[Mechanical Marvels] More People! (Nel, Murdoch)

[Murdoch]

Murdoch watched him disappear into the back of the shop, and rolled his eyes a little as he swatted at Nel's shoulder. "Don't let him flirt too much," he whispered, grinning as he backed out of range of her bladed cane, and whistled a little song as he headed back out the door.

OOCMurdoch would just start stealing things, because he's bored. And Nel needs a job, so... I bounce! Have fun you two.

[Nel Sayo]

When the blade popped free of the cane, the lady pirate's eyes brightened delightedly. She gave it a swish where she sat, and then twisted about a little to watch the eccentric gadgeteer just go tearing off into his workshop. She wondered, briefly, if she'd said something to annoy him, but in the end Nel hadn't much of a taste for self-judgment, so she let the thought fly away...never to return.

She shot Doc an answering grin as she climbed down off the counter, resheathing the blade within the cane -- deft fingers knew, instinctively, how to maneuver the blade back into the mechanism. Once Alistair had shown her how to get it out, her nimble mind unwound the thing with relative speed. She was certainly competent -- when she chose to care enough to exhibit as much.

"Whatever," she hissed at Doc, shooing him off, before she turned and hurried after deGrey. "I didn't mean," she went on, as she caught up with him. "That you just like sit on your arse all day and draw sketches -- I mean, is this what you do, you make things? 'Cause that would be pretty neat -- I've never made anything, is what I'm saying, I've used what other people have made and I've thought up things I'd like to see made, but other people always get there first and in the end I'm just better at...other things. Anyway, I was just...I mean, do you happen to own a barber shop too, or is this it?"

She flashed him a guileless smile. She was just being friendly, really, in a way that had nothing at all to do with judging him, weighing him, or otherwise scrutinizing his way of life. Just curious.

[Alistair deGrey]

I really should purchase a barber shop.

"No, as unfortunate as it may seem, I do not own a barber shop. However, I will live through the tragedy." deGrey smiled at Nel's last words, but his back was turned to the table because he refused to allow her to see him amused. Alistair's moods were sure and swift, ebbing as quickly as they had come. However he made it a point to stifle them

"But in essence, yes. This is what I do." The inventor was examining a row of hammers, here and there picking at imperfections on their surface otherwise glossy. He picked up a specimen that had cracked at some point long ago, and lightly tossed it to Nel. A bladed cane was one thing, but Alistair was unsure she would catch the hammer, he was not too keen on injuring her just yet. "You should tell me what is wrong with that hammer."

While deGrey waited for Nel to answer, he proceeded. "People need machines and complicated tools. Yes, you can find a trowel or a horsehoe from a blacksmith. But nowhere else in Syliras will you see clocks or gyroscopes or pumpscrew." He screwed up his face for a few seconds, "Well, maybe those last two."

"Oh yes, after you are done with the hammer, you need to light the forge." From a cupboard Alistair pulled flint and steel, worn thin as fabric from years of use. deGrey considered loosing a smile, a means of reassuring Nel that he would not continue to ask pointless tasks of her. But instead he just set the fire making equipment upon the table.

[Nel Sayo]

Nel rolled those pretty blue eyes in response to his sarcasm over the barber shop; it was just an example, he didn't actually strike her as much of a barber. Barbers tended to be chatty fellows who wanted to know all about you just for the sake of knowing; deGrey struck Nel as the sort of bloke who only wanted to know what might be of use to him. Neither was superior to the other, both were fine with her, but if asked she would have confessed that he might want to stick with gadgets, and let another fellow snip at folks' split ends. Misanthropic, cranky gadgeteer? Made sense.

She'd set down the cane in a clear spot of workbench, and was twisting towards him when he tossed the hammer. Taking a step forward, she snaked out a hand and managed to just snag it out of the air by the handle before it would've gone clattering and crashing across one of the countertops. Seemingly unaware of this near disaster, she started swinging it in circles in one hand, while she paced over to the flint and steel and peered down at it.

"Uh," she said, laying the hammer upon the nearest surface. "It's got a crack in the base and the bolt is coming loose. I know how to use flint and steel, but I've never lit a forge. What do I do?"

