JayEnfield
Inactive Member
Guest starring: Luca as Mr. Kaufman
Featuring: Vosem and Devyat
The following is an early pad play to get the feel for these characters. The roleplay thus far is mundane in theme, I warn you of this in case you were hunting for blastey-blastey mega-action to read. There is none here.
Nepleslian Orbit, A Commercial Space Station, Kaufman's Wreck and Repair
The wonderful thing about heading into Nepleslia, especially for families who were travelling in large cruisers with portholes and windows was the fun game of 'spot the debris'. The amount of rubbish and junk littering Nepleslia's orbit were practically a defence to the planet itself, and if it was rolled into one ball it'd probably make a new moon.
Just above this stratosphere of rubbish, beckoning the way into Nepleslia's atmosphere from higher up were a litany of space stations. Their exact purposes and needs varied quite a bit, ranging from small scale luxury residential developments, to sprawling penal complexes where digging your way out got you face full of vacuum. Rubbing shoulders with such company were commercial space stations, selling spaceship fuels, parts, repairs and other services.
One such commercial station which specialised in starship parts and repair, someone was drumming their fingers restlessly at their desk, looking at the days emails. It'd been a long day, there was an order that a group of space truckers had put in all at once - they wanted their fleet to be serviced. A quartet of Mule Freighters were resting in the repair hangar, their internals currently being examined in detail by burly repairmen, and in their midst, oddly enough, what appeared to be ferrets.
Devyat tossed his brother a component. "Broke." and another "Busted." and another "Needs replacing."
"Think it's time to pitch the 'turn four into three' method to the bossfolk?" Vosem replied.
"Yeah. Maybe two at this rate..."
"Dahh, we can do three. They're trying to keep as many haulers hauling as they can, right? Number one there is looking alright, we just need to do the work there to get her in good order. It's the rest that we need the parts budget on. You remember how it was under Captain Hall. Cheap cheap cheap."
"Da." Devyat shuddered a little. "Why would someone like that run a ship?"
Vosem grinned. "Because the alternative is living on the dirt."
This caused Devyat to shudder a little more, his fur poofing out.
"So here's what we'll do." Vosem said, "you get onto three and four, I've got one and two. Figure out what parts we need, compile. Standard format, we'll compare what we've got, and give a list for full repairs to Kaufman, and another one for a three-of-four repair."
Devyat simply nodded and scuttled off to get to work on the somewhat nice haulers.When in 'work-mode' like this, the two were diligent, and so Vosem got to his own task. Each took the necessary time, and followed the plan through, before they approached their contract-holder, knocking at his office door.
Dev adjusted his overall, doing the same for Vosem as he attempted to wave him off, pushing Dev away gently. "I know, I know."
Footsteps could be heard on the other side as the weasels waited, followed by the door to the office opening, and Uri Kaufman standing there. For a guy running a repair business, he didn't look the part. Skinny in the arms, long in the face rather than wide, and his clothing looked more like what you'd pry off of a terminally depressed stockbroker than a mechanic. The only thing that suggested involvement with heavy machinery was a high visibility vest over the suit jacket.
He looked down to see the two weasels, and as far as he knew they did good work, and there were few complaints from customers save for the odd stare. "Devo," he said, addressing them both. "What's up? How are those four Mules coming along?"
Vosem offered up the clipboard eagerly. "Part requirements and time estimates for repair of four, and repair-of-three scrap-one, Sir. Our previous contractor requested choices on these matters, I hope that you are pleased to be offered the same."
Kaufman's brow furrowed, resting himself against the doorframe as he rubbed his chin, looking down at the weasels. "To get all four repaired, top of my head, would take 6 hours each. 8 or 9 if you're working alone each, but hey," he winked, grinning, "we can charge them for more labor that way."
This had Dev wordlessly glance at his brother.
Vosem volunteered "Yes, Sir. With full access to new parts, these repairs are well within our reach. Our previous home, we often had to do with less than such access."
