tushanshu_logs | Book Business

Even if several people that had lent money towards the cause, including someone Victor was very close to, he and the other people he was working with continued to gather juulan. It took longer than he would have liked but donations, salvage work, and jobs in the city paid off. And once he had enough, Victor contacted Lieuen to see how they could go about translating the book.

They both agreed that doing the whole thing in one sitting wasn't the best plan. It was agreed that they'd meet weekly and translate in chunks with Victor paying based on how much they got done in each setting. The first appointment was Friday morning and Victor's being led to where Lieuen's waiting for him. Bag with the book in one hand, he's got a small backpack with juulan in it with him too.

"Good morning," he greets when finally seeing The Hazelwood Merchant. "Thanks for seeing me so early."

Lieuen smiles, ever pleasant and welcoming. His skin today bears a green tinge, in honour of his client, and his attire is loose-fitting. Comfortable, as one might say, for the task at hand may take much time.

"Early, late; there is no such thing to a businessman," he greets with the smoothest shrug of his shoulders. Lieuen gestures to a desk set up, with two comfortable chairs laid out for them. A paned-lantern rests on the desk, though the steady glow suggests a lightsource far more consistent than oil or candle.

"Would you have tea? Or..." His voice trails off as he summons the recollection. "Soda? Pop?" He squints, raising a hand in a light gesture, fingers flicking to and fro. "That little bubbly concoction. I'm afraid I don't quite have the name down pat."

The green tinge has Victor arching a brow slightly but he doesn't comment. He finds it a little amusing and flattering. The lantern gets a curious glance, Vic wondering if there's more to it than meets the eye.

He blinks at the offer for drinks and then laughs a little. "Technically, both work. Where I'm from at least, it just depends on what region of the country or even the world you're in. There's other names for it too. It's one of those little funny things people argue about sometimes. I'll just have some water though, please."

"Water it shall be!" Lieuen claps his hands together and one of his retainers approaches with a tray upon which a pitcher of water and a glass are set. "But I do find it curious that your people would argue about a word. It matters little to a humble kedan as to how we refer to something, so long as all use that term. It's vexing that one would have multiple terms..."

He trails off with a shrug and moves to one of the chairs, taking a seat. "Ah, a conundrum for later," he concedes. "When there are fewer profitable alternatives with which to spend our time, yes?"

Victor glances back as the retainer approaches. He gives a quick thanks as the water is set down and then shrugs Lieuen's way. "Just something that comes from different people coming from different places," he says as he moves to take a seat as well.

He nods to the question though. Setting down one bag, he picks up the one containing the book and carefully takes it out before setting it down. Next out of the bag comes some materials for Vic to write with, the teen intending to write down what Lieuen translates. "Right. About how much do you think we'll get through today?" he asks, stretching a little.

Lieuen eyes the appearance of the book with some interest, breaking his gaze from it just long enough to pull a pair of fine white gloves out of his pocket. As with before, his hands shrink down to fit the gloves, lending him additional capacity for delicacy when it comes time to handle the delicate pages.

"It all depends, my dear sir," he says, lifting the book and repositioning it to be set before him on the desk. "This is very old writing and even my knowledge is somewhat, ah... damaged, but we shall see!"

He runs his finger along the spine, finding the creases from the presumably many times the book had been opened in its past. Careful to guide the material to meet these old marks of wear, he opens the front cover and scans the text.

"Damaged?" Victor's curious about that particular choice of word. Shifting to get a little more comfortable, Victor watches Lieuen and the book. He'd treated it with the same care when he'd opened it other places.

Shifting to get a little more comfortable, he gets ready to start writing when the first page is read.

"Hm?" Lieuen is already focused on the writing and only half hears the echo of his comment. It takes him a moment to decipher what he'd heard, at which point he waves it off. "A mere trifle, nothing to dwell upon."

And then he lapses into silence for a few minutes, reading down the sheet. Twice he stops to stand and walk over to a shelf of books, taking a reference text down to verify something before he returns.

"This material is all very technical," he reports upon his second return to the table. "Formal introductions, what have you." Lieuen again waves his hand, a dismissive gesture to the contents. "I see some names, such as Yvlei, and titles of some sort. The subject--" Here he pauses again, double-checking the material. "It's reading as 'Study Transient Medical - Past Tracings & Forward' ...this one is difficult." He taps a word. "With this grammar and structure, it's quite... hm. 'Thinkings' I suppose, is the most literal translation. How curious. The title structure is indicative of a very old system and literal translations are, as you can hear, rather strange. I'd hazard a guess as it being some sort of medical history and predictions for something of a transient nature."

