Cold Prostpects [Tags: Amilyn and any at the Settlement! Open!]

Pretending not to hear the talk between the girls, Jungi spent his attention on other things until Amilyn addressed him.  Had he heard her internal monologue over his name however, he would have likely laughed or maybe just rolled his eyes with a sigh, seeing as that was the reputation he seemed to have much of the time. Though he would say it was garnered unfairly. He assumed it could sound much like jungles however, so he didn't deny what she said -nor did he feel as though he needed to acknowledge it with a specific reply, either.

Watching the smithcrafter dig through her bag, casting several strange looking objects out of it to get to the bottom, he stood back just a bit as she decided to pull out a peculiar looking cylinder, giving it a few clicks. He was surprised to see a few blades protrude out from its sides and the start to spin.

Wood cutter and leg shaver? Leg hair wasn't that thick.  Well... maybe some was. Still, he wouldn't want to hold the whirring, spinning contraption up to his face, that was for sure. So, maybe it was safer to use it on wood. But, shards, if it worked, that was all he needed to know.

"I'd like to see a demonstration of it cutting through some wood, if you don't mind?" Pausing for a breath, he went on, "What other such devices do you have?"

Kaeul stood, her legs tingling a bit where the woman had rested, and pulled up a handy stool to watch the interaction between her brother and the Master Inventory. She was fascinated watching the device activate, the whirling blades cutting a decent groove in the wooden beam before it got stuck by one and was turned off. That thing was made for leg hair? Silently the young woman thanked the Egg that she had never really been one to grown an overabundance of body hair and that her legs were usually very smooth. That device would never come near her legs. Reaching down she lifted the edge of her dress, baring a hair-free leg, “I don’t think it would do much but make my leg look like that beam.’ Kaeul grinned. Unlike her breasts, she knew her legs were shapely and pretty. Long hours in the saddle of one of the Caravan horses, or running, climbing, tracking or training with Altair kept them in good form.

“You should see if Jungi wants to try it, I’m sure he has something more than I do for that device. What do you call it? Can we see more?” Kaeul was intrigued, if the woman could invent that, what else could she make? From his place away from the three people, Altair attempted to army-crawl closer, his head cocking from side to side at the whirring device when it moved. She caught him, giving him a look, and the dog whined and stopped moving. His large head lay on his paws and he looked up at her pleadingly, wanting to be near the two people he did know. “Would you be able to invent a harness for pulling weight? For a dog, that is.” the woman asked, curious what Amilyn would come up with given the chance.

Kaeul had a pretty good idea of what she needed to make it herself, and intended to do so regardless of if the other woman took on the challenge, and one of the Leathersmiths had worked with her on a good price and design based on the weight harnesses for other hauling beasts. Altair was a large dog though, and the man had been interested in seeing the end result. His huge, lean body (like that of a Great Dane) was unique, built for long distances, but Kaeul figured she could train him to pull a smaller cart or something.

As Amilyn's device chipped away at the beam, sending wood splinters and dust flying, the trader shielded his eyes with one hand to keep from getting any stray particles of wood from flying into them. After a moment, he even turned his head away, taking a step back. When the strange whirring sound stopped and the smithcrafter went to winding it back up again, he looked back in her direction.

"Well, it does seem to work on wood at least." After overhearing his sister's suggestion bout having him give it a try, Jungi took a hand to stroke his smooth-shaven face. "I think I'm all good here. Maybe we'll test it out on human hair next time."


Pausing to hear Kaeul's suggestion that the smith might be able to assist in the crafting of a creative lead for her canine, he thought that it was a pretty brilliant thing of her to come up with. He was always impressed with his sister's creative ideas. It wasn't unlike her to ask him to help in implementing them somehow, but in this case, Jungi wouldn't be of much help, it was true. He knew little about animal harnesses.

Well, Jungi hadn't come here to be the guinea pig in some smithcrafter's experiments, so he held up a hand in decline, gracious as he could be, before either of the ladies could go on. He and Kaeul did have other crafters to pay visit to all in the same day, and had little time to be wasting where it would not turn into profitable exchange. Thus, Jungi was growing more and more impatient with the smithcrafter. "I feel as though I'd have to see a device made safer for such use, before deciding to market it to those who have come to trust me to provide them with only the best goods available. Were your device to make quicker work of chopping through wood while doing so cleanly, I might consider it, but this does not create the clean cuts I'm familiar with seeing in the wood smith craft."

Pausing for but a breath, Jungi continued, wearing his usual, charming smile. "If there are no other inventions that you have on hand to demonstrate, then please let me consider your skills and I will come to you whenever I have found someone in need to call upon them. We do have a few other stops to make today, so unfortunately, I am unable to take too much time today, to appreciate your most interesting works."

Seeing that she recognized his possible doubt in the value of her smithing masterpieces, Jungi listened to her through, before replying in thoughtful pause and then folding his arms over his chest.

"Alright. So that you know, I am always looking for new and potential talent in any craft." Because that gave him an edge in his trade. "It seems to me that you have many good ideas, but until you have refined them for prospective buyers, there is no way I can rightfully market them to prospective buyers. You see, I stake my reputation on the goods that I trade facilitate the trade of." Jungi took a breath before going on.

"How about I visit you again in two or three months, when I've returned to Telgar, and if you can come up with a more efficient design for your tools in that time, I will invest in consigning several from you. But, what I need to see is a wood whittler, as you call it, that can effectively make a clean cut through a wooden beam like the one you demonstrated on. " A noise of muse passed beyond his lips then as he considered something else, "And if you can come up with something that could do this kind of work on a larger scale, to make large projects easier, that would be something to invest in."

Grinning broadly, the tader let a silence settle between them, waiting for the woman's reply.

Unconcerned with Amilyn's seeming to have taken offense at his words, Jungi was at an age and level of experience that he was comfortable with offending the sensibilities of others at times. Sometimes there was a need to. Sometimes it could be used as a tool to pose a challenge crafters to give him better work and thereby more valuable trade. It was also a tool to weed out those crafters who were serious about their business and those who were not; or it could help him gauge their character and what kind of business partner they would end up being.

"I have to ask the questions, does it work efficiently for the task at hand, or does it waste wood? Does it get the job done faster than previous technology, or would it be a waste of investment?  This tool fits in the hand, whereas woodcrafters use very large saws often times, for their work. How can this small thing cut down a tree? It might be small enough for more precision use, but to my eyes it looks inefficient for the task."

Jungi spoke honestly from his experience and had little concern for the craftsman's ego. Ego alone would not make marks and Jungi had a reputation and a business to protect. And he wasn''t exactly inexperienced at what he did. The trader went on hopefully though, "Perhaps we simply need to arrange a larger scale demonstration, so that you can show just how worthwhile your new tool is, but it has been my job to assess the value of goods before selling them. No trader can invest any significant amount of marks in something that is New and therefore a risk to his business, if he is not very certain of its worth. Even if there is a demand for something like it. It still constitutes a risk until its worth is proven to the buyer. I will take that risk on your goods however... but only if you can accommodate my requests."

The trader was then glancing in te direction of his sister before turning his eyes back on Amilyn, waiting for her reply. It was up to her if she wanted to try doing business with him, but he didn't have much more time to spend here with her today. There were other crafters on his list of new prospective clients that he needed to pay a visit.