Solo First Day on the Job (Part 2)

[Maria Talwa]

1, Winter, 518

The metal table already had light score marks on it, so Maria knew the crucible had been set on it in the past. Doing so, she quickly handed off gloves and tongs. Once Cosette was ready, she carefully poured the gold into the sand mold until it came to the top and almost spilled. Nearly all of the gold had been used, so the crucible was set by the forge. Unscrewing the vice, the mold was set on the table. Cosette looked around then rolled her eyes slightly.

“Silly me, I did forget some tools. Would you get me the pliers and hand saw out of the tool chest?” For a moment Maria rummaged around in the chest, then set the requested tools on the table. When the mold was pulled apart, she could see a high quality gold ring in the sand where the pattern had been not too long ago. With the pliers, Cosette pulled it free, blew a tiny bit of sand off, then quenched it in a metal cup filled with water sitting at the corner of the table.

“And there you have it, one gold ring.” The ring as still crude and would require some work, but Maria could already picture in her mind what it would look like finished. It didn't take long for Cosette to saw off the extra little bit from the pouring. “And now the hardest part, sanding it down.”

Seeing there was nothing to sand with, Maria looked through the tool chest again, finding a metal file and some rough paper and held them up. Cosette responded by placing the ring on the table and smiling.

“Time to see how well you can smooth metal, so have fun.” Maria resisted the urge to smack her boss with the metal file, wanting to try casting a ring instead of smoothing one. Deciding to instead be a dutiful employee, she sat down in the chair and placed the ring in the vice carefully. As she got ready to start sanding, the bell over the front door dingled, drawing Cosette downstairs. Annoyed at being stuck with the grunt work, Maria took the piece of rough paper and began to the process of smoothing the metal.

She also tried several different ways as well. At first she just rubbed the paper back and forth, then when her wrist got tired the method changed. Holding the paper with both hands, she tried rubbing it over the top. That didn't work very well, so she soon ended up back to simply sanding with one hand, but would occasionally change the one used to spare her wrist undue strain. It took nearly an hour just to smooth the outside. The inner part of the ring would be the hardest, so that was saved for last. For the sides Maria used the metal file, but was careful not to apply too much pressure. Cosette had been right that the smoothing portion of the process was the hardest. It required a lot of elbow grease, and attention to detail.

WC: 510

[Maria Talwa]

Once the ring was finally smoothed and ready. She took it downstairs where and gave it to Cosette, who was sitting behind the front counter reading a book of some sort. It was looked over carefully, and she nodded, then took out a bit of rough paper from the work table, and pointed out a few areas that still needed a bit of work. Taking the next few minutes to do a bit of spot smoothing, the ring was then wiped down and placed in one of the cases. Maria felt a twinge of pride at that. Even through she'd only smoothed the ring, it still had her handiwork, and was now on display for sale to a potential customer.

When the bell dingled and the door opened, they both looked over to see a young man walk in. He was dressed well enough to look like he belonged, and was moderately attractive. When Cosette nodded to him, that made Maria a little nervous. Dealing with customers wasn't her strong suit, but it came with the job description. Ever the dutiful employee, she walked over to where the man casually browsing the display cases. When he looked up, she flashed him a smile and tried to be as friendly as possible... another area lacking practice.

“Good afternoon sir, welcome to Silvertongue's, how can I help you?” When their eyes met, there seemed to be a cold quality to his. That was when she noticed the way he was standing as well, hands held behind the back. Combined with a short sword at his side, Maria realized he was likely a guard of some sort, or a mercenary. His rather large hooked nose also had an arch in it, indicative of having been broken and reset more than once. This was likely someone who could be quite dangerous in the wrong set of circumstances.

“Perhaps. I was just promoted at work, so I was thinking of treating myself to a little something. What about this one?” Then the man pressed a finger against the display case, she took the ring in question out and let him look it over. It was a simple ring set with a bloodstone, a jasper with a sprinkling of rusted iron in it.

“How much?” The presented a problem, because Maria still wasn't sure how to assess the value of gold and stones. Fortunately for her, Cosette had walked up next to her by now.

“Four and a half gold.” That the man didn't immediately try the ring on, and instead stood there there looking at it, seemed to indicate that he was indecisive about wanting to buy. When he tried it on, his opinion didn't seem to change much.

