Blind Telescope (Solo)

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

3rd Day of Autumn, 512 AV Early Evening Tock sat at the table in her small home, looking over the schematics she'd drawn up when preparing to make the telescope for the pale faced client whose name eluded her at the moment. She was overdue to get some work done on it. She'd just been too distracted by the events of the last couple of weeks. She needed to seriously buckle down and finish this project, however, before the client came back impatiently asking where his purchase was. She had already studied the telescopes in the Astronomy Tower, drawn up schematics, and smelted the brass for the telescope. She just needed to smith the parts and assemble them. But with how precise the construction had to be, she was somewhat concerned about getting it right. So she decided to start off by making a model. She needed to take another trip outside the city soon to get a nice, big tree cut down to replenish her wood supplies. But in the meantime, for just a model, she'd make do with the leftover scraps from when she'd cut down a small tree in order to make a new workbench. The parts she needed for this project could simply be made from the little end pieces she'd cut off from each piece of wood she'd used for the workbench. Tock never threw ANYTHING out. She had even kept a pile of twigs from the tree branches, in case she ever thought of a use for them. Wearing Eyes, her Multi-magnifying Vision Enhancing Apparatus, she settled in for a night of woodcarving. She started off simply taking measurements of each block, most of the parts she needed varying in size from a ring the size of her palm to a tiny dial or bolt the size of her thumb. Working with such small parts would require great care and precision, so she used calipers from her gadgeteering tools to measure each piece down to the finest measurement possible. Eyes adjusted his lenses automatically as she worked, holding the twin lenses in front of her eye and shifting them bit by bit with each movement of her hands. With him keeping the focus adjusted automatically, it kept her hands free so she could remain fixed on her task. Eyes also held her schematics up in plain view for her, the papers clipped to the end of two of his little multi-segmented wooden arms. Thus she never had to lower her gaze or turn her used to double check the designs; they were right there before her eyes the whole time.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Once the measurements were complete, Tock carefully etched each design into the wood with a pencil-thin gouge. Because some of these parts required fine gear teeth and precise screw treads, precision in the initial etching was important. It would be far easier to correct a mistake at this stage than it would be after the real carving began. If she made a crucial mistake in the carving, she would likely have to discard the piece and start over. Though that was also part of why she was starting with a model: it was easier to work the kinks out on the prototype, so that she could correct any possible flaws before she started working with the brass. The basic shapes of the parts, in themselves, weren't hard to make. The challenge was in the fine teeth and treads that made the pieces work and fit together. She worked first to cut out the basic shapes, having Handy hold each piece of wood for her, while Eyes helped her focus on the finer details. She was surprised at how much difference the magnification device made on her vision. She had always known she had bad eyesight, but she had never realized, before building Eyes, just how much squinting she used to do. Once she had all the basic shapes cut out with mallet and chisels, everything needed to be cut purely by hand, without using a mallet at all. One wrong tap of a mallet on such finely detailed work would ruin a whole piece. Instead, the tools needed to be scraped along the wood like drawing pen across paper, each line guided carefully by her fingers. Tiny shavings of wood came off with each pass, raining down into her lap where Bitey sat, covering her baby's tiny body with little curled wood trimmings as thin as blades of grass. She worked on the treads of a matching pair of parts at a time, so adjustments could be made as she went. The treads on the inside of any one ring had to align properly with those on the outside of the telescope tubes, so she checked the fit regularly as she worked. When she felt a flaw somewhere in the fit that caused the pieces not to screw together, she had to carefully scan both the inner and outer treads, searching for variations in tread depth, alignment, or shape that would cause a snag somewhere. Sometimes adjusting a flaw or catch on one piece would require her to adjust the depth on the matching piece, in order to ensure they still fit each other.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

As adjustments were made, Tock measured the new tread depth, width, and radius of each completed piece, making notations about the changes and comparing them to her original schematics. Some of the corrections were mere millimeters, but even a minor change like that could influence the final design. As the work continued, she started thinking beyond the basic, technical design, and giving considerations to style. The jittery client had protested that he didn't want any 'special features,' but she still felt the need to personalize the design in some way. She gave thought to it as she began working on sanding the tubes. Design on something like this was a delicate thing. Not only did the pieces need to screw together properly, but the tubes needed to slide together so the entire telescope could collapse for storage. Adding purely decorative carving to the tubes would be a bad idea, since it would create possible snags that could catch and stick when the telescope was collapsed or extended. Likewise she had to make sure nothing would interfere with the adjustment of the lenses for focus. Her client was paying her double the market price for this work. How could she make his telescope unique and personal enough to warrant that, without the use of 'special features'? She ran her fingers along the sanded wood, searching for rough patches, while she pondered the problem of how to make something unique without making it different.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

