World of Warcraft - Interbellum (IC Thread)

[MrAbdiel]

Naturally, it’s Torian who notices Marion swinging her legs over the edge of the wagon. He and other-Oscar are unlimbering a freshly assembled stretcher from a rear wagon, but Torian sees his moment, drops the stretcher, and blurs over to offer Marion an assisted descent at the speed of chivalry.

Brother Bright looks up at the young noblewoman’s approach and listens to her commentary with a blank expression. His eyes track to the offending wagon, then back to her. He’s about to ask what the heck a swingle is, when Isaera, too, adds her elven grace to the Council of Unlikely Wagonwrights. He takes another look at the snarled chain, and slowly the engineering problem dissolved in his book-smart mind into the comprehensible solution already offered. But before he can act on that, other-Oscar calls over:

“Yeah, just unwrap the chain, Brother. It’s not goblin science.”

First, Marion and Isaera homed in on the solution - both spellweaving women of class and grace from whom he had not expected technical commentary (and certainly not Marion’s detailed tour of the problem); but other-Oscar scoring some points back off him is the icing on the cake. The Brother looks briefly confounded, and perhaps even frustrated - but it’s a brief thing, and he does what most good humoured men do when they are revealed to be as prone to folly as any other. He jokes his way out of the embarrassment.

“Well, I’m sorry, I slept through the day we covered ‘Anointed Wagon Repair’ in seminary. Don’t just stand there, other-Oscar, Torian; get over here and dingle this swingle.”

The lads go to the embarrassingly simple repair with shared snickering, and Brother Bright feigns a kick to Torian’s backside as he goes, further burying his moment of failure in clownish pantomime. But he circles back to own up, to the ladies.

“Yes, you’re both quite right. Mechanisms aren’t quite my element; I suppose when you know what to look for, it’s right obvious. Forgive my ignorance. I hadn’t taken either you for tradesfolk.”

The fact that Isaera’s contribution was less tradecraft and more simple deduction from an attentive mind is lost on the Brother, who is now assuming he can assume nothing about either of them. “Just so I know when to call on you, besides the magic, what other skills does your group possess?”