Some Assembly Required [Solo/Crafting]

[Ria]

LIFE IS A TRICK

and you only get one chance to learn it

Ria glanced around, taking in the broken windows and empty displays throughout the store. She’d heard that St. Pancras station was the place where numerous crafters tended to gather, which was true, but she’d thought the place would have been in better condition. Of course, she had been mistaken as the station seemed just as messed up as the rest of London. Ria had been in this station numerous times when she had lived in the outskirts of the city, so it was rather disconcerting to see such a familiar site reduced to its current state. This feeling had been bothering her ever since her arrival and while often it lurked in the background, it tended to unexpectedly spring up. At least she intended to be busy, which would hopefully drive those thoughts from her mind.

If she remembered correctly, the store she was standing in had sold mobile phones, though there was no sign of anything of the sort. Still, although numerous other adventures were out in the main area of the station or were at work in other stores, this one was empty. All she really needed was some space to herself though, which the empty store provided.

Ria swept the debris off the counter, figuring that it would make as good a workbench as any, though she wished that the lighting was a bit better. Now that she had her workspace, Ria paused. She’d purchased a few odds and ends from one of the People of the Land earlier, but she hadn’t put a lot of thought into what she wanted to make. All she really desired was to figure out how this crafting thing worked and to focus her mind for a few hours. The manhad mentioned a way to make a rather simple music box though, so perhaps she should just go with that. However, part of her really wanted to experiment instead.

Opening her menu, Ria clumsily navigated over to her inventory in order to take a look at the objects she had purchased. She stared at the objects for a long moment before deciding that maybe it would be best to stick with the recipe that she’d already heard instead of messing around with making something new and novel. She would save that for later, once she’d become better acquainted with this system. Besides, when she had been a child her mother had owned a simple music box that she had found to be rather interesting. The mechanism that ran it seemed pretty simple and even back then Ria had wondered if she could copy it. Well, this was her chance to find out.

For starters, Ria figured she should begin with the wind-up mechanism. She was pretty sure that she had enough parts to make one. Selecting a screw, a gear, and a coil from her inventory, Ria laid them out on the counter in front of her. All three pieces were in rather poor condition, but hopefully they were in decent enough condition that anything that she made wouldn’t fall apart immediately. Picking up the parts, Ria began to piece them together.

Word Count: 517
Notes:
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[Ria]

LIFE IS A TRICK

and you only get one chance to learn it

The basic idea behind a wind-up mechanism was incredibly simple, but it wasn’t quite so easy to actually make one, especially with such shoddy materials. Regardless, Ria soon realized that she was enjoying herself as she twisted the pieces together.

The screw served as a decent base for the other parts; that would be the piece that would actually be twisted in order to wind up the music box. It would be the coil’s responsibility to actually store the energy from the twisting motion, which meant that it was probably the most delicate piece. Ria found herself worrying the most for that aspect of the mechanism; if anything broke, it would be the coil. She doubted that corroded coil would be able to be twisted very many times before it snapped.

At least she wasn’t making anything that would be dangerous if it broke; a music box wasn’t exactly life or death for anyone. Still, as Ria fastened the coil to the screw she hoped that the pieces were at least a little more resilient than they looked. It would be rather frustrating if the wind-up mechanism broke the first time she tried to use it. Nevertheless, it was what she had so there was no point complaining about it too much.

Ria held up the last piece, the gear, and fixed it so once the coil was wound, it would transfer the energy to the gear and then hopefully on to power the music box. Once it was all put together, Ria leaned back and held up her creation. The wind-up mechanism was rough, there was no doubt about that, but at the same time she couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment. Sure she had made more impressive things before becoming stuck in this world, but that didn’t seem to matter.

Word Count: 304
Notes: Wind-up Mechanism crafted
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[Ria]

LIFE IS A TRICK

and you only get one chance to learn it

Now that the wind-up mechanism was complete, it was time to move on to the actual music box. Or maybe not. It would be rather unfortunate if the wind-up mechanism broke while she was still creating the music box, so perhaps it would be a good idea to craft a spare. Besides, even if the backup part wasn’t necessary, Ria was certain that she would be able to find a use for it later.

