those conversations, when they happened near enough for Alden to hear, cost him game pieces and rewarded him with pieces of knowledge about the bond the two knights shared.
He had learned enough vocabulary from Stuart that there was no need to bring the translations back up. Inesvul was the bond. Esvulgivnas the period that honored its creation. A couple of people greeted the knight as EshLind, and that wasn’t strange enough to make anyone bat an eye.
Esh-erdi’s sister—who came by to pick up Brim, Droon, and the very last of Alden’s oranges—mentioned that she hadn’t believed her brother was really pursuing the bond with Lind-otta until Lind-otta showed up at her house for a visit one day.
“Then I had to scramble, didn’t I? You’ve never seen a more unprepared host than I was that afternoon. Animal guts on every surface because I was studying how they reacted to a peeling fluid I’d been sent to test.”
“If you’d believed your ever-honest older brother, then you wouldn’t have come to the door that day with blood up to your shoulders and that unique fragrance clinging to you.”
She scowled at him and assured everyone that he’d knowingly led her to the misunderstanding. But she also rubbed her nose against his before she left, whispering, “You look right now, Esh.” And she made him promise to spend time with her tonight, no matter how late it might be when he’d finished visiting everyone here and concluded his business with Alden.
Alden had thought they might actually leave sooner because of her request. But new people kept appearing, and Esh-erdi kept greeting them warmly while he showed that he could drink anything and everything put before him with no ill effects. He was cheating somehow, according to everyone. Alden wondered if he could break down intoxicating compounds with his skill or if it was something simpler, like a sober-up injector.
Alden’s own exploration of pitcherhouse offerings had been a fun project. He’d meticulously checked with Mother before tasting each thing, and her amused, encouraging suggestions had allowed him to make plenty of discoveries without the adventure becoming something he didn’t want. Piditsoo tasted like liquefied lawn clippings and stripped his mouth of saliva. For a couple of minutes after sipping it, he felt like his head weighed too much and his ears were swelling. That wasn’t how the stuff affected Artonans. He looked forward to never tasting it again.
But hahmp juice was refreshing. Bundlefruit wine was energizing and gave him back the moisture the piditsoo had stripped. He learned he hated the fibrous sludge called geeyb’b, and he discovered a passion for sizzle spice. That was what he’d decided to call the smoldering grit Esh-erdi had brought to the table, since he couldn’t say its real name very well. It changed flavors if he held it in his mouth, from woody to buttery caramel to something fruity like pears. He wanted to eat it by the spoonful, but everyone else was sprinkling tiny bits of it over drinks or bread. So he settled for sending Stuart a message about how much he liked it and how he needed to learn the spell that got cast on it before it was brought to the table.
I should send him another picture of me playing this game now that I’ve gotten better at it.
He was about to do that when a vaguely familiar name was spoken by a man with awful taste in drinks who stood near the pavilion’s edge. Behind him, the river shone with reflected lights from docks. A red lamp on the front of a barge was fading in and out.
It took several seconds for Alden to recall why “Yaril” should catch his attention.
That’s right. Stuart met someone with that name at the oath ceremony he attended before Welcome End. An outsider declared. She promised to send him a message after first binding, and he seemed hopeful about it. He had a little wish in his voice. Is it the same person?
His turn to bet came again, and he opted for six purples.
“He challenges you, Kayda!” Dazm-lin said merrily to her daughter, who’d been collecting purple in almost every round.
Alden had picked purple because he saw a lot of purple in play right now, and he hoped it would be easy to steal while he simultaneously listened in to the man who might be talking about someone Stuart knew.
Not just someone Stuart knows. Someone who wanted to get along with him as fellow knights. I haven’t heard him say her name since then, though. I think he would have if she’d been talking to him.
Stuart wasn’t someone who naturally hid excitement. He wanted to share it, as long as he could find someone to share it with who wouldn’t crush it.
It was so sad when he realized he didn’t trust his parents with my secret. Like he’d had all the air taken out of his balloon. And when he told me he was avoiding his old friends because he couldn’t stop being surprised that they weren’t treating him correctly, no matter how many times it happens….