"Oh of course, not doubting that," the manager replied. "Parts are aplenty, you worry about getting the job done, and telling me what you use, and I'll worry about charging the client." Something about the grin on his face, the cigarette in his mouth and the arse-shaped grease stain on the couch he used to sit clients down for buttering up let them know he was ready to the weasels go on a war dance.
This notion of using whatever parts he wanted rather pleased Vosem after years of on-the-fly refurbishing second-hand parts. "Understood, Sir, we'll return when the work is done." The two were definitely deferential to their contract-holder, so long as their contract plaques were on the wall of the office.
"Yessir, right away sir." Dev replied eagerly. Kaufman nodded back to them and closed the door after they'd left, sitting back down to keep the books cooking at a low heat over time, so to speak. Luckily, in addition to being compulsively loyal, the doukhs were also quite naive about these matters compared to the nosier mechanics.
As for the meat and potatoes of the business, the four Mules, by the smell of them, were probably used for something illicit judging from the smells of their cargo hold interiors ranging from chemical to downright musky. Cleaning those out will be amongst the tasks of getting the four vehicles in good working order. The two were perfectionists through and through, and a dirty vessel simply didn't meet code. Their teamwork was spot-on, even as they conducted individual tasks, they always seemed aware of what the other needed and what order of operations would work efficiently.
As for the individual mechanics of each or the miniature freighters, there were the tell-tale signs of mid-flight repairs made with implements ranging from the ever ubiquitous duct tape, to sections of busted pipe being replaced with cut and sandwiched beer cans that were the approximate shape of the original pipe, welded together with weld-melted duct tape. And that was just the beginning.
The doukhs were told that they could use whatever parts they needed, and so replacing jury-rigs with good proper parts becomes a very satisfying activity. Devyat was especially a stickler about replacing cowboy jobs with proper ones, even swapping out misappropriated or substandard parts for proper ones.
Somewhere along the way, Vos sighed out, "Unlimited factory parts. We haven't had this since... Well, since the cruise liner." The 3D printers were just full of possibilities for the ferrets, and the guy responsible operating it was pretty chill, though he always smelled like strange Lorath fruit.
"I could stay here. Wouldn't mind if he doesn't manage to sell our contract." Dev replied.
"Repair work on these little scoot-n-boots is all and well," Vos said,"but I need the hum of a ship around me."
"A station is basically a ship." Dev interrupted.
"You don't miss the travel? Stealing peeks at the visual feeds to see what new place we were ending up all the time?" As Vos dismounted parts, screws and bolts, got them lined up in neat rows and little holders, never mixed.
"I don't mind the travel. Just having to glue things together with spit. Oh, an I don't miss having to fight off vermin for turf."
In one of the ships Vosem was looking after, there seemed to be something growing in it, and it had eyes, fed by the warmth between the engines and the life support. Must've picked it up by accident, or it was possibly something formerly edible now forgotten.
As they found this creature, Vosem remarked "Spoke too soon? Some things never change, I suppose." This was met with a dooky little giggle from Dev as he got roped into helping remove the thing.
In due course, they completed their work with their usual perfectionism, which did lend toward making the job run a bit long. Once finished, they took care to clean themselves up thoroughly and switched into fresh coveralls before presenting themselves to their 'Captain'. The fact that there were overalls in that size still baffled some of the other guys working in that shop - but at least it meant Devo's suits couldn't ever be mistaken for Johnny or Kyle or Viktor or Erin or Marle's garments.
The door was open this time, and Kaufman was scrubbing the stain left on his couch one of those truckers who was as wide as he was tall furiously. The room smelled like soap and his face was going red from exertion, or possibly the strength of the cleaning agents. He didn't notice Devo come in at first.
Vosem was rather pleased to be getting to the part of the day where the assigned work is complete, and socializing with the superiors and cohorts could occur. To this end, recognizing what Kaufman was doing, Vosem volunteered "The assignment is complete, Sir. May I take over that task for you so that you may inspect the work with Devyat?" Vosem could totally take one for the team. The sooner all the work was done, the sooner socializing could occur. Devyat perked up a little more in response to being volunteered.
