• Completed • [Venora, Job Thread] Grasping the nettle

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Atashi
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[Venora, Job Thread] Grasping the nettle

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42nd Vhalar

It didn't feel right, finding work in a forge. Standing outside said forge, all he could think about was the countless arguments he had with his parents when he was young, the arguments that eventually pushed him to find his own path in the world. Could he go back to hammering metal? Granted, he hadn't touched a forge since Arcs long gone, but the feeling in his gut told him that it would be the same as all those Arcs ago, futility in striking the same piece of metal all day, accidentally dropping a crucible full of molten metal onto the floor and then a telling-off for trying to carry more than he could manage. He shivered, shaking away the thoughts of the past. He assured himself that he was bigger and stronger since those days.. and wise enough to not try and move a crucible full of molten metal by himself.

Still doubting himself, he slithered through the front door, waiting at the desk was a rather short, stocky human, wearing a leather apron. The man cocked an eyebrow to Atashi, he probably wasn't expecting an Ithecal to walk through the front door. "Whatchya want, son?" The human asked in a low raspy voice. Suddenly, it all came flooding back to him, the smell of the burning coals, the sight of all of the finely crafted weapons and armor, the black stains that seemed to get on your clothes no matter how much you avoid it. He was in a forge, or at least the front of one. Looking around, it appeared to be well-kept, the desk was free of dust, as well as a few pieces of furniture in the corner of the room. This Smith definitely cared for presentation, the forge itself was probably in the back area somewhere which is probably a blessing for customers, considering how musty and dirty it can get. Atashi swallowed, "Umm, hi.. ..I, uhh.." He choked. He then turned for the exit but stopped himself half way. If he left now, he wouldn't be able to show himself here again, that would be the end of this career opportunity. And he needed the money, mercenary work was not enough to sustain him long, especially since he had spent the last of his Nels on the War Hammer.

To his right was the forge, the man who looked confused and a whole new career, to his left was the exit, an escape from having to go back to what he ran from in the past. He turned to the right to face the human and exhaled, slithering forward and put his hands on the desk. "I want a job here. Are there any positions going?" He spoke, he made full eye contact with the man as he said so. His expression could only be described as determined, his eyes were ablaze with said determination. The man he was talking to was taken back by the Ithecal's sudden forwardness. "Uhh, wait here a sec'." He spoke before disappearing into a door to his left. Atashi waited a couple of minutes, it sounded as though people were talking, though distant and muffled. Minutes later, the man returned with a folded up, large leather apron, similar to the one the man was wearing. "You're hired if you can start straight away." The man said in his low voice again.
Last edited by Atashi on Thu Dec 01, 2016 1:26 pm, edited 2 times in total. word count: 574
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Atashi
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[Venora, Job Thread] Grasping the nettle

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His heart sank. Suffice to say, that wasn't the answer he was looking for. If he had been told no, he could have said he tried. "Well, can you? I haven't got all day." The human asked impatiently. Suddenly realising that he had been standing there, idle, he shook his head, throwing off his dread and spoke "Sorry, sorry. I'm just so glad to be in the smithing business, boss." Atashi smiled, at least on the outside. He had been making a habit of hiding behind this 'can-do' facade, like a couple of nights ago on guard duty with Kylar, he agreed to doing something he knew he wasn't qualified to do. Granted, he had stopped a man from bleeding out, but that’s not the point; He was being dishonest with himself.

The man then bellowed with laughter in his low voice "I ain't your boss, just work at the desk. What did you say your name was?" Atashi slammed his palm into his forehead, for a multitude of reasons. He'd gone and assumed this human was the owner of the business and he had forgot to introduce himself. "My name's Atashi, pleasure to be working with you." he said, removing his palm from his reddened forehead. "Well Atashi, get your apron on because we could use a big strong ithecal such as yourself over here." Atashi nodded, picking up the apron and carefully unfolding it, it appeared to be unused, pristine condition even. He wondered why the owner would have an Apron this big lying around unused. "Ever worked in a forge before then, Atashi?" the man asked as Atashi was putting on the apron. He wouldn't bother the man with the history "When I was a lot younger, yes. My father was actually a Smith, I just miss it you know?" Again with the lies, he could feel it eat him up inside. But what's an inconsequential lie to mask the ugly truth? He assured himself he was picking the lesser evil by not bothering this stranger with his sob story.

