Digging in the dirt

[Faith Augustin]

22nd Ashan, 717

It was a rare thing, but the two of them had the trial off. No work, no study, nothing. She'd mentioned as they ate last night that she needed to pop to the University to pick something up, but other than that she had nothing planned at all. It had been her intention to be out and back again by the time he woke up, taking advantage of her tendency still to rise in the middle of the night after just a few breaks sleep. But the bed had been so comfortable and when she woke, her head was resting on his chest and his arms were around her. She'd considered doing her usual and sliding quietly out, but it was the first trial they didn't have to go anywhere and do anything in an age and so she settled back down and decided that she would stay here, but awake.

When he'd woken, Faith was fast asleep more or less entirely on him, snoring gently.

Still, they'd gotten up, had breakfast and they were ready to tackle the garden. "I've got a kit. For gardening, not just spelunking. I have many kits, in fact." She smiled at him as they made their way into the back yard and Faith wondered just what it was that was wrong. There was nothing wrong between them, far from it. That expression, she considered, of 'make or break' might just be true after all. Everything that had happened to them in Rharne could, oh so easily, have broken them but it hadn't. They were stronger than they had ever been and so many things which had once held fear for them did so no longer. So, no, it wasn't that there was something wrong with them, it was that there was something wrong for him.

Faith wanted to just jump in and solve it, ask him and question him. She found it incredibly frustrating that she could not just know. It had been, after all, her life's work to know other people's needs and wants and worries before they did. Surely, she should be able to do this for him? But then, Padraig was unlike anyone else she had ever met because he was trying not to show her. Faith had more or less come to the conclusion that whatever was wrong was about work. She thought this because of how he had taken the papers he had to grade into another room, put aside the book he was reading. Maybe it was too much? Yet, on the other hand he seemed to be enjoying it. He was a very complex being, she concluded.

She was just going to have to wait, she had decided. He would tell her when he was ready and, in the meantime, she would make it as easy as possible for him to talk. Which usually meant her being quiet. Except, of course, she had to explain what they were doing. "I have a diagram." Of course she did. "I'd like to split it into four sections. The shed is in the top left, by the back wall. Bottom left, nearest the house is where the herb garden is going to go, then the right will be the vegetables." She motioned to the left hand side and handed him a hand trowel. "Want to start there?" Kneeling side by side in the dirt, she considered, what better way to spend their trial off?

[Padraig]

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It was rare that Padraig didn't wake up in the bed alone. She was never far away, usually, but to say that Faith was an early riser was an understatement. Sometimes he'd wake briefly, and she'd return later after he fallen back to sleep. But all in all, rare that he woke up with her sprawled across his chest and snoring gently enough to bring a grin to his face. She claimed she didn't, after all.

He wasn't much of a gardener. Never had been. He'd never done anything with the little plot outside his old home, before she'd come into his life. It was fair enough that he'd kept the weeds and overgrowth out of it enough to satisfy his neighbors. These trials, his efforts were mostly focused on filling in holes that Cosmo dug, just about every time he was let out.

"It sounds as if they've got kits for just about everything," he teased her as they stepped outside. Padraig blinked back a reaction to what seemed like an uncommonly bright morning. But he'd been up late the night before, and had woken with a vague headache. Up late studying and grading, but the words on the page had been swimming a little, and the loopy, florid handwriting of more than one of his students...well, that sort of script was a pox.

Faith had a diagram? Of course she did, and he grinned when he took it, then took longer than usual to look over it as his eyes adjusted to the light in the garden. "Hmm." Where to start? "How about the herbs?" he suggested and found himself a small spade before dropping down on his knees.

"How have your classes been going?" he asked as he dug a small hole and dropped a plant into it. 'Hamilton-Smith giving you any more trouble?" He'd told her after all about his meeting with the man when he'd been shown around, and shown his office. And he'd told her what a bore the man had been too, and that from that small interaction, he felt more strongly than ever that he couldn't be trusted.