As the sun set, and evening passed into night, she accumulated a growing pile of parts for the model. But she was hesitant to begin assembly, because she felt like something was missing. She couldn't wrap her mind around what it was. She decided a change of venue was in order. She collected the parts, her tools, and a couple of her babies, and headed out through the city streets towards the University. The walk was tiring; her stomach, still sore and in pain from last season's wound, was now stiff from how she'd been sitting hunched over her work for the past several hours. Walking and stretching out the muscles would help, but it was also painful, and she had to stop and rest a couple of times, especially when she had to deal with climbing all the stairs of the astronomy tower. Professor Cyril was there, and no doubt recognized her from the last time she'd been here, studying telescopes. When he saw her unloading tools and parts on one of the tables, he immediately stepped over and asked, "Miss... Tock, was it? Can I help you?" "Nope," she replied, sitting down with one of the University telescopes that most closely matched her design. Seeing a physical example of how the parts fit together would refresh her memory, and be more useful than the schematics alone. She could fiddle with the telescope here to remember how everything moved, and double check once more if she needed to correct anything else in her design. "You won't be..." Cyril said, trying to lean down and look her in he eye. He couldn't quite make eye contact, since Eyes was still holding her schematics up near her face, blocking part of her view. It wasn't until Tock looked up at Cyril that Eyes responded to her shifting gaze, his little wooden arm adjusting its position to move the schematics out of her new line of sight, and the other arms that held the lenses in front of her right eye adjusting their positioning to magnify Cyril's face. From his perspective, Cyril saw Tock's right eye massively magnified through the double lenses. He paused and cleared his throat, then repeated, "You won't be trying to take them apart again, I hope?" Tock sighed. She had more important things to do than deal with coddling this man's nerves. "I ain't gonna break nothin'," she replied irritably. "Very well," he said, giving her a nod. "See that you don't..." He left her to her work, returning to his own. Though he did keep an eye on her from across the room, clearly not trusting that she wouldn't tear the telescope apart the moment his back was turned. Which was fair, since that was exactly what she wanted to do.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock began assembling the parts, referring to her adjusted schematics which were still held before her by Eyes. The assembly was fairly simple, the telescope not being nearly as complicated as a clock. The key here wasn't complexity, but precision. Any misalignment in the parts of the final telescope could ruin the focus of the entire device, rendering it useless. As she assembled it, she took notes on the process, so she could repeat the whole thing when she was working on the final product. Any time she encountered a snag, or discovered that it worked better when the parts were assembled in a certain order, she added that to her notes for future reference. She found that the end caps for each segment of the tube needed to be attached, but not tightened, as each segment was added on, otherwise she limited her ability to make adjustments. She also thought at first that it was better to assemble the tube before adding the adjustment dials, but this proved to be a mistake, since she needed the dials in place to test their movement before she tightened up all the tube segments. She ended up having to halfway disassemble the device and start over, in order to get the pieces attached in the right order. The 'lenses' for the model were merely smooth wooden discs, carved to be the size and shape of the glass pieces she'd be getting from Monty. Her plan was to leave the wooden discs in place for now, and merely test how well they moved with the adjusting dials. Then, before she began making the final brass pieces, she would fit the actual lenses into the model in order to check the fit and how well they focused. If any final changes needed to be made, she would rather find out on the wooden model than on the brass, since making changes to the brass would mean melting it down and re-casting it. She was just glad her former classmate Marcus wasn't here. He'd have bragged endlessly if he saw her working on a model, after all the fuss she'd once made about their uselessness.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

When her model was assembled, Tock sat back in her chair, tapping a finger on Eyes's side to command him to raise his arms, the lenses, and the spectacles out of the way. She looked over the telescope, feeling dissatisfied. It seemed technically accurate, but at the same time, bland. It lacked that certain something to make it special. She sighed, looking at the actual telescope that sat next to her model. Other than one being made out of brass, and the other wood, they were nearly identical. There were subtle differences in their designs, but none made hers stand out. Processor Cyril stepped over to examine her work. "Looks good," he said, in what she perceived as a teacher's facetious support. They didn't like to discourage students. "Meh," she muttered, going over her schematics once more. There had to be SOMETHING she could do to make her design more unique. "You aren't satisfied with it?" he asked. He reached out to touch it, but paused to give her a questioning look. She gave him a nod, and he carefully turned a couple of the focus dials, checking the model's movement. "Seems to work fine," he said. "At least, as much as I can tell without proper lenses in it..." Seeing the way she was frowning at the model, he asked, "So what's wrong?" "S'jus' like 'at one," she muttered, gesturing to the real telescope. "What?" he asked, frowning in confusion. Then he looked her over, from the contraption she wore, to the third hand, and finally to the streak of color in her hair (which was possibly the least unique thing about her). "Ahh," he muttered, "I see. More of the same isn't good enough." He paused to look the model over again, then suggested, "Perhaps some decorations?" Tock snorted. "Decorations ain't make no difference," she said. Cyril glanced again at the color in her hair, but declined to comment on the apparent contradiction between her words and her actions. Putting on an encouraging tone of voice, he asked her, "So then, what do you think it needs?"

