fandomtownies | Blackstone Foundry and Forge, Wednesday

While Amaya didn't typically mind surprises too much, she had to admit that sometimes it felt a little unsettling that she'd leave her shop in one state and then come downstairs the next day to discover something had changed. At least by now she could be confident that whatever it was would likely be gone within a few days, and at least presumably festive greenery was seemingly innocent enough, though it did remind her that the one thing she regretted about this new place was not having a space for a garden like the house did.

At at least the weapons were fine today.

And surprises like this still beat the ones back in Daventry when someone'd leave the back gate open and all the wetzel wolves would come in and take over and she'd have to chase them out with those lanterns from the Hobblepots that were always breaking because Chester Hobblepot wouldn't know quality construction if it bit him on his a--

--but she was getting distracted. "'Morning, Fjord," she greeted, coffee in hand, frowning slightly as she went to hand him his mug, feeling fairly certain she'd noticed some movement among the mistletoe, which she waved a finger at once her hand was free. "This the island's doing, or did you decide to spruce up the place?"

Which would have been a hilarious question if they'd have been wreaths. Why couldn't they have been wreaths? It would be so much easier to be punny around here if they'd been wreaths.

Also, yes, the mistletoe was definitely moving, and Amaya was starting to get a very bad feeling about this beyond this missed opportunity for puns.

"Wasn't me," Fjord replied, coffee pausing en-route to his mouth as something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. He frowned, shook it off, and then took a sip. Clearly he needed it.

Not that the mouthful was making the stuff any less motile, apparently.

"What is that stuff, anyway?"

He sounded wary. He was wary. He didn't trust anything that moved out of the edge of his vision like that.

"If I'm not mistaken," said Amaya, and she was fairly certain she wasn't, "it's mistletoe. You could find it over the place back where I grew up, mostly used as an ingredient for spells and potions, so what it has to do with the holidays here..."

She trailed off, shrugging. She'd somehow managed to miss this one entirely last year.

"I kind of like it, though," she decided, completely unaware that, as she inspected some with a thoughtfully tilted head on one side of the shop, the mistletoe behind her on the other side was about to change her mind. "Add a nice decorative to--"

And what was when some of the mistletoe clinging to the rafter over her head dropped down in a swoop to push her, surprisingly strong for a small piece of greenery, which was bad enough, getting pushed around by a plant, but the fact that it nearly caused some of her coffee to splash out of her mug as she stumbled forward a little bit toward Fjord was just unacceptable.

"...our mistletoe definitely doesn't do that," she noted, frowning at the offender as it bobbed almost threateningly behind her. What got all into its berries, anyway? She was trying to pay it a compliment!

Huh. Mistletoe. Didn't see much of that at sea, a fact that Fjord had been considering chatting idly about, for all of a second, right up until that moment when Amaya was pushed. That was the moment he lifted one hand in case she was pushed again, setting his coffee down and turning a dark look toward the plant in question.

"Didn't hurt you, did it?"

Golden almost serpentine slit-eyes narrowed as he watched the plant that had shoved her. Which meant he wasn't looking as another sprig of it swung down from behind him, giving him a similar shove in her direction with a force that was startlingly solid for such a small, wispy-looking plant.

"Just my pride!" Amaya snorted a response, though perhaps her pride was a little less injured by the fact that the mistletoe was going to give Fjord trouble, too, and she hastily set her own mug aside, too--which, it should be noted, she had not had nearly enough to drink from to be dealing with this sort of thing right now!--because that had nearly caused a collision that would have resulted in worse than just some splashed coffee. It also freed up both her hands to better try to swat away another attempt.

"Okay," she stated with irritation as her attempt to turn around were foisted by a growing number of them intent on forward being the only direction she was allowed to go. "This officially isn't cute anymore; where's my weed whacker?"

As easily one of the spikiest weapons in her whole arsenal, specifically designed to take care of even the toughest of spiniferous thornweeds, it was clearly the most obvious solution to any problematic plantlife.

...if only it weren't for the fact that the mistletoe very clearly had no intention of letting her even get remotely close to it. In fact, only thing it seemed to be interested in letting her get close to was...Fjord.

"You've got something in here for every occasion, don't you?" Fjord attempted some levity for all of two seconds, before it became very clear that they were being corralled toward one another. His hand twitched, and he found himself very torn between summoning his pact weapon or simply throwing an eldritch blast at the incoming mistletoe. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but is there any particular reason, you figure, why they want us both in the same place like this?"

Amaya took a moment to try to think back through some of the more holiday-themed movies that they'd watched during movie nights for some sort of hint toward this particular puzzle, but if there had been any examples involving mistletoe, she couldn't remember any, but it didn't help that it was sort of difficult to concentrate with mistletoe pushing at your back and pulling the hem of your skirt.

