childrenofbahamutlogs | Carrots vs Sticks

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Carrots vs Sticks

WHO: Avan and ~*~You~*~
WHAT: FIREWOOD. Also stew.
WHERE: The woods outside of town mostly
WHEN: After Smalleroth's call for assistance

SUMMARY: Avan's showing Smalleroth a more effective way of getting people to help you with a task

text | un: littlelumberjack

Hello! My name is Avan de Zinuar III and I would like to make a request of you all. s0001 may have been a bit rude, but they were correct that we will want a healthy stockpile of firewood to remain comfortable through the winter! It'll be easiest if we all work together, so I suggest that those of us who are willing meet by the well tomorrow and knock out what we can in one go! Remember, even if you're not strong enough for felling trees, you can still help gather sticks for kindling! Everyone is welcome to come help!

I'll be there bright and early with a pot of stew to share, but you can come whenever you have time. You can bring food, too, if you like! A potluck sounds like a great way to celebrate a job well done~

---

As promised, Avan is at the well bright and early the next morning with a big pot of stew simmering away over a campfire. He'll add more stuff to it throughout the day, so no matter when someone wants stew, there will be stew to be had and it will be delicious. Avan is very good at what he does.

He's borrowed some saws and axes and even people from the locals and marked some trees that he's determined will make good firewood. And for anybody who needs more direction than that, he'll cheerfully explain as many steps involved in turning a standing tree into a pile of usable firewood as they need.

Is he going to do any actual wood chopping himself? ...Maybe if someone asks him to demonstrate technique on a small piece? He's clearly a weedy little nerd and definitely not someone theoretically capable of cutting a boulder in half with a sword, give him a break.

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Popp hates physical labor even more than he hates hard work in general. Outweighing both of those is that he wants to spend time with Avan and is pretty curious about how his teaching abilities are at this point in his life.

"I'm only here as a bodyguard. In case of bandits or whatever else. You can go ahead and ignore me."

Still doesn't want to chop any wood, though! He leans back against a tree with his hands behind his head real casual.

Sure, Popp, there's definitely a significant risk of bandits attacking a group of people carrying axes barely outside of Town. Avan's soooo worried.

Which is why he's shoving a bundle of sticks into Popp's chest. "Popp, help me carry these to the shed."

No! His one weakness! Avan telling him to do things-! He reflexively takes the sticks, and now he's got an armful of sticks. And at this point, what else is he gonna do with them but go to the stupid shed.

"...I should have hid in the trees."

Avan's already bustling away to check on the stew, but he calls back over his shoulder. "No, no, that wouldn't be a good idea! We're cutting some of those down!"

Once again thwarted by the expert manipulations of tactical genius Avan de Zinuar III. He'll do it but Avan can't make him do it quickly!!

Speaking of doing things, whether or not Avan's still messing around with the stew when Popp gets back, it's been pretty well established what he's not doing:

"Are you going to chop any wood yourself or just boss everyone around?"

"I said everyone not strong enough for felling trees could help gather kindling, didn't I?" Where do you think those sticks he shoved at you earlier came from, Popp?

Speaking of which, he's now shoving a potato and a knife into Popp's hands. "Here, peel this," he says as he resumes chopping an already peeled potato.

Belabored siiiiigh. Popp does know how to peel a potato - his technique is recognizable to a trained chef's eye as a cruder version of Avan's.

"You could knock one clean to the ground with an Earth Slash."

Avan can, of course, peel an entire potato in a single long ribbon. Popp can, of course, absolutely not.

The mention of Earth Slash gets Popp an aggrieved sigh as Avan's shoulders slump. "You know I can't do that, Popp, we tried." Which is, frustratingly, true! Even sneaking out to practice on his own in the early hours of the morning before Popp's awake, Avan still hasn't managed to figure out the trick to the technique. All he has to do is get so exhausted that he stops thinking about how to do it and let his body figure out how to move the right way on its own, allegedly. Like that's easy! Does Popp not understand how much energy Avan always has? Does he not understand how much he thinks??? He'd wonder how his future self ever managed to invent the technique in the first place if he didn't already know the answer was "mortal peril."

