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--- campaigns:taika-daagru:2024-05-11 [2025-02-16 02:21] – Today's stuff pinkgothic
+++ campaigns:taika-daagru:2024-05-11 [2025-07-27 01:50] (current) – Today's stuff! pinkgothic
@@ Line 206: / Line 206: @@
 "I grant it's unusual, but she really is my protégé. As you can see, she has much to learn," Kukri remarked, but she did so with fondness in her voice, and dared to approach the two that were locked in unpleasant conversation, with the full intention of smoothing whatever hackles were raised back down with what little authority she'd managed to salvage.
+**Concavenator**:
+With a non-committal grunt, the sergeant let Kukri walk toward Giya, following her closely as if she feared escape.
+"... really sick of having to freeze my tail off 'cause you lot can't be bothered to-- ma'am?" The officer stopped in the middle of a tirade as they approached. In fact, she seemed confused by the fact that Kukri was not already in chains. Giya did not speak or move from her spot, but her head imperceptibly swiveled in the mound of her bristling chest to turn an eye onto her friend. Very heavy breaths vapored from her nostrils.
+**pinkgothic**:
+"My apologies, I've been engaged in conversation of my own," Kukri remarked. "So I don't know what's the matter here. Is there something I can help clarify about my protégé?" she asked. The very fact she was calm now, well-spoken and polite would likely help to notch the officer's stress levels down a notch and make some less brash dialogue possible.
+**Concavenator**:
+"This lady claims to be a philosopher", said the sergeant curtly, pointing at both travellers in succession with her muzzle, "and this her 'protégé'. Both are to be in custody until verification". The officer recomposed herself and nodded stiffly. "Yes ma'am. Uh, the suspected smuggler here present is not responding properly to interrogation". She looked at Kukri. "Is she a ward of yours?"
+**pinkgothic**:
+"Giya is my protégé," Kukri reiterated. "And I apologise that we seem to have, by way of my naivité and desire to get back to Grikaa as soon as possible, gotten entangled in all of this. As the sergeant has said, we are in your custody for now, and that is well and good. You will find the papers are in order, but it is understandably your duty to check. We will give you no trouble, but I believe there really isn't anything we can tell you that I haven't already told the sergeant." There was a distinct tiredness to her voice - between the damage to her body from the crash and her limp, her body was taking its toll. "That said, I'm happy to try. What questions were you asking?"
+**Concavenator**:
+"Hm. What business she had with the vessel, what was she carrying, what was she planning to do with the contraband, who was she travelling with, and where her paperwork was. She refuses to speak clearly. We can get a statement from you instead, if you accept to be accountable for her conduct".
+**pinkgothic**:
+Kukri nodded amicably. As much as it was wearing her down, she would never hold ill will to people who were trying to solve a crime, regardless how embarrassing it was that she had landed in its periphery, and so she volunteered the answers she could: "The business with the vessel was the same as mine - we needed transportation to Grikaa, as we cannot very well walk there on foot, especially since I've hurt one of mine." It was said in a good-natured tone, not in one of complaint. "She was carrying very little, on account of previously possessing almost nothing of note. You see her now as she is and what she has. I initially gave her some payment to assist me with research back in Yakak'ratu, but she went above and beyond her duties and so I have promised her apprenticeship as well," Kukri smiled to Giya. "And from all that you can infer she was travelling with me... and that she is still a little new to polite society."
+**Concavenator**:
+"A'right," the officer said, and dug out a little slate and chalk to take notes. The sergeant, who had been idly tugging at a loose ribbon of her uniform, then spoke to Kukri: "I bid you luck in your latest experiment, then. Nevertheless, you'll understand we have to check against the records of your guild to establish your identity; I suppose that your friend will be unknown to them as yet. This lousy weather is not good for semaphores but with a bat relay we should be having answers back within a couple days. Until then, you will be our guests. I would like to see your notes again. Mind you, you don't have to give them to me, but it would be-- very appreciated".
+**pinkgothic**:
+At this, Kukri made no secret of her displeasure, although she nodded, regardless. Then she elaborated: "Would you give us assistance, then? My resources were drained by the expedition, since they had always been limited by my personal carry capacity and had to last several days for both me and Giya. If we stay a few days waiting for a response and cannot count on your hospitality or a loan, it would be no exaggeration to say that will we, in the most grisly literal sense, starve." There was a chance the weather would clear up for the semaphores, of course.
+As she was speaking about all of this, she was back to rummaging through the bag for all the notes she'd collected. Everything was in a bit of a chaotic state, but they were still bundled together, if collectively ever so slightly crumpled - but it looked to be easily readable, if not, of course, easily interpretable. But she was more than willing to interpret it for them, and confident that she could do so in a way that would make enough sense to them as that they could reason through the brunt of it themselves in a way that would make her explanation retroactively irrelevant. With even minor guidance, they would not, if they were at all educated and willing to listen, need to take her on her word on the meaning of any of it.
+And so she passed them to the sergeant, privately hoping it would indeed be very appreciated, with the quick interjection: "If you could use me to walk you through what any of this means, I believe I could give you enough of an understanding in about an hour of your time that you don't need me to interpret most of these notes-- ah, perhaps with the exception of my handwriting in places." And at this her body language adopted a brief, mild affliction of embarrassment. "But it should not pose much of an obstacle."
+**Concavenator**:
+"I'd appreciate your cooperation in that," the sergeant replied cheerfully, raising her neck, "and I'm sure you will have a pleasant stay in our care, Philosopher Taika-Daagru". The teratorn on her chest glistened, its wings spread wide, and its talons opened as to swoop onto a lone astrapothere. "I should ask you both to follow us at once. My agents will carry your luggage -- is it that bag? Good, I shouldn't like to leave your belongings in the middle of the woods. Watchful Au'a, You know what could be creeping here soon as we leave".
+She turned around, made a beckoning gesture with one arm, and marched off into a well-trod path in the snow. Along the walk she muttered something to the officers -- it had the cadence of an order, but the actual words were beyond hearing. A couple went to recover Kukri and Giya's bag, and immediately afterward the whole group followed the sergeant in the direction of the trees, whence they had come. The lanters and air rifles were pointed toward the forest, in search perhaps of the sled owners, but the ones behind them threw sideways glances at the old and the new philosopher.
+**pinkgothic**:
+Kukri had no interest in making anyone carry her bag - that was for the haughty types, whom she had always aspired never to be like - but it was rather less clear if her default attitude might not be impolite now. They were still, in a roundabout way, suspects in some strange case. Insisting on carrying her belongings might just be viewed with suspicion - and so she didn't, although she dared to offer a milder variant:
+"That's very kind of you, though I hope it isn't because you feel obliged. It's not your responsibility to carry them. But we appreciate the reprieve; it has certainly been a while since I could walk and grant my back rest at the same time." It would also be good not to have to put extra weight on her foot as she hobbled along, but that probably went without saying. The matter with the foot was also a more recent affliction.
+**Concavenator**:
+The officer who had taken the bag out of the sled simply shrugged with the free half of her body and said: " 'the procedure, ma'am". Even with that load, she walked much more briskly than Kukri had, even before her injury. The sergeant simply snorted agreement. No trace of their previous travel companions turned out; after a rather short and uneventful walk under the drooping branches of cold-hardened araucarias, the police carts were in sight. They looked comparatively comfortable, drawn by stout astrapotheres and somewhat closed to the wind by wooden grates. Hopefully they wouldn't rush too far from the direction of home.