Kaufman turned around and saw the two. "Oh, uh," he mumbled, caught unawares as his brush plunged into the bucket to rinse off in clammy, soapy water. "Sure thing, Vos." He was wearing dishwashing gloves and an apron filched from the kitchen which had a picture of a duck with teeth on it.
Devyat smiled benignly and stood aside from the doorway. "This way sir." gesturing out. Kaufman slipped his gloves off and started walking, undoing the ridiculous apron and hanging it up on his door on the way out.
Silly scent-blind humans just don't know much about getting scents neutralized. Vos seemed confident that he could handle this proficiently as he set to work.
"So, anything out of the ordinary, or is it another trucker repair clusterfuck?" Kaufman asked as he walked through the repair area, lighting himself a smoke.
"It was obvious they had no proficient mechanics and got rather ... creative with spare parts." Devyat responded.
"Mmhm," he replied, walking past the first of the Mules. "Anything special about this one?"
"For example I replaced quite a lot of weld work here." Dev proudly pointed out some of his best welding on this job. A Doukh not afraid to put his best foot forward. Kaufman bent down to inspect the weld, which would usually be quite difficult for a full sized mechanic's hand to squeeze into.
"Hm, somewhere an Origin Industries employee is crying themselves to sleep at night for dealing with this sort of shit," he mumbled, making sure the ash from his cigarette didn't drop inside the ship - he knew the weasels hated it. Their neuroticism had both its pros and cons. "You did good, Dev." Causing Devyat's chest to swell with pride. "Next?" Kaufman asked.
Devyat led Kaufman on to inspect the remaining craft. "Feel free to point anything out sir." The Kauf extended his hand over to the third shuttle and made an indistinct mumble to draw attention to the previously botched pinup that was painted onto the side on account of having the plate it was drawn on replaced. Turned out one of the other mechanics, Marle, had an artistic side and recognised the design.
"Even the pin up gals?" He asked.
"Do you want those removed too sir?" Dev looked a little surprised.
"Nah Dev, I mean, who repainted that?" He could smell the scent of paint from where he was standing.
Meanwhile, the mechanical perfectionism was being echoed in the office as Vos had replaced soap with a good protein neutralizing solution and was going to town on the scented surfaces. Bonus credit felt quite good as it satisfied their desire to make NOCH look good for producing effective AI workers.
"That was Marle sir, he insisted on painting it that way." Dev replied plaintatively.
"Uh huh... well, I guess the truckers won't give too much mind," Kaufman nodded, examining the curves on the painted woman, who was showing some leg, "but I'll still ask him how much it was worth and slip it in under labor costs."
He then looked inside the cargo bay for the fourth ship. "Damn," he said as he looked around for something, anything to tarnish the interior - there was nothing. "This looks brand new. What'd you do, throw a cleaning grenade in?"
"Just about everything on it is new aside from the spaceframe. There wasn't much left over when you account for botched or worn out parts." Dev explained. Also, the cleaning grenade's name was Dev.
Kaufman checked his watch and nodded. It was knock-off time, the day's hours had been spent quite diligently. He made his estimates assuming the mechanics were people, not crazy weasel-shaped artificial intelligences. "Great work, both of yous. Wanna head in to the station and grab a beer?" He asked, wondering if they got drunk at all.
"That would be quite appreciated. Though, one thing if you may." Dev responded before querying. "What might we call the front of the station?"
"The...?" Kaufman quizzed, brow raising.
"The bow, the part that is ahead, uhm ... in front." Dev explained.
As far as Kaufman was aware, the station didn't exactly have a front. It was a cylinder that had a top and a bottom, with an hourglass-like structure in the middle of it to allow ships to dock and roost. It spun on its axis. Dev was even making appropriate gestures as he attempted to explain the concept.
"This station's a cylinder." Kaufman said. "Guess you could go to the top observation room."
Dev looked quite relieved at that response. "The top observation room." he nodded "Thank you sir." Kaufman nodded back in reply before walking off to see what the other mechanics were up to. Dev meanwhile hurried off to meet up with his brother.
