Ow... (Oluse)

[Alea Davenport]

Alea was too busy dwelling on her terrible fate to question what Oluse was asking her to do. She owed him money, and she couldn't pay. She would pretty much have to do whatever he asked. Hurrying to follow his instructions, she found the jar, and the linen pouches. When she got to the scale, she hesitated. She had never used one of these before. How did it work?

After a moment of panic, a vague memory floated to the surface of her mind. She thought she recalled a demonstration of this device on one of the more boring days at the Academy. The small objects of various sizes but similar shapes sitting next to the scale had something to do with it, she remembered.

Upon closer examination, she realized the objects had numbers on them. She picked up one that said "1" on it. But what was "point seven five"? From her vague memory, it sounded like... part of a number? So... she was looking for a weight that was smaller than the "1". She picked one about half the size. The label said "5", which really confused Alea. The next smallest size said "25". This was madness. Alea must be missing something. What was she missing?

She peered closer at all three objects, trying to find any distinguishing marks that would make this make sense. All she could find was that the "1" was missing the dot that the other two had. Wait... dot...point...did the dot have something to do with making it part of a number? Alea had to stand still for a moment as more connections were making sense in her brain. When was 5 half of 1? 5 silver mizas were half of 1 miza. But what about the 25?

That one was going to be trickier. What if she just added the numbers with dots on them? 25 plus 5 was... 30. But was that right? She tried thinking about it in terms of money again. If the 25 was less than one...

Alea's brain was beginning to hurt. There had to be a better way to do this. Think again in terms on wholes and parts. The whole is greater than the part, was the first thing she ever learned in math, which she was able to remember mostly because it was so obvious. Except right now... No, she could do this! The "1" was the whole. She placed that on one side of the scale. That side sank. Okay so far. The "5" was a part. She placed that on the other side of the scale. It tipped, but not enough to bring it back to the same height.

Now, logically, if the "5" was half of the whole, then two of them should be the same as a whole, right? She found another "5" and placed it next to the first one, feeling rather gleeful as her prediction was rewarded with the scale returning to balance. She took all the weights off to start over. She placed the "5" on one side. The "25" looked about half as big as the "5", so she put two of them on the other side, confirming her suspicions. So "25" was half of "5". Well, if she did the math, what was half of 5? You couldn't divide 5 in half, because it was odd... but half of four was two, and half of one was a half... so that should make half of 5 be 2 and a half... and she had just decided that the 5 was a half, so, 2 and a half... 2 and a 5... 25... it was all starting to make a crazy sort of sense!

Okay, so how did she get point seven five from that? This stumped her, and she spent a few seconds just starting at the weights. Then she had a crazy idea... what if she lined up the points? That put the 5 over the 2 in 25... which sort of made sense. The "5" was half of the whole, but the 5 in the "25" was half of THAT, which was just a whole new level of half. So if she added them that way, that made... point seven five. Exactly what she was looking for and she had it in her hands the whole time.

She was so glad she had finally figured it out that she lost all immediate interest in math. She put the three weights on one side of the scale, and one of the pouches on the other. She either didn't notice or didn't care at this point that the pouch also had some weight, but she filled it with careful scoops of powder. One full pouch did not bring the scale back into balance, so she added another pouch and filled that one nearly as full. When the scales looked to be roughly balanced again, Alea silently declared herself finished, and cleared the scales before Oluse could tell her she had done it wrong and needed to fix it.

Once she had the two pouches in hand, she stared at them in confusion. What was she doing again? She had missed the entirety of Oluse's mumbling, to the point that she didn't even realize he was deliberately manipulating the price for her. She numbly accepted the miza and paper, still not entirely sure what had just happened. Her brain felt like is was stretching against her skull, and she wasn't sure she could think normally anymore.

[Oluse]

Oluse watched with rapt interest as Alea fiddled with the weights, making all manner of expressions she was likely unaware of as she worked. She looked in great pain most the time, but Oluse knew better. He felt the same way when it came to that contraption. It was lunacy, and had he not the eidetic mind to memorize combinations he would never be able to function it. He was not like Alea, he did not reason out how the scale worked, simply listened to what his mentors said and followed in suit. His mother and father had taught him from a young age, and he simply memorized. One point seven five ounces was one of the small iron weights marked one with the one that is held it's weight and the one which is half that. Simple, clean, and helped avoid headaches. Still, Alea's procedure was fascinating, she seemed to be thinking. And in truth Oluse was as shocked by this as Alea had been by his bound of pondering time earlier in the conversation.

