Ticktock Toys

[Evelynn East]

Evelynn realized, only after she and Keith had finally made plans to get together, that her apartment was a mess. Not dirty, exactly - just every surface was covered in stuff. She still didn't have as much furniture as she needed. With her hobbies being what they were, she needed shelving and drawers and everything else, but she only had about half of what she needed. So, after spending an hour running about madly trying to find places to put things, she ended up giving up and simply leaving her boxes of materials in a neat little line along one wall...

... And her big box of Lego out in the middle of the floor.

Atop the box sat several Lego prototypes for the secure drop boxes Coco had suggested. It was time, she figured, to get a second opinion. And why not start with the second opinion of a fellow tinker?

  15 successes for prototype #1

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-03-14 17:27:40		[03] Evelynn rolls 8 to design lockbox prototype #1 (Int+Crafts+Spec) (8 Again)		4, 8, 10, 9, 2, 2, 8, 2, 8, 6, 5, 6, 1		5 successes
2016-03-14 17:27:40		[02] Evelynn rolls 8 to design lockbox prototype #1 (Int+Crafts+Spec) (8 Again)		5, 8, 7, 2, 8, 10, 4, 5, 9, 3, 7, 7		4 successes
2016-03-14 17:27:40		[01] Evelynn rolls 8 to design lockbox prototype #1 (Int+Crafts+Spec) (8 Again)		8, 1, 7, 9, 10, 7, 2, 2, 10, 9, 1, 3, 10, 7		6 successes

  8 successes for prototype #2

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-03-14 17:29:13		[03] Evelynn rolls 8 to design lockbox prototype #2 (Int+Crafts+Spec) (8 Again)		7, 2, 8, 4, 4, 9, 2, 8, 1, 9, 1, 8, 9, 1		6 successes
2016-03-14 17:29:13		[02] Evelynn rolls 8 to design lockbox prototype #2 (Int+Crafts+Spec) (8 Again)		5, 6, 6, 1, 1, 3, 6, 3		failure
2016-03-14 17:29:13		[01] Evelynn rolls 8 to design lockbox prototype #2 (Int+Crafts+Spec) (8 Again)		1, 10, 10, 5, 5, 3, 2, 6, 2, 6		2 successes

  5 successes for prototype #3

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-03-14 17:31:51		[02] Evelynn rolls 8 to design lockbox prototype #3 (Int+Crafts+Spec) (8 Again)		5, 7, 7, 8, 9, 5, 5, 5, 10, 8, 10, 2, 5		5 successes
2016-03-14 17:31:51		[01] Evelynn rolls 8 to design lockbox prototype #3 (Int+Crafts+Spec) (8 Again)		4, 5, 6, 1, 5, 5, 5, 4		failure

[Evelynn East]

Evelynn answered the door with a bright grin.

"Hi Keith!" she chirped, motioning for him to come inside. The apartment was very small, but it was of a perfect size for a single, small woman like Evelynn. Most noticeable was, of course, the big box of Lego in the middle of the main room with the three prototypes on top, but the rest of the space was full of interesting little knickknacks as well - most notably, several little clockwork contraptions that formed the center of Evelynn's income source.

Nearly bouncing with excitement, she led him into the apartment, then her gaze lit upon the little cart. "Oh, you brought stuff!" She took a step towards him and the bag, reaching for it only to stop herself short, realizing that it might not be appropriate to just go rifling through his cart. There was an awkward pause as she tried to decide to how react to her own breach in politeness, and she ended up just blushing and taking a step away from him again, this time, towards the kitchen. "You, um, wanna drink or something?"

[Evelynn East]

Evelynn stopped when Keith seemed to come out of his daydream and asked her to repeat herself. She tilted her head, confused, and then smiled when he answered her question only to immediately dive into asking her about her puzzle boxes.

"Yes! I mean, well, sort of." She came back out of the kitchen and picked up one of the prototypes, playing with it. "One of the Freeholders suggested that we might need some kind of safe dropboxes for information to be passed around the Hold, and I guess since I'm an Inventor, she figured I'd be a good person to ask about it. I've been working on the designs for a little while. Lego's pretty great for rapid prototyping, just getting a physical version of my thoughts out so that they're real, you know? It's easier to think about something like this. Designs on paper sometimes get too abstracted from the reality of what you're doing."

She held up the one in her hand, her fingers toying with the mechanisms until, abruptly, the lock came open and the little safe came apart. "Anyway, I've been hoping to get someone to talk to about the designs. See if there's anything in any of them that I missed." She paused, grinning self-deprecatingly. "Sometimes I get tunnel vision and miss something really obvious, you know? So yeah, I was kinda hoping you'd take a look, tell me what you think...?" Another pause, this one almost vulnerable, while Evelynn held out one of the puzzle boxes to him. She looked abruptly shy - the last time she'd had someone else take a critical look at her work was... well, it was before the Lord of Storms. It struck her suddenly that she hadn't really gone looking for critique since she'd come back from Arcadia, and there was a sudden sense of uncomfortable exposure about asking. But, it was unquestionably better for the Freehold if she did - good though she was, she didn't have the ego to assume she didn't need help. Multiple eyes made for a better invention, so she swallowed thickly, trying to quash her discomfort, and let Keith inspect her work.

[Evelynn East]

Evelynn was left bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet with nervous energy. It was difficult to stay quiet while he took his time looking over the prototype, but once he started to speak, a grin lit up her face. Yes, yes, he could see it too! There were problems, certainly, though it was difficult for her to decide which were the result of the use of clunky Legos and which were problems inherent in the design. She opened her mouth to respond to his initial observation about one of the parts being sucky to work, but he kept talking, and her jaw snapped shut again while she waited, feeling suddenly better about everything, for him to finish his thoughts.

Once he pointed out that a phone might be easier, faster and safer, she began to laugh. How had that not occurred to her? "Heh. I guess I'm too used to letting the client decide what they need. I assume there are things that people in the Hold wish to pass around, I mean, physical objects, for which we'd need a drop box like this. Or, I don't know, maybe some stuff is more easily written. Or maybe they just don't want to use something that your average Wizened can break by looking at it. I honestly didn't ask."

[Evelynn East]

Evelynn's eyes went wide when Keith pointed out that the customer was always wrong, and then wider still - this time accompanied by a giggle - when he spoke about showing clients how not to be idiots. "Oh. Dear. You really shouldn't let Coco hear you saying that. It was her idea, you know, or at least she was the one who presented it to me, and I can't help but feel she might stab you. A little."

Her expression darkened a little when Keith started talking about safety of use. Well, shit. That wasn't something she'd even remotely considered. "I think, um, I mean I'm pretty sure the idea is to have the boxes in various Hold-controlled places. Like the boarding house, maybe the new commons if we get one. Maybe at the bookstore, or Quicksilver Gate. I don't think we'd plan to leave them in a particularly vulnerable spot." She shifted uncomfortably, the implication of his words settling like a stone into the pit of her stomach. "Um. Maybe I should ask. To make sure. Or to find out how much camouflage and stuff we might need." The problem there being that she had no idea who to ask. Sure, Coco had suggested it, but surely she wasn't actually in charge of the idea, was she? She didn't want to ask Coco, to be honest. Coco intimidated her, way more than Ramona did, and that was saying something. "That's not really my thing, you know? Might have to ask some other people to help."