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Post by Renathan on Mar 25, 2020 16:45:59 GMT -6
Oh, this vein of copper is definitely large enough to be useful! Better excise it!
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2020 17:42:36 GMT -6
Maybe one of those speech collar things from the Travelers Emporium... Queen's grace, did he hate spending money at that place, though he was fortunate enough in having a TROD that he didn't have to deal with it directly anymore. He didn't know if he'd ever manage to buy anything from there ever again without a TROD to serve as a buffer between himself and that shopkeeper. But unfortunately that place had too many useful things to be discounted entirely, and reluctant as he was sometimes to admit it, he did get a great deal of mileage out of those products himself.
But the collars were apparently few and far between, and he imagined he would be waiting a while before he got his hands on anything like that.
"Don't suppose you'd learn sign language?" Aster said offhandedly. "Though I'd have to learn too if I'm going to teach you. Hmm."
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2020 17:44:55 GMT -6
He'd heard of it, and he supposed it would be a useful skill to have, but that had been the extent of his interaction with the language. He hadn't had a reason to look into it prior to now, since the sentient companions he had tended to be Hara, who could speak, or Summer, who couldn't have learned sign language anyway. Well, and there was Rhys now too, except Rhys was telepathic of his own accord, and had the least need for any sort of alternative way of communicating.
Aster supposed Rhys could always translate between himself and the gargoyle, but Rhys also had other things on his plate. Aster couldn't be forever taking him down into the mines. Not that he supposed Rhys would really mind, since he seemed to be plenty hungry for adventure, but this particular flavor of adventure didn't seem to be an especially productive avenue to pursue.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2020 17:49:38 GMT -6
Which left them at their current situation, where a speech collar or sign language seemed the best way to go. Neither would be especially quick fixes, but at least one or the other would slowly solve their problems.
"You've been around me long enough that you kind of know what I'm saying, right? ... Ah, but that'd be frustrating to relearn with sign language, wouldn't it? Damn it," Aster said. He was more or less just musing out loud to himself at this point, though he could see from the look on the gargoyle's face that it was thinking about this too.
In the meantime, they continued down the tunnel. It was still relatively unremarkable, just rocks and more rocks, and from the way the gargoyle was carrying on, Aster supposed it must not have sensed anything particularly interesting. Well, that was fine; Aster wasn't expecting big profits out of this place anyways.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2020 17:52:30 GMT -6
He had come here to... He didn't really even know himself anymore. Find a way to pass the time, maybe, or come down for a change of pace. It used to be that he was down here a lot, doing gods know what, hacking away at the rocks with Cinna in tow, desperate for cash. Mining was a good way to make some money if you absolutely couldn't handle being around people. It was just you, your familiar (who most certainly wasn't a humanoid, thank the heavens, regardless of whether they could hold a conversation or not), your tools and whatever horrible monsters you occasionally chanced upon in this place. There were plenty of hazards, and it was tough, backbreaking work when you were really working at it, but the gems had a good and fairly constant value, and these particular mountain caves were relatively productive, with a wide variety of yields.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2020 17:55:25 GMT -6
In fact, he had wondered about it, how one place could hold such a wide variety of stones. The geological history of this area must have been something else, to produce the range of environments that he had managed to find down here. But he didn't know enough about geology to be a good judge of that, or at least not enough to investigate it for that kind of complicated answer.
Maybe the gargoyle would know. If they figured out a way for it to talk to him, maybe he could ask.
All the same, he was glad that he could take a more leisurely approach to it now. He didn't miss the days when he would go home sore all over, his hands blistering from too many hours picking away at the unforgiving stone. Here, now, taking a little stroll with a gargoyle at his side, it felt more like an actual hobby.
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Post by Renathan on Apr 7, 2020 17:57:28 GMT -6
A lovely bit of azurite was hanging part of the way out of the wall, just waiting to be discovered and mined out.
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Post by Noa on Apr 9, 2020 22:54:22 GMT -6
That was the thing that really made him feel as though he had made it, if he was being honest. When he had been on the street as a kid, scrambling just to get by day to day, he thought it would be... Well, he didn't really know. Luxurious things, he supposed, or maybe having people react to him in a way that wasn't scorn and dismissal.
Which wasn't necessarily wrong, exactly, but in Aster's case, he didn't really care about how people reacted to him anymore. He'd rather not see them at all, really. But it was true that no one really saw a street rat anymore. And the company he kept, like the gargoyle, didn't really care about that kind of thing either. Did gargoyles have a concept of street rats? He supposed not, since he wasn't sure they had a concept of streets to begin with, come to that.
