Closer to the Edge [Requests, SOLO]

[Eadon]

Covering a yawn with his hand, Eadon stumbled through the actions of clearing out the mess he had made that day in the forge. He may be tired, but he still had a few more projects he hoped to have finished by the time sun came up. It was going to be another one of those all nighters, no doubt. Not that he minded particularly, some of the things that had been requested were kind of cool and deserving his staying up all night, if they looked as cool as he was envisioning them to look. Setting aside the materials he would need and putting the pile of order forms that had been dropped in at his shop on the bench before him, Eadon quickly skimmed through them. It would probably be best to start off his crafting endeavours with something easier, but also something that would keep him occupied. Finally picking one, he smiled. This one was exactly the kind of thing that would make a good starting point. Most of the orders in front of him were for various enchanted accessories, in various shapes sizes and styles. He figured if he could knock over one of the trickier ones first, he could then apply the techniques he used to all of the others to make the process faster, and easier, on himself. His day had already been a long one, Eadon reflected, remembering the painful process he had gone through to help out Reid with a large order of swords, for one of the newly formed adventurer guilds. he had been in and out of the hot forge all day, fetching materials, sharpening blades and trying to keep the smithy from falling into the state of mess he had first found it in back when he had started his apprenticeship. Distracted from his reading, Eadon looked up to see the smith in question, his master and the actual owner of the forge he was currently using, looking down at him from the stairs. "Ye still at work, are ye, lil' un," Reid asked him, voice sounding groggy, "Dun stay up to late, will ye nae. I be needin' ye to help wit summat else in teh mornin' Eadon. G'night." Nodding tiredly, Eadon shot back a quick "Good night, sir," watching as Reid stumbled back up the stairs, no doubt to bed.  He had of course avoided making the promise he would no doubt break of avoiding staying up to late, though. Meaning he would be able to spend all night working on this back log of orders that had built up. Reid was a great smith, for sure, but sometimes Eadon questioned his master's work ethic. All too often, Eadon had found himself taking on the jobs that were brought to the store. Not that he minded, he reveled in the chance to try new projects and make new things, if given half of a chance. "Well, it can't be helped," he muttered to himself, yawning again and taking a sip of the coffee he had prepared for himself earlier that evening, "the orders need to be filled, and if I don't do them now these ones will never get done." Pulling the top sheet off the pile, Eadon studied the order in more detail while he waited for the metal to heat up in the forge, to a temperature where he could work with it. This adventurer had ordered an ear cuff, in the shape of a dragon, to be made with an enchantment and using the best available ingredients, for a level ten item. It was a tall order, but Eadon was sure he could fill it satisfactorily. That said though, getting the engraving and the shape of the dragon just right could prove a challenge. He almost freaked out, realising all of a sudden that he would be needing some measurements to make sure the cuff would fit on its recipient properly, but breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw them written on the bottom of the order form. That was one less thing to worry about with the crafting process, at least. Before he had ever heard of Elder Tale, Eadon had spent a lot of time in the real world making random little things like this in his metal working classes at school. He had wound up with a small collection of necklaces, rings and even a few earrings like the one he was about to attempt to craft now, as a result of his efforts. Applying the techniques he had learnt in class, to this project and to the limitations of a medieval era forge, was going to prove an interesting and hopefully entertaining challenge. At least he was fairly confident in his ability to craft some nice things, as he had done this kind of thing before. Granted, it had no been in Elder Tale, but the basic principles remained the same... The metal finally at a nice hot, cherry red colour, Eadon removed it from the fire with his tongs, and began the process of beating it into the shape he would need, humming happily all the while. It was ultimately the size of the accessory that made it difficult work, rather than it being particularly intricate or anything. With a sword, you could afford to make some tiny errors as they could be corrected easily enough, but with something as tiny as a cuff every little thing needed to be done perfectly from the start, or it would wreck the whole piece. About an hour later, and with the piece slowly starting to take shape, he realised that his tiredness was all but forgotten, as was his coffee. Frowning a little, Eadon tipped the remnants down the sink. It was a waste of a perfectly good source of caffeine, but he had no real way of heating it up again quickly and regardless was now too busy with his work to actually drink it. Still, it was a shame. Coffee was the beverage sent to humans by the gods, after all. At least in Eadon's mind. "I really need to learn to multi-task better," Eadon told himself, "I keep forgetting to eat and drink and sleep, when I get too involved in my blacksmithing..."

