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Post by Morgan on Sept 1, 2020 15:12:05 GMT -6
It was a curious thing to notice about the draconic. Morgan was learning more about him as time went on. "Alright." They said simply. They went to sit down their backpack, put the flashlight on the ground pointing up so that they could see. The little cave that they had chosen looked like it had already been worked in before, but Morgan did not mind at all. They hardly knew how to do this, anyway. It was the first time they were going out to mine at all. "I'm gonna admit-" Morgan starts, rummaging in the backpack now that they had time. "I don't know how to use like, h-half of these." They pulled out the most innocuous looking thing, the shovel. They knew how to use a shovel, at least. Endymion looks into the backpack as well from a bit backed up, curious as to the use of some of these objects.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 1, 2020 15:19:53 GMT -6
Morgan hoped to do more research before coming down here again, in the future. For now, they looked down at the shovel a little stupidly, turned to Endymion with a confident expression, and began using the shovel to dig into the earth. Endymion simply sits, and watches, with curiosity. It was pretty obvious to Morgan that Endymion was questioning the efficiency of simply digging in the dirt of the floor instead of going after the rock walls around them. The human tried to ignore his expression of doubt, and instead put all their strength into digging (of which there was not much at all). They barely broke ground before feeling pretty tired, but they kept on anyway. They weren't going to be the best miner ever, and they really didn't have to be. They didn't really need all of the gems that they would theoretically find anyway. It wasn't like Morgan was hurting for money.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 1, 2020 19:39:32 GMT -6
Morgan also didn't make jewelry or anything like that. But they knew ways of getting rid of gems. They were as good as credits in the lab, and better than credits outside of the labs city, so they figured it wouldn't hurt to get a few of them dug out of the earth on their own instead of transferring credits to gems and using them to barter outside of the labs and then getting them transferred back to credits all of the time. They tried to think about this kind of thing while they did the work of trying to dig things out of the dirt, and finally, they got too tired in the arms to keep doing the work. They stood up, shaking in the arms. They really weren't made to do this kind of work. It wasn't really befitting of them, either. Endymion was watching them, with curiosity on his face.
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Post by Jack on Sept 1, 2020 19:50:35 GMT -6
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 8:13:05 GMT -6
Morgan leaned the shovel up against the rock wall and wiped their brow with a cloth pulled from their pocket. Endymion hummed a light noise when Morgan looked at him in his bright blue eyes (another of those things that he must have picked up from Morgan- it was amazing how quickly he was picking up Morgan's mannerisms and it scared Morgan) and Morgan made a motion towards a couple of the rocks that they had dug up. "I w-wonder if anything is in these rocks." Morgan says, simply, before bending down; arms still shaking. They picked up one of the stones and inspected it. "I'd reckon t-this one is a geode." They said quietly. They dug around in the backpack until they found their pickaxe (still not sure if they knew how to use that one), and they waved for Endymion to stand back as they readied their swing.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 8:34:44 GMT -6
Once they did swing, the rock split open and revealed a beautiful gemmy purple geode on the inside. Endymion jerked back whenever the noise sounded, but then stared at the shimmering inside the geode like he had never seen something so beautiful before. Morgan smiled, a true smile. Dragons loved jewels, didn't they? It was a little surprising to see that it was apparently a true assumption that myths had made. "W-well, what do you think of that?" Morgan mumbles, before bending down, sitting the pickaxe aside, and looked at one of the other rocks they had dug up. They momentarily forgot how much their arms hurt, and breathed out a shaky breathe as they looked over the carrier stone. This one was certainly NOT a geode. Endymion looked at the geode with curiosity. He didn't seem to be asking any questions yet, though. Morgan had expected questions from him.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 8:39:23 GMT -6
Much to Morgan's surprise, the questions did not immediately come, even after a few moments. Morgan decides that the rock they currently held in their hands probably didn't have anything in it, and they put it over to the side. They would check it later, when they were nearly done with the trip. The trip was barely starting, and there was no need to tire theirselves out over unpromising rocks at this point. The human picks up a different rock, turning it over in the light from the flashlight. They saw a glint of something shiny in it- a pink translucent color. They hummed at it for a moment, and then dug around in the backpack for the brush and tweezer set, removing it and setting up to begin working on the softer carrier stone around this little gem. It was kind of odd, this was the first real thing they'd dug up, wasn't it?
