Inside the Kettenrad Workshop
The inside isn't any more normal by any stretch of the means. Gearing and axles crank and groan throughout the workshop. All are powered by a large central gear linkage connected to a feeder axle on one of the waterwheels. Aside from just the general din of the gears, odd puffs and hisses can be heard as seemingly random intervals as one of Zahn's latest grand inventions is probably finding its way to a grand parts pile as it rattles itself into oblivion. Belts also crisscross throughout the rafters, transferring power from one side of the shop to the other. Still, all things given, the workshop is in relatively decent order. No unruly piles of paper stacked in corners or puddles of goo to step in. In the corner sits a desk and drafting table, which currently has a small stack of detailed plans for some sort of new flying machine.

The dance is finally over, and at least went smoothly after the unfortunate dipping incident. It's nearly midnight now, but Zahnrad has managed to make it back to the workshop before either Awrful Wrot or Amelia, who had to stop at her cabin first to pick up some things.

Zahn is in his shop a minute before he's undoing his tied up hair and shaking it out. He then removes his good shirt and pulls on a dirty spare he keeps in the shop. "Dancing is too hard," he mutters as he goes to straighten up the shop a bit before anyone shows up. And really, to put away various blueprints. He shouldn't give away all his secrets after all.

There isn't much time to straighten things up properly before someone is pounding on the door to the workshop. It doesn't sound like it's being pummeled with a hammer, but there is certainly some strength behind the percussion.

Zahnrad jumps and nearly whacks his head on a rafter. He tosses some papers in a pile. "They don't do anything quietly, do they?" he mutters as he makes his way to the front door. After releasing the lock-catch, he rolls the gear-door out of the way.

"Ha! Zahnkittenrad!" bellows the shaggy black she-wolf at the door. Awrful is carrying an armful of long leather scroll cases and is dressed in her 'fancy' overalls, which sport a sort of skirt while still providing plenty of pockets and loops for her various tools and hammers. "I find you!"

"Ah, well, it's pretty easy to find me," Zahnrad says with a grin and steps out of the doorway so she can come in. "I'm the only one who has a gear shaped door." He goes and clears a spot on a table for her to drop her scrolls, saying, "Sorry for the mess."

"What mess?" the Titanian asks, as she dumps her cases on the table. "Nice clean place. Nothing on fire even."

"Of course it's not on fire," Zahnrad remarks and goes to finish up moving a few things around. "Sorry I don't have much in the way of good equipment. We have to pretty much build it all ourselves out here."

Awrful just shakes her head. "Nice stuff. Supposed to build your own tools anyway. You build your airplane here?"

"Parts of it. I've only got some parts laid out for various sections so far. My last design failed pretty badly," Zahn admits and shrugs. "Since we're out in the swamp, I've been working on a design that lands on water as well as land. It's pretty simple, really, two pontoon hulls attached to landing struts. The engine is currently being prototyped to work out the gearing and alignment issues. I'll probably have to fabricate most of it from ceramics to hold up to heat. But then there are strength issues."

"Ah, yeah!" Awrful says excitedly, tall wagging enough to cause a minor breeze. "You good with ceramics?"

"Me? No. I can work out the molds, but I'll have to get one of the potters in town to fabricate it. I do, at least, have a fairly functional ignition system worked out. Thanks to some minerals one of the local scientists is trading my for repairing the drive unit to one of her devices," Zahnrad says and starts pulling out some carved shapes from under the desk. The first he sets down is an odd rectangular block, with four holes bored straight through, in line, about three or so inches in diameter. Several smaller holes run through it in a symmetric pattern. It's likely the model for the cylinder block with cooling holes bored through it…

"I know that," Awrful says, pointing to the holes. "Piston engine. Intake, compression, expansion, exhaust all in cylinder. Use it lots."

"Right. Fairly simple idea, not a whole lot different from a steam engine piston, except that the powering occurs in the chamber," Zahnrad says with a nod. "As I'm sure you've dealt with, getting the firing sequence right to fire all the pistons in the right order is the tricky part. Mess it up and you break the main drive shaft," Zahnrad says as he drags out a much more intricate device next. This one looks like it mounts on top of the head, but has a series of the rubber constructed tubes snaking out of it. The ends closest to the top attach to what looks like thin-point perfume sprayer nozzles embedded in it. The other ends funnel into what are drastically modified bellows systems, which are attached to an oddly bent bar system.

