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GUARD BARRACKS - GARWIN'S CELL BLOCK - MORNING
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Garwin has been having a weird dream. Now, he's on that edge between waking up and staying asleep, his proportions having shifted back to normal over the night while he's slept, he's mostly just laying on the floor now, not quite awake and definitely not aware of where he is just yet.
Louma glides along the flagstone floor, keeping to one half of the hall as her tail winds behind her. She gives short return salutes to the guards, some barely in full uniform yet as they pass on the way to the hold. "We haven't kept anyone posted inside at night, Garwin seemed to sleep poorly the first few nights with eyes on him." She nods to the door guard, who pulls the heavy wooden door open for the group before she enters. She is about to speak again when the captain pauses halfway into the room, her tail still trailing out the door, though not in the way. Her eyes are fixed on the cage, and she struggles to retain a neutral expression.
Doc Plume walks along behind Louma, keeping one eye on the nervous okapi beside them. As Garwin's cell comes into view through the door, they could swear that the silhouette looks different, but it's hard to be sure at this distance. Rather than say anything to get Erika's hopes up, they hold in their excitement and just continue apace into the room after Louma.
Erika walks some distance behind the two, feeling very out of place and wary... but intensely curious. The okapi is very self-conscious about the sound her hooves are making on the stone floor, her ears twitching this way and that. All in all, her desire to see this through is all that's keeping her from running.
Garwin mrphs at all the noise slowly bringing him out of his rest. He lets out a big yawn, smacking his lips a few times as he puts his head back down to try and get back to sleep.
Louma draws her tail the rest of the way through the door, allowing the guard to close it behind them as she circles the cell along with Plume for a better look inside. Her flat expression breaks into a cautious smile. "Is he...?"
Doc Plume walks toward Garwin, their curiosity getting the best of them. He definitely looks a bit smaller than before, but with the blankets atop him, it's hard to tell for certain. "I'm not sure. One way to find out." Once at the bear's side, they lean down and carefully try to pull back his blankets.
Erika stays near the door, sitting down. Definitely not feeling good about the closed door and this space. She swallows, staring at Garwin with fear and hope catching in her throat.
Garwin grunts, reaching out to grab the blanket back, mumbling to himself, "Five more minutes, Cap'n..."
Doc Plume steps back when Garwin responds, having seen enough. They walk back to Louma and speak quietly. "That's a hand, not a paw... I think it worked."
Louma chuckles quietly to herself, nodding to Plume with an unrestrained smile. "I think you did it." She flashes the smile towards Erika as well, nodding. She turns back to Garwin, approaching slowly and working her posture a bit. With an uncommonly sweet voice, she speaks very quietly to him.
Garwin slowly blinks, then gasps, "Bwah!? Cap'n?! I mean, uh, Cap'n! Yes ma'am! Uh..." He lets go of the blanket and looks around the cell and frowns. "Did... I get drunk last night?"
Erika blinks at Garwin, leaning forward slightly as hearing him talk definitely makes her hopes flare. Still not stepping forward though, her instincts already on edge as is.
Louma backs up after unlocking the cell, allowing it to slide open as she defers to Plume's expertise as she casts an amused look toward Erika, which turns to slight worry as she sees Erika's posture.
Doc Plume approaches Garwin and squats down next to him. "Garwin? I'm Doc Plume... how are you feeling? Do you know where you are?"
Garwin looks around, then nods to Plume, "Well, you're not Hooktail, but I think this is the barracks? This isn't the drunk tank though? And uh, I'm not wearin' any clothes." He slumps down shyly. "So uh, sorry about whatever I did? I usually don't get that drunk."
Doc Plume nods to Louma who's standing next to a shelf with a set of clothes for the bear before looking back to him. "What's the last thing you remember before today?"
Louma closes the cell door behind Plume for Erika's comfort, before she turns to the shelf, picking up the outfit and passing it to Plume. "Just... Don't chew this one up, or we're taking it out of your pay."
Doc Plume fetches the clothing and hands it to Garwin before turning around and spreading their wings as a makeshift privacy screen for the bear.
Erika lays down at the far wall, managing to calm herself down somewhat as she watches the situation.
Garwin chuckles as he takes the clothes, "Last thing I remember... uh..." He pauses, clearly thinking hard. "I think... we were up on Mean Peak and..." He stops, standing up to look over Plume's wings at the group, "Where's Victoria?"
