[Solo/Wealth Thread] Clockwork and Fascinators

[Elijah Lamoreaux]

Arc 719: Vhalar 47
Near the Glass Market

Eli had been telling the proprietor of Scott's Clockwork and Fascinators that he'd gotten the name all wrong, long before the man had taken him on as an apprentice. He was pretty sure that fascinators were the fuss and frippery that many of the wealthier women in the Glass Quarter pinned to their hair and hats. But Domnall Scott had insisted that he hadn't gotten it wrong, and Eli had to admit that his reasoning was sound. Without knowing exactly what was inside the small shop just a stone's throw from the Glass Market, men would step inside to look for clockwork gadgets, hinged snuff boxes, compasses and sundry other things. But unless they were searching for gifts for their husbands, women were less likely to pass through the doors.

The women needed to be lured in, Domnall explained, by hook or by crook. The suggestion that they might discover a new and fashionable accessory for their headdresses that none of their friends were wearing yet, got them inside. Once lured in, good luck willing, they'd be easier parted with some of their wealth. Mechanized gadgets, toys and the like didn't come cheap, and Domnall turned out some of the best.

Eli had been skeptical, but not for long. He'd only been apprenticed for a very short time, but already on several occasions he'd been left to run the front of the shop and take the money while Domnall was out. It was as predictable as the weather at Ziellmas. At least once, twice, three times during the trial he'd have to break the news to some young wife, mother, or one hoping to be either or both of those, that they didn't in fact sell the sort of fascinators they'd been looking for. And when asked what other sort of fascinator was there, that's when Eli could prove his worth to the master.

Shop keeping and the business of selling wasn't of any interest to Eli. He wanted to dream, build and create, not peddle tchotchkes to the masses. He considered it poor luck that he was turning out to have a knack for convincing people to purchase things they didn't need and often couldn't afford. But if he wanted to do the work that interested him most, now and then he'd have to run the front. This was one of those trials. Eli had barely come down from his flat, conveniently located on the shop's second story, when Domnall told him he'd be out for most of the trial. Eli had inwardly groaned, and in response Domnall chuckled and emptied a sackful of nuts, bolts, gears, springs, flywheels and cylinders out on the counter. "Here, put this together. It'll keep you busy between customers."

"What is it?" Eli called out as the older man opened the door and stepped out on the street. "Put it together and find out!" Domnall responded before the door swung shut again, and then he was gone. The shop sold all kinds of things from the simple to the complex. Bibloquets, which were nothing much but a cup on a handle, a string and a ball. Spinning tops, wooden whistles, things that relied on physics but not very much. Then there was the clockwork, and the wind up snuff boxes and toys. Whatever the heap of sundry parts was or had been, it wasn't any of those.

[Elijah Lamoreaux]

Business tended to ebb and flow over the course of any given trial, inside the small shop, outside on the sidewalks; even across the way at the Glass Market. Late morning tended to be the slowest, when the tourists and locals went off to their homes or the local inns for their mid-trial meal. Domnall wouldn't return until late afternoon, leaving Eli to watch the shop on his own. So he'd heated up the kettle and made himself a cup of tea, raided the pantry and cooling box for some bread, bits of hard crumbled cheese knocked off the block, and a handful of the candied fruit that one of Domnall's regular customers had brought by. While he was alone in the shop, he ate his lunch and pondered the bits and pieces that the master had dumped out on the counter.

Whatever these pieces were intended to be once they were all put together, couldn't have been very big, Eli thought while picking up the smallest of them and holding it up to the light. Some of them, the largest, a boxy, hinged sort of case or frame, was still small enough to have held in the palm of his hand. The smallest of the pieces and parts would need to be pinched up off the counter with fingertips or tweezers. "Gonna need a magnifyin' glass and tools smaller than I've got," he said to himself round a mouthful of bread and went to fetch what he needed from the workshop.

Eli couldn't help thinking that had he seen the end result, before it became bits and pieces, he'd have immediately known what it was. And for the same reason, the more he looked at the collection of parts, the more he came to suspect that something was missing. Maybe more pieces than one. "Figures," he said, knowing that Domnall had probably done it on purpose. Still, there were a number of things that he was familiar with. A thin, round piece of glass with smooth edges. But the small prism and the pieces of colored glass weren't the sorts of things that went into clockwork devices, or even a run of the mill compass. A bit of horse hair, a reflecting mirror. And a strangely put together piece that only seemed sensible once he held it up to one eye and squinted again. Like some sort of sight.