Unfortunately, the man saying Yaril—Yaril-hon actually—wasn’t very loud. Alden ended up catching halves of sentences and only five purples.
He does seem to be talking about newling knights. So it’s probably the same Yaril. I guess I shouldn’t think of it as unfortunate that he’s quiet. It’d be worse if he was shouting a knight’s personal business to the whole pitcherhouse.
It did seem possible that what was being talked about was personal, based on the warning the man had just given his two main listeners: “So if you meet them in the coming days, careful words.”
Is “them” still Yaril? Yaril plus others?
As Alden’s pile of playing pieces shrank, he kept his face on the game and his ears on the man.
“…missing isn’t missing after….sorry to say….all of us….still, this young….”
Alden had caught the word Goldbush a minute ago, which had helped convince him the talk was about the younger generation of knights.
And “missing” fits with that, given what happened recently. Stuart’s Yaril couldn’t have gone missing, too, though. She’s only days into being a knight, assuming she went through with it as planned. She won’t even be using her new skill much yet.
She’d be taking it easy, kneeling in a DawnStep class or socializing with other new knights. Possibly doing camping training like Moshk had talked about.
He kept listening, but he couldn’t pick up the man’s voice anymore. After a while, he glanced that way, curious about why it had gotten completely quiet over there so abruptly.
He saw that the speaker and his listeners were gone. Esh-erdi stood where they had been, sipping from a piditsoo bowl with branching black lines painted on it while he looked upstream. He had several arm-lengths of space around him and no conversation partners for the first time since he and Alden had arrived.
That’s the same decoration the piditsoo bowl in that guy’s hand had on it.
Alden scanned the crowd. The man he’d been eavesdropping on and the two others didn’t seem to be here anymore.
Is it the same piditsoo bowl? Did Esh-erdi shove them into the river? No, they’d have made splashing sounds, and he seems calm. Maybe they just left in a hurry for their own reasons.
A big hurry.
“You’re losing coins suddenly, Alden Ryeh-b’t.” Dazm-lin’s tone was light, but when Alden’s attention was back on the table, he found one of her eyes lingering on him. She had color-changing eyerings; they’d gone silver now, matching the stars that flecked her black clothes. “As Stu-art’h’s friend, I’m sure you value the Privacy of the House?”
Alden hadn’t heard that mentioned in a while. It took him right back to another Artonan night. And the feeling of falling as he jumped out of Stuart’s bedroom window to follow him to the summonarium. All so that Privacy of the House could be avoided.
And so that a real friendship could begin, though neither of them had imagined where they’d be now.
If I say I value it, is it like I’m lying to her about having sworn to it? She’s hinting about it all of a sudden for a reason. My eavesdropping was too obvious. But I didn’t even hear anything worth keeping private!
“What’s more proper than discretion?” Alden said.
“Indeed. And the house is larger than the home of our Primary’s family…as you know?”
“I do. It’s a very large house.”
The votary smiled at him. “Bet twelve on pink then. I believe in those swift fingers of yours.”
“Twelve is too many. I’m only a beginner.”
But he ended up caving to the table’s encouragement and betting twelve. His pulse was up a little.
I got away with it…whatever it was. No reason to be nervous.
His turn came, and his hand swiped through the cloud of pieces. It felt more like cutting the space between them with a knife than usual. Less dancing, more demanding.
Twelve clattered on the table in front of him. All of them were pink. He’d somehow gotten them all in three motions, slashing.
Actually, I don’t think I’m nervous.
“I bet fifteen,” he said. “Tan.”
Nobody else had bet that high all game.
******
******
“Did I push three votaries in the river and steal one of their drinks?”
Esh-erdi’s face was suddenly illuminated by the glow of a ring, and then the hand that wore it was next to Alden’s chin. Their flyer was dark inside so that they could better appreciate the view as they left the pitcherhouse behind, but Alden’s question must have made Esh-erdi think he was a better sight than the blanket of stars above them or the water and grass below.
“What did you drink while I didn’t have an eye on you? It must have been potent to make you leap to a conclusion like that.”
He seemed delighted rather than offended.
