Tinker's Workshop [Sada/Cecil]

After the experience at the so-called literature club, Cecil had been hesitant to approach the sorority halls again. Even if he didn't have other things he'd use his time on, there was always the niggling fear in his mind that he'd walk in again to moonshine and stripper witches.
But this one was...a little different. The Squire Program was there for aspirant Cadets - not really a path he wanted to follow, especially after hearing of the horrors of the time the nameless guard actually visited. Going anywhere you were liable to meet someone like that was tempting fate.
But this was alike in one notable way - it helped set you up for a path going forward in life.
...and honestly...Cecil had his hopes up.

If this went well, if he managed to get on with this, then...he might just have a path going forward he'd been sorely lacking in.
That felt likely something to be hopeful for.

So, tentatively...he peered into the space that the newly-promoting Artificers had made their own.

With Cecil opening the door, he would first notice how the room looked, which was a little different than other sorority room that he walked in. It had a bit of a somber and peaceful aura to it, with each and very cog, blueprint, and unknown item being there for Cecil to figure out and possibly explore. But such a place only called out to a specific group of people, only to the people who truly wanted to be here, those who wanted to cater to their own discovery and understanding.

*Cling, Cling, Whirr....*

The use of tools continued to go about around the back area, which was a little more spacious for the bigger things that the artificers had to work on.  If Cecil was to go on over, he would notice a few mopeds from the dragon spa inn, apparently fixed as Sada continued to work on the last one.  But Sada immediately stopped as soon as he noticed Cecil, standing up and taking off his goggles.

This was the first time that Cecil would get a feel from Sada and the certain vibe this character brought about.


"And you are? Do you have a commission request or something? The forms are actually outside of the club door, I check them every morning so you don't have to walk in and waste your time."

It was a bit of a challenge to act neutrally, he was working on being a little nicer when it came to doing things related to Mobius++, even if it was just a little bit of an adjustment to his outside attitude. But there were some things he couldn't full change about himself on the fly, not unless he stole a skill to do so.

It was...actually kind of interesting. The place actually looked like some place someone worked, rather than a horror show witches cauldron or some kind of casual sports club. There were tools and items about without an obvious function or purpose, and he almost had to wonder what their actual use was. Or...if they really had one at all. Several pieces promised a mystery of their own, questioning why they were present in a mechanical and automotive space.
By first impression? He was curious. It was an interesting space.

Sada would take notice of Cecil before the blond saw him, and the boy seemed to snap into focus as he was spoken to. "Oh, uh, I'm - I'm Cecil." He smiles sheepishly, and scratches at the back of his head. "I, uh...saw the posters about, actually. Decided I'd take a look and see if I might want to sign up."

"Hm? Join? You want to join the Artificiers apprenticeship?"

This was new, someone actually coming inside for the sake of joining this club. Sada didn't necessarily feel like he would need the help, so he wasn't desperate for extra hands. There was something else of interest that decided on whether he would think of a person to be worthy of his time or even worth being in the clubs. Yes, the club was also looking for talented new members, but coming from a talent thief himself; Sada could very well have his head up his own ass when it came to whether the talents a person had was worth a damn to him or not.

"Don't let me stop you. Look away,  what you see is what you get. The famed name of Mobius++ is what's waiting for you if you tag along. But I would honestly say that you would be wasting your time if it's only for the glory. "

Sada then went towards a table full of tools and started to go through them.

"Why here? I mean, be honest with me if you feel like it. Lying is ok too....I mean, how could I tell? There is an ideal kind of person that i'm looking for, a quality... you see, it doesn't matter whether you want to be here or not because I get to decide that in the end. If you have that quality, you're in."

Cecil frowns as Sada talks. They already had their own ideas about things, it seemed.
Breathing in and out, he looks at the person that had just challenged him to prove himself. "What's the point even saying it if I can't be honest about it? Even if you didn't know at first, you'd find out anyway while I was here." He shakes his head. "I guess some people you see might try and get in with the idea that they can take the name and hope everything that with it rubs off on them, but honestly..." He pauses. "I'm not sure exactly where I'm going. And I can't keep going like that."

Again, his gaze starts to wonder the room, seeing the mechanisms that rest on each surface. "I can learn something, here. Develop skills that'll see me well in future, and let me support people instead of leeching off of them. And well...get me some real work, if I can prove myself capable." He looks back to Sada, giving him a small smile. "Well. If you'll have me, anyway. Means a lot of work, but I wasn't going to get anywhere if I wasn't willing to put in anything on that front anyway."

Sada folded his arms as he listened to the blonde talk. Well, one of the saving graces that he had was the fact that he didn't turn out to be one of those ginger kids, Sada wouldn't think twice to have his back turned around them. But besides his own personal bias, Sada found something genuine from Cecil saying that he didn't have anything to look forward to in life. As a matter of fact, coming in with nothing seemed like a clean slate.

"....."

He wanted to learn, that was something that Sada could accept.  Not quite exactly what he was looking for, but it could serve the same purpose as someone with an insatiable thirst of curving their own curiosity.  He liked to work with those kinds of people because they would always have an idea about what would be their favorite thing to work on, as well as taking a sense of enjoyment out of any project, regardless of whether it's repetitive or not.

"...."

Sada didn't smile back at him, he instead went over to another drawer and started to look through it.  Once he a small rolled up blueprint, he would unroll it at a nearby table in front of Cecil. It had two of the same designs, or that's what it seemingly looked like.