Ria frowned, torn between moving on and being sensible. Making something new certainly sounded more enjoyable and a music box was more impressive than a boring old mechanism. Still, she couldn’t help but recall how often her uncle had chided her to not get ahead of herself when she had worked for him in his auto repair shop.

Somewhat reluctantly, Ria opened up her inventory and pulled out the parts that were needed to make another wind-up mechanism. It wasn’t as if she was in any hurry and just rushing the project would only lead to failure. Besides, now that she’d figured out how all the parts worked together, making a second device shouldn’t take quite so long.

With this thought in mind, Ria leaned back over the table and went to work once again. As she began to fasten the screw and the coil together, she noticed for the first time how much rust had managed to end up on her fingers. For a moment she considered going to find somewhere to wash up, but she quickly discarded the idea. There really was no point seeing as her hands would probably end up coated in rust the moment she restarted her project.

Word Count: 277
Notes:
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[Ria]

LIFE IS A TRICK

and you only get one chance to learn it

Despite her itch to move onto something a little more exciting, Ria began to feel a sense of familiarity with her task. While working wasn’t exactly on her top ten list of things she missed from back home, she still felt a sense of nostalgia for the years she’d spent as a teenager working in her uncle’s shop. It certainly was a far cry from where she was now. Back then Ria had never imagined that she’d one day find herself bent over a counter in a worn out train station, piecing together secondhand parts.

Forcing her mind back to her work, Ria realized that she only needed to at the gear to the mechanism before it would be finished. That wouldn’t be too hard. However, as she moved to fix the parts together, the gear slipped out from between her filthy fingers and clattered to the floor, rolling somewhere out of sight.

Grumbling, Ria set down the unfinished device and knelt down. The part had been rather inexpensive, but it was the last one she’d had in her inventory and it would be a pain to have to go out and buy yet another. Where had the infernal thing gone? She squinted at the small space between the bottom of the counter and the floor. It must have rolled under there.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered to herself, lying down and squeezing her arm into the small space. The underside of the counter was grimy and a surprising amount of debris had made its way into the space as well. When Ria’s hand finally closed around the errant gear and she pulled it out in triumph, her arm almost up to the shoulder was covered in dust and dirt. She really was going to have to clean up as soon as she was finished up.

Ria fixed the gear in place a bit forcefully, a little annoyed that the piece had been so troublesome. Regardless, she now had two Wind-up Mechanisms lying side by side on her impromptu workbench.

Word Count: 343
Notes: Another Wind-up Mechanism crafted.
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[Ria]

LIFE IS A TRICK

and you only get one chance to learn it

Finally it was time to craft the actual music box. This was probably going to be a whole lot more difficult than making the simple wind-up mechanism. Of course, more difficult meant more interesting at least. Still, she had been told that somehow, she would be able to create one with the mechanism she had just finished creating and a couple of screws.

She took the screws from her inventory and slowly looked from them to the mechanisms lying on the counter. From what she could recall, music boxes produced sound when a set of pins struck a metal comb. Well, she didn’t exactly have fancy parts like that to work with, so she would just have to trust that she would be able to actually create something with what she had.

Ria reminded herself that this world didn’t always make sense and things didn’t always happen like they did back home. After all, this was a world where nobody could even die permanently and she was able to walk around with a plethora of random objects in an inventory that wouldn’t be there until she needed them. Although it seemed as though most people had become accustomed to the changes, Ria knew that she was still far from accepting this place as her new reality.

Unless she’d been lied to, which was a distinct possibility, she could do this. It just would take a bit of thinking so as to how it would be done. The wind-up mechanism was probably the core piece; it certainly was the most complex part, so she should probably work up from there.

Word Count: 269
Notes:
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