Down at the Docks (Nai'shee/Lyam)

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

63rd Day of Spring, 512 AV

The smell of the sea air was refreshing and cool for most people. It made Minerva sneeze. She wasn't used to this much salt in the air. She could taste it. The air was too thick and humid. It was too damn hot. She was sweating and sticky, and they hadn't even started working yet.

First on the to-do list today was repairing a small, single-room office near the docks. One of the shipyard managers used it to track shipping invoices, records of which ship was docked at which pier, and so forth. The storm had ripped the roof clean off, and damaged the structure pretty badly. Not only did the structure need to be repaired, but the cabinets and shelving inside needed to be rebuilt. The owner had also requested a new desk to do his paperwork at.

Later, there would be work to do on the docks themselves, but one thing at a time.

Minerva walked up to the office shack, and looked it over. It had been sitting unused since the storm, and not only was the broken lumber still buried inside, but seagulls were nesting in it. "Oy, lovely..." she muttered, shooing the smelly birds away. There were three eggs left sitting in the nest after the birds flew off. One of her coworkers stepped up and rubbed his hands together.

"Hey, breakfast!" he said, chuckling. Minerva shot him a dirty look.

"Oy, 'at's right messed up 'at is," she said. "'Ey's baby birds, 'ey are. Ya can't eat those..."

He looked at her like she was crazy and said, "What, you don't eat eggs?"

She frowned and thought about that. She DID like eggs... from the market. It hadn't occurred to her that there was any difference. But it felt like there was. "Go find yer own breakfast," she said, unwilling to get into an argument over it. She stepped into the ruined structure and gently lifted the nest, carrying it off. She found a safe place away from the main dock area and set the nest down. She doubted the parents would be back... she'd have to figure out something to do about the nest later. Maybe she could take it to the university, and find a veterinary professor who could care for the baby birds and help make sure they hatched.

"Awright, let's get ta work," she told her coworkers when she got back. After the last couple of jobs, her supervisor, Eavin, seemed to have decided he liked letting her boss the men around. It made even less work for him to do.

All he did was walk by Minerva, leer at her, and tell her, "Get them all busy, I want everything cleared out and set up within the hour!" He then walked down the docks to where a group of sailors were drinking and gambling, and joined them in their fun. Some supervisor 'e is, Minerva thought, shaking her head.

"You blokes, get 'is crap cleared out," she told a few of her coworkers, gesturing to the splintered and broken timbers. "Throw all the bad wood over 'ere," she pointed to an empty spot out of the way, "an' 'ave 'em bring the fresh stuff right down 'ere," she pointed to another place closer to the work area. The men moved off, hauling away the broken rubble, and bringing in the fresh lumber that would be used for the rebuilding.

One of the more experienced architects came over to start drawing up plans. Minerva shadowed him, wanting to pick up as much as she could about the process. She was used to drawing up plans for small things like window frames, shutters, or doors, but she had never been involved in drawing up plans for a building before. With the amount of damage done to the office shack, they'd be essentially rebuilding it from the ground up. It was a good chance to learn.

She assisted the architect with the measurements, which were simple enough by themselves. The shack was nothing fancy, just four walls and a roof. Though the roof was steeply angled to help make sure the rain and seawater slid off it easily. They measured around the base of the building, recording the numbers as they went along, then measured what was left of the walls. With the upper half of the building broken, they had to measure some of the broken timbers to know what the original height was. Though it still took some extra calculations to account for what they couldn't measure.

Once the measurements were complete, the architect guided Minerva through sketching the blueprints. She had done enough plans before that she had a steady, careful hand, but he needed to point out a few differences in this sort of design. For one, Minerva was mostly used to designing flat, singular pieces, rather than a structure with four walls. The architect guided her through drawing out the plans from all four sides and an above view. It was a bit different, but with guidance, she managed pretty well.

