FYI: I have made this exact same joke about popular Pro Wrestler and man with pretty, pretty eyes Adam Cole.
Along with a pair of other freelance adventurers, Kat has been hired by the famous and wealthy mining magnate Guillaume Rockwrecker to survey a mine sight — and they have been reassured by Guillaume Rockwrecker, with what in hindsight feels to Kat like an oddly suspicious degree of volume and insistency, that the mine has not, in fact, been overrun and settled by a roving band of Goblin who really made themselves at home and laid out some carpets that really tie the whole thing together.
Kat isn’t quite sure how to feel. Though she is happier than she would be otherwise due to the fact that Guillaume Rockwrecker paid the group half up front.
Kat and her companions are preparing to set out for the mine, first meeting up at the Landward Gates of Porthaven. As is her wont, Dunstana has insisted on coming along. Largely because she wants to see if the alleged Goblins’ alleged carpets really do tie the mine together that well.
“This is Cole,” Kat explains, pointing to the other two young adventurers. “That’s his sister Cecilia. We’re working together on this job.”
She points over her shoulder to the little pirate.
“And this is my sister Dunstana,” she tells Cole and Cecilia. “She’ll be tagging along. She, uh, she does that.”
“Hi,” Dunstana says.
“Right,” Kat says. “Let’s get going. Those Goblins aren’t going to get rid of themselves.”
“You mean the Goblins that aren’t even supposed to exist?” Cole asks.
“Did you actually believe that?” Cecilia asks her brother. “Of course they exist. Of course he hired us to get rid of the Goblins. Why else do you think he kept making a point to tell us how there were no Goblins?”
“B-because there were no Goblins?” Cole asks innocently.
“Wow,” Dunstana mutters. “Even I know the whole place is going to, like, covered in Goblins. And I’m a kid!”
“Well,” Cole says indignantly. “Excuse me for wanting to see the best people and not assuming that they’re lying to me!”
“Also,” Dunstana continues. “When we beat the Goblins, I call dibs on the carpets!”
Kat sighs. “Can we just get going?” she asks. “We really don’t get to be fighting about this.”
“Yeah,” Dunstana protests. “But he’s wrong!”
“Let it go, Captain Kid,” Kat says wearily.
At last, the group sets out from Porthaven. Dunstana spends much of the initial stages of the journey starting thoughtfully up at Cole. Slowly, a nagging question begins forming in her head that is soon burning at the back of her mind, until at last she can no longer keep it contained.
She jumps out in front of the older adventurer.
“Question,” Dunstana says, sticking her hand into the air. “Since you’re Cole, if we apply heat and pressure to you, will you become Diamonds?”
“What?”
“Diamonds,” Dunstana repeats. “Annie was explaining to me that diamonds are made when heat and pressure get put on coal. See — Cole, coal?”
She rolls her eyes.
“Come on. Try to keep up.”
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