Featuring: Vosem and Devyat
The following is an early pad play to get the feel for these characters. The roleplay thus far is mundane in theme, I warn you of this in case you were hunting for blastey-blastey mega-action to read. There is none here.
Nepleslian Orbit, A Commercial Space Station, Kaufman's Wreck and Repair
The wonderful thing about heading into Nepleslia, especially for families who were travelling in large cruisers with portholes and windows was the fun game of 'spot the debris'. The amount of rubbish and junk littering Nepleslia's orbit were practically a defence to the planet itself, and if it was rolled into one ball it'd probably make a new moon.
Just above this stratosphere of rubbish, beckoning the way into Nepleslia's atmosphere from higher up were a litany of space stations. Their exact purposes and needs varied quite a bit, ranging from small scale luxury residential developments, to sprawling penal complexes where digging your way out got you face full of vacuum. Rubbing shoulders with such company were commercial space stations, selling spaceship fuels, parts, repairs and other services.
One such commercial station which specialised in starship parts and repair, someone was drumming their fingers restlessly at their desk, looking at the days emails. It'd been a long day, there was an order that a group of space truckers had put in all at once - they wanted their fleet to be serviced. A quartet of Mule Freighters were resting in the repair hangar, their internals currently being examined in detail by burly repairmen, and in their midst, oddly enough, what appeared to be ferrets.
Devyat tossed his brother a component. "Broke." and another "Busted." and another "Needs replacing."
"Think it's time to pitch the 'turn four into three' method to the bossfolk?" Vosem replied.
"Yeah. Maybe two at this rate..."
"Dahh, we can do three. They're trying to keep as many haulers hauling as they can, right? Number one there is looking alright, we just need to do the work there to get her in good order. It's the rest that we need the parts budget on. You remember how it was under Captain Hall. Cheap cheap cheap."
"Da." Devyat shuddered a little. "Why would someone like that run a ship?"
Vosem grinned. "Because the alternative is living on the dirt."
This caused Devyat to shudder a little more, his fur poofing out.
"So here's what we'll do." Vosem said, "you get onto three and four, I've got one and two. Figure out what parts we need, compile. Standard format, we'll compare what we've got, and give a list for full repairs to Kaufman, and another one for a three-of-four repair."
Devyat simply nodded and scuttled off to get to work on the somewhat nice haulers.When in 'work-mode' like this, the two were diligent, and so Vosem got to his own task. Each took the necessary time, and followed the plan through, before they approached their contract-holder, knocking at his office door.
Dev adjusted his overall, doing the same for Vosem as he attempted to wave him off, pushing Dev away gently. "I know, I know."
Footsteps could be heard on the other side as the weasels waited, followed by the door to the office opening, and Uri Kaufman standing there. For a guy running a repair business, he didn't look the part. Skinny in the arms, long in the face rather than wide, and his clothing looked more like what you'd pry off of a terminally depressed stockbroker than a mechanic. The only thing that suggested involvement with heavy machinery was a high visibility vest over the suit jacket.
He looked down to see the two weasels, and as far as he knew they did good work, and there were few complaints from customers save for the odd stare. "Devo," he said, addressing them both. "What's up? How are those four Mules coming along?"
Vosem offered up the clipboard eagerly. "Part requirements and time estimates for repair of four, and repair-of-three scrap-one, Sir. Our previous contractor requested choices on these matters, I hope that you are pleased to be offered the same."
Kaufman's brow furrowed, resting himself against the doorframe as he rubbed his chin, looking down at the weasels. "To get all four repaired, top of my head, would take 6 hours each. 8 or 9 if you're working alone each, but hey," he winked, grinning, "we can charge them for more labor that way."
This had Dev wordlessly glance at his brother.
Vosem volunteered "Yes, Sir. With full access to new parts, these repairs are well within our reach. Our previous home, we often had to do with less than such access."