[Nai'shee]

Her hands were freshly healed and Nai'shee was back to Zeltiva's daily life. She neglected her classes in University due to her injury and now she kept doing so by helping out to strangers. Sometimes she thought she was wasting money she was short on anyways. But who could see a poor old man pulling heavy begs with food to his home and not help him? Nai'shee was always helping in situation as this one was, feeling thats some kind of payback for stealing from people who needed money and food she stole as well. Alright, she usually stole rare objects, but they were worth money, so it was the same. Anyways, she was back at the dock to find that none of the ship's crews were packing up for sail. Many boats were damaged and their crew was already starting to get on the edges of their patience, especially for traders. They were all made to stay in Zeltiva for a long while and it's not like nobody would help them with their repairs, it's just that everything needed a repair at this point and Nai'shee was sure some had more money to offer. Thinking about repairing she smelled a new job, not so far from there. A building she used to climb on while observing docks was really damaged and she remember being annoyed since beginning of this season because the storm took her observation place. Well, not anymore. Obviously, there was a group of builders over there, and she immediately noticed woman which seemed to has the most authority. Actually, she was the only one who didn't do physical work. She observed a piece of paper with some man who seemed like he was educated. Probably an architect. Exactly what she was aiming for for a while! She didn't really need knowledge of building too urgently, but it would be nice if she had some in time for her little plan. She headed straight for them, interrupting their conversation. "Hello there! I've noticed you'd need a hand more there." She gave unsure sigh to a young man, obviously a newbie having a hard time dealing with huge piece of wood. "I'm helping out around since the storm, so...", she then turned to speak to the architect, looking at his sketches. "If you don't mind could you explain me few things later, or now if I'm not bothering you too much? I never knew anything about architecture and I feel guilty not to know at least simplest things." The man was obviously surprised and a bit insulted by her interruption, but she didn't even mind. She just knew he wanted to look kind enough to explain her and that's everything she needed. She turned to the woman again, explaining herself. "I have no knowledge about building, but I want to learn and I'm a Flux user so I could carry anything, no matter how heavy."

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Minerva looked up in surprise when the stranger approached, then nodded when she asked about helping out. "'Old on a tick," she said. "Lemme check wit' the bossman. OY, JACK!" she called out, cupping her hands around her mouth to project her voice. Jacques, the big boss of the crew, was off down the dock talking to a ship captain. Even from here, there was some obvious damage to the man's ship. Jacques was probably negotiating a price for making repairs. When he looked up at the sound of Tock's voice, she pointed at the girl and shouted, "WE 'IRIN' DAY LABORERS?" He nodded his assent, so Tock turned to Nai'shee and nodded, "Aye, Sook, yer 'ired. Boss man'll take care o'ya. 'Ere, 'ave a look." The architect continued his explanation of the plans from where he'd started before the interruption. Tock didn't know much about architecture yet, so she was an eager student. "The main support beams for the frame will be here, and here," he explained, pointing the placements out on the designs. Tock sketched them in to his specifications, making adjustments where he offered her corrections. "Eight feet on the front wall, but sixteen on the rear, so the roof will be angled enough for runoff when a storm kicks up some high waves." He guided Minerva through the calculations to figure out the angles required for the roof beams at those heights. He made sure Nai'shee had a clear view of the plans as he was explaining them, since she seemed eager to learn. On Jacques's crew, education was always encouraged. Once the plans were complete, they were handed off to the carpentry crew. The architect went over to join Jacques at the damaged boat, so he could help the boss come up with a proper estimate for the cost of the repairs. Tock turned to Nai'shee and asked, "Oy, so, whatcha got? Ya know buildin' o' carvin' o' anythin'? Eavin's supervisor," she gestured to the man off with the group of sailors. "An' 'e says, ya can 'elp out wherever ya like." Minerva was growing used to 'speaking for' the supervisor, since he was too busy playing at a dice game to come do his own job. "We need 'elp 'aulin'," she pointed at the rubble being cleared off, "cuttin' boards," she pointed to where the lead carpenter had a group of men cutting wood to be used for the new walls, "an' carvin'." Minerva herself was setting to work on this as she talked, cutting a piece of wood that would soon be carved into a wooden door handle. She clamped it down on the table and cut out the basic shape with a saw, cutting hard angles that she would later smooth down into curves for an easy grip.

