Sam would've hated to disabuse Will of that visual—-or any as hilarious, let alone flatteringly epic---despite its inaccuracies, though she'd struggle to stay straight-faced (and fail) if he described it in any detail. As it was, the kid's curiousity got her grinning. “Oh, yeah. Moose wander all over the place, so there's no telling when or where you'll see one, but you're bound to see one somewhere without waiting too too long. Caribou---and the bears---you're most likely to see in the Barrenlands, though. That's an area east of Yellowknife, so if you took that big right-angle route we were talking about to get to there from here, you'd pass through it. It's grizzly bears out there, though. Polar bears are more coastal. I'm sorry; I hope that doesn't disappoint.” Her grin shrank into a somewhat apologetic smile, and she shrugged.
“Magic potato is what he says, and with a lot of hard work. No cranes, though. One little 'dozer, wooden frames for leveling walls, lots of pouring and packing, some of those big two-man saws, chainsaws.... though the wooden frames are weirdest to see. The first time I saw them, I was like 'what cheat is this?' but they're never incorporated into the building, just the building process.” Sam held up her hands, as if they were on opposite sides of a box. “They're just to make the walls straight. They get set up, wall-width apart, and then filled in with snow that's packed down and packed down and packed down, and they've got bracers to ensure they stay standing straight. You see someone block a door with a chair in a movie? It's like that. They don't build all the walls by packing, though. The two-man saws are for cutting snow bricks, taller than you and maybe a bit thicker than that chair-seat.”
That was the short and long of her answer; Will's was loud, writ large before the first word. Sam braced... and then it was out. Some sympathy crossed her face, but the awkwardness Will expected never came; there was something speculative, instead, and Sam took a second to look his hands over again before she spoke.
“Calisse, kiddo. I think you mighta been stuck more times than me---at least, like in the last three weeks.” She was sure to smile again, crookedly, to show she shouldn't be taken too seriously. “When flu season comes round, you should ask for the inhaled vaccine they give people allergic to the egg in the injectable version, cut yourself some slack.”
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Date: 2017-12-10 08:22 pm (UTC)“Magic potato is what he says, and with a lot of hard work. No cranes, though. One little 'dozer, wooden frames for leveling walls, lots of pouring and packing, some of those big two-man saws, chainsaws.... though the wooden frames are weirdest to see. The first time I saw them, I was like 'what cheat is this?' but they're never incorporated into the building, just the building process.” Sam held up her hands, as if they were on opposite sides of a box. “They're just to make the walls straight. They get set up, wall-width apart, and then filled in with snow that's packed down and packed down and packed down, and they've got bracers to ensure they stay standing straight. You see someone block a door with a chair in a movie? It's like that. They don't build all the walls by packing, though. The two-man saws are for cutting snow bricks, taller than you and maybe a bit thicker than that chair-seat.”
That was the short and long of her answer; Will's was loud, writ large before the first word. Sam braced... and then it was out. Some sympathy crossed her face, but the awkwardness Will expected never came; there was something speculative, instead, and Sam took a second to look his hands over again before she spoke.
“Calisse, kiddo. I think you mighta been stuck more times than me---at least, like in the last three weeks.” She was sure to smile again, crookedly, to show she shouldn't be taken too seriously. “When flu season comes round, you should ask for the inhaled vaccine they give people allergic to the egg in the injectable version, cut yourself some slack.”