Astrid may be a noble, but she doesn’t know the different parts of speech such as a noun, verb, participle, adjective, and so on. So with Cronan having defined it, she herself learns something new. That kind of information must be important for some people, but it’s the first time she’s hearing of it. Honestly, it’s impressive that the kid can read and write at all considering she spent half her life on the streets.

“Aye, Blue’s not great at lyin’,” Astrid says, nodding in agreement. “Honesty’s a good policy, but there’s certain stuff ya gotta keep secret fer yer own safety. Much as I don’t like when folks lie ta me, I know some people got good reasons fer it.”

What she can’t answer is the question about the internal pocket dimension, so she’s happy to let Cronan explain. “Ah, that sounds like yer ability ta store… just about anythin’ inside yerself, Blue. Except that ya just eat it.”

Looking Cronan up and down, Astrid scratches her head. “If yer armor is…yer… skin, how do ya store stuff inside yerself? How’s someone gonna repair ya?” It’s not that she expects the freshly woken Cronan to have the answers so much as she’s wondering aloud.

"Hm. Ok. I forgive you too." Blue mumbled. They weren't really mad at Cronan for not telling them they were a living suit of armor since they understood exactly why he'd want to keep that a secret. But, shapeshifting was their specialty, and even if their skill at it came from their being an ooze, it still was sort of magic, wasn't it? It wasn't worth arguing over though, so they just let it go. They wanted to be friends and arguing over something like that wouldn't be a good way to start.

A bag of holding? What a weird name. Isn't every bag made for holding stuff? It still didn't make sense to the ooze. And what the heck is a noun? Ah, they wished Cronan would talk with smaller words instead of getting all fancy. Finally, Astrid spoke up and explained it in a way Blue could understand.

"Oh, so you mean you got a big stomach! Why didn't you just say that?" Blue said as they thudded a fist against the front of their armor. "I got a real big stomach too. Got all sorts of stuff in there. Can't put anything alive in there though. Not without digesting it..." Blue shrugged.

Blue got up and stood in front of Cronan, putting their smooth, gooey face in front of the living armor's helmet to take a look into their eye slit very similarly to how Cronan had looked into their own helmet when the two had first met. They couldn't see anything in there but darkness.

"So, if you can't take your helmet off, how do you eat things? I don't see anywhere to put stuff in except your eye slit, and that's not gonna fit much. I can't see anything inside it either."

Blue backed up, putting their fists on their waist. Blue looked at Astrid who also seemed perplexed by Cronan. The two of them were now both very curious about how the living armor worked. Blue suddenly had an idea and looked back to Cronan again.

"What if I took a closer look? I could turn real small and crawl inside your eye slit and see if I can find anything."

"I would prefer if you didn't enter through my eyes, Blue. I am unsure what would happen to flesh and bone - or in your case, Ooze - if you were to enter the pocket dimension." He pauses and tilts his head to the side. He hasn't actually stored anything before, but like flexing a 'muscle', he opens his helmet.

The helmet hisses for a moment before six distinct parts that make up the 'face' of Cronan click out of place and split apart, revealing the interior of Cronans helmet. Even with the helmet open, it's impossible to see the back of the helmet as a dark smoke pours out of the opening, disappearing just before touching the ground.

Cronan takes a nearby object - he doesn't know what it is. It was on a table and Cronan is going to be borrowing it for a moment. He puts the item infront of his face, where the smoke suddenly whips out in a startling snap of activity and yanks the object into the hollow interior of Cronan. His helmet closes up with a click.

Extending his hand, his glove does much the same as his helmet as it opens up and the item from before rises out and levitates there with the assistance of the smoke. Taking the item with his free hand, the smoke returns and the gauntlet closes back up. Cronan places the item back where he found it, lightly adjusting the position of it so it's symmetrical with the other items on the bench.

"That is how I store and retrieve things. As for healing, I am.. unsure. And it is not a stomach, for I am unable to consume or digest food." Cronan states bluntly. He's a suit of animated armor, for gods sakes, of course he can't digest food! What sort of suit of armor can eat? That would be ridiculous.

