[Solo - Crafting] Mappin' and Yappin' [End]

[Neon]

This should do...

Neon had been looking for a while to find a place to start working on his Scribe level, a quiet and peaceful place that would let him get his work done. He had almost given up hope after searching most of Londinium, but he finally found it. A rather small building offset from the rest, long abandoned by the People of the Land, Neon had found himself a nice enough place to do his work, a library. It's not much, but it'll do for a low level Scribe like me, he thought to himself as he stepped up to the old rusted door that stood at the front of the building.

Holding his staff back behind him with his right hand, Neon grabbed the handle with his left and pulled on it. Not a budge. With a heavy sigh, Neon gripped tightly, yanking hard on the handle. There was a small rattle and a creak of wood, but the door remained shut. Not willing to give up yet, he set his staff against the wall beside the door, letting it go as he grasped the handle with both hands, feeling the cold rusted metal on his skin. Gritting his teeth, he braced himself as he yanked hard on the handle once again.

The door almost pulled off of it's hinges, rattling loudly, the wood creaking within its frame, but alas, it was no use. Neon could feel it almost opening, but needed more oomph. So, he grasped it as tight as possible with both hands again, but this time lifted up his left leg, planting his foot hard against the wood of the door. With his position firmly set, he pulled as hard as he could on the handle, feeling the door scraping down on its own hinges.

Suddenly, the entire door burst off of it's frame, causing Neon to fly backwards with the door and onto the ground. "Gah!" He shouted loudly as he landed on the ground, the door planted on top of him. With a grunt and a shove, he heaved the door beside him onto the ground, releasing it as he clambered to his feet, dusting his cloth off and resetting his glasses on his nose as he looked down disdainfully at the door. That'll show you!

Neon turned back to where the door once stood, slowly walking over and grabbing his staff with his right hand as he went by it, shuffling through the door frame and into the library. Immediately he was hit with a cloud of dust that he had unsettled from the floor, puffing into his face. He waved his hand in front of his face, coughing and sputtering from accidentally inhaling some of it. As the dust resettled, he gently brushed away the grime that had reappeared on his cloth, as he looked around the room at the library.

It was a modest library, with three rows of bookcases situated in the middle of the room, the back wall lined with 4 or 5 desks. As he walked between the bookcases, he saw that the books were covered in dust and cobwebs, signs of how long it had been since they had been even touched, let alone read. The desk themselves were also buried beneath mounds of dirt and grime, and most of the legs were creaky, leaving them unstable and ready to fall apart at any moment.

With another heavy sigh, Neon hoisted his staff up off the ground so as not to unsettle any more dust, and slowly manoeuvred his way to the least wobbly desk. He leaned his staff beside him against the wall, and then with his hand, swept away the dust that was covering the desk, leaving it relatively clean. I'm no Housekeeper, so this is as good as it'll get.

Sitting down at the desk, Neon set about preparing to manufacture his first map, one of the London Area. He began making mental notes to himself; an Unfounded Kingdom Map - London Area requires one Parchment Paper, which needs three Old Papers, and one Quill Pen, which needs one Old Quill and two Old Inks.

So, first things first he needed to make some Parchment Paper.

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Word Count: 703
Total Count: 703

[Neon]

Parchment Paper. Neon pulled out the three Old Papers he had bought earlier and set them out onto the table, inspecting them with a close eye. Heavily worn and rather grotesque looking, Neon sighed as he watch them crumple a bit on the table, settling amongst the dust that he had missed with his lazy sweep. He set them out in a row, one by one, and nodded slowly before pulling out a small canister of water. Now, if I remember how to do this... He said to himself, setting the canister down behind the paper.

He grabbed each piece of paper again, collecting them up into a single stack, and then replaced them back down on the table. Rubbing his chin, he realised he would need something to collect the excess water so it didn't spill over the desk. He left his supplies on the desk, sliding his chair back and standing up from it as he gave the room a quick scan.