[Nai'shee]

OOCIt seems that Lyam won't post so soon, I'll post now and remind him about it, but just go on without him, he can jump in later. Sudden call for the man named Jack, obviously their boss, scared a Nai'shee a bit. She breathed out a bit deeper when Tock turned back to her. Wait... Day laborer? She didn't want to be paid for this when she offered her help, but she was pleased when she heard she will be. If it was Tock offering it they will go trough some back and forth until she accepted or declined it, but money coming from that man, who only started to 'work' few moments ago, talking to a new customer - Nai'shee had no problems with that. "Oh, thanks!", she said a bit confused. It was actually her first payed job that didn't include breaking law. And it felt good. The fact she always wanted to help out helped a lot - she was doing what she wanted and she was getting paid for it. Could it be any better? When architecture spoke she was sure she could barely understand anything, so she mostly observed image on the paper he held. It was precise sketch of the building in front of them. It included walls from bird's perspective and some numbers that probably shown how wide and high was each wall. But they were logically same height. The man pointed at few places for main support beams. Nai'shee didn't know what they served for, but judged by the choice of places he picked those were probably meant to hold the whole building. Of course, support beams, genius, she thought to herself sarcastically. After that they started to make calculations about angling the roof and all that she was able to pick up is that roof must be angled and that it's needed more construction material for bigger angle. She was actually very proud that she was able to pick up that much, because she had only basic knowledge of math and architecture. She learned basics of mathematic from her step-father and everything she knew about architecture was pure logic, which came from observing. "I think I'll be the most useful cutting boards. And I don't know if I would dare to try carving, I don't want to make you problems by ruining anything..." She immediately started to work, at first a little worried about her freshly healed hands, but second later aware that the job was no effort for her skin or flesh. She used a bit of Flux every now and then when she felt it would make things much easier, because some boards were softer than others. Her work was messy and not something to be too proud of, but she was able to accomplish those results at least three times faster, because she had Flux instead of wasting time working over one point for eternity, but she wasted strength. However, she was built hard and unbreakable and even if it happened that she couldn't continue, she knew she would. That was how she lived. She continued from hopeless situations ever since early childhood clinging only to silly dream of buying a huge boat and becoming world-wide known sailor. "Is this okay?", she asked Tock after some time, wondering if she did things properly. She finished lots of it, so she was really worried if something was wrong. Judging by others' work she wasn't too far from good.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