WORDS: 1047 TAGS Eadon SONG: Closer to the Edge NOTES: Now, let's get those accessories I keep promising people done... Well, one at least. Speedcrafting is my friend. :D

Template by Eadon of Log Horizon

[Eadon]

It was getting late, but Eadon was still hard at work in the hot forge, slowly teasing the piece of metal currently on his work table into the shape that he desired from it with the slow and deliberate patience of a master artisan. Getting the metal into the shape of a cuff had taken him quite some time, but getting it to be exactly the right dimensions on trhe order would prove.... more difficult by far. To say the least of the matter. Sighing in frustration, Eadon dropped the hammer he was currently working with and rubbed at his eyes. He would need to resist the urge to get to sleep, because they really needed to work through this backlog of orders. Reid would thank him in the morning, but right now all Eadon wanted was to leave his project, climb up the narrow staircase, and collapse into bed. That would not result in a finished ear cuff, though. Most especially not a finished ear cuff which also happened to resemble a dragon, and impart magical properties to its wearer, as was no doubt the purpose of this accessory being made in the first place. "Damn it, I really need to concentrate better tonight, or these orders will never get done," Eadon muttered to himself, eying off his now empty coffee cup wistfully, "I only need to stay awake for one night. Surely I'm not so weak as to not be able to get through one measly night without sleep..." It was somewhat ironic, really. Once up a time while still living in his home in the real world on the Isle of Skye, he had been able to stay up for days watching movies or playing computer games with little in the way of ill effects. Now though, he got tired easily, and could not for the life of him figure out quite why it was. Maybe it was because he was doing more, but he sort of doubted that as the cause for his sudden case of sleepiness. Back then he had been equally as active, with a combination of his various orienteering and sports. Particularly with fencing, now that he thought about it. Fencing though was different. He had pursued it in order to make himself better, in order to really teach himself a skill and excel in a sport where he could prove himself. His teacher had said that with a little bit more of the right training, Eadon had stood a decent chance of being selected for the Olympic fencing squad in a few years time, and that had been a large part of his motivation to constantly improve and get better in his chosen sport. That he had chosen fencing had been fortuitous, now that he was trapped in Elder Tale. He sincerely doubted that any of the other adventurers in this world would have the same intuitive knowledge of sword fighting as he did, from his years of training. Hopefully he would be able to pass that knowledge on, somehow. perhaps he could start a fencing school here? No-one would go... Most players were too set in the idea that gaining skills alone was the only way to improve their performance in a fight. A lack of decent form was going to prove their undoing sooner or later, though. Eadon had used to spend hours at a time practicing some new form to perfection, in much the same kind of concentrated way that he now dedicated to his crafting and to his apprenticeship.  It was funny, because an apprenticeship had actually been one of the very real career possibilities for the young Scot, back there in that world. That, along with a military career, though a possibility of combining the two had also been an option. The military had always been keen for mechanics and other skilled craftsmen, as he had learned through talking with various recruiters. The most funny part about it all however, was that he had more or less taken his real life skills and ambitions, and was now applying them to this world of Elder Tale - embracing the chance to be an adventurer, and a crafter here, as much as he would have embraced them back home.  "I guess these worlds aren't really all too different," Eadon said to himself, before picking his tools back up and returning his attention to the task before him, "though I really should be focusing more on my work, than anything." A while longer of some hard work, and some patient smithing work, and Eadon was much more pleased with the shape of his dragon ear cuff. Th piece was coming along nicely, and would soon be done as per the customers order. All that was really left to complete was shaping the dragon itself, and adding the tiny details out of the metal that would truly bring the creature to life, in his work.  This was probably the thing he most liked about his chosen crafting profession. That he could make something useful and functional, but at the same time beautiful an detailed. He knew that, no matter how many items he eventually crafted, he would spend the same amount of time and apply that same level of minute attention to detail to all of them. It was simply the way that he did things.  Taking out a fine little chisel and some other tools, Eadon began the painstaking process of making the dragon, on the tiny little cuff. Soon, the accessory would truly shine with life - hopefully enough to make it a piece worth remembering. Eadon frowned a bit, put out briefly. It was a shame that he was still limited to working with such low leveled materials as the ones going into this piece, but they were the best available to him. If he were to make something finer, he would need to acquire higher leveled materials. The only place he knew of to gain those was from the Windsor Castle dungeon. Eyes narrowing, Eadon continued at his work. He had made up his mind, though. He would need to find some other players who would join him in the dungeon, so he could further his craft with finer base materials to work with. If he could gain those, he would surely be able to make some true works of art out of the metal that he forged.