“It wasn’t a conclusion,” Alden said. “I just heard him say a name I thought I knew, so I was paying attention to him. And then that whole trio was gone. So suddenly. You were there holding the bowl, and Dazm-lin was asking in a meaningful voice if I respected Privacy of the House. I didn’t really think you’d shoved them over the edge, but it was strange.”
“Obviously I didn’t push them into the river.”
Alden nodded.
“I asked them nicely if they needed to be pushed into the river.” Esh-erdi’s ring turned off, and he lowered the hand onto an armrest he’d somehow made grow out of the back of the flyer’s bench seat. “To sober them up the old-fashioned way. A startling fall and some cold. I was offering them help.”
Alden stopped nodding. “Did…they need to be…” Threatened by a knight. “Wet?”
“I think it would have been good for all if they’d said yes. We could’ve laughed about it with them while they dripped around with the rest of us and sang a song or several. But they simply apologized and left.”
“I couldn’t hear most of what they were saying. I must have missed the very rude part.”
“That’s best. A single remark from a sloppy person shouldn’t count for much during such a night.”
Was it about me? Whatever they said?
“They weren’t talking about you, if that’s what you suspect.”
Alden wanted to slap himself a little. “Of course I shouldn’t suspect that! I didn’t even hear my name, so thinking it might have been about me would be immensely self-centered. Which isn’t a quality I seek.”
“It would be more logical than self-centered. You were the main novelty under that roof, and many people were talking about you in and out of your hearing. You weren’t being shy either!” Esh-erdi lifted three fingers in the bidding motion. “Fifteen pink! Fifteen green! Fifteen and fifteen again! You were going to win or lose boldly to end that game, weren’t you? Pity it was the loss, but I admire your decision to set the table’s pace.”
“I might have gotten too into it. I did hear…. That man mentioned someone named Yaril-hon. Stu met someone named Yaril. At the oath ceremony. He was looking forward to hearing from her again. Finding out how she was.”
He hoped that was enough to get him a general answer. He didn’t want to sound like he was prying into whatever specific issue had made Esh-erdi think the votaries should be dunked.
“That connection was my fault,” Esh-erdi said after a long pause. “I encouraged the two of them to get along.”
He examined Alden. “When you see Stu in person, tell him Hn’tyon Yaril-hon’s brother went missing on Goldbush. If he hasn’t already heard, he should. So that he doesn’t wonder. If she’s behaving differently than he expected her to, that will be the explanation.”
Damn. For her brother to go missing immediately after she became a knight…“That’s awful. He’s one of the two who went missing recently? Not a new missing person?”
“One of the two. You know about it?”
“I was at the siblinghold when they got the news.”
“I found out tonight about the relation of one of them to Yaril-hon, from overhearing that man who I offered to help into the river.”
“You were just being courteous.”
Esh-erdi laughed, short and quiet. “Lind would have scared them more. She’s tricked this whole Rapport into thinking she’s supremely dignified simply by being very old when most of them were born.”
“I liked hearing more about your bond,” Alden said.
“Did we make it into your notes?”
“Yes. Are all knights who share inesvul as happy as you two?”
“I think our bond is superior to all others. But my thoughts on that are biased. All who manage it feel that they’ve been enriched beyond their imagining. I thought I wanted too much, but I found even more. Add that to your notes. My words are worthy of record.”
“I will. I had a lot of fun at the pitcherhouse. I sent Stu so many pictures. Thank you for showing me part of your home.”
His messenger bag was stuffed with snacks to share with his roommates and Natalie. Each person he’d played Three-fingered Thief with had given him a few game pieces to start his own set.
“We talked of home earlier, didn’t we?” Esh-erdi said. “It’s a precious thing.”
The interior of the flyer was comfortable. Alden could easily have settled into it and enjoyed the ride.
“You said we had no trees here, but there’s a spectacular one near my house. Do you want to see it?”
“Did it come from beside a parking lot in Tennessee?” asked Alden. “Because if it’s that one, I’d like to see it for sure.”
******
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Nearly twenty pictures from Rapport III. Far too many cups, bowls, and unknown wizards in various states of inebriation. Far too few words of explanation for any of it, except for a wildly effusive message about what kzkzzt spice was like and how much of it he’d like to eat!
