Solo [Job thread] Swifts and Willows

Karin gets a long-awaited job, and learns a few bits and bobs about boat building.

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Built into the cliffs overlooking the Suvan Sea, Riverfall resides on the edge of grasslands of Cyphrus where the Bluevein River plunges off the plain and cascades down to the inland sea below. Home of the Akalak, Riverfall is a self-supporting city populated by devoted warriors. [Riverfall Codex]

[Job thread] Swifts and Willows

Postby Karin on May 23rd, 2016, 3:52 pm

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the 50th Spring 516
A
fter Valterrian



Continued from this thread.

The walk down to the docks was pleasant, and Karin almost wished for sandals on her feet instead of boots, so as to enjoy the warmth of the sun and the cool of the breeze. But, perhaps it was better this way, because boots would be far better suited to work at the dock. She grinned to herself, steadfastly ignoring any others out and about. Her only goal was to go and get herself the job she wanted.

Aah, boatmaking! It was something she'd longed to do for what seemed like a long time, now. Her job with Cadog at the Workshop had been enjoyable, but there had been far less building of boats than she would have expected. Maybe the Wavemaster's Shipwright would be different.

The young woman's step increased as she smelt the first fragrance of the sea- seaweed, fish, salt, ozone. That heady scent which felt new even with every breath. The bustle and hubbub of industry was next, nothing at all like Alvadas' fairly relaxed Patchwork Port.

She could see the Shipwright up ahead, and her walk slowed as she considered what she might say. From the last time she'd applied for a job, she knew it wasn't as difficult as she might make it out to be, so she gathered her thoughts and pushed ahead.

The small office she'd scouted out the day previously looked occupied, and so Karin pushed the door, hoping and expecting to find the owner, the man named... Pilacom? Piracom? Picalum. There were two Akalak inside, one tall and muscled and the other, well- tall and muscled. One's hair was streaked through with grey though, and the other's was dark. They both turned around, and looked at the little human girl that stood at the entrance.

Karin felt small, but she stood and looked up, speaking clearly at both of the Akalak. "Um... great way to start a new job, huh, with an 'um', I'm looking for a job, please. Would you perhaps have any vacancies for an apprentice shipwright?"

The grey-haired man smiled and patted the other on the back, "Aah, this isn't my business. I'll be off now. Catch you later, Picalum." So that was Picalum, good. He left the office, and the aforementioned Akalak sat down, leaning back on his chair and folding his arms across the desk. "What're your skills, lass?"

She replied, "I used to work in Alvadas at a wood workshop. We had a diverse range of sales, but I helped do woodworking there, and sometimes helped boat repairs. There wasn't as much boatbuilding there as there might be here, but I know my way around a dry dock, and I know the basics of woodworking."

Feeling confident, the young woman brushed her hair off her shoulder. She was determined, even. Picalum regarded her for a few ticks, and then nodded and grinned widely, with white teeth looking whiter in a blue face. "Alright! We'll start you off, and if you have any troubles, or if you can't cut it, then we'll sort something out. We're working on a rowing boat at the moment, so go help that fellow you saw before at the dry dock. If you need anything, I will be there later on, or you can visit this office. Alright!"

She was in! She nodded her thanks, and spoke it too, before leaving the office and turning to duck behind, looking for the dry dock and the only semi-familiar face in the place.

581 words

-Beautiful boxcode credits go to Aislyn Leavold!


Karin Ironyach
Last edited by Karin on August 7th, 2016, 12:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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[Job thread] Swifts and Willows

Postby Karin on August 7th, 2016, 12:07 pm

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It wasn't long before she spotted him, and with a brief sigh of relief the girl clambered down the side of the dock, gripping onto the edges to stop herself from falling ungracefully. The man tilted his head, confused somewhat at her arrival in the dock, but the other workers ignored her. Karin stopped herself from blushing, and nodded towards the man with the grizzled hair. He spoke up, his voice rumbling but friendly enough, "What do we have here then?"

"Picalum offered me a job as an apprentice shipwright, and sent me to you." The man guffawed, and suddenly lurched forwards to offer her his hand. "Oh, I see. Well, it's nice to meet you, girl. My name's Havowen and Holdawen, but you can call me Hav. I'm very much amused that Picalum would send you tae me, considering he knows what I'm like at teaching." Karin stared, and cringed. Was she just a joke? She almost went to turn away, but Hav continued. "You go over to Aedre, see? She's the blonde working over there. Perhaps you two'd get along better than with an old man like me. She'll tell you what to do, and just tell Picalum if you see him that you're with her."

Passed like a baton between people didn't put her in the best of moods, and her hope and excitement to start the job was quickly fading. But, she battened it down, and walked along the narrow bottom of the dry dock, towards the woman indicated. "Hi, there." Karin introduced herself to her, and wondered, and hoped she wouldn't be passed along again. Being surrounded by boats, wood and the sea so nearby was so tantalising that she didn't want to feel upset in a place like this.

