"Never will I go down that path, again." She promises you.  And you do get to see cutie at the beach in a swimsuit.....but its about as modest as many women's modern pant suits on Earth.  You see other women similarly attired.

And most of the guys have boater's hats.

You're not so lucky as to lose the suit.

Yeah, way back in the day, they used to have swimsuit police and if a woman's suit was too far away from her knee, she could get arrested for indecent exposure. Now they go out in suits that are basically underwear. But we men have gotten far more polite. We tend to only look at the parts that are covered.......


"Good. But you're still going to need to make money. And I can teach you how to do that. What do you think of leatherworking? I'm fairly good at that. I don't think you'd do too well at blacksmithing. What else can I teach you?"

Seriously, any suggestions?



Do I have the suit? I might wear it. We were going to go out on a nice date. That's why she wanted me to wear that.

"I could try that." She seems doubtful.

And the week passes with more visits to the market, and to the Royal Gardens, and another beach walk, along with you doing your physical and magical exercises, and spending time alone with Cutie.

Can we buy unworked leather at the market? Is there a source of it anywhere? Maybe spend the week teaching her that, then maybe even open up a shoppe.

You have to go out to a farm to get what you need, which is a day trip by wagon or stagecoach.  Its a small farm run by a French speaking family thats held their land for the last six hundred years.

He has a barn with hides hanging in it.

Just buy two cow hides for now. That will be enough to get Cutie started on learning leatherworking. What else can I teach her? She's going to need job skills in The Verse. Take those and teach Cutie leatherworking.

Also ask her "What do you want to learn to do? What job would you want to be doing forever?"

She takes to leatherworking with dilligence, but no great skill.

She blinks a bit helplessly when you ask her that question.

"Umm...."

"What's the problem Cutie? I think I was sent here to get you out of prostitution and get your life on a better track. So it is my duty, nay, my privilege to teach you how to live."

Also find out if there's anywhere to go hunting. Magehammer teaches n00b versers how to live off the land. I'm Magehammer and she's about to become a n00b verser.

(Doing Therapy)

"I don't....know how to answer that question.  I mean, its...so big." She blinks a bit helplessly.

There is fox hunting, and there is Wilmencau Castle about two days away travel away into the wilderness, where those you get invited by the Count can hunt for game.  Also there are a number of farms that host hunts for pheasant, the hotel clerk tells you.

"Do you believe in life after love? I can feel something inside me say I really don't think you're strong enough."

But that's going to change.



Gonna have to go there. Gonna have to teach her to live off the land.

(Doing Therapy)

She stares confused as you follow John Cricton's habit of strange quotes to aliens, and quote Cher.

Well, getting out to the castle requires making friends with the Count, or his son, or the gamekeeper there.

OOC) I was wondering if you would know that quote. I always wondered if she was singing that to Sonny Bono. Listen to the lyrics. At first, Cher couldn't survive without Sonny, but they got to a point where Sonny couldn't survive without Cher. I mean, he IS dead, after all.

IC) "Cutie, you are about to face things that you could not imagine. It is my job to get you ready for them. You're not strong enough without me. But we're going to fix that."



Nevermind then. I'm still working with Blackstaff on the Order magic. But I'm sure I can teach Cutie something. Teach her how to make stone arrowheads. I want her prepped.

Cutie nods.  She can grasp that, and so you begin to teach her about stone arrowheads, which she finds a bit odd at first, and then enjoyable.

"Its kin to knitting.  Certain patterns that one chooses are repeated."  She's got deft hands, and soon she's doing well with arrowhead making.

Blackstaff has you do the shell game with smaller and smaller amounts of added Order.
l
"This is to refine your senses so you can detect and after detection, learn to manipulate smaller amounts of Order."

You begin to learn to see patterns in other's combat.  This is a defensive skill
primarily. 1@3 See Attack Patterns.  RS/2 Defense Bonus.

He demos this by having you chase him around the yard for twenty minutes. You can't touch him so far...

"Oh you knit Cutie? Teach me. You never know what kinds of skills you're going to need."

What else can she teach me? "Woman's Work" as it were. I hadn't even thought of learning from her......



Good. How's Cutie doing with that? I'd insist that she tries it.



Enjoying that. Teaching Cutie too. Teach her boxing. Why not? There's no such thing as bad knowledge.

OOC) Your game has given me more to think about that I'm used to. Not that that's a bad thing. But it's gonna be a minute before I reply.

(Doing Therapy)

Two Posts

Can we get a couple of bow and arrow sets?

Teach Cutie to shoot a bow. I bet she will love that.

(Doing Therapy)
This message was last edited by the player at 01:24, Wed 27 Aug 2014.

