Searching of Scrap

[Deleted]

((OOC: FIRST. TOPIC. WOOHOO. March 4, 1622. Approximately 4:54 PM))

With it starting to get dark and there being less people out and about, Reuben had stepped off his airship to the scrapyard, in an attempt to find some spare parts or any repairable clockworks. He had the money.

Though if he was careful enough, he would be able to sneak some of the smaller parts out. Why should some random person benefit just because people threw away their parts without even thinking? Now, if the owner was poor, that would be a different story.

Reuben paused upon looking at a small broken clockwork with one big eye, that seemed to be designed to stick to things. Hm. That had potential. He wondered what it was for.

[Deleted]

Reuben wasn't the only one in the scrapyard at the time. Darting between the piles carrying a gardening hoe was a blond haired boy in a newsboy cap, and a cheap outfit made from cotton. He was going from mound of scrap to mound of scrap, prodding at them with his tool, digging farther down that most people in hopes of finding something that may have been buried.

At some point, he had climbed to the top of one of the piles and was trying to lever an old steel...thing out of it's resting place so he could get under it. He saw what looked like an old dinged up brass clock, and if anything made wonderful mini clockworks, it was old clocks.

In Peter's shirt pocket, there was a small whirring noise and some clicks. It was Clank, his first and so far longest lasting mini-Clockwork. He was made from an old pocket watch that had stopped working, and in place of the clock face was a big eye, and little spring like arms and legs protruded from it's body.

While the two of them didn't speak the same language, Clank understood Peter and Peter mostly understood Clank. The little Clockwork's pointing and chirping didn't take much to translate though, and looking over, Peter saw another digging through the scrap on the opposite mound. He hadn't seen this guys before, he didn't look like he came from the inventor's quarter...

"Hey!" He called, waving his hoe in the air. "Mister!" With a nimble leap, Peter used the gardening tool to leap down the pile and land near Reuben, who he looked at with a proud smile. "Lookin' for anything in particular, mister?"

[Deleted]

At this time of day, there definitely didn't seem to be that many people around, which was a good thing. Reuben had his jacket sleeves rolled up, some light scars from old sword wounds on his arms. He ignored the scars, considering they were always there, and examined the small broken clockwork that he had found. Yes, he could probably fix this and find a use for it.

Somewhere.

He tucked it into a pocket, and continued to dig in the piles for usable parts. Really, some of the parts inventors threw away were still in quite good condition, just with a few burns and such. A little bit of reinforcing and they would be in perfect shape. Some of the scrap parts he looked over and put to the side, others he tried to put in his pockets to take later.

When he heard a voice yell out to him, the young man quickly whipped around, taking a step back upon seeing the hoe, but upon realizing it was just a kid with a hoe, he relaxed and watched the beaming kid. Hm, a few years older than his little brother would be.

"Not really. I'm just going for anything that looks like it might be fixable. You work here?" He asked the boy. Reuben really wasn't used to be approached by random children, after all.

[Deleted]

"Nah, I don't work here." Peter answered, leaning on his tool. "But I'm here all the time with Pappy, or by myself. I know the place about as well as the owner, and he doesn't even know what he's got!" The belong child laughed proudly.

"If you're looking for good stuff, you gotta dig. He tends to collect thing en masse in a bin, and then when it gets full, he has some Clockworks haul it out and dump it. Everyone picks over the surface, so it's hard to find things."

To proved his point, Peter took the hoe and, with a firm yank, undid a large pile of scrap to reveal a pile of much less picked over parts. "Most inventors are in such a hurry, they miss things. Not me! I dig. Sure, it's dangerous. Sometimes you can cut yourself on something rusty and get sick. But it's worth it!"

From his front pocket, Clank began to whirr and chirp, sticking it's eye out and looking at Reuben. "Oh, this is Clank! I built him out of an old, smashed pocket watch I found here." Peter gently plucked the small Clockwork from his pocket and let it stand on his hand.

[Deleted]

Reuben nodded as the kid mentioned that his father came here all the time. Ah, he had to be one of the inventors, right? It was normally the inventors that came here after all. Like his Uncle Isaac had in the smaller scrapyards in Seria.

