eachdraidh | [video] [Both Courts] Everybody loves eggs right?

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[video] [Both Courts] Everybody loves eggs right?

[Lumina is skipping along ahead of the image feed when it clicks on, so one of her imps is probably filming her again. People familiar with the area might recognizing the rolling hills outside of Mair, but now nestled between a number of them is what looks like a large, sprawling ranch. Lumina comes to a stop beneath a hand-painted sign that says 'Gran Pulse Chocobo Ranch', with a painting of a bright yellow chocobo standing in front of a giant green and blue planet, with a smaller gray planet hanging in the background.]

[She twists around once she's under the sign and grins at the locket. Chaos the black chocobo is standing just inside the gate, sans his usual armor and saddle, and he peers at his mistress and the imp with a 'why me' kind of expression, then warks quietly.]

Look, they gave me a whole ranch! I had to make the sign myself though. [Lumina can find fault in anything.]

But it's a chocobo ranch! I mean, it will be. Once I have more than three of them. I mean, who gives you a ranch but not any extra animals?

[She huffs because she can't exactly breed their glorious chicken-mount overlords without more chicken-mounts, can she? But then the cheerful grin is back and she jumps forward to snatch the locket away from the imp.]

But look!

[There's a flare of light and darkness that obscures everything, and when it fades, Lumina is inside somewhere. There are two yellow chocobos, smaller than the black one seen earlier but ride-able, standing over a little wooden box, and Lumina runs over to it. She spins the locket around to her face again, and she is clearly more excited than she can contain.]

There'll be more of them soon!

[And again the locket goes spinning around, pointing inside the box. There's hey, and five eggs about the size of melons, each speckled a different color. She reaches out to tap one of them, which earns her an annoyed little wark from one of the parent chocobos, and then she giggles.]

Sooorry.

[And then back to pointing the screen at herself.]

See Steve, that's a chocobo egg. No you can't eat one. [A beat and a smirk.] I'd say people can come see them but there's that whole war thing going on, huh?

[Another little pause.]

But uh...on a related thing, dooooooes anyone know anything about hatching eggs? Or taking care of eggs? Or...really...anything about eggs? Except the eating part. Anything useful.

[Because she doesn't have a clue whoops.]

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[He's not sure what he wants to ask first, how she received such a large house or if she's actually going to raise a bunch of chocobos in it.]

That's still pretty big. For you and all of the chocobos? [Who else lives there Lumina tell him secrets.]

What, no? [She snickers.] I have stables for them. I guess the house is...just me?

Shijima is going to stay here when she comes by, but all she wants is a windowsill to sleep on.

If it's just you, why is it so huge?

It's not huge. It's just big.

Maybe I'm supposed to have roommates.

[Don't take this the wrong way, Lumina, but...]

Would you even let anybody live with you?

[Lumina huffs at that.]

I lived with my best friend back on Gran Pulse, you know.

[Most of the time. Unless she slept somewhere else. Lumina is basically a feral cat.]

In that big of a house? Didn't you ever get bored? [Or lonely? Or anything?

He might also just be asking her stupid nonsensical questions to a.) get a better read on her and b.) distract her while he devises a new sort of incubator that doesn't use electricity for her chocobos.]

In a giant cathedral! [She is excited for that part.] With a bunch of priests and nuns. [Less excited.] And they pretty much never let her go out... [Not excited at all.]

But I could come and go whenever! [Okay, back to moderate excitement.] I mean, it'd be hard to stop me.

I didn't think people lived in cathedrals. [Why would they live in cathedrals, aren't people only supposed to go there like once a week? Questions for the ages.] They held her hostage?

[He's still drawing so the locket's placed on the table and it's facing the ceiling, but he's still actively listening.] Why couldn't she sneak out with you if you were so hard to stop?

Well, that's where Vanille lived so...[That was where she lived. Tadaa.]

No, she wasn't...[Lumina drew in a breath.] It's a long story. Vanille could have gone out, I guess. She never would, though. So I don't really know if they would have let her. I don't think so though.

[The order was mostly jerks.]

That's the one thing I've never really understood about churches. Not enough freedom. [He finishes what he's doing though and turns the locket toward his paper. Enough about that, back to chocobo incubation.

What he's drawn appears to be a giant glass box with a funneling system underneath it rigged with gears and gadgets that move via a hand-turned crank to expel a certain amount of fire/heat just into the box to warm the eggs without over-cooking them. There are notes scattered on the paper (questions of how often and how hot, for instance) along with a list of supplies he'd need. It's still in the planning stages of course and he can already see ways he can improve the design but it's worth analyzing a bit.]

What about something like this?

Well how else are you gonna keep everyone in line?

[Lumina looks over the diagram when he puts in the screen, but she looks sort of confused when he's back, frowning faintly.]

But what if it cooks them by accident?!

Who says you have to keep everyone in line?

[He taps his pencil on the notes about temperature.] That's why you do tests first with eggs that don't contain live chocobos. If we can get the temperature to balance so that it doesn't accidentally roast them that should be a good way to keep them warm.

[...wait a second.] Wait you have three bigger ones, why don't you just train them to sit on the eggs like normal birds? [Better question, why didn't he think of that in the first place instead of overcomplicating everything?]

Isn't that what religion is for? Like, the whole point? Keep everyone in line so god gets what god wants.

[Stupid god.]</small. I thiiiiink that's what I'm gonna do. Lev said I have to get them a bigger box.

Maybe, but why should god get to decide what's right and wrong? [It's a genuine question from someone who likes to set his own rules and follow his own path. Yes, there are some things that are wrong no matter what (killing for instance), but...well.]

That's a good idea. Are the chocobos going to listen to you though if you ask them to sit?

That's kind of the only thing gods ever seem to want to do.

[She shrugs.]

Everyone seems to think they'll just do it because that's what they're supposed to do. See Egg. Sit on egg.

[She makes vague hand gestures to go along with this motion.]

[He thinks about Loki, honestly, but he wisely keeps his mouth shut. Let's not fuel that conversation any more than necessary.] And who tells them if they're right or wrong? Doesn't seem like a good system.

Well yeah, animal instinct. How smart are they?

You want to know who tells 'god' what's right or wrong.

[Who's going to boss around a deity?]

Oh they're really smart! Much smarter than horses. They can learn magic!

You say that like it's a weird question to ask.

[Horses can't learn magic, that much he knows.] So if I wanted an ice-breathing chocobo that'd be possible?

Because it is.

Not...well, I mean, I think they can learn blizzard spells, so...sort of?

What's so weird about it?

Can they learn magic like you?

Who's going to tell god what to do?

[She shakes her head.]

No, just regular magic.

It just seems like a faulty system to have somebody have that much power without someone to control them, that's all.

Then you should be able to train them to sit on the eggs without a problem.

Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard.

[Pause. Wait a second...Her eyes narrow and her hands go to her hips.]

What would it matter if they had my magic instead of normal magic, huh?

Nothing! Nothing, nothing, it wouldn't matter that much.

[It would totally matter because then maybe he can train some of the chocobos himself to do things for him...]

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