"That should do," Neon said softly, as he slowly walked over to one of the storage cupboards against the left wall that had it's door open. He reached up to one of the higher shelves, hoisting himself up on his toes as he grabbed a large bowl that had been left there and tugged it down off the shelf, lowering back down and settling it in his arms. He grinned happily at his achievement, walking back over to his desk and setting down the bowl beside the stack of papers.

Sitting back down, he brushed off his cloth and got back to work, grasping the stack of Old Papers carefully and gently as he lifted it up and placed it into the bowl. Grabbing the water canister again, he opened it as he lifted it to the bowl, pouring it over the pages to soak them. He quickly set the canister back down on the desk and lifted up the stack of soaked papers before they became too soaked, letting them dry just a bit before continuing.

Once the papers had sufficiently soaked, Neon began working to weave them together, merging their fibres delicately and carefully. Slowly but surely, the three Old Papers soaked and weaved and merged into a single paper, one that was sturdier than before. Lifting it up out of the bowl, Neon admired his newly crafted Parchment Paper, before setting it down on the desk to dry as he turned to the next part of his agenda; the Quill Pen.

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Word Count: 418
Total Count: 1121

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Crafting

Crafting: 1 Parchment Paper
Materials: 3 Old Paper [3]
Material Fee: 5 x [Item's Level (1)] x 3 = 15 gold

[Neon]

Quill Pen. Having set aside the bowl, water canister and Parchment Paper, Neon pulled out the materials necessary for his next craft.

Setting down his ingredients, he went over what he had in front of him. Lifting up the Old Quill, he inspected the feathers, trying to discern what bird it had been plucked from, but he had no clue. He gave the quill a dunk in the residual water at the bottom of the bowl, so as to clean off the grime and dirt that were still prominent on it from when it had evidently been picked off the ground. Nodding slowly, he set down the sufficiently cleaned quill onto the table, turning to the last two ingredients.

The two small pots of Old Ink stood still and unmoved from where he had placed them on the desk, remaining there as if watching and waiting for him to lift them up. He stared at them for some time, a little disturbed, before shaking off the strange feeling and grasping one of the pots, lifting it up to his face. Giving it a quick dust off with his hand, he held it level with his chin in one palm, using his other hand to open the lid and inspect the liquid inside.

To call it a liquid would be to call ice-cream solid. The ink within the pot was just as it had been described... old. Fairly thick, the ink seemed to stick to the walls of the pot when swirled around inside. Neon dipped his finger into what he hoped was in fact ink as he had assumed it to be, feeling not only thickness, but also a strange, partially dry texture he wouldn't normally associate with ink... With a heavy sigh, he set the lid back on the pot, using the water of in the bowl to rid his finger of the ink while he set the pot down on the desk. He moved to the second pot, inspecting it as he did the first, repeating his process and setting it back down again.

With his ingredients sufficiently ready, he got to work, taking the two pots and melding the ink within them together into one pot, adding a bit of water from the canister to water it down and remove the dryness. Once the ink in the one pot was sufficiently ready for use, he delicately grabbed the feather, using one of the sharp edges on the table's sides to whittle it down to a sufficient pen shape. Once the quill was ready, he set it down next to the ink pot, and smiled at his work; a well-made Quill Pen, ink included.

With that, he rubbed his chin as he readied to start on the map itself.

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Word Count: 461
Total Count: 1582

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Crafting

Crafting: 1 Quill Pen
Materials: 1 Old Quill, 2 Old Ink [3]
Material Fee: 5 x [Item Level (1)] x 3 = 15 gold

[Neon]

Neon grabbed the bowl, sliding back his chair from the desk to stand up from it, taking the bowl with him. He moved away from the desk, and then began walking back towards the door... or what was left of it from his earlier escapade. He walked out to the grassy patch out the front of the library, and quickly dumped the residual ink-mixed water into the grass, sufficiently emptying it before quickly taking it back inside.