"That sounds like a good idea, actually. I did have a shovel Clockwork once, but he is with someone else now, so I suppose I just have my hands, hm?"

Reuben watched the kid as he enthusiastically undid a pile to find some much better-looking parts. Hm, that was actually a really good idea.

"Can't quite afford to get sick, but cuts are nothing new to me. I think I can handle a few scrapes and bruises from all the work." As long as he didn't get exhausted first. He peered over the small Clockwork.

"You built him yourself? With no help?" That was quite impressive, there weren't too many kids that could do that, even if he himself was one of the kids that could at that age.

[Deleted]

That's right Reuben. Peter, like his father, was an inventor. Though at this point, Peter was more of a tinkerer than an inventor.

"Heh, yea. It's be easier with some Clockwork help, but gardening tools work well. I find that swapping between a rake and a hoe works best, but I can only carry one comfortably, and the hoe is a bit more sturdy." He paused. "You know, mister. You're bigger than I am. Maybe with my hoe and your strength, we could work together to dig a little deeper? I don't mind helping, and I know the area. I can tell you where most things might be."

As he demonstrated the skill he had garnered from his many hours digging in the scrap yards, he looked back to Reuben proudly. "You wanna be really careful about rust. I think it was call. Tenetus? Something like that, all I know is it comes from rust and it's nasty."

He held out Clank, looking even more proud about the little Clockwork than about his scrap digging talents. "Yep! I built him mostly from scratch, using scrap parts I found laying around. He can't talk, there wasn't enough room for a voice box, but he manages alright without it. He understands us, and I can usually tell what he's trying to say." He smiled at his little friend. "I'm told it's because of my small hands that I can build things like this, though I think it's because I'm my pappy's son. He's a great inventor too!"

[Deleted]

Work together to dig deeper into the piles of scrap? While Reuben wasn't the strongest young man in the three continents, he was stronger than a scrawny little thirteen-year-old kid, so he nodded.[/color]

"It's worth a shot. We can dig somewhere and split the good parts that we find."

It would be fair; he wasn't a complete asshole, and this kid was obviously not one of the rich snobs. Tenetus? It sounded about it. Either way, he didn't fancy getting sick with whatever it was. He could polish the rust off if he was careful, or have one of his crew do it so that he didn't really get sick. Either way, he examined Clank with interest.

"If you can find a way to make the normal voicebox design smaller, you could probably put one inside him." Reuben observed. It shouldn't be too hard for a kid to make a small voicebox, though that was ultimately up to him. "You're quite proud of them, aren't you?"

[Deleted]

With a smile, Peter shifted his grip on his tool when he was nodded to. "Sounds like a plan!" He said. "Oh! I'm Peter Williams, by the way." He introduced himself with a flourish of the hoe.

Little did Peter know, the work he was looking for was tetanus. Peter had seen people with it, it wasn't pretty. At all.

Peter tilted his head as Reuben suggested a smaller voice box. "I've been working on it, but anything small enough to fit doesn't have the power to make anything audible." He shrugged, but then smiled widely. "Yep! Clank is my longest living one, though, and the first one I made. All the others stop working after a few weeks. I don't know why Clank is so special, I take care of them all the same, but only Clank seems to be able to stick around." Peter frowned sadly. He always felt upset when his little Clockworks stopped functioning. He tried to get them going again, but he rarely managed it. It was to the point that he was sometimes hesitant on making more, because he knew they might not live long.

[Deleted]

Reuben smiled a bit at the kid. Peter, huh? Nice kid. If only more kids were like him, than this world would be a much better place. "Peter? I'm Reuben Stevenson."

Oh, he knew that. It just didn't hit him at the moment. No, it wasn't pretty at all, and he had had no idea that his parents had been claimed by it.

"It might need a different power source... or something to amplify the voice." He shrugged a bit as well, and observed Clank a little. "Does it have anything to do with what you used to make him, or the quality of the parts at all? Sometimes there's nothing you can do if the parts are bad. It does look like that Clank was made from rather good parts, just from what I can see."