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 8:41:55 GMT -6
It was weird, but Morgan was a little bit sentimental. This little pink gem probably wasn't worth a whole lot, and undoubtedly they'd sell it because they didn't need it, but it was still neat to imagine (wow, this is my first gem). It made Morgan want to mine a little more, actually. They'd have to work up their strength, or their stamina, to do it though. They were already pretty tired, and they hadn't even been here very long at all. They'd have to take a little break later, they decided. They began chipping away the little carrier stone using the chisel as soon as they realized that the brush and tweezer set wasn't really cutting it. Endymion watches Morgan use the tools with their minute hands with interest, apparently having gotten done being interested in the geode itself. It laid on the floor, split open, a bit away from them.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 10:00:37 GMT -6
It takes a surprisingly long time, and a lot more work than Morgan was expecting, to get it to where they could see the pink colored gem that was in the stone well enough to figure out what it was. It was some kind of quartz, they decided, as they continued working. After a few more chips are removed from the body of the gemstone, Morgan turns it over and holds it up to the light, and then to Endymion. "See the pink c-color and the translucent aspect of the gem here?" Morgan asked him. After they received a nod, Morgan spoke again- "This is a quartz. Th-they are a very common type of stone." Then, they spent another thirty minutes trying to explain what made all of the gems different and have different names. It wasn't the best thing for Morgan to try to explain, because some of the names and reasonings for gems are really arbitrary.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 12:02:07 GMT -6
Endymion was learning incredibly quickly, however. Morgan was incredibly confused about how quickly he was learning. He was smart, but he didn't seem born as smart as Vixie. Instead, he seemed to be picking up information directly from Morgan. Rarely did he have to ask what words meant, and sometimes he used a word that Morgan was sure that they hadn't used yet in front of him! They argued back and forth for a bit (or rather, Morgan played devil's advocate) about whether or not is was a good thing to call rubies, sapphires, and other such stones 'different' from one another. After a little while, they settled on the idea that no, it made no sense to arbitrarily pick what shades or colors actually had different names (the idea of 'pink' sapphires really annoyed Endymion) but after a while agreed that it made more sense to distinguish between them for the sake of people being able to understand what they are buying over distances, color-wise.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 12:06:22 GMT -6
After the conversation, Morgan quietly worked to get the rest of the pink quartz out of the carrier stone, and discarding the chips, held the tiny hunk of gem in their hand. All that work, they thought, and for what? A common stone, with a funky color? It was wild that these took this much work to get out, and only really were worth what they were. Morgan placed this stone, now clean, into the bottom of their backpack and then carefully went to go check for some more stones that might have gems in them from their little pile that they had dug up. They looked over a few that they were sure weren't really worth anything before finally running across something quite weird in a rock. They would not have noticed it if not for Endymion, in fact, because it was umber colored, like the rock that it was stuck in.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 12:09:51 GMT -6
The strange stone was almost missed, and Morgan took a moment to hold it up to the light after it was pointed out to them, so that they could view it. Once again, it appeared translucent, like the other quartz, and it made the bespectacled human wonder if this particular cavern was filled more with quartz than anything else. "S-see, this is also Quartz." Morgan said to him, holding it up to him. "Smoky, to be exact." It was going to take a lot more work to get this one out of the carrier stone than Morgan thought it was worth, but they didn't have to be very strong to remove these from the carrier stone, so they thought that at least they would be getting a rest from digging for longer if they made the effort. So, they began working, with Endymion watching with extreme interest.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 12:16:12 GMT -6
Endymion was apparently not the type to get easily bored. Most individuals would probably have no interest in watching another individual do boring work while hardly speaking, but the draconic seemed more than happy enough to think about things, and the quiet seemed to help him do that without issue. Morgan worked to remove the smokey quartz from the stone the best that they could, wanting these to be clean enough to sell once they got home. After a while, Endymion does finally pipe up, with a question- "What do you do with gems?" He asks, voice chirpy and bright. Morgan chuckled, while they continued to work. "I-I was planning on using them as currency. I won't get a lot of them from this trip, but it w-wouldn't hurt." They said, after the chuckle escaped. Endymion blinked. "Currency?" He asks, not quite understanding the concept save for the idea he got from the context.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 14:08:06 GMT -6
Morgan wondered, for a moment, how to explain such a comment. "So, i-it boils down to... Goods and services." Morgan says. "People want or need goods. Maybe one person has a lot of meat or grain. M-more than their family will use in time! S-so, they need clothes. If a person that h-has a surplus of clothes needs meat or grain, then they can trade." Morgan explains. Endymion nods along as the human explains the information to him, while working on getting the smokey quartz out of the carrier stone. "But what if the clothier doesn't want or need meat or grain? Does that mean that the farmer g-gets no clothes and that is fair?" Morgan asks Endymion. Morgan expected for the draconic to have to think about that, or to only think about the basic 'logics' of the ordeal. However, he shakes his head vehemently.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 14:12:02 GMT -6
Morgan continued at that. "So, if there a-are three people, say, a farmer with meat, a clothier with clothes, and a farmer with wool- the farmer could want clothes, but trade the meat for the wool to trade to the clothier f-for clothes." Morgan explained. "But what if a fourth link, or a fifth lu-link have to be added?" They worked carefully, chipping the carrier stone from around the smokey quartz. Endymion seemed to be thinking. "Th-that is where currency comes in. It is a commodity that everyone has decided has value, no matter where it comes from." Morgan explained. "Usually currency comes in metals that are pretty or have a use or rarity. They are c-c-considered to have value, so they are stamped and traded. This way, the farmer can buy clothes with currency, a-and then the clothier can buy a new house with currency, or whatever else." And that was that.
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