Closed Building a Bed (Karin)

[Sayana]

Fall 26, 515 – Wooden Wonders Workshop

Sayana woke early that morning. What she had thought would have been a simple purchase had not turned out to be so and her gut still churned at how some of the words had been exchanged. Still, she would need a second bed and probably a crib for Andreas. The Eypharian slipped out of the room quietly and left the Cubacious Inn. She brought coins and her usual set of daggers, and slipped on a dark cloak. It seemed overcast and gloomy outside, which was rather fitting of her mood, and she considered the best place to go. There was the Bizarre Bazaar, however, she realized she also wanted to visit the docks if possible. She wanted to set up at least one person who would let her know if Nephti attempted to escape via ship.

With her destination in mind, she headed through the streets of Alvadas. Her route led her downhill for the most part and when she started smelling the salty air of the sea, she knew she was on the right track. Gulls called loudly and she soon found her way to the Patchwork Port. Despite some of the eerie qualities of the city, she was rather glad it wasn’t changing on her so frequently. The port was rather haphazardly laid out. It kind of reminded her of the strange angles at the Crooked Playhouse. But before she could get a good look around, it started to rain.

Ah petch… She started running across various docks and wooden streets trying to find some sort of shelter. She splashed hard in a puddle and nearly slipped upon the slick wet wood. She looked this way and that, and finally spotted a sign that looked like the entrance to a store front. “Wood… something something. Good enough for me.” Sayana muttered upon reading the sign and bolted for the store just as the rains started to pound upon the docks.

Sayana charged into the workshop and panted for several moments as she wiped her wet hair out from her face. Inside she was surprised at all the woodworking tools and realized that the store might actually be able to provide what she was looking for. She looked around for someone who might be available and asked, “What sort of wooden things do you make? Would I be able to commission you to make a bed and maybe a crib?”

[Karin]

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Karin's Job Thread

The gentle pit-pattering of rain blurred the glass of the workshop window as Karin stood, gently dripping onto the floor as the cool workshop lay around her, in a state of business and quiet, in the early hours of the morning.

Slightly before her usual arriving time of the ninth bell, the girl had knocked on the door of the workshop, feeling guiltily as she knew that the Kinnan family were unlikely to be awake. She both hadn't wanted to wake them, and at the same time, she didn't want to be stuck outside in this cool weather.

Luckily for her, Ferny was up, in the boatyard in fact, throwing a tarpaulin over the boat in the dock that was being repaired, and he pushed open the door for her, letting her in with a gruff, "Don't do anythin' stupid."

Karin took his words to heart, and so managed to stay still for just under five chimes as she dried herself off. Outside, the rain started to get heavier, and the girl was just about to sit down at a bench and start working on the figurehead she'd been tasked with filing, when a multi-armed mad-woman, or so Karin thought, burst into the workshop.

"What sort of wooden things do you make? Would I be able to commission you to make a bed and maybe a crib?"

The expression that Karin wore was priceless, a mixture of horrendous shock and amusement and confusion all mingled into one slack-jawed face that stayed like that for the briefest of moments before she gaped an, "Aaaaah..." of, well... of nothing in particular.

Her mind went blank, until she shook her head with a start and said, "Yes!" A simple word, but meaning a lot of different things in this instant, a 'yes' to the questions which she hoped retrospectively the woman would understand what she meant.

Quickly gathering her wits about her, the girl stepped forward. "Um. I'm an apprentice, but... I can take measurements and such, are you looking for... a small bed, or a big bed? And the crib is for a six-arme-- I mean, for your child, is it-- he, or she, a very young child or are they slightly older?"

Blushing, the girl tried to hide her embarrassment. She wasn't entirely sure if this person was real, or an illusion, but their manner implied the former. "May I enquire, what is your name?" As she said it, she reached for the desk, and a scrap of paper and one of the many quills littering the surface.

[Sayana]

After Sayana had blurted out her request, she stopped and stared at the shopkeeper’s reaction. A smile flitted onto her face at the rather comical expression of disbelief the svefra had. Clearly the woman wasn’t expecting someone in the pouring rain. But yes! It could be done. Sayana beamed more genuinely as she pulled a clump of her long hair and squeezed out the rainwater.

“A small bed,” Sayana interrupted eagerly. “I mean, full-size but just for one person. Someone about my height.” Her lips tightened a little at the mention of a six-armed child. No, Andreas was not of the beautiful Eypharian race. Yet he was a sweet thing and deserved a crib. “The crib is for an infant of say… half a year?” Sayana gestured the size of the babe with her high hands and mimed cradling him. “But I want it to last for at least a year or two so make it big enough for a two year old. And railings or bars so he doesn’t roll out.”

