Eternity RPC Board
09-13-2016, 11:43 PM
How much, indeed! Civilized as these two seemed, the concept of counting and mathematics was still alien to them, an unfortunate circumstance when it came to running something of a storefront. Trolls, you see, have no need for such thing out in their natural element, and have no need of numbers, at least no the kind of numbers and counting we, as civilized folk, are used to. Yes, they understand the concept of one and none, as well as a couple, few, several, many, etc, but one finds little use for mathematics in the life of chasing and eating errant goats and children, if that is indeed all trolls do, and minds not familiar with such concepts generally find them difficult to grasp.
To speak nothing of the concept of money. Trolls did barter, yes, though mainly amongst themselves; fighting could be dangerous, you see, and even a victor could suffer grave wounds, so even trolls had developed a system of trade whereby both may get something they want with considerably less risk of harm. But, the concept of money, the idea that a group of people could come together and agree that a thing has value in trade even though it was intrinsically worthless made absolutely no sense. Only by living amongst the fleshling community had the duo long reconciled the fact that exchange of the tiny worthless disks was how goods were normally exchanged in this community, and thought they generally...aquired what they needed through their own efforts, the two still at least needed some coin to pay for services from others.
So of course, Elke's question perplexed the Waldo-troll, for despite all outward appearances, a troll it still was and a troll's mind it still had. Truth be told, the two beasts regarded the entire haberdashery charade, dressing in "fancy" clothes and pretending to be a shop proprietor, as a hobby; rather, the Waldo regarded it as a hobby, and the Chubb-troll begrudgingly went along with it for lack of a more engaging preoccupation. Very rarely did anyone actually enter the fumigated store, and rarer still did one decide to leave with a trinket that the question of "how much is this worth" rarely entered Waldo-troll's mind, such that when Elke posed the question of him, the beast couldn't help but look to its companion.
Of course, Chubb-troll knew even less about the entire affair than its compatriot expatriot, such that, catching each other's gaze, he simply shrugged with a deep gutteral, "Eh." Waldo, looking back to its tiny patron, mulled the question over further, vainly attempting to hide the fact that it didn't know how to properly respond. "Uhhhhh," it involuntarily responded as it attempted to remember the differences between the silver disks and the copper disks, "Um, yes. Yes."
To speak nothing of the concept of money. Trolls did barter, yes, though mainly amongst themselves; fighting could be dangerous, you see, and even a victor could suffer grave wounds, so even trolls had developed a system of trade whereby both may get something they want with considerably less risk of harm. But, the concept of money, the idea that a group of people could come together and agree that a thing has value in trade even though it was intrinsically worthless made absolutely no sense. Only by living amongst the fleshling community had the duo long reconciled the fact that exchange of the tiny worthless disks was how goods were normally exchanged in this community, and thought they generally...aquired what they needed through their own efforts, the two still at least needed some coin to pay for services from others.
So of course, Elke's question perplexed the Waldo-troll, for despite all outward appearances, a troll it still was and a troll's mind it still had. Truth be told, the two beasts regarded the entire haberdashery charade, dressing in "fancy" clothes and pretending to be a shop proprietor, as a hobby; rather, the Waldo regarded it as a hobby, and the Chubb-troll begrudgingly went along with it for lack of a more engaging preoccupation. Very rarely did anyone actually enter the fumigated store, and rarer still did one decide to leave with a trinket that the question of "how much is this worth" rarely entered Waldo-troll's mind, such that when Elke posed the question of him, the beast couldn't help but look to its companion.
Of course, Chubb-troll knew even less about the entire affair than its compatriot expatriot, such that, catching each other's gaze, he simply shrugged with a deep gutteral, "Eh." Waldo, looking back to its tiny patron, mulled the question over further, vainly attempting to hide the fact that it didn't know how to properly respond. "Uhhhhh," it involuntarily responded as it attempted to remember the differences between the silver disks and the copper disks, "Um, yes. Yes."