...and then she considered the position of the Crumbler relative to their current spot, and...no, that'd be difficult to pull off, too, unless she just made a sudden break for it. And then it just became a matter of deciding whether she should just dig her heels in out of stubbornness or just accept that fact that being herded by plants to stand near Fjord wasn't the worst of fates, even if it didn't make a whole lot of sense.

"Nothing I can think of," she admitted. "Maybe something about the...spirit of togetherness?"

Very together, it would seem, as Amaya realized that their persistent prodding had now left her with hardly much space left between them at all, leaving her to look up at Fjord with an apologetic sort of helpless look.

"Maybe," she said, voice dropping down to a whisper, as if to keep the mistletoe from hearing, "if we just both bolted out in opposite directions at the count of three?" Maybe...confuse it, leave it unsure of which one to pursue first?

"I'm willing to give it a try," Fjord replied.

Someday he'd learn thunder step, and the mistletoe would have a hell of a time trying to push them around and would get fried for its troubles.

That someday was clearly not today, now that he was one short stumble forward from being pressed right up against her, mistletoe tugging at his legs, shoving at his shoulders. Still not harming either of them, but definitely pushy.

"On three, you said?"

Edited 2018-12-12 18:37 (UTC)

And there was Amaya's own last small short stumble, and...zounds, this was...close. Very close. And was that...mistletoe in her hair now? Sure, there was a lot of it, it wasn't surprising that it might get tangled up in it a little with all their pushing and prodding, but it was definitely pulling it back a little, leaving her little choice but tilt her face toward Fjord with no small amount of confusion and a short nod.

"On three," she agreed, quirking her head to her left to indicate the direction she planned on going, before counting it off. "One....two...three!"

"Three," Fjord agreed, managing to pivot on his heel only to run into...

Well, it wasn't a brick wall, but somehow it sure as hell felt a lot like one. And that not-brick wall was manhandling him right back to where he'd been standing while he inhaled sharply, slightly winded by that sudden impact he hadn't been expecting.

"The fuck."

And Amaya, meanwhile, had managed to move just enough to the side that she thought she might manage to break way toward the weed whacker, only to then have her shoulder pushed hard enough that she basically spun around on a pivot point, wound up facing Fjord again, with just that little extra push at the end that sent her stumbling forward. She barely had time to lift her hand to catch herself against him, but with the spin making her slightly dizzy, it seemed she rather needed to.

"Right," she said, blinking away her surprise. "So that's a no on the escaping. I guess we're just going to be held hostage here by plants, then?"

There had to be more to it than that. She felt, deep down, that there was something more to it than that, but what in the world could they be getting at here?

"Not going to get much work done this way," Fjord noted, wrinkling his nose a bit. "Not sure what they figure we are going to accomplish like this."

Said as another plant tried to push his face downward. So... now he was looking down at Amaya a little more blatantly? Okay?

And then there they were, in her hair again, making it all to easy to make her head tilt back so Amaya was looking up at Fjord just as blatantly and more than a little awkwardly, with a completely bewildered smile to go along with it.

"I honestly haven't even the faintest..."

She realized, just then, that, while it seemed to her that it would be impossible to get much closer to the other without actually being merged into one entity, the mistletoe surrounding them was attempting to get her closer to him still. Which was absurd! How could they even get any closer? Why, to get closer, they'd practically have to be...

"Oh," said Amaya, eyes going wide. The color drained from her face for a moment before rushing back, only this time far more red.

"....zards."

"Yeah, I can't figure..."

Fjord paused a moment to read the room.

And then the faintest tint of red managed to darken his cheeks.

"You're kidding."

The fact that the mistletoe seemed to be swirling around with the same sort of excitement that the squirrels had when they dug out their little flags made Amaya fairly certain that she was, in fact, not.

"How?" Amaya demanded, sounding incredulous now, as the two sprigs of mistletoe trying to push her up on her tippy toes nearly got crushed under her heels in her efforts to fight against them while she tried to wrap her head around this. "How is this a thing that plants want to the point of making it all a hostage situation?"

And... that would be mistletoe, tugging at Fjord's arms, trying to get him to wrap them around Amaya, a feat that he was resisting with an admirable amount of effort, now.

"This just isn't right," he managed, teeth grit. How was he failing strength checks against plants? Why was this a thing? "Honestly, it's none of the plants' damn business, is it?"

"Exactly!" said Amaya, agreeing wholeheartedly, though she made no effort at all to change her own position, because she knew every attempt to fight against it was exactly what had gotten her into her current position, and she was almost worried what might happen if she tried. And it wasn't that she didn't enjoy it, on a certain level, but that wasn't the point! It was the principle of the matter! The audacity of it, the presumptuousness! This mistletoe had clearly been watching too many of those mushy films for their own good, which would be fine if they kept it to themselves, but now they had to go and get innocent bystanders involved.

"Who do they think they are, anyway? We just can't let them get away with this!"

But her ferocity seemed to falter with a worried furrow of her brow. "...Can we?"