She's a trifle embarrassed at first, but rapidly gets over it.  She teaches you a half dozen different knitting techniques, and how to crochet as well so that you can make fine lacework like you'd see on the edges of dress sleeves, or on doilies in nice houses.

The crochet work is very precise, and demanding on your vision.

"I'm not as good as Mother Hand, she could crochet by the light of a candle." You find you need strong noon light to crochet.

+@1 to Hand/Eye Coordination which is an Attribute because this is really rather challenging stuff.

She's doing better at reading the Blackstaff's bluff, but not at magic.

You find that she's just slower, and weaker than you so that even at half-speed, she's not a challenge when she's at full speed.  But she is learning, and you expect she'd be able to out punch a ten year old boy ....maybe.

There is a chandler who takes bows and arrows on consignment from surrounding farms.  A fair number of people shoot arrows for pleasure, or for a relaxed form of hunting.  While its more popular with the guys, about a fourth of the archers are women.

OOC: I'm glad to give you something to think about. thanks. :)  The Past is an interesting place.

"So you're not without skills. That's good. What else can you do?"




How am I doing with it?



"Come on Cutie. You can do better than that. I bet you had customers that wanted to get rough. You probably got beaten up a few times. Now's your chance to learn to defend yourself. DEFEND YOURSELF!!!!!!"

And with that, I slap her across the face. Not hard, but hard enough to make a point. See if that motivates her any to do better. Maybe pull up a little PTSD from her.

How does she do with the boxing now?



Any instructors? Get two bows and enough arrows to last for a while on target practice. Get an instructor if I can. I'm not that good at it.



OOC) Painful place, more like.

(Doing Therapy)

She tells you that she can cook, some, and mend simple things, and make a few drinks.

Your magic skills are keeping well ahead of her bluff reading skills.  He starts pulling clever tricks on you.  One time, he encases the order ball in a chaotic ball of mud which confuses you for a good while until you get it.

She folds like a card table, going down on the ground, putting her hands up in front of her face, and looking away.

One of the clerks, not the chaotic one (who was fired after being caught drinking the hotel manager's bourbon), is more than willing for a little extra cash to take you out to the beach and show you what he knows.  He's better than you, but not great (1@10 is his skill with the bow, and 1@4 as a teacher.)

And I am sitting next to her just as quickly. "I'm sorry Cutie. I know how you feel. All you can do is do whatever they say and pray they don't hurt you anymore. I've been there. Come here give me a hug." If she lets me, I'll move her so she's sitting in my lap. I'm trying to be tender and gentle. "What I want to do is teach you so that you never have to do that again. So you can stand up and hit back. Or at least not fold like a card table. Didn't you ever want to hit those guys back? Now's your chance."

And then I'm going to tell her "Get up. I want you to hit me as hard as you can."

She's in Chaos and she's wearing a black iron ring. Tell her to focus her Chaos into it. Order would probably do more for making a punch solid, but Chaos is movement. Might increase her speed. Or maybe I'll get hit with a lightning bolt.



If Cutie is still willing, take her out to the beach and teach her to shoot a bow. Are we allowed to shoot any animals? If so, teach her to clean and skin them.

I should have a whole set of black iron blacksmithing tools. Might that include a smaller, lightweight hammer? Like for fine working? If so, give that to Cutie. Teach her soft metal working. (Do I know soft metal working?) If not, I'm sure I can figure it out. But that might be a good trade to teach Cutie. And she will have her own black iron Order hammer.

Teach her to fight with it too. A Base Damaging hammer is better than nothing. Of course though, I might not even have one.

Do more with the magic later. I'm dealing with Cutie right now.

(Doing Therapy)

She hugs you from the side after a bit of resistance, and there's some crying, and trembling to be got over.  At first, she doesn't want to try.  And then when she does, its half-hearted, and yo uask her to do it again, and she gets a certain gleam in her eye, and...

She pops you in the face.  Its weak, its slow, but there's a spark of energy that leaps into you, and knocks you down (partially since you let it do so.)  She stares shocked and amazed at her hand.

"I did that!"  1@1 Contingent on Punch Success, Base Annoying plus if RS>20 contingent Dangerous. Chaos magic.

You can shoot rabbits and other varmints. Cutie goes out shooting with you.  She's grossed out by the skinning, but at the same time is quickly able to put that aside (it comes from living in a world without meat delivered to stores in plastic packages.)

You have a small hammer, and some soft metal skill.  She takes the hammer.

From the ground I say "Didn't that feel good to knock down a guy that hit you? Don't you want to learn to do that for real?"

Then get up and have a quickie before we go shooting. But I'm going to train her to box.



