The Handy Wrench [Work Thread/SOLO]

[Hirosame]

Hiro sat at his counter, sighing slightly as he looked at the materials before himself. He had an Old Gear and an Old Spring, with which he was to make a Locking mechanism out of. His good friend and partner in the airship endeavor, Renai, had asked for Hiro to make something that would allow a sense of locking, with the use of a key. The key, however, was none of his business. That was probably left to a blacksmith somewhere, since Hiro only made the metallic objects and such into mechanisms. He wasn't a locksmith, although that could be something that a blacksmith could branch off into. It might make for some extra income, should people need keys and locks. It should be fun to make locks for people to hide their belongings, as well as lock their doors at night. This would make for a large sum of money, soon enough. He was certain of that.

Well, perhaps he should get right to work. This wasn't going to be all that difficult, it being a rather simple machine and all. He lifted up a few pieces of metal, and started to make a small box with them. He then added in a few little notches on the inside, as well as a small slit for the key object to go. This would be the locking mechanism. He put in the Old Gear and the Old Spring, to make sure he used the items he needed to in order to craft the machine. He looked at it for a moment, and saw that it had a very block-like shape to it. Now, maybe as a prototype, this would work, but obviously not a finished product. It had to look nice, or else it wouldn't sell. But, he'd worry about that later. One other thing he needed to make sure of was that it was usable. So, he took the contraption apart, and made a sliver of metal into a key-like object, put the notches into it, and then put the mechanism back together. Putting the "key" into the mechanism, and turning it, opened the small latch on the bottom. It worked, as was to be expected.

[Hirosame]

Hiro smirked, as the locking mechanism worked like a charm. But, he wasn't done yet. Like he had thought beforehand, he needed to make it look nice, or else it wouldn't sell. People didn't want stuff that looked crappy, because they probably thought that it would be crappy in the end. So, Hiro began to redo the face of the lock, making it into a beveled oval shape, with the key's slit going along the long side of the vertical oval. This didn't take a lot of work, since it wasn't going to be a fancy-ass contraption, and it would prove to do the job as it was needed. He then figured that it wouldn't make sense to go to two people, just to get a lock and then a key. He would need to make a key as well, because why would someone go get a lock, and not have a key with it? Being a rich and fancy kid, he never really had a problem like this before. However, he did have a lot of locked rooms in his house, which he had keys for all of them.

But, for now, making the lock look nice was his goal. He started to shape the outer sides of the locking mechanism so that it would fit easily inside a door or chest, or whatever else Renai was going to be using it for. He needed to keep it ambiguous for whatever his counterpart needed, just so he could use it in almost all of the things he needed to use it for. Despite that, it still needed some sort of uniformity to it, so that there could be a skeleton key of sorts, so the owner of a certain place could open all the locked chests and doors in case of emergencies or searches. He sighed, looking at the mechanism again. He put his utensils down, and stared at the lock, before setting it down for a few moments. Now, all that was left was to make the key, and then an extra key for it. Since he had that scrap of metal there, which already had the notches for the keyhole, he would use that as a base. This wasn't going to be hard at all. He was sure of it.

[Hirosame]

Now, the key. Hiro took few scraps of metal, and started to cut them out into a key shape, leaving the notched end whole. He did the same on the other scrap of metal, and then put the notched scrap just above the first key. He started to slowly cut out the contours of the notched scrap onto the first key, making sure that it wouldn't mess up or do something that he didn't want it to do. After cutting it out perfectly, or to the best of his ability, he put the first actual key into the key hole, and turned it. It opened the mechanism, and Hiro smiled and congratulated himself silently. He started to do the same with the other piece of metal, and tried it also in the keyhole. A perfect fit, and a job well done. He put the keys to the side, next to the lock, and started to just look at it for a moment.

This was going to get him a fair deal of Mechanic AP, probably enough to advance him up a rank or two. Feeling proud of his work, and what he had done thus far, he leaned back in his chair, putting his feet onto the table. He took another quick look over at the lock, seeing it's decent craftsmanship and mediocre mechanism as an achievement. He thought that he should go ahead and message Renai, telling him that it was ready. He sat back up, straightened his back, and stretched his arms, before opening the friends menu. He typed a quick message to Renai, and looked at the other pieces of metal nearby him. He picked up a few scraps, and began on his next project.

[Hirosame]

Hiro cracked his knuckles, as he began to motion towards a few scraps nearby him. They were just simple materials, only level 1 in the gane's rankings. While he himself was more than capable to use the next tier of materials, the mission he had to do next was to make a Small Music Box, which was comprised of two small materials, of which he was more than capable of using. The total of materials that he needed to use was actually a culmination of all three different types of first tier items, so he it must have been the quintessential item to have been crafted from all three different available materials. Before he could make the Small Music Box, he would need to first make a Wind-Up Mechanism. This wouldn't be too hard, he figured, since it was the first Mechanic-related item ever crafted in this world.



