A Mockup Arm

Log Info

• Title: A Mockup Arm
• Emitter: Gadget
• Characters: Gadget, Ashes
• Place: A14: Artificer's Hall
• Time: Monday, August 24, 2020, 4:53 PM
• Summary: Ruthie JingleHammer is assembling a mockup arm to test the firing results and shrinkage of the porcelain with. Mr.JingleWidget is learning how to use a torquewrench, and Gadget is providing input as best she can from her bassinette. Ruthie describes the things she is doing, and the adjustments, and assures Gagdget that she'll have some eyes soon and that she won't go beyond the preliminary stage until she does. Mourner Ashlee Ciaradh arrives unexpectedly, with soup, and proceeds to feed Gadget. She lingers for a while, watching the proceedings, then leaves so she can make her evening prayers.

-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--<* A14: Artificer's Hall *>=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

The Artificer's Hall rests slightly off the ground, supported on all sides by eight strong, if nonfunctional legs. The entire Hall is carved from an ancient automation of a giant arachnid. While at one time--many eons past--it may have been functional, today it is a hollowed-out shell of its former self, with rooms made for professors' offices and class rooms. The Hall itself may be accessed by a stairway that leads up, and up...and up through one of its many legs.

Once inside, its appearance is anything but a mechanical spider's guts. With ceilings of polished stone and artifice-metal, the Hall possesses the same, ominous acoustics as any grand cathedral. Twisting, jointed arches of metal reflect its true form--as a great, massive structure hosted within an arachnid's mechanical belly. Everything is dark and metallic, with seams barely visible where pieces have been welded together. The whole building pulses every so often with a hum of energy, powered by a kind of arcane force scarcely comprehended by the outside world. Yet, the energy seems almost gobber-chaotic.

The centre of the building is a great octagon, with eight, great halls leading away from its core. Decorating its core are stained glass windows. They add to the almost holy ambiance. Instead of leading to the outside world, each shadowbox displays life-sized figures enact scenes from Alexandria's past from the Artificer's perspective. They display feats of Building, Achievement, and Experimentation. Towards the north is one depicting the Forge of the World. It depicts what is thought to be a snapshot of the tower at the center of the World Engine, the god's planar home.

The whole of the complex includes dormitories and construction rooms, where artificers compare notes, ideas, and puzzle over the grand works of history. These buildings spawn from the Central Hall in an almost arachnid fashion, connected by walkways of dark steel and overseen by golem guardians.

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Gadget's buggy is sitting under a workbench. Mr. Jinglewidget is working tirelessly on removing bolts from something miss Jinglehammer had previous had the monkey bolting together. Apparently, the final result was not up to her standards or she'd changed her mind or the project had feature creep. In any event, the monkey was being very dutiful.

Ruthie watches critically, then returns to setting up some bins around her main worktable. "Does he understand torque wrench settigns?" the gnome asks in the direction of the basket, setting some objects on the table. A bar, two bars joined together, and what looks like a dummy hand constructed from a lot of segments.

"I don't know," Gadget says. "I always set them for him. Is he using a torque wrench?" Mr. Jinglewidget stops and looks at the socket wrench ratchet, trying to discern that himself, apparently, at their conversation.

"No, he's on disassembly. They aren't useful for that unless you're concerned about stripping the nuts." Ruthie replies, watching the monkey. "I try to standardize on a few limits for my designs. Obviously they'll be in the user manual and marked near them. He didn't use them on that trial test, I'll try a larger font."

The gnome starts connecting the pieces. The bars appear to be adjustable, and crudge, rough and not something that would be in a final creation. Added together it forms a shoulder joint, an upper and lower arm, and a hand. Ruthie twists the bars so one lengthens, she makes some measurements, shortens the lower forearm ones, then puts in some set screws. "I've got the mock-up skeleton, it's scaled for arms at the length you desired. Could you double-check and restate what you wanted?"

"This would be a lot easier if I could see," Gadget says. "I want porcelain, primarily. It is not susceptible to wetness. It can shatter, I guess...maybe that's not the best idea...but if there's some high-strength porcelain--" she says. She shakes her head. "No, what am I doing? I just need something cheap and durable to get the job done until I can earn enough to pay for the other three."

Ruthie nods, which of course Gadget can't see, although her monkey might. "Of course my dear. These are the preliminaries and we won't go beyond this stage until you can see. There's a certain percentage of shrinkage between the greenware when it dries, and again after it's fired, so right now the dimensions are oversized."

"I have a skeletal frame, I'll attach spacers that simulate muscle groups and fill in between them with basla wood and fast-foam. You'll need to decide the level of smoothness or tone you want. A cylinder would be cheapest, ha-ha, but I'm sure you want to look good. Once the contours are established, I can use this to make the inverse moulds, coat them with the clay and fire it."