"Well, 'sounds like you know more than most of the people we recruit!" The man chuckled uncomfortably, "Well, follow me then, let’s get your induction sorted, I don't doubt you could use a refresher?" he then asked, lifting a portion of the counter that in turn opened up a walkway. Atashi followed suit, "Yes, I suppose so. It was many Arcs ago that I last even saw an anvil!" He laughed nervously. In truth, he had avoided anvils and all associated tools like a sleeping dragon. But now was the time to rise to the challenge, feeling a little easier than before, he could feel he was at least somewhat ready for a day’s work hammering metal.
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Atashi
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[Venora, Job Thread] Grasping the nettle

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Re-emerging from his thoughts, he was still holding onto the apron. The human behind the desk then rolled his eyes "Here, let me show you." he said, reaching behind him and undoing his own apron before turning around for Atashi to see his back. He then tied the knot of the apron slowly for Atashi to see, he saw the process step by step. The man then turned around to face Atashi once more "Alright, that’s how it's done, now you try." he said, waiting for the Ithecal to make a move. "Ah yes, how could I forget..." Atashi replied, he had never used an apron when he was smaller, the leather was always too heavy for him, but the knot seemed simple enough. He put the aprons main hoop on over his head and adjusted the leather to not fold over itself at his front, then reached behind him with the two ropes and tried to mimic the man's technique. It was difficult to manage without looking but he somehow pulled it off. He turned for the man to see and asked "Like this?", wanting to make sure he'd gotten it right. The man then nodded, approvingly "Yup, that's how it’s done." he grinned.

"Are you ready for the fun stuff, then?" asked the human, a hint of challenge in his words. Atashi nodded, turning back to face the man "You bet, I can't wait to get back into this." he said with enthusiasm, and deep down he was telling the truth, part of him was actually excited to get back in the forge. The rest, however, dreaded the thought of even breathing the same air as a furnace. The man then motioned for Atashi to follow him into the room to the left, he followed. He was still a little reluctant, but brushed it off and pressed onward. What he saw surpassed his expectations, he had expected to be working in dimly lit room filled with thick, musty air with every piece of equipment being either damaged, dirty or both. He instead met with a well-lit work shop, immaculately clean with plenty of fresh air. A door had been left open on the left wall, as well as all the windows in the room, it let a lot of light in and filtered out the scummy air. Additionally, the clean air kept the tools in the room cleaner for longer and clean tools don't break as quick. He hadn't thought about it before, but something as simple as opening the windows and doors made a big difference on both the work shop's finances and the morale of the workers.

"I'm going to like working here..." Atashi said under his breath, taking in the quality of this forge. The man overheard this and chuckled "I thought you would, most Smiths do before they run off and start their own forges." the man shook his head "Well then, let’s get started shall we?" he said before setting off. There were a few other blacksmiths at work in here, four if he counted right and all of them looked to be hard at work on some piece of equipment, though work probably didn't feel like 'work' in a place like this. Atashi followed after the Man and eventually arrived at a door near the back of the work shop "This is where we keep the metals..." the human said while opening the doors "Getting a metal that isn't Iron, steel or cobalt in the shop, unless we get a special request, is rare, so don't worry about wasting any valuable metals, we'll be working with Iron today." said the man. behind the doors was a rather small storage cupboard filled with three different ingots, a dull grey, a shiny grey and a sleek, shiny dark grey metal were all shelved in neat piles, they appeared to be organised by their shiny-ness, but Atashi didn't want to sound stupid, so didn't comment.

The man then reached up, and pulled one of the dull grey bars from the shelf, it looked weightless in his hands. The man then held out the bar to Atashi, he then took the ingot from the human, the weight was surprising. "Get a feel for that metal, it's Iron and you're gonna be working on it for the day." The human said, giving a patient smile. The metal felt familiar, he had probably worked it with his father as a child, it was cold, rough, felt almost raw. It didn't bend when he pressed his thumbs in to it, so it was anything but malleable. It felt like a decent material for weapons and armour, or so his somewhat educated guess would have lead him to believe. "Alright, feels like an okay metal to me. Ready to proceed." Atashi spoke, looking to the human. The man then lead Atashi to a large furnace, the coals were already burning bright, perhaps it had been used recently? The atmosphere around the furnace was pleasantly warm, which Atashi appreciated. "Okay, we're gonna start by heating up that ingot you have there. All you've gotta do is just put it in the furnace." The human instructed Atashi and waited observing Atashi, as though he was performing a difficult ritual. What could go wrong? All he was doing was putting a piece of metal into a ready-heated oven, right?
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Atashi
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[Venora, Job Thread] Grasping the nettle