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock considered the question. What DID the telescope need? She looked it over, as Professor Cyril watched silently. The design seemed functionally complete. The telescope could extend and retract, the focus could be adjusted, and the stand she'd designed allowed the angle to be adjusted with ease. Give or take making some minor adjustments here and there before she cast the parts for the brass version of the telescope, there didn't seem to be anything else it NEEDED. So then, why was she dissatisfied with it? Because it was a copy. A mere mimickery of the ones in the astronomy tower. Impersonal. Not at all unique. It wasn't something she could proudly proclaim as 'Made by Tock.' "It needs me," she said. Professor Cyril frowned at her and said, "I... I'm not sure I understand." She huffed and replied, "It needs ME..." She didn't know how else to articulate it. Cyril looked at Eyes, and at Handy, who was tapping his wooden fingers on the table. After a moment's consideration he waved a hand at them and said, "So why not..." He searched for the right word, waving his hand in a circular motion, "magic it up." Tock sighed and said, "Cause the client ain't want 'at..." Cyril arched an eyebrow and asked, "You're building this for someone else?" She nodded. "Well, in that case... shouldn't you make it exactly as the customer wants?" Tock pouted and said, "'E dun want nothin' special..." Cyril smirked and said, "Well, if your client wants an ordinary telescope, then give him an ordinary one..." With that he walked away, leaving Tock to ponder what he'd said.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock continued fiddling with her model a bit longer, not feeling too pleased with herself. Her thoughts kept drifting; to Mikey, to her Granddad, to the men who had come and gone in her life. It was so hard to focus. She ended up taking the model completely apart and reassembling it from scratch, just in a vain attempt at keeping her mind busy. Trying to keep her thoughts off the things she didn't want to dwell on, she focused Eyes's lenses on the tiny dials that adjusted the telescope's focus. The wooden dials were too fragile and delicate to do much with, though the brass versions would be far more durable. She had to adjust these dials very slowly when she checked their fit, and she noticed a snag or two here and there. Zooming Eyes in close on the tiny teeth, she searched for flaws, taking a long time to carefully measure every spot with her calipers. When working with something so small, the slightest assymmetry would make all the difference. Her head shot up, a thought slowly forming in the back of her mind. She got up and stalked over to Cyril, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention. Before he even fully turned around she asked, "What makes a telescope good?" He turned and frowned in confusion. With a scratch of his head, he asked, "Umm... what?" She pointed at one telescope, then another, and asked, "What makes 'is one better'n 'at one?" He cleared his throat and said, "Well, actually that one is better. It has a sharper focus." Tock stepped up to the one he indicated and asked, "Why?" "I... I don't know!" he stammered, stepping up alongside her. "It just... does...!" "Nothin' 'jus' does,' Guv," she told him, focusing Eyes on the apparently 'superior' telescope, and taking some measurements with her calipers. "'Ere's always a reason..." "Well, I don't think I can help you," he said. "I use the telescopes, but it's not like I know how to build them..." He watched what she was doing with a concerned frown, no doubt worried she would break something. "Leave it ta me, Guv," she told him without taking her gaze from the telescope. "I's git 'at other one does as good as 'is one, no worries..." He rubbed his chin, looking over at the inferior telescope, and asked, "You think you can fix the focus problem?" Without bothering to waste her breath on an explanation he likely wouldn't even understand, she just said, "Yup." "Well just... be careful..." Tock didn't reply to this, having already forgotten the man was there.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock continued her work well into the night, ignoring the students that came to perform their astronomy studies. For the most part they left her alone, too, except for the occasional irritating question of, "What are you doing?" Her reply each time was a snippish, "I's FIXIN' it, what else?" In truth, repairing the poor focus on the one telescope was an excuse. This was primarily a learning experience. There had to be a reason that the one telescope worked more poorly. It wasn't 'broken,' it wasn't even poorly made. But the other one was better, and she wanted to know why... If her client insisted on an 'ordinary' telescope, then she was going to make it extraordinary. She made notes on her blueprints, comparing the measurements of her model to the telescope she'd based her model on, then to the inferior and superior ones Cyril had pointed out to her. There were some major differences that were irrelevant to her study; the superior telescope, for example, didn't collapse for easy storage. But despite that, there were more similarities than differences, especially in the rack and pinion system they all used for adjusting the focus. She took careful measurements of these with her calipers, checking the depth of the teeth and the width between them. The differences were all but invisible to the naked eye, but with precise measuring tools and