Thankfully, Aedre seemed to understand her, as she explained all that had happened so far, and asked what she needed to do. When she spoke however, Karin had to strain to hear her. The Svefra woman was hushed, quiet, and there was something of a sadness about her. Again, Karin wondered why she'd been placed with this woman, but she listened to her instructions with care, and started on the sanding down required for the planks they were working on.

As they worked, the two hardly exchanged a word, but the silence stopped bothering Karin after half a chime. The work, instead, took up her entire mind. Her body seemed to be in a heightened state- unlike her work at the Workshop in Alvadas, here she felt a sense of duty to not mess up. As such, she frequently compared her work to Aedre's, hoping to be doing it right. She sanded, up and down and up and down the length of wood, filing it to a neat, flat edge at one end, and when she had finally finished the plank, she broke the silence and asked Aedre for her opinion.

Without a word, she took the plank and gave it some finishing touches, before leaving Karin entirely and walking up to the boat in the final stages of completion. The day was getting odder and odder. The girl watched, with some degree of irritation, as the older Svefra waited for one of the other workers, and hammered and knocked the plank into shape on the boat. She could make out the hammer they used, a wooden hammer covered in cloth on one end. Yet, she wished herself to be there, so that she could work on the boat itself, to put in place the work she'd done herself. She suddenly felt so much more like a child, having her father snatch away her blacksmithing work.

All she wanted was to be trusted.

618 words

-Beautiful boxcode credits go to Aislyn Leavold!


Karin Ironyach
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10/7/17- All my threads are marked [open] and as such are open to all. :)
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[Job thread] Swifts and Willows

Postby Karin on August 31st, 2016, 6:59 pm

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Ordinarily, Karin would've ignored this slight. After all, it was her first day working there, and if she thought rationally then it was obvious that she was still just an inexperienced girl to these Akalak. Yet it stung to be cast off, especially when she was truly beginning to take pride in her work, even if it was just filing planks. So when Aedre returned, the younger Svefra rounded on her. "Hey look, just because I'm new here, doesn't mean I want to be cut out like that. Could I at least know what's expected of me? I was under the impression that I was just going to be put right into it..." She trailed off lamely. Arguing really wasn't her strong point.

The blonde woman seemed surprised, and said as much. "Look, I wasn't sure how much you know about actual boat-building, you know? You seemed competent at woodwork, but the art of making a boat is very different." Before she could continue, Karin spoke. "I know that! But how am I supposed to learn if I'm not actually there, learning?"

Aedre looked confused. "You could've come and had a look yourself." The statement hung in the air for a fragment of time before the older woman gave a shrug of her shoulders, and indicated the next couple of boards to start working on. Karin looked at her, then at the wood, wondering what was wrong with her. However, the argument was lost before it started, and the girl gave a resigned sigh before turning to the planks.

She got to work, grabbing the sandpaper and scrubbing it backwards and forwards vigorously. The board was in its infancy, so to speak. Fresh and new, with no shaping or preparation. And truth be told, the girl didn't fully know what she was doing. But she didn't want to ask, out of frustration, and because she would be proving herself wrong. It was only when she looked over to Aedre that she realised her technique was all wrong. The other Svefra was smoothing the sandpaper carefully but efficiently, not backwards and forwards, but following the grain of the wood in only one direction.

Karin felt her cheeks warm, and she stared down at her own work. What a brilliant start to a new job, huh? She felt ashamed of her own actions now, especially as the other woman didn't seem to comment when she suddenly changed her style. What did she know, anyway? Her work at the Patchwork Port had been sporadic and varying. She knew some woodwork, varnishing, carving, other such things. But of boatbuilding? Almost nothing.

Word count: 438

-Beautiful boxcode credits go to Aislyn Leavold!


Karin Ironyach
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10/7/17- All my threads are marked [open] and as such are open to all. :)
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Karin
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Posts: 568
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[Job thread] Swifts and Willows

Postby Karin on August 31st, 2016, 7:27 pm

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Not to say that she wasn't, but humility was not something Karin felt every day. But on this emotional rollercoaster of a day, she definitely felt just that little bit more humble. Against her own skills, Aedre was incredible, working on something very simple, but in such an effective way. To Karin, the other woman was a wonder. And it was because of her that Karin bit back on her lip, and got on with her job.

After a while, the lull of sandpapering settled into her, and she found herself enjoying it like she'd originally thought she would. The shipping yard was pretty quiet considering, most of the other people in the dry dock were working quietly, although there weren't that many others around. Overhead, the light of Syna was gleaming restfully, and the sky was painted a beautiful, light blue. The wood she was working with matched quite nicely with the day, in fact. It was light in colour, something like ash or pine maybe. The grains were light and smooth, and as she had mostly sandpapered everywhere she needed to, the wood was creamy and light.

In fact, she had almost finished this particular board. The silence between the two woman was an odd one, comfortable yet slightly weighted, as if they were both waiting for the other one to speak. Although Karin was more than happy with silence, she spoke up then, asking whether her working companion thought she was done.

Aedre nodded, and together this time, they carried the wood over to the construction of the boat. Up close, the boat looked very strange. For one, it was upside-down whilst the outer shell was being constructed. And the boards were being held in place by the wooden support struts, something which looked like a work of art anyway, even without the ship. It was all very different to the only other time she'd worked on a boat. That had been a repair job, and a temporary repair job at that, stuck in the water and nowhere near a dry dock.