Sayana gestured approximate sizes for the crib with her mid hands while ringing out some more water in her hair with her highs. She guessed about two feet by three feet though it was hard to guess how big Andreas might grow in two years. “And my name is Sayana,” she replied to the svefra’s last question.

She paused for several moments to let the woman write down whatever she needed to. Idly Sayana looked about the workshop as she tried to think of the right wording for her next request. “Actually, would I be able to ask you for a second favor? You see, I have a girl under my care. Much older, maybe fourteen or fifteen. Yet recently she’s been threatening to run away.” Sayana described the situation in a slow calm voice, obscuring the true facts behind the tale. “She looks rather like me. She’s of my race yet has lighter skin and straighter hair. Very beautiful actually. Yet occasionally I’ve caught her telling stories and lies to get her way. The last thing I’d want is for her to run away from Alvadas by taking a boat here in the port. Would you be able to keep an eye out for her? I’d pay well if you managed to stop her from leaving by boat, or at least let me know before the ship sailed. In fact, I’ll give you a little something as a token of my appreciation for hearing me out.”

After her long story, Sayana dug into her pocket and produced fifteen gold mizas to offer the woman. “And how much will I owe you for the bed and crib?” The Eypharian had thought about haggling the price down a little, but if she wanted to be on the woman’s good side, she didn’t want to appear to be pulling down the price. “Oh, and I didn’t quite catch your name.”

[Karin]

As Karin picked up the quill, she pulled the scrap of paper closer, and dipped the ragged quill into the small pot of ink to the side. Bringing the nib to the surface, she quickly scribbled down the physical description of the woman at the top of the paper, as some way of remembering the order and who had made it.

The girl gazed at the woman as she gestured about the sizes of the bed and the crib, and Karin nodded absently as she wrote those down too, noting down the information about the size of the bed and drawing a little image of a rectangle shape, with haphazard bars, signifying the rough shape and form of the crib.

After concentrating on noting down everything the woman had said, the page was covered in scribbles and little notes, but Karin thought it was sufficient for her, and hopefully with a little help, Cadog would be able to understand too.

Aah, the woman's name is Sayana... With that last bit of information carefully inscribed at the very top of the paper, the girl set down the quill as she listened to what Sayana was saying. It seemed a little unusual, but Karin assumed that it was some unruly relative, or something to that effect.

"If I had a description of the girl, then I guess I'd be able to do that for you, but you don't need to give me money for it." With a little tilt of her head and a quirky smile, a little bit of Svefra upbringing asserted itself without her even remembering. "Consider it a favour, and if I ever need anything from you, we're even, okay?"

It felt good to be doing business, Karin realised. But it wasn't until the woman asked how much money she'd need to pay, that she realised she had absolutely no idea how much the price would actually be.

"Uh..." Thinking quickly on her feet, the girl said the first thing that came to her head. "You don't need to pay just yet... When you come to collect the pieces, we'll discuss the price then..?"

That way, she could ask Cadog first, and then be informed. "Oh! I do apologise, I'm Karin. Apprenticed to Cadog, who owns this shop. Do you have any other questions?" The girl offered Sayana a quick smile, and quickly scanned the notes she'd made for this order. Everything seems to be in order!

[Sayana]

“Sure, a favour for a favour,” Sayana replied with a smile. Yet inwardly she would have preferred if the woman had simply taken the coin. A favour could mean anything and she didn’t like being in debt. Still, she kept her face friendly and good natured.

However, when the svefra couldn’t produce a price, Sayana bit the inside of her lip as she tried to figure out a solution for her dilemma. She really preferred that Nephti take care of the bed and crib, and getting it back to the Inn. Otherwise, what good was a slave when Sayana had to be there holding her hand for her to do the work? Yet she also didn’t want to trust Nephti with any large or even moderate sums of money. At least not yet.

“Tell you what, I’ll give you twenty gold mizas now. That should certainly cover the bed and crib.” Sayana added five more coins to her hand and held out the sum of money to Karin. “I don’t need something too fancy. Then if it’s too much, you can give my -- you can give Nephti the extra. She’s the girl I’m looking after. She volunteered to pick up the new furniture. Eypharian, long straight brown hair, pretty face, fairer skin.” Sayana quickly described her slave and the word ‘slave’ had nearly slipped out before she corrected herself with Nephti’s name.

She would make note to remove Nephti’s collar before sending her out, but it was certainly much better than taking the extra trip and hauling a bed around. “When can I send her to pick up the bed? When do you think it’ll be ready?”

Once obtaining that last piece of information, and as long as Karin accepted the coins, the Eypharian would nod politely and head out to face the rainy weather.