Watching Cronan’s helmet unclick and open on its own then seeing the smoke pouring out before he produces the object, a small tinkering hammer, from his wrist, Astrid breathes out, “Whoaaaa…” Though, she is cautious not to inhale any of the weird black smoke that lingers. “That’s… really neat, if I’m bein’ honest.” Astrid is incredibly interested in the way that all of that looks and works. Her eyes wander over to Blue, interested in how she could make something similar for them.

Looking between Cronan and Blue, Astrid considers that yeah, she has some pretty neat friends, doesn’t she?

She rubs her chin, letting her mind wander curiously about how on earth Cronan operates. Magic definitely plays a part rather than mechanics, which makes enough sense. She wonders if he’s like a golem, but most golems don’t possess the same wherewithal that he does. Glancing around, Astrid grabs a stepstool and sets it down. “Do ya mind if I take a closer look at the stuff engraved on ya?” she asks before stepping up for a closer look – if allowed. “Might give us some clues about who or what made ya.”

Of all things that Blue could be after witnessing such a strange scene as the face of Cronana's helmet opening up to have black smoke come out and whisk away a hammer into the darkness within just to rematerialize it in his hand, afraid or surprised they were not.

"Wooh, do it again!" Blue cheered, clapping. Nope, of all the things they could be after that, they were excited and amused. They had a very similar ability to consume things and then spit them back out somewhere else on their body, so seeing Cronan do it made them happy. Maybe the ooze wasn't as weird as they thought.

Blue picked up a different hammer and, with much less grace or showmanship than Cronan, just shoved it straight into their face. It sank into the blue goo and disappeared without a trace. Blue raised their gauntleted hand in front of them. Similarly to how Cronan's had , the plates of their armor separated to make a hole in the palm and reveal the blue ooze beneath. The same hammer they'd just eaten emerged and they placed it haphazardly on the table.

Blue was just as curious about Cronan as Astrid was, but their approach was far less scientific.

"Does anywhere else on your armor open up? Is it just your helmet and hands? Are you sure you don't have a stomach? Have you ever tried eating anything before? Here, try this!" Blue asked and then grabbed the sandwich Astrid hadn't finished, holding the plate out for Cronan to take. Honestly, they'd really wanted to eat the sandwich themself, but they could get something else to eat later. There was plenty of food and stuff in the house for the ooze to eat.

Cronans attention was initially on Astrid, who was now offering to help him. He was about to respond before Blue had interjected with a hundred questions and shoving a.. square on a circle on front of him. Using context, he's assuming this is a sort of food, but Cronan doesn't eat. Didn't he say this already?

"My apologies, but I can confirm that I do not have a stomach. 'Consuming' this would merely store it. I do not have any way to consume food, nor do I wish to. And it is only my helmet and gauntlets that can open. Again, my apologies." His attention returns to Astrid.

"Please, by all means. Do you need me to crouch down for you?" He answers. He's unsure what is so entertaining or fascinating about Cronan storing items, but there is no harm done, so it doesn't bother him. Now, Cronan is unsure if Astrid has a stepping stool or something to get up to his pauldrons where the engravings have any obvious meaning.

These two seem quite kind. Cronan is still confused on how a child got this much equipment. Perhaps it's normal, but something tells Cronan that isn't the case usually. He would have a furrowed brow by now if he had any eyebrows to begin with.

Cronan also doesn't know what exactly is on his pauldrons. He knows there's engravings there, but of what, he is unsure. Perhaps it will give him some insight in his past - if there even is one.

Watching Blue replicate what Cronan did but in their own version brings a small smile to Astrid’s face. “Yer both two… states of matter in a suit of armor, ain’t ya?” Two peas in a pod would probably go over Blue’s head. So will the states of matter comment, actually. It’s fine, she can explain it later.

“Ya wouldn’t have a stomach if ya don’t have any insides besides a buncha smoke, I s’pose,” Astrid says, walking across the workshop to pick up a stool. “Blue, technically, I don’t think ya have a stomach either. Yer just all ooze. Yer whole self is kinda some self-contained stomach or somethin’. But sayin’ stomach’s simple enough an’ works ta get it across.” As she sets the stool down beside Cronan, Astrid raps her knuckles against the belly area of Cronan’s armor. “If ya sorta store stuff in here, I think ya could say ya keep stuff in yer ‘stomach,’ too.”

