Splintered Spade

Chapter 2 - New Beginnings

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Once Randy and I got to town, Gerrow took us to his shop, Made to Upgrade. It's nothing major, just a one story building with a decent sized loft in it. The main floor is laid out so that right when you come through the door, you are in the main shop area. Which takes up about half of the main floor. There's three other doors leading out of the room, two on the right side. One being the storage room, which is positioned about a meter forward from the back right corner of the room.

The other being an Appliers room. Appliers, like Gerrow, typically make adjustments to gear people bring in, or tuning of various items after they've been purchased from the shop. When looking in from the doorway, the Appliers room is outfitted with two chairs in the middle of the room facing the right wall. As to meet the needs of the job, these chairs are extremely versatile; they can be laid back flat, slightly angled backwards, or set so they are sitting straight up. Attached to the sides of the chairs are two armrests, and due to their age, it's hard to tell if the divots were wore down over the years, or if it came that way. When adjusting the chair, the armrests always rotate at an equal ratio as to ensure they are always parallel with the ground. Off in the back left and right corners of the room, are two racks that lower tier gear can be mounted into for repairs or sizing adjustments. Positioned between the racks is a set of counter-top cabinets. These running along the floor and wall. The piece mounted to the wall, a basic metal shelving unit, Gerrow bolted some nice deep brown wood to the face of as to give the room, what he calls, a rustic feel. The sister unit, being similar in design, however, is just a bland metal box with doors. As to make it look even mildly nicer, Gerrow used the same wood from the face of the mounted cabinets, as a finished counter top. Between the two chairs, centered in the room, is an island. Focusing from the chair orientation, the island can be accessed from either the front or back. With roughly a meter on either side so the Applier can still work on a client from any angle. The right wall of the room is mainly focused around the product being worked on, so even through four units can be worked on in the room at once, only two can be displayed at a time. The monitor systems automatically link with the chairs first, but can be redirected to the low tier racks. The screens are mounted in front of their corresponding chairs, and relay; damage reports, model information, and prior maintenance records. Between the monitors is the mainframe which keeps and maintains customer information. As for along the left wall of the room, this wall is lined with stacked shelving units. Another good name for these shelves would have to be the 'caught all'. They are split into three different categories; damaged, unsalvageable, and meant for repairs.

Back in the main store room, observing from the entrance, there's a bench in the back left of the store that extends right half way into the room. This is where all the sales are done in the store. This counter is pretty much empty underneath. Aside from a few bins with salvaged units, electrical components, and a couple of shelves with the main tools used for minor repairs or tuning. Along the left and store front walls are little metal shelves that store smaller components like power sources, various unit modifications, and replacement pieces and platelets for low to mid tier gear. The center of the room has two rows of racks which display the different units and gear to both sides of the aisles for customer inspection, along with holograms that display unit information. The left rack housing lower tier gear and the right rack housing mid tier gear. The right wall, between the storage room and the Appliers room, has four holographic monitors positioned across the space. There screens give specific stock counts, further information on the units, and prices for used, or new units.

In the center behind the counter is the third door which leads into the living quarters. This doorway leads into a hallway which runs to the left exterior wall of the structure, and two-thirds of the way to the rightmost exterior wall. To the left being a bathroom and straight through being a door into Gerrow's bedroom. All the way to the right at the end of this little hallway is a set of stairs going up to the loft, they begin just outside the kitchen, stop at a landing, and then turn right and finish off up into the loft. At the base of the stairs on the left side is the door into the kitchen. Leaning through the bead curtain, and aesthetic idea Gerrow said he just couldn't live without, immediately on the right is a booth like dining setup. A floor mounted table and a 'U' shaped bench that's entered from the door side. Just to the left of the booth stands a wire dry stock shelf. Moving in the same direction, left of this shelf begins the counters that run into the wall and then turn left where the sink and dish racks are positioned. Built into the structure, just left of the sink, is a Cryo-box which preserves the food so it doesn't rot. The average Cryo-box stands two meters tall and a meter wide, split into a top and bottom. The lower section is used for fresh produce and raw products, whereas the upper portion contains prepared foods. As for the last thing in the kitchen, there's a trash can next to the Cryo-box.