Nuts and Bolts and Plasma Inferometers

[Anonymous]

Pale had been having a pretty good day so far, at least by his standards. Only a handful of people had come into his shop, and he had been able to keep the conversations involved to a minimum. He had kept things focused on what needed to be repaired, how long it would take, and what the cost would be.

He had even managed to avoid an incident when one especially corpulent customer had come into the shop complaining of a broken suspension system on his motorcycle. Pale had shouted, "I'm a little deaf from working on an engine earlier, so you'll have to speak up!". This gave him the opportunity to whisper, "Your suspension would last longer if you lost a couple hundred pounds." while the customer explained what he needed.

Physically it had been a rough morning. Pale had a nasty burn on his arm from brushing up against a cooling plasma coil, and though he had it bandaged it still hurt every time he bumped it.

After finishing up with some of his easier repair projects, he finally moved on to the challenge of the day, an old analog clock. He finished repairing the casing and moved on to the complicated and delicate internal mechanisms.

Pale mumbled to himself while he worked, "The smallest gear aligns with the main shaft, while the second spring has to be held in tension."

He carefully set piece after piece into place. Keeping everything in place while working was taxing his concentration to the limits. His attention was so focused that when the bell on his front entrance rang he didn't even register the sound.

[Anonymous]

Zoe had heard about this place from a friend and she really hoped it was going to work out. Though, the guy who worked there was supposed to be really weird. Fine by her, she met plenty of weirdos at work. Life was always more fun with a bit of adventure!

Stepping into the little shop, Zoe pulled off her huge sunglasses, looking around. She was dressed casually, skin tight jeans, rolled up to her knees, a loose white shirt with a tight vest over it and some black heels.

"Woooow! There is so much crazy shit in here!" Looking around, Zoe was enthralled. The guy seemed to repair anything!

[Anonymous]

Pale, lost in concentration, didn't notice that Zoe had entered the shop. He continued talking quietly to himself about gear ratios and springs until he took a moment to pull a loose strand of hair out of his eyes.

He looked up suddenly, finally becoming aware of her presence.

With a sudden intensity, he started to ramble. "Woah, a customer! Where did she come from? I didn't hear the door. And man is she hot, especially compared to that fat bastard who came in earlier. The image of him in riding leather is going to take some mental bleach to get rid of later."

As he was talking, Pale's focus drifted. A series of whirs, clicks, and rattles emanated from the inside of the clock as he let go of the clamp holding everything in place. Finally, one of the gears catapulted past his face and into the pile of tools behind him.

"Crap! That's going to take forever to find. Wait! I need to find out why this customer is here, I'll worry about it later." He paused for a moment, then continued, "Unless I can't find it later, in which case I'll have to order a new one from... Customer!"

"Dammit Pale, you can do this!"

He seemed to steel himself, then quietly chanted, "Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate."

Seemingly prepared, he took a long, slow breath and said, "I apologize for... well, all of that, really. What can I help you with, miss?"

A look of relief passed over his face. "There, that wasn't so hard, was it. You didn't even say anything about how good her legs look in those jeans, or how you wish all your customers were that attractive."

"Damn!" He exclaimed, while jabbing a finger into the side of his neck. His eyes glazed over and he finally became quiet.

[Anonymous]

It was like watching a glorious train wreck. Zoe stared, expression torn between confusion and amusement as the guy rambled on. It was nice to know she had that much of an effect on a guy as the spring went whizzing through the air.

Tilting her head, Zoe gave a small laugh, "Whoa, seriously? What was that? Do you always do that? Though, you are totally right. My legs look amazing in these pants." Zoe gave a small spin, "My ass too. It's why I got them. Way expensive, but I think worth it."

Moving a little closer, Zoe peered down at the clock he had been working on, "Is that gonna be okay? I didn't mean to totally mess you up."

[Anonymous]

After following her gaze to the clock, Pale slowly realized that a response was necessary. His hand moved to the side of his neck, searching for the pressure pad for his vocal inhibitor. A look of intense mental effort crossed his face as he fumbled about, and eventually he was able to find and press the pad.

