Beat It (Job-Solo)

[Sosicly Magnolia]

Spring 11th, 513AV The room was pinnacle of peace. Silence and the steady hum of work thrummed against the silky excuse for walls, boxing in the noisy silence. It was nothing new for Sosicly but today it was stifling, the beat of the looms working in tandem was near enough to drive her stark raving mad. Pride of their race or no, looms were a beast to work with and she was near quit of it, ready to kick the machine across the floor in defiance. She’d rather literally suffer a dance than continue with the wretched instrument. Wheezing out her frustration, Sosicly took in the loom of the student beside her, how with a subtle infuriating grace and ease the younger girl worked the loom. The beginning of a lovely soft silk already showing in what would be a fine piece for a dress. Now thoroughly disgusted with her own work she shifted away, the corner of her eye catching a figure sweeping towards her. But her focus was solely on the matted mess her piece was subtly becoming, how had that damned strand even went over? A stern hand settled on her shoulder, “What have you been doing?” Sosicly stared up Elyna, both their faces a mask of irritation and disappointment. Elyna’s for Sosicly wasteful and obviously distracted weaving, for she was no longer a student and she meant to be productive and Sosicly’s for her own failure. Sharp nails gestured jerkily at the hand loom but Elyna cut her off with her own slash. Her voice sharp and broking no argument. “You’ve gone and crossed the threads and the beater is meant to be pulled hard. Now get up while I fix it and pay attention this time, Bittaly.” Nodding her head in assent, Sosicly stood and made room stinging from the rebuff, obviously Elyna was not finished and managed to pin her with a look, she felt like a fly in a web. It was not a pretty image all things considered. “The dress it due by the end of the week, I will give the task to someone else unless your foot decides it knows what peddle to press.” “And since you are acting like a student you will be treated like one.” Sosicly shook her head, ready to refute, to reach for her book but Elyna pointed to loom nodded her head to the loom and spoke as if she hadn’t seen, “Where is the beater?” For a sullen second she thought to point to the peddles but her instructors tone was brisk and none of her words had been untrue, huffing silently and retying her hair in a loose knot the younger woman pointer to the instrument in question. “Warp threads?” Another point this time to the upper threads. “Weft thread?” A nail pointed to thread going horizontal. “Shuttle?” Sosicly tapped the piece in Elyna’s hand and found it pressed into her own, the woman’s ‘fixing’ done. “You’re not a student, the client is yours and if there are any mistakes it is on your head,” her words were stern but no longer reprimanding, “now weave.” Sitting down, she was aware of the gazes directed at them and also aware that the woman had kept her voice low enough for no one save the nearest weavers to hear and even they were mostly used to an exchange of some sort where Elyna was concerned. Her hands moved on habit but she tried to focus, her fingers habitually testing the thread before ready the shuttle and placing her foot on the first peddle. The first shed opened the warp threads and the shuttle slid across with practiced ease, hand already reaching to pull the weft thread tight before it had even finished the slide. In a swift move to show her own comfort ability she beat the weft threads down using more force than needed but heard no rebuff, placed her foot on the second peddle and pushed the beater back. Then repeated the actions from the opposite end. She had only managed a few runs before a hand covered her own as she pulled the beater, tugging it down further and with more strength than her already loosening current pulls, tightening up any misguided spaces in the weave. “Tomorrow you will come in early to help the students dress their looms. Then continue with your cloth.” With a mental curse, she noted much to her chagrin that she was now applying a steady, pressured tug of the beater with each pass, which as likely just as she intended.

