witchesreign | 2. [Action], [BBS] (action open to 4th-wallers)

Entry tags:

2. [Action], [BBS] (action open to 4th-wallers)

[At the library in the afternoon or evening, you might notice a large pile of books in the middle of an aisle, occasionally emitting small but conspicuous bursts of blueish light. Look a bit closer and you'll discover an actual (tiny, irritable) person in there - along with a half-disassembled silver-coloured pocketwatch and some other bits of metal, several of which are covered in circular scratchings. Though no visible tools, curiously enough.

Why would Ed suddenly have a pocketwatch when he neither arrived with one nor has the slightest clue where to buy them? Well, when a counterpart of you from another world refuses to let you run off with their belongings despite you being basically the same person, what else is there to do except make a cheap knockoff out of whatever knick-knacks you can ~~steal from Engineering class~~ find? Just one problem: the watch doesn't do what he originally wanted it for. It doesn't do anything. It doesn't even keep good time... which probably isn't important for his purposes, but what does he know? He's never needed to care about any damn alchemical amplifiers before now.

So, after a few days of messing around with it, an unsigned BBS post goes up:]

Who here knows how to make a watch? Mine doesn't work.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I do, it's pretty simple--but it wouldn't be free. What'll you trade for the labor?

Don't need a new one. Just look at it, tell me what's wrong.

[Still, he does have sponsorship money lying around and not a whole lot of things to spend it on...] If you make it work, I could pay a little.

[Jack considers. This feels a lot like doing someone a favor... but he could always use more money, no matter how little. He's working on a budget again.]

Alright, sounds good. Where should we meet up?

Library. I'll be waiting!

[Specifically, waiting while buried under yet another stack of vaguely clock- or engineering-related books on the library floor. Actually, since he's been taking breaks to check on the computer, the stack isn't tall enough to block him from view. But it's getting there.]

[He's about halfway to the library before he realizes that he has no idea who he was talking to. But... if he goes back and asks now, that'd make him look like he doesn't think this sort of thing through, and that's a concept he'd rather not get out. It's bad enough that everyone at home thinks he's a joke... Maybe broken-watch-dude-or-girl would stand out somehow. He knows this is unreasonable, but he proceeds to the library without checking back in anyway.]

[Once there, he looks around. After a little searching, he manages to find Ed's little book fort. And sees what the books are all on. And smiles.]

[He's just going to wait for Ed to turn around and notice him looming.]

[It takes a short while, but he does emerge, pocketwatch in hand.] What, am I in the way or something? Sorry, kind of busy right n-

[Recognition dawns.]

...Oh, don't tell me I was talking to you.

Ok, I won't. [Smiiiiirk.]

But I am the resident go-to guy for tech. Just saying.

Resident? Did you go ahead and make yourself Führer too? [Okay, his skills might be nothing to sneeze at, but the rest of him...

Not wanting to drag this conversation out any longer than necessary, Ed practically shoves the watch at Jack. It's a regular mechanical lidless pocketwatch, except a few bits are missing because Ed couldn't immediately see any use for them, and several of the parts have little circular patterns scratched into the surface. Surprisingly, it's ticking, however erratically.] There. Get it to work.

[Here Ed, have a weird look for the first bit of that. Jack decides not to start anything about "Führer"s and what they might symbolize on earth, because he does honestly want a chance to see what Ed had done to this piece of machinery. He heads over to a nearby-ish study table and sets to work.]

[He seems to grow increasingly frustrated as he examines each new piece. Finally he turns back to Ed.] You used your stupid powers to make these cogs, didn't you?

No, I used alchemy. So what? I was copying a diagram, it shouldn't matter.

Like I said, your stupid powers.

[Monologue-ranting time!] Ok! So, let's start with the slightly less stupid mistake. There are pieces missing, which I would bet you were on the diagram. When you "copy" something, go all out and copy the whole thing, ok? Ok.

Now let's talk about cogs. Big cogs? Not a big deal if they're not perfect. They're big, they'll still catch more or less. Little cogs? You need to be a bit more exact. They're smaller, there less of a margin for error. Tiny cogs? They had better be perfect! They need to fit together a whole lot better than this at least!

Ugh. [Face in hands now.] Keep your money, there's nothing I can do with this. [Looking up, still pretty aggravated.] Unless you're expecting me to remake all of these cogs, in which case the price just went way up.