His auriad isn’t visible in a single photo. His auriad isn’t visible.
All is not well. A truly well person wouldn’t make up some of those metaphors about kzkzzt. But there’s no disaster yet.
Hn’tyon Esh-erdi wasn’t being helpful in his responses to Stu’s questions either.
Why is he not being helpful? Have I not expressed myself correctly? I need to know what Alden is saying and thinking of saying.
Stu fanned himself more furiously than their spell practice called for. He needed fresh air. Surely insight chambers weren’t meant to be this stuffy.
Another message came. He had to hold his voice in his throat.
[I can’t send you a picture of my birth tree. I've just seen it myself, and you really need to see this in person. Soon. I’ll show you. Esh-erdi and I are going to have a talk now, so you won’t get any more pictures for a while. I hope you’re having fun at school.]
There’s really no good air left in this chamber at all, thought Stu. What’s he going to talk to Esh-erdi about? If it’s that…I must be ready to protect him from whatever comes of it. I must be.
It’s not too much. I’ll be ready.
His fan was waving so hard that Jel-nor finally reached over, when the instructor’s eyes were both turned elsewhere, and pinched his arm like she was trying to take flesh. An older student behind them made the faintest sound of approval.
I can’t even blame her for this, thought Stu as she returned to her proper posture in an instant. But much blame lies with Alden. And Esh-erdi.
His arm throbbed.
Comments (107)
The tree is confused but delighted to be there. ......trees generally don't travel much but they do enjoy it.
'He’d meticulously checked with Mother before tasting each thing, and her amused, encouraging suggestions had allowed him to make plenty of discoveries without the adventure becoming something he didn’t want.' >:) 'That wasn’t how the stuff affected Artonans. He looked forward to never tasting it again.' :) Thank you for the chapter :D
It puts a different perspective on the ranks, doesn’t it. ‘S’ rank isn’t the ‘best’, it’s just the ones who were more likely to turn into demons.
No: the quality of "being demonable" (chaos potential) and "has lots of authority" are (potentially) different variables. In fact, this explains why low-ranks exist in a smooth-ish distribution: people with low authority but high CP get affixed at F.
I’m doing a reread and I’m wondering if chapter 19 has a mention of someone else with one of the original 300 uncapped knight-style avowed skills: **** “What about that S-rank who used his floor polishing skill to create an iceless skating rink on the island? You said it was neat.” “I know! It’s cool. And I’m not dumb. I see that the power has much wider applications than you’d notice at first glance. But it’s also his only skill. He’s twenty-five. He’s an S. It’s his only one. What the hell, Boe?” *** That’s a 25 year old rabbit with just one skill. A skill strong enough to create an entire ice-rink worth of low-friction floor, and keep it that way for a long time. Bothe that area and duration seem well beyond what a lvl1 skill would be capable of, so is this then someone who has poured all their authority into a single skill?
Definitely. Some wizard was as naughty as Joe, telling him the leveling trick. Alternatively, he might have hated other skills, or himself being a rabbit and refused his level ups, until system offered leveling his main skill. He may have received skill facets at that point, which may have changed his view of himself. I bet he is fully equiped with magic items.
I wonder what the conversation with Esh will be about. Proper discretion about Matadero seems simple and obvious to me. Not something that would need a substantial discussion, but Esh has been foreshadowing it for many arcs now, so I wonder what I might’ve overlooked.
There is also the conversation/instruction that Alden requested regarding mourning names and how to properly respect Kibby for her decision to take one. There is also maybe some follow-up on the 3 dead avowed in the greenhouse with the candlestick... i mean the stunner
Among all the other things Alden and Esh have to talk about, it feels like getting, or at least taking about, the Matadero tattoo should prompt Alden to put figuring out contract magic back up higher on his priority list now that he can just flat out ask Stuart about it.