[Sosicly Magnolia]

Sosicly had the choice when she had actually started working for the Weft and Warp to come in later in the day rather than earlier and she had chosen well. The quiet and steady thrum usually was kinder than the incessant chatter that filled the room in the start of the day. Most of the chatter was subdued only my mentions of family members or partners that had left for the harvest the previous season or already talk of projects for the weaving contest in Summer. Mingling with the noise was the clatter of looms being prepared and Sosicly let loose a silent huff nursed her cup quietly. The older students approached with friendly comments and greetings while the younger students avoided her, still feeling misplaced by her lack of verbal response. She took great pleasure in making faces at these particular students until the look away in embarrassment or giggled and stopped being so awkward. “This is as much for them as for you.” Elyna said by way of greeting, Sosicly nodded and gave a wary smile, she had figured as much, practice was practice. She was here mostly to sew but in Spring much more cloth was used likely for the coming Summer Chemah vo Ranek. With another nod the older woman moved to her own loom, shaking her head as per usual at the noise. It would be at least a bell before things seemed to fall into the silence. Taking the last gulp of her soup and wincing at how cool it was now Sosicly made to wander, noted with pleasure the near shouting din had died down to a respectable chatter. Her own work waited patiently near the front of the circle but she ignored it in favor of watching the girl beside her work. It was a different one than yesterday and she watched as said girl made the same mistakes as she had yesterday. Slipping her cup and napsack under her own loom she sidled over to the girl, tapped a thin shoulder and plucked the warp threads out of fumbling fingers. Giving them a shake and pulling them back out, she pointed to the girls face with her free hand then back to the loom, indicating she should watch. Glancing at the girls pattern then taking into account the dents she realized the simple scarf would need two threads per slot to make the necessary width. Showing her and then tapping to the paper meaningfully Sosicly watched over her rethreading before continuing around, skipping any who were already well on their way with cloth.

[Sosicly Magnolia]

A few more stops to adjust peddles, fix tension, weave bobbin and a bell later one of the volunteers to help out with students gave her a friendly tap. “I’m here now. Krova says you have work?” She nodded and flashed the woman a smile and turned to her own work, noting with satisfaction that aside from yesterday’s mishap she had made progress. She was at least halfway through and if she was lucky by the time the day was out all that would be left was her sewing it together. Sitting down, Sosicly returned to the work, a glance at the shafts telling her which peddle she needed to work. Sweeping up the shuttle with one hand, the other landing on the beater she began to fall into the rhythm of the weave. Her face contorting in annoyance every few chimes as she was forced to pull out her work to tighten or loosen up the ends of the piece. The pattern was a plain weave and it was only a simple wrap but the wrap was designed to have smoothed dark colored beads to show under the silk lace dress near the bottom that she thankfully did not have to work on. Beating another piece and frowning as she was forced to pull the shuttle back and unweave to tuck in the tail again. This time the beater came down smoothly and the end did not pull in. Reaching for her little placement of the accessories’ left from the day before she snipped the weft string and tucked into the shaft with her fingers, holding a tiny tail between two nails near the middle of the cloth she beat it down a twice to secure it. Sosicly seen the faint shadow at her shoulder and new Elyna was watching to make she continued smoothly and though she didn’t show it, Sosicly was grateful. Catching one’s own errors was not always easy and having an extra eye often stopped it before one got too far in their work. Pulling out some of the weft from the shuttle, she let each shaft lay flat and set the weft out on the warp threads. There was a tail at the end that she measured out easily then slid the beads on one by one, measuring three fingers in-between each. When she finished the row she slowly, painstaking wrapped any excess weft near the bobbin once more then pressed her first peddle to open the shed and slid the shuttle across to the right, setting it to the side of the bench. Working gently in the space given Sosicly maneuvered the beads into their correct positions, just a bit tugging at the end of the weft thread and tugged the beater down slowly. As with the previous day a hand covered her own but rather than a remark there was only a soft snort and more pressure before she was allowed to continued weaving the un-beaded section of the weft again. This time there was no hand helping beat the weave.

[Poison]

THREAD AWARD!

Skills: Weaving 3

Lores: Looms are a beast to work with

Notes: This was an enjoyable, short thread!

I couldn’t find any other skills that you used besides weaving though.

I liked the interaction with Elyna. I have a much better idea of what she’s like now. It will definitely make writing her Wiki article easier.

As always, if there are any issues with my grading, send me a PM!