Turning

[Vega]

73rd Trial of Zi'da during Arc 717

"Oh drop dead, Huw, I am not doin' that." Vega's cousin, Huw, looked up at her with a raised eyebrow and he chuckled. Then he called up to her. "Come, now, Eva, I asked you nicely, did I not?" Vega rolled her eyes at his insistence on calling her 'Eva'. It was her name, it was true, but there had been a time when her father had been the only one who called her it. Climbing down from the mast where she had been sitting, perched up there and fixing some knots which needed tightening, she spoke as she clambered down, then jumped down the last few feet, landing in front of him with a grin. "You know, you only started callin' me Eva since I got together with Arlo." Huw nodded his head. "It is to remind you of your roots, your heritage.Come on, now help me?"

Vega sighed and grinned. "A'righ', come on then. Wood turnin'." He had asked her to help him learn and so she would do just that. Vega started to move to go below decks to Huw's cabin and her older cousin picked her up and spun her around a full three hundred and sixty degrees. Vega let out a squeal of surprise and grinned at him. "What're you doin' you mad man?" Huw simply laughed and led the way to his cabin.

"A'right," Vega said, once they were sat opposite each other. "This is a lathe. It 'olds the wood in place, aye, an' it turns it. As it turns, like this," working the pedal very slowly with her foot, Vega demonstrated. "So, what we're going to do is turn the wood, an' shape the wood as we turn it. Usin' fundamentally the same basic tools as every other technique. You see, that lot there." She motioned to the tools. As Huw started looking through them, asking her about this one and that one, Vega gave him some sandpaper. "First things first, we've gotta make the piece even. Otherwise, it'll look crap, an' you won't like that. So come on, then, get sandin'. What I do, is I use these." Tipping out the contents of a bag, she showed him a number of pieces of wood, each with a half-circle cut out of them. "I put sandpaper in these. So that I can be sure that the sandin' is even. See. Like this." She showed him and he nodded.

Vega sat back and watched then as he started, adjusting his hand here, moving his wrist there. She didn't let him do half the job, watching as the piece which would, eventually, be a candlestick, was sanded to one size. As he worked, Huw spoke, his voice quiet. "You love him?"

Vega was quiet for a moment, then she answered without any anger or irritation in her voice. "I do, yes." Huw nodded. "And him, you?" Vega made a selection from the many tools and started to examine it. "Yes, Huw, an' him, me." Huw glanced up at Vega, his eyes dark and Vega knew that he was, simply, genuinely concerned. "Does he know, Eva, what you are giving up?" Vega chuckled and shook her head. "What am I givin' up, Huw? A name. Letters. Words. Papa is still my papa, you're still my cousins. I'm not a full biqaj, an' I know what that's meant for me. I'm with Arlo, an' as far as I'm concerned, it's all of me, all in. So, I'm Ej'qy. That's a'right. I can live with that." She looked at Huw and smiled.

"What about Uncle? You are putting him in a position where he must declare you forsaken?"

Vega stopped and looked at Huw. Her own eyes were a hundred different colours, but they did not move, did not swirl or change. "No, Huw. That isn't what I'm doin'. I'm doin' what my Papa raised me to do. To live my life the best I can, an' to dare to love. To grab 'appiness with both 'ands cos if I don't, then I'll 'ave regrets an' those are worse than any disease. If there are expectations on 'im because of that, well, I'm sorry. But they aren't my expectations."

Huw blinked at her in surprise. "But Eva, it is our way."

"Is it?" Vega asked and she smiled at him. "I love you, Huw, you've been like a big brother to me. But whichever bit of me is biqaj, it isn't that bit. You don't punish people for lovin' someone who loves them back. You don't demand who does what or where. U'frek made my blood silver like yours, an' Xiur's 'ope shines out of it. Neither o' them give a monkey's nut about any o' this. If it's our way, then we're wrong an' need to own up to it." Huw looked like he was going to argue and Vega stopped him with a glare.

