Shantania/Supports/RaviTiva

Level 1

Just a few more twists. He steadies his working hand with his other arm. Careful now...too much tension and the mainspring could come flying out. Ravi grips the torquer gingerly, as if it would burn his hand if he held it tighter. Just need it right...about...there--

"Hey there!" comes the voice of Tiva from the doorway. Ravi's hand slips, drops the torquer, and the mainspring ejects itself from the brass casing of his latest project with an audible sproing, landing who-knows-where.

"Gods be damned, Tiva! How many times?" He pounds a frustrated fist on his work table, launching more tiny component pieces out of the brass casing.

The young elf collapses to her knees and immediately begins sobbing. "I'm sorry, Brother! I didn't mean to!"

"I have warned you time and again! Never! EVER! Interrupt me while I'm working!" Ravi sweeps the remaining parts into a small jewelry case. "I'd nearly been on to something that time," he adds, wiping his brow.

"I'm so sorry! I always forget..."

"You forget? Forget what, dearest Sister? Forget that your darling elder brother prefers his solitude? Forget that I am the only remaining heir remotely capable of carrying on Father's will?"

"I...I always forget you're so mean!" Tiva picks herself up from the floor and struggles to give Ravi a glare through her tear-filled eyes. "So what if you can build these cool gadgets and I can't? That doesn't make me useless, you know! You don't have to go and yell at me about it!"

"If you're so useful, Tiva, then tell me how you might be of use to me." Ravi turns away, focusing instead on his ingot press.

Tiva struggles to think of any one thing. Knowing her brother, he would likely reject any idea that she could put forth. Instead of responding, Tiva instead walks back out and slams the door on the way.

"That's what I thought."

Level 2

"Hold still, now," Ravi urges as he tightens a screw on the wing assembly. "You've been rough on this, haven't you? This joint is out of place."

"You can fix it, though, right?" asks Tiva sheepishly, trying not to move.

"Of course I can fix it, Tiva, but the question is, how long it will take you to learn to respect your machinery? These aren't toys!"

"I know that!"

"Tiva, gods be damned! Don't move!"

"I'm sorry!" She straightens up and holds her breath as Ravi pulls another joint into place and secures the screw. "How long have we been like this, brother?"

"I should say scarcely five minutes," he replies with a glance at his pocket watch. "It will, of course, take longer if you keep moving--"

"No, no, not here in this workshop. Like...this. The quarreling sibling thing. You would think that we'd have figured out how to coexist after so many years, right?"

Ravi puts away his screwdriver and pulls the wings shut with a lever on the backpack. "I think that about does it...you're fit for the next battle. Here, let me help you get that off."

"You're not answering my question, Ravi," accuses Tiva. "I almost can't think of a single year where we didn't have some kind of argument."

"I've just performed a delicate repair, the like of which I'd ordinarily charge money for. The least you could do is thank your older brother."

"This is exactly what I mean," Tiva sighs. "You're an adult, Ravi, but listen to the way we speak to each other. We act like we never left school."

"Isn't that true, in your case?" Ravi spins his sister around and unbuckles one of the mechanical wings. "Thanks to your mother's poor choice of mate, you never really had the opportunity to even enter school."

"You speak as if that were somehow my fault." She sighs again. "She's your mother, too, you know. It's not like I could choose where I was born..."

"No. That was all Mother's choice, wasn't it? To go and get herself knocked up by some common human?" Ravi sneers, unbuckling the last belt and carefully pulling the shoulder straps from his sister's arms. "...These straps are already beginning to give way."

"What's next, you're going to say I need to lose weight?"

"...While the thought had crossed my mind, I had not planned to speak it."

"That's the same as speaking it." Tiva, now free of Ravi's winged contraption, makes for the door. "Ravi, I hope someday you realize what you're doing." With this, she closes it.

Level 3

"Oww!" Tiva gasps from the sudden pain as Ravi tries his best to hold her in place. "Be careful!"

"If you would just stop moving for one Gods-damned second..."

"Easy for you to--OW!"

"Tiva, I need to get you out of the machine before I can do anything to help you, and I can't get the machine off you if you keep moving."