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Post by Noa on Jun 3, 2019 20:17:43 GMT -6
It wasn't jade, for one. The structure and the texture of it wasn't quite right for jade. Otherwise that would have been Aster's first guess, since jade was the most common green stone, and it tended to happen in larger deposits.
It definitely wasn't peridot either, but Aster's familiarity with that stone was less a product of how common it was--- peridot wasn't very common in these parts at all, actually. And this even though it hadn't been considered rare enough to sell as fine jewelry in his homeland.
That one was all too easy to determine. Even in poor lighting, the color was all wrong. The stone that the gargoyle had just given him wasn't a bright or yellowish enough green.
It had an almost bluish tint to it in places, so at first he thought it might be malachite, in which case he really ought to store it carefully. But after considering it for a long moment, he concluded that it was probably aventurine instead.
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Post by Noa on Jun 3, 2019 20:18:32 GMT -6
Which was just as well; it was easier to deal with something that wasn't volatile.
Aster put the stone away while the gargoyle watched, then dusted off his hands. The pick he returned to its original place in the buggy. At this point Aster thought himself quite ready to continue on, but when he turned his attention back to the gargoyle, he found it staring at his buggy instead.
"You want to know about something?" he asked, brows furrowed. He was fairly certain that it must have been curious about the buggy or something within it, but at the same time, he wasn't sure how well he would be able to answer any questions it might have. Presuming, of course, that it managed somehow to ask these difficult questions. In their current circumstances, that wasn't really guaranteed either. The trouble of communicating went both ways, and he couldn't really imagine trying to ask a complex question of the gargoyle himself either.
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Post by Renathan on Jun 4, 2019 1:52:32 GMT -6
Two pretty gems could be found nearby; one shimmering like a crimson eye.
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Post by Noa on Jun 11, 2019 8:15:00 GMT -6
The gargoyle hesitated upon hearing Aster's question, and for a moment, Aster wondered whether anything was going to come of this after all. But then the gargoyle moved toward the buggy, and attempted to open its compartment on its own. It didn't have immediate success, and with a normal creature, Aster might have intervened sooner to offer his assistance, but in this case he was sort of curious to see whether the gargoyle could manage to figure it out. It was smart enough, and it had thumbs--- he had seen it use them when grabbing rocks. So in theory it should have been able to figure it out with no more difficulty than a human who had never encountered this sort of buggy before.
Which wasn't necessarily to say that it would do so easily, of course. There were smart and stupid people too, and some machines were more complex than others.
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Post by Noa on Jun 11, 2019 8:16:07 GMT -6
There was a wide variety of things he couldn't have operated, or learned to operate, if he hadn't been instructed on how to work with them. But the buggy wasn't so difficult, and Aster felt that this gargoyle wasn't a stupid one either. Maybe a foolish one, depending on how unconventional a path it had taken to actually finding a human partner to work with, but not stupid, exactly.
And sure enough, it took the gargoyle a moment to puzzle it out, but it did eventually manage to open the buggy's compartment on its own. Aster did have the amusement of seeing pull at the handle for a moment, rattling the whole thing back and forth like a Lerrel trying to get into a locked trash can, before it figured out the trick to it. But in the interest of not being rude to a creature he was forming a partnership with, he did his best to stifle his laughter.
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Post by Noa on Jun 11, 2019 8:16:54 GMT -6
He didn't know if the gargoyle understood words, but he was pretty sure it would understand when it was being laughed at.
But now that it had gotten the buggy open, what came next? Did it want the pick? That couldn't be it, could it?
Just as Aster was thinking that though, the gargoyle really did come out holding the pick. Aster stared at it, and it stared back at him. For a moment they stayed like that. Then the gargoyle moved, holding the pick in both hands and bringing the tool above its head. It swung down, not quite hitting anything.
Aster was puzzled. Why did it want the tool when it could dig perfectly well with its own claws? But then it didn't seem interested in digging with the pick either, when it came down to it. It merely repeated what it had seen Aster doing before, when he had been using it.
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Post by Noa on Jun 11, 2019 8:17:35 GMT -6
Aster was beginning to wonder if it hadn't actually realized what the pick was for when the gargoyle returned the tool to its place in the buggy. As Aster looked on, it picked out another tool from the buggy: the shovel.
This one, it held out to Aster. When Aster didn't take it, the gargoyle changed tactics and began swinging it as though it were a pick. "Hey," Aster said, protesting the improper use of the tool. He reached out to take it from the gargoyle, who stopped and handed it over willingly.
Aster, who had half expected to have to contest it to get his shovel back, began to have an inkling of what the gargoyle actually wanted now. "You're wondering what the rest of this nonsense is for, aren't you?" he said. It was true that he had mostly just used the pick so far, even though he carried all of the tool around with him.