Eyes to magnify them for her, she was able to pick up subtle differences. After she had the measurements taken and the numbers recorded, she found multiple variations, but none with a consistent pattern. It wasn't yet obvious why the one telescope was superior. She went over the numbers a few times, rubbing at her tired eyes. She knew she needed to go to bed, and come at this problem fresh in the morning. But there was something she was missing here. Trying to deduce what it was, she stuck her eye to the telescope to peer through it, staring at the stars (which, by themselves, bored the hell out of her). She then checked the inferior telescope... and saw no apparent difference. "Oy, Guv!" she called out, waving the professor over. "I prefer to be addressed as 'Professor,'" he said, stepping up to her. Tock ignored the remark and asked, "'Ow's 'e not workin'? Looks the same ta me..." With a sigh, Cyril stepped up and peered into the telescope. He made some adjustments, then said, "There. That's as good as the focus gets." Tock checked it, and saw... the same stars. Though maybe they looked a little sharper. When he noticed her confused frown, Cyril checked the superior telescope, aiming it at the same patch of the sky. After some adjustments to the dials, he stepped back and gestured for her to look through. "You can see the difference," he said. She looked through it, then back at the other, then back at the first again, and continued this way for several minutes. Tock's eyes weren't that good, so she had never really thought much before about what 'focus' really meant. The differences were subtle, but once she really paid attention to it, she began to understand what it meant. It was a difference as minor as that on the measurements of the rack and pinion. A difference she would never notice when looking at a person's face, but that she would notice when examining a tiny screw or gear in fine detail. It was almost even a nitpicky difference. But that difference could be what mattered if she was aiming for perfection.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Now that she knew just what the issue was, she began checking the inferior telescope's dials to try and find out what the connection was between the mechanical parts and the ever-so-slight difference in focus. If she wanted her telescope to be as perfect as possible, she needed to figure out what sort of minor flaws there could be, and find a way to correct them in her own design. She didn't want her client to end up complaining that the telescope's focus could have been better. There were two dials on the rack and pinion, one for larger adjustments, and one for the more careful, minute adjustments. She adjusted the more fine-tuned one back just a notch at a time, then forward, and back again, studying the shift in the focus with each minute move. There was almost no discernible difference, even when she made the same back and forth adjustments on the other telescope. Frowning, she moved between each one several times, trying to figure out what was causing the flaw. When she was still stumped, she stepped back and looked the telescopes over. There were several differences in their designs... perhaps the flaw wasn't primarily in the mechanics, but in the design itself. Neither telescope was collapsible, making them different from the one she was designing. One had a wider tube and a larger lens at the far end, but as far as she could deduce, that only affected the magnification, not the focus. It was the distance between the lenses that affected the focus. She thought about that, and started examining the lenses themselves. Aside from slight variations in size, there didn't seem to be a substantial difference between them. That is, until she unscrewed the eye pieces and examined their interiors. "Hmm..." she muttered, peering into each one. When he saw that she had taken piece off the telescope, Cyril rushed back over in a near-panic. Tock just turned away from him, not in the mood for yet another interruption to her work. She held the eyepieces up to Eyes's lenses, making a close examination of the way the lenses were mounted inside. They seemed to be aligned fine, and the lenses weren't cracked or damaged. "What are you doing?" Ignoring the questions, Tock held the eyepieces up to the lamp light, and noticed a difference... the one eye piece had a narrower lens. "Miss Tock, please..." She stepped up to the superior telescope and held the eye piece for the other telescope up to it. It wasn't the right size to actually screw on, so she simply held it in place and used her hand to cover the gap and block out any light. She made some adjustments to the focus, and examined the results. The narrower eyepiece resulted in a stronger, but blurrier magnification. She wasn't entirely clear on the science behind that, but as a general concept she was able to lock down the difference. A wider eyepiece gave less magnification but allowed for greater focus, and a narrower eyepiece did the opposite. She held the two eyepieces up in her hands, then gave a small nod. She knew what to do now. She'd give her client two, or perhaps three eyepieces of different sizes. That would give him more versatility, depending on what he wanted to look at. Instead of having multiple telescopes, like they had in the astronomy tower, he could have a single one capable of multiple fields of magnification. She turned with a grin to find a frowning Professor Cyril staring her down. Completely unaware of any issue, she just asked him, "What?"