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whispersafterdusk · 10 months

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Heart of Stone - ch 1

When the (second) new builder arrived in Sandrock Unsuur had been passing by Hammer Time.

He was a few minutes ahead of his usual time so he'd paused to quickly take in the scenery, to make certain his eyes hadn't slid over something dangerous without his brain registering it as a threat. From his vantage point he could see Mi-an was at the corner of the platform waving at what he presumed were passengers getting off the train -- her waving drew his attention so he was looking right at her as she and another woman stepped off the platform and began to walk toward the Commerce Guild. Whoever was with her was...small. Mi-an herself wasn't very tall and this newcomer was even shorter - not by much, just a few inches, but noticeable. Her hair was pulled into a very tight bun at the crown of her head and was a pale coppery red that shined in the early sun. She was dressed similarly to Mi-an with dusty tan overalls that covered the tops of her brown and well-worn boots, a pale blue long-sleeved shirt that hung loose on her arms, and only carried a small rucksack with her.

She was also very, very pretty, though her features made him think of some kind of small, fragile bird. Taken all together Unsuur wondered how someone like that could be a builder.

He watched them until they met up with Yan and Mason just outside of the guild building then turned to continue on with his patrol; now he was a few minutes behind where he should have been. Introductions could come later. ((Continued below cut))

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A few days had passed since the new builder had arrived; Unsuur hadn't managed to meet her yet, though Justice had made sure to introduce himself quickly and make sure she knew where the Civil Corps building was in case she needed their help. The sheriff was also full of gossip on how many people he'd noticed checking the woman out; that seemed a little rude to Unsuur but he supposed he understood it - Sandrock did not see a lot of people who were intending to stay on a long-term basis. The social environment had been pretty stagnant and he did remember Mi-an also getting some initial attention when she arrived too. He made a mental note to keep a close eye on Arvio and continued with his usual schedule, figuring if something were to happen he'd either be present for it or else hear about it from Justice later.

His morning patrol would take him to the train station and across the tracks today, circling him toward the fishing hole near the salvage yard and then along the bluffs overlooking the tracks (someone had to keep the rocket roosters shooed away from the rails and town). The first train of the day was just unloading as he rounded the corner of the platform and from there a flash of color caught his attention.

Waiting there patiently as the handful of passengers got off was the new builder; the color he'd seen from the corner of an eye was the sun off her hair as she'd tugged a wide-brimmed hat free and adjusted the inner lining before pulling it back on again. For a moment he wondered how long her hair was and how she'd managed to wear a hat comfortably over her bun but then where she was standing caught up to him. She... She wasn't leaving already, was she?

Jasmine was there too, to collect any mail that arrived like usual, and the two were chatting -- or, well, it looked more like Jasmine was chatting at the builder and the builder was politely nodding, or smiling, and sometimes uttered a word or two in response. Unsuur paused at the edge of the platform, curious to see if she was leaving before he'd even get a chance to say hello or goodbye.

One of the train workers came out of the passenger car and set a traveling trunk down at the builder's feet; the woman pulled a coin purse from the front pocket of her overalls and counted out a payment, dropping the gols into the man's outstretched hand. After tucking the money away the man then handed Jasmine a few envelopes and then back onto the train he went.

Ah. Just there waiting for a delivery, and not leaving. That was good.

"That looks really heavy - is that the rest of your stuff?" Jasmine's voice carried pretty well.

The builder smiled and bent down to heft the trunk with a grunt. "Just the important stuff." The builder's voice did not carry well and he wasn't sure he would have heard her if he hadn't been looking directly at her.

With how petite the woman was Unsuur was impressed she could lift a trunk of that size; he heard something inside the trunk shift though - something like marbles, or...rocks? Whatever it was shifted the weight of the trunk and the builder wobbled a bit before she sighed heavily and sat it back down.

"I guess it got shuffled in transit. I had it perfectly balanced before," the builder went on.

"Can I help?" Jasmine asked, rocking back and forth from her toes to her heels. A few breaths after asking the girl suddenly noticed him there. "Oh wait, there's Unsuur! Hi Unsuur!"

The builder looked up and over to him; a few wisps of her hair had escaped her bun and were sticking out from under the hat's brim, and her eyes were a warm shade of red-brown - like an agate. Pretty.

Unsuur gave them a little half-wave.

"Unsuur, can you carry a heavy box please?" Jasmine asked.

The builder waved her hands, looking flustered. "No, it's fine, I'll just repack it and I can manage."

Unsuur considered a moment, then came up the steps in two hops; his patrol would take him across the tracks so it wouldn't be a problem to help out here, since they were going in the same direction. "I can help."

The trunk wasn't very heavy just unwieldy with the inner weight not evenly distributed; again he heard what sounded like rocks moving about and the builder seemed to wince a bit at the noise.

"Did something break?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, it just means I'll have to sort everything back out again."

"I'm going to deliver the mail - bye!" Jasmine called out as she skipped down the steps and back toward town.

Unsuur waited for Jasmine to get clear of the steps before he started down them himself, with the builder first trailing along behind him but then moving to walk at his side once there was room to do so. He held the trunk pressed in and partially braced against his ribs so the stuff inside wouldn't move around further as he walked.