He would rather not have to resort to mortal peril.

Several ribbonsworth of potato skin that also contain more wasted delicious underpotato layer than Avan's. At least the future hero of the land has his precision down, if not his physical power?

"We didn't get you worn out enough, that's all. A day of chopping wood might do the trick this time."

He pats Avan companionably on the back and gives him a peeled potato. And takes another potato. Uuuugh. It's Sigh Squad hours in here.

"Just because it didn't work out once doesn't mean you won't get it eventually. Take it from your senior in learning; I used to mess up with new spells all the time."

Popp also is beginning to suspect that the answer might be mortal peril, but for various personal reasons he does not want to subject Avan to this.

Avan pouts at the potato with the look of a guy who doesn't really want to chop wood all day. "I guess it's worth trying...."

It's rare that Popp's on this side of that very familiar look. Heh hee hee, maybe he could get used to this role reversal after all.

"That's the spirit! A hero never gives up or backs down!"

"That is true," Avan answers, laughing nervously. The other knights of Carl would be having a field day if they could see this. Somebody actually managing to pressure Avan into doing hard work???

Smash cut to Avan absolutely fumbling the shit out of an axe. Sorry, were you expecting a noble to have ever chopped his own firewood before???

(He has, but that's besides the point.)

Edited 2024-10-29 00:26 (UTC)

Popp screeches and flails about in the background as if he's the one in danger of being hit with an axe.

Avan?? AVAN??

...Wait the future Avan taught him enough rudimentary melee combat that he does feel confident enough to zip in there and grab the handle. He's only done that with a stick, not a real weapon, but he can do it!

"You've been directing this whole time and you can't even chop a log yourself?! Even I can chop wood; my old man had me at it until I thought my arms'd drop off every winter!"

He hated every minute of it, obviously.

Without a shred of actual shame, Avan gives an embarrassed laugh, rubbing at the back of his head.

"I've only ever watched it done. I guess the actual chopping is easier in theory than it is in practice, hahaha!"

"If you don't practice, of course it is! It's like this, all right? Hyah!"

Popp doesn't have much of what you could call brute strength, but his form is good, the axe is sharp, and cutting things in half is mostly about gravity and momentum, both of which he has a lot of experience with what with all the crashing into things he does.

"You got a good look, right? Think you can do it?"

Polite applause for Popp's excellent demonstration! It's tempting to keep goofing off, but he doesn't think Popp's patience or heart would stand up to much more of that. Time to start taking this... well, something adjacent to seriously, at least.

"Okay!"

Avan's form is not good, and he falls on his ass in the process, but he does successfully chop a piece of wood in half this time. Progress....

Oh no. Popp remembers with a dreadful creeping fondness that a crucial factor that inspired him to put more effort into training was doing it side by side with someone else. He's going to have to cut more wood! He's played himself! Damn it all!!

Needless to say, he's going to be genuinely exhausted and wobbly long before Avan has to tap into his reserves.

Avan grins when Popp joins him in chopping. Yay, bonding!!! At least Popp gets plenty of opportunities for breaks, as Avan scampers off to check on the stew or talk to someone. Meanwhile, Avan's form actually gets progressively sharper through the day, which is definitely just the benefits of practice and not him getting tired of messing up on purpose.

He stops when he notices Popp flagging and leans casually on his axe. "Oh, are you done already?" If one were to only look at Avan out of context, they'd think he just got done with a light workout. Disgusting, tbh.

"No! ...Yes..."

He wobbles a little more and kind of... gently... oozes... down onto the stump he's been chopping logs on. Trying to keep up with Avan is no joke.

"Forget the dragon bond, this must be what it feels like to be a slime."

"I don't know about that, slimes are still pretty energetic! You don't look like you'll be bouncing around anywhere anytime soon." Avan, on the other hand.... He might be part slime? Has anyone ever checked???

