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Finalizing the Preliminaries

3/22/2017

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For any non-resident of The City simply getting in, reaching the approximate center, and getting back out alive was a challenge. To successfully retrieve an object larger than a fist was considered almost impossible.
Yet, the candidates must be required to bring back something demonstrably originating in The City. Otherwise, they might simply skirt The City's borders and bring back some piece of discarded junk and never prove their worth.
After negotiation, it was determined that each twin would go into the city and either bring back anything that was clearly from The City, or demonstrate their presence there.
Both twins wished to go first and Gypsum would not allow Feldspar to claim seniority for this task. The twins used one of the oldest and most respected contests to determine who would have their way.
The game was called "rock, clothe, and knife." The rule was that clothe beat rock, rock beat knife, and knife beat clothe. The players would clap their open hands together twice in unison and on the third clap each would show a symbol of one of the three choices. An open hand symbolized clothe, a fist symbolized rock, and a single finger extended symbolized knife.
The men agreed beforehand that the first to win two contests would have his choice of going first or second.
As can be imagined, these two had engaged in this contest hundreds of times in the past. Each had a preferred strategy, and each was aware of the other's preference. If they were to compete one hundred times, the odds were against either ever having a lead of more than two, and each would have that lead at least once during the competition.
The first three games were all ties. Feldspar won the fourth trial by showing rock to his brother's knife. Gypsum won the second the exact same way. The next five games were ties and their audience was getting impatient, especially Beryl and Topaz.
But their impatience was rewarded when Feldspar showed rock, expecting his brother to show knife and Gypsum instead showed an open hand.
Both laughed.
"Congratulations, Youngster! You will have the advantage of allowing me to go first and provide you with information to help your efforts."
"Hold on there, Old Timer! I choose to be the first to enter the city. You can wait with the others and watch as I demonstrate my abilities."
Feldspar answered with a grin—an expression indistinguishable from a vicious threat to anyone not a Riotori.  Both turned to the rest.
"Shall we do this tomorrow morning?" asked Gypsum.
"Yes. At least you will. However," warned Pyrope, "You will not be allowed to pass on any information to your brother. You will be kept apart until his trial is completed."
 Calcite continued, "The trial often takes a full day. And in the past we have waited for two or three days before a hopeful suitor has reemerged to claim his prize. Often after that long in The City he is in bad shape—dirty, bleeding, injured or disfigured, hungry and thirsty, and, sadly, has failed to retrieve an object to prove his sojourn into the center."
"That will part will not be a problem. I do not intend to bring back anything. Rather, I will leave something there that proves my presence."
"How will we know that?  You might simply take something with you, leave it somewhere near the edge, and come back."
Feldspar started to retort, growling his anger against the implied dishonesty of his brother. Gypsum quieted him with a gesture.
The younger man looked at Pyrope and Calcite, and then winked affectionately at Topaz.  "Trust me."
And so they must.   

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Negotiating Ploys

3/7/2017

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"Of course, you must each go separately," began Pyrope, "And to different parts of The City. This has never been, nor can it be, a team effort. You will not have each other to depend on in marriage, so you should not have each other for the trials."
"Why not?" asked Feldspar. "We have always worked together; I'm sure your daughters have as well. When we are married there is no reason our two families will not be more like a single family."
"That sounds excellent!" Topaz responded. "It would be much easier on our husbands if they hunted in a pair, and easier on Beryl and I if we attended to the house duties together."
"In fact," Beryl added, growing enthusiastic with the new idea, "We could even build a single house for both families, with enough room for children from both."
"Ridiculous!" shouted Pyrope and Calcite together. "That has never been done! That is a violation of tradition!"
"Then perhaps it is time the traditions were violated!" snarled Beryl. "Just because it has not been done doesn't mean it shouldn't be if a better arrangement presents itself!"
This surprised the brothers. They had intended to be difficult about not working together only as a negotiating tool. They had planned on surrendering that option in exchange for the city's men giving up something the brothers did not like.
They had no real objection to going solo to accomplish their tasks. They had expected it. But this sudden support of their proposal—as bogus as it was at first meant—pleased the young men. That the sisters would leap so quickly to their aid and defense made them even more desirable. On top of that, this idea of a single dwelling to accommodate both families was, though radical, appealing to the pragmatic senses of the two.
Feldspar, being the pessimistic one of the two, could see unwelcome complications in such an arrangement.
However, now was not the time to worry about such things. The primary goal of this meeting was to define the trials he and Gypsum would be required to face. But, since the ladies had so quickly and enthusiastically come to their aid, it made their negotiating point even more powerful. They would give up the idea of working together...but only for considerations in their favor regarding the tests themselves.
Gypsum's thoughts were much like his brother's. But he, being more optimistic by nature, devoted a few seconds to considering the radical proposal he and Feldspar had never heard of. It did make a lot of sense.
Then he too put it out of his mind and concentrated on the give-and-take of determining the tasks he and his brother would be required to complete.
That resolve was supported by the next words of Calcite, delivered with loud and hostile volume.
"It does not matter now! What matters now is that these trials will be faced individually and that is not negotiable!"
"Very well," replied Feldspar, "So that will be. But the where and the how and the what should, in return, be something subject to compromise."
"Yes!" growled Topaz, and "Absolutely!" snarled Beryl.
The imperative tones of the two young women served notice to their male elders that they would not tolerate the brothers being assigned tasks that had better chances of failure than of success.
The brothers were careful to hide the pleasure they felt at the continued support of their potential mates. With any luck at all, their trials would be taxing, but not ridiculously so.


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    The story: This serial is about the "mascot" shown at the top of these pages. There are actually two of them, identical twins, Feldspar and Gypsum.
    The people call themselves Riotori, and their planet is Kylrock. The twins have been journeying for hundreds of miles, across many hazards, in search of mates. Please visit the archives to read their whole story.



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