The writing is going really abysmal for me lately. About all I'm turning out is this boring background mush I don't like (I'll share an example below), but I am trying to power through. Hopefully, I get to a happy writing place soon.

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Aaron

«Yeah, the big problem with the Pattern Exchange is getting it accepted into the restricted portion of the Tapestry, the part that you have to be a Zone Arbiter to access, no ifs-ands-or-butt-heads.» A goof ball touch of humor trailed the end of Candy's statement.

Aaron had to ask. «Did you just make a butt joke?»

«Duh! Even on his good behavior, Feltz is a condescending butt head. How Dibbs puts up with it, I don't know. But, anyway! I think we would need some kind of super user access, and I can't hack my way into it even with [Tapestry Fusion]. So, the Pattern Exchange is on hold for the moment.»

Talking with Candy through Lena's Guardian Communication channel felt a lot like talking through a phone, only he didn't have to put on headphones or hold the handset up to his ear. He couldn't see her, but he could hear a lot of nuance, like that humor.

As they talked, Aaron putzed around his dungeon, shaping some soil into hills over here, sending a trickle of mana to a creature there, planting herbs and vegetables where the whimsy struck him.

Soon enough, it came time to dim the lighting in [Whispering Trees] to provide a better circadian rhythm for his dungeon dwellers. Despite reassurances to the contrary, the pygmy naga tribe had taken it in their heads that the dimming of the lights was a sign of Aaron's displeasure. He had, at least, managed to get them to believe he wasn't angry with them, but convincing them that he did not dim the lights out of grief or depression was taking a lot more work.

In an attempt to cheer him up, the pygmy nagas had taken to dancing around the pillar that held his body and the new zone control cores when Aaron dimmed the lights for an evening cycle. Having snake bottoms meant their dancing looked a lot like standing on a dance floor, shimmying to the music, but a few of the more decorated nagas slid between the shimmy-shimmy dancers, executing graceful twists and turns in counterpoint to the shimmying dancers.

«I wish I could safely send Buttercup as a courier,» Aaron said while watching the dancing that evening. «I'd send you some of the recordings I've made of my nagas. They do the funniest things.»

«Why not send some of the nagas?» Candy asked.

«I don't trust them to have the sense to hide from a mana storm,» Aaron admitted.

«Are they really that bad?»

«Maybe not,» Aaron confessed. «But they are terrified of leaving through the back door, and I'm keeping the front door closed off for now. Without knowing more, I'm not willing to push them beyond their instinctive "hell no" points.»

«Fair enough,» Candy said, conceding the point. A moment of silence stretched between them before Candy asked, «Have you had any luck getting the soul gem unlock?»

«No, but I seem to be getting farther along the research chain to monster constructs. Maybe monster cores will be my way toward soul gems?»

«Maybe,» Candy agreed without sounding very convinced. «Hey, when are you thinking of opening your dungeon up?»

Aaron had learned to go along with Candy's quick jumps between topics. It could be very frustrating sometimes, but he had come to a point of acceptance, appreciation even, that her mind worked on so many different thoughts at once.

«Soon. I've got a few more things I need to figure out about the ecology in here, but my auxes have grown into their current work load with some capacity to spare. I've set up decoys and redundancies, and trapped the seven hells out of the area around my body and the primary zone core.»