I get it, I get it. What I don't get is why they're important at all...

[An exact copy. Right, he can do that, he remembers the diagram. He swipes the watch and brings his hands together rather more violently than he strictly needed to. After a few seconds, he's holding an absolutely perfect watch, sans face - down to the tiniest geartooth.

Which Ed promptly ruins by grabbing a sharp bit of loose metal he had lying next to him and starting to roughly scratch circles into the thing again.]

[Well, Jack's actually impressed by Ed's powers this time. Everything looks right from his angle, and it's ticking a lot better and...]

[...aaaaand now Ed's wrecking everything.]

[Jack's just going to rub the bridge of his nose.] Is maiming it strictly necessary?

[When Ed is in the zone, he can even forget to be annoyed at a question like that! He doesn't look up.] Well, the first idea I had was just making the circles out of wire or whatever and slotting them in, but there wasn't enough room without leaving some of the parts from the diagram out.

And it never occurred to you to get these circle-things engraved properly? That is a thing. That can be done. Just so you--aaah, this is painful to watch! [And covering his face again.]

Get them engraved where? We're in a school. I can't just hop on a train to... to wherever all the damn engravers are.

[He stops merrily scratching away for a moment.] Hey, since you're the almighty tech guy: think the wire arrays would work better if the watch was bigger? Would there be space for them then?

Hm. [He stops cringing long enough to think the question over.]

If you used thin wire, it could work. Better than this. Anything would be better that this.

As for the engraving route, if what we're talking about is a simple design, I could--tch, no I couldn't. [He grimaces in realization.] The tools I'd need are at home, and I don't think this place is at a high enough tech level for me to remake them. Chusheng!

But yeah, thin wire, preferably hammered to be flatter. Or... magicked to be flatter. Whatever.

So wire would be better. Okay, I'll try it later. [Or he could just cut off his other hand right now and probably save some time.] Sheesh, this would be so much simpler if that bastard had just handed over his watch...

[He finally takes the hint and drops both watch and makeshift scalpel onto the ground. It's making his wrist hurt, anyway.]

You're used to a higher tech level than this? Kinda hard to imagine. You don't look like it. [Says the guy born in the 19th century.]

[Jack sighs in relief when the watch is dropped. Ok, so maybe dropping the watch is bad too. But it's normal damage, not some kind of weird... ritual mutilation, or something.]

[Then he cocks an eyebrow at the last sentence. "doesn't look like it", huh? He eyes the library's ceiling for a moment before deciding it's high enough. He pushes a button on the odd buckle on his chest, and two smallish propellers pop out of the backpack-like thing strapped to his back. Pretty soon he's hovering a bit above Ed's head.]

Yeah. Higher tech level.

[Ed is - well, pretty impressed, seeing as zeppelins were a futuristic concept to him not too long ago, but he's trying to disguise it. More importantly, he doesn't like people looking down on him. And since Jack was already a lot taller than Ed, the flying just adds insult to injury...]

Yeah, that's hilarious. Want to know what else is?

[He claps again and picks up the watch (with his right hand, just in case). Its chain extends up towards Jack, then whips round, trying to tangle itself in one of the propellers. Yeah, if he succeeds then he is definitely getting kicked out of the library at best, but it will be so worth it.]

[Unfortunately for hilarity's sake, Jack is used to flying this thing in battle, on top of having a coward's hair trigger reflexes--he saw that chain and dodges the first attempt with a little shriek. It's been awhile since he's actually been in a fight though, so he knows he can't keep this up. He's not that far from the ground. He retracts the propellers and drops, predictably landing in an inelegant heap.]

[Good enough. Ed could just change the chain back to its normal length, or he could snap it off and make a new one later, but that would be passing up the very rare opportunity he has to tower over somebody. So he walks over and pulls all of it off the heap by hand.]

Anyway... it's not like I can tell if that's more or less advanced than all the other weird stuff around here.

[Jack stumbles to his feet, looking very angry. Oddly, his voice is actually quite calm.] What was that?

That little stunt.

[Opportunity over. It was nice while it lasted.] What're you talking about?

2. [Action], [BBS] (action open to 4th-wallers)

[BBS] unsigned

BBS, unsigned

BBS, unsigned

BBS, unsigned → Action!

Action

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

2/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)