At least she wasn't stupid enough to just guess. She picked up the flint and steel and began juggling them, waiting for deGrey to tell her what the hell a forge was and how one got it lit.

[Alistair deGrey]

There all kinds of people. Two of these types are those who can light a forge, and those who cannot. It is just a little bit arbitrary though.

His fingers rapped continuously on the wooden table. "It is simple. Put wood and tinder in it, then you light the tinder." deGrey moved to the door and faced Nel. "Out there you will find the forge, the large structure with ashes." His eyes moved towards the dim furnace seen out the door. "Adjacent to the forge you will find wood and tinder, as well as coal. Do not use the coal."

While Nel went about doing whatever Nel was going to do, Alistair began removing tools and materials he usually kept tucked away. All of this he placed on the center table, crowding it with gears, axles, weights, cords, and many other items the pair would need.

After the components and tools were arrayed, deGrey hopped up on one of the work tables and leaned against the wall. When Nel would come back into the workshop, she would see the various machines to be, and she would probably be curious. To sate her curiosity, Alistair would indubitably say something like this, "Make me something interesting. If you have any questions about what does what, just ask." But never would Alistair remove himself from his perch to physically aid her. No, this would be her invention.

[Nel Sayo]

Light the forge, don't use the coal. Structure with ashes, tinder and wood. Light the forge, don't use the coal. Structure with ashes, tinder and wood.

Nel headed into the adjacent room, muttering under her breath as she tried to remember what he'd said. She was a very smart girl, but the world got in her way. Many a sailor, scholar and common man had found that, once he got her attention focused on a thing, she learned with incredible speed. It was just finding that focus, capturing her eyes before they skipped to the next wonder, quieting the world around her before it could net her senses and drift her away.

Light the structure with coal, don't use tinder and wood.

No.

Structure the forge with ashes. Light the coal with wood.

No.

Light the forge, don't use the coal. Structure with ashes, tinder and wood.

Yes! Okay.

She juggled the flint and steel all the way into the courtyard, winding down into a crouch in front of the contraption she presumed was the forge. It wasn't so hard -- ignoring the coal, she grabbed up the wood and tinder and built her best little fire, treating the thing like a hearth, more or less, and quickly striking it to flame with a snap of the steel across the flint.

That task finished, she shuffled back into the workroom, tossing flint and steel onto the work bench, and watched Alistair climb up to his perch atop the table.

Her eyebrows shot up; he wanted her to make something? Great. Unperturbed by his chosen position, she just climbed up onto the table as well, sat herself down cross-legged and started pawing through the items he'd collected for her. She spoke as she separated out parts to use, and whatever mechanism she may have sought to build did not make itself readily apparent immediately.

"So are you gonna just stand there or am I aloud to talk during this process? 'Cause if I'm the one working, I think it's fair you gotta talk to me while I do it. Instead of just staring. Which is, by the way, creepy."

[Alistair deGrey]

It was not an unreasonable request by anybody's standards. Even Alistair deGrey believed it to be a reasonable request. She was a talkative Konti with talkative needs. Who was deGrey to refuse such a simple request?

Instead of immediately engaging Nel in conversation though, he waited a few seconds, "just staring". He considered what to say, what he would engage this black clad Konti with in conversation. Surely not mechanisms, or drawing, probably not the arts. Physics was out of the question, math ruled out.

He eventually settled on a good questioning. deGrey let out a massive yawn and squeezed his eyes shut. "This is better then yes?" The blind inventor reached out with his hand and grasped a gear, spinning it about his index finger. "Let us speak of yourself then, while you continue to work of course. What exactly are you good at? Where did you come from?" The questions were nonchalant, but deGrey listened intently for the answer, actually interested.

A little off topic, deGrey added, "Oh yes, what exactly are you creating for me anyway?"

[Nel Sayo]

"I don't know yet, I guess we'll both be surprised," she muttered, fiddling about with various pieces of wood and little pulleys. A gear here and there. She picked up a screwdriver and tapped it thoughtfully against her bottom lip, staring at all the pieces in front of her as if they'd leap up and form some kind of cohesive unit if she looked at them hard enough. Alistair could stare all he liked, really; Nel was used to being stared at. "Hm."

