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RESPITE FALLS GENERATOR BUILDING - NOON
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Senyi finally arrives at the building where the generator supposedly resides, and the engineer working on it. She takes a few moments to adjust herself before knocking on the door. Despite everything, she's nervous about it, and takes a second to scold herself for feeling so.
Maybelline hops off her stool, continuing to work on her drafting designs for the next stage of the Generator project while the temporary generator hums in the background of the rather large room. Brun doesn't even knock anymore, and Louma and most of her friends knock on her personal quarters now, so the Generator side door usually doesn't receive a knock. She stretches up to open the door and glances at the stranger with a curious smile, "Err, hello? How can I uh, help you?"
Senyi straightens herself out. "Ah, you must be the town engineer, May was it?"
Maybelline nods. She's wearing her work overalls, but they're relatively clean at the moment. "Maybelline, but May is just fine, yes. ICEE-Certified. Uh, seems you're in the right place."
Senyi raises her eyebrows, but shakes her head a bit. "Very well. I heard you were working on the generator that powers this town, and I couldn't help but be.... interested." It sounded like she muttered something before that last word but it was very hard to tell.
Maybelline perks up a little, "Oh! In the generator? Sure, if you want to come in and take a look." She motions to allow the rabbit inside, "It's not exactly in the best shape right now. The old one had several issues, the most severe of which was a containment leak that caused the whole thing to explode. I was doing my best to keep it together, but nothing was going to save it in the end."
Senyi stares at the floor a bit, but then raises her head... and the rest of her body, and floats on in. Despite how much she's attempting to subdue herself she can't help but be more than a little excited to see what the contraption looks like.
Narrator: The proper generator room is very large, with a domed roof, obviously built to contain a very large piece of equipment, but the current temporary generator is about the size of a common wagon. It's big, sure, but nothing special. It might be impressive in the quality of the constrution and parts, especially if one knew just how quickly it was built.
Maybelline nods, "There she is. Our temporary generator. I'm drafting up plans for the full rebuild right now, but that'll take time." She turns back to Senyi and gasps at the levitating rabbit, "Oh! Oh uh, sorry! Just... magic. Uh, sorry. Not used to that..." She tries not to stare.
Senyi experiences some pretty nasty emotional whiplash upon seeing how small the current generator is, compared to how grand the room is. "Oh... that's... it? I expected something bigger." She doesn't quite pay attention to May's shock at her floating because she doesn't really care, and approaches the generator.
Maybelline coughs, awkwardly looking down and scratching the back of her head, "Uh... yeah. That's it. I mean, the old one was a Mark Four, it didn't quite fill the whole room, but it was way more impressive looking. That's just what me and Brun, err, that is Brun my... apprentice? My assistant. That's just what we put together real fast to keep the town running."
Senyi glances at May. "A real jury-rig, huh?" Turning back toward the generator, she mutters under her breath, "Oh, you poor thing." She leans her head in, listening to the machine.
Maybelline nods. "Yeeaaahhh. We did it fast. About two weeks to get it done fast. It's not perfect, but I designed it fast. The local blacksmith did amazing work getting the parts cast so quickly though. I'm hoping to build the new generator around it, incorporating it into the design as a backup and a failsafe, and might need to do a little bit of redesign to do that."
Senyi turns back toward May. "How long do you think the replacement generator will take to construct?" She's doing some mental math in her head and it's all coming out to 'you should probably help her, idiot'.
Maybelline sighs, "A few months... not quite a year, I hope. I figure we'll take our time with it. Not smart to half-ass any part of it." She motions towards the drafting table where she's been drawing up blueprints, exploded plans, part lists with precise specifications. "I'm working on the design now and then I can start prioritizing the parts for Cavro to forge."
Senyi floats on over to the drafting table, pushing her glasses up to get a better look at it. She seems to be thinking about it quite a lot...