"Fuel-air mixer and squirter?" Awrful asks.

"Injector, yeah. It's really hard to get even amounts of any liquid into the system. And if it's not dispersed right, it burns bad. So, what I did was rig up this sort of system. The injection system is timed right to the drive system," Zahnrad explains. He rotates one of the gears slowly on the control rod. The rod slowly turns. Each of the four mini-bellows either expands or contracts at a slightly different interval, such that only one blows out at any one time. "If I fit this right, it should fire fuel into the chamber at maximum piston depression, so the piston can then compress it up in the second stroke."

Awrful nods along with the explanation. "Complicated. Lots of places for Gremlins to get fingers into," she comments, then looks around the workshop in an exaggerated 'checking for snoops' way, before whispering, "Want to see something… interesting?"

"It gets more complicated, as I have to have a timing gear for the spark firing too," Zahnrad says, then looks up. "Interesting? Sure."

The Titanian opens one of her leather tubes, and removes an odd scroll. She rolls it out on the table, and Zahn can still see the table-top through it – the material is transparent, except where the plans are drawn in different colored lines and curves that look impossibly precise, and are somehow embedded into the material instead of drawn onto it.

Zahnrad leans in, peering at it. "Did you make this? What is it?" he asks in obvious awe.

The plans are for an engine… but one that seems far removed from anything Zahn has seen or imagined. Instead of pistons and shafts, it has a single triangular rotor that moves through a chamber shaped like two overlapping and offset circles. The fuel and exhaust ports are far simpler than his own.

"It from my uncle, who is an idea miner in Titanic," Awrful explains. "Secret ancient stuff, called a rotary engine. And made from ceramic instead of metal… "

Zahnrad blinks. "Rotational drive … " he mutters, then traces his finger along the central shaft. "Of course … offset the triangle a bit to give it a rotational direction. This is … really simple. As it spins, it just forces the air out," he says. "Have you tried to build this?"

"Yeah, but iron too heavy," Awrful says. "Couldn't make ceramic right either, it crumble. Not good with ceramics, but think gremlins like metal, so ceramic is better." She unrolls a second sheet, showing how the single-rotor engines can be linked in series to provide more power… or to provide redundancy if one should fail.

Zahnrad rubs his chin thoughtfully. "You know what would work really well to deal with that? Ceramic coated in the liquid metal stuff to add strength. I have a suspicion there is a source of it around here somewhere," he muses thoughtfully.

"Yeah, need that for these," Awrful says, nodding as she rolls out another set of prints. These are labeled 'Titan Type-III Gas Turbine' and look like they're made entirely of spinning blades.

"These spin very fast, very hot," the Titanian explains. "But give lots of power."

"I can imagine, if they spin fast… " Zahnrad remarks, staring at the plans in a way that looks almost like gears in his head are turning. "But, what happens if something gets caught in the blades?"

"Gets ground up," Awrful explains bluntly. "Then burned up. Then spat out really fast. Not good for chopping veggies at all."

"Er, wouldn't it damage the blades? And what it they're unbalanced. If it's spinning fast, I bet it would rip itself apart," Zahnrad suggests. "Have you tried building any of these?"

Awrful shakes her head. "Seen one from way way long ago, started up for special celebrations and stuff. It made from Ancients material. Can't make that anymore."

"Are you still trying to figure out how? I mean, I know I would be trying," Zahnrad says and leans back from the blueprints. "I'd love to actually see some of this stuff in person."

"Haven't found directions for materials yet," Awrful laments, tail drooping. "Still mining. Don't know what lots of other designs do yet, like 'Field Effect Antigravity Stator' or 'Inertial Gyroscope' and other funny soundin' stuff."

"An effect, whozit?" Zahnrad remarks, scratching idly at his ear. "I have no idea what those are, either. "How about just doing experiments on materials and trying to just figure it out? Do you have to find old plans for them?"