"Oh of course, not doubting that," the manager replied. "Parts are aplenty, you worry about getting the job done, and telling me what you use, and I'll worry about charging the client." Something about the grin on his face, the cigarette in his mouth and the arse-shaped grease stain on the couch he used to sit clients down for buttering up let them know he was ready to the weasels go on a war dance.
This notion of using whatever parts he wanted rather pleased Vosem after years of on-the-fly refurbishing second-hand parts. "Understood, Sir, we'll return when the work is done." The two were definitely deferential to their contract-holder, so long as their contract plaques were on the wall of the office.
"Yessir, right away sir." Dev replied eagerly. Kaufman nodded back to them and closed the door after they'd left, sitting back down to keep the books cooking at a low heat over time, so to speak. Luckily, in addition to being compulsively loyal, the doukhs were also quite naive about these matters compared to the nosier mechanics.
As for the meat and potatoes of the business, the four Mules, by the smell of them, were probably used for something illicit judging from the smells of their cargo hold interiors ranging from chemical to downright musky. Cleaning those out will be amongst the tasks of getting the four vehicles in good working order. The two were perfectionists through and through, and a dirty vessel simply didn't meet code. Their teamwork was spot-on, even as they conducted individual tasks, they always seemed aware of what the other needed and what order of operations would work efficiently.
As for the individual mechanics of each or the miniature freighters, there were the tell-tale signs of mid-flight repairs made with implements ranging from the ever ubiquitous duct tape, to sections of busted pipe being replaced with cut and sandwiched beer cans that were the approximate shape of the original pipe, welded together with weld-melted duct tape. And that was just the beginning.
The doukhs were told that they could use whatever parts they needed, and so replacing jury-rigs with good proper parts becomes a very satisfying activity. Devyat was especially a stickler about replacing cowboy jobs with proper ones, even swapping out misappropriated or substandard parts for proper ones.
Somewhere along the way, Vos sighed out, "Unlimited factory parts. We haven't had this since... Well, since the cruise liner." The 3D printers were just full of possibilities for the ferrets, and the guy responsible operating it was pretty chill, though he always smelled like strange Lorath fruit.
"I could stay here. Wouldn't mind if he doesn't manage to sell our contract." Dev replied.
"Repair work on these little scoot-n-boots is all and well," Vos said,"but I need the hum of a ship around me."
"A station is basically a ship." Dev interrupted.
"You don't miss the travel? Stealing peeks at the visual feeds to see what new place we were ending up all the time?" As Vos dismounted parts, screws and bolts, got them lined up in neat rows and little holders, never mixed.
"I don't mind the travel. Just having to glue things together with spit. Oh, an I don't miss having to fight off vermin for turf."
In one of the ships Vosem was looking after, there seemed to be something growing in it, and it had eyes, fed by the warmth between the engines and the life support. Must've picked it up by accident, or it was possibly something formerly edible now forgotten.
As they found this creature, Vosem remarked "Spoke too soon? Some things never change, I suppose." This was met with a dooky little giggle from Dev as he got roped into helping remove the thing.
In due course, they completed their work with their usual perfectionism, which did lend toward making the job run a bit long. Once finished, they took care to clean themselves up thoroughly and switched into fresh coveralls before presenting themselves to their 'Captain'. The fact that there were overalls in that size still baffled some of the other guys working in that shop - but at least it meant Devo's suits couldn't ever be mistaken for Johnny or Kyle or Viktor or Erin or Marle's garments.
The door was open this time, and Kaufman was scrubbing the stain left on his couch one of those truckers who was as wide as he was tall furiously. The room smelled like soap and his face was going red from exertion, or possibly the strength of the cleaning agents. He didn't notice Devo come in at first.
Vosem was rather pleased to be getting to the part of the day where the assigned work is complete, and socializing with the superiors and cohorts could occur. To this end, recognizing what Kaufman was doing, Vosem volunteered "The assignment is complete, Sir. May I take over that task for you so that you may inspect the work with Devyat?" Vosem could totally take one for the team. The sooner all the work was done, the sooner socializing could occur. Devyat perked up a little more in response to being volunteered.