“You know what, I've got an idea.” Walking a case over, Maria look out another ring. This one was thicker on top, specifically designed for a man, and had a faceted fire agate in it. The man gave the other ring back, took the one she had, and looked it over carefully.

“I've seen this stone before, what is it?”

“Fire agate. Fire represents passion, power, and I'll bet under that calm exterior there a god bit of both, hmm?” Leaning forward with her elbows on the metal frame of the display case, Maria let the front of her shirt fall forward. The man's eyes moved in that direction, allowing him to see that she had earrings in more than just her ears. Trying the ring on, he seemed to like it a lot better, and stood up a little straighter. Looking at the ring on his finger, and down Maria's shirt a second time, he smirked a little.

“Not bad... not bad. How much?”

“Seven and a half gold,” Cosette said. The man took the money out of his coin pouch and paid for the ring, then walked out still admiring the new purchase. Money in hand, Cosette leaned over glancing down Maria's shirt as well. “Nice sales pitch on the up sell by the way.”

WC: 671

[Maria Talwa]

Once the customer had been tended to, Maria was about to have some real fun. With the ring smoothed and on display, Cosette let her go back upstairs and start working with the mold. This was definitely something she was eager to do, get some hands on experience. With the mold on the table, funnel side down, she placed the pattern in the middle as shown, then took a handful of sand and dumped it on top. With the hammer in hand she began to pack it down, and when satisfied with that, she picked the mold up. Almost immediately the sand fell out, coming to rest on the table, along with the pattern, in a little pile.

Grumbling a little, Maria tried a second time. It took four tries before she finally got the sand and pattern to just stay in the mold. Then came trying to cut around it. The process of trying to get each step right took multiple tries, but instead of getting mad when she failed, Maria would look at each failure and try to figure out where she went wrong. From there she would learn, and either improve ever so slightly, or find a new mistake to make. It was a little frustrating for her, but for once patience prevailed.

Maria knew that just like any other skill, it would take good deal of time and practice to master. It was getting close to evening time when she finally got the mold into the vice, and was ready to try casting her first ring. Eager to give it a go, she had to ask Cosette because the ingots of gold were hidden away somewhere. Once two of them were melted down, Maria used the tongs to take the crucible out, and very carefully poured the gold into the mold. After it was taken out of the vice and pulled apart, she used the pliers to pick it up. The gold ring looked almost jagged, as the top and bottom edges had bits of stray gold from where were were spaces between the pattern and the sand.

“And this is why you don't wanted space between pattern and sand,” Maria said.

“You got it.”

“How much would say this this worth?” That brought something of a curious expression to Cosette's face, due to the face it would take more work to make the ring presentable, than it would to just melt it down and recast.

“Well, assuming someone wanted to buy it, I'd probably say three gold, to cover the cost of the material involved.” Taking three gold out of her belt pouch, as she normally carried four just as 'pocket money', it was handed it to Cosette. “You... want the ring?”

“It's the first ring I've ever cast. I guess you could say it has a certain sentimental value.” That brought a smile to Cosette's face. Maria had no intention of trying to make it look better. This would be something she could look back on from time to time in the future, and see how much her skill had improved. Taking the little gold disaster, she dropped it into her money pouch. About that time her stomach growled as well. It wasn't until now that Maria realized, having become so involved in work, she had completely skipped lunch.

“Come on, help me clean up downstairs and we'll close up for the evening.”

WC: 569

Thread Expenses :

-3 GM
+1 Gold Ring (Very poor quality)

[Maria Talwa]

2, Winter, 518

The next morning, instead of nearly being late, Maria was standing outside waiting when Cosette unlocked the front door of Silvertongue's. After exchanging some small pleasantries, she got straight to work. Instead of going back to sand casting. Maria made sure everything on the first floor was as clean as possible. She swept the floor, washed down the walls, used a bottle of rubbing alcohol to clean the glass on the display cases, and went about making sure that everything behind the counter was neatly arranged. Just like her cottage, Maria was particular about making sure everything was neat and clean.

This was especially important with a business as it showed, at the least, a basic level of professionalism that most customers expected. Especially in an upscale establishment like Silvertongue's. Once everything was in order, she went upstairs and found Cosette in her office. Sitting behind a large wood desk, the woman was transcribing some sales from a piece of paper to the ledger.

“Hey boss, anything in particular you want me to work on?”