"Cuz we gots engines that work already," Awrful says, shrugging. "This is scholar stuff, and alchemy. Don't have the tools to make the tools we need to do it yet."

"Yes, but you can always have a better engine," Zahnrad points out. "Invent! Start simple, build up!" The Kadie then shrugs and looks back to the rotary plan. "I would love to try and build this. Would probably need to modify the design a bit, depending on the materials. But can't say till it's prototyped first." He leans in, trying to see if any of the measurements are in a readable language.

The measurements and other notes are in Standard, luckily, but the numbers sometimes have a lot of digits to the right of the decimal. For people that uses hammers a lot, that level of accuracy is practically mythical.

"You a clever Kadie, you figure a way to make this?" Awrful asks, sounding hopeful.

"I have no idea how to get this precise, unfortunately," Zahnrad grumbles and taps one of the numbers. "Oh, I want to try. It would take many attempts, though. I'd probably have to adjust the design to compensate for less than precise materials. Maybe if it's built slightly oversize then slowly polished down to the measurements… "

"You need to keep the plans then?" Awrful asks.

"Either that, or you give me some time to copy them," Zahnrad says and looks up. "I was wondering if you'd even be willing to lend them to me."

The wolf grins. "This behind-end of no-place. Nobody think to find plans here. Safer than back on Rephidim, where lots of sneaky hands and eyes."

"True, this place is the butt of the world, isn't it?" Zahnrad says with a grin. "Do you have problems with people trying to steal them?"

"Oh yeah," Awrful says, and gets an odd gleam in her eye. "But I tricks them now. Keep working on our old engine. When it works, others with more money will copy it, maybe copy airplane. Poor dumb Titanians, they not know business. Then we come out with new rotary engine that nobody suspects, make all their stuff worthless! Hehehe."

Zahnrad grins. "The chaining of the rotary model will make redundancy for failure handling a lot easier, too. This would blow out the piston design by far. How often will you be out this way?" the Kadie asks, rubbing his chin.

Awrful rubs her chin. "Gotta go to sand-kitty land next, then Rephidim before go back to Titania. Maybe a year."

"Oh. I figured you'd be by sooner than that," Zahnrad says. "And I can't really send you any letters on status to keep it all secret. Ah well. It'll probably take a year to get a prototype working, anyway." He starts tapping his chin, considering something and muttering, " … polishing ceramic … water cooled … could probably get the tolerances… "

The Titanian slaps Zahn on the back, and says, "Ah, we work together then! Soon I build a Titan, you be in on it! Shake nuts right out of trees!"

The Kadie acks and stumbles forward! He runs his hand through his hair and says, "Ah, sure. Uh, right, a Titan," he comments with a grin. He extends his hand to shake, saying, "I'll do my best to try and get a prototype working."

Awrful is small for a Titanian, but her hand still swallows the Kadie's. "Yeah, yeah! Don't blow up, you not built like Titanian. Watch out for gremlins. You need more things to scare them off with here. Way too quiet."

"Oh, I just have the equipment off," Zahnrad explains as he extracts his hand from the huge fist. "It's usually a lot louder. As for blowing myself up, well, it'll probably happen, but hopefully at a nonfatal level. I've already broken enough bones in my life."

"Hah! I know how that is," Awrful says, and plucks a small hammer from one of her pockets to tap against the side of her head, causing a metallic ringing sound. "Broke head once! Made me smarter though."

Zahnrad winces. "Er, I've never done that. I've broken my arms and legs at least once each. Tail once. Ribs several times. Being thrown out of a spinning machine into a tree hurts," he says. "How is your head metal now, though? How did it make you smarter?"

"Smarter cuz I didn't break it twice," Awrful says, proudly. "Got hit with propeller."

"Well, if it's metal, could you break it twice?" Zahnrad asks carefully.

"Only little bit is metal," Awrful says. "Propeller was ruined though, had to make a new one. Gremlins laughing."

"Er, you hear gremlins laugh?" Zahnrad asks and scoots a bit away.

"No, but I'm sure they do," Awrful says. "I would."