[Deleted]

Peter smiled as they were introduced. Once that was done, he returned his focus to Clank, who had given up on standing and was sitting in Peter's palm. "I don't know. Pappy says I have talent, but I'm still really new at this." Peter frowned. "Maybe when I'm older I'll be able to give him a voice."

In reply, Clank let out a few more clicks a whirrs in answer, which made Peter smile softly. "Though Clank is smart. I think he's developed a language, I just need to learn it." He looked back at Reuben curiously as the materials were suggested. "I don't know, I kind of use whatever is lying around. I admit, I used high quality parts with Clank, because he was my first one. You think that might be it?" He tilted his head. "But I see other Clockworks made with will shoddy parts that are just fine. Why would my Clockworks break so easily?" It was bugging him!

[Deleted]

Talent, huh? Normally Reuben would have chalked it off to a father being proud of their child and trying to encourage him even if he wasn't talented, but the boy had built a small Clockwork all by himself. That definitely had to take talent of some sort; most kids weren't capable of building working Clockworks.

"Maybe; just make sure you keep practicing and you'll probably be able to by then."

He nodded a bit in approval at that. Clockworks, for as mechanical as they were, were very intelligent and knew how to communicate with others even if their voiceboxes weren't working that well. He'd had to communicate with one of his own crewmembers who hadn't had one before he had found the parts to install on in him.

"Well, for all you know, those Clockworks that you see are being constantly repaired when no one is watching by whoever built them. Quality does have to do with it, though bad parts will work as long as they are maintained frequently."

[Deleted]

Quinn certainly was proud of his boy, and there was no doubt that part of the comment was him encouraging Peter, however there was a bit of actual talent behind his work, so it wasn't dry praise.

"I will!~ Clank and I can talk well enough, but it'd be cool to be able to actually have a conversation with him!~" Happy Peter is happy! He'd gently replace Clank into his shirt pocket and pick the hoe back up. He and Clank had long ago roughed out a pseudo language, though finer details in communication were nigh impossible.

Oh! He had forgotten to take into account maintenance on those shoddier looking Clockworks. "But what about mine? I maintained them and yet they still..." He was about to use the word 'died', but...clockworks didn't 'die', did they? They just stopped moving. They just broke.

"A-Anyway. Why don't we get started?"

[Deleted]

Reuben smiled at the kid, feeling a bit reminded of his brother. Was this how Caden would have turned out, had he been a little older? He suddenly got the urge to go and hug his brother, whom he hadn't seen in several years. Hm, maybe his next stop ought to be Seria, just to check up on his family. It had been awhile.

"Well..." He placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, patting him. "I hate to say it, but sometimes those things happen. Why some people get sick and die but others don't, why some Clockworks die and others don't. I'm sure that none of it was your fault."

Either way, he nodded when the kid agreed to go hunting. He reached out for the hoe, perfectly willing to carry it for now.

[Deleted]

There was little doubt that Peter and Caden were similar, they might even wind up being best friends!obvious reference is obvious Still, Peter was in Truesdale and Caden was in Seria, so unless one of them continent hopped, there wasn't going to be any meetings any time soon.

Peter was a little taken aback, not only from Reuben's attempt to comfort him, but also at how casually he used the word 'die' for a Clockwork. Did they 'die'? One could say they did. If Matthew was destroyed, would he say 'he broke' or 'he died'?

He'd have to think on it. He gave a sidelong glance at Reuben when he offered to take the tool. "Naw, I got it. I do this all the time, I hardly even notice this thing when I'm carrying it, now." He said, trying to smile after such a dreary conversation. "Come on, I need to find some things in particular myself!"

[Deleted]

Oh em gee, you, like nobody knew the reference? Wait, scratch that. That was true. Caden was the most likely one to hop, if Reuben ever found him, but that was a long shot as of now. Either way, all Reuben knew was that he wanted to see Caden again and hug the little boy, especially if he was anything like this kid here and now.

Yes, in Reuben's opinion, Clockworks died. Some of them were better people than other humans that he had known in his lifetime.

"You sure? Alright then, come on." Reuben smiled a bit at the kid, and headed over with him to wherever they were going to dig.