The Phoenix [Cultivation, Reincarnation, Tower Climber]

"The saguaro cactus, also known as the Carnegiea gigantea is a really fascinating plant! Did you know that they're one of the slowest growing plants in the world? They sometimes grow less than an inch per year! And they hold enough water to keep a person alive for over a year! And their flowers…"

Timmy has been talking non-stop ever since we split off from the others. He was completely silent when they were still nearby, but as soon as they were out of earshot, it's like a switch was flipped. I guess it's nice to know that he feels comfortable enough around me to open up, but I'd be lying if I said it's not getting annoying as hell. I let him keep going at first because I figured he'd get tired eventually, but it's been almost an hour now, and I haven't said anything more than "Oh really?" and "I see," and "Mm-hmm."

The only time he stops is when I have to kill a small adder that's actually Peak 1 star and venomous enough to kill both of us a hundred times over. He's already talking again before I even finish collecting its fangs. Now he's going on about the million different kinds of cactus that exist in this desert and their Earth parallels. The ones here aren't identical to the ones from Earth, but they're close, which gives him more to talk about as he points out differences in leaf shape and thorn barbs and things like that.

It's not like it's completely uninteresting. I'm well-versed enough in biology that I recognize just about everything he points out, and he speaks with enough enthusiasm to be engaging, at least in short bursts, but the commentary was also entirely unasked for, and he has a habit of rambling on for minutes at a time on tangents and forgetting what his original point was.

"Hey, Timmy," I say, interrupting something about barrel cactus. "How's your cultivation coming along?"

I already know the answer, of course, but I want to see if I can get him talking about something other than cactus.

"Alright, I guess," he says. "Anyway, barrel cactus usually have hooked thorns, or at least curved thorns, but some species…"

Wow, he didn't even try to engage. I can tell he's at least cultivating regularly, based on his oum, but discussing cultivation is one of the key ways that you improve at cultivating. If he can't do that, he might end up bottlenecked early in his career. And that's if he even makes it far enough to reach that bottleneck. If he's like this with everyone he gets comfortable around, then it'll be hard for him to find a team to take him up the Tower, and there is no way he'll be able to fight well enough to travel alone.

I guess there's that Gloria person who seems to not mind him, but it might be that they're the same type of people. I'm now picturing a female version of Timmy on my other side talking endlessly about succulents and the proper way to care for them. I think even my patience would wear thin with two of them.

It's not really any of my business, since I probably won't see him again, but since I'm here, I might as well give him some advice. Plus, if he takes it, it will be a bit quieter for me.

"Hey, Timmy," I say, interrupting him again. "Do you know what happens when you talk too much?"

"No. What?"

"Other people won't like you."

"Oh…"

"I'm not saying that I dislike you," I continue. "But think about it this way: what happens when you overwater a plant?"

"Well, when there's too much water in the soil, the air can't get in, so the roots can't get any oxygen, and the plant suffocates. There's also a chance of root rot, which is when-"

"So in short, when you overwater a plant, it dies. Right?"

"Yeah."

"Relationships are like plants, and words are like water. You need some words to keep it alive, but if you use too many, the relationship will die. Do you understand?"

"Maybe…" he says, frowning. "But how many words is too many?"

"There's no exact number. And it's different for every relationship. Some relationships are thirsty, and you can talk a lot without killing them. Some are like cacti, and only need a few words, and can even go a long time without words and be fine. It all depends on who the relationship is with."

"But how do I tell?"

"That's the hard part. You need to pay attention to the other person and see how they act to figure it out, just like with a plant. If you overwater a plant, its leaves will start wilting. You can see that, and you can react and start watering it less so that it can be healthy. People don't wilt like plants do, but you can observe similar things."

Timmy nods, his face scrunched up in concentration.

"Another important thing to think about is frequency. Tell me, if I was growing a tomato plant, would it be better to give it a lot of water one day, and then no water for the next seven days, and then a lot of water again, or would it be better to water it a little bit every day."

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"A little bit every day. Though some plants can-"

"It's the same with relationships. If you say all your words at once, the relationship will be a bit strained, and then if you don't say anything for a while after that, it will start to get thirsty for more. It's better to spread it out. Give the relationship some time to absorb the first words before you throw more at it."

"How often should I water the relationship then?"

"That's another tricky part. Just like with how many words the relationship needs, the frequency also depends on the other person. Some people will want to talk often, and some will only want to talk sometimes. You also need to observe carefully so you can figure out exactly what each relationship needs.

"However, one good way to balance the frequency of your words is to make sure you're talking with someone instead of just to them. That means that instead of just telling someone everything you know about saguaro cacti, you maybe say one or two things, and then stop talking so that they have a chance to respond."

