[larpfic] Snipe hunting
May. 21st, 2011 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bouteillebleuI like writing random stuff in Potch's background. There's not much of it, but what there was was spent learning alchemy from an avian, and occasionally little snippits present themselves. :)
The glassmaker in Orthros Keep was familiar with Albin - a slightly odd bird, truth be told, with a sharp-beaked wife, but a regular customer, and a customer with taste. Whenever he came in to buy more glassware for his alchemical studies (what did he do that needed so many new flasks?), he also took his time looking at the small coloured glass sculptures, and would buy one or two with compliments on the craftsmanship. The praise was good, but the money was what paid for the rent on the shop.
Sometimes Albin would send an apprentice. They would buy the glassware he'd asked for - eventually, after asking too many simple questions - and would spend their time looking at the sculptures and making a nuisance of themselves with more questions and, of course, would rarely have the money to buy one of those sculptures.
Albin was a customer he had time for. The apprentices he was polite to the first time they arrived, and if they were sensible and didn't bother him when he was busy and didn't ask ridiculous questions - and, preferably, saved some of their money and actually bought one of the sculptures they gazed at every day through the window - he was perfectly happy to do business with them. But he was a busy man, and the fewer tedious enthusiastic youngsters he had to deal with, the better. And for the most tedious enthusiastic ones, the old tricks usually worked best.
He was busy in the workshop with an engraved design on a dish, and when an unfamiliar young voice called "Excuse me, is anyone there?" he sighed, waited a few moments, and then replied,
"Yes, I'm afraid I'm working on a commission. Can I help at all?"
"Master Albin sent me to get this week's supply of glassware for the laboratory."
"...Wonderful," he muttered, and paused a few more moments, less for effect and more in concentration as he filled in the last part of an etched ivy leaf. "Did he give you a list?"
"He said he'd just need the usual."
The glassmaker bit off a curse with a snap of his beak, put his tools down with exaggerated care, and took paper and pen with him to the counter, writing notes as he went.
"Here. The usual items are all on there - I have the glass flasks, but they'll be fragile so you'll need to get a box, and those other things I don't currently have in stock. Check with the other merchants - they should have everything you need."
He held the paper out to the apprentice, who put out a hand for it, and smiled in thanks as... she? it? took it. Something out of the ordinary for one of Albin's apprentices - no beak, no plumage, looking an awful lot like a mockery of one of his own sculptures in the form of some sort of five-and-a-half-foot walking glass thing.
But it was at least polite, and said "Thank you", and studied the list quietly with what looked like a frown of concentration. Presently there was a hesitant,
"Um, I've never heard of any of this stuff before. Where would I find fireproof matches?"
"Carpenter. If he doesn't have them, ask."
"What about brass magnets or tenter hooks?"
"You'll want the blacksmith for those."
"Do you not have any glass hammers at all? I thought..."
"No, you should ask the blacksmith for those as well."
"Oh, okay. How about the long weight? Would the blacksmith be the right-"
"Yes, he would." The glassmaker grinned a little. "You're learning quite fast. Off you go, then!"
And the whatever-it-was that was Albin's newest apprentice trotted off obediently, list in hand.
The glassmaker in Orthros Keep was familiar with Albin - a slightly odd bird, truth be told, with a sharp-beaked wife, but a regular customer, and a customer with taste. Whenever he came in to buy more glassware for his alchemical studies (what did he do that needed so many new flasks?), he also took his time looking at the small coloured glass sculptures, and would buy one or two with compliments on the craftsmanship. The praise was good, but the money was what paid for the rent on the shop.
Sometimes Albin would send an apprentice. They would buy the glassware he'd asked for - eventually, after asking too many simple questions - and would spend their time looking at the sculptures and making a nuisance of themselves with more questions and, of course, would rarely have the money to buy one of those sculptures.
Albin was a customer he had time for. The apprentices he was polite to the first time they arrived, and if they were sensible and didn't bother him when he was busy and didn't ask ridiculous questions - and, preferably, saved some of their money and actually bought one of the sculptures they gazed at every day through the window - he was perfectly happy to do business with them. But he was a busy man, and the fewer tedious enthusiastic youngsters he had to deal with, the better. And for the most tedious enthusiastic ones, the old tricks usually worked best.
He was busy in the workshop with an engraved design on a dish, and when an unfamiliar young voice called "Excuse me, is anyone there?" he sighed, waited a few moments, and then replied,
"Yes, I'm afraid I'm working on a commission. Can I help at all?"
"Master Albin sent me to get this week's supply of glassware for the laboratory."
"...Wonderful," he muttered, and paused a few more moments, less for effect and more in concentration as he filled in the last part of an etched ivy leaf. "Did he give you a list?"
"He said he'd just need the usual."
The glassmaker bit off a curse with a snap of his beak, put his tools down with exaggerated care, and took paper and pen with him to the counter, writing notes as he went.
"Here. The usual items are all on there - I have the glass flasks, but they'll be fragile so you'll need to get a box, and those other things I don't currently have in stock. Check with the other merchants - they should have everything you need."
He held the paper out to the apprentice, who put out a hand for it, and smiled in thanks as... she? it? took it. Something out of the ordinary for one of Albin's apprentices - no beak, no plumage, looking an awful lot like a mockery of one of his own sculptures in the form of some sort of five-and-a-half-foot walking glass thing.
But it was at least polite, and said "Thank you", and studied the list quietly with what looked like a frown of concentration. Presently there was a hesitant,
"Um, I've never heard of any of this stuff before. Where would I find fireproof matches?"
"Carpenter. If he doesn't have them, ask."
"What about brass magnets or tenter hooks?"
"You'll want the blacksmith for those."
"Do you not have any glass hammers at all? I thought..."
"No, you should ask the blacksmith for those as well."
"Oh, okay. How about the long weight? Would the blacksmith be the right-"
"Yes, he would." The glassmaker grinned a little. "You're learning quite fast. Off you go, then!"
And the whatever-it-was that was Albin's newest apprentice trotted off obediently, list in hand.