Being the first stage item to create the the Small Music Box, he wouldn't need to spend as much time on this smaller contraption than on the larger, so to speak, machine. The larger machine would be able to play a few notes, just like an actual music box, were it to be a real thing. He knew exactly what was needed to be done, so long as he followed the recipe as he was instructed beforehand. He kept the recipe open on a tab, so to speak, off on the side of his field of vision, so should he need to look at it once again, it's right there, available for him to use. It was a bit of an extra challenge for him to create an entirely new object before actually making someone scripted beforehand. Not his brightest idea, but it was still a powerful learning experience for him.

[Hirosame]

Well, he'd better get to work, he figured. He began to tinker a bit with the materials he had, making them into the forms he needed. He looked around for a moment, before realizing that he had all he needed was already before him. Which meant that all he could now was being to work. He began to assemble the pieces, taking a few scraps of metal and applying the materials where needed. He would look over at the recipe every now and again, in order to make sure that he was doing it right. Normally, it would be going alright, since he didn't really screw it up all that much. However, he would screw it up in a few places, but this was to be expected.



Very soon after, the mechanism was done. He took a moment to chronicle this in his in a somewhat notebook of sorts, so as he would keep track of all the things he has created up to date. In before this current entry was the locking mechanism, as well as the solid butt that he and Renai had made. So, all he needed to do was the take this mechanism that he had just created, and put it into a different mechanism, assemble all of it together, and bing bam boom. A Small Music Box was on the way.

[Hirosame]

Hiro brought a few extra pieces together, making a small conglomeration of pieces just before himself. He started to tinker with it all, making it into the right shape and size, as was dictated by the recipe. After making the box that would surround the mechanism that he had just created, he started to put a little sound device on top of it, so that it would produce noise. While this was only going to be able to make a mechanism that could only produce a few notes at a time, it was still something of importance to his requestor. He was only here to make the object, give it to the directed person, and then let it be as it was. Nothing else to it.



The only real problems he had with this project was the fact that he had no idea how to really get this started from this point. He knew that he would need to tinker with it for some time, to get it to play a few different notes, but even that would take some time to do. He was certain that his employer wanted him to let it play songs without any pauses, but he hoped that she would understand that that wouldn't really happen. She probably wouldn't, as she was more accustomed to kicking Goblins in their balls instead. But, that's about when he got an idea, and stood up, leaving the workshop alone for a little while. He locked the door behind him, and went right outside.

[Hirosame]

He started to walk around in the market district, to see if he could find another music box, just like the one that he was supposed to be making. After walking around for about five minutes, he finally found himself in the Mechanic side of the marketplace. He nodded to himself, before continuing down the street. He observed the other mechanics in their cruddy stalls, while he had his own workshop. Granted, he didn't buy the rights to it or anything, but it was still his. No one else was using it, and since he and Renai had made the butt there, he figured he might as well use it. Speaking of using things that he had, though, he found a music box. He grinned, and walked over to it.



He finally had an excuse to utilize one of his Mechanic skills. The one that he was to use, specifically, was Quality Control, which basically let him observe a piece of machinery and learn how it was assembled, and what it is supposed to do, along with other useful things. Hiro analyzed the machine, and started to run quickly back to the workshop. He unlocked the door, closed it behind himself, and then sat down immediately, beginning to make the project become a reality. This would certainly make the buyer a very happy woman.

[Hirosame]

Hiro made quick work of the construction of the object, and started to form the basis for the music box. Hiro put the wind up mechanism into the box, and started to open it back up. It was about at this time when Hiro added in the small note blocks, putting it in the spots as his memory recalled. His memory wouldn't fail him, as his passive skill for Mechanic was still active. He could see the music box as it was finished on the table in the mechanic district, and envisioned how it would be in the hands of that woman who had employed him. The song she wanted in there, too, was going to be difficult to get right, but he would only spend so long at it, until it worked. There wasn't a lot of room for the music box to hold information, so he had to make due with what he could.

The song was done, and the machine was all put together now. He sat back, and let the song play for its duration, and lost himself in the beauty of the music. Having been a music-lover back in the other world, he couldn't help but smile and grin while he heard its duration. He actually managed to fall asleep, very soon afterwards. It looked like that skill used up a lot of his concentration and endurance, for whatever reason. Maybe having images being placed in his mind for such a long time wasn't good for him. But, the music box had been completed. He finished his work, and nodded to himself, bringing up the menu to tell the employer, waiting eagerly for his money to roll in.

Aria of the Soul