[Mechanical Marvels] A Matter of Thought [Kadurro & Karrin]

[Alistair deGrey]

Timestamp: 36.W.509. OOC Information : This is a thread off shoot from Mechanical Marvels regarding hiring Kadurro and Karrin. If you would like to purchase something please refer to the original thread [Stormhold Castle] Mechanical Marvels Note that this thread also takes place the day after. As well, if you have ANY questions about the competition, PM me or ask me in chat Karrin has reminded me that I forgot to address the questions, the questions are just your CS basically. He wants to know what your skills are, your history, and what you are like, and what you own. deGrey began pacing as he continued his monologue, he picked up a metal hoop from what was soon to be a gyroscope off of a desk and began to twirl it between his fingers. "As well, I have a task for each of you. This competition I have devised will pit the two of you against each other in a test of creativity. Each of you will fashion a device of sorts. It is simple," Alistair set the ring down where he had acquired it and leaned against the desk. " You of course are allowed every resource in my workshop, ad I at your disposal as well; although you must be the director in the engineering process." deGrey walked to the two men, relinquishing to each a slightly stained parchment with the label, "Inquiries" on one side and "Design" on the other. "Finally, I will want a drawing of your machine on the back of your parchment." Alistair looked positively ecstatic to begin the competition, his eyes glancing over both of the soon to be combatants.

With a loud clang, Alistair dropped the spur gear onto its stack of brethren. He glanced from long work table to the area where he stored his raw components. In various stacks there lay gears, bars, sheets of metal, blocks of wood, a veritable plethora of semi-raw materials. On his work bench lay his tools, neatly organized specially for this occasion. Alistair had been working through the night


deGrey stood facing the two men in the center of the room, manically rubbing his hands together with excitement.
"Very well then gentlemen! You know the rules, You have the rest of this day to create your inventions. Judging by the clock, you have approximately six hours. You may use my hands, my tools, and my resources! You may not, however, use my mind. As well, if your inventions are not absolute trash, they may make it onto my regular goods! Keep that in mind my friends, there is more at stake here than just employment. With that Alistair stepped over to his own work table and awaited direction.

[Kadurro]

Kadurro began answering the questions on the parchment, his mind consumed by the task at hand. Skills...Sales. History...World Traveller...Simple questions that only underscore the real competition. He racked his brain, thinking of a device that he had seen before, but his experience with gadgets and machinery had been extremely limited. It wasn't long before his mind found the right track, however. That fishing boat I was on in Iceglaze! It had a, a, a thing! He turned his parchment over and began a sloppy drawing of circles and lines. Looking over his craftsmanship, he let himself relax and smile. "Sir. Have you ever seen one of these before?" Kadurro asked, showing deGrey the crude drawing of a bare-bones block-and-tackle.

[Karrin]

Karrin began answering the questions. Skills, hmm. He wrote down all the ones ha had listed. History, he wrote about his father and his falcon. Posessions, he wrote them down as well.

He glanced around, seeking some sort of inspiration. Then, a recent memory popped into his head. Outside the shop, he had seen a kite flying. As he watched, the wind grew, and, despite all attempts to stop it, the kite had run out of string, and snapped, flying off.

With all the force of that flying kite, it hit him. He knew what he was going to make. He immediately started drawing on the flip side of his parchment. His drawing skills were terrible, but he's try. He drew the outside first, the image of a hawk. One wing and the body would make up the grip. On the other, non gripping wing, was a small reel (labeled R.1). On the body, just beyond where the average hand would grip, and slightly below the smaller reel, was a slightly larger one (R. 2). Karrin then drew a top side view, showing that only the right side had the reels.

Once finished with that, he drew a cut away view. Now, instead of the reels, there were gears. The small reel was attached to the small gear (G. 1), and the big reel was attached to the big gear (G. 2). There was another gear(G. 3) next to the big one. Now, he added a wedged shape triangle into once of the gears, positioned in an angle that would make it easy to turn the gears one way, but not the other. A brake of sorts. Then he simply added a line in between the gears. One end of the line was wrapped around the last, reel-less gear. The other extended off the page.

Satisfied, he got up to show deGrey.

[Alistair deGrey]

From what Alistair could determine by the way these two were working, this would be a very one sided contest. He leaned against his empty work table, quietly awaiting the first contestant to finish while taking in the acrid smell of the forge mingled with that of wood. deGrey was enjoying this workshop very much, thus far he had found more to keep himself busy here than anywhere else. His contemplation, however sweet, was cut short by the man named Kadurro walk up to him and practically wave his design in deGrey's face. Alistair furrowed his brow, and snatched the paper from Kadurro, "One second, calm down my good sir."

His furrowed brow metamorphosed into one of perplexity as deGrey continued staring at the jumble of circles and lines. "Is, this a.." He flipped the paper over, reverted it, and stared for a few seconds longer, "Truly? I give you six hours to design something and you give me a picture of block and tackle? That is hardly more than a simple machine my friend." He handed the parchment back to Kadurro, and released a sigh, "Very well, if you insist upon such a device, at least make the artistry more appealing than that. But I do not need to see your design again before you begin." Alistair leaned onto his still empty work station and rested his head in his hands. At least he still had Karrin to rely on.

[Karrin]

Karrin walked over to deGrey and placed his design on the table. Without prompting, the hopeful apprentice began to explain.

