Chaz laughed at that, reaching out for the new instrument to inspect it...but drew back when he realized what the bard meant. He looked up at Dom, voice a little concerned and searching.
What....what happened to Prudence the First, Dom? His curiosity for this "guitar" was a constant tugging, but concern overrode that.
What happened when you were gone? I, uh...didn't think it good to ask so soon, earlier.
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Dom's smile was sad, his eyes seeming to actually pull into a kind of focus as they lowered toward the instrument. He hesitated for a long moment before speaking up, running his fingertips along the strings.
"Well, when I went travelling again I thought it would be business as usual. Hop from place to place, pick up stories, songs. Keep moving, improving, not staying for too long." He sighed, voice quiet and mellow.
"Things were fine for a while, just like they'd always been. But then I realised that I wasn't really going toward anything, just running away. I'd been running for years and years. Then...well..." he went quiet for a long moment again before continuing.
"I was out on the road and I got jumped by some thugs. I'd done some good work in the previous town, a bustling market town a good ways south of here. I just thought they'd take my gold, and I was ready to let them have it. Turns out one of them was a local musician who thought that my performance was muscling in on his business. He took Prudence from me. I tried to play it off cool but he just smashed her, right there in front of me, and laughed." His hand tightened into a fist and he inhaled, then exhaled.
"He didn't laugh for long. I caught him in the mouth hard. His friends ran off after that." He didn't tell Chaz the rest, the complete story, the parts he told Kiko. That he was pretty sure the singer died from the hit, that he'd taken a life in retaliation for a child breaking one of his posessions. He took another deep breath and brightened.
"Few weeks after, in a bar, I was trying out Prudence's daughter on a few locals and a couple of guys approached me, said I could do some good. I won't go into the boring details but I ended up just carrying some messages for a good while. All I had to do was listen. I'm good at listening. Then I got the word I should come back here." He beamed then, his mood lifting.
"So here I am again, and it feels good to be back."
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Chaz winced through the story. He knew the feeling of losing an object so important to you, but to just lose something so crucial like that to some common thug was hard to hear about.
Gods, Dom. That's terrible. It's....good you were able to remake her. In one way or another. Gingerly, he picked up the daughter instrument, putting it in front of himself on top of the paper, giving it the same care he would any of his inventions. He measured its dimensions, tracing around it with the charcoal, careful and even, calmed and in his element.
She's....still there, you know. He seemed hesitant, pausing once or twice.
You...know about the little thing with that...god. The machine god. Where I got the ticker from. He tapped the glass plate on his chest.
Ever since then I can sort of...feel the, uh...power. The essence of objects. It's probably just me imagining things, or fooling myself. But, uh... He chuckled nervously, metallic fingers plucking the strings.
For what it counts, I think she's here. And she says thanks.
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
His voice wouldn't go around the lump that had formed in his throat for a moment as Dom tried to reply. When it did come out it was thick and a little shaky. He shifted his hand over and patted Chaz on the arm.
"Thank you. I...kind of hoped...I mean I'm not much of a believer but...thanks." He inhaled and exhaled quietly a few times to calm himself, a little more mirth coming back into his voice when he spoke next.
"I haven't even written a song about her. I guess it was too painful. I think her daughter would sing a song about her mother very well. I'll teach it to Nikole too, so her grand-daughter can sing it and carry on the line." He becomes more businesslike.
"We're going to have to scout some well seasoned wood, and the grain has got to be just so. I don't know much about much when it comes to engineering or blacksmithing, but I know instruments. I think together we'll make something very fine indeed."
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Definitely. I'm not an expert at, uh...sound transference, but I have some ideas, too. Little things. Make it louder, smoother sound. She'll be pretty popular to the Drow, I think. They don't get a lot of foreign instruments. He carefully moved the guitar, scribbling down measurements and notes.
We can look in the forest for the wood we need. I can make the strings, outside wood plates. Few other things. I wonder...hmm. I wonder if I could work on that "speaker" thing. Hook one of these up to it.
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Dom whistled "Now that would be something special. Accoustic augmentation. Amplifying the sound. I wish I knew more about that kind of stuff to give you any more advice beyond what makes things sound nice." He tried to imagine what sound mixed with magic and wood and metal might sound like. Big is all he can come up with. It would be Loud, ungodly loud.
"Maybe best we test it here...or out in the woods...or out in the middle of a lake...before we turn Nikole loose with that kind of stuff. Wind mages can create sonic detonations so powerful they can make a man deaf instantly. I don't want to hurt your girl's pretty ears, or those of her neighbours." he mused.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Haha, of course. It'll be a while before I get that right.
He was silent a minute, starting to sketch out the shape and size of the pieces he'd need.
I think you should know why I left Fennen before we get there.
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Dom went quite quiet at that. He had never really asked Chaz about why he had to run from his hometown. He didn't pry into people's private lives generally. So this was something of a big deal. He had to clarify something with him though.