"Uuuuugh."

He's going to be so sore tomorrow. He's not even the one who needs to learn Earth Slash!

"If we're going by bounciness, that makes you King Slime."

Avan bounces on his heels and snickers. He certainly has the dopey grin for it!

"Go have some water and some stew, then you'll feel better."

Popp manages to ooze back upright with some levitation involved, because his magic levels aren't depleted at all.

"Yeah, yeah, all right."

Avan usually is right about this genre of thing, which is in some way comforting and in some way frustrating. At least Popp was right about what it takes to get him to really get into hero-adjacent tasks, and that's joining in right alongside him.

He wishes he were wrong about that, actually.

At least the stew's good.

[Oh, this post has been found, just as it was meant to be. A BIT RUDE, huh?

While he very pointedly does not leave a message of his own, he is lurking to see if anyone else responds, in between his own work elsewhere.]

[ Just a bit! It's OK, Sephiroth, Avan's sure you'll be able to get the hang of it eventually! ]

[Yeah, Angeal had caught wind of the little exchange that had started this. Just in his nature, to keep a distant eye on this younger version of Sephiroth whenever their paths just happen to cross. In this case, it had just been because Angeal had figured he was right - which was why he was already helping out various little ways himself.]

[This, however, is just funny.]

Not a bad idea, really, although I'm not sure how many you would really need to go gather word. I guess if nothing else, this is a good chance for someone to cement their status as a lumberjack...

Still I guess I could help out a little bit. I feel I ought to, considering that the bakery is going to be using up a lot of fire.

Although you're going to want to make sure you prepare things properly. You can't just go cutting down any old trees.

Don't worry, I'm from a place a lot like this one, so I know exactly what to look for!

[ With a name like Avan de Zinuar III, you would think that he wouldn't know the first thing about getting his own firewood, but House Zinuar is not exactly typical nobility and Avan the Third especially so. ]

But some help from someone with experience would definitely be appreciated! I can explain anything I need to, but of course it's best if I don't have to explain everything to everyone.

Oh, that's good to hear then. You never know, with how all sorts of people have been dragged into this whole mess. Honestly, in the last place I was, I wouldn't have full confidence in a good chunk of the population.

Through no fault of their own, of course. In a lot of other worlds, people have progressed past everyone needing to know that little skill. Which becomes a problem in this sort of situation.

Anyway... I'll see about coming in. Maybe I can drag in some of my boyfriends as well. One of them might be really handy at it, although I'll have to watch to make sure he doesn't completely exhaust himself with his little tricks.

I've already heard about some interesting things that don't exist in my world. It really captures the imagination!

[ He hasn't even heard about trains from Slayd yet! ]

Exhaustion should be easy enough to avoid, since we'll be right by the well and there should be plenty of stew to go around!

[ Avan has caught the implied numbers in "some of my boyfriends" and is choosing not to comment on it. It's none of his business. Seems like it'd be complicated, though. Avan's only sweet on the one girl and that's more than enough for him! ]

[~~You mean the girl you know who like you and you haven't even confessed to yet, Avan, is it that girl~~]

You'll want to make sure that people don't eat too much of that stew and end up wanting to take a nice nap instead. That can be real filling. I know that from experience.

Sure that'll do the best for folks?

Like most things in Mithrun's life these days, this was Angeal's idea. Not that he minds, which is also pretty typical. There are worse ways to fill the time (and keep his attention occupied until he's settled into a new routine) than with menial labor.

...However, on arrival (along with Angeal and however many of his other partners Angeal managed to rope into this), Mithrun shows little inclination toward picking up any of the collected tools. Instead, he contemplates the marked trees, looks down at his own clothing, and hums thoughtfully.

"I'll need a bolt of cloth, or something similar."

Sure, he could use a more conventional tool - but that would be, in his opinion, pretty slow and inefficient compared to using his magic.

