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Post by Ronin Martok on Jan 7, 2008 15:52:54 GMT -5
Despite Linx's assurances, Ronin still felt doubtful about the cleaning process of such a thing. Still, it seemed the best thing to get to go along with his rapier. He really did prefer traditional weapons, but he supposed it was about time he caught up with the technology of the fort. The shrew held out his paws.
"Can I hold it?"
He wanted to see what it felt like and if he could actually aim it. No use in buying it if he couldn't use it.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Jan 7, 2008 15:55:11 GMT -5
"Sure. We can deal with disassembling this guy after you've gotten a feel for it." Since most of the bolt repeater was either aluminum or wood, it was actually rather light, and he had seen smaller beasts than Ronin use it with ease. Best to make sure, though. Customer satisfaction wasn't guaranteed or their money back or anything dumb like that, but Linx wasn't mean.
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Post by Ronin Martok on Jan 7, 2008 20:01:28 GMT -5
Ronin accepted the bolt repeater from Linx's paws. He held it awkwardly for a moment, then slowly raised the stock to rest near his shoulder like he had seen the mouse do. The wood was smooth and polised, quite comfortable pressing against him. He positioned his hands, once more copying what he had seen Linx do. The repeater raised its point from off the floor. Ronin made an uncomfortable grunt as the whole feel of the weapon changed. What had been comfortable moments ago wasn't anymore. He shifted it around, trying to find the right place to rest it against his shoulder. Finally the weight felt good and he snugged it in tighter.
The length was perfect. He looked down the barrel as he had seen others do when training with similar weapons at the fort's training grounds. He kept his paw well off the trigger, still slightly afraid of it. He awkwardly reached up and pulled back the lever that Linx had said would cock it. The snap it made was very hard and mechanical, nothing as pretty as the shing his blade made. His paw curled around the trigger and he slowly squeezed it. Nothing happend. Maybe I need to press harder. He did so and the repeater made the sound that it had when Linx pulled the trigger. Take some time to actually be able to shoot straight with this thing. But then again, the shrew was not adverse to working hard on something, assuming it was doable.
Ronin lowered the bolt repeater and set it gently back down on the counter. He still had a few more questions though before he was about to hand out any of his money.
"How long would it last, given regular wear and tear?"
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Post by Linx Exotic on Jan 7, 2008 20:05:31 GMT -5
"This one? If you actually maintain it well, upwards of... Five seasons, I'd guess. I wouldn't know, it hasn't existed that long. After a few months of daily use, though, the mainspring begins to weaken and you have to bring it in to change it out, but the rest of it will last you a while if you use it right." Linx watched Ronin as he tentatively got a feel for the repeater. Kinda nervous considering it's not loaded... "Now, that'll have a bit of kick to it when you fire. Not much, but some to get used to. Like a crossbow's recoil."
OOC: Sorry about the short post, just not much else to say and I'm a bit busy... Keep in mind, the lever is just what Linx calls the foregrip, it's technically not an actual lever.
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Post by Ronin Martok on Jan 8, 2008 20:46:18 GMT -5
Ronin nodded. He doubted it would see daily, much less weekly use after he had learned how to shoot with it, so should last a lot longer than Linx was saying. Then again, I'll probably have to replace it with a newer weapon before I wear this thing out. New weapons, new techonology. Couldn't they just stick with the old stuff? It was those darn vermin. To keep ahead of them they had to produce more efficient weapons which meant the vermin invented something else which meant the good guys had to invent another thing. It was an endless chain of events that proved to be quite profitable for those who could invent things.
"Right. I'll take it and whatever ye think a good supply of those bolts to shoot with it would be."
He'd forgotten one thing.
"Oh yes. And can ye be showing me how ta clean it?"
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Post by Linx Exotic on Jan 8, 2008 20:50:26 GMT -5
"Right..." Linx plucked the repeater back out of Ronin's paws for a moment. "It's simpler than it looks," he commented as he began to use the rotary lever to remove the six screws used for holding the weapon together. "You'll only need to do this if you've just taken this thing through some serious environmental stress for an extended period of time, usually not that often, but..." After taking off the stock he had put on rather recently, Linx pinched the upper half of the weapon with his index fingers and thumbs, and then pulled it off. Before him, and the shrew, lay all of the repeater's inner components. "And already you have the guts. You don't really need to move much to disassemble it, pretty much everything slides out..." This would be getting pretty complex when it came to reassembling. Linx caught Ronin's eye before continuing. "You still following?"
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Post by Ronin Martok on Jan 9, 2008 17:54:19 GMT -5
Ronin listened and watched. He highly doubted that the thing would be going out for long periods of times in bad weather. Then again, there was always the chance that he'd get drafted for the galley if one of the fort's ships went out for a few weeks. Taking the casing off appeared to be easy, just take off all the screws you could find, squeeze at one end, pull at the other, and it came apart. He could always do it by trial and error if he happend to pull on the wrong part.
He pushed himself up on his tiptoes so that he could see down into the workings of the gun better. Yup, complicated. If everything slid out he'd have no problem. But putting the stuff back in....
"Do ye happen to have a diagram to show where all this stuff goes?"
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Post by Linx Exotic on Jan 9, 2008 18:16:28 GMT -5
"Yes... Several hundred..." Linx disappeared into the back room for a moment and returned with a piece of fiber parchment with a stamped drawing on it. "Just take a look at that. Exploded diagram." It had taken about ten minutes to draw, and ten hours to make into a stamp... Then he had a lot of fun making lots and lots of them, so many he was glad to get rid of them when he could. The mouse handed Ronin the parchment with an air of relief. "Here... Free parchment."
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Post by Ronin Martok on Jan 11, 2008 15:15:13 GMT -5
"Thank you."