There's the sound of more scraping, items being moved around. "Assuming that turns out correctly, we can make a final cast with better clay that has a tighter consistency on its shrinkage, and if not adjust the mould."

Gadget listens and nods. "That sounds pretty standard," she says. "Have you procured moonstone for the magical cores, yet?"

"The order is in but there is no delivery eta." There is a heavy sigh, Ruthie has her hands on her hips. "Sometimes it's easier to send out miners yourself. Oh, looks like Mr. JingleWidget is finished."

There are some more noises, several thumps, possibly a stamp. "Okay Mr. JingleWidget, try again. Number here, Number here."

"The hand is the hard part, lots of tiny adjustments to get the 'bones' right before I put the spacers on. Most people can't visualize the shrinkage, it ends up looking too large for them. I reckon your monkey would have a good idea how big your hand should be, but is gonna only be able to tell after the mockup is fired."

"That's fair," Gadget says. Mr. Jinglewidget starts doing the bolting again. He's not doing a bad job by any stretch of the imagination, as good as many less-skilled interns might do. It wasn't his falt Ruthie wanted changes. "It doesn't have to be perfect. First thing just needs to be function. It needs to be a hand."

Ruthie nods, opening a small notebook, flipping pages. "I have some average settings, to account for race and the dimensional change. Width of the palm, length of the fingers. Gobbos tend to have longer ones, with thick nails, Lucht, fatter and shorter. They'll all work but hands are one of those things that will never stop bothering you, if they're 'off'. I'll use standard gnome, female. That should be close enough for the first pass."

Little squeaks, as the woman adjusts dials, sets screws.

She chuckles, "Of course, a few want the most massive claw they can manage to rip out guts, but I expect you'll want to be able to cast, and eat. Touch your face."

"I have smaller hands than I should for my height," Gadget says. "I don't mind if they're average or larger. As long as they're able to cast and eat and touch my face and elsewhere, yes. I'd prefer to be able to dress myself."

"They'll be fully functional for all that. Don't worry." Ruthie laughs. She keeps making adjusments, there are a lot of hand-bones and it takes a while to get all the settings in.

The ratchet-creak of the tension wrench is heard as the monkey works away.

"Adding the spacers and the contour scultping will take some time. Obviously you'll want a feminine build. Do you want noticeable musculature or more sweeping lines?"

"Make me look cute and girly," Gadget says. "I've never been particularly strong or muscular."

"Allright then, that will be easier."

Ruthie works in silence for a bit, with a long slurp of coffee.

Mr. Jinglewidget finishes first, bringing the newly bolted thing to Ruthie for consideration. "Once I have two arms, I don't mind breaks as much," Gadget says idly. "I can reliably cast Mending ambidextrously."

Ruthie inspects the work of the Monkey, "Looks very good. Yes. Wish some of the apprentices they sent me were that patient. Very good, good Mr. JingleWidget!"

She grunts a little as she returns to the mock arm, "Scale is set, now I'll place the spacers and fill in. This will take a while and theres not to talk about while I'm doing it."

There are sounds as she moves and places things, quiet friction noises.

Gadget is quiet, and Mr. Jinglewidget moves to wash his hands thoroughly as Ruthie works. Once he's done, he washes his feet as well, then eventually, climbs under the workbench and into the baby buggy to check on Gadget. "Hey, buddy," she says, very quietly. "How you doin'? Aww, thank you. I love you, too."

There's the scent of soup.

"AHH!" Ruthie calls out suddenly, something metallic crashing to the ground. "Oh, didn't hear you arrive. Gadget, your ah, skeleton friend is here with dinner."

"Ash," the quiet Arvec says, making no further noise until she moves a chair and box close to the bassinett. Her clothes rustle as she sits down.

"Hello, Ashlee," Gadget says. "You can open, I'm decent. Mr. Jinglewidget has been helping, and he's cuddled up." The monkey in question opened the canopy, hopped out, then pulled the buggy sideways out from under the workbench. Then Mr. Jinglewidget waved and smiled broadly at Ash before looking at food. "Why does Ruthie call you my skeleton friend?" Gadget asks.

"I'm an Arvec Nar. I have grey skin and a white skull on my face, and bones tattoo'd on the rest of my body." Ashlee explains, sounding close and seated. She watches Mr. Jinglewidget open the buggy. She takes a round loaf of bread out of the bag she's carrying and hands it to him.

Ruthie watches for a moment, nods, "Ashlee, I'll remember." She gets back to work.

