Leather and fine wine

[shardofwinter]

The days are getting darker, the air has started to bite. Naturally this means that a certain Winter spirit is starting to brighten. With Hazel's beautiful influence all around him, he's been spurred on to keep busy and ready himself to do an equally (if not better) job. While people may have seen him marching around the Nexus, often with full arms, today he's taking the time to stay in the Nexus to do a little work. Back on his world the weather took a turn into torrential rain. Here, however, it's dry. Cold, blustery, but dry.

Reynard has his trademark leather coat spread out on one of the tables in the Plaza. Two pairs of boots are waiting on the ground, one pair noticeably newer and smaller than the other. His feathered hat rests on one of the chairs, carefully weighted down with a brush. Perhaps it's no surprise then that Reynard is dressed rather lightly then, with his coat all laid out. It's around this table that Reynard moves, brushing and wiping and occasionally taking a sip from a cup. Those who approach will be met with the rich scent of mulled wine and the more cloying smell of whatever he's using to treat the leather.

Finally he pauses for a moment, thinking over his cup before asking, "What is your least desirable quality? What could you stand to improve about yourself?"

Comments

[outpostcook]

Kinner laughs, not sure whether he should wish that the alien had been a better pilot.

"Well, I'm dead, so I don't think I can go back. I haven't taken the risk." Kinner doesn't quite understand all the rules of the Nexus, but he's almost certain you can't go back home when you're dead. And Kinner was digested by an alien, so he's pretty dead. "I last remember it grabbing me with a tentacle, and then I woke up here."

[shardofwinter]

"Maybe you never got eaten at all, then," Reynard suggests. "Perhaps you were simply transported here. Maybe even before it got a chance to copy your face."

[outpostcook]

"Still not gonna take the chance." Kinner shakes his head. "Until I meet up with another member of my team and find out whether there's another me running around, I'm gonna assume the worst. I know what that thing can do. What was your expedition for?"

[shardofwinter]

"Exploration, mostly. Charting routes and trying to reach the centre. We didn't get that far, but not for lack of trying, and not because of me. There was nothing groundbreaking about our expedition. A valiant attempt, but one that didn't go as the captain planned. But I it could have gone worse, by the sounds of things."

[outpostcook]

"Mapping, then." Kinner nods. He's familiar enough with that kind of expedition. "We were studying the magnetic properties of the Pole. Well, I wasn't, but other men on my team were. And you're right, I'm certain your expedition didn't end as badly as mine did. No alien shapeshifters, for example. That was just our bad luck and stupidity. Damn Blair."

[shardofwinter]

"No, we just had the cold to contend with, and animals. I didn't mind, but the rest of the crew struggled with what it threw at us. Was your expedition privately funded...?"

[outpostcook]

"I don't remember. I think we had government funding, but don't quote me on it." Kinner faces Reynard, thoughtful. "You sound like a talented explorer. If it hadn't been for what happened, and we'd shared the same world, I would've asked Commander Garry to find a place for you on our team."

[shardofwinter]

Reynard beams, slapping a hand over his heart in a playfully charmed way. "Such flattery!" Chuckling, he shakes his head. "I think my methods might have been a little outdated for your team. I'm not sure I would have had anything to bring to your techniques and technology."

[outpostcook]

"What was the date?" Now Kinner's kind of curious - he read up on other polar expedition out of curiosity, but is no expert. He's guessing it took place in another world, anyway. "Our own expedition took place in 1938, and the South Pole was reached in 1911. I'm guessing yours was earlier?"

[shardofwinter]

"You went early enough, then." And it means that Kinner is from a different era than most of the people here. That must take some adjusting. "Ours was eighteen ninety-three to ninety-six. Not the earliest, but not the latest either."

[outpostcook]

"We were studying the magnetic properties of the South Pole. That and a few other things, but magnetism was the big one." Kinner's adjusted better than expected, mostly because he has no choice. "We had relatively few encounters with wildlife, though Benning, our mechanic, almost got pulled underwater by a leopard seal when we first showed up. Not so many animals once we got inland. Animals gave you troube?"

[shardofwinter]

"Why are magnets so interesting?" It seems that scientists find the oddest things fascinating.