"I wouldn't. Ow. Oh, hey, I saw you dancing with that poodle. I have to ask, did you ask him, or he ask you?" Zahnrad inquires as he looks back over the plans briefly, then around the room for a good hiding spot.

"I just grab him, much quicker," Awrful says. "Life too short to wait for shy men. Like old saying says, must 'carpe canum', and seize the dog."

Zahnrad can't help himself and starts laughing. "You sound like Amy in a strange sort of way," he notes between wheezes.

"Dark furred Kadie you dance with?" Awrful asks. "Yeah, I gots dark fur too."

"Yeah, her. She tends to be the sort to just grab and go too. She's not that shy," Zahnrad comments once he's done laughing. "She's supposed to be coming by sometime tonight."

"Ah, you two want to be alone then," Awrful says, nodding her head and winking. "I leave plans with you, go back and pull brother off of horse lady before he get hurt then."

"Oh, it's nothing like that," Zahnrad says hurriedly, then rubs the back of his neck. "Er, can Fether actually hurt him? He's bigger."

"Break his heart maybe," Awrful says. "Whumper a big softy."

"Uhm, can I ask a weird question? Are all lady Titanians as small as you?" Zahnrad asks, remembering the sheer size of her brother.

"Oh no, I'm the runt," Awrful says, grinning. "Other Titanian girls normal sized."

"Pfft. I wouldn't call you a runt," Zahnrad says and waves his hand.

Awrful pats Zahn on the head, and says, "That sweet, but you shouldn't flirt. Your Amy may hit you with hammer otherwise."

"I wasn't flirting! You're bigger than me! That's hardly a runt," Zahnrad insists.

"Oh! Well, for Titanian I am very petite," Awrful says.

"Ah. Was just wondering," Zahnrad says as he carefully rolls up the blueprints and slides them back in their cases. "Thanks again for coming by. Can you find your way back? If not, I can send my brother with you. But then you'll have to put up with him trying to determine where you keep your horde."

"I don't need help back, easy to find town," Awrful says, waving off the offer of an escort. "Are you tall for a Kadie?" she suddenly asks.

"Yeah. I am. Though Amy's brothers are taller," Zahnrad notes.

"So she is runt of her family too then?" the wolf asks.

"Er, she's the youngest. Not sure she'd be called a runt. If you did, she'd probably whack you into next week," Zahnrad notes with a laugh.

Awrful heads for the door, and grins toothily, "Oh yeah, we petite types can be tough."

Zahnrad waves. "I know. It's scary is what it is," Zahnrad remarks. "Stop by before you two leave town. I'll do my best on the engine!"

The Titanian waves back and vanishes into the darkness outdoors.

"Weird girl," Zahnrad remarks as he goes into the back of the shop to hide the plans away. "Not so sure the whack on her head didn't damage something… "

"At least she doesn't talk to herself," Amelia remarks from the doorway, with an overstuffed duffel bag on her back.

Zahnrad rubs his temples. "How long have you been listening?" Zahnrad asks as he comes out of the back of the shop.

"Been outside a few minutes," Amy remarks. "Not really listening though. Don't understand that engineering talk. And the walls are pretty thick too… "

"Ah. You could have come in. You didn't have to wait for her to leave," Zahnrad says as he heads over to Amy. He wipes his hands on his shirt (which makes them more dirty, sadly). "So, ah, you mentioned something about moving in?" He sounds a bit nervous at the question.

The Kadie girl nods. "Yup. You invited me, remember? I have to stick around to prevent an accident."

"An accident? What are you talking about?" Zahnrad asks, eyebrows raised. "We're very careful around here. Mostly, anyway."

"I know, that's why I need to be around to help when it happens," Amelia says. "Because it'll probably happen despite you all being careful."

"Er, why do you think there will be an accident?" Zahn asks and motions to the door. "And shall we head up to my cabin, then? I need to redo the bedding if you're staying."

Amy nods, and steps back outside. "Because… I just have reason think that someone will have a bad accident here. Maybe not someone who works at the dam, but someone for sure."

Zahn gives Amy a strange look. "You're not going to tell me why you think that, are you?" he says, then just shrugs and makes his way through the compound towards his tree.

