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Transient Sources (transientsource) wrote in the_nexus_rpg,
@ 2009-08-05 21:33:00

For Sale
There is a horse and small cart in the Nexus. The horse is a rather placid mare, whose halter has been tied to a nearby post and was enjoying some feed left out for her. The cart had been unharnessed from the horse, and a young woman, in her early twenties and dressed in a dress that makes her look like an extra in 'Little House on the Prairie', sat in it with a baby in her lap. In front of her was a selection of packets and jars, as well as bundles of dried and fresh herbs. A sign attached to the cart said "Fresh Herbs and Medicines: Hard Currency and Barter Accepted".

"So this was the place Dag was telling me about. It doesn't look that different yet, except for the sign. I wonder how they make the sign glow like that."

(OOC: Everything's safe. Most of the medicines are for OTC type complaints (painkiller, anti-nausea, upset stomach, etc.). Someone with any sort of extra senses might catch the hint of magic, and a herbalist using them might notice that the herbs are unusually potent and regular in active ingredient content and the side effects less severe.)

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worrywort
2009-08-07 03:24 am UTC (link)

Fletcher paused at the sign, eyeing the cart and the woman with the baby. He seemed to be debating with himself for a moment, then apparently came to a decision and walked over. "Hello!" he greeted. "They use electricity and specific chemicals for signs like that," he told her, answering her question that hadn't seemed directed at anyone in particular, but Fletcher was helpful that way anyway.

He glanced over the herbs past his bag of groceries. "You're an herbalist?" Sure, it was obvious, but in the Nexus, the obvious ... usually wasn't always obvious and wasn't always the best to go by.

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	transientsource 2009-08-07 03:31 am UTC (link)
	"How dee," Fawn answered. "My husband's the real medicine maker, but I learned as much as I could from his teachers. I thought I'd bring down some of my spares after he told me about this place. I wanted to see it for myself." She paused. "What's electricity?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

worrywort
2009-08-07 03:44 am UTC (link)

Fletcher didn't really seem bothered by her unawareness of what electricity was- his world was a bit advanced from that point in time, moreso than its parallel on the other side of the Gate thanks to alchemy, but it still wasn't that far in their history, and there were still plenty of small towns that didn't have access to it for private homes out in the countryside.

He set his bag down. "Electricity is a sort of energy. You've seen it before as lightning. There's way to produce the same sort of energy on a small enough scale to power things like lights for homes and such without it being as dangerous as a lightning strike."

He looked over the herbs, recognizing several by sight, but not all of them. "It looks like you learned pretty well from your teachers. I recognize some of these and you've got 'em labeled for what they treat pretty well. You might consider putting the names of the plant with what they treat, and some warnings on some of them."

He points to the chamomile. "Like that one- anyone with ragweed allergies shouldn't take chamomile, even though it's good for a lot of complaints for most people." He paused. "And definitely put a warning on that pennyroyal and that juniper. Pennyroyal is a fast way to cause a miscarriage for pregnant women, and juniper's dangerous for a baby if a woman's pregnant or breastfeeding. It's also not good for people with kidney problems."

Fletcher looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, my brother and I raise plants for medicinal purposes at the Elric Apartments for the clinic over there, it's a habit he's gotten me into." He seemed to perk up as an idea occurred to him, though. "I wouldn't mind helping write some of those things up for you to give with these. It'd make them that much more helpful for your customers. When people don't know the right way to use these things, they tend to poison themselves, and that wouldn't be very good for business."

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transientsource
2009-08-07 03:58 am UTC (link)

Fawn nodded. "Most people don't seem to know much about herbs, besides what their grandmothers tell them. Most of the medicine makers at the Lakewalker camps I visited just passed things out, but they knew most everyone in camp. If your brother and you could spare some seedlings, my husband and I have only been living in our place for a year or so, and that would be helpful. We'd be happy to trade."

"Lights for our home would be mighty handy. How do you trap lightning anyway and keep it from going away? And from burning everything and starting fires?"

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worrywort
2009-08-07 04:05 am UTC (link)

Fletcher grinned. "Oh, I can spare some things, definitely. I can even help them start growing for you, so they'll take root better. Where are you and your husband staying? I could stop by later to take a look at what you've already got growing, too."