The shrew turned the piece of paper that Linx handed him. Which way was right way up? Maybe there wasn't one. Instead, he aligned it with the way the weapon was facing. His paw traced the outline of each part as he looked from the parchment to the weapon that was partially taken apart. This was starting to make more sense than it originally had. He finally looked up, wating for the mouse to finish taking apart the bolt repeater.
He thought back to what he had seen throughout the store. There had been quite a few interesting traditional steel weapons. He might have to come back here in the future just to take a closer look at all the things. But right now he was running tad short on time.
"Could we hurry up a tad? I've got a kitchen to get to and dinner to prepare."
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Post by Linx Exotic on Jan 11, 2008 15:32:15 GMT -5
"I understand completely," Linx replied while placing the top half of the repeater back on. The last thing he wanted was a late dinner... Wait, he didn't actually have to eat at the mess hall. But he did have to pay for anything he ate outside it... Not that the cost of one meal (or two if Archon tagged along) was going to deter someone with as big a fortune as Linx. "Actually, there's no need to disassemble it any further than I did. All the parts of the action, as I said, slide out of place and slide back in. The cocking lever can be removed, too, by unscrewing the end cap, but that's so simple I don't think I really need to demonstrate it..."
After making sure all the screws were tightened, Linx gestured to the repeater. "You want some ammunition now?"
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Post by Ronin Martok on Jan 14, 2008 18:55:59 GMT -5
Ronin nodded as Linx put the weapon back together. It seemed he'd be able to follow the diagram easily enough for when the time to clean the thing came. Thing? Repeater? Bolt thrower? He didn't quite care if he didn't call it by its technical name. Maybe he'd just have to name it himself in order to keep all the confusion of new words straight in his mind. Larry? Now that was ridiculous. He'd have to think of something better. The shrew nodded at the mouse's question about the ammo.
"Yes. How much would ye say the ideal amount would be ta carry on, say, a short mission?"
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Post by Linx Exotic on Jan 14, 2008 20:05:05 GMT -5
"Two, three magazines, I'd say more, but you're probably not going to be doing just combat." It would take a while for all this to take any coherent shape in the shrew's head, so he decided to just keep things simple, for the moment. Well, as simple as he could... There was still a lot of technical stuff to go through. It may have been typical to him, but not to anyone else. "But that's just magazines. Holders for the actual projectiles. Each holds five, I think I said that... So you have to purchase actual bolts separately. I'd start with fifty, good round number."
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Post by Ronin Martok on Jan 16, 2008 0:25:32 GMT -5
Two or three..... That seemed a tad too small a number to the shrew and both his eyebrows raised so that they disappeared into his headband. This might cost less than he had originally thought and he felt his mood begin to lighten at that thought. Then the mouse said something about that just being the number of "magazines" he'd need. Of course there had to be a catch. So each magazine held five of what were called "rounds." And he'd have to get....how many? Fifty! Ronin had to remind himself that Linx was not trying to make him pay more than he should. After all, the mouse was a commander. He sighed, noticeably more grumpy now that when he had first walked in the door.
"Right. I'll take the bolt thingy, magazines and fifty of those rounds."
The shrew pulled out a pouch of coins and plopped it down on the counter.
"How much?"
He really needed to go work of all this stress with a successfully baked cream puff. Maybe more than one cream puff. He thought of all the work that was ahead of him to figure out and learn to fire this thing. He cast it a rather distasteful eye. The army just might be finding itself with a surplus of cream puffs.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Jan 16, 2008 7:11:03 GMT -5
"Standard repeater, three magazines, fifty rounds... Twelve coins. Four for the repeater itself, one for each magazine and one per ten bolts." That was actually far cheaper than it had used to be. He just had workers and the like now. And... Ronin didn't seem to be liking this much anyway. Hopefully the price would keep him on his footpaws... Maybe Linx could cut him a sale, being insanely rich and all. That all depended on how much money the shrew had on him, of course, Linx didn't just cut prices randomly.
"And just give me one second..." Linx disappeared into the back room again, this time returning with a glass bottle full of something yellowish and a long, thin wooden rod with a fuzzy thing at the end. "Cleaning rod, lubrication. You'll want these both." The lubrication was just some oil... That would keep the bolts from sticking, very important...
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Post by Ronin Martok on Jan 16, 2008 16:06:38 GMT -5
Twelve coins. He had not way of telling if that was a good price for this sort of thing but the shrew could afford it. It would use up most of his savings, but he figured in the long run it would be worth it. Like when this suprises some rat who thinks ye'v only got your rapier. As Linx disappeared into the back Ronin counted out the coins. He pulled the string around the bag's mouth shut before putting it back into his pocket, now much lighter than when he had come in. He'd have to return it to his locked drawer in his room before going over to the kitchens.
When the mouse came back Ronin pushed the coins over the counter, accepting the oil and rod. He picked up the repeater and slung the strap it was attached to over his shoulder. The magazines and rounds he stacked neatly in his arms. He didn't have that far to go with all this, just across the fort grounds. He nodded to Linx before he left.
"Thankee."
Just before reaching the door his head swiveled back towards the counter one last time. Ever since he'd come here he'd been trying to bring this issue up, he'd just never seen Linx around without any lower ranking creature around.
"It'd be a good idea fer ye to start mixin' with the troops more, maybe attend one of the daily meals."
The shrew didn't give his reasonings as they were pretty obvious to him. A commander had to let his presence be seen around the fort if he wanted his soldiers to have some respect for him. Ronin had heard rumors here and there that some of the soldiers thought that Linx was stuck up from the success of his shop. The shrew wasn't about to repeat these rumors as he disliked spreading things, but he could do his best to hint.
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