I still have such mixed feelings about how Earth Contract is essentially threatening to cut Boe off from future affixation assistance if he tells Alden (or presumably any other human) whatever the deal is with his affixation-related secret without having a very restrictive secrecy contract in place first to prevent either of them from telling anyone else. I feel like Ro-den's contract was an important lesson for Alden in why not to swear to absolute secrecy about something before you know what exactly you're swearing to. Boe didn't choose to affix; he wasn't given a choice in what he affixed; and he hasn't sworn to the Contract. I don't think the Contract is pressuring him to keep secrets for Boe's benefit, and I'm not sure it's primarily for humanity's benefit either...
We need more Sist-erdi
Alden will be horrified when he realizes how much his attempts to share his happiness with Stu are stressing him out.
Thanks for the chapter!
I got curious and went back to find what Alden’s tree is and it’s a Honey Locust tree. It can actually grow thorns and fruit pods. It’s also an invasive species in other countries. I love the many parallels between Alden and his birth tree.
Specifically, they grow thorns in response to wounds. I've seen trees that were next to loose barbed-wire fences that were basically just thorns for the first 4ft of the trunk.
Esh must think Aldens secret storytime for them must be so very amazing that Stu is messaging him to find out if hes heard it yet despite being in class.
"Don't worry Stu-art'h. I will now hear what your human friend wants to eagerly tell me."
Sometimes I think, “How can I wait a week until the next chapter?” Then the chapter drops and I think, “How could I ever have wanted to rush this?!”
Oh no I then immediately think again "How can I wait a week until the next chapter?"
The game Alden was playing sounds so fun! I'm kinda envious. Relatedly, again I really love all the alien stuff you show us, it always feels interesting. And gives us more Artonan culture!
It has elements of Oh Hell, Nertz, and Jacks.
TFTC!
I need to unsub for another 6 months to get back 2 days worth of chapter backlog.
Poor stu, poor anxiety riddled lil dude 😂😭
I like to think that if someone said they were eavesdropping to an Artonan the system would translate it as “I was [[hanging from the the exposed roof structure of a wooded home to trespass on private mutterings]]”
Awww, Stu is such cutie <3 ! I was annoyed at how submissive Alden was but Stu being protective Dom suits him so well. We just need to get Natalie used to alien bisexuality, perhaps when she is on the Triplanets as a chef, and we can have straight human romance and *deep* yaoi bonding. In the sex ed class it was said humans cannot procreate with Arthonans, but nothing about the act itself, right?? I am impressed with Sleyca's ability to turn a whole evening into three chapters, thats almost a month in real time. I enjoy the story so much, but, like, get to the point, girl.
I think both Stu and Alden can be dominant in their own ways. Marriages between Humans and Artonans do happen.
Thank you for the chapter! I hope we get to see Alden's birth tree on screen! And I hope it does Alden justice! I want Stu to be appropriately impressed by it!
Thus ends my free soup. I enjoyed it muchly, thank.
Same
I like it, thanks
At this rate, Alden won’t even get a chance to tell Esh he’s a wizard. Stu will spoil it himself in a panic.
His birth tree behind their house. It feels really like that they are going to adopt him.
I think it would be hilarious if Esh-erdi took Alden to polish one of the flying vehicles after showing him his tree. Since he's probably seen the Winston video, and is just biding his time to make this joke.
Edit suggestions: typos, grammar, style, misc. Feel free to ignore. - they were preparing more of the sausage Kayda-lin liked. The sound of voice after voice welcoming Esh-erdi home, congratulating or celebrating him. Those conversations, when they happened near enough for Alden to hear, cost him game pieces and rewarded him with pieces of knowledge about the bond the two knights shared. -> [From context, "the two knights" refers to Esh-erdi and Lind-otta, but from the sentence structure it could also refer to whatever bond Esh-erdi and Kayda-lin share.] - His turn came, and his hand swiped through the cloud of pieces. It felt more like cutting the space between them with a knife than usual. Less dancing, more demanding. Twelve clattered on the table in front of him. -> Twelve pieces clattered - He was looking forward to hearing from her again. Finding out how she was.” -> To finding out - immediately after she became a knight…“That’s awful. -> [missing space after "knight…"] - She’s tricked this whole Rapport into thinking she’s supremely dignified simply by being very old when most of them were born. -> [This sentence sounds to me like there's a mixup of tenses in "being very old when most of them were born", I would've expected something more like "by having been very old when most of them were born" or "being very old when most of them are born", or similar.] [Plus a couple instances of the 4-period "…." typo:] - no matter how many times it happens…. - “…missing isn’t missing after….sorry to say….all of us….still, this young….” -> [4 instances of "…."] - I did hear…. That man mentioned
There's something both ironic and hilarious about Stu now being in the Boe role. If they ever meet, at least they now have a shared type of stress they can bond over.