"I'm honoured you'd tell me. But it's not necessary for you to do it to get me to come, or to get me to do anything." He raised a hand to his friend's shoulder "For what it's worth, I'm looking out for you." He grinned at the joke.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Yeah...yeah, you know what, it'd just ruin the mood. His ears twitched, and he sounded relieved. He would rather not have to tell him until he had to, if he ever had to. He cleared his throat, changing the subject and smiling up to him.
So...what'd you do while you were gone? Wander, yeah, but any of your famous stories?
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Dom shrugged, stroking his chin thoughtfully. He cast his mind back to the years he'd been wandering, considering exactly which of his exploits he could actually tell Chaz.
"First year or so was pretty boring from a storytelling point of view. Wandered from town to town, hitched with caravans when I could. Played in bars and taverns mainly to make my coin. After I got my more permenant gig as a messenger I found places to do extra work." He chuckled
"Oh yeah, there was this one place, naming no names of course. The lady of a manor house hired me to teach her son the high harp. Now I ain't much for the harp, too hard to carry, so I had to take a couple of weeks to get used to the thing before I could put any my skill to use in teaching. So they boarded me at their house. Nice place, soft beds, good food. But as you probably know, good hearing can have consequences." He grinned conspiritorially, leaning in.
"So the man of the house was out on business a lot, a gruff, gnarly man if ever I knew one. Didn't care for me much, and I think he suspected I was laying hands on his lady wife, hehe. Not me, oh no. But she did have a lover. Apparently he was a pretty boy who'd stop by and keep her company, and she'd shower him with gifts and jewels. From what I heard he had a particularly skilled tongue..." Another chuckle burst forth, full of lecherous indulgence.
"What the lady didn't know though was that she had two lovers. Twins. The whole town knew about it, but they hated the lord for his taxation, so they kept quiet. One twin would keep the lady busy while the other would pilfer what he could. They'd take it in turns to have her, sometimes both of them were in the house at the same time. She never suspected a thing."
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Chaz stared, flushing red as he fully processed the story. His ears flattened to his head and he laughed a little nervously. The story was funny, for sure, but a little...what was the word.
That's...wow. I mean, the lady, she...didn't know? He was kind of horrified that a poor old woman was being fooled in such a way.
And you didn't tell her? That seems really...bad. I mean if it were me, I would have at least tried to tell her she was being tricked...not that I think you should have, I wasn't there, but I mean...she was being taken advantage of, right?
He had missed the entire point of the story.
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Dom smiled softly, tilting his head a little as if in thought. He took a moment to reply. "Here's the thing. The husband didn't really love her, or anyone really. He was a mean, miserly man and she'd basically been married to him to cement a political deal. She loved her son, but she was sad and lonely a lot of the time. She wasn't partiularly old either." He looked a little wistful.
"The twins didn't love her either, but they paid her honest affection, and that made her happy. They may have pilfered things but that was more necessity than greed, they couldn't take much at a time lest they be discovered, and most of it went back to the lord in taxes anyway." He spread his hands in a 'that's just the way things are' motion.
"You know better than most that this world isn't perfect, and we take whatever happiness we can get. Who was I to break it up, take away the small happiness of a lonely woman and sink the town into even deeper poverty?"
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Yeah...yeah. Better to leave people lied to and happy than tell them the truth sometimes.
Dom's explanation made some sort of sense, at least enough to assuage the blacksmith. He gave a small laugh, shaking his head and walking over to the forge.
That's like... He pulled a long chain with a grunt, opening a chimney on the roof.
I had a customer, while back. Had an old, uhh... Stoking the bellows, the forge a large circular vat of glowing coals. The foundry began to fill with the smell of melting metal and burning coal, the sounds of crackling and popping.
Wood stove he wanted fixed. Big crack in the side. I told him I could weld it, put a nice patch on it, but he didn't want any of it. Trying to quietly open the lid, select long sticks of brass to heat and shape. Nikole was used to the very specific sounds of his nighttime work. It was legitimately their voices he worried about, so he talked quietly.
Wanted the whole thing melted down. Made a new one. Told him it would take...weeks, a month. In the fall. But no no, wanted a new one. He chuckled again, turning the metal in the coals.
I brought it up here, welded the crack, looked good as new. Kept it a week, brought it back...when he asked if I melted it down, I, well...guess I said yes. I mumbled something, he liked it. I still feel kinda...well. You know.
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144][b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Dom chuckled lowly and turned his face toward the fires, enjoying the heat. "Well see now that's just pragmatism. Did you charge him the cost of melting it down or the cost of a weld though. There's the rub." He flipped a hand upward, indicating he was explaining his point of view.
"It'd be like me at the manor house if I used the distraction the twins were creating to pilfer a few things myself. There's letting a lie go on to keep someone happy, and then there's lying to further your own ends. Absolute honesty isn't the best way to go about it." His voice became quiet.
"This trip...we'll probably run into trouble because someone found out a truth and told someone who shouldn't know. Whoever it is has it in for you. A secret is just a lie of omission, misdirection is a lie of perception." His tone brightened again.
"Don't be so squeamish. Treat every situation on its own merits and judge it from all sides."
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.