Life and thought sprang back into Pale's eyes, and he took a moment to compose himself.

"Yeah, er, sorry." he said sheepishly. "I tend to... umm... lose control when I get surprised. Or when there are too many things to concentrate on. Or when I'm tired. Actually it happens a lot."

Shaking his head, he continued, "As for the clock, it should be all right as long as I can find that cog. I have a couple of months before I need to have it ready, so that should be just enough time to find it in my pile-o'-parts." Pale gave a quick grin, "Or I could always just fab a new one, but that would be too easy."

Finally relaxing a little, Pale asked, "So what can I help you with today?"

[Anonymous]

Wooooow. This guy talked a lot! It was hard to keep her face, her mouth curling up around the corners as they guy rambled on and on. Totally weird!

"Oh, well, I bet you can find it. Sorry again for startling you." Reaching into the huge purse at her side, Zoe pulled out a small white box, decorated with delicate gold designs, "So, like, this was my great-great-great, etc Grandmas and passed down through the generations. But it stopped working and I was hoping you could fix it. Most people don't know what to do with something so old and mechanical..."

It was a music box, the sound a little warped after so many years and the small, spinning ballerina had seen much better years.

[Anonymous]

"Wow." A somewhat shocked look on his face, Pale shoved the half-finished clock off to the side. Removing his grease-stained gloves, revealing hands covered in scars and burn marks, he gingerly lifted up the music box.

Carefully turning the box in his hands, Pale seemed transfixed. "You know what the saddest part of working here is? When someone brings in a motorcycle or something, and all I do is hook up a data pad, check a few signals, and order a new part. Yeah I get to install it, but that usually takes all of five minutes and unscrewing a panel."

Pale gently set the music box back on the counter, then turned his attention to the woman in front of him. "This music box is one of a kind. There's no way I'll find replacement parts for it, since no one has made one like this in years and years. I'll probably have to take the whole thing apart and map out every single piece. Hell, this is so old you can bet that every part is worn out, chipped or broken, and that means hours and hours and hours of modeling and auto-fabbing custom pieces. And that's just the internals!"

"I'll probably spend more time on this than any repair job I've had in the last six months." he said, a wide smile across his face.

[Anonymous]

Oh shit.

The more the man talked, the higher Zoe saw the price getting. She wasn't broke, but she didn't have a ton of money to spend on this. But that music box was really important to her, so not fixing it wasn't an option.

Shifting, Zoe fidgeted with a stand of her long hair, "Is that...uh...gonna be really expensive then?"

[Anonymous]

"Expensive? Let me think." Pale began to speak rapidly. "I figure it'll take me an hour to do the internal imaging, another hour to do a full breakdown, and then if you figure around twenty parts that need replacing it'll be about eight hours to finish those. The music drum could take anywhere from five to fifteen hours, so lets say ten for fixing that up, assuming everything is still in place and I don't have to go through archives trying to figure out what the music is and trying to replicate it. So a rough estimate of time and materials would be 2000 credits."

Pale blinked a few times, while his expression suddenly changed from upbeat to concerned. "I... guess that is really expensive. Damn."

His gaze turned back to the music box, and he sighed, "But man would I have fun working on it."

"I don't suppose you're super-wealthy and 2000 credits is pocket change?" He said with a hopeful expression.

[Anonymous]

Fuck me! 2000 credits was a lot of money. Zoe's eyes widened and she glanced down at the box, torn about what to do, "Uh...no. Sadly, I'm not. Uh...you don't do like...payment plans, do you?"

[Anonymous]

Chuckling to himself, Pale replied, "Payment plans? If I started doing that, every person who found out would bring in everything they owned to get 'optimized' then mysteriously die in a low-speed collision."

"There... is one possibility." He pointed at the music box. "This is very, very old tech. What with micro-players and other portable music devices being available, people have stopped bothering with these spring and gear contraptions. But there are still people like myself interested in the old technology."

"What I could do is start the repair process, do the initial scans and what-not, and then post about the project online. If there's interest, I'll see if anyone wants to buy the finalized tech design."