Before she climbs up, Astrid takes the sandwich off the plate and offers it to Blue, having seen them looking at it with hungry eyes. She can make another one later.

Finally, the half-dwarf, with a few tools tucked into her belt and pockets, steps up on the stool to take a closer look at the engravings on Cronan’s pauldrons, looking especially closely for anything akin to runes – not that she can really read them, but discovering them is the first step.

Nope, Blue didn't understand what Astrid was talking about at all. They were a state of matter? They didn't think anything was the matter with them at the moment. Other than them feeling hungry after not eating anything for hours while they flew all the way home from Sol City. They took the sandwich happily and shoved the whole thing into their blank face, followed by the empty plate.

Blue tried to comprehend just what Astrid was saying. So, they didn't have a stomach, but their whole body was like a stomach? But, then what about the dimension thing they were talking about before? Wasn't that Blue's stomach? At least, that was pretty much what Blue had thought. And there was something Astrid was mistaken about.

"I'm not just all ooze." Blue replied, their slime emerging from the gaps in their armor and engulfing it, storing it away to leave the ooze standing there in just their humanoid-shaped ooze form. In the center of what was approximately their chest, a glowing white, orange-sized sphere that sparked with both blue and red lightning emerged until it was about halfway embedded in the ooze.

"I got this thing too! It's my core or something. I can just tell it's part of me." Blue explained before the core sank back into the ooze, the slight glow visible through the blue goo fading until it was gone. "I usually keep it safe inside my stomach, that pocket dimension thing, so it doesn't get broken. I feel like it'd be really bad if it broke. Like it would hurt a lot."

Blue looked at Cronan with a sudden idea. "Maybe you have something like that too. My armor's not part of me, but it is part of you. It would hurt a lot of it broke. Maybe your armor is your core? It's weird that it's on the outside though."

Maybe Blue and Cronan had more similarities than they'd thought. They were both some nonsolid substance with one solid thing that was part of them. Maybe Cronan was something like an inside-out Blue Raspberry, with their armor on the outside and their smoke on the inside while Blue kept their goo on the outside and their core on the inside. Unless he had some other thing inside him that served as his core? There was still a lot to investigate, starting with the engravings on the armor.

"I must insist, Miss Astrid, that it is not a stomach. One does not store objects in a stomach, if I have my facts correct." Cronan insists, standing still but looking at Astrid as she inspects his pauldrons. Emblazoned in the same gold appears to be scenes of battle. There are a number of these scenes, with one particular figure that closely resembles Cronan standing over fallen foes, wielding what looks to be an unreasonably sized sword. There is no writing to speak of, but it almost seems celebrating past victories in battle.

Off of the pauldrons, however, is a different story. From a distance, they are impossible to see, but under close scrutiny, very faint engravings into the onyx steel are barely visible. They aren't highlighted in the gold, and do look like runes. However, there is something off with them. Perhaps somebody more familiar would be able to figure out what is wrong with them.

"And I do not believe I am the smoke. Unlike Blue, my armor acts as a skin on which I am able to sense touch, temperature and pain to a certain extent. I do not believe that, if I were the smoke, my sense of touch would be possible. It is an interesting thought, however." He says after considering the smoke idea for a moment. In a rough sense, perhaps the smoke is a part of him.

"I suppose it is similar to how you, Astrid, are not specifically your heart and lungs, but you are a sum of everything you are. Everything that you are made of makes up You. The same could be said for Blue and his core. He is both the Ooze as well as the core, and I suppose I could be both the smoke as well as the armor. Hm, I will have to think on this."

"As for the core, Blue. I am unsure if I have one. Perhaps I do, but this appears to be one of the many things I am unsure about. I will have to do research, but seeing as you are in possession of one, it makes it more likely that I am, as well. Anyway, Miss Astrid, may I ask what you are seeing?"

“Well, actually, ya store eaten food inside of yer stomach…” She tries so hard not to sass, but it’s not necessarily incorrect. “Some folks can store other stuff an’ then barf it up later, but that ain’t common or safe practice, I don’t think…”

As Astrid looks over the engravings on Cronan’s pauldrons, her attention gets pulled away by the strange glowing core that Blue presents from their chest. She looks completely baffled by this information. “Yer…core?” This is the first she’s hearing of that, but then again, she hasn’t asked Blue all that much about themself because they don’t have all that many memories that would be able to answer that question.

