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Baizon

Clockwork Friend

Baizon
May 2nd, 2021
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  1. 13:37] Walked right up to head office, a favourite spot for the razuka and her shady transactions .. The room stinks of smoke with the odd sting of that sylavanum still in the air..
  2.  
  3. Maybe it'd been thrown all over the place!
  4.  
  5. That's not their biz' here, the rat up and squeaks after having the younger woman sit. "Now I kno' yer real profesional 'bout erythin'.. N' s'gonna be a big ast' of you right 'ere.."
  6.  
  7. "Na'ain't find no stones, s'too much n'.. Well.. What iff'n I could offer summit' else that's.. Sorta' same?" Her large chest is opened, reaching and searching around inside for some flat item covered over by a blanket. "Y'any good at repurposing' gear?" A half glance back.
  8. (Niffty)
  9. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  10.  
  11. [13:41] The smell, keen in her predator's nose, brings back fond, fleeting memories of debauchery in a mortal life. One that really hadn't been all that long ago, by all accounts.
  12.  
  13. "I pride myself in bein' a neutral, professional force, miss Niffty," she says, confirming the words with a nod. Her eyes flick over the covered item.
  14.  
  15. "Honestly. Most people ain't trust me to make somethin' from scratch. Which is a shame. It's my most beautiful work when I get it from the floor up. But...yeah. I got loads of experience in repurposin'."
  16.  
  17. The leeches, as they were called, had been the first to give her honest-to-gods projects. But she took what she could get.
  18.  
  19. "What didjya' have in mind?"
  20. (Katrin)
  21. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  22.  
  23. [13:44] "Mhm.."
  24.  
  25. "Well maybe y'make summit' from scratch after y'smash this down.. I jus' need t'kno' I got yer word that noffin' that I say 'ere n' noffin' t'do with it leaves both our mouths t'anyone."
  26.  
  27. "Not now, not ever." The covered piece is let on the table, upright, with the rat resting her chin over the top to stare down at Katrin. "Cuz' people 'avin' dirt on me don' make me all that comfortable.."
  28.  
  29. "So can I trust'ya with this? S'coin in it iff'n y'agree t'the job, obviously." A single blink, but ultimately she's staring.
  30. (Niffty)
  31. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  32.  
  33. [13:46] A sanctified zone of secrecy. Nothing left the back room. She nods, putting a hand over her chest.
  34.  
  35. "Cross my heart. Hope to die," she says with a wry smile. "Believe me. I know the feelin'. I don't like givin' people leverage." It was dangerous in her line of work.
  36.  
  37. The call of coin was sweet. Riches in spite of all those who denied her or scorned her work. A sweet liquor without equal. Save for, perhaps, genuine respect. But how seldom was that?
  38. (Katrin)
  39. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  40.  
  41. [13:51] "Brilliant." A manic smile pulled in that moment. "Then I can let loose on this 'ere."
  42.  
  43. The cover pulled, the mirror revealed in all its beauty. - It's very much familiar to the recently deceased Reason had follow him around on the constant.
  44.  
  45. "This'ere is Reyleigh's mirror, Mykael's husband." Small paws cup around each side of the mirror's casing, stroking it on just the one corner. "Don' ast' n' don' tell, I got it and nobody'll kno' that I do."
  46.  
  47. "Capiche'?" But we'd already confirmed that, the rat goes on. "S'real fuckin' fancy n' I's wonderin' iff'n y'can break it down in private.. Make summit nicer.. Better fer me."
  48.  
  49. It's let down flat, the reflective surface up.. Then slid across to Katrin.
  50.  
  51. "'cha think?"
  52. (Niffty)
  53. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  54.  
  55. [13:54] It was a glorious mirror. Credit and respect where it was due. A fine, careful hand had made it. Just because she had competitors, even those that might have been uncharitable, didn't mean she couldn't separate their attitudes from the craft.
  56.  
  57. A soft whistle. A pause. A frown. In that order.
  58.  
  59. "I think..."
  60.  
  61. Her brow creases.
  62.  
  63. "...I think my lil' brother deserved better."
  64.  
  65. "Is fancy though, yeah. Could break it down. Make somethin' grand out of it."
  66.  
  67. There was poetry there too. To make slag out of a competitors work, to build it back up into something fine and pristine. It brought a strange satisfaction to her cold, dead heart. The artificer picks it up. She peers into its depths.
  68.  
  69. For one reason or another she's frozen. A few tears leak from the corners of her eyes.
  70.  
  71. "I uh...I...Y-yeah. I can...I can do that."
  72.  
  73. She forces herself tolook away from it. It's hard.
  74. (Katrin)
  75. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  76.  
  77. [14:00] The rat barely spares a look to it.. It was shinny, it had value. And like the savage she was, she wanted it sold off or.. Well, made into something she can use.
  78.  
  79. The reaction Katrin gives brings the rat to raise a brow.. She had very little clue what the woman was on.
  80.  
  81. "Ye'h.. Sure.."
  82.  
  83. "Then y'do that.. Turn it inta' summit unrecognizable n' fuckin' strong.. Noffin' leftover of t'original." She wanted to utterly erase it. "Like I said.. Ten tousand' or more.. See how we end up."
  84.  
  85. A pause as Katrin starts to stare into it, the rat folding her arms over .. It turns to a squint.
  86.  