It was only then that the hinged case began to make sense, and Eli began to search for the sack that Domnall had emptied onto the counter before he'd left. Once he found the thing, secreted away in the bottom of a drawer, he turned the bag upside down and nothing came out. He reached inside and fished around, and grinned when he realized there were bits and pieces hung up inside. They probably hadn't gotten stuck there on their own. A pivot piece, a magnetic needle. An object vane and a face. But only vaguely similar to the old compass that Eli kept upstairs for safekeeping. This was also a compass, but one much different than any he'd seen before. The young apprentice wasn't put off by unfamiliarity or the absence of a set of instructions. He could probably have found a book on the subject, but Eli liked a challenge and would rather feel his way through it.

[Elijah Lamoreaux]

The bits and pieces of the puzzle that Eli finally knew the answer to, would still take their time in coming together in a sensible way. He lacked Domnall's experience by leaps and bounds, and he didn't have the same knowledge that came with formal university learning. He had to feel his way through it, and learn from any mistakes he might make. He made a few along the way, not to mention that it was fiddly work. Some of the screws and sundry other parts were so small that he had to used one of Domnall's collapsible magnifiers, so he could see well enough to work them into place. And even then, more than once he was forced to search the floor for the screws, springs and tools that he dropped.

Later in the afternoon when a handful of customers began to trickle in off the street, it slowed him down and made it more difficult to focus. One woman in particular had required quite a lot of attention. She was older, but then most everyone was in the young apprentice's mind. And wealthy too by the looks of her clothing and high manner. "No fascinators?" she asked. "Not those kinds of fascinators, ma'am," Eli said while putting aside his work for a bit and coming out from behind the counter. "What other kind is there, young man?" Smiling and sweeping a hand out in a grand gesture towards all the goods on the tables and shelves, he said, "Why every kind of marvel you could possibly imagine, and then some."

She looked skeptical, which Eli had imagined she might. "Well I was hoping to find something new and unusual to wear for a dinner party," the woman lamented. "You're hosting a party?" Eli responded, right on cue. The way he'd come to figure it, if you wanted to become a successful engineer and inventor in the same way that he did, being a good salesman was a good skill to have. "Wouldn't it be something if you could dazzle your guests with something they'd never seen before? Why I can imagine they'd be talking about it for trials to come."

He'd managed to pique her interest. He could see it by the way she lifted her brow. "Such as?" Eli was quick to usher the woman to one of the most expensive items in the shop. Judging by the jewels and the silks she wore, she could more than afford it. Besides, most times he started with the costliest items depending on the customer, and moved down from there. Basically it was an oversized music box, the whole thing contained in a large cherry cabinet and all the workings displayed in bright shining copper, behind a glass panel, itself etched with a florid copper design. Winding the thing up with the mechanism at the back, he stood back and smiled with the cabinet played a merry tune.....

Fifteen bits later, the woman had paid for the box and promised that her man would come round next trial to fetch it. After that, knowing that Domnall would be pleased with the results, Eli turned back to his project. And a break later, he'd managed to put together a sort of compass he couldn't recall having seen before. Much different, and seemingly much more complicated than his own, inherited compass. A prismatic compass, which later, Domnall would tell him wasn't just navigation. It was also a surveying instrument, used to find out the bearing of the traversing and included angles between them, way points and direction.

[Nursia]

I would like to begin this review by stating how highly impressed I am that you're skirting the line when it comes to inventions. When most people think clockwork, they tend to think steampunk designs and clocks themselves. Yet, you've resisted the urge to include it, and instead... You've been working with music boxes and trinkets.

That's attention to lore that I can get behind. Good on you. At this rate, who's to say your character won't invent higher uses for clockwork?

The information you put on display was interesting. The shop itself is partially a lie and marketing ploy to lure in the wealthy and bored. That's the sort of misdirection and half-truthing that I don't get to see often, and I'd like to say that you've impressed me overall with how well thought out your idea is.

There are no grammar, punctuation, or issues with flow that I can see.

Enjoy your rewards!


Eli

Rewards

Knowledges:
Engineering x 4.
Persuasion x 1.
Business Management x 1.

Non-Skill Knowledge:
Rharne: Location: Clockwork and Fascinators
Rharne: People: Domnall Scott
Wealth:
Renown:
EXP:
+10

Feedback

Understand that all criticisms are done in good faith. It would be a greater disrespect to not say anything in the face of problems. Please contact me through this account's inbox if you wish to further communicate on the matter of improvement, or if you feel as though anything is unduly harsh.

Player #2

Rewards

Knowledges:
Wealth:
Renown:
EXP:

Feedback

Understand that all criticisms are done in good faith. It would be a greater disrespect to not say anything in the face of problems. Please contact me through this account's inbox if you wish to further communicate on the matter of improvement, or if you feel as though anything is unduly harsh.