The Mechanical Era

25th of Procidens, 5018

It was a cold morning in the city of Hoverdam. Autumn is nearly over, meaning winter will soon arrive with its rains of snow. A line was queueing up in front of the rented building Marco and Vice conducted their business.

Beside the entrance, was a sort of wooden box with a very young man inside, sitting down on a wooden chair, hands on the table. In his hand, he was holding a quill, which he used to write down on the book in front of him, and a tiny piece of paper.

This young man had recently graduated from school. Though at first, he wanted to head over to the library and read up on the bible, due to the financial stress his parents had been facing, he had to take up a job to help cover his family's expenses.

Lucky for him, his time at school didn't prove to be useless. Marco and Vice wanted to find another literate person to employ. They had hatched up a scheme, to help them make a lot more money in the future. They found the guy to be very cheap while offering good enough handwriting that they were able to read.

Marco and Vice were willing to pay him 9 copper coins a day to work with them. Considering the amount being offered, he took up their job offer. As a bonus, the job allowed him to leave once his job was done, meaning he could go find another job to work at, or go to the library and read up on the bible.

"Thank you, sir. You may now enter the building. Next!" he spoke. A young lady approached the box, looking concerned. He put up a nice smile on his face and asked her the question.

"Hello there, ma'am! Can I ask you for your name?" the man inside the box asks.

"It is Elania. Elania Bloom. I... I have a question regarding what is happening here. Is it okay if I ask?"

"Sure thing, ma'am! Just make it quick. People are waiting, you know?"

"Right. Say, do I... Do I have to pay to enter this place?" she asks.

"Oh no! You don't have to pay to enter this place. You see, I am simply writing your names down for the giveaway."

"Giveaway?" Elania asked, not understanding what the man inside the box was referring to.

"Haven't you heard? The two wanted to hand out copies of the bible to a few select winners. The names will be drawn out from the box to decide who it is," the man explained. Elania seems delighted at the news. She was not much of a rich girl and was worried that she wouldn't have been able to afford it.

"Oh thank the lord! I was worried I was not going to be able to afford it. Well, carry on then!" she told the man, before entering the building. The man writes down her name on a small piece of paper, as well as the book in front of him, before moving on to the next person, asking them the same question.

More people walked up to the man and gave out their names. The man continue to write them down until the box was full. Once a box was full, he places the box down, and take another spare from the side, to continue working on writing down their names. In the end, about 700 names were written down, on the book, and the papers.

He places the boxes on top of each other and carries them to the back, where Vice was waiting for him. The man places all the wooden boxes, filled with small pieces of paper. He then hands Vice the book he used to write down all the names, as he had requested.

"You have done a good job. You saved me a lot of time, you know?"

"Yes, Mr. Vice. Anyways, can I have my money now?" he asked.

"Of course! Here you go..." Vice hands him the 9 copper coins. Upon receiving the money, he excused himself and left the area. Vice walks over to his table and sits down on his chair. There, he sets the book that the man had handed to him, next to a list, containing a dozen names.

He flips the book to turn to the first page. Then, with his thumb on the top-left collum, he started to silently read out the names, to see if there were any matches. Once he had found one, he circled it with a blue pen, before continuing to find out the other names.

After about an hour, he flips back through the pages to see all the names he had found. He then circles those names on the list, while cutting out the rest. Vice picks up one of the wooden boxes with all the small pieces of paper, and searches for the names on the list.

Thankfully, he had made his life easier by planning. By looking up the box in which he had written down the name in, Vice soon finds out the names of these individuals and separates the rest. These were the only important ones, the ones that mattered to them.

He takes these pieces of paper to a large wooden box. Vice kneels on the ground and places the small pieces of paper in a small wooden pocket, built within the box to store them. He then pours all the other names down inside the box, before closing it up and placing a lid with a hole on top.

"Alright Marco, I have done my part. Now it is your turn..." Vice thinks to himself. Now that he was finished rigging the giveaway, he picked up his plate and went over to make some money.

Once he finishes collecting up the donations,  Vice picks up the box and places it on a movable tray. He then starts pushing the tray with the box, near the stage, where he would be ready to bring it upstage.

"Now all I need to do is wait..." he thought to himself.