Kaufman turned around and saw the two. "Oh, uh," he mumbled, caught unawares as his brush plunged into the bucket to rinse off in clammy, soapy water. "Sure thing, Vos." He was wearing dishwashing gloves and an apron filched from the kitchen which had a picture of a duck with teeth on it.
Devyat smiled benignly and stood aside from the doorway. "This way sir." gesturing out. Kaufman slipped his gloves off and started walking, undoing the ridiculous apron and hanging it up on his door on the way out.
Silly scent-blind humans just don't know much about getting scents neutralized. Vos seemed confident that he could handle this proficiently as he set to work.
"So, anything out of the ordinary, or is it another trucker repair clusterfuck?" Kaufman asked as he walked through the repair area, lighting himself a smoke.
"It was obvious they had no proficient mechanics and got rather ... creative with spare parts." Devyat responded.
"Mmhm," he replied, walking past the first of the Mules. "Anything special about this one?"
"For example I replaced quite a lot of weld work here." Dev proudly pointed out some of his best welding on this job. A Doukh not afraid to put his best foot forward. Kaufman bent down to inspect the weld, which would usually be quite difficult for a full sized mechanic's hand to squeeze into.
"Hm, somewhere an Origin Industries employee is crying themselves to sleep at night for dealing with this sort of shit," he mumbled, making sure the ash from his cigarette didn't drop inside the ship - he knew the weasels hated it. Their neuroticism had both its pros and cons. "You did good, Dev." Causing Devyat's chest to swell with pride. "Next?" Kaufman asked.
Devyat led Kaufman on to inspect the remaining craft. "Feel free to point anything out sir." The Kauf extended his hand over to the third shuttle and made an indistinct mumble to draw attention to the previously botched pinup that was painted onto the side on account of having the plate it was drawn on replaced. Turned out one of the other mechanics, Marle, had an artistic side and recognised the design.
"Even the pin up gals?" He asked.
"Do you want those removed too sir?" Dev looked a little surprised.
"Nah Dev, I mean, who repainted that?" He could smell the scent of paint from where he was standing.
Meanwhile, the mechanical perfectionism was being echoed in the office as Vos had replaced soap with a good protein neutralizing solution and was going to town on the scented surfaces. Bonus credit felt quite good as it satisfied their desire to make NOCH look good for producing effective AI workers.
"That was Marle sir, he insisted on painting it that way." Dev replied plaintatively.
"Uh huh... well, I guess the truckers won't give too much mind," Kaufman nodded, examining the curves on the painted woman, who was showing some leg, "but I'll still ask him how much it was worth and slip it in under labor costs."
He then looked inside the cargo bay for the fourth ship. "Damn," he said as he looked around for something, anything to tarnish the interior - there was nothing. "This looks brand new. What'd you do, throw a cleaning grenade in?"
"Just about everything on it is new aside from the spaceframe. There wasn't much left over when you account for botched or worn out parts." Dev explained. Also, the cleaning grenade's name was Dev.
Kaufman checked his watch and nodded. It was knock-off time, the day's hours had been spent quite diligently. He made his estimates assuming the mechanics were people, not crazy weasel-shaped artificial intelligences. "Great work, both of yous. Wanna head in to the station and grab a beer?" He asked, wondering if they got drunk at all.
"That would be quite appreciated. Though, one thing if you may." Dev responded before querying. "What might we call the front of the station?"
"The...?" Kaufman quizzed, brow raising.
"The bow, the part that is ahead, uhm ... in front." Dev explained.
As far as Kaufman was aware, the station didn't exactly have a front. It was a cylinder that had a top and a bottom, with an hourglass-like structure in the middle of it to allow ships to dock and roost. It spun on its axis. Dev was even making appropriate gestures as he attempted to explain the concept.
"This station's a cylinder." Kaufman said. "Guess you could go to the top observation room."
Dev looked quite relieved at that response. "The top observation room." he nodded "Thank you sir." Kaufman nodded back in reply before walking off to see what the other mechanics were up to. Dev meanwhile hurried off to meet up with his brother.