"This is what you need to learn if you want to survive. If you can do this, you can make a life for yourself anywhere."

And have Cutie tan the rabbit hides so she can practice leatherworking. Get her making stone arrowheads and arrows to use too. All kinds of stone tools, actually. Does she know how to start a fire without matches? Well, if not, she will soon. That's what Magehammer would teach a n00b verser in my game......

I still haven't told her about versing though.



Teach her that too. How hard is it to get copper and tin sheeting? I'll use tin cans if I have to. But I want to teach her that. Teach her how to work soft metals. How to make copper and tin blades. But I want her to be able to make a living in The Verse without laying on her back. Leatherworking and soft metals is a good place to start. I figure low-tech skills are more valuable. How does she take to it?

Doing the Pretty Woman thing. I just know I'm lonely in The Verse.

(Doing Therapy)

Over the next several weeks you train her in her Sparkpunch, and in boxing. Blackstaff is able to offer some advice, but its mostly you. And in the end,she's better, but still, slow and weak, and not really enjoying this that much.

1@3 Sparkpunch, 1@3 Boxing.

She enjoys the tanning and the leatherwork that follows it even more.  The making of stone tools and arrowheads is a fun skill for her, reminding her of knitting.  The starting of a fire she asks you why she cannot just use flint and steel.

The tin comes from cans, and the copper from buying roof sheets from a company further up into Germany.  She can make blades, but she does much better making decorativewind charms which soon decorate the hotel by the seashore, on its many porches.

"Ah, Mr. John, I do not wish to be rude to a gentleman, but ah a customer has exprssedinterest in buying one of your lady's creations...." The hotel manager comes up to you one morning in the lobby, looking nervous.

"Okay Cutie. If you want to stop this, that's fine. At least now I can be satisfied that you will land at least one good punch before the guy beats you senseless. That's better than we were before. Let's see if we can find a martial art for you."

Any martial arts around here for us to learn? Blackstaff know any? Staff weapons might be good for Cutie.

Speaking of Blackstaff, how is the magic coming?



"You can just use flint and steel. But now you know other ways. What if you don't have any flint and steel? You can make a living doing crochet or you can make a living doing soft metals. If you're hungry you can hunt a rabbit. Make a set of gloves out of the hide. You even know how to make the arrows and everything. The point is, you have options now. Options are always good. You'll never have to go back to your old life."

I probably didn't say it, but Of Course I taught her how to make bows too.



"Awesome Cutie!!!! I showed you blades because it's practical. This is amazing, but it's not all that practical. What can you think of practical to do with this? How about making kettles and other utensils? Practical things."

Get her diversified. Teach myself too.



"How much?"

"Cutie, get that pretty little butt of yours over here."

Still though, I am teaching her to make practical copper and tin items. If this is a moneymaker, she can make them on consignment. But I'd rather have her doing practical work too. I probably don't have a whole lot of experience with that. But she can't heft a blacksmithing hammer, and I need to improve. Magehammer that I run as referee is a metallurgist. He starts n00bs off with blacksmithing and/or soft metals.

(Doing Therapy)

She's ready to stop, but agrees it was useful.
=
Blackstaff could teach her a basis stick fighting technique.  There is boxing and wrestling, whether any would teach a woman is another question.

Charles Lecour runs a shop where he teaches savate or French kickboxing.  You check out his place, and he has a few female participants.

He and the other men are dressed in white tights, but he looks tough and quick as he demos a sidekick for some of his students.

 "You need to continue your practise, but we move on ..." He shows you how to *brain fuzzed out.

"You think of so many things, John."

Getting bow wood means sending for yew from England, which is notthat hard, but it takes three weeks to arrive.  Already the basic pattern that will become Amazon.com and FedEx is beindlaid.

You get offered about ten times the price of materials or the price of two days at the hotel

"Let's both learn that. What do you think Cutie?"

And I am teaching both of them the basics of fighting with hammers.



"What do you think Cutie? You want to try this?"

Up to her, but I'll do it with her.



OOC) You can't blockquote, can you? At least tell me who is speaking. This is Blackstaff I guess, and the other is Cutie. At least tell me who is talking if you can't blockquote.

IC) "What just happened Blackstaff? This magic, it keeps shorting my brain out. I just missed a whole segment there."



OOC) And this is Cutie speaking. If you can't blockquote, at least tell me who is talking.

"I think that's what the gods of Order and Chaos put me here for Cutie. I am here all for you."



So when will the wood be here?




"What do you think Cutie? It's your choice. Just as long as you keep learning to make the practical stuff too, I don't mind a bit."

She seems submissive.

(Doing Therapy)