If he opened his eyes, he'd see her picking things up and putting them back down, over and over again. Like fitting an elaborate puzzle together, she pulled things out and put them back in, rearranged; if one connection worked, she adapted it, and applied it to another one. She was learning, right there on his workshop table, simultaneously teaching herself and learning, and this was the way she learned just about everything: trial and error, try and try again, understand a thing and use it.

After a few minutes of relatively companionable silence, she realized he'd actually asked her a few questions. So she answered while she worked.

"I'm good at sailing," she said, off-handedly. "And swimming. Fishing. Pretty good with a rapier. I can read, but my handwriting isn't great, I'm getting better. And I speak about ten different languages, but can't write in any of them. It's an ear thing."

The contraption beneath her fingertips was starting to take shape. She turned it upright and began attaching a chisel to the pulley mechanism -- almost like a miniature catapult, save that the chisel would strike sharply downward instead of flinging things through the air.

"I dunno where I came from. I lived on a ship with my brother." Wasn't exactly a lie; wasn't exactly true, either. She worked with what she had. "Where'd you come from?"

[Alistair deGrey]

His eyes flickered open, unused to the prolonged closure during daylight hours. The room had seemed as if it would be much brighter behind closed eyelids, but no, what he found instead was the same none too bright workshop. Of course, there was the oddity of the second person in the room, which Alistair was still not used to seeing. However, with Nel and Ha'na around, perhaps people would become a more common sight within the workshop of Mechanical Marvels. Then again the concept did not really appeal to deGrey, even if Ha'na did. If Nel could read deGrey's mind, she would indubitably notice she was riding a fence.

Alistair enjoyed Nel's company in that she was interesting, and undoubtedly carried fascinating bits of information and knowledge in her head. However, she was taxing on Alistair's energy, a constant whirlwind of a different kind of social disregard. Where deGrey failed to grasp or abide by a custom of society, he usually extricated himself, or shut up. Here he had Nel, who stood at the opposite end of the spectrum. She was extroverted where deGrey was introverted, willing to throw herself into a task she hadn't the slightest inkling about.

Regardless, there was a question at hand. Alistair chewed it for a few more seconds, tasting it like wine. He answered the question rather unsatisfactorily, "I come from Zeltiva." deGrey's vision fell upon the contraption, diverting his thoughts from something not entirely pleasant to the task at hand. "Torsion would work better." The inventor pointed to the catapult's axle, "If you orient the arm to where your chisel is facing the ground, and then implement a torsion system there, you could easily add a drawing mechanism. That would put more force behi-" deGrey's eyes widened a bit and he shut his mouth, having already forgotten that he was not supposed to aid Nel.

Secret of Secrets :

Agh, I am so sorry! I thought I had replied to this. I apologise so much for the delay.

[Nel Sayo]

Nel could not read minds, but she could read people.

That was her gift, but for what it was worth, it was more often a curse. Alone with deGrey, his introversion and preference for solitude began to press upon her like a great, invisible weight. Naturally egregious though Nel was, the specific preferences of a person, like deGrey, so comfortable in his own environment, so much happier in silence and isolation, wrapped about the Konti's mind like a fog.

She nodded when he said Zeltiva and accidentally directed her to rearrange her design, and the contraption she was building, but said nothing after that.

Because she sensed he wanted silence; it wasn't conscious, she had no idea what she was doing, she just did it, as with most things. But she didn't ask another question, or mutter another remark, just let the room sink into a ponderous, companionable silence. The sounds of her work a rhythm by which to mark the time, and her progress. If he felt the need to interrupt, he could, but she was quite intent on the invention she was building, and she let that be enough, where normally she would have required at least a dozen other things to take up the great abundance of her attention.

So sooner rather than later, she finished putting together her little device, and straightened up for a second, eyeballing it. She had no idea whether or not it would work, but it was a thing only Nel would have thought to invent. Tentatively, she pushed it towards deGrey.

"It's a coconut-cracker," she explained, watching for his reaction.