Victor frowns a moment but he lets it go. It's something to worry about another time. Taking a breath, he goes back to focusing on the writing as well. He watches Lieuen, making quick mental notes on which books he takes off the shelf. There's a nod when the merchant reports it's technical writing. He was guessing it would be that much just from where they found it and some of the graphs and such in the book.

"Yvlei? Could you tell me what names and titles are in there, please?" he asks, figuring those will be useful. He frowns as he writes this all down. "That does sound like a good guess. We'll probably find out if you're right the more we read."

Lieuen scans the page twice more, his gaze jumping from mark to mark as he takes them in yet again. His memory is not eidetic, taking some effort to retain the knowledge that he possesses, but his persistence makes up for any apparent flaws therein.

"Ah, yes. Here--" And a gentle tap of the page as he identifies where the list begins. "--are the names. Yvlei, Todik, Gnutoh, and Dvyry. Hm, no. That last one appears to be a shared title of theirs. Doctor, it appears, and there is a reference again to something medical. The physicians of their day, I suspect, and it's a joint study of sort." He pauses. "Shall I repeat any of those names?"

Victor writes each name down carefully, glancing up at where Lieuen taps. He nods to the correction, adding a little note so he remembers that.

"So three doctors were writing this book," Victor nods, a little reminded of the X-Club back home. "No thanks. I got them," he says, tapping his own page and offering a smile.

A knowing nod and a trivial thought occurs to him -- will a different businesskedan and a different Foreigner be interpreting the strange text that Victor is writing down some five hundred years hence?

"Ah, one quick question, good sir," he begs the clarification with pleasant ease, "but do you want this word for word? Or shall I simply summarise what these pages hold?"

Victor perks up when the question is mentioned, nodding slightly to indication he's listening. He frowns in thought at what's asked though. Silently, he weighs the options. "Let's go with a summary and I'll ask about anything that needs expanding on?"

Lieuen accepts these terms and gestures for an aid to bring refreshments for his client as he begins to focus simply on reading ten or so pages. Now and again, he gets up and checks a reference book for the particularly difficult passages as he encounters them. It takes him upwards of an hour to finish his first read, and then a second before he is comfortable with setting the book very gently to the side and addressing Victor directly.

"These pages are profiles, I believe," he says with a gesture to the book. "There are five new names which appear and they are Qi, Julyt, Ropsrch, Bysaliat, and Achavielle. The first three are associated with the female pronoun, the fourth the male, and Achavielle does not have a meaningful classification to tradition." He pauses, thoughtful. "It is almost as though it's a construct of sorts." A shake of his head to dismiss further ruminations on that. "The information all relates to basic medical details, such as height and weight. The comments made by Doctors Yvlei, Todik, and Gnutoh conclude that they are healthy specimens of their race. I found some references to arrival dates and suchnot, but most were present for some time before this compilation was made. It's all very fascinating, thought quite dry to a non-medical sort of kedan." Of which he, alas, is not. Milyn would, no doubt, find this quite fascinating instead, but his acquaintance is not present.

As the time ticks by, Vic does grow a little bored. It's hard not to but he fights the temptation to scribble anything on the paper or anything like that. He knows that most of his classmates wouldn't be as patient. He does slouch a bit in his chair though, waiting and watching. Once Lieuen addresses him, he perks up.

Everything is once again written down, a frown crossing Victor's features at some of this news. "Does it happen to say what race they all might be? And what those arrival dates are?"

This causes Lieuen to doublecheck the pages, seeking out the clarifications which the Foreigners seeks. "We kedan don't quite know the same sort of calendar that your kind do," he murmurs apologetically as he fetches a parchment and completes some calculations -- first from the time scale noted in the book that he translates into his own and, from that, into one that may be understood. "Three centuries and one half more, it seems."

As to the remainder, a quick glance back confirms his recollection of the translation. "Alas, they are merely marked as... different. The word they use is strange. Perhaps their way of saying 'Foreigner' back then."

"It's alright, calendar differences are to be expected with the whole different worlds thing," Victor replies. He watches the calculations patiently and his eyebrows arch up at the results. "Well...that's a pretty long time," he says, writing this down as well.

Victor nods at that. "I see," he murmurs, underlining that note. "Thanks."

"Would you have me continue?" A pleasant query. Lieuen knows it is quite trying to to watch once research and translate and knows it polite to offer him a break.

