Audio; late day 16

[popotostudies]

[That sure is a tired sounding voice.]

Should anyone be hungry, there is a pot of bacon and vegetable stew in the kitchen courtesy of red team's assignment, have at it. Be advised it contains things, so if you are allergic to things, don't eat it.

[investigating the kitchen will indeed find a stew. Hearty, tasty enough and far more veg than bacon.]

Comments

[laurefindil]

"It is quite obvious," Glorfindel agreed. He'd gotten used to the comments over the millenia, and mostly found it funny, fortunately.

"I could be," he assured him. "Much brighter indeed. On the last mission I was the light source for the Purple Team, once the endless swarms of crabs came at us. Not everyone on my team can see in the dark."

Interesting was good. "What are you wondering?" he asked. "And if not in the way I was thinking, then how? I do agree about the variety, by the way." He sighed. "A nice salad would be a change."

[popotostudies]

"Perhaps it would be worthwhile the next star we visit, to see about making some purchases." He crosses his arms over his chest, brow furrowed. "I would have loved to have some good pork bone stock for this.."

Of course there isn't room enough for everything, but surely some bullion or something could be arranged for! While he could grow any needed plant the train desired, there was a limit to how generous he felt like being with that power.

A soup now and again is fine. "Oh, I grew them." Didn't .. Glorfindel .. JUST ask that, and Fandaniel said 'not like that'? But by the offhand, distracted response, he's not really thinking about the fact that his response might be a bit rude, he's thinking about other things. "...I wonder how the light you are shedding resists conjured darkness. And what spectrums it falls upon! I ... have a sunflower, I might ask you to carry it about, once I fetch it.."

And see which way it turns!

[laurefindil]

"We would need to have bartering material," Glorfindel pointed out. "As I very much doubt any of the worlds we visit will accept points."

"We have the bones from the boars in the freezer, though, couldn't you make some broth?" he asked. Not all of the meat that had come in had been dressed. "Or something from the crab shells?"

'Not like that' was not an answer, so he'd probed. Growing, that makes sense and was how he was thinking, so the answer was a bit odd. But then, there was growing, and then there was what Persephone did.

"That would be an interesting experiment," Glorfindel agreed. He already knew the answer versus conjured darkness on his world, which was that he could destroy it utterly, which was why Sauron and his Witch-King hated him so intently. "I like sunflowers," he said with a smile. "The ones in the Greenhouse like me too. They sing louder when I am there. Apparently they like my light better than the ones the Train supplied."

[popotostudies]

Fandaniel waves this off. "I am certain we possess things that other beings might be interested in." It's just a matter of collecting them! And then making some offers and doing some bargaining! Though there are apparently boar bones, and crab shells, and maybe he could do something with those. Not together, but separately.. "When you say boar, do you mean male, or merely a large hairy pig? The males tend to be.. odious." In taste and smell, in fact. Crab shells are crab shells as far as he knows.

The ascian leans back against a counter, crossing his arms over his chest for lack of anything else for his hands to do. "In that case, once you are finished with your dinner, I'd like to dabble a bit. I have no intention of causing harm, so if any of it hurts or frightens, please say so immediately." The light was ever harmed by too much dark, and the dark shriveled at too much light, if Glorfindel was light-aspected it made sense he might fall prey to too much shadow. That wasn't part of the plan, however.. "I wonder if mine own sunflowers will also sing for you." He's going to find out.

As soon as he finds a pot and some dirt in fact.

[laurefindil]

"Bargaining can be a great deal of fun," Glorfindel said. "Especially since we do not know how the worlds we come to value their items and we do not know how much they might want whatever we choose to trade. We could both come away quite thinking we'd gotten the better end of the deal." Which was the best way, of course. It helped when you were empathic. It was very hard to get the better of an elf in a bargain. Which did tend to make the dwarves even grumpier.

"Mm, I'm not sure to be honest. It was on the world where we were pulled rather suddenly, prior to our last mission. I quite doubt that all the boars were male that ended up on the train, though. I do not recall any being particularly odious, though, and I do have an excellent sense of smell."

"By all means, let us dabble," Glorfindel said, finishing his soup. It didn't take a lot to fill an elf, honestly. Not compared to say, a Hobbit. "I will definitely say something if I am hurt or frightened," he assured the other. He appreciated that the other made sure to advise him of that. "Only one way to find out. Shall we go and check on your sunflowers?" he asked.

[popotostudies]

"Oh good," is the muttered response, presumably about the boar. Dealing with the musk of an intact male would be awful. Now he's going to have to see if there's any bones worth making a nice stock out of, if someone else hasn't made use of them.

There's a pause as he mentally backtracks, then frowns. "There's three people on this train, by my guess, who would be able to negotiate to our benefit entirely, but coaxing them to do so might take some work if they are aware it's my idea." In fact doing so might make them go out of their way to try to sabotage it. "But they have a ... gift ... that would make such bargaining like unto trying to trade away something from a child."

He brightens up a bit though when the elf-lord finishes his meal. Apparently they eat very little for beings their size! An interesting thing to note! Or perhaps Glorfindel had a snack earlier and merely wasn't hungry. "Certainly. In the meantime--"

The lights simply go out. Or seem to at any rate, it's almost as if someone had taken the entire kitchen and simply pitched it outside at midnight. There's nothing supernaturally forceful about the sudden darkness, no oppressive weight or malevolence any more than any other summer night might be, though to the right senses it's obvious Fandaniel's the one doing it.

He expects Glorfindel will be able to overpower an ordinary darkness easily. Fananiel's tone is easy, and mildly curious, in the sudden gloom. "Let us go, then. Incidentally, are you able to create moonlight by any chance? There's a flower from my home city that blooms only under the grace of the moon and I'm afraid the train ..." Barely manages decent artificial light.

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel wasn't sure if Fandaniel had ever actually tried to trade with a child. If they weren't interested, there was nothing you could offer them that would make them agree. Admittedly, if they were done with it, you could offer them anything, but then there was the chance they'd change their minds suddenly.

However, when the lights go out, it reveals the fact that Glorfindel glows in the dark. He raised an eyebrow at the lack of light, and turns up his glow so that the fact the lights are out is no longer noticeable. "Interesting. Was that you?" he asked. The stove was still on, so it couldn't have been a power outage, such as he'd heard described.

He shook his head at the question. "My light is specifically that of my world's sun, the moon gives off a different light, more silvery." Because on his world, it generates it's own light, not a reflection of sunlight, but he isn't aware yet that other worlds don't get their light from bits of fruit in the sky.

[popotostudies]

He's tried it MANY times over the eons with children, including his own, and inevitably he gets his way! Which may, or may not, be something to brag about.

"Yes. Merely an emulation of an ordinary night, I assure you. I find most react to the restful quiet of evening's dark better than say, the abyss of the depths of the sea." Which he has not yet conjured up, because that's for later.

But the response as to Glorfindel's control, or lack thereof, of the TYPE of light he emits earns what looks suspiciously like a pout. "Unfortunate! Gracing my God's altar with moon glories will have to wait, I suppose. There's no point in growing a blossom if its bloom conditions are impossible."

At THIS juncture. He's going to work on that, and in spite of this very minor setback, Fandaniel's smile is easy. They have a garden to get to, and if there's bits of darkness on the way, well, that's just part of the experimenting! "..I must say, though.. thank you for not treating me as if I am the epitome of evil merely because I ... have inclinations other than the blaze of day. It's very refreshing."