Time stretched on and on as she played, switching out the weight and staring at her challenge boldly. Oluse forgot after some time that he was there anymore, simply watched her work, without fear of her pouncing on him. Her face contorted and eyes flashed intelligently as she played with combinations. He wondered at first what she was thinking, till finally that drained away and he just took the whole ordeal in, the movement before him, the flicker of candlelight, the hypnotic movements of his peer.

Even as she prematurely filled the pouched Oluse did not move, or give objection, simply watched the herbs fall into the rough linen, clinging to one another. He already knew that it would be shy of two bags, each one would hold one ounce of the herb almost perfectly. Twice that had it been well refined. Still he had thought it funny to make her see his job for it's true complexity, and struggle with the part he found most difficult, second only perhaps to speaking with patients.

When she turned and faced him, he finally snapped out of the trance he has watch within, the coins still clinking together in his palm. "What?" He said as usual. "Oh." He follow. He realized then that it was wrong, at least point two five over the amount prescribed, and also done out of order. He pondered a moment on correcting her, but something stopped him. In truth he was intimidated, Alea seemed good at so much, making friends, albeit dangerous ones, fishing, fighting, talking. Medicine, and herbalism, and math. This was his domain. He simply nodded at her. "Very good, Alea." He said and smiled.

"I'll meet you at your place the day after tomorrow to go speak with Sama'el and Ronan. Make sure you brew that tea up and drink it at least three times a day. If you need more let me know. Keep an eye on all of your injuries, if they begin to get inflamed or red around them let me take a look at them." He wasn't going to bother explaining how to tell if her wounds got infected, not in it's entirety. She was, after all, his real assistant. She could never be a doctor, not like him. He was raised to do it, it was his inheritance, his lineage. She was a fisher, and always would be. He felt himself beginning to get angry, and before it peaked he ushered Alea, with her golden coin to the door, and bit her farewell.

After that he walked back into the room to clean up. Sighing, he grabbed a towel and began washing away at some dirt and grunge the defiled girl had left behind, then rinsed the scale into a basin, drying and reconstructing it and it's complicated rods and chains. After that he corked the water, slipping it back, hearing the clink of seven silver coins hitting the table as he freed his hand. He looked at them, wondering a moment where they had come from. "Oh." He said in his usual manner. He had utterly forgotten hey were in his hand. "Hrm." He mimiced himself from before, and looked over the peice of paper. Carefully he went over his basic math again, and realized that indeed he shouldn't have taken the seven silver pieces. Writing on the scrap again he subtracted the seven pieces from one, money being considerably easier to think about than weight for the Denvali child. In the end she had only made two silver rimmed mizas from the transaction, not one miza. Oluse felt a little bad, but then reasoned that it was still a profit on her part.

That is when he realized his true mistake. Alea was broke! And he didn't say a thing. He had enough money to put her and her family and finery, and he gave her two stinking silver rimmed mizas?! He felt horrible. But, he also knew Alea was not one to take hand out, not from a boy like him that she didn't even like. No, Oluse tried to think of some reasonable thing to pay Alea for. Nothing came to mind, but he knew he would think of something. He threw the paper away and closed up the room, prepping it for the next walk in. He didn't bother paying for the taken herbs or his own services, he had worked their long enough to know that each ounce was not counted, and the clinic made more than enough money to support itself. In truth the clinic hadn't even been charging for services for the entire season since the storm.

Yes, he was a jerk. And he knew it. And it felt good as he blew out the lantern and walked out.

[Valkyrie]

Thread Award Alea Davenport : Experience 2 Observation 1 Writing 2 Investigation 1 Larceny 2 Mathematics Lore Oluse: Eyes Change Color Resolution to Travel with Oluse Waiting on a Drykas Decision Using a Scale Mathematics: Parts of a Whole Other + Inventory: 1 Piece of Paper + Ledger: 3 silver mizas Notes: This was a really interesting interaction between Alea and Oluse! Alea’s attempt at operating a scale and working through mathematics was a really cute and well written passage. I think you did a good job of playing at her skill level. This was an excellent read and I’m interested to see how your PCs’ friendship progresses. Oluse : Experience 3 Observation 2 Investigation 2 Medicine 1 Leadership 1 Mathematics Lore Nagging Thoughts: Saying Goodbye Medicine: Treating a Dislocated Shoulder Alea Davenport: Holds a Grudge Alea Davenport: Broke Other - Ledger: 3 Silver Mizas Note: This was a really interesting interaction between Alea and Oluse! Oluse, I love the complicated reactions and motivations your PC has towards Alea. I would have liked a little extra description of the movement of putting Alea’s arm back into socket. This was an excellent read and I’m interested to see how your PCs’ friendship progresses. Also, if you subtract seven silver mizas from one gold miza you get three silver mizas, not two, so that is the amount I will be using. Let me know if you take issue with this. Please send me a PM if you have any questions or concerns.