aefenglom | Audio; UN: username

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For those that might be interested, I have through considerable effort figured out how to tweak these devices into allowing the display of color video and images beyond sepia.

[There is a steady tap tap tap, like a claw on metal.]

Which I would demonstrate, save that this is a physical change to the device and requires me to put in several very small items to function. Thus if you have interest in seeing each other in color, I can be found at the Second Time's The Charm shop, which sells these communicators, for the next several days. Make an appointment. As I am generous, I will not charge for my considerable time and efforts in this, though I will not refuse donations. You will have to turn your device over to me for a bell or so, there's no way around it. If you refuse, you may purchase another, I can update that one, and you may turn in your old one for recycling.

Technically I can't refuse anyone who asks for my aid. But if you are rude, violent, or otherwise not on good behavior something unpleasant may happen to your device while my talons are in its guts. Try to at least feign civility.

[OOC: The first watch update is here, IN LIVING COLOR. Lahabrea absolutely must get his hands on a watch in order to upgrade it. While this interaction can be handwaved!! you may also come visit Lahabrea and have it done in person for delicious CR! He won't refuse anyone, and he'll take into account rude people at least making an effort at being polite. Upgrades are freeeee! Make an appointment (in this thread or inboxes or etc I don't mind~) and come get your color upgrade!

Although he didn't mention it in this notice, he's willing to teach others how to do this as well, so other people can do upgrades! If you're interested, find an excuse to ask him! I welcome any and all assistance; the more hands I get the faster I can do future upgrades too!]

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[As a detective, this is obviously something that could be useful. Seeing anything in more detail is highly desirable.

The source could be more so.]

What's the recommended donation amount?

[Maybe best to lead with a bribe.]

[Text it is.]

It is a price and not a donation if I fix a 'recommendation' to it. The object is not financial gain.

What is the object, then?

I am not interested in discussion about it, or anything else for that matter. Either make an appointment for your device's adjustments or do not.

I'm interested in an appointment. When do you have an opening?

I will be finished with the current one in approximately thirty minutes, that will be my next opening.

Put me down. I'll be there promptly.

Very well.

[And there's nothing else written. He'd already provided a location, and it wasn't an unknown, unadvertised shop. But if someone doesn't need their watch replaced or repaired, or to buy a new one, then venturing there probably doesn't happen often!

But it's of sturdy brick and wood construction, with the usual doorway of rather considerable height to allow for the tallest of Aefenglom's monsters to pass through easily, the windows of etched and stained glass. Inside, the walls are dotted with display cases of watches, mostly different designs for covers and the like than actual different models of technology, the current shopkeep on duty sitting behind one of the counters with a book and a large jar labeled DONATIONS.

Up against the glass windows is presumably, the person doing the modifications. Although he is carefully and obviously deliberately shrouded in black cloth, from a heavy hood to long robes, modified gloves and even his lengthy tail wrapped all the way to the tip, it's still obvious he's a dragon - albeit one without wings, or very small ones hidden beneath his robes. Few other types of monsters reached that size, probably somewhere north of eight feet, and multiple long spiraling horns along with the long, tapering tail and reptilian claws simply sealed it. But the only places bare flesh can be seen is his jawline, the rest of his face obscured by heavy multi-lensed goggles clearly meant to get to very tiny magnifications. On the table before him is a series of already disassembled watches, myriad tiny tools, a few small velvet boxes, and a few assembled watches. There's multiple lights, some mundane, some magical, all pointed directly at the table, which is set to his comfortable height, not human average.

On the other side of the table is a lone chair, comfortable enough but clearly not meant to be lingered in for extensive periods of time. There's a device behind one of the counters quietly playing local music, but otherwise there's little sound.

Somehow it's not completely uninviting.]

[L's able to find the shop easily enough, even if he's not a regular patron. Though he's not an unusually short man, by human standards, he still gives a diminutive impression, narrow and shabby and fine-featured as he steps up to the counter with his jacket pulled tightly around him even though spring is thawing the world back to life outside.

Spindly fingers nudge some cune into the donation jar. When converted to dollars, it's roughly the amount that someone might pay for a new DVD in the world and era L hails from. Here, it's his best guess for what a watch upgrade is worth.

It might be more, if someone he trusted fully and completely was going to be performing the service, but that list numbers precious few. He considers this a substantial risk, and would, even if the generic username, the voice that matched the one from a past alarming post's switch to audio when he'd interacted with Myr, and the species (dragon) all match one that L has long considered with caution and distrust.]

Lahabrea, is it?

[He'd introduced himself to Myr over the channel, with that voice. The name was confirmed later by Myr, when L and Viren had confronted him about playing too eagerly with fire. Jumping at shadows, or legitimate concern?]

Thank you for making time for me.

[It happens that he likes to play with fire, too.]

[Playing with fire is a fantastic way to not get anything but a broken device back.

The dragon glances up, the myriad lenses briefly distorting everything in very peculiar ways before one talon simply pushes several of them aside on their delicate wiring. Whatever impression he gains from L's rail thin, shabby appearance, not a word is said about any of it. He's well able to school what little of his expression can be seen into bland neutrality, turning one gloved hand palm-up, claws a curved cage. Hand over the goods!]