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He pondered the ingot of iron in his hands, was there some kind of trick to this? I mean, this human can’t honestly expect Atashi to mess up putting an ingot in the furnace, surely? Shrugging, he reached for the furnace with the ingot in his hand, and sure enough the man interrupted him “Aren’t you forgetting something, Atashi?” he asked. Atashi looked to him, somewhat confused, somewhat annoyed. The man shook his head and picked up a pair of large pliers, then handed them to Atashi. “Safety first, we wouldn’t want you burning yourself now, would we?” the human spoke, smiling warmly as though he had helped Atashi massively. In truth, he didn’t feel that he was in danger of burning, but he humoured the human regardless. He used the large pliers to take hold of the Iron ingot and put it in the furnace, and as he did so, the heat burned the hairs from the back of his hand. He reflexively pulled his hand back out of the furnace, put the ingot and pliers down and waved his hand in the cool air, he’d only just managed to not drop the ingot and pliers immediately.

He looked to the human with a scowl, the human looked to Atashi, confused. “Oh right! You forgot your gloves, Atashi!” said the human. Atashi then slammed his palm into his own forehead, of course he forgot them! It’s not as though this man was meant to be showing him what to do or anything, he must have retained that knowledge from his days as a hatchling! Atashi’s mistake. The human then made a light jog to the storage room and took a large pair of heavy canvas gloves from the cupboard before running them to Atashi. Atashi looked to the human with a patient smile, when in truth he would much rather pelt the human with the canvas gloves. He rubbed the back of his hand, trying to brush off the stinging pain of his now bare hand before taking the heavy canvas gloves from the human and putting them on. “Thank you, friend.” Atashi said to the human before picking up the pliers and ingot once more, he had to grip the handle of the pliers firmly through the gloves. The human smiled warmly to Atashi, feeling he had helped the Ithecal. Atashi exhaled, mentally preparing himself for anything the human might say he had done wrong and/or a sudden burning sensation anywhere on his body.

However, this time around, Atashi successfully put the ingot in the furnace without injuring himself or the human. “Well done!” the human applauded, Atashi grit his teeth. “I knew you could do it, Atashi, in the end anyway.” The human said, it almost felt as though the human was mocking him. The ringing of a bell then sounded from the front room and the human’s head turned to the source. “Looks like we’ve got a customer. I’ll be back in a minute, just keep an eye on that ingot and pull it out when the metal glows white.” The human instructed, before running off for the front room of the store. It was almost relieving to be rid of him, or so Atashi thought to himself. But as annoying as it was to be spoon-fed these lessons, he was learning new things and that was no bad thing. Waking up out of his daydream, he felt as though he was being watched. Looking about the room, he saw the four other blacksmiths staring at him from a corner of the workshop. Almost as fast as they had been seen, they turned back to their work. He was getting used to the weird looks, after all, he hadn’t bumped into another Ithecal since settling in Venora.

Wasn’t he meant to be doing something? Oh no! The iron! He turned to face the furnace in a panic, almost having forgot about it completely. The iron glowed white with heat, it felt ready? He didn’t know how else to describe it. It had heated far faster than he had anticipated, he smiled to himself as he took hold of the pliers. In truth, he had missed this, he didn’t know why he had loathed it in the past, perhaps it was his strict parents, shoving the teachings down his throat. On second thought, perhaps being spoon-fed the information wasn’t as annoying as he had first thought. He rested the iron on the edge of the furnace with the pliers still clamping it and slithered to the storage room at the back wall of the workshop. He opened the door and picked up a pair of goggles from one of the shelves. And put them on, tightening the leather strap on its side. He then slithered back to the furnace where his white-hot iron ingot still rested, he picked it up by the pliers and turned to the anvil. As he turned, he saw the four other Smiths staring once more, this time with confusion. He grinned, taking hold of a nearby large hammer.