Once back in the library, Neon quickly hurried over to the cupboard, accidentally kicking up clouds and clouds of dust that he would no doubt regret later. He hoisted himself up on his toes once again as he approached the cupboard, heaving the bowl up to its spot, back on its shelf. Once back down on his proper footing, he dusted off his hands and grasped the door of the cupboard, swinging it shut. The resulting bounce of the door against the frame of the cupboard caused it to knock itself from its hinges, clattering down onto the floor, causing Neon to jump back in fright. The dust that it kicked up burst into Neon's fast, covering him in grime and causing him to inhale a large chunk of it, putting him into a long coughing fit.

Once he had sufficiently recovered and got back his breath, Neon wiped away the dust from his face and glasses, making a mental note to get cleaned up later. He dusted off his cloth, letting out a soft sigh as he turned back to walk over to his desk once again. Grabbing the water canister and empty ink pot, he slowly walked back over to the cupboard to put them away, leaving them on one of the lower shelves for someone else to use if they so wish.

Having sufficiently cleaned his work space, Neon returned to his desk yet again, seating himself back on his chair and shuffling himself closer to the desk, observing it slowly. On his left side, he had the large piece of Parchment Paper ready for use, and on the right, he had his Quill Pen, with the pot of slightly mediocre ink beside it. Nodding slowly, Neon felt that he was ready to make it. His first ever map. An Unfounded Kingdom Map of the London Area.

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Word Count: 387
Total Count: 1969

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Crafting

Crafting: Unfounded Kingdom Map - London Area [Post 1]
Materials: 1 Parchment Paper, 1 Quill Pen [2]

[Neon]

Neon took a gentle hold of the Parchment Paper spreading it out over the desk and smoothing it out flat. He noticed one of the corners flipping up a bit, so he quickly grabbed the ink pot and gently laid it down atop the corner as a paperweight, making the paper as smooth as it possibly could be. Giving it one more scan for any blemishes or creases, Neon nodded to himself as he took the Quill Pen in his right hand, giving it one last inspection before readying himself for the task before him. My first map... Neon thought to himself, holding the quill in his hand at the ready.

He slowly lowered the tip of the quill to the page, a bead of sweat rolling off his brow from the excitement as he gently pressed it down onto the paper. Wait... He thought to himself, squinting as he looked closely at the point of contact between the quill and the paper.

A thorough smack to his forehead with his palm brought him back to his senses as he realised he had forgotten to add ink to the end of the pen. He gently wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, flicking it off onto the floor beside him as he flipped the quill through his fingers, opening the ink pot with his left hand and setting the lid to the side. He moved his quill down, slowly, carefully, gently, into the ink pot, and dipped the end into the thick ink.

With the quill sufficiently inked up, he closed his eyes, took in a deep, soothing breath, and readied as he once again took his quill slowly and gently down onto the page. It was a tense moment, and he was sentimental enough to make it last as he inched his way down onto the page.

As the end of the quill met the paper, Neon let out a satisfied sigh of relief, before quickly getting back to his task, tracing the quill out into small patterns of the London Area. He had seen much of it when he was looking for a place to make the map, but still, his memory wasn't perfect. He continued his tracings, drawing out a basic idea of the various parts of the London Area, slowly filling out the map with ink. Once the map was done, he nodded on his work, before moving to the bottom right-hand corner and tracing out a suitable compass for reference to the map.

Leaning back, Neon admired his handiwork, tapping the end of the quill on the edge of the ink pot to remove residual ink. Once that was done, he gently placed the quill onto the desk, sliding the ink pot off the newly drawn up map. With gentle hands, he grasped the map and lifted it up from the desk, holding it up in front of him. "Awesome." He nodded slowly, setting the map back down on the desk. It was done.

Having done his work and check it over at least ten times, Neon stood up and began silently pacing about the library as he waited for the ink to dry, inspecting the various books that lined the bookcases for anything he could read up while he did so. Eventually, he returned to his desk, smiling happily at having completed his first craft.

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Word Count: 566
Total Count: 2535

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Crafting


Crafting: Unfounded Kingdom Map - London Area [Post 2]
Materials: 1 Parchment Paper, 1 Quill Pen [2]