Great, now she has something else to tinker with if Blue lets her. Turning back to Cronan, she murmurs, _{“I wanna see that again later.”}

Tracing her gloves over the engravings on the bronze, Astrid reaches into a pocket and pulls out a furled-up, somehow perfectly pristine piece of paper. Without her writing on it herself, images start appearing on the parchment almost exactly replicating the engravings of the battle, enemies felled by the mighty warrior with the large sword. She looks over the paper then presents it to Cronan, holding it in front of his face so he can take it to look at it.

“Did ya have a big sword when ya woke up?” she asks, going back to investigating the various facets of the armor. During her investigation, she almost misses the faint runes, but her ability to identify a scratch in polished armor means her eyes take notice. As Astrid looks over the runes, they start to manifest in an empty space on the parchment she offered Cronan. “Any idea what those say?”

---

Wanted Poster

"Well, I store objects in my stomach." Blue stated matter-of-factly, picking up a random tool from the table, in this case something that looked like a some kind of metal, swirly cone on a stick, and nonchalantly shoving it into the front of their slimy blue torso. "See?"

They hoped Astrid would be too preoccupied with examining Cronan to notice them eating her tools... again...

"Oooh, maybe you have a big sword in your stomach! That'd be pretty cool!" Blue said excitedly, completely disregarding all of Cronan's protests about having a stomach. Of all things, the one part of the living armor that the ooze couldn't wrap their mind around was the idea of not having a stomach, especially after Cronan's display of "eating" something earlier.

"Hm, so if you're the smoke and the armor..." Blue stood, trying to contemplate things, but they weren't very good at thinking very deeply about anything. It made some sense. Blue was both the slime and their core. They were just two parts of the one being. It wouldn't be absurd to think Cronan was the same, being made up of both their armor and the smoke inside it. Maybe they were thinking about it the wrong way.

"Can you control the smoke to do other things? I can control my ooze to do all sorts of stuff. Have you tried sort of... just ummmm..." Blue tried to think of a good way to explain what they were thinking, but was coming up short. In the end, the best idea they could come up with was just a physical display. "Something like this?"

Blue held up their hands and the smooth, rounded tips of their slimy fingers suddenly sharpened and solidified into fierce-looking claws.

"I would hardly consider misuse of an organ to be defined as it's primary function. However, I suppose I see where your logic lies." Cronan responds after a few moments of pondering. Storage insinuates an intent to use the item again at another time, so if you put something in another object with the knowledge that you will never see that particular item again, is it still storing it? Cronan is unsure.

Being presented with the image, Cronan looks down at the parchment, cocking his head to the side. "Interesting. These feel vaguely familiar, however I cannot recall what they are from. I am certain these are events from some time ago, however. And yes, I did have what once was a large blade such as that. It was however damaged beyond repair when I awoke." Cronan extends his hand back out, palm up as the gauntlet opens up. The size of the opening is very much not able to let a greatsword through, which is why it doesn't.

What happens instead is the blade begins almost constructing itself above Cronans hand, starting at the pommel and moving up. Small fragments of the hilt, metal, wood and leather fly out of the gap from his palm and attach themselves to the hovering weapon. It takes about thirty seconds to complete what seems to be an incredibly large blade, except the blade has been shattered, 3/4ths of the blade is simply missing, leaving behind the hilt and a broken blade.

Once the construction is completed, the hilt falls into Cronans waiting hand. "I will have to commission another one at a later date. For the time being, I have a longsword that will function just fine. I must say, that it feels wrong to use anything other than what this brilliant blade once was." Cronan then proceeds to do the same thing but backwards as the blade begins to deconstruct itself, the shrapnel and fragments re-entering Cronan.

Once his little display was finished, Cronan returns his attention to the parchment which now has writing. He cocks his head to the side, confused. "This is Draconic. Primarily, they are arrays of Animation, Protection and Mending. However, there are a few Mana Siphons scattered around. There are two in the segment you captured. Here, and here." Cronan points out the Mana-Siphons before pointing out the previous arrays he mentioned.