[Faith Augustin]

The way that he rubbed at his eyes as they stepped out into the garden was strange, although he'd been up late grading papers in the den. She said nothing, and they moved on to talk about the garden. He looked at the diagram like he couldn't see it for a moment and things clicked for Faith. He was having trouble focusing his eyes. Why was he having trouble doing that? She wracked her brains as they agreed that it would be the herbs first.

He asked about her classes, though, and she realised that she hadn't told him about what had happened whilst he was gone. "I'm sorry, I have news, there. I should have told you, but you were away and then you were back but," Her head was bowed, looking down at the earth she was working but he could see her grin, "then you were distracting." He'd continued to mark her just above the bottom of the class, she explained, consistently throughout all of the work she'd done for him. "No, don't plant yet. Turn all of the earth, then we dig lines so all are planted at the same height, getting the same amount of moisture. It's better for the plant."

It would be no surprise to him that she worked methodically and with care. It was her way with almost everything, after all. "It turned out that the guest lectures were all by people who were testing to see if they'd be willing to mentor one of the second season students in their Charter. It's when we specialise." The first one, Faith explained, had been a professor Til'na, a very big name in field medicine. It was prestigious just to get him there as a guest speaker, let alone anything else, she explained, so the thought of him mentoring one of their students would be a real feather in the University's cap, especially in it's second season of being open.

"He'd seen my grades from Professor Carter, and he was going to offer to mentor me. But then, he saw my grades from Professor Hamilton-Smith." She shrugged, enough said. He'd been a good speaker, though, and he'd invited questions. "I asked about the effects of sub zero temperatures on tissue. If it could be used to kill malignant growths, in a targeted manner, or used to augment sedatives during surgery. He seemed impressed."

She'd been asked to stay back at the end of the lecture, with the dean, professor Carter, Hamilton-Smith and Dashiell, who seemed to know Til'na. "Hamilton-Smith got my papers, Til'na asked me lots of questions about medicine then looked at some of my work. He said it was excellent and offered to mentor me." Faith shrugged, unimpressed with the whole affair. "I refused, I don't want to work in field medicine. But I'm going to collaborate with him on targeted sub zero temperature treatment of malignant growths." At the very least, she explained, it might buy time and alleviate symptoms. "That's why I've got to go to the University at some point, to find out if I passed the Diploma or not." It was dependent, she explained, on the re graded papers of Professor Hamilton-Smith. "If his grades stand, then I've failed and need to repeat. If not, then I might have passed." Yet, she dug in the earth.

[Padraig]

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"I distracted you?" Padraig questioned, teasing her with as confused an expression as he could manage, for not being confused at all. If she'd been distracted after all, then he'd succeeded, just as intended. "I tried very hard not to, you know," he added, even while pulling the plant he'd just put into the ground, back out again.

If she wanted tidy rows, all at the same depth, then she would have them. She knew better than him after all. He must have taken after his mother, just as his grandfather had claimed. Couldn't keep a silk plant alive, much less an honest to goodness vegetable garden. "It's the same for physics. Chemistry too, I imagine," he said when Faith mentioned specializations.

Meanwhile, he'd put her drawing back down, finding the black script on a white field, difficult to read in full sunlight. Probably just tired, eyes strained from grading too many papers. "It's a fascinating question, even from a chemist's or physicist's perspective. He was right to be impressed," Padraig said as they arranged their rows. Not right that there still seemed to be such a discrepancy between her grades under the tutelage of one man, as opposed to another. He'd made that point already before though, so didn't again.

"So Til'na has seen what we have, and has seen through it then," he concluded. "That's good, and if he offered to mentor you then he recognized how talented you are. Whether it's your field of interest or not. Surely then, Hamilton-Smith wouldn't be so bold as to fail you, after others have publicly noted the contradictions." It would be more trouble than it was worth for the man, Padraig thought, if there was the slightest chance that the dean might take notice and question his motives.

"I can tell you something," he added, though it was only between the two of them. "I've got the distinct impression that Wagstaff, in Chemistry, isn't very fond of him. And even at that, he seems busy questioning the dean's vision as well." The vision that resulted in Padraig being compelled to teach two courses, he meant, rather than one. "You know, I've been meaning to get myself a hat. I think I will, next time I'm out." All the better to keep the sun off his forehead, he thought.

