Logs:Genius
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| RL Date: 15 November, 2009 |
| Who: K'del, P'ax |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr, Crom Hold |
| Type: Log |
| What: P'ax has an idea. |
| Where: K'del's Weyr, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 24, Month 3, Turn 21 (Interval 10) |
| To Cadejoth, Yyth is more alert than usual for this time of day, some hint of color sparkling in the usual darkness. « Cadejoth? » she calls. « Mine wonders if he could have a word with yours? » To Yyth, Cadejoth embraces that colour, letting it gleam between the glossy curves of his chains, using it to jangle their lengths in merry greeting. « Yyth! » he enthuses, extending a snow-covered tendril: more snow! More rain! More miserable, beautiful, wonderful life! « He's at home. Bring yours down. » To Cadejoth, Yyth would smile in heavy lidded contentment if dragons could do so. She settles for the conveyance of the feeling itself. « We'll be just a moment. » K'del's Weyr, High Reaches Weyr Rank certainly has its privileges, and among them are amply appointed apartments. The short flight of stairs from the Weyrleader's Complex opens up into the larger of two chambers, formally decorated and clearly designed to cater as much to important guests as the occupant's personal living. Old, but obviously expensive, llama wool rugs dyed blue-and-black cover the stone floor, leading towards the second chamber, the stairs, and the rush-filled dragon couch and ledge beyond it. A formal seating arrangement - a sofa and chairs, all blue-and-black - sits around a large, tiled fireplace, whilst along the other wall, a finely made, if now somewhat antique, desk sits between a bookshelf and a tall cupboard to which tack-hooks have been attached, riding gear arranged neatly inside. Two tapestries hung from the high walls depict overdone splendour for High Reaches Weyr, one a long view of the snow-covered bowl, and the other a hazy impressionist piece of dragons flaming over a springtime countryside. The inner weyr, made up of a sleeping cavern and a private bathing area, is smaller and cosier and distinctly less ostentatious. An oversized wooden sleigh bed fills much of the space, the mattress piled high with overstuffed down pillows and comforter, their covers dyed in varying shades of navy blue, light blue and bronze. There's a nightstand on either side, both with reading lamps, and against one of the other walls, a tall, heavy wardrobe made from a dark wood that matches the bed. The bathing area is part of the same cavern, a folding screen shielding the toilet and slightly raised, double-sized bathtub built into the stone, and a small shelf holding toiletries, shaving equipment, and clean towels. Cadejoth's wordless response is one of continued enthusiasm: he'll be waiting. His rider, of course, but Cadejoth himself, as well. K'del sits on the floor in his weyr, cross legged, with his straps spread out around him; he leans down, inspecting the stitching on them carefully, though he's apparently yet to reach for needle and thread to do any particular repair works. It's warm in the weyr, and there's klah already brewing by the hearth. Yyth comes fresh out of Between and makes for Cadejoth's ledge, turning one neat turn to adjust the angle of her incoming and land. P'ax leaps down from her back with a weyrhide bag clutched in one hand, weighed down heavily at the bottom but empty otherwise. He pauses out on the ledge to shake snow off his head and shoulders and stomp his boots a few times before heading into the weyr itself. "Bless whoever invented fire," he announces fervently as he comes into the warmth, rubbing his cold-pinked face vigorously with one hand. "Pretty sure it's kind of... natural," returns K'del, looking up from his work gratefully: oh look, a reason not to really get into those straps! "Though bless the people who worked out internal fireplaces, anyway." He stumbles to his feet, using the back of his desk chair to drag himself up, then adds, "Come on in and get warm. Something up?" Cadejoth courteously offers Yyth a position with relative shelter from the wind - or even the couch, if she wants to go /inside/ - though he seems content to watch the mess of it: /weather/. Such fun! P'ax shrugs his shoulders. "Somebody had to figure out how to get it started without lightning, or spontaneous ignition or...well, you know." He tosses his hand, throwing that line of conversation away, and moves towards the fireplace as he peels his riding jacket off. The bag gets set down on the table on his way though. "Only that I might be a genius. It's possible, at the very least, if it would /work/." Whatever it is. Yyth is definitely not one to pass up a good weather show and hunkers down next to Cadejoth, leaning into him and turning her gaze out there. It's a point K'del seems willing enough to concede, bobbing his head easily enough as he makes his way around the back of the couch towards the fireplace, the klah pot, and P'ax himself. "A genius?" he repeats, then, head tipped in the greenrider's direction. "Want to explain exactly what it is you're on about, maybe? I'm completely lost." Cadejoth extends a wing over Yyth, snuggling in contentedly. Mm: rain. P'ax says loftily, "Well you should be with me on the genius part at least." With his jacket hung up he turns on the bag. Opening it up, he fishes until he pulls out two rocks roughly the size of two fists put together. Both are fairly unremarkable, typical mountain rock, mostly identical even. "This --" he holds up one that has a little more quartz in it, "is from our Crom field. And this one --" the other is put forward, "came from a granite slide I found while hiking two summers ago." "Sure," says K'del, indulgently; if P'ax wants to be a genius, he's not going to say anything to deny it. Not without reason, anyway. He stills, as P'ax draws out the rocks, his brow furrowing