Meet the McCraes

This thread is an import of a thread from the old Zetaboards forum. The old thread can be found here

Tourmaline walked to where she'd been told Goibniu's forge was, carrying her usual bag full of papers and the like. It had been three days since she last saw him, since she'd started living in the Haven, and since Violet came back-- probably the biggest change for her thus far.

The two had spent a lot of time catching up the last few days-- indeed, this is the first time that Tourmaline had gone outside of Haven without Violet in three days. Not to say she hadn't done a lot of work in those three days; she'd researched the physics of guns a whole lot, and, to her surprise, found out they were a lot more complicated than she thought. She was returning to Goibniu empty handed, as she needed specs for his particular gun to work out how to do the enchantments.

As she approached the address, Tourmaline saw someone who could be described only as "simply enormous." She'd heard of a few Cantus mages being able to enlarge people, and wondered briefly if this guy had gotten on the wrong end of one of them. Tourmaline approached him hesitantly, wondering if she'd gotten the wrong address after all; "'Scuse me, does one Goibniu work here?"

"..."

Tourmaline may need to look to properly take a look at the man standing right in front of her. The man being the one working at the forge, Esarg McCrae. The man held a hammer and a pincer in each hand, when he heard the door open, a potential customer? It didn't seems so, as she was looking for his son. His eyes narrowed as he wondered who was this mysterious girl and why was she looking for him, as he stared silently at her.

"... I'd say, worked. Used to be my assitant for years, until he took a different job." He answered, his face looking stoic, before continuing. "What is your business with him?" Could she be one of the people Goibniu mentioned he met a few days ago?

"Oh, of course..." She dug in her bag a few moments, occasionally taking out a paper and squinting at it. As she dug, she spoke, "I met Goibniu a few days ago-- nice guy and all-- and he commissioned me to enchant bullets for his gun. Ah, here we are..." She pulled out a paper and handed it to the man; it was covered in equations written in Tourmaline's neat handwriting.

"Unfortunately, guns are more complicated than I realized, and I need to get some specs from Goibniu before I can enchant it. Which is why I'm here. I'm Tourmaline, by the way."

Putting his hammer down, Esarg took the paper to see what Tourmaline was talking about. Sure enough, the calculations were beyond his comprehension, as the only ranged weapon he could create was a bow. "... I see." It was the only thing he said, before handing the paper back to Tourmaline.

"Take the door to my right, it will take you to a hallway. Take the staircase and go to the third room to your left. It's his room, and he's there right now." He instructed her, as he pointed to the aforementioned door. "You are welcomed, just don't cause any trouble."

Tourmaline bobbed her head, saying "Of course not. Much obliged." She turned to the door and went down the hallway, admiring the house as she went. Finally, arriving at the door, she knocked, and spoke up, "Goibniu? It's Tourmaline. Can I come in?"

[color:a761=#fe0]"Oh? Visits? Just a second!" If Tourmaline were to listen, she'd hear a small rustling noise, and then someone's footsteps coming closer. And then, the door would open, greeting Tourmaline with a visage of Goibniu, in the same clothing he was as when he met her.

[color:a761=#fe0]"Ah, Madam Cardona! I'm glad to see you." He said, extending a hand in greeting. [color:a761=#fe0]"I wasn't expecting any visits, ah, you must come for the bullet business, right? Do come in!" And thus, he moved to a side, to let her enter. His room wasn't exactly spacious, as he had his bed, a bookshelf, a desk and a chest, but it was comfy for him. His desk had various papers placed on it, mostly containing annotations, and a couple of rough sketches. The bookshelf was filled with books, some small, other big, and were either instructions of any sort, or stories. In fact, one book was lying on his bed as he spoke, as Tourmaline caught him in the middle of reading.

[color:a761=#fe0]"Please excuse me if it's not exactly tidy, at times I forget to tend to my room."

Tourmaline walked in, feeling very at home; her room looked very similar, down to the books, papers, and sketches lying around everywhere. "Goibniu! Good to see you." She pulled out the paper she'd handed to Goibniu's dad earlier, and scanned it quickly.

"So, uhm, turns out that guns are much more complicated than I thought?" She handed him the paper, which carried a few simple momentum equations, the measured mass of the ball, and three definitions that she'd found in a book:

"Lock time, the time from sear release until the primer is struck
Ignition time, the time from when the primer is struck until the projectile starts to move
Barrel time, the time from when the projectile starts to move until it exits the barrel."

"Basically, I just need the three things that are defined on there. Although if you've got the mass of your gun as well, that could help."

"Mmmh, I'm not surprised, firearms aren't exactly easy to grasp. I had difficulty as well when I started reading about them years ago." He said, as he looked at the paper she gave him. He scanned it for a moment, seeing the writings she has produced. Ballistics, velocity, all familiar elements, and if those were the things she needed, he figured it wouldn't be much of an issue.

"I see... I think I have just the thing." He said, as he walked up to his desk, and opened a drawer. Leaving the paper she gave him to a side, he started digging through the objects he had in the drawer, mostly papers of a similar nature. "I believe I have annotations about that somewhere, they were a side element as I tested the proficiency of my firearm when designing it for the first time. Sometimes I need to relook at them for reminders, it's been years since I wrote them." He said, his words slowly becoming a muttering as he continued searching.

"Ah, here it is!" And with that, he took a couple of papers. Closing the drawer, he walked up to Tourmaline to show them. "I don't blame you for finding it difficult, for it required both calculations and a bit of field testing to narrow down the numbers. I think you can also find the mass there, as it uses a combination of wood and metal."

Tourmaline glanced at the paper, quite glad that it had been this easy. "Thanks a bunch, Goibniu!" After a second of awkward silence, she said, "Welp, uh, that's all I needed. See you later!" and turned to leave.

"Righto! I'll see you... Ah, wait just a bit!" Goibniu said, as he suddenly realized he needed to ask her something. "May you remind me what sort of enhancement you had planned? Just in case I need to provide more information." Of course, he didn't want a bullet that would super-freeze his hand as soon as he fired, that'd be dangerous!