"I see," he says, nodding.

Excellent! I think we're actually getting somewhere. I'm sure that his implementation of this advice will be an awkward mess, but it will be a step in the right direction.

"Why don't we do a bit of practice," I say. "I'll give you a scenario, and pretend to be a person, and you have to respond in the right way with the right amount of words."

"Okay!"

He actually looks pretty enthusiastic. Let's see how badly this goes.

"Alright. We'll start with something simple. Imagine that I am Vanessa, and that it's morning. We both just woke up, and are on our way down to the Dining Hall. Got it?"

He nods seriously.

"Alright. I'll start now:

"Good morning, Timmy!"

He stares at me for a few seconds before his eyes widen and he understands what he's supposed to do.

"G-good morning, Bel- Vanessa."

"What are you having for breakfast this morning?"

"I already ate breakfast."

"No, you're supposed to pretend that it's morning. Pretend like you haven't eaten breakfast. Pretend like you're on you're way to breakfast. Let's try again. What are you having for breakfast this morning?"

"Oh. Uhhh. A vegetable omelette! Eggs, mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, and spinach. Oh, and speaking of spinach, did you know that despite its reputation as a superfood, spinach isn't actually quite as good for you as many people believe? While it does have a lot of iron and other vitamins, it also contains a high concentration of oxalates, which make it difficult for your body to absorb those nutrients. Kale, on the other hand…"

I let him ramble for a bit, slowly making my annoyance more and more exaggerated until he finally trails off.

"Was that too many words?" he asks.

"Yes."

"Aww."

"It's okay though," I say. "You noticed eventually, which is better than before. Let's try another one…"

We spend the rest of the morning practicing conversation. Timmy is terrible at it, and barely improves at all. However, he does improve, and the fact that he's actually trying to make conversation now makes it a much more engaging trip. After a little while, I teach him the trick of asking questions to keep the other person engaged, and he fails miserably at that too, but the fact that he is even aware that such a tactic exists is a marked improvement over yesterday. Maybe by the end of the Starter Quest, he'll be able to carry out a normal conversation.

Ha, who am I kidding? This will be a project years in the making. Maybe I'll let Vanessa know what I'm doing so she can carry it on when I'm gone. Not that I care that much, but it would be a lot of wasted effort if no one picks up where I leave off and he reverts.

When noon arrives, we stop in the shade of a large boulder to eat a quick meal. We've found a few spirit beasts and a few weaker herbs and things, but nothing particularly valuable. We have maybe another hour of travel until we need to turn back to make it back to the camp by sunset, and I don't expect to find anything in that time, so I decide to use the time a bit differently.

I noticed earlier that Timmy is struggling a bit with the heat. He's not in danger of collapsing or anything, but it's still really noticeable, especially with how much he talks, since he's half-panting all the time. As we walk for the next hour, I try to help him a bit with using oum to cool off.

Without a Transmutation affinity, his skill in cooling off his oum is limited, but he can still circulate it in his body to help it recover more quickly. I also use him to test out another tactic of using Life affinity oum for this. The human body has its own natural methods for handling heat, the main one being sweat. By channeling life oum while it's hot out, it should theoretically trigger those methods, and while I don't want to check that myself, Timmy gladly follows my instructions.

My hypothesis is proven correct. Channeling life oum with the intent to cool off does indeed make you sweat a lot. Timmy's shirt is pretty much soaked now. It's definitely not an efficient technique, especially in a desert where water is sparse, but it works. Despite it being afternoon and hotter than ever, he looks more comfortable than he did before we stopped to eat.

Nothing noteworthy happens during the rest of our trip, and we make it back to the oasis shortly before sunset. The others are already there, and looking a bit worse for wear. They tell us how they ran into another pair of those giant tortoises, and decided that this time they would actually take them on. No one got injured, but it was a long and exhausting battle that left them all too drained to do much else for the rest of the day.

The next morning, we split up again the same way as before. Timmy and I go off deeper into the desert region, this time at a different angle, while the others search in the area around the oasis for things to hunt. I practice conversing with Timmy again, and he seems to have forgotten everything we discussed yesterday. I have to explain it again, but he picks it up more quickly this time, and makes some almost negligible improvements over yesterday. It's mildly frustrating but progress is progress.

As noon draws near, I begin to think that today will be another unfruitful day, when suddenly, Timmy stops mid-ramble and looks over to the left. It's kind of funny watching him like that. He's almost like a dog catching an interesting scent.

"There's a plant over there," he says.

"Well, then let's go see what it is," I reply.