Eisenstern 1.1

Notes: Normally I wouldn’t want to be caught dead doing two writing projects at once, but the reality is this won’t take much effort. Literally the only thing I’ll be doing is regurgitating the game’s events in first person, and I have absolutely 0 inspiration for anything anymore so I doubt it’ll want to get more complicated than this.

So, here we are, enjoy the Eisenstern legacy, I guess. I am playing on gen 2 by now, but it’ll take some time to get there.

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Most would say it was a dumb idea. Of course it was. Spending a metric fuckload of money on a random empty lot in Mt. Komorebi was probably the most ill-advised thing I’ve ever done with a metric fuckload of money. Believe me, I’ve done a lot of stupid things with a metric fuckload of money. (But if you think I’m bad, you should give Morgyn a few hundred grand. And cry.)

Morgyn was against the move the entire way. It was always ‘bad things could happen,’ and ‘what if you need help,’ and other such wild, doomsday situations that I was highly unlikely to run into. Morgyn’s mostly afraid of being alone, that’s the idiot’s problem. But the reality is, spellcasters are dying out, and unless we do something about that, there won’t be any spellcasters left.

We need more lineages like the Charms. Strong bloodlines that can protect and guide the other spellcaster families, what of us there are left. Not everyone can hide away in magic realm and pretend everything is fine, and I’ve never been one to sit on my ass, at least not for too long.

I came here hoping to change things. To alter the course our kind is on, and prevent us from dying out. The problem is, I have no idea how to do that.

I decided a trip to the library was in order. I don’t really know how human society works anymore-I’ve been in magic realm for too long, and I suspect a thing or two has changed. It seemed best to get familiar with how things work, and maybe brush up on more modern knowledge.

First, I practised greetings. Saying hello is a very important piece to making a decent first impression, of course, and if you mess that up, you’ll mess everything up. (It’s quite bad. Good first impressions are phenomenally helpful.)

I quickly grew bored of talking to myself in a mirror (me, myself, and I, we’ve never been very good company), and wandered around the library a bit. I noticed they had chess tables upstairs. I love chess. It’s one of my favourite games.

I decided to play for a bit, just to take my mind off of things. After I bought the land I live on now, I also purchased a grill and a tent to sleep in. It’ll be like a constant camp out, at least for now. My lot’s off the grid, too, but eventually I’ll be able to afford electric and water hookups.

Some corner of my mind consistently wonders if Morgyn was right, and my attempts to do whatever it is I think I can do here are futile. But I don’t want to fail at something when I haven’t even figured out what I’m failing at. And besides, Morgyn just didn’t want me to leave. Whether the idiot actually thinks I’m going to fail at whatever I’m failing at or not, that’s in the air.

(My money is on no. … all 30 Simoleons of it.)

I spent a lot of time observing the others present, listening to how they addressed and spoke to one another for a better idea of how to blend in better. Someone mentioned there’s a fishing spot at the park, where they find decent amounts of edible fish. I’ve never been a big fan of fish, but as a food source that doesn’t cost anything, it was highly valuable to me right now.

I went to Magnolia Blossom myself, to find this fishing spot. It was right where they said it’d be, so I pulled out my makeshift fishing rod and got to fishing. I didn’t catch anything impressive, but it was enough to grill and keep my stomach full for the night.

I’ve never had to cook for myself. In magic realm, there was always someone around to cast a spell and summon a bunch of food for everyone. (Whether it was actually food, or it was just spelled to look like it was edible when it was really insects or something, that I never figured out. You can imagine why I didn’t research that one too intently.) Learning how to light the grill was a whole ordeal unto itself!

I have a tiny bit of a new appreciation for the level of self-sufficiency humans actually display.

It tasted pretty good, so I must not have messed it up too bad. Someday, I definitely wanted to be eating something better than this, but for now, it isn’t a bad option.

I’ll need to figure out what I’m going to do for income. I have no real marketable skills (being able to recite by heart the precise chemistry behind a potion is probably not very marketable; what’s even worse is, I can’t even make those potions, I just know the science of how they work), and I’m not entirely sure what would be considered marketable in the current era.

I may need some more time to observe others before deciding on a direction.

For now, I picked up some of the wild fruits and vegetables around I found. These will come in handy both as a small income source, and also as a means of producing my own food, and perhaps eventually I’ll be able to eat something besides badly-grilled fish.

Mediocre. I suppose it was more accurately mediocrely-grilled fish.

As I got ready to turn in for the night, someone came up to my tent. I noticed immediately that she was a vampire, but I didn’t sense that she was dangerous or intended to be so. Actually, she just seemed to be interested in talking.

“Welcome to the neighbourhood,” she’d said as she came up to me. “I’m Lilith Vatore.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I answered, though truthfully I wasn’t sure if it was nice to meet her. “My name’s Ezio Em-” I paused. Ember didn’t sound like a good name to throw around freely. If I got myself into trouble out here, it would lead right to Morgyn. And really, considering the kind of trouble Morgyn got into, Ember could give me more headache than I was ready for. “Eisenstern,” I said instead. It was a name of a distant ancestor. Still technically correct, and it wasn’t Ember-or Kibo, for that matter.

“Are you one of those strange humans that likes being outside?” Lilith asked.

“No,” I answered. “I just wanted a lot of space. You know, like an artist and a blank canvas.”

“I see,” she said. “Well, this is quite the impressive blank canvas.”

I snorted softly. “Emphasis on the blank,” I said.

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