proudambassador | Seven purple files

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Seven purple files

I do not suppose there are any beds that are not hard as a rock down here? I have tried one in nearly every cabin, and they are all most uncomfortable. It would be better to sleep on the ground! When we were banished out of the tree last time, the accommodations, they were much better. I am not impressed. This place, it has always been poorly managed, but now, I see that it is even worse than I thought.

Next time we are driven from our little homes and what little lives we have, I would like more comfortable accommodations. Do note this, whomever manages these sort of things, hm?

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Try cutting some evergreen branches and piling them up. They're comfortable enough with a blanket over the top.

What, with a saw? And remove my own hand? First, my good person, I do not know which tree would be evergreen. Or if they all are. Second, I do not have a saw. And third, I like my hands where they are. Attached to me.

[City type, she thinks, and decides against a step-by-step explanation. He'd probably get hurt, and it would be her fault.]

You could probably find someone to do all that for you. I'm sure you're not the only one who doesn't like the bunks.

And you, do you know how to do all this?

I slept on one last night.

The pile, or the bed? One is not very specific, hm? If it is the pile, and it was not more uncomfortable than the rock-like mattresses, then are your skills at making the pile available?

[Min's amused. Clearly he's never actually slept on the ground.]

A bedroll on a pile. And they could be.

I can get you the branches and set it up, but you'll have to find a tarp if you want to keep away from the needles. [She has the feeling that city types find that important.]

A tarp. Yes. I will find a tarp.

What is a tarp?

[Nope. Overpriviledged practical royalty here.]

[She doesn't laugh, but only because it would mean dropping the no-real-expressions mask she likes so much.]

There's a supply cabin. Look for a fairly stiff, large sheet of some kind. It might be canvas, it might be one of those [...what do they call it again...] plastick things, but it has to be waterproof and have holes at the edges.

If it has holes, it is not very waterproof. A boat that had holes, it would sink. But I will search.

At the edges. [She draws a square with a hole at each corner to demonstrate, then adds an additional four along the edges.]

They're for staking it to the ground or tying it to things. [Probably best if she clarifies, Mindelan decides.] The stakes or rope go through the holes. Let me know when you find one.

I see. Now, I am looking.

[A good twenty minutes later, he writes again.]

Do they come in blue? If so, I think that I have found one.

[It's a bit after that when she sees it.]

Good. Wait, you got this from the supply cabin, right? It wasn't taken from a woodpile? [Clarify.] They're wrapped around wood so it can be burned even if it's rained recently.

I did not dump wood out, if that is what you are asking, no. It was folded and on a shelf, and so I do not think that it was being used for anything. But if it was important that it remain on that shelf, it is too bad.

All right.

Take it outside somewhere, unfold it, and shake it out. There might be sticks and bugs in it right now. I'll find you in the main camp.

[Oh, right.] I'm Mindelan.

Bugs. This place becomes better by the moment.

Greetings, Mindelan. Myself, I am Ambassador.

[She hadn't actually spent twenty minutes cutting evergreen branches. More like eight; there had been a pine with long, relatively soft needles within sight of her writing, and it hadn't taken long to cut a selection of branches.

Moving them was a little more of an issue, but not much. Mindelan was big, powerfully built, and this was an easy Wilderness to carry things in. She struck on lashing them together and pulling them behind her.

Once she was closer to the main camp, with a lot more people around, she hefted the bundle and shook off any dirt and fallen needles, wrinkling her nose a little. She knew she should love the scent of pine, but for some reason the sap sometimes made her think of vertigo.

The bundle was bulky, but she didn't find it too heavy as she came up to the cabins. Now... someone with a blue tarp...

...Was that a fin?]

[At first he spent way too much time glaring at the tarp. It could be full of bugs, and he really didn't want bugs to crawl on him. It was undignified, like this entire place. Then he realized that he could at least manage this. After all, someone else was doing the dangerous part.

Unless the bugs were poisonous. Or they could crawl through your skin and lay eggs which would eat you from the inside out.