His past experiences in his father’s forge came flooding back to him as he held the white-hot metal on the anvil with the large pliers. He’d completely thrown off his previous inhibitions, in fact, this didn’t even feel like work anymore, this was fun. He lifted the large hammer, it felt about as heavy as his War hammer, maybe a bit lighter. Exhaling once more, he threw the hammer down, striking the white hot metal and sent sparks flying in all directions.
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Atashi
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[Venora, Job Thread] Grasping the nettle

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The sound of metal colliding with metal filled the workshop, as Atashi got to work shaping the Iron. He wasn't quite sure what he would make just yet, perhaps a bog-standard sword? He had a vague idea of how to make one, though could use a refresher. So, until the human came back he continued to hammer the white-hot metal, elongating the ingot. At times, the metal would fade to a warmer red-hot sort of glow and Atashi would simply re-heat it and go back to hammering on the anvil. The four other smiths looked bewildered amongst each-other as if they were contemplating stopping the novice, that is until the human re-entered the room. "What...? WHAT!?" The human bellowed, sounding annoyed. Atashi put the hammer down for a moment and lifted his goggles, looking to the human with confusion "What do you think you're doing, Atashi!?" The human shrieked. "Uhh, shaping the metal, like you told me to?" He said, unsure if the human had or not.

In fact, he couldn't recall being told to do anything but remove the iron from the furnace after it started glowing white, how he knew where the goggles and hammer where was a mystery. He must have assumed the goggles were in storage as that's where the human got his canvas gloves and as for the hammer, he must have subconsciously seen it previously. The human turned red in the face with anger "No I didn't!" He turned to the other Smiths "Did I!?" the four of them looked to one another as if waiting for one to speak. "Did I?" The human asked, questioning himself as well as the four other Smiths. The four smiths shrugged, whether they were covering for Atashi, weren't listening or just didn't care, he did not know, but was thankful regardless. "Oh… maybe I did. Sorry Atashi. Looks like you've managed just fine anyway." The human said, returning to his normal tone. Atashi couldn't believe he'd gotten away with that, but did not question it.

"Well, you're doing okay… Strike the metal again, I wanna see your technique." The man said, stepping back slightly. Atashi did as instructed and struck the metal as he had been the whole time. The human nodded, then adjusted Atashi's grip on the hammer and intructed him on striking it at a different angle. "Go on then, give that a try." The human instructed once more. Atashi shrugged, figuring an adjustment of the grip would make the smallest difference if anything at all. he struck the iron once more with the new technique he had been shown and the metal collapsed a lot more fluidly than before. Now that was interesting, whoever owned this workshop had an eye for detail, so much so that they had instructed its members to use a more efficient hammering technique. "See, what did I tell you?" The human grinned.

Atashi went on shaping the metal for another couple of hours or so, re-heating when he felt it necessary. He had eventually crafted a dull iron rod, under the supervision of the human of course. It sort-of resembled a sword, in the sense that it had a point and plenty of edges, perhaps too many edges. The human stood over it with Atashi, his arms crossed with one hand balled into a fist resting his knuckles on his mouth. He looked to be deep in thought. "Bah, I guess a first attempt is a first attempt. You'll get there in the end, boy." The human then looked to the open windows, it had darkened significantly outside. "Oh, not today though, I've gotta close up shop. I'll see you tomorrow though, Atashi." Said the human, setting off on putting out the furnaces and such. Atashi shrugged, picking up his poorly fashioned Iron bar. At least he could say he tried, though not trying at all would have yielded better results. He put the iron bar down and removed his goggles, heavy canvas gloves and apron, folded them up into a neat pile on the workshop desk before heading out the side door of the workshop and back home.
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[Venora, Job Thread] Grasping the nettle

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Atashi


Points!:

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 0/ 5 (solo thread)
Structure: 5/ 5
Knowledge:

Detection: the smell of the forge
Investigation: working out the personality of the shopkeeper by the layout of the shop
Investigation: identifying different metal types by their "shiny'ness"
Business Management: Small details, like light and air, make a big difference.
Discipline: Making the right choices, even when you don't want to.
Discipline: A tidy workspace
Deception: Selling yourself as enthusiastic to suck up to the boss
Smithing: Using common metals.
Smithing: Iron: Dull grey
Smithing: Safety precautions around furnace
Smithing: Iron is ready from the furnace when it glows white
Smithing: Hammering the metal
Smithing: Adjusting your grip to suit the job.

Loot:
NA
Fame:
NA
Magic:
These points may NOT be used for arcana

Overview:

General comments. No worries here - it might have been nice to give the NPC a name, but that's the only tiny point that I would make.
Story No worries - I liked that you didn't overplay Atashi's skill level, that you had him be quite mischievous and a little devious too. Nice character development.
Structure Good. No worries.



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