Once she pulls herself together, perhaps offering a prayer to Urist and Armok that the dead elves might be reforged and reborn in a higher form -- not as dwarves yet, mind, that's too big a leap, but perhaps as snails, donkeys, or humans -- Misty's going to need to get through whatever immigration controls they have here at Shielddawn.
I suppose there're three scenarios to consider: does this fortress use unskilled migrants as mass unskilled (but generally safe) labor, as military recruits, or for dangerous jobs like working in the caverns & "testing" the trash compactor? If they go into the military, are they ablative shields or do they undergo an actual training program?
If the fortress isn't assigning squad numbers out of sequence to confuse the elven menace, then the existence and equipment of HERT Squad 3 gives me hope that Shielddawn has an efficient military with a good training program. If we find that's the case, getting drafted as an unskilled migrant might be Misty's best bet, something like a dwarven GI Bill (since it's valuable for soldiers to also have a civilian profession). What does a legendary axedwarf do on her downtime? Whatever she wants!
On the other hand, if Shielddawn is a more typical fortress, I'd say Misty should be mostly honest about her skill level but claim interest in a desirable moodable skill / material / object combination. Engraving's good, or she could talk about how her father's a legendary armorsmith and wanted her to be an armorsmith too, but she never wanted to be an armorsmith. She wanted to be... a weaponsmith! Leaping from forge to forge, her best hammer in her hand, as she strides down the broad craft halls! Oh, and she really likes cheese, too.
... after all this paranoia and deception, Misty's going to lie and get shunted into some boring or dangerous job only to find out that Shielddawn is attempting to construct the world's largest underground dairy operation, isn't she? A dairy industry is a large &inefficient process by which they produce a product (cheese) that's less valuable than the result of an easy, compact process (farm plots + prepared meals), but that's the dwarven way: Dwarves undertake megaprojects like a giant glass tower, a magma-spewing death machine or a cheese-based economy not because they are easy but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of their energies and skills, because that challenge is one that they are willing to accept, one they are unwilling to postpone, and one that they intend to die horribly when it all falls down around their heads win.
Oh, and Plumpy: Jubilate at the fate of the insolent donkey who tried to eat you! Then do your best to not look delicious.
Poll
Author
Topic: The Littlest Cheesemaker - Updated 12/07/2022 (Read 1861467 times)