"I don't know what you'd think of it," Amelia admits. "But if I don't tell you, then you can't argue against it."

"I can argue against anything," Zahnrad warns jokingly. After a few minutes, they're going up into the branches. Along the way, Zahn as to point out areas to step over, or around. Apparently brother traps are everywhere up here.

"How hard is it to learn how to open the door?" Amy asks when they reach the cabin.

"Well, it's a mathematical puzzle," Zahnrad admits, "But you can just memorize the pattern." He shows her the basic pattern of rotation of the various lock bits. "The sum of the rotation clicks of the two have to match the speed at with the main drive of my shop spins at. There's a little mark on the shaft that you can … , er. Okay, just turn the right one twelve times to the right, the left six to the left, the right three times to the left, then 7 to the right. Then the left two complete spins."

Amy does as instructed, and tenses on the final turn in case something pops out at her.

Silence. Amy could swear she hears something swinging right above her … and then the door opens. Zahnrad walks in quite calmly.

Lugging in her duffel, Amy waits for Zahn to start a light.

Zahnrad looks back and says, "Aren't you … oh, yeah, you can't see in the dark." He goes over to a table and fiddles for a moment, then the room fills with a soft orange glow. "Just, well, find a place to put your stuff. I'll deal with the bed."

Amy sets her duffel down near a corner, and sits on it. "Are all of these drawers and cabinets full?" she asks.

"Just with papers, mostly. Only the left two have clothes. Feel free to move the papers to the crate in the corner. I can relocate them to the workshop," Zahnrad says. He fiddles with the wall for a moment, then kicks it. A section of the wall pops away. Inside it something pillowy and squished. Zahn then remembers something, and goes to take down the hammock.

"Why are you taking that down?" Amy asks as she starts to move the papers out of one cabinet.

"Er, because it's in the way. And there's no way two people could use it," Zahnrad explains. He tugs at the wall, then hops back. A large section falls down with a BOOM! Then a moment later, that section folds out. In the center is a pillowy mattress, decently sized. "Plus, I'd rather you not fall out of it, then beat me up," he teases.

Amelia blinks in surprise at the instant bed. "Oh, I get it… you didn't always use the hammock, did you?"

"Nope. But it took up a lot of room and the hammock didn't," Zahnrad says as he examines the mattress. "And there was the horrible bed incid … er. Nevermind."

Eying the bed with suspicion now, Amy asks, "It wasn't built by the same Wingnut who built that murderous loom, was it?"

"No. I tried to make it auto-retracting. Well, it retracted early morning one time and I was stuck. Only my tail stuck out. Then my brother thought it would be funny to … argh, never mind. I don't want to think about it. It took ages for the fur to grow back," Zahn grumbles. He goes and gets some blankets out of a drawer.

Mollified, Amelia goes back to emptying the cabinet, then starts to unpack her duffel. The first thing out is her disassembled halberd, naturally, but the second item looks like a bundle of colored gauze.

Zahnrad mumbles something about being called 'skeek-butt' by his cousins while he makes up the bed. He pauses and looks over at the colored material. "What is that? Some sort of pre-soaked witch bandage?" he asks.

"Oh, nothing like that," Amy says, and shakes out the bundle into some oversize, nearly transparent scarves. "It's what Lili gave me to practice my belly-dancing in. The way the fabric sways and stretches helps to keep the timing. It's part of my regular exercise routine now."

Zahnrad blinks repeatedly. His ears get red and he then focuses on making the bed. "Ah, yes. When do you get up, anyway? And ah, do you exercise inside or out?" he asks.

"Pretty early," Amelia answers, and starts to put away her more mundane attire. "And outside usually, since I need the room. I guess I can do the dancing inside here though, since it doesn't take a lot of space. At least not until I get to the more advanced stuff. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering. Be careful of Gunther if you do it outside. Who knows what he'd do," Zahnrad remarks and glances up. "I presume you wear that over your regular clothing… ?"

"Oh no, it has to be on pretty tight," Amy notes. "Really can't wear anything else. And I don't see that Gunther would care, but Deirdre might. Maybe if I offer to give her the same lessons though she'll warm up to me… "

"Er, do you want her to?" Zahnrad asks, sounding honestly surprised about that.