Louma nods to Plume, waiting. She listens to Garwin speaking, clearing her throat slightly. "She didn't like that the room was going to be so full of people. You can visit with her in a little while."
Doc Plume looks to Louma. "It's a bit of a long story. Erika, you could probably help explain things to him..."
Erika looks at Louma, then at Garwin, lowering her head down: "Y-you... chased me. Attacked me." She swallows and attempts to steel herself despite her obvious fear, shaking her head: "- t-that's not fair. You were affected... b-by the same flower I am."
Louma watches Erika with a sad smile, nodding. "Nobody blames you Garwin, before you worry."
Garwin frowns, but nods, "I don't know why, but I feel like it's really important that she's safe, that's all." He starts to put on the simple clothes again, "She never did much like crowds." He listens to Erika talk, and his expression grows grim. "Ah shoot... sorry about all that, Erika." He finishes dressing and nods to Plume.
Doc Plume lowers their wings and turns around, giving Garwin a good look over. "Hmm... well, I didn't meet you before the change, but you look normal enough to me. Anything feel out of place? Of course I'd like you to come in for a full physical later today, but that can wait." They walk out to where Erika is standing, resting a hand between the Okapi's shoulders in what's becoming a familiar gesture between the two. "Let him get a good look at you, Erika."
Louma moves to the side to make room for Erika, though looking at Garwin with a warm smile. "Good to see you again, Garwin."
Erika looks at Garwin: "...I-I can tell you t-the longer version of events later." She glances at Plume, then somewhat reluctantly gets up and steps closer to the bars, fear relatively obvious still even if it isn't that conscious of her anymore.
Garwin frowns, spotting Erika at last, "Oh shoot, kid. You definitely don't look alright..." He glances behind him and sits on the cell cot, which has been mostly unused since he'd been put in here. "So this flower thing or whatever did this to you?" He blinks "It did it to me too? I mean, I don't remember anything like that."
Louma sighs, nodding. "I don't know if that will be a good thing or not."
Doc Plume nods. "Victoria too... you were the worst off, though. Barely more than a feral animal. Victoria seems to be only physically changed from what Louma and others tell me."
Erika looks aside, trembling a bit: "I-it's... yeah." She turns back to Garwin and attempts a small smile: "I-I'm glad the cure worked, though."
Garwin scratches his head, "I mean, I'm glad too! I didn't even know I was sick though. Ah dang. I know you said not to blame myself, Cap'n, but I feel pretty bad anyways."
Louma looks toward Garwin, then to Erika. "All I can give you a week of paid leave to finish recovering. Perhaps you'll just have to make it up to Victoria and Erika on your own. The rest of us are just glad to have you back."
Doc Plume smiles. "Well, Erika deserves as much credit for the cure as I do. It was her idea to look at the stem sap from the fresh sample..."
Erika looks at Plume, blushing a bit: "I d-didn't do much." She sits down as the possibility of the real cure makes her head feel a bit light.
Louma chuckles. "You both sell your talents short."
Garwin nods to Louma, "I feel like I could get back to work right away, but I guess I'll take the week and do the physical and all. Thanks, Ma'am. And thanks to you too, Erika, and Plume! I guess I owe you my life, even if it just feels like I woke up here. Victoria's too I'm guessing. Guess I really made a mess of our scouting mission though."
Doc Plume gives a little bow to Louma and Garwin. "All in the line of duty, which I'm sure you both understand." They turn to look at Erika. "So... should we get you back to your garden and get you dosed with this cure?"
Erika doesn't really hear Plume at first. "Mmm...? O-oh! Yes, p-please. Let's."
Louma dips her head slightly at Garwin's last few words. "Mmh... You and I both did, Victoria seemed to have kept you in line until you two were found, though."
Garwin chuckles, "Well, she does that." He frowns, still feeling a little confused by all of this.
Louma pulls a keyring from a pouch on her uniform, taking a moment to select the cell master key. "Do you feel ready to join us on this side of the bars, guard Garwin?"
Garwin nods, "I think so. Oh dang, I didn't hurt anyone while I was like that, did I?"
Erika pauses in her getting up at Garwin's words. She swallows before she continues getting up, not really wanting to assign more blame to the bear.
Louma shakes her head, unlocking the cell door and sliding it out of the way again. She glances towards Erika before speaking. "Well, not that we know of. Knocked the wind out of Nesseth when we encountered you, but that's fine."