[Karin]

It was lucky really, for both Sayana and for Karin, that Cadog chose that moment to descend from the house above and start work. Apparently, he had overheard the last of the conversation between the woman and the girl.

"Aah, hello there! A bed and a crib would come to... Let's see. A crib would be 6 GM and 5 SM, and a bed would be 10 GM, so in total that comes to 16 GM and 5 SM!" Karin had taken the money out of Sayana's hand, so now Cadog took the money from Karin's hand, and proceeded to go about procuring change.

"Here, 3 gold mizas and 5 silver mizas for you, dear." Karin quickly wrote down the proceedings, and smiled briefly at Sayana, slightly apologetically for her faults and lack of knowledge.

Cadog nodded at Karin as he went about to start the day, and she finished off the deal, as Sayana asked about collection. With a smile, she quoted what she'd heard Cadog say in the past. "You can expect the items to be ready in a week at maximum. So if you send Nephti over in 7 days, the items will be ready to collect. Thank you for your custom!" As a final parting gift, she handed Sayana as small, ripped off receipt as a proof of purchase.

As the six-armed woman nodded with good grace and exited the shop, receipt in hand, Karin spun on her foot to turn to Cadog. "Thank you for turning up like that. I wasn't entirely sure about prices." The man nodded. "Well, we'll get you started on this commission of yours! Did you get measurements?"

Sayana's receipt :

[Karin]

As Karin gestured the gestures she'd seen Sayana do, Cadog started moving about in the back, gathering lengths of wood and other tools for them to use. A few chimes later, the pair of them were arranging planks on the floor in a rough bed shape, with Karin lying flat on the ground to measure roughly how tall Sayana was.

The shape of a bed, now that Karin came to think of it, was a simple shape. But putting into practice what she knew of a bed was entirely different. Going from flat to three dimensional was difficult, and to top it off, Cadog wasn't offering any help, only standing with a look to say, 'you'll understand eventually'. Karin looked down at the vague shapes on the ground, and looked back up at the man.

"Cadog... Are there plans I can follow?" She asked slightly desperately, and as the man shook his head, he said, "No. But, if there aren't any plans, what do you think you should do?" It took a few stupid chimes for Karin to realise that she should make her own.

So, grabbing a sheet of paper, she sketched roughly the three dimensional shape of the bed, at first from just one angle, but then trying from different directions, despite the shoddiness of the actual sketch. The finished version looked messy, but Karin knew what everything was. Now, for the wood.

She got a measure of string, and laid it against the preliminary shape on the dusty workshop floor. Cutting it to length, she tied one knot in it to signify that it was the length, not the width. The patter of rain outside was soothing, and lulling, and Karin found herself enjoying her day, even if it was a little mundane.

Reaching for the sawing bench, she hoisted a plank up, with the help of a silent Cadog. Placing it firmly on the bench, she made sure that it would be secure, before placing the nearby saw parallel across the plank. Looking up at Cadog once more, she said, "How should I start?"

[Karin]

The man laughed and told her she knew what to do, and it was true, she did. "Okay..." She placed the saw on the wood, and bit it down onto the surface, starting to pull it backwards and forwards. It was a mind-numbing task, but it brought little benefits, such as a chance to think and plan.

This day, Karin had chance to think a little more about the customer who'd asked for this bed, and specifically the request she'd had. It seemed a bizarre thing to ask, and Karin wasn't entirely sure if she was comfortable with it. But then again, she'd said that she would do it now, so it'd be bad to go back on that, right?

A little while later, and the lengths of wood had all been cut to the right size, and Karin was arranging them on the floor. Apart from one slight fault, where she hadn't quite cut the plank at an exact right angle, everything else seemed to be in order. So, time to follow my plans.

She looked at her sketches, and figured that the best and easiest thing to do first would be to make the basic frame. So, with much heaving she brought the wood up onto the workbench, only to realise that it wasn't going to work, so instead she brought it all back down onto the floor, taking the tools with her.

It took her a long time to get organised, and as soon as she was, she realised that she had no idea how to attach the frame together. She had a pile of nails and a heavy hammer, but every time she tried placing the nail on the wood and hammering it, it fell off. She got frustrated and almost threw the hammer across the floor, but Cadog came over at just the right, or possibly worst, moment.

"Here." He took the hammer and showed her what to do, and it was as simple as holding the nail in place until it was deep enough until it wouldn't fall out. Karin felt stupid, and bent over the frame again, bashing the hammer into the wood and pushing more nails than was perhaps necessary into the frame.

It was a few bells later, and after some trials and tribulations, mainly an accidentally bashed thumb, the girl was able to test the strength of the frame. She'd had to use some metal as well, which Cadog had sent her to get from the Bizarre, some metal corners which provided greater strength than she realised.