oocOkay, no problem! He can jump in whenever he's ready. Minerva watched the girl working with the saw. Now, Tock herself was a novice, but even she could tell the girl had never held a saw before. She stepped over to show her a few simple techniques, the same way she'd been taught herself. "'Ere," she said, placing her hands over Nai'shee's in order to adjust her grip on the saw. "'Old 'er up at an angle, like this," she explained, shifting the angle of the saw against the wood. "She'll cut easier like 'at, ya won't need ta try so 'ard. Give 'er a try." She stood and watched the next cutting, which should go a bit easier. "If'n ya wanna learn some o' the more complex stuff, I can ask the Bossman ta show ya 'round the construction," she gestured to where the lead carpenter was handling the more complex parts of the jobs. Minerva wasn't qualified to teach anyone serious carpentry yet, considering she was still learning herself. But, she could teach the girl some of the basics, like how to cut the wood better, or the proper way to grip a hammer (you'd be surprised how many people grip it up near the head, instead of at the base of the handle like they should). As Nai'shee cut the boards, Minerva checked the measurements against the carpenter's blueprints to make sure everything was up to spec. They'd have to make some minor adjustments, but any help was still useful. "Try an' keep 'er straight as ya can, too," Minerva said, noticing the edge of the board was slightly off. "'Ere, I'll show ya a trick." She unclamped the board that Nai'shee was working on, and added another atop it. The second board was one of the cut-off pieces, only about a foot long. But the main edges were cut at perfect 90 degree angles. She carefully lined it up on the new board, and clamped them both down together. The edge of the second board lined up with the other, and she pointed to where the two boards line up. "See 'is 'ere?" she asked. The board Nai'shee was cutting was just a bit off, around an 88 degree angle instead of 90. There was a small sliver of wood to be trimmed to get it right. "Try 'er again, but line up wit' 'is other board fer guidance. 'At'll keep ya straight, aye? Aye. An' since the extra board is scrap, she don't matter if'n ya cut 'er up a bit." With the second board as a guide, she could press the saw blade against it to ensure the cut was straight. It was a simple carpenter's trick, the sort of thing most people learned day one. So Minerva was glad to share it with the girl. Once the girl was set up, Minerva returned to her own work. She used her chisels to carefully carve out the shape of the door handle, following the designs she'd etched onto the wood. She held the chisel carefully in place, tapping on the handle with her mallet, and cutting off the excess wood. Once the biggest pieces were done, she switched to her files, and started shaving the wood down to a more careful and precise shape.

[Nai'shee]

OOCLyam has some exam issues going and won't participate in this thread, but he said he would love to! I hope we will do more of those, at least as flashbacks later. He is really sorry for keeping us waiting. She quietly let Tock adjust her hands. She really felt more comfortable holding saw like she was shown to. She continued to cut, amazed at how easy it was now. She kept a serious face while she was taught how to cut properly, but she almost smiled at the way Tock addressed the saw, almost like it was a person. If you treated it firmly it will give better results. "Oh, please do, later, when I'm finished with this!", she replied to her offer to be shown around. Her excitement rose as she found out more and more about this. It was so simple that it would be a waste not to have basic skills in such a things, if you ever come to need them. She actually never held any tools, except those she stole, and about those: she wasn't the one to use them. When Tock showed her her 'trick' she was amazed by simplicity of it. She felt stupid for not figuring such a thing herself! Her cuts came much more straight then when she used her own concentration to keep her hand going straight down. Comparing her work with one of few minutes before it was almost laughable. "Thank you for the trick, it's so much easier now!", she added, because her teacher somehow floated out of her mind due to concentrating on work.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

oocNo worries! Once his exams get finished, if he can't make it to this one, I'm ALWAYS up for another thread! After she finished filing down the door handle, she started sanding to smooth it out. Then once it was nice and smooth, she drilled small holes with her hand drill in the flat pieces at the top and bottom. After smoothing the holes with a very thin file, she set the piece aside. Once the construction was finished later on, the handle would be screwed onto the front of the door. Before starting on her next piece of carving, she decided the new girl could use something else to do. After a good bit of time cutting boards, they were all ready, and faster than expected due to Nai'shee's unusual strength. Tock grabbed a few of the cut boards and nodded at Nai'shee to follow her. "Oy, come on," she said, "'ey's about ready fer 'ese now." She could only carry a few boards at a time, which left quite a few more for Nai'shee to carry, but with the girl's enhanced strength, that probably wasn't a problem. Setting the boards down, she picked up the blueprints she'd helped the architect draw. The head carpenter and his men had erected the main frame while Tock and Nai'shee were doing other work, and they were ready to start adding the boards for the walls. The other men started on the back wall, while Tock led Nai'shee around to the front. After reviewing the blueprints, she saw there was a window meant to be installed on this side, overlooking the docks. She checked the numbers on the height, and measured the frame, marking down where the upper and lower edges of the window would go. The head carpenter came around to double check her numbers, and then they got to work. "Oy, so, first we need one o' 'ose cross-beams 'ere," she gestured for Nai'shee to help, then lifted the beam and set it into place between the vertical beams. "'Is's gonna be the lower edge of the window. If'n ya can 'old 'er up, I'll set 'er in." It took some careful adjusting, since the beam had been cut to precisely fit between the vertical beams. That meant there wasn't any room for shifting it around, and it had to be tapped with a mallet to get it straight. Once it was in place, Tock drove nails in from the outside of the vertical beams on either side, holding it in place. Then another horizontal beam was similarly placed at the height of the upper edge of the window, followed by two smaller vertical beams set in the middle to form the rest of the window frame. After that was done, and the lead carpenter came by to check on them and confirm the measurements, the outer wall could be assembled. "'Ere," Tock said, sticking her own hammer back in her belt loop and picking up another one to hand Nai'shee. Tock would not let anyone use her tools. "Give 'er a try." She placed the first board at the bottom of the wall, checking to make sure the edges lined up with the edges of the main beams. She then used a gouge to mark two small spots near the top and bottom of the board on each side. "Ya can't nail too close ta the edge, see?" she explained. "Otherwise ya split the board. Give 'er a whirl..." She made sure Nai'shee had a proper grip on the hammer, showed her how to line the nails up straight, and let her set to work nailing the boards in place.