"You 'eld me when I was a baby an' we 'ave lived together since. Your blood is my blood an' I believe you love me. So you tell me, Huw, wot do you want me to choose? The man I wanna be with, or someone who doesn't, can't make me 'appy? What life do you want me to live?" He looked at her, wide eyed and his mouth opened once, as though to speak, and then closed.

"Yeah," said Vega, handing him a flat chisel. "That's what I thought."

938 Words
Climbing: Jumping down the last few feet.
Carpentry: Wood turning basic tools.

[Vega]

"You make it sound simple, Eva. Like it is not complicated"
"Well, I'm not the brightest, we all know that, an' it don't seem that tricky to me."
"There is much he does not know about you. He is a student at the university, does he know.."
"That I can't read? Yeah, course 'e does. I told him. I tell 'im everythin'."
"And he knows what it is to be Ej'qy?"

On that one, Vega sighed slightly, then shrugged. "I don't know, Huw. I've told 'im, but I don't know if he really gets it. I present it 'ow I see it, after all." Which was, Vega would be the first to admit, in a rather biased manner. "But, at the end of the trial, that ain't important between us. Between me an' 'im, I mean. When I told 'im, he offered me his name." Huw looked up in surprise at that and Vega did what could only be called huff at him. "I told you. All in. Both of us."

"He proposed?"

"Aeva's eyebrow, no. He offered me 'is name." Vega looked as horrified as it was possible to be at the suggestion and Huw chuckled. "I only asked. Alright, he did not propose. I understand.

"An look, you've done yer job there an' you haven't noticed cos you're too busy talking nonsense. Right, so we've got the piece, one size an' even all around. Now, it's measure an' mark. Where do you want the thin bits, that stuff? Look, we've got a design here, see?" So, lets mark it out. How concentrated, which Vega was grateful for because it meant he was quiet, and he marked out the wood. Then he checked it and marked it again, adjusting slightly. Vega watched and nodded. He had a good attention to detail.

"Right, now, the trick is in the spin. When yer turnin' wood, the temptation is to go like the clappers. But that's just slapdash an' shoddy. Turn in a regular, slow move. That's the trick." She nodded at him and watched him as he started. She helped by holding his hand, holding the tool and positioning it and then slowly, letting him do it on his own. "Thassit, good. You're not bad at this, you know."

Huw smiled at her and nodded. "The same could be said for you, Eva. You have a talent, I think." Vega chuckled and thumped him, in a friendly manner, "Yeah, jus' the one an' it's 'ittin' things. Watch yer step, sunshine." The pair of them looked at each other with matching multi-hued eyes and very similar smiles. Huw turned his attention back to what he was doing. "So, he did not propose, but he offered you his name. That was a good thing of him to do." Vega briefly wondered if punching Huw in the face would make him Just Stop Talking, but she suspected not in truth. "Yeah, well, 'e doesn't get it, the whole 'forsaken of clan' stuff an' he doesn't want me bein' upset. He was worried I am, I think."

"He seems a good man," Huw admitted and Vega chuckled. "I like 'im, yeah." Shared grins passed between them and then, finally, Huw asked the question which was foremost on his mind. "What are you going to do, Eva?"

She didn't answer, just smiled and shrugged.

558 words.
Carpentry: First step of wood turning - begin with an even piece.
Carpentry: When turn wood, turn slowly for detail and precision

[Vega]

Huw was beginning to get the hang of it, Vega thought and as she watched him with the chisel, working the wood and Vega nodded. "That's good, but you've got to make sure you keep a constant pressure, Huw, otherwise you'll end up with a sort of wobbly kinda thing. Not an even depth, yanno?" He frowned in concentration and nodded, "It's harder than it looks, Eva." Vega grinned in agreement but said nothing. There was no point to distract him. However, as she saw something he did, she spoke up. "Try an' keep the turn at the same speed, look, like this." Giving him a none too gentle smack on the arm, she instructed that he "Shift yerself, yer like an old lady, you are." Getting a new piece of wood, then, she demonstrated the techniques she'd shown him once more. First, sanding it till it was even, slowly turning the wood and making sure that the turn was consistent, even though it didn't matter as much when it was being shaped or worked.