The frame, without legs was strong, after she'd shaken it a few times. She wasn't the strongest, but the true test would come later, when proper downwards pressure could be tried. And to do that, she'd need to attach the legs. She had some sturdier legs ready for the task, and she grabbed the nearest one.

[Karin]

It took the rest of the day to attach the legs. Numerous times, the girl found that after a long time bent over, trying to attach them, they were wonky when she took a step back. It had almost got to the point where the leg was so riddled with holes that it was useless, but fortunately the girl managed to attach it firmly.

Now the bed stood up, and as Karin looked at it, she smiled. It had taken all day, in the end. But the frame and the legs were strong and sturdy, and the sight of it filled her with pride. She and Cadog had tested it's strength, and it had withstood both of them standing on the frame, which was a bonus. She'd been terrified that it would break and send them both tumbling to the floor, and that she'd have to start again.

But it wasn't the case, and she could go home with a smile in her heart, knowing that she had a good base to start from the next morning.

27th Autumn, 515 AV,
the next day at the Workshop.

The rain had left, and replaced the sky with sunshine, bright but watery. It was with a bright smile that Karin pushed open the door of the workshop that morning. There in the centre of the floor stood the bed, just as she remembered it. And it did look like a bed too, which was a good sign.

Today the goal was to fit the slats, and make the headboard. She figured she would make the slats first, because during the night she'd had a good idea for them. The idea centred on her buying something from the market, and for that to work she would need to ask Cadog if it would work.

So, she made a rough estimate as to what she would need, and took the list and her idea to Cadog, as he was working outside on a boat repair. The sunlight was glimmering on the gently lapping waters of the Suvan, and the girl could smell the fresh scent of the ocean. It truly was a beautiful day. It was almost a shame that she would be inside for almost all of it...

She went up to Cadog, and tapped him on the shoulder asking, "I have an idea, could I see if it'd work?" The man pushed back from the hull of the boat, and shaded his eyes with a glare. His eyes narrowed even further as he looked down at the sheet of paper that Karin had written up, but as he saw what it was he tilted his head thoughtfully. "That might just work y'know. Okay, take this", he thrust into his pocket and pressed a couple of gold mizas into the girl's palm, "And go down the quay, no need to go all the way to the Bizarre. There's a cloth seller down there, go talk to her."

[Karin]

The walk along the port side was pleasant, sunlight and a light breeze drifting through her hair. There weren't many people about, just some traders bartering with fishermen. The cloth seller that Cadog had directed her to primarily sold fishing nets and supplies to fishermen, but she was more than happy to help Karin when she explained her idea.

"So, yer want to lace the slats through some rope of some kind? I'm sure I got somethin' back 'ere." The woman moved into her house, and Karin stood outside, peering through into the dark interior. She didn't have to wait long until the elderly woman returned, carrying a length of a thin, flat, woven rope. "Will this do, girl?"

Karin fingered it. The quality was slightly rough, but in terms of durability, it seemed very strong. "This is fine, how much please?" The woman stated two gold mizas, which seemed a little expensive, but she didn't want to cause a fuss. So a few chimes later the girl was walking back along the quayside, warm cobbles under her feet and a decent length of rope slung over her shoulder.

When she got back, she went straight into the workshop, only to find that the bed wasn't there. In her haste, she'd walked straight past it, and it stood, glorious in it's simplicity in the sunlight. So I get to enjoy the sunlight anyway! The girl smiled gratefully at her employer, and pulled up a bench. It wasn't until she sat down with the slats and the rope that she realised she had no way to put the two together.

She couldn't ask Cadog, he was busy. Instead, she plunged her hand frantically into the toolbox, rummaging through everything she could see. She drew out a couple of tools which she thought might be right, and collected them in her arms as she went to find Ferny. After half a bell of anxious searching, she found him behind the workshop.

After a brief discussion, he handed her the right tool, which was a strange, bent piece of metal. She walked back, and seated herself at her bench, and picked up one of the slats. It was thin, but not so thin that she wouldn't be able to make a decently sized hole in it. With an irritated brush of her hair behind her ears, she placed the tool, the brace, against the horizontal side of the slat. With a lot of pressure, and several agonising chimes, she finally managed to make purchase, and some time later the first hole had been made.

Experimentally she laced the rope through, and found that thankfully, it was just the right size. So, for the rest of the day, she made holes, threaded rope through, tied things off, swore when she broke things, and finally at the end of the day she had made the completed slats. It was exhausting, and her arm muscles ached from the constant pressure she had to make. But it was satisfying to finally have them finished, although as the light of Syna fell below the surface of the Suvan, the headboard still hadn't been made.

That was for tomorrow now.