"You didn't need to help, but I appreciate it all the same. Thank you."

He turned his head to find the builder looking directly at him, smiling shyly. He smiled back at her. "It's ok, I don't mind."

It didn't take long to reach the gate to Mason's old shack; already the builder had cleaned up some of the junk piles Mason had left heaped around the yard, and the furnaces looked newly cleaned and had spots of fresh mortar patching cracked brick. Everything looked neat and tidy and tended to, which was a stark contrast to what everything had looked like with Mason puttering around.

"You can set it down, I'll move it myself eventually. There's a stand in there I have to put together first anyway."

Unsuur settled the trunk against the fence but well away from where the gate could swing open and bang into it. "Yard looks nice. I bet it was a lot of work."

Out of the same pocket as the coin purse came a brass key, which she used to unlock the trunk then flipped the lid open. Inside was tightly packed...something or other, with small, flat wooden boxes scattered across the top that had probably once been stacked neatly and held in place with cloth padding, but all of that had been dislodged and now the boxes were sort of haphazardly everywhere inside the trunk.

"It was. I don't see how the builder before me got anything done with it in that state," she replied softly.

"He didn't. Not really."

She laughed a bit at that; she had a nice laugh, Unsuur decided.

"I suspected as much, with everything Yan is piling on me to help get the commissions caught up."

As he watched she picked up one of the top-most boxes and opened it; inside was a jumble of uncut gemstones, laying on a threadbare velvet lining with divots that were clearly supposed to have one gemstone each set inside but they'd all escaped the shallow indents and were all tossed together.

"What a mess," she sighed. She sat it aside and picked up another, revealing hunks of-

"You collect rocks too?" he asked, bracing his hands on his knees as he bent down, looking over the contents of this second box. He could pick out flecked granite, raw lapis lazuli, opals and quartz chunks of varying colors, some crystals he couldn't immediately identify, what looked like obsidian, some spinel... Was every box in there full of rocks and gems?

"Sort of. I turn them into jewelry as a hobby," she answered, smiling up at him.

"Those are really cool. Rocks have a special place in my heart - you can do so much with them. Stack them, put them places, balance them on top of each other. You can even name a town after them. They're probably the most diverse thing in the world."

Oh... did that make him sound stupid? He hoped he hadn't bothered her with that sudden rambling, but when it came to rocks he could easily start talking without realizing how much he was talking -- at least, not until he noticed their eyes glazing over.

Her smile got a little wider, though; Unsuur smiled too -- guess he hadn't bothered her too much, or maybe she was too polite to say anything.

She sat aside that box and began pulling out the others and opening them for him to see. There were a lot of things he recognized but also a lot that he didn't. They weren't labeled so he guessed she knew what they were without needing the labels; one of the last boxes had tools and rolls of wire along with a large and polished piece of quartz that was still attached to a natural stone base. When she held it up it sparkled with every color of the rainbow and Unsuur found himself a little envious of it.

"I try not to change the natural shapes too much if I can help it - just clean and polish them up, maybe drill some holes or grooves for wire. Obviously sometimes I need to cut it down to a smaller size or do some shaping but I strive to maintain the natural beauty of the material. Like this one -- I consider this my good luck charm," she said, gesturing to the quartz.

"It's probably the best-looking rock I've ever seen."

She laughed quietly and gently laid it back into the box she'd taken it from. "I didn't do anything except polish the surfaces and level the bottom so it'll sit flat on a shelf, but thank you."

After a pause she looked up to him again, seeming to study him; her eyes really were like a shining agate, bright and warm and kind. Everything about her was pretty so little wonder Justice said every single single person in town was staring at her.

"Would you like to see how I make one into jewelry?" she asked.

Yes, he would. "Sure," he answered. "Though I need to get back to my patrol, so maybe not now."

Dusting her hands she stood with a small huff of effort as she leveraged herself up with just her legs; Unsuur had to step back a bit to give her room to stand -- he hadn't realized he'd moved that close to her and hoped she didn't feel like he was looming over her or anything as she was so much shorter than he was.

"I need to get my tools and materials re-organized and my grinder and polishing wheel put together again before I can work on anything anyway. ...I know - why don't you choose something, and I'll make you a piece with it?"

Unsuur blinked at her; for a moment he wasn't sure how to respond. This wasn't at all how he expected his morning to go but it would probably be rude to turn her down so he looked over the stones and gems again, and after a moment to think it over he selected a shard of agate -- it was almost the same shade of her eyes, and he didn't have any agate at home right now either.

She took it from him with a nod. "When I everything set up I'll come find-"

"Heeeey, newbie! I hope you're not slacking! And you! You're not distracting my employee, are you? Don't you have anything else better to do?"

They both jumped a bit to find Yan leering at them from the other side of the fence.

Unsuur looked back to the builder. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get you in trouble. I should get going."

As Yan was partially blocking the gate Unsuur jumped over the fence and started trudging up the hill toward the salvage yard. He was really behind in his patrol now...but that was ok. He finally got to meet the-

...he probably should have asked her name.

#Heart of Stone #HoS #Heart of Stone - ch 1 #mtas Unsuur #mtas Justice #mtas Jasmine #mtas Yan #mtas Mi-an #My Time at Sandrock

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