Carnelian

[wip]
You move around the rows of beehives, making sure that there is plenty of distance between you and the bees. You're pretty sure you won't get stung if you leave them alone, but who knows, right? Everything about this clan is weird.

After a few minutes of careful shuffling, you spot the nearby garden plot. There's a row of pulled weeds accompanying the rows of plants. You spot a spiral working in the garden yanking out the weeds. It only takes him one good pull to get them out, roots and all. You recall the time your mother made you weed the garden when you were a kid, and your hands ache in sympathy.

As you walk up to him, you call out "hello?". The spiral looks up from his work and then over his shoulder.

"Oh, hi," he says. He doesn't look surprised to see you. News really does travel around the island fast, huh? "Visitor, I presume?"

You nod in response.

"It's good to meet you. I'm Carnelian. I do a few things around here. Beekeeping, growing food, helping Dahlia out with the archives... speaking of which, if you have the time, could you tell her I'm done updating faction info? Both the physical copy and the digital copy. You're free to have a look too."



"Mm. Sure. I'll be moving around here and there, so you'll have to follow me though," he says. He squats and tears another weed from the plant bed. Carnelian brushes the soil off with his hand before tossing it into the pile and reaching for another weed.



"Yup. Well, it's really just me, Victoria, and Elza, but if you do the math, that's still technically 25% of the population here. A bit more if you count Andesine, but she just lends a hand here and there when she's got spare time." Carnelian pauses and wipes some sweat off his forehead with his forearm.

"Having the bees is a big benefit, though. We get honey and beeswax, and they pollinate our crops."


"Pretty well. We're lucky that the folks here are generally kind and sensible. Not sure if I would really call any of them friends except for Dahlia, who I knew before coming here. Mm, what else..." the spiral falls into a contemplative silence.

"Oh, right. You'll probably hear quite a few people complain about Juniper, though. I don't blame the others for feeling the way they feel about them, but I personally don't dislike them that much. Mostly because those two are scared of bees, and I spend a lot of time around my hives."


"Was going to move to this clan. Stumbled across this island instead. At the time, it was only Victoria and Elza who were living here. Warned me about the true nature of the clan. I couldn't really go anywhere else, so I decided to stay." The spiral pulls out the last weed in the current row of plants. He gets up to move to the next row, and you follow.


"More or less what I do now. Keeping bees. Growing fruits and veggies. Didn't take part in tracking the actions of a vengeful god, though."


"To be honest, the life I live here is pretty similar to the one I was expecting to have if I moved into the clan. It's not all that bad."


The spiral sighs and adjusts his gloves.

"That's hard to say. I try to have realistic expectations, and at this point in time, I can't confidently tell you whether or not Adrienne will succeed. Of course I want her to be defeated, but there's not much use in just hoping."


"That's something to worry about far into a future that might not ever happen. I'll think about it if the time comes."


Carnelian nods.

"No problem. And thanks."

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