"This is a kite reel of sorts." He began. Karrin briefly explained what each diagram was, and what each reel and gear was labeled, then continued. "The general idea is stability. Many kites are too heavy to handle, and fly out of control. I've gotten burnt trying to grab on to an escaping kite. Here," He said, indicating the cross section "the idea is that the kite string will be caught between G. 1 and G. 2. With the brake, hopefully there will be no unwanted escaping of kites. Now, G. 3, ideally, will be a special kind of gear. I'm still debating which would be more practical; A raised gear with the string underneath, or a gear with a groove going the whole way around, with the string stored in the groove."

[Kadurro]

Kadurro took his parchment back. Simple machines for simple people, I suppose. I suppose I could add a few more lines here and there-- His train of thought was cut short by Karrin's explanation. He listened to his planned invention in its entirety. I'd clap for him if it didn't make me look foolish, Kadurro thought to himself. He began looking through the supplies available to him, not quite sure what he should be looking for. Rope, for starters. And...circle parts. Far too many of those... With each passing moment he lost a little more hope. I suppose it will all boil down to negotiations after all, he thought with a frown, deciding that gears and cogs were not the "circle parts" he was looking for.

[Alistair deGrey]

Alistair nodded his head in affirmation as Karrin finished speaking. This was a promising design, although there were several issues that needed to be addressed. deGrey quickly glanced over at Kadurro rummaging for his pieces, before he addressed the man before him, "Yes, I enjoy this invention my friend. Unfortunately there are issues apparent." Alistair ran his finger in a circle around the parchment with Karrin's design, "What exactly is keeping the string from breaking, as it would on a normal kite? The constant rubbing on the string presented by gears one and two would also wear it down, possibly causing a break within the apparatus." Alistair glanced over at Kadurro, who looked rather lost amongst what Alistair considered to be a pristine, organized room. Regardless, it was Karrin's time, "As well, at first appearance it seems as if the string would be difficult to wind into the mechanism, unless of course it was purchased as such. Although, Im sure you have thought of it, please enlighten me in regards to your thoughts."

Allowing Karrin to address the issues in his design, deGrey motioned for Kadurro to come over to his table, "Come here, Kadurro." deGrey juxtaposed himself to Karrin and continued, "I find myself curious as to your opinion of Karrin's kite reel. What would you tell a stranger about it? Or what if you were even attempting to sell one of these reels that you currently owned?" Alistair stood quietly observing the kite reel drawing, awaiting answers.

[Kadurro]

Kadurro abandoned his impossible task and came over to Karrin and deGrey. He took a good look at what he saw as an extremely complex machine. "A kite reel, is it? Well, the first thing I'd do is find someone who would be interested in a kite reel, like someone with a child, or someone with a kite. Then I'd give them a spiel about how their regular kite string was bound to break soon, and that they should use something that would last longer and cost them less in the long haul...it's the same with anything you want to sell, I suppose. You just have to have an eye for who would be interested in buying which things, or else you're just wasting your time." Kadurro wasn't the type to get nervous easily, but deGrey's eyes seemed to disturb his normally charismatic attitude. Gray is so...

Kadurro couldn't keep eye contact anymore. "As for the second question, I wouldn't own one of those kite reels in the first place, since I don't fly kites. But if I did, I wouldn't sell it so much as show it off to someone with just a regular kite string. And, of course, I would tell them that I got it from your shop." He still held his parchment in his hand, and as he spoke, he took quick glances between his own drawing and Karrin's. Not even close to the same level, he decided.

[Karrin]

Karrin let a rare smile grace his lips. "Yes, actually. I had thought of those problems."He said. "The answer to the first one is relatively simple. We use a different kind of string. Theoretically, a strong, elastic fiber would be ideal. Something along the lines of a thinner, longer longbow string." He mused, talking more to himself than to deGrey. "The second question is somewhat more difficult to solve." He hesitated, then said "It should be possible to make that portion of the string thicker. There's a better solution, but I can't think what it is right now. And to answer your third question, I was planning to have the string included, and to be able to hook on any kite to it."

Karrin glanced at Kadurro as he spoke. "You seem to have considerable experience in that field." He said quietly.

[Alistair deGrey]

Alistair absently rapped his fingers against the work table while listening to the Vantha speak of selling. His eyes were focused on Kadurro’s, but he was more interested in what the man would do as opposed to what he would say. A great deal of failure was demonstrated by the salesman in this particular challenge, so deGrey decided to devise a new task for the man to show his value. Unfortunately it first required Karrin’s invention, and with a quick glance Alistair was informed that it had not yet been started. Kadurro had stopped speaking now, and deGrey reoriented his attention, ”Ah yes, my good sir Kadurro, I must admit that you have miserably failed this challenge. I am however willing to offer redemption.” With this he wheeled about and addressed Karrin, ”But first we require your device, good sir Karrin.”

Now that he was oriented on Karrin, deGrey spoke of the invention, ”Yes, cat gut would work but it would increase the Miza price by a bit. I approve of the device Karrin, I suggest you commence work and gift our good sir Kadurro with the final product.” deGrey’s attention was briefly drawn to the furnace on the wall over Karrin’s shoulder, the fire was growing low. ”From there Kadurro will be receiving instruction from me regarding the future of your device. If you are able to successfully create this machine, you may very well consider yourself hired. Your drawing met standards, and your ideas were excellent as well, now I find you must demonstrate the skills you lay claim to.” Without waiting for a reply, Alistair circumvented Karrin and walked to the dimming furnace. He grabbed the bellows and began pumping for all he was worth, watching interestedly as many of the features of his workshop began to take a new glow from the furnace