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Post by Noa on Apr 9, 2020 22:56:54 GMT -6
But they probably did have homes, and there might have been a concept of homelessness, though Aster's tentative guess was that it would be more like a concept of exile than what he had been. Still, if they had a society, surely there were people on the fringes of it.
... Then again, maybe that was what the gargoyle itself was. Maybe that was a question that didn't bear asking, even when they did get around to finding a way for it to answer.
As far as luxurious things went... Aster didn't spring for the gaudy stuff that he had thought of as a mark of richness when he was younger, but there was certainly something to be said for well made things that were much more expensive. Quality demanded a price. Expensive things weren't always good, but good things that lasted you a long time were often expensive to acquire, anyway.
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Post by Noa on Apr 9, 2020 22:59:30 GMT -6
A good leather jacket, for example--- one that had been magicked slightly to be weatherproof--- that wasn't cheap. But once he bought it, he wouldn't have to replace it for years, especially if he took good care of it. That made it an investment; and there was the irony: it was usually cheaper in the long run. But it was also only available if you had the means of making the investment to begin with.
He was lucky. Because of things like that, most people who were born poor didn't manage to crawl their way out. Most died like that, sooner or later--- and generally sooner.
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. His thoughts were heading down a bad way. The gargoyle stopped and glanced up at him, but Aster shook his head. "I'm just... thinking. Don't worry about it." It would have been impossible to explain to it anyway.
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Post by Noa on Apr 9, 2020 23:02:15 GMT -6
He really didn't like being stuck inside his own head for too long for that reason. It was too easy, still, even now, for his thoughts to go a bad way. He was better than he used to be, he knew that, but...
"Hey, I want to hit some rocks," Aster said. "You feeling anything good nearby?" It was an abrupt request, but he figured some physical work would be the best thing to get him out of this mood. Speaking of irony. Now that he didn't have to smash rocks to make ends meet, this was something he went out of his way to do for recreation. As a hobby. Which he could have now, because he had free time now.
The gargoyle seemed surprised by his request, but considering how sudden it was, that didn't surprise Aster. "Take your time," he said. Maybe these things couldn't be rushed or demanded like that.
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Post by Noa on Apr 9, 2020 23:04:34 GMT -6
In which case he was hardly about to be unreasonable and shake the gargoyle down for not being productive enough. It was a hobby, after all, and if he really wanted to, he could smash any old rock face. There didn't have to be a gem behind it, right?
But the gargoyle seemed to be considering something, and after a moment, it led him further down the tunnel for a while, before stopping at a particular spot.
"What is it? Is there something good here?" Aster said.
The gargoyle's eyes narrowed, and after a pause, it made a careful and slightly exaggerated shrugging motion. It was a curious thing to look at, since it looked kind of like a person who had never seen anyone shrug until they were an adult, and was only finding out about it now, and trying to replicate what they had seen someone else doing earlier.
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Post by Renathan on Apr 9, 2020 23:25:02 GMT -6
A lovely amethyst stone could be found very close to some garnet, what a gorgeous find!
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Post by Noa on Jun 17, 2020 21:23:35 GMT -6
The gargoyle wasn't the only creature in Aster's company to have picked up little things like that either. Sometimes even Avander's expressions took on a weirdly human cant, even though the Wiurn wasn't sentient, and generally behaved more like a beast, though what that beast was had gotten a little muddled after his change of species. Not that a Wiurn and a Sarane were so terribly different as they could be, in the grand scheme of things; it wasn't as though Aster had turned him into a Yumenokei or anything like that. But still.
It did make more sense on the gargoyle, who was at least sentient and had the right body shape, so Aster wondered if he simply didn't get the motion right, and that was why it looked so strange. A shrug looked much less natural on the anatomy of a creature like Summer, sentience or not, because of her shape.
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Post by Noa on Jun 17, 2020 21:55:11 GMT -6
... Maybe the gargoyle would get the motion after seeing it more. Maybe it wouldn't. Aster didn't know. Either way though, the gargoyle itself had clearly moved on, and was beginning to dig at the location that it had pointed out to Aster. Aster supposed it must not have needed any help from him, or else it would have indicated that too. Aster knew that the gargoyle was perfectly capable of making that kind of request understood, so it had probably only wanted Aster's attention to see what it would turn up when it dug into the rock.
Aster waited patiently for it to do so. The gargoyle didn't rush things either, taking its time, scratching almost ponderously at times at the rock. Dirt and loose chips of stone rained down in little cascades as it worked, sounding not unlike hard rain, or perhaps hailstones as they fell upon the cave floor.
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