[Faith Augustin]

"Why, professor Augustin, I do believe you are telling me outrageous lies." Faith grinned at him, reaching out to stroke his cheek. "You don't have to try to distract me, it's your natural state. Frankly, it's a wonder I get anything done." She watched him with a wicked smile. "And when you try to? I am lost to all reason." She raised an eyebrow though, when he said that he'd be specialising, too. "So, what are yours going to be?"

He couldn't keep focus on the drawing, either. His thoughts on Professor Til'na did not surprise her in the slightest and she shrugged. "It's Professor Til'na regrading them, not Hamilton-Smith. So if I still fail then it's fair, not political." What that did to Hamilton-Smith if she passed, Faith did not know. "Professor Til'na wanted to read all my work even the original test paper was in there. I saw it." Faith shrugged. It didn't look like it had failed, she said, but then she'd only glanced at it. She was surprised though, at the information about Professor Wagstaff and Hamilton-Smith's viewpoint on the dean. "He portrays himself as practically being the Dean's second in command and the one that all the other staff come to for advice."

Then, a hat? Faith stopped and looked at him, then moved her hand over his eyebrows, blocking out the light. She did it without warning him and then she frowned. "Lets go have a cup of tea." Standing, she made her way into the kitchen where they could make a hot drink together. As she poured the water into the mugs and he took them into the living room, Faith pulled the curtains, just a little, so that they stopped the sun from coming in. Then, she handed him the drawing from outside, which she'd folded and put in her pocket and watched as he looked at it. Moving over to the sofa she sat down and turned to look at him.

"Your eye, everyone's eyes, have a number of parts to them. Like this." She turned the diagram over and drew a rough drawing of an eye front on and to the side. "This is called your cornea. If you get an infection in it, you can find light unpleasant and it takes longer to focus" Having seen him focus perfectly well on the paper when he was in low light she was fairly sure.

"People usually put it down to being up late, too much reading, that kind of thing. It often rectifies without any intervention." Whilst that was the case, she explained, it was an uncomfortable thing and inconvenient. "I can make up some eyedrops and give you some herbs to take. It might take a trial or two, but it should start to shift." Faith put down her mug, then and took hold of his hand, curling her fingers around his. "I fell back to sleep this morning, because I knew that I am completely safe. Because there is only me, for you. I know that I don't say it how I should, but this I can do."

She was shoddy at saying it, she knew she was and she needed to be better at it. "I know I should be better at telling you I love you. I do. More than I have words to say. And I don't have strong arms to hold you when you sleep, but I have eyedrops." She smiled at him, hopeful that he'd let her treat what she believed was highly likely to be a very straightforward condition.

[Padraig]

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"Lies?" Padraig quipped, grinning just a little in response as he teased her. "I am a scientist you know. We don't deal in untruths. Just facts, observable theory...etcetera, etcetera." She of course was not science but a wondrous puzzle at times that occasionally defied logic. But he liked nothing better than to untangle the mystery.

"Physical chemistry...physics applied to chemistry," he told her when she asked what specialty he'd choose for himself. "Quantum mechanics, thermodynamics." Which might in itself come in handy, considering they were living in a volcanic region.

How Hamilton-Smith wished to portray himself to others, and what his genuine motives were, seemed quite different one from the others, at least so far as he'd observed it. Still, "Well, a third set of eyes to look over your work is a good thing, yes?" Til'na, depending on who he knew and his own disposition, might just be the impartial influence that was needed. "If that's the case, then at least it ought to resolve the question of fairness." At least he'd like to think so.

A cup of tea? They hadn't been out very long, but he smiled, stood and dusted his hands and knees off before following her inside. But then it occurred to him why as she pulled the curtains closed and made the room darker. And in truth, it helped. Still, he'd hoped to keep the trouble with his eyes to himself, and prevent her fussing. It was just strain, taking on too much at once. Too much reading, too many papers to grade.

The paper she handed him though, was much easier to read and he sat down on the couch. "It's nothing Faith. You don't need to worry. It's just strain, taking on too much at once. I'll adjust," he argued. He knew though that she'd argue differently. Just as he'd want to fix whatever he perceived might be going wrong for her, she'd want to do the same, and arguing wouldn't change that a bit.