As Blue speaks up, Cronan looks over. It appears that Cronan doesn't have the best attention span. Cronan looks down to his gauntlet and tries to mimic what Blue did. Flowing out of various gaps in Cronans armor is the smoke which pools around Cronans hand, then morphs into Gothic-esqe claws. "Apparently, I am able to do that. How interesting.." The smoke returns to the interior of Cronans armor as he drops his hand. "And Blue, it is a Pocket Dimension, not a stomach."

Cronan is just one interesting surprise after another, Astrid decides. It makes her giddy to get to talk to him! She shoots Blue an excited grin as if to thank the ooze for bringing their new friend over only to see them consuming one of her smaller prototype drills. Her expression drops into one that can only be described as unimpressed. She doesn’t say anything though. Blue will know.

Then she turns back to Cronan as he points out the different runes. “Interestin’ that ya can read them…” Astrid murmurs. As Cronan reads the runes, the parchment labels what they mean – something for Astrid to write down permanently later. The runes and images on the paper start to rearrange themselves as Astrid looks at more runes for anything new, but she’s quickly distracted by Cronan’s interesting piecemeal way of manifesting a broken blade.

Her eyes glimmer with excitement, and her face says, “NEW PROJECT.” “This is so cooooool,” Astrid squeals quietly. She starts examining the blade resting in Cronan’s hand for a moment before it starts disappearing again. Curiously, she looks at the engraving of the blade in the warrior’s hand etched into the pauldron wondering if it looks the same.

“If ya’d like, I don’t mind workin’ on fixin’ ya up a new blade,” she says. "Yer standin' in me workshop, after all. I got two perfectly good forges over there."

Blue knew exactly what that look meant. They sheepishly pulled the prototype drill back out and put it back on the table, clearly caught in the act. Playing dumb didn't work on Astrid. She knew too well just how dumb Blue could be.

The ooze didn't understand any of what Astrid and Cronan were talking about. The squiggles and lines on Cronan's armor didn't even look like writing at all the Blue. Granted, even if it was written in plain Common, they wouldn't be able to read it, but still. How could anyone read these?

Blue felt proud seeing Cronan morph the shadowy stuff into claws. It was like they'd imparted some of their oozey knowledge upon the living armor. They wondered just what else Cronan could do with the shadows.

"You really did have a big sword in your stomach!" Blue gasped, amazed. They would never not think of the pocket dimension inside Cronan as a stomach no matter how much the living armor protested or tried to correct them. "It's a bit broken though..." Blue mumbled, a little disappointed.

"Yeah! Astrid could totally fix that! She fixes all sorts of stuff. She always fixes my armor when it gets messed up."

Cronan looked at Astrid's excited expression and for the first time, Cronan chuckled. "You seem awfully excited about this, Astrid." He says with an amused tone. Indeed, the broken blade that Cronan just showed off appears to be the same. The cross guard and various details look almost exact. Well, as close as you could get it on an engraving.

Turning his head to Blue, he watches as the ooze puts down the.. item with an embarrassed look. Is this a normal occurrence? Blue seems to do that an awful lot. His attention is once again arrested by Astrid offering to repair the blade. This.. Cronan doesn't have the word for it but.. If he had to correlate it to a color, it would probably be yellow. He's found that if he doesn't have the name for an emotion, correlating it to a color helps him a bit. "You'll repair it? May I observe you doing so? I would be lying if I were to say I am not curious on how you work the forges. I will be more than happy to pay you, however I am unsure on the value of such a service."

"Oh, and yes, apparently I can read draconic. I am unsure on where I learnt the skill, for I do not believe I can speak it, merely read and translate it. Curious.." Cronan then turns back to Blue, eternally patient with the ooze. "It is not a stomach, my friend. It is a pocket dimension. They are distinctly different."

It seems that Cronan is awfully patient with things - perhaps too patient. It wouldn't be out of reason for somebody to get annoyed by now, but not Cronan. "How often does your armor get damaged? Would it not be ideal for you to learn to use the forges yourself so you needn't rely on Astrid for your repairs?" It makes sense in Cronan's mind. Hell, if Cronan and Astrid continue and become friends at some point, he would be interested in learning how to operate them as well. That, however, is largely up to the blacksmith herself.