“Hmm?” She looked up from ledger. “Go ahead and keep practicing you sand casting for now. I'm going to be pretty busy today.” It would seem this question was anticipated, as she took three small ingot bars out of a pocket, and set them on the desk in front of her. With a small thank you, they were taken and that was just what Maria did. She spent the better part of the day practicing sand casting gold rings. The only break was when a customer came in, signaled by the small bell over the door. When that happened she would tend to them, with Cosette shadowing to help.

Things today didn't go much better than they did they day before. The second ring that Maria cast was a disaster much like the first. Seeing this she melted it down, and focused her efforts on trying to improve her skill at getting the mold right. By Maria's own estimation, one of her weak points was cutting the sand away from the pattern. She would have asked Cosette for tips, but the woman was quite busy, and she thought better of bothering her.

Though not appearing upset or distressed, Cosette kept busy for the better part of the day, and Maria didn't see much of her. It also started to make her curious as to what other type of work her boss might be involved with. That however, was something that remained just that, a curiosity, and Maria had no intention of poking her nose where it wasn't welcome. Having just gotten this job, and finally having the chance to practice making jewelry and improving her trade skill, that was something that wouldn't be endangered. Something else that Maria had learned living in Sunberth, there was a time to be curious, and a time to mind your own damn business. This seemed more like the latter, rather than the former. That in mind, Maria kept her head down, nose to herself, and focused on work.

WC: 509

[Maria Talwa]

Taking a break from sand casting practice to avoid burning out, Maria was sitting at the front counter watching as a few customers were browsing the selection on display. There was a man, a woman, and a couple who seemed interested in a new bit of sparkle for their attire, and nothing was raising alarm bells with Maria either. They were dressed the part to be here, and not doing anything suspicious. That itself made her a little suspicious, though it was largely due to a paranoid nature. Sunberth was good about making people paranoid.

When the bell dingled over the door, what walked in did make Maria arch a brow. The man was of a large build, dressed in thick black leather armor, and carrying enough weapons to start a one man war. With short red hair, just beginning to gray, the man had a five o'clock shadow, heavy jaw, and a patch over one eye, with along scar under that. Even an idiot could see he was professional muscle. That he wasn't adorned by much at all in the way of jewelry, made Maria wonder what he was doing here in the first place. Their eyes met, and he walked straight up to her.

“Good day miss, I'm here to pick up an order for Tall Johnny.” That's when things started to click into place. She was also surprised at how well spoken the man was, in light of the fact he looked like someone of the knuckle dragger variety.

“I'll be right back.” Maria walked upstairs, still a bit uneasy about leaving that many people on the first floor, and found Cosette in her officer. “Excuse me, there's a man here to pick up an order for Tall Johnny?”

Cosette, writing in another book this time, snapped her fingers, then stood up and walked out. Going into her bedroom, she reappeared a moment later with a small blue ring box in hand and gave it to Maria, letting her know the order had been paid for in advance. Without even opening the box, she walked back down to the first floor and handed it to the man standing on the other side of the counter. He didn't look at it either, instead just taking small box, offered Maria a slight nod of the head, and walked out. That also surprised her a good deal. Cosette must have been quite good at her job to have someone like Tall Johnny place a custom order.

WC: 416
Total: 2,675

[Orakan]

Maria

Skills

● Jewelcrafting - 3XP
● Observation - 4XP
● Intelligence - 2XP
● Leadership - 1XP
● Seduction - 1XP
● Cleaning - 1XP
● Logic - 1XP
● Socialisation - 1XP

Lores
● Jewelcrafting: Making a gold ring with a sand casting mould
● Jewelcrafting: Using sandpaper to smooth a gold ring
● Jewelcrafting: Smoothing a ring is long and tedious process
● Intelligence: Getting a general read of someone based on their stance, appearance and behaviour
● Leadership: Assisting a potential customer in a bid to get a sale
● Seduction: Show a bit of skin to entice a buyer
● Jewelcrafting: Poor quality items can be melted down and cast again
● Cosette: Does business with Tall Johnny

Comments

Be mindful of metagaming, please. How did she know not to apply much pressure with the metal sander? It's things like this that equals metagaming - using ooc knowledge icly when your PC does not have that knowledge. It's frustrating. Please stop. Remember how time is kept in Miz: there are no minutes, hours, second but chimes, bells and ticks. Don't forget to delete/edit your request in the grading queue.