chikaidestroyer | ∞ 82: Waiting for the next step [action]

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∞ 82: Waiting for the next step [action]

[Now that things have calmed down around the village and the rain from earlier in the week has dried, Albert is getting around to cleaning up his poor garden. Long-wilted white and blue moonflowers and morning glories litter his garden where trellises are propped up next to them, so he's pruning and plucking them out from between the growing flowers.

His horse is hanging around the house today, eating from a bale of hay.

It's a pretty idle scene on a sunny day. At least he's not closed up in his room, reading old books and drinking wine. That can be saved for tomorrow, when the weather's even warmer.]

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[Buffy turns back, crossing her arms comfortably.]

Are they the only ones?

[He makes a faintly amused sound, letting the leaves drop to the soil.]

Hardly.

[But then she remembers the small scissors in her hand. But the smile is left over; after all, it was heartening to hear about night blossoms.]

But me making friendlies with the flowers is not helping, is it?

If you feel there is worth in what you are doing, you are helping yourself, at the very least. But others' perspectives... [He makes a noncommittal sound, continuing to clean up the vines.]

[She snaps the scissors a few times in the empty air.]

Hey, Albert? Where did you learn all these answers. I mean, the big stuff. Like about choosing not to go home and what's worth it...[Buffy had been pretty sure that she had her life figured out moments before arriving in Luceti. This place has upended everything she knows. Everything she thought she knew. Albert, in particular, is a part of that.]

[Albert pauses at the question, but only briefly; he snips one dead leaf.]

Where? I look at what we know, and my own standing in the situation. It isn't a decision that everyone can readily undertake.

[She searches out a dead leaf herself, snipping it carefully.]

At least it's a decision.

Do you feel the need to make a decision now?

Maybe. [Snip. Snip.] It's getting to feel like I need to be doing more deciding and less reacting.

Even if you make that particular decision, you will still do a lot of reacting. That's simply how we are force to function here.

I don't want to play their game. I want to find a way to make them react.

[She sounds vehement about this. It is, after all, her defining strategy from her last considerable battle back home.]

And to do that, we need plans and resources that they have not dealt with before. That is where patience comes in.

[He really doesn't like not being in control of the situation. Being forced to follow another's pace did not please him, but he had been able to deal with it for two years now.]

[Ah. Backdating. Possibly the only way Buffy will ever manage to not feel like a fool in Luceti again.]

What kind of resources are you thinking?

[Oh, it's perfectly fine, Buffy. Some people will forgive your foolishness.]

Information, mostly. We have seen incidents here that could prove helpful to us if we can figure out what is going on. But few are forthcoming with details.

[wryly] Another option would be to learn how to Shift, but there is little way of knowing if that is within our ability.

Shift. [She recognizes the word.] Could the Third Party do that?

That's right. I believe that's how the General was able to turn his blood into a weapon against you.

A parlour trick by any other name is still magic. [These complicated words. They confuse her.]

But...yeah, that kind of mojo? Would help. Big time. [Hmm.] Did they use it on the battlefield you visited?

A specific kind of magic. [But he smirks at Buffy's comment all the same.]

They used a form of Shifting less powerful than what we had seen. But they were able to twist and control metal and stone.

Huh. Insta-sword--sounds convenient.

In the encounter I saw, they managed to twist metal to act like spires, shooting up from the ground. So clearly there had been metal beneath us in Desset.

Yikes. [That sounds horrifying.] In that case, I'm kinda amazed there weren't more casualties.

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