Doc Plume leaves the cell and goes to head off with Erika. They pause and turn back to the other two. "Garwin, see you later today, and Captain, please try to wrangle up Victoria for me. She needs this cure even if she might not want it."
Garwin frowns, looks back at Erika too. "Right. So gotta apologize to him too."
Erika glances at Garwin again, feeling awkward for leaving: "I-I'll talk to you once I'm whole as well, Garwin." She tries to not look too eager to get away as she turns to walk out.
Garwin nods, smiling sadly at Erika and waving her goodbye, "Take care, kid. Sorry about the mess."
Louma nods to Erika and Plume. "Looking forward to having you back to yourself, as well Erika. I'll see you later about Victoria, indeed. Good day, Plume."
Doc Plume gives another nod to the guards and moves to escort Erika back out, first to the clinic and then to her garden.
Louma turns back to Garwin, beckoning him to follow her back to her office. "Come on old friend, we've got some catching up to do. And a pile of forms to fill out before your time off starts."
Garwin stands up and follows Louma, looking a little sad about the whole affair. "Forms? Oh uh, yeah. Guess things haven't changed that much, huh?"
Louma chuckles quietly, looking over her shoulder to him. "Well... More than you might expect. I'll help." Louma fields questions from the guard as he answers her own for the next couple hours, not overwhelming him with information, and leaving out most things he doesn't directly ask her about.
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THE THIRSTY MINNOW - AFTERNOON
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Dorri sits at a table with various hand-drawn and printed charts spread out along with her most recent log book of observation. She scribbles notes and carefully traces new arcs on the charts with a pencil. A half full mug of brown ale sits next to her work, mostly forgotten at the moment as the markhor is currently fully engrossed.
Gareth walks into the bar through the front door, looking a fair bit better than just after his sparring match with Louma. He's managed to (mostly) recover from that, so he's been out and about a little more today. He makes his way to the bar to grab himself a nice, cold drink to offset the slightly stifling warmth that's soaked into his fur. He turns and leans his back against the counter and looks around as he grabs hold of his mug, just getting a feel for the level of activity in the bar today.
Dorri mutters to herself as she jots down a correction on one of the printed charts. "No no no... that's the orientation of the Pleiades in the winter, not in the autumn." She sets down her pencil and takes a long pull of ale from her mug, taking a moment to look around the bar.
Gareth tilts his head at the markhor poring over the charts arrayed on her table, noting that they're all star charts and calculations. He glances up from the table at the markhor, then gives them a bit of a wave when he notices she's looking up. "Afternoon, miss. Ye an astronomer or somethin'?"
Dorri nods to Gareth. "Indeed so. Make my coin by charting the skies for sailors and expeditions and the like. Also by fixing the same mistake for the fifth year in a row on the printer's charts, it seems..." She pokes a hard-tipped finger at the offending section of the printed chart and sighs. "Seems like you're a bit acquainted with charts yourself, then?"
Gareth nods. "Aye, that I be. Perhaps not as familiar with them now as I was a year or two ago, but the stars don't shift about much, anyway." He smiles, "May have even used a map or two from ye, for all I know."
Dorri laughs. "Maybe. Depends how much the stars over Aephix matter to your sailing. I mostly just sell on to folks who print them up all pretty each season anyway." She shrugs and drains the rest of her before smirking at the wolf. "Lost your sea legs lately?"
Gareth shakes his head. "Nah, just haven't been needin' to helm a vessel or plot a course meself in a while. Different profession, now, so I let others do the sailin'." He scratches idly at one of his ears, "Though I guess me old crew may have snagged a map or two for the seas 'round Aephix in the past."
Dorri smiles. "Ah, well, I hope it guided them true, then. The stars don't lie if you listen to them." She hops down from their stool and walk over to the bar to get a refill. While there, she offers a hand to Gareth. "Dorri."
Gareth smiles a bit and shakes Dorri's hand with a perhaps not surprisingly firm grip. "Gareth. Pleasure to meet ye, Dorri. And, well, if the maps lead us wrong, I wouldn't be sittin' here conversin' with ye."
Dorri smirks. "I suppose so. I don't pretend that my work matters too much, though. Lots of folks doing the same thing with better equipment over in Ondonga and Westport and the like..."
Gareth shrugs, chuckling. "Maybe so, but they're not the ones sailin' out here near Aephix and further out. Stars don't quite match those charts this far away from the big cities."