Rolf xD
It *is* crazy how standout of a connection Esh is to Alden. It’s just another situation like Hannah. Someone who cares about this kid. This time, though, instead of Alden being objectively too young to build his own future when his parents died, he’s only just beginning to discover all of the ways he can build a home! Alden’s got some great examples and Stu’s got too much on his mind
"She won’t even be using her new skill much yet." Much? Alden you know perfectly well that she won't be using any magic at all
Its possibly about time she would. Its been around a month since welcomes end, and alden took just under a month before he wanted to use his skill. Actual spells was another month, so your right there.
Despite the seriousness of the secret, if Esh ever learns that Stu is literally sweating him learning about this, Esh will be entertained for at least a year. I think even Lind would crack a smile.
I enjoy how Sleyca has Esh so carefully balanced between prankster & responsible knight. As here with how he ended the gossip about the missing knight, he’s able to combine both seamlessly
Is it just me, or Alden is inadverently using authority to catch so many stones in a cutting, not dancing manner? And if so, is it a resonance with his skill, or the loose free authority of someone slightly inebriated after sampling a variety of drinks?
It seemed a little Ignacio-like to me, Alden using his hands like knives to cut his chosen tokens out of the flying flock.
I received no Ploomp update. I am bereft.
Until specified otherwise, Ploomp has to be enjoying snacks. If Ploomp isn’t chowing down on bread during chapter 400, I’m giving up and writing my own web novel
Soup better for the soul than chicken noodle!
Poor Stu! Evil Esh
Was hoping Alden would take the opportunity to share the story of how he used his skill to cheat at drinking games. Esh would’ve loved it!
Next chapter: Stu decides to affix because that's the best way for him to support Alden.
I laughed at first, but now am just concerned. He actually might? Hoo boy
I wonder if Alden will end up with a shy auriad after spending so long hiding it
It might want to make a spectacle of itself once he can show it. "You've kept me hidden for YEARS!" Like when Loki is let out of the sling ring at the beginning of Thor Ragnarok "I have been falling for THIRTY MINUTES!"
Thanks for the chapter!!! I'm getting married in nine hours, and this is a great thing to wake up to! As my wedding gift you should have Hazel and Alden make Inesvul together. I'm sure I speak for literally everybody when I say it's what we're all craving from this story. Alzel. Hazden. Maybe whirly rodent can be a fourth in their relationship to balance out the obvious third (Haoyu's mom) but AldenxHazel is the OTP.
Congratulations!!! (It seems like you might have been drinking out of nervousness. Maybe drink some water? ;) )
I'm honestly pleased and relieved to hear Yaril made it through ok so far.
*Hn’tyon* Yaril-hon - so Yaril did successfully endure her trial of self-forging! And now Stu will have the dilemma of what to say if he reaches out to her first, now that he knows the early days after her affixation that would ordinarily be spent with her nearest and dearest instead has been occupied with her brother's absence and increasingly likely death.
Poor Stu. He's stewing in his own panic.
He is stuing in it.
I think it is a shame that Alden hasn’t gotten Boe to connect with Stuart at this point. Because I think the two of them would have a real fun bonding experience if this right now, and I’m enjoying the parallels in their behavior and feelings towards Alden
Seriously haha
Hn’tyon Esh-erdi wasn’t being helpful in his responses to Stu’s questions either. Why would Stu be able to send Esh questions but not Alden? I thought the whole reason he was tormented was he couldn't send messages while in that workshop only receive them through his eye rings
He doesn't yet have permission to send messages or call avowed , and he has yet to sidestep the issue by becoming a Knight. So he has to use the I-am-Evul tablet when he communicates with Alden.