"Well, I think she needs to loosen up a bit, personally," Amy notes, cramming some more stuff into the cabinet, until her bag is nearly empty. "This dancing seems to be all about staying loose and limber, too. I don't need another enemy, and she doesn't seem to think very highly of me."

"Eh, she doesn't think highly of anyone, really," Zahnrad notes and sits on the edge of the bed. "And you have a strike against you. You're my friend."

Amy grins, and shakes out her nightshirt. "And Gunther too. At least after I show him how to handle his spear."

Zahnrad glances at the shirt, remembering it was too small. He coughs and shakes his head. ""Ah, yeah, he'd probably adore you after that," Zahnrad agrees.

It's right about now the door opens again and Zahn's father walks in, saying, "Hey, Zahn, I need you to help me fix the flow valves on the … " He spots Amy, blinks, then turns and walks out the door, saying, "I didn't see anything. I didn't see anything."

Amy blinks as well, and asks Zahn, "Doesn't your family ever go to sleep?"

Zahn lets out an audible groan and falls back onto his bed. "No," he laments, "They live to embarrass me. He probably saw the light and figured I was up."

"Well, if you're going to go help him, I'll just get to sleep," Amy notes.

"Guh, no, not tonight. The dance wore me out," Zahnrad comments from the bed. "He can wait. Plus, it would be rude to leave you here alone your first night."

"Well, you can leave me alone for a little while," Amy points out. "I need to get undressed… "

Zahnrad almost comments that she slept against him naked, then just nods. "Ah, sure. Sorry," he remarks as he gets up. A moment later he's out the door.

Once she's alone, Amelia gets out of her dance clothes and squeezes into the nightshirt, which she really isn't used to wearing anyway. As she gets into the bed though, she has to wonder… Zahn is always such a loner, so why did he make such a large bed?

Zahn, meanwhile, is standing out on the porch and leaning against the railing.

"I'm done!" Amy calls.

Zahnrad comes back in. He goes to one of his drawers and pulls out a few things. He realizes something, and ends up going back outside to change. But at last, he comes back in just wearing some loose-fitting shorts.

"Why'd you go out?" Amy asks. "You could have just dimmed the lamp. I can't see in the dark, remember?" she teases.

"Because I'm stupid," Zahnrad mutters and throws his regular clothes into a pile in the corner. He stretches and yawns.

"Have you shared your cabin before?" Amy asks, curious. The big bed, the extra storage space… it all seems to hint at something.

"Yeah. Gunther lived in here with me for a couple years. My mother was too afraid to let us have our own places for a while after Stephen was killed," Zahn remarks as he dims the light a bit. "We about killed each other."

"Ah," Amy says, and scoots to make more room for Zahn. "And you're sure you've found any traps he left behind, right?"

"Yeah, that was years ago. Why did you ask, anyway?" Zahn asks and dims the light all the way, putting it out. He then climbs into bed.

"Just seemed like a lot of bed and storage for just one person," Amelia answers, truthfully.

Zahnrad lightly elbows Amelia. "Worried I had wild and crazy parties with other women?" he teases.

"Not for a second," Amy replies, and elbows back lightly.

Zahnrad oofs. He then actually scoots up against Amelia, nuzzling into her neck lightly. "Good," he murmurs, "And really, having lots of storage is nice. I can work on parts up here as well as the workshop."

Amy stiffens for a moment, then relaxes and curls her tail up against her front. "Well… just no working on my parts just yet," she warns, although there's a laugh lurking behind it. "Your poor father would fall off the walkway… "

Zahnrad's head lifts up slightly. "I never planned to do anything of the sort," he says, then scoots slightly away feeling a bit uncomfortable and pulls up a blanket. "Goodnight."

With a sigh, Amy rolls over and snugs up against Zahn this time. "Goodnight Zahn. Thanks for the dance."

"You're welcome," Zahnrad mumbles sleepily. "I'm sure I was the envy of the dance floor, getting do dance with you," he adds as a sleepy afterthought. Heh, maybe being tired breaks down nervous defenses. The night finally draws to a close for both of them.