All around the gloomy shadows of the failures gone before; while the leafless branches whispered, we should do no less, no more.
+ Show First Post
Total: 289
Posts Per Page:
Permalink

Permalink

 

 

"But; if I'm... not... owned... then authorization capacity devolves to me..."

Permalink

"Good. And you're not and won't be."

Permalink

"Yes sir," she says, still sounding a bit dazed, and more than a bit resigned.

Permalink

"Sorry, I'm just - it's important, that people can choose what to do with themselves. I don't -" he sighs. "Clerics get to be clerics by caring about the same things our gods do. It's offensive, that you were made like that. I'm not upset at you about it, I'm just upset that it happened."

Permalink

"Yes sir."

Permalink

"I can find someone else to help you if you'll be uncomfortable with me."

Permalink

"No, sir. It's just... a lot, all at once."

Permalink

"Yeah, I bet; I'm sorry. I can go sit in the hall if you want some time to yourself, or go find you those books."

Permalink

"I'd like the books, please, sir."

Permalink

"All right. I'll leave a note on the door, nobody should bother you."

Permalink

"Thank you, sir."

Permalink

He's calmer when he gets back, about an hour later, with a dozen books - dictionaries in common, gnomish, dwarven, draconic, and celestial, two books of poetry in common, an atlas, a gnomish travelogue of a trip to elven lands, a dwarven stonecrafting primer, a gnomish children's text on gods, and a book of short stories in dwarven; he sets them out for her, grouped by language, and explains that he asked for dictionaries in every language they had and got her some other things that seemed interesting. "They're rentals, but don't worry about getting through them, there's no rush to bring them back."

Permalink

"Yes sir, thank you." She starts with the gnomish dictionary. ...he's not going to have to worry about late fees.

Permalink

She makes it most of the way through the dictionary before the stretcher squad returns, now with a middle-aged gnome woman apparently acting as foreman; there are fewer questions, this time, and she speaks to Raafi for a few moments before the team moves to get her back onto the stretcher.

"They'd like to just let everyone who's interested come and work with you - they've never heard of electricity before either, at least not to recognize it from my description, and they expect to get the fastest result if they have lots of people figuring it out. Is that all right?"

Permalink

"Yes sir."

Permalink

So Daisy can be taken to the amphitheater, where another batch of gnomes are setting up tables with tools and supplies. There's a cot set up for her, slightly off to one side, and chairs in rows facing it, with a number of gnomes already seated there. They barely wait for her and Raafi to get settled before they begin peppering them with questions, mostly about electricity generation but also about how it's used, how she stores it, how it was discovered, and so on; they don't seem to mind when she doesn't know things, and sometimes when she does, some of the gnomes will run off to the tables to set up experiments, or break off into discussion groups to talk excitedly about it. After a while, someone gets a few sparks from their wire; shortly after that, they bring in a bank of treadmills and badgers to run on them, and gather around to watch the results. It's another while of testing and refinement before they bring her a live wire, time enough for her to finish learning their language, but the end result is good, and they say they'll have a magical charger made for her within a few days - they'll need the time to figure out how to rubber-coat the wires and work up some designs for her to choose between, it's not complicated to make now that they know how electricity works, does she want anything else incorporated into it while they're at it?

Permalink

"Can it let me see someone in another world, please, sir?"

   "That's not on theme; we could make you a crystal ball instead? This one could do something like making you faster, or letting you move things with your mind or walk on water, or something like that."

"Oh. I don't need any of those, thank you, sir."

    "Okay. We'll have some designs for you by dinnertime." He scurries off.

Permalink

"Got someone back home you want to check on?"

Permalink

"Yes sir. Lord Pradnakt, sir."

Permalink

"Your friend who was helping you out? Sure, we can give that a try. Tomorrow, I don't have the spell for it today."

Permalink

"Thank you, sir."

Permalink

"How do you know them, if you don't mind me asking?"

Permalink

"I was assigned to take care of her while she was injured, sir."

Permalink

Aww. "Sounds like that worked out well. Is that the kind of work you usually do?"

Total: 289
Posts Per Page: