[A Touch of Fire] A Wish to Get Burned [Duality]

[Rorugir]

OoCHaha, you got it! I'll take charge. Do the nails need the molds? As far as I know, you just heat the ingot for that, and shape it...or am I wrong? I'm not completely sure when it comes to this...I'll just hold it off and is it for the plows, then?

While shoveling, Rorugir briefly heard Aska do something, but the crackle of the flames made it too hard for Rorugir to make out what she was doing. He heard what he thought was her addressing someone else, but, once again, he couldn't make it out. And then she had appeared at his side, shoveling coal alongside him. She said something about keeping up the pace. Rorugir wanted to say he was fine on his own, but that wouldn't be the proper way to start out a working relationship, now would it? While they were shoveling, a second assistant, the raven-haired one he had met before, appeared at their side, holding a prodigious amount of clay and a pitcher of water. Rorugir briefly left Aska to the shoveling and took it from the assistant, who gave it to him after a moment of hesitation. He figured Aska wanted to see how good of an blacksmith he was - and waiting on her every word didn't seem like it wouldn't make a very good impression. Rorugir took a good portion of the clay and lay it on the table, next to the plow, which he then picked up. Rorugir picked up the plow and shoved it into the surface of the clay, which quickly sank down under the pressure. After taking the plow away and putting it back in it's original position, Rorugir found a deep impression had been made in the clay in the impression of the plow. Next, he took some of the water and poured it over the clay, to solidify it and increase it's strength, so as to prevent it from shifting during the actual casting. Or, at least, that was what his instructor had told him. Rorugir repeated the process with the other side of the plow until he had two beds of clay molds, which he then pushed together, would leave a space for the molten iron to fill in the shape of the plow. This task done, he turned back to the forge and found it properly heated up. Now, it would be time to use the ladle and literally heat up the metal ingots until they burned into a liquid, which would then be poured into the cast to cool and take that shape. Rorugir managed to find a good-sized ladle, which was little more than metal pitcher with bars attached to the side so it could be held over the fire. Putting a few of the metal ingots into the ladle, he held it over the now roaring flames, which were hot enough to reduce the metal to a simmering iron liquid in seconds. Careful not to drop it, he took it over to the cast, pouring the molten iron in quickly and pressing the two casts over it quickly. Now, all that had to be done was let the metal cool. Finally done (at least with one of the plows) he stepped back and wiped his forehead of the sweat that had been generating profusely there. Rorugir took the small opportunity of rest to glance as Aska. "How am I doing so far?" he said with a tired smile on his face.

OoCHopefully that wasn't too much for one post! If anything's wrong with the casting method I used (which I mainly from online pages I googled) then go ahead and tell me. Or, better yet, have Aska tell Rorugir.

[Duality]

oocYou're doing great! Sorry my replies are coming in so sporadically, I'm working to fix it. Aska watched Rorugir work for a moment, simply petting the fire with coals as he prepared his cast. He was right; she wanted to watch him work, see what he'd do. He took her graces well, responded to her direction without even needing them. So far he was shaping up to be a good assistant, perhaps one of the best she had. Aska nodded her head slightly as she worked to control the heat of the furnace. She didn't notice completely how he was making the cast. Aska grabbed the bellows from nearby and dropped it with a short bang on the floor, the tube connecting it to the furnace twisting up but remaining clasped in. She set her foot atop it to squeeze air into the grill even as she finished laying the foundation of coal for the next stage. The layer of coke still within the stone walls of her blackened furnace was already hot enough, as Rorugir demonstrated when he came back to melt the ore for his clay mold. Aska glanced over at his mold, a slight scowl playing on her lips. Her mouth fell open for a second as Rorugir merely poured his molten iron in, her eyes a little wider. Then he asked, "How am I doing so far?" With a cocky smile on his face. Aska was not pleased, or so the look on her face gave. Irritated, upset. Aska walked over to his mold, her Isurian hand grabbing at the corner and breaking a piece off. "This is not casting clay." She rubbed the clay over her fingers as it broke up into a dust, coating her hand and falling onto the table below. the mold itself began to bubble and swell in places, steam attempting to escape the clay barrier and ruin Rorugir's work. "You'd have to heat this clay to burn out the impurities before it could be used as casting clay. But that's not why I had my assistant get this." Aska stomped over to the other side of the shop, going through a barrel that was labeled 'Sand' and pulling free the top. "Start over. Mix the clay with the sand and use water to bind them. That'll form your casting material with our Lhavitian clay. It's not as strong as the clay you're used to, I think." She tried to let her temper cool, tried not to think about the looming deadlines. "You finish these the right way, I'm going to work on the nails."

[Rorugir]

Rorugir accepted the look and rebuking explanation solemnly, quietly, taking in all Aska was doing. When the clay broke off in her hand, he inwardly groaned. He was used to a different way of casting clay, one using the resilient Sultros clay. He had felt that the clay here was different, but in his attempt to distinguish himself, he had skipped over such thoughts and proceeded with his method. And had wasted precious time. "I see. I'll get right on that." was all that Rorugir said, determined to make up for the loss of time and materials. He disposed of the steel quickly, tipping the soft molds to pour what of the molten iron still salvageable back into his ladle. A portion of the clay that had been merged with the iron had to be disposed of, but their was enough clay left to make another mold. He mixed the clay with the sand quickly, soaking it in water he found left in the pitcher from before. Then, he followed his pattern from before, forming both of the molds and, taking the iron from before and adding a little more heat from the furnace, he poured the molds back in. Taking a moment to hesitatingly touch the clay to see if it would hold, Rorugir repeated his pattern once, twice. By the time he had three molds and iron within then, it had been a good ten bells or more, and he was sweating even more profusely. However, he didn't allow himself to rest this time. Finally, with three plow-shaped molds on the table, he turned back to Aska to see how she was doing. "Need some help with those?" Rorugir asked her, moving over to stand behind her.

[Duality]

Aska pushed some more air ino the blazing furnace, making the fire within crackle and scowl as she set the temperature up again for some more melting. She put her hand before the flames, feeling the heat lick at her Isur skin and testing the temperature. Just right. Aska moved across the room, pausing momentarily to glance at Rorugir. He was sweating, working hard, but working fast and well. His services were definitely useful. She thought about saying something, anything, but changed her mind and got back to work. Aska pulled a bronze box from a cabinet, the yellow-brown metal somewhat blackened and tarnished from soot and the heat of past jobs and carried it back across the shop. With a tremendous bang the knocked the box against the floor, breaking free built-up dirt from before. She hated it when her assistants left their instruments dirty, it was just wasted time later. Still, Aska pulled apart the two halves that made up the bronze box, revealing the thin empty space in the middle. The Isur woman grabbed a brush from nearby and gave the inner tube of the box a quick scrub, her hand moving with force to clean it quickly. Aska quickly began melting the metal when the tube was clean, grabbing the ladle to get another deep pour of liquid metal. As she worked at melting the wrought iron smoothly Rorugir showed back up with surprising speed, his task complete. "The long rod this cast makes will be broken up and hammered into a set of 4 nails." The explanation may have been unnecessary but she gave it regardless. "We can hammer them together, make them thick and strong. Let's get to work."

[Rorugir]

The contraption the woman wielded was new to Rorugir's eyes, though making nails was a practice long ingrained within his mind. It was intriguing, really, and Rorugir itched to examine it more closely, but time pressed on, and, and he would have to deal with understanding the basic concept. "So we're going to need to fill this five times." Rorugir's next statement was fact as opposed to question; taking in the fact they needed twenty nails, and the contraption made four each, he did the math relatively quickly. While they waited for the iron to harden into a rod, Rorugir checked on his other casts. They were cooling down, but given the heat of the metal, they were not quite hardened enough yet. He left them be. When the metal rod had finally hardened down, he took that out of the contraption, and over to the anvil. He searched for the right-size hammer, and, finding it on a convenient shelf nearby, set to work. First, he broke off the metal into fourths, like Aska had instructed. Tossing the hammer aside, he began bending one of the little pieces of metal into a nail. His Isur arm, his gift from Izurdin, proved to be a great help in situations like theses. His thick, muscled hand bent the metal easily, tapering one of the ends into a point and bending it until it was circular. When he finally finished bending and shaping the metal, he had a pretty good nail in his hand. Repeating the process with the other three pieces of metal, he finally had four nails done. Now, he only needed to do this four more times. Fantastic. Hoping that Aska had already filled the contraption with more iron but not taking any chances, he grabbed a ladle and filled it with molten iron before returned to Aska and the bronze box.

[Duality]

Rorugir took the first rod and got to work on his own, hammering quick and strong to make the nails. Aska was surprised, he was much quicker than her other assistants. Well, former assistants. She was impressed as she melted a second batch of ore, watching him work. He handled this work with grace and her orders with a steady calm. More surprisingly Rorugir began melting more ore even as the ore in her mold was cooling. He took initiative well. Aska wondered how well the were doing in regard to the time. She felt like they were doing well, better than she had done in a while even with the setback, but Aska knew better than to make assumptions of the time they had available to them. After some time Aska opened the rod cast to extract the cooled iron, taking the rod in her own Isur hand so the remnants of heat that remained would do her no harm. "As you can see, these brass points here," As she spoke to Rorugir she pointed at some little rounded ends that jutted from her machination, "tighten when you push them together. I had a gadgeteer make this for me, I make nails often." Her explanation complete, Aska moved across quick to stamp the cooling metal. Hammering was relaxing, even hammering quickly. Aska looked forward to crafting the nails as she set up a winch on the anvil. She quickly tightened it around the heated metal around the center, using the force to tighten the point sharper as she pulled apart both ends. Her personal method of crafting nails, made it a bit easier to craft in the next step. Aska hit the nails long-wise to strengthen them and give them the well-known thick fat end for the hammer to push them through a building later. Using her own hand to scrap and pound on the end she went through each four nails until they were sharp and strong, ready for their future task. Finally she turned back to Rorugir. "You're doing well." Her words were short, but meaningful.

[Rorugir]

Rorugir watched the Aska in turn, observing to see what he could learn from seeing the master craftswoman at work. She worked with a speed unlike that of which Ror had ever seen, though she by no means compromised quality for speed. She simply did it faster. There was much to be learned from her, he realized. "I see." Rorugir said as she explained the gadget to him, even as he worked on the nails. She had gotten around to creating a second set of nails by the time he returned with the ore, just finishing as she approached. As he pressed the molten metal into the bronze box and waited for it to cool, he went over how he'd seen Aska craft the nails, how to repeat what she was doing and build on it. "Thank you." The compliment, small as it was, meant a lot to Rorugir, even if he in turn did not express it. Many layers of emotion were hidden beneath both of the isurs' words, it seemed. When the third batch finished, Rorugir repeated his process, returning to the anvil. This time, however, he tried to put theory to practice and imitate Aska, molding the iron with a wench to tighten the points sharper than he had with his hand. He hit the ends with the hammer, making a personal note to do the same with the nails he had already done before. Then, he molded them with his hands, a process he was already familiar with. And then - four more nails, ready to go. After attending to his first batch of nails, Rorugir turned back to Aska to see how she was doing. Had she finished the fourth and set of nails, or did she need more help in that regard? Or was it time to do the fifth and final set of nails? In any case, Ror filled up the ladle with more iron and set to work filling the bronze box. Once Aska was finished with the fourth set of nails, he crafted the fifth and final nails, presumably with her watching. Thus, he did his best to perfect his formula for crafting the nails, and by his observations they seemed to turn out the best. When they were finished, Rorugir asked, "So, shall we do the Okomo box now, or do we need to do more with the nails?"

[Aspen]

Aska turned to Rorugir with a slightly raised brow. ”Yes, we shall start the trough now.” She accented the word ‘trough’ rather strangely, drawing attention to it. After all, a trough and a box were two very different objects. The Isur woman quickly tidied Rorugir’s handiwork into a box for storage, and then pulled round some metal sheets. ”I was going to craft the trough yesterday, but other things got in the way. If anything it makes your job easier.” Upon examination, Rorugir would be able to see that the sheets had already been cut and sanded to size. ”I need to you weld the sheets together. If it is not done correctly, the trough will leak and the Okomo will loose their water.” Aska fixed her gaze on Rorugir. ”You think you can do that?” If he chose to take up the smiths challenge, all the tools would be ready for him. Wire brushes for cleaning, hammers, any extra metal and of course the fires. The sheets of metal were thick and heavy; they had to be if they were to withstand the crystalline force of Lhavi’s Okomo. Rorugir would have to work quickly, but neatly. It was the last test Aska would throw at him before finalizing her decision. Notes : Firstly, apologies for the time it took me to get this up. Feel free to wrap up the entire trough creation in your next post so we can cement your employment (: Also, just an image for reference:

[Rorugir]

At first, Rorugir could only stand there, absolutely daunted. Aska wanted him to make the trough by himself? That was going to be a challenge. Well. This was undoubtedly the make it or break it moment, and he wanted to make sure he succeeded. Failure was not an option - ever. When she put it into simpler terms, namely welding, and set out the tools for him, Rorugir relaxed a fraction. He'd welded before. Granted, he never had done an Okomo trough before, but the basic concept was the same. Hopefully. Rorugir gulped once to sate his fire dried tongue, than set his face in resolution. "Yes, I can. On it." Than without so much as a pause, Rorugir moved to the tools. His hand grabbed at several of the brushes, which he brought to bear on two of the welded sheets. He was glad that the sheets had already been sanded and cut properly - that would make the job easier. Inspecting the bundle in his hand, Rorugir picked out which brush would help him the most, and than began to scrape at the two sheets he had selected. It was the edges that would come together at a 90 degree angle that needed to be cleaned, of course - any impurities such as particles of dirt would weaken the bond and the trough as a whole. He worked quickly but did not sacrifice thoroughness for speed. When the sheets finally seemed clean enough, Ror took them by the tongs and held them in the fire. He made sure to angle them so the edges would receive the most head, and therefore be the most malleable. They turned a shade of rosy red and began merging together at the tip, which was his cue. Rorugir moved quickly to save the mating faces from the forge's flames. A couple more steps took him to the anvil, where he set the molded sheets down with utmost care. And then, He then took up the hammer, and began to pound. At first, he made to draw out the edges, flattening them to the point where they intermingled endlessly. The connection between the two was strengthened, forced together by the tool in his right hand. When the metal was dressed, Rorugir took them back to the fire for more heating. This next part was to remove impurities; after the metal had heated up again Rorugir removed it from the fire to clean with another brush. Than, it was plunged back into the flames. Now, here was the final part of the weld. Rorugir had been taught to allow the metals to carefully reach a temperature suitable for welding at this point, and none other. So he tried his best to accurately judge it. When he had brought it to what seemed like the right heat, he moved with a rapid purpose back again to the anvil. This time, he tapped lightly to bring the two welded sheets into full contact. And now, the weld was complete. After his failure with the molds, Rorugir was careful not to be hasty this time around. He inspected the weld carefully, and heated it a couple times and tapped lightly again to be sure it was correctly affixed before moving on to the other sheets. Once he did though, he repeated his pattern. Fire, hammer, metal. He worked intensely to create the trough. It got tricky at the last few molds, the entire structure having become so cumbersome by then, but he managed it. The trial had drained all the liquids from Rorugir's face, he wasn't able to sweat. The finished Okomo trough sat humbly on the forge's floor, awaiting Aska's inspection. Rorugir didn't say anything this time, only waited for her judgment. And tried not to pant too hard.

[Legion]

The quiet in which Aska moved was comforting rather than disconcerting. It spoke of certainty and progress, the stability of a compass whose needle never strayed. She appeared beside Rorugir with an expression of extreme concentration, a handful of papers being rolled slowly by her hands. A glance was thrown at her fellow Isur sideways before she stepped past him, leaving coal dust and spark scents behind her. The trough was circled by heavy feet where it waited on the forge floor. Aska examined it on all sides, even sinking into a crouch at one point so as to study the fusing of panels from a distance the length of her nose. At length, she hummed under her breath. Expressive mouth twisted and she lifted her head and her eyes, collecting up Rorugir in her regard. "Alright," she determined while shoving back up to her feet, competent in her grace. "Lacking artistry, but it will serve." This did not sound of condemnation, but rather a thin vein of approval. Apprentices, after all, could hardly afford to waste the struggle of their efforts on art. The blacksmith came to a stop in front of Rorugir and crammed the roll of papers into an interior pocket of her modified apron. "You still want the job? Come back tomorrow." Then she smiled, closer to a grimace, expectant and sure. "Don't be late, apprentice." - - - Thread Award Rorugir Blacksmithing +5, Observation +3, Persuasion +3 Lhavit Location: A Touch of Fire, Lhavit NPC: Aska Terras Employment: A Touch of Fire. 7gm per day, starting 1 Winter 511 AV Three job thread per season requirement Consequence & Commentary You were juggled entirely too much for this thread. Please accept my apologies for that. Beautifully composed, as per usual. I started your job earning at the beginning of winter despite that we are nearing the season end due to the fact that you began this process at the beginning of fall. If you can start three job threads with winter dates before the season turn, I will be happy to award your employment benefits upon their completion. As ever, feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. My PM box is always open. Oh, by the way. There's a bird hitting you with a rock. Look out.