However, while plants were Fletcher's area of expertise, technology wasn't as much. He stopped to think a moment- there were so many types of lights and appliances and ways to generate electricity out there, and he hadn't exactly studied all of them, although he knew a lot of the basics. "Well, you don't exactly trap the lightning as much as you use something else to create a smaller version, basically. One way I know of is moving a magnet back and forth inside a spinning metal coil. The electricity generated will pass down a copper wire to whatever you're powering, like a light bulb. The light bulb glows because the electricity causes the filament inside to heat up. I think the earliest lightbulbs used carbonized bamboo, actually."

((I am ashamed to admit I know about the bamboo thing because of Mario's Time Machine. My history classes obviously have failed me.))

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transientsource
2009-08-07 04:17 am UTC (link)

"I wonder if some of the folks in Tripoint or Silver Shoals are working on things like that. With their mills and things, they could probably make things like wire and find enough lodestones to put that together." Fawn looked thoughtful. "Maybe if we could find an artisan..."

She nearly missed the first part of Fletcher's statement, and stopped to study him. He didn't look like a Lakewalker to her, even the southern Lakewalkers who sometimes took halfbreeds with groundsense in, but that sounded like groundwork to her. "My husband can probably manage the planting." She held up the braided cord on her left arm almost absently. "We're outside the Nexus. And it's early spring where we are, so most of the planting hasn't started yet."

((OOC: the marriage cord is basically a braided cord made of human hair (and other things -- plant fibers and horsehair, IIRC) -- but has some magic worked so that it is entangled with Fawn's husband's life energy/soul/what have you. I don't think an alchemist would be sensitive to this, but just FYI.))

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worrywort
2009-08-07 04:32 am UTC (link)

((Probably not- maaaaaaaaaybe one that's worked with soul transmutations before, and even then, I'd think it'd have to be by touch, similar to picking up on chemical combinations. Although, I did mean to ask- think a botanist-alchemist would pick up on the herbs being stronger than their typical counterparts?))

Fletcher rubbed the back of his head. "I'm afraid technology like that isn't my best area of study. I could rig up some basic stuff in an emergency, but mostly, I work with the plants. My brother works a lot in taking the stuff from the garden into the clinic and turning it into medicine and giving it to the people that come in, but despite it being an Elric clinic, thankfully, the place isn't too busy, so he's got plenty of time to help me. So I'd definitely be able to take the time to come to your world and lend a hand. Spring planting's a big job, and I can take a few shortcuts from the typical method that may help a bit."

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	transientsource 2009-08-07 04:40 am UTC (link)
	((Probably, but he might have to work with them, or at least touch them, to see. Subtle magic.)) "If you could, that would be wonderful. My brother and sister-in-law are on their way back. Berry's family runs a flatboat down to the sea every fall, and Whit went along with her. And Dag's never done planting before, since he didn't grow up as a farmer." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

worrywort
2009-08-07 05:17 am UTC (link)

((Yeah, I figured he'd have to handle 'em. XD But I didn't wanna jump up and down on your canon over there.)

"Oh dear." Fletcher made a bit of a face. "Yeah, I'll definitely come around and help out. It's always hardest for the first timers without help. Unless you're someone the plants can understand and like right away, they tend to be fussy about people who haven't worked the ground before."

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	filia_ul_copt 2009-08-07 03:44 am UTC (link)
	"I've wondered that myself," Filia said as she stopped walking, looking up at the sign. "Someone explained it to me once, and told me to think of it as a magical current, rather like a lighting spell, that runs off a machine. It still doesn't quite explain it, but it's good enough, I suppose." She smiled. "You've just arrived?" (Reply to this) (Thread)

	transientsource 2009-08-07 04:03 am UTC (link)
	"Yes, but my husband was here a couple of days ago. He told me how to get here." Fawn considered the sign. "I've heard of Lakewalker groundwork to make the lamps burn cleaner and longer, but not of trapping lightning. That sounds like right sorcery." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	filia_ul_copt 2009-08-07 04:11 am UTC (link)
	"It does, doesn't it?" Filia smiled. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	transientsource 2009-08-07 04:18 am UTC (link)
	"But the young man over there says anyone can do it with lodestones and wire," Fawn said. "It sounds like what Dag calls 'farmer magic' -- things like mills and Silver Shoal's mint." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	filia_ul_copt 2009-08-07 04:25 am UTC (link)
	"Oh, that's Mister Fletcher. He and his brother and the rest of their family are scientists, and far more familiar with this thing called 'technology' than I am. So that's probably right, though I wouldn't know." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	transientsource 2009-08-07 04:28 am UTC (link)
	"Do they live around here?" Fawn looked around. (Reply to this) (Parent)