WORDS: 1071 TAGS Eadon SONG: Closer to the Edge NOTES: Hehe. More of this massively overlong solo thread. Now, next post. Time to get my speedcraft on. :D

Template by Eadon of Log Horizon

[Eadon]

Eyes red from the smoke of the forge and lack of sleep, Eadon looked more like some kind of mindless zombie presently than a blacksmith at work. The tiny forge was wreathed in said smoke, and probably not far off from the pits of hell as far as temperature went, but Eadon hardly noticed these things - completely wrapped up in his work and too exhausted to sleep. It was a weird state to be in, really. The mind and the body knew they were tired, logically speaking. yet at the same time, they simply refused to shut down and give in to the sleep that they so desperately craved in order to alleviate the tiredness. Eadon had been like this for hours, he had lost track of the time exactly. All he knew was that it had been a quite productive night, having gotten most of the way through that accursed pile of order forms. Said pile was now messily put on the other side of the desk, each one with a corresponding accessory attached to it. That dragon cuff had been the first of quite a few that he had managed to work his way through, after all. The trickiest part of that particular accessory had been getting the curve of the tail and the shape of the dragon jut right and according the the customers specifications. Eadon had guiltily tried it on a few times, as a kind of reference, to make sure the fit would be perfect. It wasn't quite right on him, but it was perfect to the measurements provided in the order form itself so should fit perfectly for the customer, Capsule whoever that was. Eadon vaguely noted that this customer shared a guild with Adler - the person he had met the other day and crafted some gear for at the public smithy. He frowned a bit in remembrance. She had said she would talk to her leader about letting him into this guild, Avarice, yet she hadn't gotten back to him thus far. He was sure a little bit of patience would go a long way, however. She had struck him as a person who would stick by her word and follow up on her promises to the letter. Still, he had to wonder. Wonder about whether he would be accepted, and about this person for whom he had made this beautiful dragon cuff. What kind of person was his possible future guild mate? He figured that he would find out sooner or later, but for now he simply had his imagination to work with. Whatever the case, he hoped that this Capsule would be happy with the work and craftsmanship in the cuff he had made for her. Of all the accessories he had made tonight, the little dragon was probably Eadon's favourite. The thing seemed almost real, lifelike in the way it sat and how it seemed almost to spring to life from the metal from which it had been forged. It was truly a beautiful item, and one which would serve its wearer well. Glancing at it again with pride, Eadon ran a finger over the things head idly.He had finished the orders finally, and could sleep, but was still feeling inspired. Would Reid mind if he were to make something for himself? Probably not too much, Eadon thought, putting some fresh materials into the forge. The dragon was beautiful, and now he wanted to have something of his own, something just as wonderful and lifelike and full of charactter as the little cuff was. "I wonder what I should make," Eadon said to himself, stifling a yawn, "I could go with a tiger... Or... A lion could be cool. I really do love lions. A little metal lion, huh..." More hours passed, Eadon hard at work creating even more things out of the metal that he loved working with so much. Tiredness completely forgotten, it was when the sun finally started to rise that he finished his work for the night. Staring in wonder at all the beautiful wthings he had made, surrounding him like so many stars, Eadon blinked. "So... sleepy..." he muttered, head collapsing onto the work bench, amidst his creations, "I might take a bit of a nap..." The young smiths dreams were filled with all kinds of strange images and thoughts. In his mind, he was a metal lion, running through forests and towns and dungeons, chasing after the little metal dragon he had crafted. Yet, he could never quite catch the dragon, it always flying off when he got close enough. It was like some kind of metal heaven, with everything in the entire dreamscape made out of intricately carved and worked metals, in many different hues and colours. All kinds of beautiful materials and even more beautiful creations. Eadon would make them all someday, he knew. Someday. First however, he needed to catch the dragon. It was like this, curled up at his work station and surrounded by tiny metal things, that Reid found him in the morning. The old smith smiled, before hauling his apprentice up and into his arms and carrying him off to bed. It was a familiar scene, much like the first night that Eadon had showed up here, spending so much time and effort on the creation of his little rapier.  Reid smiled. The kid was certainly passionate about his work, and if the things he had spent the night crafting down below in the work room were anything to go by, his skill in the arts of the forge were increasing exponentially. Soon the master knew that the his apprentice would come to rival even the master in skill. Not yet, though. Certainly not yet. And until that point, the kindly old Scotsman, person of the land and thus inferior to the adventurers or not, would look after the boy and make sure he actually ate and slept. At least some of the time. After all, it wouldn't do for his genius protege to become sick, while under his care. Heading back down to the forge, Reid packed away the various completed orders, filing them for when the customers came to collect them, before putting the tools and the forge back in order.  "Keep workin' like this, wee lil 'un," Reid mumbled to himself, "Und soon, tha whole world'l ken ya name."

WORDS: 1066 TAGS Eadon SONG: Closer to the Edge NOTES: Apologies for my terrible messing up of Scottish accents. Anywho, thread done. :D

Template by Eadon of Log Horizon