  87. "T'fuck's up with'cha?" Crying..?
  88. (Niffty)
  89. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  90.  
  91. [14:05] The artificer puts the mirror with the glass side down, quickly swiping a sleeve over her face.
  92.  
  93. "Nothin'. S'nothin'," she huffs hastily. She does not spare another look at the mirror.
  94.  
  95. "I can do that. Can break it down. What do ya want made?"
  96.  
  97. Brass tacks. Business. What's left of her heart is no longer steering the wheel. Here and now it has no place in her dealings.
  98.  
  99. "Ten thousand base line. Yeah, alright."
  100. (Katrin)
  101. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  102.  
  103. [14:07] What DID she want..
  104.  
  105. Honestly? She wanted the evidence crushed down and forgotten about.. But she had the coin now, she could cash it in for something fancy.
  106.  
  107. "Well.. Y'got my old watch, y'got this.."
  108.  
  109. "Why don'cha surprise me n' well throw up that base pay ta' fifteen tousand'." Obviously she wanted something like her watch. "Use that big brain o'yers." A tail seems to prod up against the side of Katrin's head, the rat still smiling on at them.
  110. (Niffty)
  111. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  112.  
  113. [14:12] She gets herself back in the saddle after what seeing unhorses her. Gets back on and rides.
  114.  
  115. "Hm. Yeah. Can do that. Can start work on it now, even," she mutters. The sooner she could break this thing the better. Those sweet lies it showed her. Well, she'd show it.
  116.  
  117. Her mind whirls through ideas, even before the rat jostles her noggin.
  118.  
  119. "Yeah, yeah. I'll see to it. Half of the base value up front for pay? It's my standard. But I'm willin' to negotiate."
  120. (Katrin)
  121. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  122.  
  123. [14:16] "Perfec'."
  124.  
  125. That tail? It reaches into a drawer and gathers several things as the razuka speaks onto Katrin.
  126.  
  127. "'appy with that, never been more 'appy t'cough up coin fer summit'." Again it's a shit-eating grin that meets the younger woman..-
  128.  
  129. Following that? A pouch comes around, a heavy one of gold bars.. Just about adding up to half the payment. - Dumped on the desk before Katrin.
  130.  
  131. "Remember.. Not a word t'nobody n' not a single person sees wha'cha workin' with.."
  132.  
  133. "Jus' us."
  134. (Niffty)
  135. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  136.  
  137. [14:17] {Item} Picked up a bag of 7500 dropped by Niffty.
  138. [14:18] Coin. There it is. A fantastic, glittering expression of respect. Maybe that's why she appreciated it. What it represented. What it could purchase.
  139.  
  140. She hefts the weight of the bars in her hand and smiles all-too-wide.
  141.  
  142. "Fantastic...And I understand. I'm a woman of discretion, miss Niffty. It stays with me."
  143.  
  144. It was just business. That was all. And in the end it would still be one of the kinder, less destructive things she's made.
  145. (Katrin)
  146.  
  147. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  148.  
  149. [14:46] To call it 'honest' work may not have been proper. But it was work. That could scarcely be denied. She whisks the pieces- the damnable mirror that showed her those sweet visions and the treasured pocket watch from the retired Commander.
  150.  
  151. She strews them all out on a desk. Again she is careful to put that mirror face down. It strikes a strange emotion in her cold dead heart. A longing for something that can't be. Or is all too unlikely.
  152.  
  153. Katrin had glimpsed it trailing her younger brother's husband. Her technical sibling, though no love had really been fostered or lost there. Poor, poor Mykael…
  154.  
  155. He had really deserved better. That is the key thought in her mind, along with how unfair its visions truly were, as she dashes it against her desk and shatters the reflective surface into so many shards.
  156.  
  157. Quickly she scoops them all into a bag. Out of sight. Out of mind. The frame? Hucked into a crucible to melt down to its base parts.
  158. (Katrin)
  159. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  160.  
  161. [14:50] Generally she did not prefer restorations. It was a great deal of the work she got. Restorations, augmentations of anothers work. Yet the coin she got from it spent like any other. Didn't mean her heart was in the labor, however.
  162.  
  163. At her work desk she takes out her finer tools, the ones for delicate, intricate work. She starts to dismantle the clock work pocket watch, the symbol of the Razuka's sentimentality, piece by piece. It's gauges, its dials, its readouts, are painstakingly removed.
  164.  
  165. Say what you might about the Achyonites, but when it came to fine moving parts? They did have the know-how.
  166.  
  167. Molds are made from the mithril pieces, ensuring that the newly cast ones of the salvaged arcanium fit snugly and do not interrupt the clock work pieces that make up the guts of the old gift.
  168. (Katrin)
  169. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  170.  
  171. [14:55] It's been some time since she's had to do much careful, fine work. Sweat beads on her brow, more from tension than the familiar, warming forge heat.
  172.  
  173. From the crucible she takes the melted arcanium from the mirror's frame and doles it into the molds. Tiny, thin layers where necessary. This was no sword, no armor. It required a fine touch.
  174.  
  175. They're allowed to cool, then broken free from their containers.
  176.  
  177. Then she starts the slow, excruciating process of fitting all the little pieces back together. Like the tiniest, most difficult puzzle.
  178. (Katrin)
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