He grinned in spite of himself. Love. Eye drops instead of words. She had a way with them whether she realized it or not. Besides, while he remained convinced the problem would pass on it's own, in the meantime the drops and herbs might help ease the strain. "I'll try it, for you," he assured her. "Only if you promise not to worry about it. Too much at once, I'm sure."

[Faith Augustin]

They could go together later, she said with a smile, and find out whether a third set of eyes on her work made a difference. Right now, she was more concerned with only one set of eyes and those were his. He looked immediately relieved when she pulled the curtains over and Faith pursed her lips in evident disapproval as he told her that it was nothing, that he was fine, it was strain. "I do need to, you know. Worry." Faith looked at him with an earnest expression.

"I'm afraid it's in the job description of being yours. Furthermore," she added with a smile, slipping her hand into his as she did, "it is also one of the responsibilities I have since you are mine. So, since duty is very important to me, I am afraid that worry is inevitable." With a swift kiss, she pointed out the simple fact, though. "And is invariably mutual. So, no, I'm not promising not to worry." When he said he'd use the drops, though, she smiled and nodded. "Thank you. It should help." She did like to be helpful, after all.

So, she made up an elderflower eye bath which would, she assured him, help with the feeling of strain. Once in the morning, once in the evening. Alongside that, it would help put moisture back in his eyes, which a cornea issue often meant there was a lack of. Then, she would make him an orange, lemon, ginko and green tea to drink, which should help. It might take a few trials, she explained, but he'd be right as rain in no time.

[Doran]

Faith

Knowledge:
Cooking: Orange, lemon, gingko and green tea
Detection: Noticing when somebody has trouble focusing their eyes
Discipline: Containing your curiosity
Gardening: Turning all of the earth and digging lines to ensure that all of the plants get the same amount of moisture
Investigation: Drawing the correct conclusion from the clues present
Medicine: The different part of the eye
Medicine: If you get an infection in the cornea, you can find light unpleasant and it takes longer to focus
Medicine: An infection in the cornea often rectifies without any intervention
Medicine: Treating an infection in the cornea with eyedrops
Medicine: Making an elderflower eye bath
Padraig: Tries not to show you what’s wrong
Professor Til’na: A big name in the field of medicine
Professor Til’na: Guest lecturer in Scalvoris
Psychology: Creating an environment that makes it as easy as possible for somebody to talk
Wagstaff in Chemistry isn’t fond of Hamilton-Smith

Loot: -
Injuries: -
Fame: -
Devotion: -

Magic: These points CANNOT be used for magic!

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Padraig

Knowledge:
Deception: Pretending that it’s nothing
Endurance: Staying up late studying and grading
Faith: Has many kits
Faith: early riser
Faith: Doesn’t want to work in the field of medicine
Faith: Professor Til’na offered to mentor her
Faith: Doesn’t have strong arms to hold you when you sleep, but has eyedrops
Gardening: Turning all of the earth and digging lines to ensure that all of the plants get the same amount of moisture
Medicine: The different part of the eye
Medicine: If you get an infection in the cornea, you can find light unpleasant and it takes longer to focus
Medicine: An infection in the cornea often rectifies without any intervention
Medicine: Treating an infection in the cornea with eyedrops
Professor Til’na: A big name in the field of medicine
Professor Til’na: Guest lecturer in Scalvoris
Wagstaff in Chemistry isn’t fond of Hamilton-Smith

Loot: -
Injuries: -
Fame: -
Devotion: -

Magic: These points CANNOT be used for magic!

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Comment: This was a nice, short thread. Both of your posts are always easy to read. I gave both of you knowledges in medicine as Faith is explaining everything to Padraig. Poor Padraig needs to relax more! All that studying and grading obviously isn’t good for his health!

I wasn’t entirely sure about some of the NPCs you mentioned as I’m not familiar with Scalvoris – so if you think that you should be given more or different NPC related knowledges, please let me know! And please also let me know if you have any other issues with this review!

Picture: "After the Storm" by maf04, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0./cropped and resized