Avan has just finished up adding some more vegetables to the stew, so he's in the middle of removing his apron when Mithrun speaks up.

"Would a bed sheet do? I can run home and grab one!"

He doesn't have any idea how such an object would help here, but he also kind of figures that that just means he's going to see something he's never seen before. Not all that unusual at this point.

Mithrun looks to the boy speaking - the one who set this up, he thinks. He wasn't really paying attention, if he's honest.

He looks at the apron.

He holds out a hand expectantly, palm up. "It would. But that will be quicker."

Just hand it over, don't worry about it.

He's worried about it! He's using that for cooking, what if Mithrun gets splinters in it!!!

"Uhhhh," Avan replies, and does not hand over the apron. "What are you going to do with it?"

"I'm going to cut down trees," Mithrun answers, as though that's an entirely normal thing to do with an apron. "Or process the logs. Whichever is needed more at the moment."

He is being SO helpful. He cannot confirm or deny whether being teleported into a tree will get splinters in Avan's apron.

...He has also not withdrawn his hand.

Avan can make some educated guesses about how an apron might be used to cut down trees and yeah dude that sounds like splinter city.

"Uhhhhh," Avan repeats, and still does not hand over the apron. "I'll go get that bed sheet!"

And off he goes, absolutely fuckin' booking it.

Well. For whatever it's worth, Mithrun doesn't move to go after him.

...In fact, by the time Avan returns, he doesn't seem to have moved at all, save for having dropped that hand back by his side. Not that it stays there, once he spots Avan approaching again. Hand over the sacrificial splinter cloth, kid.

Goodbye, bed sheet, your sacrifice will not be forgotten.

Mithrun takes the sheet, holding it up neatly by two corners as he eyes the nearest marked tree. "Stand clear."

He whisks the sheet upward, at an angle, and casts. The sheet reappears embedded diagonally in the trunk, replaced by a thin ellipse of freshly-extracted wood that falls at Mithrun's feet. Mithrun steps over it, going to retrieve the bedsheet... or, at least, to take hold of an edge of it and pull, as the tree trunk creaks and slides down the slanted cut.

...Yeah, that thing is soaked in sap, isn't it. Perfect for holding onto splinters.

Edited 2024-11-03 18:40 (UTC)

Avan does not need to be told twice to stand well back from Mithrun's work, though he definitely watches with interest. Teleportation is not the method he was expecting! Every teleportation spell that he knows of teleports the caster; sending only an object somewhere is very curious indeed. Maybe he'll talk about it with Popp later, though he does kind of get the sense that the other boy is much stronger with execution than he is with theory.

Either way, Avan claps politely and is quietly very glad he did not surrender his apron for this purpose. "Wooow! I've never seen someone cut a tree like that before!"

Mithrun barely glances at Avan as he shakes the sheet out, lining it up to bisect the fallen trunk. "That isn't surprising. Most don't use teleportation magic this way."

He pauses, teleporting the sheet again. This time, he catches the resulting wooden disc, lining up to send it into the trunk in turn. "That said, I can only speak for my own world."

"People definitely don't use it that way where I'm from! I don't think they even could. Zoom can't pass through solid objects. Evac can, though, so maybe using that as a basis...."

Pondering it is a bit of a moot point when he does not know either of those spells to test any ideas with, but this is not stopping him from pondering it anyway.

"Evac... is that an escape spell? That was the original purpose of the teleportation magic mine is adapted from."

Another disc, another cast. He eyes the segments of trunk, and casts one more time. "Should be small enough to split lengthwise now. Just a moment."

Avan watches patiently while Mithrun works, hands clasped loosely behind his back.

"Did you come up with the idea of using escape magic this way on your own?"

"More or less." He retrieves the sheet, turning it to line up along the length of the logs. "It was mostly a matter of repurposing its known risks."

He casts again. Really normal thought, to look at the grisly aftermath of botched teleportation spells and go "let's try doing that on purpose".

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Carrots vs Sticks

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