Printer Hall Recruitment (1/2)

Writers: Shawna, Sia
Date Posted: 4th May 2025

Characters: Zariah, Aleriand
Description: Zariah tries to encourage her daughter to consider an apprenticeship
Location: Printer Hall
Date: month 7, day 4 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: O'dyn

Aleriand

“Yes, yes, the books are fine but you said we could see all the big machines. We have books at home.” The young teen was rolling her eyes dramatically as she followed behind Zariah.

“We need permission and someone who works here to show us the machines, they can be dangerous. You can be patient for a few minutes,” Zariah slowed, reaching out to give the girl’s braid a little tug. The greenrider was clearly out of ‘uniform’ today, in loose linen pants and without her usual riding jacket, likely due to the sling on her non-braid-tugging arm.

“But don’t _you_ work here?” The girl quipped back.

“Raleri, you know that’s not what I mean. Don’t be cheeky, especially not when we meet Master Aleriand. You promised you’d be on your best behavior.”

The apprentices, as usual, noticed the dragon out in the square before he did. They were already hard to handle, being the last class of the afternoon and right before dinner, so he was already fighting a losing battle. He didn't turn to look out to see who it was, but he heard the not-so-quiet whispers of ';Relsath!' from the apprentices that thought they were subtle by only turning their faces towards the window and not plastering themselves against it to try and get a better look. He knew when he was beat. "Dismissed." He called to the class, who immediately sprang to action. He waited until the batch had rushed out before eventually making his way after them. Zariah was likely here for him, after all.

He frowned when he saw the sling that bound the greenrider's arm. "Afternoon, Zariah. How is your arm?"

“Oh, it’s fine, I just need to rest it for a few days,” Zariah said dismissively.

“She’s a mess. She almost fell over trying to get her boots on,” Raleri chirped helpfully.

Zariah closed her eyes for the length of a slow, calming breath. “Master Aleriand, I’d like to introduce you to my daughter, Raleri, who was very excited to see the machines at the hall and,” here Zariah slowed down, spacing out her words pointedly, “promised to be on her best behavior.”

"Oh, well." Aleriand said with mock seriousness to Raleri, "We'll have to be extra careful escorting her around the Hall, then. We're in the middle of printing the newspaper, if you'd like to see that?" He had a dozen other things he _should_ have been doing, but this was more interesting than the contracts he had to review.

“Yessssss,” Raleri said. “Do the machines really take up a whole room? And print hundreds of copies like instantly?”

“I may have talked a bit about how impressive and efficient the printers were,” Zariah admitted a little sheepishly. It had at least worked to get her daughter enthused about the trip, if not entirely on board with considering the not so subtle pushes towards apprenticeship.

"The machines take up multiple rooms." Aleriand corrected. "It's many machines, though, not just one big machine. It's a bit slapdash right now, since we've had to rebuild most of the machines twice in the last decade. We still use woodblock printing for smaller jobs, and bigger Picason Presses for most jobs. My Hallsecond is doing interesting things with lithography…" He paused, remembering that Raleri wasn't an apprentice yet and had no idea what he was saying. "How about you come in and take a look." He finished lamely.

Raleri’s eyes were wide and fascinated at hearing about the size of the machines, but her face quickly fell into a frown. “Are the woodblocks the big stamps?” The rest she clearly wasn't following.

Zariah looked pleased at the girl’s interest, but pressed her lips together firmly. After all, nothing dashed a teen’s interest better than a parent's approval.

"Well, it's all like big stamps." Aleriand said as he led them into one of the main printing halls, the whirring of the Tangolst a strange and ever-present hum. "We lock the type into the press, ink it, and press it against the paper, whether it's by hand or fed through the machine. Do you want to try and print something for yourself?"

“Mum said if I touched the machine it might eat me,” the girl said with a suspicious look back over her shoulder towards the greenrider. “But yes I wanna print something.”

“That was to keep you from running in and touching one without supervision.”

"Yes, you shouldn't touch it without someone there with you." Aleriand agreed hurriedly with a glance at Zariah for approval. "But we'll use one of the smaller presses that has a lever, just so there's no danger of it eating your fingers. What about a little dragon picture?"

“Mum says the red ink is made out of squished apprentices,” Raleri said brightly. “I didn’t believe her. Can we do a dolphin? Everyone is always giving me dragon things. I like other stuff, too.”

"Everyone used to give me dolphin stuff when the Hall was at the Seahold." Aleriand agreed. "But we can print a dolphin." He carefully (albeit awkwardly) helped her select the right typeset, insert it into the right place of the machine, apply the paste-like ink to the rollers, and let her pull the lever that pressed the ink and the typeset and the paper together for her to have a small, simple dolphin print.

Raleri squealed with delight as she pulled the lever and made the print. “What do you use this machine for normally? It's not like the ones that do all the papers, right? Can I see those?”

Zariah looked so pleased she was ready to burst, but she told Aleriand seriously, “I did promise she could see the big ones but not touch.”

"This one does art prints, as you can see." Aleriand said, "Invitations, one-page copies, notes, messages, invoices. The Tangolst Press does the newspapers-- come take a look, but don't get underfoot of the people working. It takes a couple Journeymen and a couple of apprentices to run it properly."

Last updated on the May 12th 2025

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Printer Hall Recruitment (1/2)