Pale looked at the woman hopefully. "That might be able to finance part of the repair process, so... are you interested?"

[Anonymous]

Zoe chewed on her lip, wincing when he said he didn't do payment plans. There didn't seem to be a downside to trying to at least see if she could lessen some of this cost, "Uh, sure. If that doesn't work, I guess I'll just have to come back when I've got the credits..."

[Anonymous]

"Great!" Shouted Pale. "I'll get everything you need then."

He slammed a pile of documents on the counter. "You'll need to sign this technology release form, the public notice of intent filing document, this one about explosions, a couple about liability things, and...." He rifled through the pile. "This one that's the actual repair agreement."

He suddenly stopped, slapped his forehead, and focused once again. "I forgot the most important part."

Pale sighed and took a deep breath.

"I'm Pale Kealiss, this is my repair shop, and I apologize for everything I say, ever."

"So as to the matter at hand, it's a pleasure to meet you, er....." He trailed off.

[Anonymous]

"Pale? That's a crazy name!" Zoe laughed, her smile perfect and white as she held out a hand, "I'm Zoe! It's nice to meet you!"

Only then did she start to look over the documents, eyebrows lifting, "Wait, what? What is all this for? Some of these I get, but, uh...what?"

[Anonymous]

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Zoe." Pale said, taking her hand. "I'm just glad I wasn't named Infinity Phoenix like my sister. I love my parents, but they're insane."

"As for these forms, you only need.... these six here. Five are just general liability things everyone has to sign, your smile is amazing and the last is the technology release agreement detailing the covenant we've agreed upon." He spun the documents around for Zoe to sign.

"And don't worry, it's not like I could lie about any of them without being ridiculously obvious about it."

[Anonymous]

The guy seemed nice, but so weird! What was with all the comments that just seemed totally out of place? Not that they weren't totally flattering, but still, it was odd.

Laughing, Zoe grabbed a pen and started signing the ones he pointed out, "Well, thank you! Your smile isn't so bad either sexy! Now, when do you think you'll know if anyone is interested in buying the plans or whatever is happening?"

[Anonymous]

Blushing from neck to hairline, Pale replied, "Well I suppose that depends on when I can do the scans. Let me check my planner."

Pale reached under his counter, and extracted what could only be called a tome. A little out of place in a mostly modern work area, the tome was large and clunky. He opened it and started tracing a pattern among what looked to be random notes and crisscrossing lines while mumbling to himself.

"Engine rebuild... Hologram belt... Microwave upgrade... Chair... Clock..."

"Ah! Here we go, looks like I should be able to get the scans done by the day after tomorrow." He scribbled a few new lines into the book. "That leaves about a week for the posting to spread, and if all goes well I'll give you a call then."

"Sound good?"

[Anonymous]

"Thank you! For doing that for me." Zoe dug around in her massive purse until she found a slim case, the cover vivid lime green zebra print. She flipped it open and pulled out her card for the strip club she worked at.

Her stage name, Bliss, was in big letters in the middle, as well as the clubs name. Flipping it over, she quickly wrote her number on the back and passed it to Pale, "Call anytime darlin'. Even if it's just to tell me how pretty my smile is."

[Anonymous]

"Sounds good!"

He quickly slipped her card into an archaic rolodex.

"I'm happy to help, and the fact that I haven't been slapped yet is a bonus all on its own."

Pale rubbed the back of his neck, "Normally I'd wish you good fortune, but I'd really rather you had more things to bring in for me to repair."

He blinked. "Errr, ignore that, I really do wish you the best of luck in all things except equipment reliability."

Palming his forehead, "I'd better cut my losses, have a good one."

[Anonymous]

It was like watching some comedy show and Zoe laughed, "Well, I shall take that as a compliment."

He really was adorable, awkward and nerdy, just how she liked her men. Heading for the door, Zoe paused halfway out, turning back, "Looks like I'll just have to go home and break some things so I have a reason to come back here."

With a wiggle of her fingers, she headed back into the bustling city and started wracking her brain for how to save up all that money.