in mild confusion and deeper consideration. "And?" he asks, gaze tilting from one rock to the other. "They're the same, more or less, right?" P'ax nods his head slowly as K'del seems to catch on. "Browden wants a fence, right? And I'm guessing that he knows about the pegmatites, unofficially. Well, if we switch the boulders in our field with rocks from that slide -- what can he do, K'del? He'd get his fence, we'd keep our deal with the miner craft, and he couldn't raise a complaint against us without giving away that he knew about the crystals all along." Dryly, and unhappily, "Sometimes it feels like he knows far more than he possibly can." But that's an affirmative on several counts, K'del's head bobbing up and down carefully and with obvious interest. He lets out a long breath, then, turning his attention away from P'ax and towards the wall, the hearth, anything at all. "I-- maybe you really are a genius, P'ax. Let me just think a minute. This slide of yours, it's not on anyone else's land? Couldn't be accused of stealing or anything? Not worth anything?" P'ax shrugs his shoulders, "Nobody's that I know of. The mountains up north aren't good for anything except wandering around in when you're bored and trying to find a quiet place, you know. There's no soil to grow in, no access except to fly in, pretty useless to a Holder. I think I could show you on a map if you want to double check coverage though. And it's just... you know...rock. Boring nothing rock. Granite's awful stuff, it cracks straight down the face of a mountain and pretty soon a whole slab comes down and you've got a pile of rocks coming down on top of your head with no warning and a new cliff face to stare at." Thinky face continues to look thinky; K'del takes a few deep breaths as though he's about to say something more, then cuts it off to frown again. Finally; "So it'd need to be... mined out of the mountain, effectively? Some chunks pulled out, anyway, and then transported to Crom, and put together. No idea how walls like that get made, but probably just..." He breaks off, waving his hand vaguely to indicate 'I have some idea, probably, when it comes down to it, but not enough to describe it'. He takes a breath, then adds, "Can I get you to go talk to one of the miners and just... see? Run it past them, to make sure it's all above board? Just quietly." P'ax grins at K'del, "Way ahead of you, I already have an idea on how to get the rocks out and moved." But, smugness aside, he nods seriously. "Sure, sure, I can definitely do that." K'del rubs at his eyes, blinks, then rubs at them again. "Got it all worked out, haven't you?" he remarks, head shaking. "Good for you. And-- thanks. Appreciate that. Want to make absolute certain that everything works with it, but... it sounds /good/. Gets us out of an awkward spot, that's for sure. How'd it occur to you?" P'ax rubs the palm of his hand across his mouth and says, "If anyone's going to counter that sneaky tunnelsnake, it's probably going to be another tunnelsnake. But I just figured... he'd locked himself into a tricky spot. He more or less gave away that he knew the value of those rocks and now it makes sense why he was so hot for that particular field, you know? It wouldn't even surprise me if he'd found boulders like that on his own land and that's how he got the money for all that farm equipment. It just...made sense though. We thought they were just boring old rocks at first too, right? And he's about as much of a miner as we are. I bet by the time he catches on, he'll have torn the wall apart already and then he wont even have a fence to show for it." He stops babbling and starts laughing at himself. "Faranth, he's going to be mad." "That's the only problem," murmurs K'del, with a bob of his head for emphasis at the last of P'ax's words. "Him being mad. What he'll try next. Except... what can he? And that shouldn't stop us: we'd be outright stupid not to protect our own interests. One small holder... can't hurt us that much." He seems to be mostly thinking aloud as he says all of this, tangled up in his own thoughts until; "Reckon you might be right, though. Sneaky son-of-a... Can talk to Lord Crom if things get really bad, though I'd rather avoid that, you know? Still can't be absolutely sure we can trust him, either." Beat. "Thanks, P'ax. Could just have gotten us out of a really awkward spot." He grins. Deadpan: "I told you I was a genius." P'ax's ego hardly needs the inflation lately, either. "Anyway, I'll talk to that miner. If it all works the way I'm thinking, we're going to need big dragons to do the hoisting -- and a safe place to put the boulders from the field." K'del only smirks at that, neither confirming or denying this statement, though it only seems inclined to make him laugh. "Great. Right: can get the dragons for that, easily. Use the same slings we were using for our own boulders. Which really ought to get sent straight to the minecraft, once we're absolutely sure all of this is going to work. Sooner we do that, the better, make sure Browden can't make any objections, or work it out in advance." He's thinking out loud again. "Anything else you need from me for this now?" P'ax knows the truth, it's okay. "Sure thing, boss." He drops a cocky salute. "I think that covers it." He gets his jacket, now nice and warm thanks to the fire, and puts the rocks back in the bag to take to the miner. "I'll let you know how it goes." The salute only makes K'del laugh again. "Thanks," he says again, turning so he can face P'ax directly. "Appreciate it. Keep me informed, keep warm, all that. Got to be Spring soon, right?" Making a face; "Guess I ought to get back to my straps." "Spring, yep. Good luck on your straps." With that, P'ax stuffs his hands in his pockets and takes the inside passage down to the bowl, leaving Yyth to snuggle with Cadejoth awhile longer. |
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