video

[holycurse]

[Hello Prismatica, this video feed is showing a bright-eyed cheerful teenager whose face is way too close to the screen.]

—Is it working? I think this is right...ah, Lord Windmaster, can you hear me? I was just out shopping, and this market is selling two entire loaves of bread for the price of one! And they're fresh, too!

[He sounds more excited than a guy should be about bread...also there's some movement as he lifts a shopping basket into view. Showing off his prize!!]

I picked up some coupons for other things here too, so I've been looking for those...have you heard of coupons, they're really quite amazing, they would have made life much easier before—er, but if there's anything else we need, please contact me! You can use the array if you like, I just wanted to show you the bread...I still haven't found the "fabric softener" on this coupon, but it sounds like something Ruo Ye would like...anyway, yes, that's everything! I'll be looking around here for a while longer, but I should be home in a shichen or so!

[Aaand end message. How did he manage to post on a public forum instead of sending a private message? The gods just don't know.]

Comments

[winepouring]

Do you have a coupon for the fish breads and candies, too? If they're candies, they can't taste like fish, right? Oh, maybe they'll give you a sample of them if you ask. That's only fair. They're very generous with their samples at that store.

[ What would fish-flavored candies taste like... Salty, maybe? Like the sea? ]

Have you gotten prayers like that recently...? I haven't gotten any at all since being here. You should take me along with you. I might not be a martial god, but as your friend, I'll give you my support.

[ Also, it's boring without any work... ]

[huaisang]

That sounds incredibly useful. I must have some of those, how do you obtain them?

[holycurse]

Silks are certainly much more expensive than the other available fabrics...nice as they are, it's much more practical to save that money for necessities, I feel.

[Smiling!]

I'm sure you could if you tried! I never really studied alchemy myself, but as long as one is willing, you should be able to at least learn the basics with a bit of effort!

[holycurse]

I only have one for the crackers, but the candies are relatively cheap, so I suppose I could buy a package anyway....

[Ahem.]

I haven't gotten any prayers like that, no--only a request from Lord Shen for naming advice. But I'll make sure to invite you along if I get anything more challenging then that!

[does this mean he gets more work than the windmaster--it probably doesn't count if it's a single casual prayer from a friend, does it...]

[nobodylikeshim]

bread makes life worth living 😍 😘 🥰

yay yay you're my hero!

[holycurse]

You can find booklets of them right at the door! Most of them are for objects I don't recognize, but you could consider that a good reason to try something new. Have you been to [insert supermarket] before? I can get you the address if you'd like.

[husbun]

Back home, most of our money went to weapons until...well, until we didn't need to buy them anymore.

[Because Grima had killed almost everyone and they could just sorta pick them up off the ground? Yikes.]

I always dreamed of a day where I could buy nice things like silks, you know? I'd rather do that than learn alchemy or magic.

[winepouring]

[ Shi Qingxuan makes a little noise of agreement, like, yes, that sounds fair.

But! Wow, Xie Lian does get more prayers than him... The Palace of Wind has really fallen on hard times... ]

Peak Lord Shen prayed to you for naming advice? [ ?? Well, his Ruo Ye and his sword do both have more creative names than Shi Qingxuan's fan. ] Though, wait, Your Highness, if you didn't get injured answering a prayer, why do you need soap that can remove blood??

[holycurse]

["Until we didn't need to buy them" can go two different ways, and he gets the feeling it might not be the good one....quietly sweeping that particular topic out the door, then.]

Well, they're easier to obtain here than they were back home, if you're interested in buying some. My closet's grown to contain quite a few since I arrived here, though I hadn't really planned for it to happen.

[husbun]

[Yarne's life is tragic, but at least he's cute so it's okay?]

Hey, you know, I bet I could do that! I'm going to be making more Chroma soon, I think. How much are you selling them for?

[He's made the assumption that Xie Lian is selling him used silks straight from the closet. Whoops.]

[holycurse]

He did, yes! He wanted a good name for a sword.