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Post by Noa on Jun 11, 2019 8:18:05 GMT -6
And that was the way it usually went too, when he was out mining with a partner. There weren't too many stones hidden in dirt, for example, and the hammer was too blunt and imprecise to do all that much. As for the fine work that could be done with the chisel, or the tweezers and brush, well… The claws of a mining familiar were generally much better for fine work, and they had the added advantage of knowing exactly where their target was. Once the heavy lifting was done on his part, they usually took over. Cinna had been quite forceful about it, in fact.
Thus, Aster had gotten into the habit of not using his other tools. It didn't mean he had completely forgotten how to use them, and on occasion he got other uses out of them when he was working on things at home, but he wouldn't have been surprised to find that he had gotten a bit rusty at it either.
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Post by Jack on Jun 11, 2019 9:10:13 GMT -6
Well... there are a lot of rocks in the mines...
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Post by Noa on Jun 22, 2019 10:49:29 GMT -6
The gargoyle was watching him with an expectant gaze. Aster sighed. "Well, I guess if we're going to be working together, this is the least I can do for you, isn't it?" It was going to be hard for both of them to work together if they didn't have a good understanding of what the other party was capable of. And while Aster had some inkling of what the gargoyle could do, just from the similar circumstance of having worked with other mining familiars before, he wasn't sure that this particular gargoyle had ever gone mining before with a human.
Of course, he wasn't sure that he was going to be very much use as anything other than brute force, as he had been with Cinna. In this case it might have been more useful for the gargoyle to learn about his limitations, rather than what strengths he could bring to the table.
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Post by Noa on Jun 22, 2019 10:52:08 GMT -6
But that wasn't what it had asked him, and Aster wasn't about to deprive it of the knowledge of what its options were here, at the very least, when it wanted him to do something.
The real trouble was actually finding a place where he could demonstrate the use of the shovel. The other tools were... Well, in truth, all of them were situational to an extent, but none as much so as the shovel, which as a rule required the presence of something that wasn't one big solid. If you were stuck in a cavern with no dirt and no gravel, it was pretty much just dead weight in your pack.
He didn't see any dirt, and he didn't feel like going all that far to find any, so in the end, Aster settled for using the shovel to gather up the bits of discarded rock from their efforts at digging up their last couple of stones.
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Post by Noa on Jun 22, 2019 10:54:52 GMT -6
The gargoyle watched as he did this, with the kind of unwavering attention that suggested that it was just now seeing something like this for the first time. It probably really hadn't ever worked with a human before. Aster wondered if it had ever seen any running around in the caves like he was doing right now. It seemed curious enough, and mining was a common enough hobby.
Granted, the caves were rather labyrinthine, and Aster had been fortunate enough never to encounter anyone else here even though it was a very common hobby... But that was at least in part because people didn't navigate the mines very well, and only came to know a stretch that they had used consistently. A gargoyle, who had better stone sense and who made a place like this their home, could surely find a bumptious human if they really wanted to see one out in the wild.
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Post by Noa on Jun 22, 2019 10:57:43 GMT -6
And most people came down here with the express intent of mining, so they likely had their tools with them, and if you followed them long enough, you'd likely get to see them use the things sooner or later.
But even if it had done that, and had watched them make use of their tools in the caves, there was a good chance it still wouldn't have seen the shovel specifically. Aster had never had much occasion to use it, that was for sure. And observing from afar was probably not a good way to get a detailed idea of what people were doing with the strange sticks they carried. Even if this wasn't the gargoyle's first time seeing a person at their mining, it was likely its first time getting to see the process up close.
Under its watch, Aster scooped up the gathered rock fragments with his shovel, then deposited them in a pile.
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Post by Noa on Jun 22, 2019 11:00:23 GMT -6
"Ta-da," he said, not managing at all to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. It wasn't even remotely impressive, but with this, he had demonstrated as much of the shovel's usefulness as he could bring himself to do. The gargoyle didn't seem put out by this, however, and went over to inspect the rock pile, as though this was not beneath its dignity. Aster, who rather thought it was, could only stand back and watch.
When it was satisfied, the gargoyle came and took the shovel from Aster. Aster wondered for a moment if it meant to try it for itself, but in the end, the gargoyle merely put the tool back in the buggy. Maybe the gargoyle was also disappointed in the shovel. Aster wouldn't have been surprised.
As the gargoyle came away from the buggy again, however, Aster could see that it had another tool in its hands as it walked towards him.
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Post by Renathan on Jun 22, 2019 11:27:30 GMT -6
A shimmering blue stone; flecked with gold- and it was hiding nearby.
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