Of Pens, Plans, and Paperwork - RPLOG
Participants
Date
18/4/477
Log
A rumble, and Flora guides Sveta and Lina into the laboratories at the end of the long production-hall, a smile on her face as she examines the still-unmanned devices, before gesturing towards a chalkboard with various... Well, it seems to be a set of sketches, or kevenscopes, depending on who is looking at them. "Flora has two launch-products. Cameras, and Pens."
Sveta peers at the sketches. She says little, poring over the details of the sketches, before tilting her head at Flora. "I understand. There are no immediate concerns that I have, outside of the precision required, and that anyone working here will have to be vetted to pay great attention as to such. But otherwise, I do believe I defer to your expertise."
Downstairs goes the lioness, following her family into the depths of the Longtail Manor, which isn't very manor like with all these things lying around, but who is she to judge decoration tastes. She looks to Flora and Sveta, then stares at the skeches and kevenscopes, trying to make sense of it all. "Camera and pen?" she asks as she thinks. "One of them is that thing you showed me the other day isn't it?" the feline asks. "Who are you trying to sell them to?"
"The camera is... An expensive thing to make. It costs a few crown, so the logical market for the camera consists of nobles, primarily, yes... Flora hopes to sell them to the guard and the military as well, they could use it, too. Secondary, LongTech can sell camera-services. A being, trained to handle the camera, to take a few pictures, and then develop them. With a price based on the size of the resulting image, of course. This would be cheaper, but less flexible for our clients."
"The pen should be available to everone. Flora talked about it with friend Selena. We will offer two models of pens, one expensive, one cheap. If the ink runs out, you can have it refilled with us, for a small fee. A bit more expensive than the ink itself, but we also clean out the pen properly. We can offer colors AND different qualities of ink, at different prices," she mumbles, even as she collects all the items she speaks of. A camera, two pens, one more 'finished' than the other, and finally, two narrow, glass cannisters filled with a blue and red ink respectively, each containing a little metal ball at the bottlneck.
Sveta nods. "Your idea for the camera would be fine. Beings can either come to a studio if all they wish to have is their likenesses, but I'm sure we can find additional fees to sneak in if we are to be called to them instead...the pen, however...how quickly do you think a being can be trained to refill and service one?
"You see, when I was with the Craft School, not everyone could, or would, make the walk to the main building. What they would do, then would be send out the apprentices with pushable carts on a schedule. Mondays, we would work the marketplace and saint's square, Tuesday, the castle district, and so forth. Orders would be taken and then channelled back for processing, and the same inexpensive carts would deliver.
"However, if it's just pens for now, we can simply refill and repair on the spot, and it would be free advertising, too."
Lina seems to be deep in thought. "The camera sounds really cool, but the pen, is it hard to learn how to do that? Would someone be able to figure out how to fill it themselves and lose you money?" she asks with a bit of practice, nodding to Sveta. "That sounds really handy! A house call is sometimes the..." she says as she looks a little sad, then adds "the best thing... but advertising is also really important!"
"Refilling is simple. A little magic is required, or the pen won't be as good as before. Friend Sveta does magic, yes? Can friend sveta carefully cut a seam here?" she asks, making a motion around the pen. "This will expose the glass cannister. Clients should NOT be informed of this, of course. Then, the pen is washed out if the client wants to try a new ink, and the new cartridge is put in place. After that, push the halves together and mend the seam. Administratively, each pen has a serial number, placed here, on the inside" the cat mumbles, gesturing at a spot on the end-cap half. "we can use this to keep track of which pens used what ink , and more importantly, which pens have been tampered with. Flora has thought of a few tricks that will allow LongTech to make sure people don't copy the idea, OR fill the pen themselves."
"Easily," Sveta replies. "Simple aqua vitae will do as the solvent to wash them out, yes? Or are there components within that would be damaged?" she looks at the sketches again. "I don't think so, but it's best to ask."
Lina nods and is glad that Flora has thought out how to protect her investments, smiling and moving a little close to look upon the demonstration Flora has requested. "I would help with that but I don't know any magic, I'm sorry." she says as she looks the pen over and tries to picture everything Flora has described. "You would need daily rounds for the cleanings... how do you get serial numbers," making a guess that she is not talking about some sort of grain delictable.
"Water would be enough, though aqua vitae gives a cleaner result, and is definitely the modus operandi for the expensive pens. As for tampering... If people decide to take out the nib, this part breaks and locks it in," she mumbles, gesturing at the sketch. "The endcap is fake. And if they cut it in two, we can see by the placement and way it's reassembled. If people try to fill it through the nib... Flora has a surprise for them," she murrs with a grin, gesturing at a small, unassuming plate on a rod. "If they do, they push this against the inside, and the pen won't fill. Only LongTech will be able to fill the pens."
Soon after, she turns to Lina, grinning broadly. "We don't get them. We add them. Each workstation has a number. Each pen made at a workstation gets that number, the date, and the number of the pen they made that day inscribed on the inside. When a being buys a refill for a pen, we look up the serial number, and we can give them advise, or just give them the usual refill. This way, we can keep track of things.
Sveta leans back to take this all in. She doesn't say much, but is clearly thinking - more the stamping of metal presses as opposed to Flora's turning gears.