[Nai'shee]

OOCSorry it took me a while, I just have no idea how would Nai handle all of that. She came up pretty handy, but I just don't wanna hurt her any more for a while.XD Nai'shee carried a lot of boards, since Tock could handle just two or three. She was a strong woman, and Nai'shee forced herself more than she should, but she wasn't worth to be paid anyways and this woman taught her around, that was the least she could do. Bandages on her palms complained a bit, but she didn't have to carry boards too far. Tock picked some blueprints, and judging by the way she immediately showed Nai'shee what to do it wasn't hard for her to understand them. She didn't seem as expert in architecture, but she surely knew the basics. They carefully adjusted a piece for downer side of the window. Nai'shee took a hammer offered to her and bit her lip, trying to do it properly. Tock explained it to her and stayed to watch her first try. Nai'shee put the nail straight and prepared to hit it. She bit her lip, knowing that mistake could lead to hitting herself and her sore hands, from both burns and Reimancy initiation wounds, didn't need anything else. She started to hit the nail, carefully. It slowly dipped into wood and it's top disappeared. It went straight for few more hits, but then it started to go angled to the side a bit. She looked at Tock, helplessly, she thought she made a huge mistake, but she told her that it happens very often and showed her how to take it back straight by hitting it from the side. Nai'shee tried to be careful and hit it only in the middlest middle, but she had to adjust it a bit few more times. She caught this quickly, and her hopes about not hitting herself grew with her skill.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

They continued on up the wall, attaching one board after the next, which was a relatively quick process with the help of the other workers doing the other walls. After each board went on, they also had to apply a sealant mixture across the top edge of the board. This Tock carefully brushed on, being cautious and making sure not to apply too much, lest it drip and run down the front of the boards. Each new board was carefully set to press the bottom edge against the sealant. "'Is'll 'elp keep the water out," she explained. "Down 'ere at the docks, a shack without 'is stuff, the boards'll swell and leak, an' ya get a bunch o' seawater gettin' in the cracks, 'ere, aye?" "Ya want, ya can probably stay on fer more trainin'," she told Nai. "'Ey's always 'irin' more 'elp lately. What wit' all the work what needs doin' since 'at storm..." She didn't know of the girl would be interested in a full time job, but she seemed to be a good learner. She was picking up how to correct her mistakes nice and quick. Anyone who paid enough attention to learn a job that well, she was sure they had room for. It wouldn't be hard to convince Jacques to hire her. By the time the wall was finished, it was getting into the afternoon, and Tock was ready for a break. She looked over to Eavin, who, of course, was still dicing with the sailors. She sighed and cupped her hands to her mouth and called out to the crew, "Oy! 'At's lunch!" Everyone eagerly set their tools down to take a break and eat. Tock slapped Nai on the shoulder and said, "Oy, Conch, come on, let's grab a tucker, aye? I'm bloody starved, I am." She led her over to sit on the edge of the docks and pulled out the lunch she'd packed in her toolbox. If Nai hadn't brought anything to eat, she'd rip the fish sandwich in two and offer half to the girl. "So Conch," she asked while they ate, "whazzer story, aye? Got a bloke o' somethin'?"