Your device.

[If he recalls L at all from previous conversations, or even more recent ones with Myr, there's zero sign of it. But the voice is the same, a dry and not exactly pleasant rasp, as if he'd spent a while screaming for extensive periods of time.]

You may remain if you so wish, as that is the chair's purpose, but I require quiet. The work is delicate. If you wish to leave, return in forty-five minutes.

[Contrary to the beliefs of some close to him, L is capable of some amount of subtlety. Playing is not always open; fire is not always a roaring blaze, but occasionally a hearth or a candlestick.

He hands it over, carefully with a spindly grip, only a few fingers at a time touching it, listening the whole time to that voice as if committing it to memory anew. The more paths cross, the more they're likely to again.]

I'd prefer to remain. I don't need to speak, to observe, so... you'll have as much quiet as you require.

[Implicitly, he wants to know what the dragon's doing to his watch, in as much detail as possible committed to a perfect memory.]

Good. See to it it stays that way.

[Which seems to be enough for Lahabrea for the time being; if L isn't distracting then it didn't matter if he sat there and watched. The dragon doesn't seem much for friendliness or politeness simply to be polite, but that was something of a trait of the breed, if it was the Ascian himself or the foreign dragon instincts, there's really not a lot of information to lean towards which it might be. Friendliness however wasn't required, this is a job, not a social gathering.

He sets to work with experienced quickness. That he can begin disassembling the thing that quickly, setting tiny gears, tiny screws and almost invisibly small tiny crystals on the table in front of him on a dark cloth in a row, but still says it'll take nearly an hour to finish - something's going to get complicated. He eschews tools when he can, using the sharp tips of his claws instead, which, when he moves them across light right, have a metallic sheen across the edge and tip that doesn't quite seem natural. It's almost a comical sight, something as large as Lahabrea is working on something so utterly tiny, but it does explain the goggles. Now and again a lens is flipped across his vision, or several, or none at all depending on the magnification needed.

Only when the entirety of the workings of the watch are laid out in neat, precise rows, does he bother to pick up one of the small nearby boxes and from it begin setting out an entirely different set of minute gears, tiny crystals and faintly glowing tiny rods. Some of them have a reddish tinge but otherwise seem fairly identical to the ones already spread out before him.

And then things slow down. A lot. The dragon sets to work putting them all back in, in a completely different arrangement than they were before, with delicate care. Every single gear, screw, crystal, minute energy source or wire is cautiously tested for secureness, one by one, before he dares move on.

Apparently it really is going to take a while.]

[While L finds dragons inherently intimidating, for their sheer size and power, he can't decide if this one's attitude is more imperious or bossy. Just how much threat lies behind his words and tone? Is it wise to press and test boundaries? How swiftly might he regret even a carefully guided decision toward those ends?

For now, he decides to listen, and wait, and bide his time. He suspects an opportunity to press will present obviously to him, in stark contrast with this impersonal baseline they've established. He's seen nothing like it, yet.

And so, he waits, without comment or quip or question, still standing near enough to see what Lahabrea is doing to the innards of his watch. It's attentive, but limited; he doesn't have the benefit of magnifying lenses, after all

After a time, his focus shifts to Lahabrea himself. L stares as though no one ever told him it was rude, or he at least decided that he didn't care. Grooming, posture, physique, apparent health, presence or absence of injuries. Anything he can tell by sight is something he's sparing no discretion to observe.]

[With so little exposed, there's so little to observe. Not a feather, not a scale, bare skin only being a jawline that could probably use a bit of a shave and the thin press of lips. There is the curve of horns, through carefully sewn holes in his hood, things that twist more like an antelope's than a deer's.

The rest, save those exposed metal-tipped talons, is utterly shrouded in black cloth. Sturdy make, clean, durable and a little coarse looking, but all-concealing. His posture is bent- but that does seem par the course given the work he's doing, small and precise on a table before him.

It's almost as if, by design, he is intent on evading being examined in detail. There are reasons of course, deeply cultural ones, but explaining to a mortal the shamefulness of flaunting one's unique appearance wasn't going to happen any time soon.

So his work continues. Though L stares with all the rudeness of a toddler who doesn't know better, it's blessedly ignorable, and the dragon is quite content with the silence compared to other patrons. Quiet means he can work uninterrupted, no sudden starts to make the delicate and fragile work suddenly more irritating.

The only noteworthy thing is a small subset of the tiny crystals he's using are tinged strangely red. But when they're put into place, the colors of the ribbons of energy inside the watch coruscate in a rainbow of hues. This, by the low grunt from Lahabrea, is satisfactory.

It's only when he's visibly nearing completion, putting things carefully back in order, that he pauses.]

If you have a preferred element that might damage delicate electronics, now is a good time to mention it so proper insulation may be provided. Any tampering, cast magic on the components inside the device or otherwise attempting to do so yourself may destroy everything I have just installed.

[The bland tone he uses suggests this isn't some effort to pry into witch speciality, just a rote requirement so he doesn't have to deal with the same person twice.]

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