"Well, you've been very kind to me," Gadget says. "I don't care what you look like, you've been just the sweetest--oh, hello," she says as a loaf of bread is tossed in with her. Mr. Jinglewidget climbs over the side and sits with her, breaking tiny pieces of bread off and touching her cheek to do the feeding thing.

Ash nods silently. She stares, watching as the monkey feed bread to Gadget, finally saying, "Thanks."

The mourner seems content to sit and watch, and is very quiet while doing so. There's a sense of her presence, largely due to an unsettling aura that comes with her. Once in a while, the quiet sound of cloth as she adjusts her position.

Ruthie is much louder, making small exclamations as she works. There's the clunk of the framework being moved around, pieces selected from the box. Once in a while a nozzle spraying, perhaps the foam. A few times, sanding noises.

Gadget listens and chews and smells between bites, enjoying the sensations she can have of being in a workshop dedicated to artifice again. Soon, however, Mr. Jinglewidget runs out of bread, so he begins picking bits and crumbs from her face and cleaning her in general. Eventually, the monkey is satisfied that she's clean, so he kisses her forehead and curls up next to her, though his legs and arms drape over her, tail curled under her. Not much spare space in a baby buggy, it seems.

"I have soup." Ashlee says. There's the rustling of the bag and the sound of a lid being removed. Soon a small spoon is touching Gadget's lips, the Arvec performing her very mechanical feeding. Perhaps she's just as rigid and disciplined when she eats herself, it remains to be seen.

"Did you bring some for me deariee... Ashlee?" Ruthie asks from the other side of her table.

"Yes." She replies, but doesn't say anything further or interrupt what she's doing.

Mr. Jinglewidget lifts Gadget up like a plank, sitting behind her to help her stay upright. She eats the soup dutifully, doing her best not to feel too much like an actual infant, but letting Ashlee and her monkey take care of her while she's an invalid.

The ashen Arvec keeps feeding, bringing the spoon by. Her bedside manner leaves some things to be desired, as she doesn't converse and she's also rather quiet. She is being very careful to make sure none of the soup is spilled, and that Gadget isn't rushed. Spoonful after spoonful. Eventually she does say something.

"There is a quarter left. Let me know if you're feeling full."

Ruthie continues with her sculpting. The curing fast-foam has an odd, unpleasant scent. The basla-wood's more pleasant. Neither are exactly welcome at a regular dinner table, but are expected in an artifice workshop.

"Very full," Gadget says. "My metabolism isn't supporting limbs, anymore. I guess not eyes, either, but that's not as big a deal."

Also: She had been half-starved for a while, so she wasn't used to eating so much.

"Okay." Ash beckons at Mr. JingleWidget to come closer. She holds the bowl towards him, making a tipping motion. Perhaps he will understand to take it and drink the rest. There's a quiet 'tink' as she puts the spoon down.

Gadget is laid down before Mr. Jinglewidget does, indeed, drink the rest. He puts the bowl on the floor gently and almost silently before he moves to wipe Gadget's face using some of her already dirty bedding.

There's a rustling of clothes and paper as Ash stands up. She moves silently to the worktable, and then the second bowl of soup and bread is removed and held out towards Ruthie.

"Put them there, would you please? Thank you Ashlee. I need to wipe my hands." Ruthie sounds happy, and manages to conceal whatever gnomish contempt she might harbour for a non-gnome... whatever the mourner might be. Ash hasn't declared her profession in her company beyond being helpful.

After, Ash's presence returns, she's sitting beside the bassinet. Staring.

Mr. Jinglewidget looks up at her expectantly, but it's very easy for Gadget to forget she's there, she's being so quiet. "Did Ash leave?" she asks.

"I'm still here." Ash says, slow and in a monotone. She's sitting with her knees high and tucked together, her satchel close at her side. "I need to go for Vespers soon."

"Well, I'm glad you came," Gadget says. "When I have an arm again, perhaps you will let me hug you. When I have an eye again, I would love to see your face."

"Ok," Ash sounds agreeable to both, although there's still no inflection to her words. A slight rustling suggests she is repacking the bowl and spoon in the bag she has. "I hope that's soon."

"Working as quickly as I can, deerie Ashlee. Sometimes it's faster to go lower." Ruthie advises, delivering a morsel of wisdom.

The ashen Arvec nods.

"Thank you for everything," Gadget says. "I look forward to when next you visit." Mr. Jinglewidget makes some monkey noises.

"Tomorrow. Unless something happens." There's the sound of Ash standing, a screech as the chair moves on the floor, the crunch of the paper bag as she picks it up. "I have to go now to be on time."

There are no further noises.

"She's left Gadget. She moves like a ghost." Ruthie says after a minute has passed. "New friend? Wherever did you find her?"

"That's okay," Gadget says. "I don't suspect angels of mercy to clatter about."