[Nai'shee]

They finished pretty quickly, so she just watched Tock and other workers applying sealant to the walls, as she explained that it serves to keep water out. It was almost transparent and it seemed like good shield from water, she couldn't explain why. Everyone seemed to do this very carefully, as if they would make huge mistake by applying too much. It was probably expensive, or at least it looked ugly when you overdo it. Whatever was a reason, Nai'shee didn't want to risk anything, she was sure she'll be taught to do this carefully on some unimportant object, rather than the one they were all payed for. "Oh, that would be nice... But I don't know about permanent work, ya know. It would be nice, but..." She couldn't explain herself. She always hated stealing and she thought she will just grab a job like this if it was offered to her. But now, she didn't. She thought about it for a while. Everyone was so nice here, especially Tock. And she liked to do this stuff, it was easy and it didn't include any mental effort, which was just a pain to Nai'shee. It also helped people. Why did she felt wrong about it, then? Because it was something new? Because she really liked it, now, when she was preparing to leave after all those years? Because it lacked excitement? For all of those? "I think I shouldn't really be hired for a long while, since I'll be leaving soon probably. But I'll make sure to come by few more times and help out, as a daily laborer at least." It was the best she could say. "But please don't spread the rumor that I'm leaving. I lived here for 15 years and some people may get upset or try and convince me not to." It was a perfect excuse. She didn't want anybody to know because it was big secret actually, but she spitted it to Tock now. But she was pretty sure her excuse will keep that a secret, at least for a while. Tock seemed to be a good person, and Nai'shee was sure she won't tell on her, at least not on purpose. Thinking about it, one brilliant idea came into her mind. Maybe, if Tock could...? But no, it was too early... She had time to meet her and consider everything, to see if she was willing at all, if she liked her enough to bring her on such a journey. But idea brought smile to her face. Tock interrupted her calling out for lunch. It was surely pretty noisy around here, but Nai'shee was starting to get used to it. Yelling at each other and making a lot of noise was somehow natural to her, but she wasn't in position to do it that often. She followed Tock, wondering if she should go and grab something at the store. She would normally decline Tock's offer, but she was starving and she had to eat because she used lots of Djed. She took half of woman's sandwich, making mental note to buy lunch for two next time she decides to help out around here. When she heard Tock's question she probably blushed. She wasn't a spoiled child who got questioned by elders like that all the time. Actually, it was probably the first time. A face came into her mind but she driven away that image quickly. "Naah, not really", she replied. If you take out one short moment of awkward silence, Tock shouldn't have noticed her confusion. "My story? It's actually extremely long story, if you ask me." She took one bit of a sandwich while talking. She recognized the taste of Zeltivan fish, of the only meat this city was able to provide, at least without prices too expensive for her. She considered lying and concluded that would be somewhat the best. She wanted to tell the whole story, but she was still ashamed because she didn't accept the job and she just couldn't spit it out. "To make long story short, I'm currently student at University, studying magic the most and I want to become a sailor. And I'm a type who wants to know everything, including how to build a house, ship and similar stuff." She shrugged. "What about you?" Tock seemed pretty motivated for rebuilding Zeltiva and Nai'shee haven't seen her around. She must have been sort of newcomer in the city, yet she was willing to help as much. It didn't seem like it was only for money. "Are you from around here? I haven't seen you before..." It is possible that she was born in Zeltiva or something.