"I was our team's man for dealing with the animals and the fickle terrain. We had an encounter with a polar bear which was a little close for comfort, but it wasn't the first bear I'd fought. We managed to keep all the other animals at a much safer distance."

[outpostcook]

Kinner shrugs. "Antarctica has some unusual properties that we wanted to study, I guess. I was just the cook. No one told me much of anything. What kinds of animals were there besides polar bears?"

It's a good thing there were no polar bears in Antarctica, since Kinner knows they're man-eaters. The leopard seals were the only animals he was really frightened of and they didn't venture inland. Inland, there were other things to worry about, mostly the temperature and visibility issues.

[shardofwinter]

He nods his understanding. More often than not he's the man being told little and dragged around the place.

"Whales, seals, walruses... The others were always worried about bears and wolves. I had to remind them not to underestimate a walrus either. You'd think the tusks would give it away."

[outpostcook]

"Never saw any whales or walruses, but I wouldn't be surprised. Walruses are huge, not even getting into the tusks. If one wanted to do somethin' to you, I'd guess it could. Though I don't think they eat people."

It was just as well there was so little wildlife in the area. The Thing coul assimilate wildlife just as easily as it could humans.

"You know, it would have been really bad if that thing caught a bird or a fish."

[shardofwinter]

"They don't, but they can kill people who don't heed their warnings." Like so many beasts.

"It sounds like anything to do with that creature was bad," Reynard points out. "But it's gone now. If the only way it can get here is by eating itself... Well. That's not very likely."

[outpostcook]

"Well, I didn't get killed by a walrus, so I guess I got that goin' for me." Kinner folds his arms. "Not that bein' eaten by an alien is much better."

"Pretty much everything about the Thing is bad. Well...it ain't gone. It's still raisin' trouble in my home world, and I doubt I'm the only one it got, but there's nothin' I can do about it now."

[shardofwinter]

"It's cold and starvation that frightened my crew the most, and rightly so."

"You don't know. It could have been killed by now." With a sigh and a shrug he adds, "No use worrying over it either way."

[outpostcook]

"Cold and starvation are a serious problem. The last one's what I was there for." Kinner can't help but brag a little bit.

"I'm guessing your team was similar to mine - guys handling the dogs, mechanics, that kind of thing."

[shardofwinter]

Reynard can understand that. A man who takes pride in his work does a better job. "Well it sounds like you did your job. Food was the last thing your crew needed to worry about."

"That kind of thing, yes. I enjoyed it. Even the dangerous parts. I might as well have been there to raise morale. Not everyone is made for the cold, or the solitude, or the hard work."

[outpostcook]

Kinner is suited and previously trained for harsh environments, but he knows not everybody was. And nobody was trained for the alien monster part, himself included.

"I'm glad you were able to enjoy it. Can't say I did - even before the monster showed up, there were too many close calls for my liking. I wouldn't do it again. Not unless they offered me a lot more money."

[shardofwinter]

Unlike Kinner, Reynard wasn't so much trained for harsh environments as raised in them, thrown into them only to come crawling out the other side.

He grins at Kinner's reminiscing, his eyes lighting up. "The close calls were half the thrill! I would do it again in a heartbeat. What better way to truly live than to venture into such beautiful, deadly places?"

[outpostcook]

"Well, if I hadn't gone to Antarctica," Kinner says flippantly, "I wouldn't have been eaten by the Thing, and I'd still be alive in my world." There were worse paces to end up, but he would still have rather not been eaten.

He shrugs, smiling weakly. "I'm glad you were able to enjoy it, though. The world needs explorers. I just figure I wasn't a very good one."

[shardofwinter]

Reynard shrugs in return. "If you hadn't gone to Antarctica you might have tripped down a stairs and died anyway. Personally I'd prefer facing off against an undiscovered monster."

"Besides, now you have your life, or unlife, to spend here." He waves to the Nexus and smiles. "Not a bad tradeoff."

[outpostcook]

Kinner can't help but agree - if he hadn't come to the Nexus, he would neer have met Prometheus, Cricket, or any of his Nexus friends. Maybe it's a good thing that he came, even involving the Thing in Antarctica.

"I ain't undead," he says, just a litte gruffly. He doesn't want to scare anyone. "Do I look undead?" He wouldn't like being a zombie anyway.