There's something delightful in Esh navigating this crowd and likely chatting away with distant Lind in his mind simultaneously, and Alden pairing with Mother to explore all the new-to-him food and drink and send distant Stu the highlights. And Stu sending Esh the messages he can't send Alden! Something about how Alden keeps amusing Mother reminds me of how Esh keeps amusing Lind; two young outsiders choosing to connect with terrifyingly powerful, ancient guardians who have very few people willing to stick their tongues out at them and choose not to be afraid or overawed.
Is that the birth of a new ship??
It's good that Artonans have their own version of Buffalo Grass Vodka.
Yeash, don’t make the socially anxious alien overly anxious and overthink you under wording, under explaining human!
At a certain point Alden wasn't inadvertently Tormenting Stu... Stu was Tormenting himself.
Oh boy, Stu is truly freaking out more by the minute
I laughed for that entire segment. Stu is one of the funniest characters in this story.
🍲 Bowls you say
Poor Stu
Stu is stressing like Alden was stressing before. Like @Eva was saying in the previous chapter, he needs someone to talk about Alden
Yes, they really need Esh and Lind knowing about Alden. It's too much for poor Stu alone just before his affixation.
Poor Stu oh my god. I so badly need to know what those three said
I was so happy that Stu still got to make a little appearance in this chapter. The friendship between Stu and Alden is precious beyond words to me.
I know. Stu's scene wouldn't have been so gut wrenchingly hilarious otherwise!
Look at Alden enjoying a party!
Next is Stu (being forced) to enjoy a party! I believe in my boy Eeaner to pull it off!
You know, I’m sure it’s been the case for a while now— probably ever since he asked for the teleport to the Rapport— but I just noticed in this chapter that Alden has begun referring to Mother by that name, rather than as “Her” the way he used to. It’s a great little internal narrative marker of how he’s changed.
Yes I like it too. It was very nice when he called mother for his teleport to tell Stu. When he then talked with Stu about her Alden still said 'the mother'. I guess he may still feel a bit too akward to call her just mother in front of Stu.
The problem of reading something written by an amazing author is you can experience the exact taste of Piditsoo.
You know how small dogs get extremely stressed and bark at everything when they think it's their responsibility to protect their family? Stuart is in exactly that situation. He doesn't have the power to actually protect Alden against powerful political forces, but he feels that he needs to do it all the same
I don't know, Whirley Rodent aka the bald general seems a political force.
Not sure that StuAld quite rolls of the tongue....
That’s why we call it Studen!
"Hn’tyon Esh-erdi wasn’t being helpful in his responses to Stu’s questions either. Why is he not being helpful?" Because he is a bit of a troll and you are panicking over nothing?
I was thinking the same!
Alden has a lot to bet right now, doesn't he? And he could just as easily lose it all, not knowing the game. But it's exciting all the same if he's going to want to try to "set the table's pace," as someone tagging along for the ride.
Thank you Sleyca. Nothing but excellence from Earth's first hyperbole. I predicted that one of the two missing might be the older brother. Sad, for so many reasons, especially sad if it interfere in the one potential welcome Stu could have had from a fellow knight.
Stu is STRESSED
Stu fanning himself in the end... I couldn't help but think of him as a older lady having an "episode" and calling for her smelling salts...
'A truly well person wouldn’t make up some of those metaphors about kzkzzt' This is so funny
Even funnier with world cup tourists responses to American ranch dressing.
What joy to greet the weekend! For this I will rise and treasure my coffee and start the day with story to make my own feel richer, larger, more open to delight. Thank you for the gift of this. <3
New words! I feel like Alden, soaking in tastes and concepts and new perspectives on what we thought we knew. I continue to treasure the more complex portrait of Esh coming to the fore - the inside-outsider who is also deeply loved in the family and communities he started from, even if he wasn't necessarily taken seriously. Esh is also someone who is always inherently bridging worlds and seeing from a broader perspective than most.
Poor Stu!
Glad we got confirmation about poor Yaril.
Yay, no more refreshing today!
Oh my God... I knew it would be bad, but Alden REALLY was torturing Stu here. I laughed through that whole section.
SOUP YAY
Soup!
soup for lunch! Thank you
Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Tftc!
Thanks for the chapter.
Jackpot