"Sure," Victor smiled. "I'm alright to keep going if you are."

A nod, then a pause as he considers his schedule. "Can we agree on five more pages, good sir?" he offers. "For I regrettably do have some later engagements to prepare for. However, I do wish to advise that if you were to leave the book here, I could perhaps have a translation readied before our next meeting?" All to save him this sitting around mess and all.

"That actually sounds perfect," Victor replies. He brought enough money with him for only a little bit more than that. "Five is great with me," he confirms. At that suggestion he takes a breath. "Sorry to say but I've got to bring it back with me. One of my friends is really interested in seeing what the ancient language looks like and I promised them a look at the book," he says.

"As you wish," is said with a polite duck of his head. Lieuen may possess much influence in the ranks of the kedan, but it is not something that he wields amidst the Foreigners. They are a delicate bunch, better treated politely and like the excellent clientele that they are. And their juulan is quite good, giving him reward beyond mere information in this exchange. "Please make yourself comfortable while I translate."

Though these five pages go quite a bit more smoothly, being that they are comprised mostly of anatomical sketches of the five subjects that are key to this study. There are some remarks noted alongside them, such as that Qi is an average specimen of her race and Bysaliat is quite -- large? Formidable? It is some blend therein and it takes Lieuen a few extra minutes to sort that out before he links the hulking figure sketched on the page with the concept of some strange, Foreigner bodybuilder of sorts. All the while, he works with interest and is ready to share what he has learned within an hour.

"These pages are simply anatomical studies of the participants," he says, slowly turning the pages and indicating the drawings made a very long time ago. "Qi is squat according to your Foreigner standards," he continues, gesturing to the sketch of a short, female figure similar to Victor in appearance -- humanoid, but sharing certain lizard-like traits, "while Julyt is quite tall." This comes with a finger pointing to a very tall humanoid with what appeared to be down feathers in place of hair. "Ropsrch reminds me somewhat of the Alderwood's kind," he muses, gesturing to an averagely built woman with cropped hair and a softer expression than most associate with Evandau. "Bysaliat is quite large," he adds and the sheet itself is evident of that, a large hulking man taking up nearly every margin as the doctor attempted to capture his anatomical structure to some degree of scale to the others. He had very long hair and a profile sketch showed it knotted in a bun at the back of his neck. "Lastly, there is Achavielle," Lieuen finished, allowing the paper to speak for itself. Achavielle's diagram is comparatively difficult to make sense of, with a combination of appendages culminating in a strange, sinewy ball near to the ground.

As he finishes, Lieuen carefully lays his hand down upon the book, smiling congenially at Victor. "Fascinating, do you not think?"

Victor nods quickly, shifting a little into a more comfortable position. He waits patiently, glancing at the sketches. The one called Qi has him vaguely uncomfortable thanks to visual similarities but he shakes it off.

As Lieuen starts sharing, Vic starts taking notes again. Ropsrch gets a little bit more interest just because of the comment about Evandau even if Victor's pretty sure they aren't the same race. It's just for if any of the people he's working with think the opposite. When shown Achavielle's diagram, Victor just blinks. It looked sort of like a Limbo creature.

"Yes, it is pretty interesting," he agreed, setting his pen down.

Lieuen nods, ever congenial, and smiles at the agreement. "Quite a bit of information to digest, I understand," he adds. "And, alas, all that I can provide today, so if you would not mind payment for these fifteen pages, we can wrap up."

"Of course," Victor replies with a smile, packing up his notes. He slides them into his bag and takes out another smaller bag from within. From this one he takes out small stacks of juulan tied together like he'd seen various merchants do. It's all carefully counted out and then the agreed upon price is offered to Lieuen.

"I believe this should do it."

Once the money is on the table, so to speak, Lieuen is all too pleased to raise his hand from the book and carefully push it towards Victor, accepting the juulan in turn. "Quite. It has been a pleasure."

Victor smiles and packs the book back up carefully. Once everything is all packed up and ready to go, he offers a hand to shake. "It has. Until next time."

"Take care, good sir, of yourself and that exquisite tome," Lieuen states as he meets the gesture, offering a firm handshake to finish the deal. It's a curious ritual that the Foreigners seem to enjoy and one that he has been happy to incorporate into his business routine.

"I will. You take care too," Victor offers. After the handshake, he picks up his bags and heads for the exit. Once outside, he camos up and heads back home invisibly.

Book Business

Oct 25th

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sorry about the delay; should be back on track now

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