[Weapons are Xie Lian's love....plus he's used to getting menial labor for prayers at this point, getting to name a sword was honestly a nice change of pace.]

...Er. Well, somebody else mentioned it, and you never know when you might need something like that, especially for a man in my position, so it seems like it would be a nice investment, don't you think?

[holycurse]

[It's okay Yarne, we can be tragically cute together.]

Me? Er, I hadn't really thought of selling my own, but--if you're interested in any of my clothes, I suppose I wouldn't mind selling a few?

[Earning money is important! But will they even fit...regardless, he'll give a price that's pretty cheap for silk (but probably not cheap cheap, because silk).]

[huaisang]

Really? So easily? It sounds simpler than trying to haggle. [ a chance to be lazy? he's taking it. ]

That would be very kind of you.

[husbun]

Ah! No, no, I just thought you meant...don't worry about it!

[Oh, no, now Yarne is embarrassed.]

I should buy my own new ones! It'll be like...a celebration of...um...I'm really not sure what it'd be celebrating other than that I can find them in a store. But it'd still be nice.

[holycurse]

It's simpler, but I feel I could sometimes get much better deals through haggling... [too poor to be lazy....not that he's ever been lazy before.

also: sending the address! it takes a while because he doesn't actually remember it and has to go looking around for the info and then he's kind of a slow typer so that's another few minutes--]

I just discovered they're selling entire pre-cooked chickens! They look quite tasty, too!

[holycurse]

That's as good a reason as any! I'll admit to having bought quite a few things myself, simply because I had the money to afford them. [Sometimes you can't help it!

And sometimes you just get carried away because intangible digital currency is confusing.]

Honestly, all the clothes I've seen for sale here seem to be of nicer material than my old outfit. Even the cheaper things are soft!

[husbun]

Back home, I don't really wear clothes, so everything here is new to me now that I think about it.

[He has fur, though, so it's okay.]

It's settled, then! When I get more Chroma, I'll treat myself to something really, really soft to wear! I mean it!

[holycurse]

You don't?—Ah, because you're a rabbit?

[That makes sense enough, right? A furry rabbit man not wearing clothes. That chicken man hadn't really been wearing anything either, back in Ghost City.]

That's a perfect plan! Do you not have much chroma now? If you lack the funds for necessities, I'd be willing to offer you a hand.

[huaisang]

Haggling has more of a margin for error but is equally profitable when success, is it not?


Oh, I'm getting one of those for dinner. Jiang-xiong will surely know how to season it at least.

[howlmyrage]

Not having fabric softener sounds like poverty. Nobody should have to live with scratchy clothing.

[holycurse]

Really? I'll admit I may have been rather impoverished before coming here, but it isn't as if scratchy clothing is impossible to wear.

[howlmyrage]

And ruin my beautiful skin? Or end up having to scratch my back while in the middle of doing something cool? If you were shopping for me I'd have be tempted to set it on fire.

[holycurse]

That seems like a bit of an overreaction. The quality of your clothes shouldn't have much of an effect on your skin, would it? Plus setting it on fire would be a waste of money...please think of how much these things cost, before you destroy them so casually.

[howlmyrage]

Celebs like me have very delicate skin, okay? Delicate skin that demand the best product! All the Jeanne Alter fans out there would start crying if I got rashes or something horrible like that!

[ Who even are the Jeanne Alter fans supposed to be? Can Servants even get rashes? Wasn't Jeanne d'Arc a farm girl? Doesn't she usually wear armour which is even less comfortable than cotton of moderate quality?

There are questions. Questions without answers because now she's basically intent on trolling this guy. ]

It must be cheap clothing anyway, or you'd use the proper washing procedure.

[ Clearly. ]

[holycurse]

Proper washing procedure...? Is there supposed to be a particular procedure to it? All you need to do is scrub it in water--with some of that clothing soap they sell here, I suppose.

[He's an ancient god, give him a break!]

Ah, I suppose you must be nobility though, to have such...refined opinions. It's lucky for both of us that most of the clothing sold here is of comfortable material, don't you think?