Beginnings - Outside of Dahngrest

[Garista]

*Re-shaping of Zaphias' blastia? He'd never heard of that... Well, that sort of helped. At least two years had gone by since he'd been killed. Maybe more...*

No, I was involved in other things.

[Yeager]

Like what?

[Garista]

*Garista shook his head lightly.*

I was needed elsewhere to repair blastia. *Well, Garista could repair blastia. However saying 'I was dead' was not a good excuse, really.*

[Yeager]

[Ooh, dodgy. Yeager knows Garista's hiding something, but he also can tell he's someone that'd probably be useful to have as a contact. It's always nice to have some experienced blastia consultants...]

Ah. So you do both research and applied work. ...Have you ever done anything related to weapons? If so, you may have crossed paths with people I know.

[Garista]

*Garista nodded once.*

I have worked with a few different kinds.

[Yeager]

Which kinds? If you have done anything with firearms...

[Garista]

*he nodded.*

A few times, but the research was fruitless, given that my job was elsewhere.

[Yeager]

Hmm. Well, if you have an interest in working on those, or perhaps on bladed weapons, and could supply me with some of your credentials on paper...I may have an opportunity to offer you.

[Garista]

*He sighed lightly. Credentials. If he could access his items that had been placed in storage, he could get to those, however, if it was unavailable.... He had nothing.*

I'm afraid I'll have to wait on those. I have not needed them for some time, therefore they are kept away safely.

[Yeager]

That's perfectly fine. I'll keep my offer open~ It can be difficult to find people in Dahngrest that are truly knowledgeable about blastia from a scientific or engineering perspective, you know. The guild schools were woefully inadequate up until recent times.

[Garista]

*He blinked.*

Ah. You have my thanks. *If worse came to worse, he could just lose the man in the city and find a job elsewhere. He could get his bearings. Somehow.*

[Yeager]

[Because they still have some more of the ride ahead of him--and because he's still curious--he keeps up the conversation, hoping to put Garista more at ease by being open about his own dealings.]

I employ quite a few converts, as we call them--men who came over to the guilds. It does provide a notable competitive advantage. My guild has a large stake in the customizations sector and of course, if you want to truly make weapons that are lightweight, highly accurate and equipped with any number of special features, you need people who are engineers, not just smiths. People who can design in an exacting, mathematical way. And you need a devoted research team in order to test and improve their designs.

It's astonishing how few other guilds realize that, really. I came over from the empire with an engineering background and worked with one of the blastia traders for a while. I was on a team of three men, doing more quality control than anything on a design at least a decade out of date. It was truly ridiculous. You would think the guilds would have a culture more receptive to progress, but at large it seems that they don't realize the need until you show it to them.

[Garista]

That seems to be the case with many organizations. *Shizontania included. Garista knew even then that the small city was somewhat out of date comparatively to more advanced places. However, he was interested to see how far along everything was now, supposedly years after his death. He looked to Yeager again as he kept speaking.*

At least you're putting your skills to good work now. *He wasn't necessarily relaxing, but he's talking a bit more than before.*

[Yeager]

[nods] I do management and salesmanship moreso now, but the engineering comes in useful. At any rate, there's always a good amount of challenge in my work, and my authority allows me to keep my guild up to date with the current technology.

But yes, there's advantages and disadvantages to being in a guild. Certainly I got to my position faster than I would have in an imperial corporation and the lack of regulations is nice, but I do sometimes wish for the kind of efficiency and work ethic found in the empire. I can't bring too much over from there, though--the guildsmen tend to view much of imperial culture as corrupt and traitorous. There's really a lot of paranoia on that front. You should have seen the kind of death threats Kaufman got for renewing Fortune's Market's contract with the empire. [chuckles at the thought]

[Really, he is quite involved with imperial businessmen--under the table, of course. Not that he's going to let Garista know that. It's a pretty risky thing to admit.]

[Garista]

Hm... *Garista thought on this a moment. He wasn't sure what to say to this odd businessman. He seemed rather invested in telling Garista almost everything. He didn't mind. It got him more or less up to date on the current world.

Garista frowned at a thought. Any checks of Garista's official papers or documents would reveal his deceased status. The less people who knew that the better. Or at least.. Maybe it would be better to just escape when he got to the city. If he thought about it... Unless it had been five years and some long lost relative had collected his money, his bank account would be safe and collecting interest over the years. He would be fine. He might even have enough to start his research again if he could find a new place to begin it at.*

So it sounds like guilds and the empire will always be at each other's throats. I suppose I can't really complain, it doesn't matter much to me. *Better to seem invested in the conversation or he'll look more suspicious than he already did.*