Carrots vs Sticks

[avanture_time]

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.

Comments

[avanture_time]

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?"

[orbicularis]

"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...He has also not withdrawn his hand.

[avanture_time]

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.

[orbicularis]

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.

[avanture_time]

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

[orbicularis]

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.

[avanture_time]

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!"

[orbicularis]

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."

[avanture_time]

"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.

[orbicularis]

"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."

[avanture_time]

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?"

[orbicularis]

"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".