Lina smiles and nods. "Okay that makes sense!" she says as her tail flays about, her mind reeling as she considers how many papers that could come out to. "You know it would be amusing.... if you ran out of ink while you were writing the records for all your pens." she says with a bit of a chuckle.
"Flora has thought about assembly, and this is the hard part. We need a magic-capable being for assembly either way. They don't need to know much, just enough to mend two surfaces of this together, yes," she explains. "However, knowing how to cut materials with magic in very specific shapes is helpful, yes."
"The magic... Or technology, is this part," she mumbles, pulling out a flanged metal object... That must have taken a good, long while to make.
"The earth magic required to make such an incision is not hard, and neither is the sealing," Sveta says at last. "For a Gifted, I think I could teach someone to do it in two or three days. The question is whether they can do so with such precision - a trait which can be cultivated elsewhere, but nonetheless necessary. Lina, maybe with your permission, I could try to teach you to do it. As we begin, we will not need that many carts - as I said, they are mobile and inexpensive, the latter which is most important. The outlay will not be much as opposed to a fixed shop - land prices are already ridiculous in Firmament. I may make some rounds, too, get a feel for things - until we get more folk into here, there's not going to be much which needs looking over."
She looks at the object. "Another one of your inventions?"
Lina listens. "I can try and learn to be precise with magic." she says in a manner that suggests she has just decided upon it. "I'd love to learn some things with you Sveta." The feline smiles before she looks upu to the metal object Flora has produced. She marvels at it for a while before she asks the question foremost in her mind. "What is it?"
"This, is the most important part of the pen," Flora rumbles, smirking lightly as she pulls out an ink-cartridge and presses the pin at the back on the metal part against the ball lodged in the glass, which sinks into the ink, rattling a bit. "This part... Flora calls it a 'feed'. It feeds the ink to the nib. And it's thin enough to not leak."
The lioness watches and says "So you have to feed it?" before she stops and smirks a little at the thought of a pen leaking in someones pocket. "No it wouldn't be very good business to get ink all over clients, although it would be funny."
"Ink. The feed feeds the ink from the cartridge to the nib. It makes the pen do what it should do," she points out, gesturing at the ink filling up between the flanges. It's a good thing the whole has a glass encagement around it, or it would be leaking ink everywhere.
"I see. So this makes the whole process far easier. Hmm. Well, I'll take a more detailed look at the blueprints when I have the time, fashion a streamlined production process, then there'll be the issue of quality checks - how long we can guarantee these to work for, either in terms of time or amount written, then have some sort of policy to deal with defectives..." she's clearly lost in thought now.
A nod, a tailflick. "Flora has already thought about that, too. Flora spent the last few nights without sleep, had lots of time to think. Flora was thinking of replacing or repairing defective ones during the first year, and charging half during the second one... Assuming it hasn't been tampered with, of course. If it has, LongTech confiscates the pen. Before selling a pen, LongTech will explain how to use them, what things not to do with it and what will be considered 'tampering', to avoid accidents. And if a customer has questions, they stop by the shop and ask them for free."
Sveta nods, then sighs. "I won't be surprised if some do it anyway and try to weasel and mince their words when they try to return them. But that's part of doing business."
Lina shakes her head. "Excuses or not, you need to sleep!" she says as she looks to Flora. "You haven't been eating or sleeping right? Flora you really need to take care of yourself okay?" she says with a hint of concern, not paying much attention to the talk of weasels and fees.
"Which is why we give each pen a serial number and tamper-evident parts, yes," Flora rumbles with a grin on her snout. "Flora realizes it isn't perfect, but... Flora thinks it'll work, yes. And, of course, it's important LongTech keeps innovating, yes."
She turns to Lina, grinning broadly. "Flora slept quite well, the last two days. Matthews is back. And Flora started eating well again, Lina saw that," she mumbles, frowning lightly and shaking her head. "Flora is quite alright."
"Well, then! I think everyone is fine, and this is quite a bit to absorb. As I said, I'll have to think some more about the production process, the materials...if you send me a copy of the specifications, I'll get started on it tonight." Sveta taps her feathered head for emphasis. "It will just be me, Lina, and Brutus for now, but hope Flora can find suitable folk to help smoothen the production process. A test batch of these "pens"...give me a few days, a week, and we can start seeing what people think of them."
Lina blinks and tries to piece together the words Flora has given her, eventually giving up as she nods. "Then I trust you are okay if you say so." she says, knowing this to be the best option unless she sees otherwise. "This all sounds really fun and productive." she says as everyone seems to be finalizing things. "One thing, do you have people picked out to show them to?"
Flora nods and smiles lightly, her tails flicking behind her. "We'll need to make three fancy pens, at minimum. One for friend Selena, one for sir Mione, and one for the King, yes. Friend Selena suggested making a non-stain quill, sir Mione could use one quite well, and the king using a LongTech Industries pen? That's wonderful advertisement, yes."
"Then I suggest tthat these be out first commercially-produced pens, as opposed to the prototypes that Flora already has. All in agreement?"
"Flora agrees, yes. Lina?"
Lina nods with Sveta. "I think that sounds pretty great."