Dorri climbs up the stool next to Gareth's and sits down, taking a long drink of brown ale. "Indeed. That's about all I have on them, but it's enough. Not that a hermit living in a stone tower up a mountain needs too much coin to get by."
Gareth turns back towards the bar as Dorri joins him at the counter, likewise taking a pull from his own mug. "Figure a mountain would be best to see the stars, eh? Sounds like a nice, quiet livin', though. Almost as good as droppin' anchor around a deserted island."
Dorri laughs. "Yeah, it's not bad until the big storms roll in, then you're right up under the clouds and get the full brunt. My tower blew down in the spring. Spent a good few months rebuilding it by hand..."
Gareth cringes a little. "That sounds rough. Least ye weren't in the tower when it fell, though." He tilts his head a bit, "Must be a right bit o' work to haul the stone and lumber up by hand."
Dorri smiles. "Took a good bit of work, but I'm stronger than I look and I don't have to follow the paths. The stone was all still there, but the lumber took a while. Ended up replacing all the timbers since they were from my great, great uncle's day."
Gareth nods. "Mmh, the wood'll be pretty brittle after a while. Probably was due for a replacement anyway." He chuckles, "I've met a couple o' yer kind during me travels in the past. Hard to track, and harder still to follow, especially in the mountains."
Dorri laughs. "Most folks just don't know how to walk on mountains. I would say it's not that hard, but I've been doing it all my life, so..." She shrugs and takes another sip of ale. "Hard to leave a hoofprint on rock too, so tracking is mostly out."
Gareth smiles again. "Fair enough. Shame me old crew didn't think o' that one time a while back. Would have saved 'em a lot o' trouble." He nods back towards the table Dorri was sitting at until recently, "I'm guessin' from all those charts on the table, yer tower's all completed at this point?"
Dorri nods. "Oh yeah. Had to get it back up before the transit of Venus. Was only going to be clearly visible the whole way from this area, so those observations were worth some pretty coin." She hops down with her mug and takes it back over to her table.
Gareth slides out of his seat and accompanies Dorri over to her table, being careful to not to disturb her workspace. "Really, now? Must've been some mage-types that wanted to get the details on that, eh?"
Dorri shrugs. "Something like that. I have a broker in Folly that handles that stuff for me. Just tells me what folks want and only takes a fair cut of the price."ยจ
Gareth nods as he scans the charts with a practiced eye. "Sounds like a fair deal on both ends, then. Ye get to do what ye love, and ye get some coin fer the effort. How often do ye have to update these maps?"
Dorri shrugs. "Not too often. Right now I'm just checking this printer's chart. They're prone to mistakes, so they've taken to paying me to spend a couple of days with it each quarter to make sure it's right. They just get lazy with all their movable star bits and don't account for seasonal rotation and the like." She scans a finger over a horizon line and frowns. "I think even you can see what the problem is right there."
Gareth leans over a bit to get a look at the spot Dorri's pointing out. He thinks for a moment, then nods. "Ah, I see it, aye... Far as I can tell, Al Na'ir doesn't dip that low on the horizon until 'round mid-Winter or so." He lightly taps a finger on the legend at the corner of the map, "But the printer's sayin' this is the Autumn map."
Dorri laughs. "Exactly. It should be up here. There's a whole cascade of wrongly placed stars because..." She traces a line through the chart. "Ah, there we go, two Ursa Minor..."
Gareth sighs and shakes his head as he starts to notice bits and pieces wrong with the rest of the map. "Some poor sod's goin' to be sailin' way off course if this went to print. Might have even ended up runnin' aground on a sandbar or reef somewhere."
Dorri shakes her head. "Yeah, it's really a mess... Honestly, I'm going to just suggest they start over. I'll get a copy of last year's and just mark the changes."
Gareth chuckles as he looks at the calculations and other documents strewn about the table. "If their work is normally this sloppy, might be fer the best, yep." He shakes his head, this time in amusement, "If only we could see their faces when they get the charts back, though."
Dorri takes another sip of ale. "Makes me wish I could be a fancy teacher at some academy, mark it all up in red ink and write 'INCOMPETENT' along the top."
Gareth smiles a bit. "Ye could teach the new astronomers and cartographers the proper way to do things. If these maps are what the big folks are puttin' out, they're clearly not learnin' everythin' they need to learn." He goes to take a sip of his drink, then continues to metaphorically rip the most recent star charts apart alongside Dorri, vacillating between wondering if the astronomers in charge are trained properly, or if they're just incompetent.