At last Ambassador began by kicking the tarp, letting the bugs know that they didn't want to mess with him. Bugs couldn't be particularly intelligent, but maybe they would get the point. Once he was satisfied that they were either fled or dead, he tentatively picked up one side and began shaking it out as best he could while trying to not get dust on his silk shirt.

Once he was satisfied that nothing was left on it that would eat his face, Ambassador looked around. He hadn't told Mindelan where he was, and he didn't even know if they were boy or girl.

Much to his relief he saw someone carrying a bundle of branches. Were those really going to be comfortable? Well, really, few things would be worse than the 'mattress' he'd slept on last night.]

You. You are Mindelan?

[It wasn't a fin, but... She gave a mental shrug and told herself not to stare. Other than that - he did have a bit of the look she thought would go with a clueless, wealthy cityman, though a bit older than she'd expected. Taller, too, though without taking the... hair into account he was still shorter than her.]

That's me. So you're Ambassador. [She hefted the boughs a little higher.] Where do you want this?

[At the question he stared at the branches before starting to talk slowly.] I do not think I have thought that far ahead. Where does one sleep when they are sleeping on these?

[But he wasn't about to sleep outside. He was already stuck in enough of an undignified position as it was. Ambassador gestured at a cabin that didn't seem to have people in it.] Here. In here. It is better than outside, no?

[Being thoughtful for once, he held the door open for her. She was a rather imposing person, all things considered, and there was something that rung a distant bell in his mind. Maybe once he'd known someone like this - it was his best guess. Mindelan meant nothing to him, and she didn't seem... familiar, really.]

Typically in a tent, but that could just be me. [There's just a slight note of self-deprecation; otherwise her voice is as polite and neutral as before.]

Thank you. [Mindelan can't help but think that whoever had made the cabin assignments had done a terrible job. One of the people she'd been assigned with had been allergic to cats, and the thought of joining another cabin had seemed less appealing than roughing it.] I'll set this up along the wall, if that's fine.

[Wherever was good, she started laying down the branches, parallel to each other and interlocking, moving with a dogged certainty. Her body remembered this. There were enough branches for a few layers; the final product does look pile-ish, but ordered.] With the tarp, it makes a kind of mattress. It's not as soft as feathers, but it's more supportive than straw.

A tent. There are tents? [Not that it matters that much, since they're in a cabin now and not in a tent. He doesn't want to be in a tent anyway. They seem like floppy, rainy things.]

And I, I thank you. This, it does not make a great deal of sense to me. It is most confusing. Yes. Against the wall, it is very fine.

[When the pile was made he started to see the point of how it worked. It wasn't like he was sleeping on the kindling for a bonfire, it was actually stacked in a way that made sense. Nodding, Ambassador started spreading the tarp over top of it.] I would not have thought of this, and my back would have hurt every day we were here. So I must thank you. At the least, my back will not hurt so much, no? And you, you are sleeping on one of these?

Out in the supply cabin. They're not all the kind I'm familiar with. [Dome tents, ones with mesh windows, etc, are a mystery to her.]

Right now I am. [She watches him do it.]

Now, you'll want to tuck it under a little too, because they'll start spreading out. [Making a sort of bed frame out of logs helped prevent that, but that was a bit more charity than she felt like extending. Most of the firewood wasn't big enough, and fallen timber was heavy and hard to find.] In a week or so the branches will dry out and it won't be as good, but maybe by then you'll be able to go back home.

And if you do not know them, my good Mindelan, then there is no hope for me knowing. [Life should be far more simple. Comfortable beds, plenty of booze, some gambling tables... he would be set. What did he know about being outdoors? Nothing. Bugs bit, beds were hard. It wasn't right.]

[He did what he could to tuck it in. Ambassador wasn't experienced with making a bed, though he'd been starting to work on the basics recently in the Sphere. It was much better that the bed be comfortable and not all bunched up, after all. ] A week or so. My good Mindelan, if we are not out of here in a week or so, I will be most upset. What is there even to do? Sit around outside?

[She blinks. How do you even begin...?]

[Ambassador's a cityman, she reminds herself. She could gather her thoughts and put together a speech, and it wouldn't matter.]

It's an acquired taste, really.

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