Maybelline traces her finger across the diagram as she talks, "You can kind of see what I'm thinking here, with that temporary generator almost 'plugging in' to the big one. This here is your foundational ICEE generator design, but I... am adding a few tweaks. For one, the tube design for the containment cell to direct the magic energy in a single direction should improve the efficiency."
Senyi raises a finger. "Might I make a few suggestions here and there? I can see some things that could use some improvement..."
Maybelline blinks, "Oh? Oh, uh, sure! You have a technical background?"
Senyi shrugs. "Well, seeing as I'm a Technician, I'd say so."
Maybelline chuckles, "Well, only just met you, so I had no idea! I mean, I've got a background with the technical stuff, but I'm not trained to do this kind of full level design work. So any input would be greatly appreciated!"
Senyi grabs her own wrists in the opposite hands, then stretches her hands out over the blueprints. "Oh, if you have a pencil I'd appreciate that, otherwise I have to do this magic trick just to visualize my ideas."
Maybelline pulls open a drawer on the lower side of the drafting table and hands it to Senyi. "As much as I'd love to see that trick... here you are. I'm... actually much more interested in your suggestions."
Senyi claps her hands together immediately, and then retreives the pencil. She starts getting to work, taking a few minutes. She's definitely made quite a few noticeable improvements, and most of them seem focused on improving maintenance convenience. After all, this is a pretty important part of the town so it should be as easy as possible to fix it when things go wrong.
Maybelline watches in interest, trying not to peek over Senyi's shoulder as she works.
Senyi appears to be done after spending some more time on it. Most of the central components remain intact so there won't be any "change of orders" but the arrangement of things differs.
Maybelline nods, shifting back away from Senyi as the rabbit finishes. "Wow... that's a lot more that I wouldn't have considered." She pauses. "Sorry, I'm still sorta new to Respite, do you live here? A newcomer?"
Senyi lets a crack of herself through her facade and laughs. "No. I'm here due to a catastrophic screw-up in transport logistics. I came here when I was trying to go on vacation. And, seeing as how I'm gonna be stuck here for a while, I suppose I should do what I can to assist."
Maybelline frowns, "Oh, wow... that sucks..." She sighs, "I kinda felt stuck here even when I moved here for the job, but... it's a really nice town, or at least, the folks her are all really nice."
Senyi lets out a sigh. "From what little I've experienced, I can't say I disagree."
Maybelline: "Still... sorry it happened to you in the first place. As nice as the folks here are, it's definitely not a vacation town."
Senyi shakes her head. "Give me time, I'm sure I'll warm up to it. Sure..."
Maybelline smiles with a short laugh, "Well... took me a couple months to do that. But if you ever want to talk magitech, and don't mind me asking for advice on my plans and such, you're welcome to stop by here anytime."
Senyi closes her eyes and nods slowly. "Hopefully you can put my ideas into action. I never have much luck trying it myself..."
Maybelline grins, "That's the plan. Cavro might not be at his forge lately due to some personal stuff, but you can talk to him about forging and stuff too. And you can't miss Brunilda, she's been learning this stuff faster then I know what to teach her. And... I can tell you where to find Strix too if you want to see some more... unconventional magitech."
Senyi hazards a thought: "Let me guess, unconventional meaning dangerous?"
Maybelline shakes her head, then pauses, and laughs, "Yes? Though, not all dangerous. More unorthodox methods, unique designs. I'm not really sure I understand how he does what he does, but it's... fascinating. He's a good guy too. Been really encouraging to me since I got here."
Senyi rubs the back of her head. "Well, I guess I'll look out for him. That sounds very intriguing."
Maybelline nods. "That's just the people around here I know who might be interested in technical talk. Plenty more to meet, of course."
Maybelline grins, "Though, I'd love to get your thoughts on this idea I had for hybridizing the generator between ICEE and AMP... I'm not sure how much you know about the theories in magitech generators but..." May goes into a very technical talk with Senyi, the two geeking out about some of the little details and tech talk of engineering.