The value of a hard day's work

[octopus_hubris]

From a young age, Otto Octavius had known the value of knowledge and hard work; with the first, the world ceased to be a confusing place, and the snatches of invention forming in his head could be translated into solid plans... and with the second, his grand ideas could be made concrete and he could prove his own brilliance to the world, placing

Comments

[nipplefaucets]

Robbie jerks out of a daydream, looking up from the scrapes on the corner of the table he's sitting at. "What! ...uh. Yessir."

He gives Ock a guilty look, even as the automatic lie slips out. He really is sorry for what he did, for losing control and destroying Octavius's harness. And he really does want to do what he can, to atone for it. But it would help, a lot, if this wasn't so boring.

"...limestone flux, uh..." Fuck, fuck. What does that do... "To remove impurities?"

[octopus_hubris]

Ock raises an eyebrow, turning his attention back to the smelting furnace that takes up one end of the room. How or where he got such a thing for his workshop in the Nexus is a mystery.

"It is. I'm glad that some of what I have taught you has managed to leach its way into your skull, Mr. Baldwin. It may seem tedious to a beginner, but all of this is quite basic... if you want to work with metal, you must understand the importance of everything in the operation. Forget something, and you'll ruin your materials, or worse. Tradesmen have to go through all sorts of trouble to become licensed because the lives can depend on the things they make... you wouldn't want a carpenter to improperly set up the joists in a house you were going to live in, and you wouldn't want to use tools or supplies made from impure steel."

As he speaks, his voice aquires a monotonous quality that Robbie has become well-aquainted with lately. The soporiphic effect of the Doc's voice might even be enough to make him miss the painful analogy in his lecture

[nipplefaucets]

Aw, God, here he goes again. And Robbie had thought his high school teachers were bad...

"I got it after the first metaphor, sir."

...dammit. Rude again. >_

[octopus_hubris]

For a few minutes, the doctor is silent, checking on the furnace and its blisteringly-hot contents. Even with the distance, Robbie can probably feel the temperature in the room go up as the cupola's side panel is opened to briefly reveal its contents. Then, his voice muffled by the protective mask he has donned, Otto laughs.

"I guess that this is probably boring the hell out of you, isn't it... to be honest, I'm surprised you've played along with this for as long as you have." Well, at least he doesn't sound angry, right? He tilts the mask back and gives Robbie a directed look. "I'm curious, though.... why are you doing this? I don't think you really have any interest in learning how to become a diemaker or a millwright, and you know as well as I do that having you along is only going to slow my work down."