"You pass.... .....barely........wanting to learn and unburdening yourself. That also means that you have to admit that you are a burden to other people, and you think being an artificer can change that. "

Sada would then point at the blueprints.

" I'm going to call you grease monkey until I figure out your name. I'm going to give you a little exervise, let's see if you quit. This requires some patience,  but there are two designs  of the same machine.  One of them are missing some parts in certain areas, I want you to take a pencil and circle the areas missing. Use the first drawing as a basis, If you can read a blueprint, you can pay attention to detail and notice things. It's quite obvious that I don't have to tell you that this is a skill you can take outside of the workshop..right? By telling you which one was a completed one, I already gave you a handicap."

The silence felt...tense. Uncomfortable. It hung on a little longer than it would in any normal lull, leaving Cecil to wonder how he was being evaluated. He felt a certain nervous tingle as Sada started to go through the doors, looking for something contained within.
His face lit up as the blueprints were laid out and he was told he had made it past that first hurdle. Didn't matter if it was barely, or if he was labelled as a burden...the first obstacle was behind him.
Though, it seemed like he wasn't completely out of the woods yet.

He nods and steps up, glancing around quickly and grabbing a pencil. "I think after what I put myself through in the library, I can avoid simply quitting out here..." Letting the pencil glide just a bit above the surface of the blueprints, he starts to look for discrepancies between each design, checking sections against each other and referencing the complete version wherever it feels like something may be missing. It takes a minute or two of cross-referencing, but he slowly starts to circle sections wherever he finds a difference.
"...so..." He didn't look up from the blueprint as he spoke, keeping his focus on there, but something else seemed to be working through his mind as he juggled his internal references for the mechanical designs. "...grease monkey. Is this a nickname sort of thing, or...is there another reason you're not using my actual name? I know I told you I was called Cecil." He seemed more confused than offended as he asked the question, though as he circled another section, it was fairly clear he was occupied mentally by other matters.

"Not sure what the library has to do with mechanical engineering, but it's your life. "

Sada didn't know where that comment came from, he felt that the fastest way to learn anything at all is by doing it. If you were moving through things with repetition in regards to getting your hands dirty, people would start to pick up on the fundamental similarities and what other gears and creations had in common.

"You only became important to me two minutes ago, I wasn't trying to remember your name, it was a waste of space in my head. I'm expecting two kinds of people whenever I hear that door move. They either want something, or they need something. In your case, you needed something, something you could only gain by joining. Something personal, sure...i'll entertain it. "

But now that they got it out of the way, Sada decided to show him the proper respect.

"Alright Grease Monkey, Cecil right...i'll call you that then. How much more time do you need?"

Cecil paused, letting out a dry chuckle as he got his answer. "I think I had a feeling it was something like that..." It almost seemed like they'd made up their mind about things before he'd even spoken before, and to a degree, it seemed that was true.
He could guess there weren't many people coming in that actually cared about being a part of what went on here.

"I think..." The blond hums. "Just another minute. Double check everything."
As he got through the last parts of the diagram, he went back over to reference each bit he's circled again, and takes one last quick look for anything he may have missed. Starting to nod slowly, he sets down the pencil and steps back again. "Right...did I miss anything?"

"Let's see...."

Sada walked over to the blueprint, mumbling something under his breath as he started to circle a few more things on the blueprint. After that, Sada stepped back and gestured his hands towards the blue sheet again for Cecil to lookout as he commented on what he did.

"You got the obvious mistakes that were made for people like you to have an easier time. Or better yet, you noticed the common courtesy I give to people with any talent whatsoever. If you noticed nothing you would have failed. However, I don't like shortcuts either, paying attention to detail can make or break you in any situation, and even if something seems a little off, better check again with a magnifying glass. It's that one cog in the wheel that makes the whole car fall apart, that's the first fundamental i'll be hammering into you before you can even think of touching a tool."

There were only a few things that Cecil missed, circled with a different color pencil to show the correlating differences of what a more experienced mechanic can notice and a starting out grease monkey.

"I shouldn't expect too much from a budding grease monkey, but you just upped your rating. With a spit shine on that talent of yours, you might go a little further than what you did. I'm not asking for perfection, but i'm not that kind either. But i'll teach you, are you still in or not?"

Cecil simply stayed quiet, nodding along as Sada spoke. He paid close attention as the points he'd missed were circled, another look given between each design to try and note where the circled sections corresponded to and what exactly the differences were.
He broke out into a grin as he got the last acceptance he needed, and gave Sada a firm nod. "Ready and willing to learn whatever you have to teach me."

It was around this time that Sada actually gave Cecil a small smile. He was impressed, the kid could handle "The Diet Sada" attitude and not be turned off by it. Tolerance was a big thing, it wouldn't have worked if they weren't compatible in that sense. Then again, Sada didn't go around verbally abusing people, he just wasn't the type to beat around the bush.



"I'm Morihiro Sada, the president. Welcome to the Artificiers Apprenticeship. Some day's it's going to suck, you won't always be thanked, appreciated, or acknowledged, but you need to remember why you're here every time you walk into that room. If you can achieve your own goals and desires while working on things here and that's good enough for you.... well... good on you. "

The blond felt something swell inside him at that moment. It could have been a false hope, but he just had a feeling - a feeling that told him this was a first step on a longer path for him. Right now, he had a direction. A way forward into the future.
It felt wonderful.