When she then picked one of the chisels though, and started to work the finer pattern, Vega made absolutely sure that the wood was being turned slowly and at a consistent speed. Then, she was sure to maintain the same pressure as she used the flat head chisel to start the curving of the piece. "See, 'ow it's comin' off in swathes? That's what you wan', if you can do it." Huw nodded and grinned, "you are good at this you know." Vega chuckled and shook her head. "I already told ya, didn't I? One talent, an' it's 'itting people."

"That is not true, Eva," came her father's voice from the doorframe and the two of them, both Vega and Huw, jumped at the sound. "Schnizzle my snoot, Papa, you sneaked. You a'right?" Joq'an moved over and kissed his daughter on the top of her head. Vega happily leaned against him.

"What are you two doing?" Joq'an asked and Vega smiled. "I've been teachin' Huw 'ow to turn wood. In case 'e needs it. Wot about you?" Joq'an sat, Huw sitting with him. "I have been thinking about the future," her father said and Vega raised an eyebrow. "The twins will have this boat. I am considering my options." Vega looked at the two of them and decided that this was the right moment. "Well, there's an option wot both of you might wanna consider." Her expression was earnest as she spoke. "Arlo an' I are gonna buy a schooner, an' when the weather's permittin', we're gonna sail where we wanna. If you two want, there's a place on there for ya. Both. Either one. Up to you."

The two men looked at her with shared expressions of surprise. "But Eva," Huw said, "you will offer your home. Have you discussed this with Arlo?" Vega looked at him and rolled her eyes. "No, Huw, I thought it'd be a right laugh if 'e didn't know you was here. If we're really lucky, 'e'll find out at the worst time possible. Of course I 'ave, you imbecile." Huw looked amused, irritated and rather shamefaced all at once. Joq'an looked between the two of them and he smiled, then nodded his head. "I would like that."

Huw grinned and nodded, not saying any more. Vega returned the smile and considered, "are the twins stayin' in Lei'nox or startin' a new clan?" It was Joq'an who responded. "They, and their new wives, they will be in our clan." Vega smiled her pleasure. "That's good, Papa, clans should grow." Joq'an nodded. "I would like to speak to you and Arlo before we do this, however. Will that be acceptable?" Vega nodded. "Yeah, of course Papa. You want to come to the camp tomorrow night?" Joq'an nodded and Vega grinned at them both, kissed first her father and then Huw on the cheek and then explained. "I'd best get goin'. I'll see you tomorrow, Papa."

When the sounds of her footsteps had echoed their last on the deck, Joq'an and Huw looked at each other. "You have a question?" Joq'an asked and Huw nodded. "She will be Ej'qy, Uncle." Joq'an looked rather surprised at that and asked Huw, quite pointedly. "Will she? That is odd, because that has to be declared by the Head of the Clan, and I do not declare her such. Nor will I ever." Huw looked at Joq'an and the elder of the two smiled. "She is my daughter. I will not do to her what was done to me. Nor will I abandon her mother's name. No. When faced with the choice of what to be bad at, I do not choose husband or father, I choose to be bad as a follower of traditions. She is Eva Lei'nox, and ever will she be such to me." Huw, it must be said, looked rather surprised. Joq'an chuckled and patted his nephew on the shoulder.

829 words.
Carpentry: Keep consistent pressure when turning wood
Carpentry: When turning wood, turn at a consistent speed

[Arlo Creede]

Review: Rewards

Vega

Knowledge:
Carpentry: Wood turning basic tools.
Carpentry: Keep consistent pressure when turning wood
Carpentry: When turning wood, turn at a consistent speed
Carpentry: First step of wood turning - begin with an even piece.
Carpentry: When turn wood, turn slowly for detail and precision
Climbing: Jumping down the last few feet.

Points: 10 - These points may not be used for magic

Fame: Gift of Knowledge +2. (Sharing knowledge with another pc/npc)

Comments: I always enjoy reading Vega's solo threads. There's always a good deal of interaction and give and take between her and her environment/surrounding/others, so not restricted to skill building, and I enjoy reading about the relationship between her and her family. Nicely done.


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