It was fulfilling to see a boat at its beginning though. Even more fulfilling to work on it. Grabbing a couple of iron nails, she assisted Aedre in hammering the finished board in place, before stepping back to admire their handiwork. It was a neat job, thankfully. Karin would not have wanted her first real part of the action to have messed up the construction of this beauty in the making.

So, it was a return back to the work station, to do the same thing over and over again. Sandpapering, sawing (occasionally), hammering, and back to sandpapering. It was repetitive, but as the day drew closer and closer to its end, Karin was happy to see the difference she and Aedre, and the others had made on the boat. The outer shell was nearing completion. It was almost time to turn the whole thing over and start working on the deck and the inner workings of the ship.

504 words

-Beautiful boxcode credits go to Aislyn Leavold!


Karin Ironyach
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10/7/17- All my threads are marked [open] and as such are open to all. :)
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Karin
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[Job thread] Swifts and Willows

Postby Karin on August 31st, 2016, 7:59 pm

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The day was coming to an end, and the workers were leaving, one by one. She would have liked to say that she didn't notice them leaving, but in fact she was tired from sawing and sandpapering, her shoulders ached from leaning over and her hands stung from the abrasiveness of the paper. So instead, she was taking a breather, admiring the beautiful sunset, the flickering of early bats and late swifts as the cavorted in the air above her searching for flies to eat.

Breaking her out of her contemplation, Aedre beckoned her over to the ship as her and two other akalak started pulling a large, heavy tarpaulin over the carcass of the boat. It was almost finished, the outer shell at least. Karin gave it a last, admiring look over before heaving and pulling the tarp over with some effort, for it was heavier than it looked. The two akalak grinned and clapped each other on the back before departing, and it was just her and Aedre left.

Even before she could even say sorry, or thank you for the day, the other Svefra started walking off without a backwards glance. Karin gave a desultory wave in her direction, but to no avail. All that was left for the girl now was to clear her own workspace, as everyone else had left their places neat and tidy. Grabbing a brush from behind a bucket, the girl started to sweep her sawdust and wood shavings to the side, sinking into the repetitive motion of it before sweeping the top of her workstation.

Then all she had after that was the putting away of tools, simple once she'd found the right places for them in the tool rack, a process which required a little trial and error. The dock clean, and the building yard quiet, Karin took a moment to let out a soft sigh and to sink into thought. The day had been an odd one, confusing but repetitive. Bitter but fulfilling. She wasn't quite sure what to make of her working partner, but the whole workplace was what she'd expected. More actually, if she really thought of it.

With a smile, she regarded the misshapen form of the boat hidden under the tarpaulin. It was fast becoming her dearest wish to make her own boat, so that she could sail and enjoy a life on the waves like she'd always known she was supposed to. It wasn't even because of her pod anymore, that thought had slipped away as slippery as an eel a long time ago. No, now she thought about herself, and to a lesser extent Jay. His freedom and apparent ease on a ship was her inspiration, and she wanted to be her own person, a sailor.

But it was more than that, too. She enjoyed the craft of making a boat, the slow but steady working into place the well-known shape of a boat. The changing textures of the wood as she worked it. To make her own ship and sail it too would be the life. But to do that she needed money, and experience. And this job, with its proximity to the water and the opportunity to work on boats was perfect. She smiled, glad to have taken the job, even if it had got off to a bumpy start.

559 words

-Beautiful boxcode credits go to Aislyn Leavold!


Karin Ironyach
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10/7/17- All my threads are marked [open] and as such are open to all. :)
User avatar
Karin
Ocean gazing
 
Posts: 568
Words: 384298
Joined roleplay: July 7th, 2015, 10:05 am
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[Job thread] Swifts and Willows

Postby Faradae on May 14th, 2017, 10:30 am

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Karin
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

E X P E R I E N C E

• Rhetoric +1
• Observation +1
• Socialization +1
• Carpentry +3
• Shipbuilding +2
• Cleaning +1


L O R E S

• Location: The Riverfall Port
• Location: The Wavemaster's Shipwright
• Riverfall Port: Busier than the Patchwork Port
• Picalum: Owner of the Wavemaster's Shipwright
• Rhetoric: Promote your skills
• The Wavemaster's Shipwright: New workplace
• Hav & Aedre: Work at the Wavemaster's Shipwright
• Aedre: Sadness and silence
• Socialization: Making introductions
• Karin: Wishes to be trusted
• Carpentry: Smoothing wood by following the grain
• Shipbuilding: Building the shell upside-down
• Shipbuilding: Many planks form a boat
• Shipbuilding: Covering an unfinished boat with a tarpaulin overnight
• Cleaning: Keeping your workspace tidy


N O T E S

A very nice thread and an easy read, thank you! I learnt as more about shipbuilding than Karin did today. I know you requested primarily shipbuilding, but especially the first stages contained more carpentry, so I could not award all shipbuilding, apologies. I hope you'll still enjoy your grades!


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