After all, if their assumptions were right, all they'd have to do to get out of this tangle was kiss, which, on its own, didn't sound too bad, really. But then the pushy mistletoe would win, and that!...That would just be...inconceivable.

Fjord blinked down at her at that moment's falter, that furrowed brow, that question.

And his brain stalled out for a moment or two in return.

"Uh..." Okay, Fjordie, you could do this. String together multiple thoughts in a row, all related to getting out of this tangle. "... What are our feelings on the matter, exactly?"

He asked. As if he had the faintest clue how he felt on the matter, exactly.

"Our fee--" Ugh, that word! Amaya sucked in a bolstering breath, clearing her throat to practically cough it out. "Feelings on the matter..."

And now she had to think about feelings, in addition to being far too close to Fjord, with kissing on her mind and mistletoe in her hair.

Of course, she wouldn't have to talk about feelings at all if she just boldly went and put an end to it herself.

And she almost did, until her good old dependable friend practicality stepped in to form words with her lips before they managed to form something else. "Lots of work to do," she pointed out. "Not going to get much of it done if we're spending all day like this."

Ahhh, practicality. Good old emotionless reasoning, not an ounce of feeling in it! Perfect! Amaya'd pat her own back for that one if her hands weren't firmly planted on Fjord's chest for the moment.

And that hand was going to be treated to a rising and falling motion for a moment as Fjord pulled in a deep breath, and then slowly exhaled, trying to get his head back on right again.

"That's... not wrong," he allowed. "And we don't seem to be getting any less, ah, entangled."

Not even a little bit, really.

"Not anytime soon, anyway" Amaya agreed, even trying it a little with an experimental lean back, which only got her pushed right into where she'd been, letting out a faint breath of a laugh for the failed attempt. She looked up at Fjord almost apologetically.

"So...." she ventured, "we kiss?"

For the Forge.

Obviously...

Clearly for the Forge!

Clearly.

"I guess we kiss," Fjord replied, along with an awkward answering smile and a moment taken to clear his throat for no apparent reason beyond the fact that making words was apparently difficult for some reason. "It's that or we stand here all day."

Which was... fine. But not terribly productive.

"Right," said Amaya, agreeing again even though no one was going to argue that point. After all, she was a woman of action, standing around doing nothing but feeling Fjord's breaths against her palms all day was a fate far worse than just some little kiss to appease a bunch of insistent flora that could really stand to find a better hobby.

And she hesitated a moment longer, though she didn't know why, and since she didn't think she wanted to know why, she finally just went right for it. Closing her eyes, pushing herself up, her hands sliding a bit up toward his shoulders on their own accord, as she went to plant that kiss on him and get this nonsense over with and put behind them...

Fjord breathed in, leaned down, his hands moving around Amaya's waist and his eyes sliding shut as he pressed his lips against hers.

It... wasn't unpleasant. Not his first kiss, no, but not exactly far from it. He was all too aware that a kiss from him wasn't going to be anything to write home about, chipped bottom teeth and lips that were likely chapped from the weather and--

Well, he was doing his best to not be some horrible disappointment, for all that they were doing this for pragmatism's sake and all. With any luck, that would be enough to appease the plants.

Pragmatism. Yes. You did what you had to do to get the job done, really, and, while this was hardly Amaya's first kiss, either, it was definitely her first kiss involving the unknown expectations of some unexpected, presumably festive instigators. If it lingered a little, it was clearly just trying to be thorough. If her heart was banging in her chest like a drum, it was just anticipation for being freed. If she thought she tasted a hint of the salt of the sea in those chapped lips, her imagination was running away with her, and if her hand started to curl slightly around the back of his head...

...well, that was a good indication it was time to stop, and so she did, pulling back, settling back to her feet, and drawing away slightly with the reluctant uncertainty that went along with not being sure if she could.

Which...turns out...she could. "Well, look at that," she marveled faintly. "It worked."

"Huh," Fjord replied, and that briefest moment of breathlessness was clearly because of the stranglehold the plants had had on him, it couldn't possibly be anything else, "how 'bout that?"

There was another moment's pause before he added, "but if the aim is to get any work at all done today, it probably wouldn't hurt to do that work a little closer to some of the more threatening merchandise."

He'd summon his pact weapon, but then he'd have to clean up the seawater.

And that could be terrible for the other merchandice.

"One step ahead of you, Fjord," said Amaya, even though it wasn't exactly true. It was more like one step behind, because it seemed to take her a second to get her own head back on straight after that whole...ordeal. But once it was, and the mistletoe cleared away, she was on her way to the weapon wall where she pulled down the aforementioned weed whacker, shifting it slightly into her grip with one hand while tapping the blunt(er) end pointedly into the open palm of her other. "I think I'm keeping this guy close at hand for the rest of the day."

And she noted, with no small amount of satisfaction, that a good deal of the mistletoe still hanging around in the rafters seemed to shrink back a bit.

Fjord couldn't help but give a low whistle as he looked that thing over. He'd wondered when he'd gotten the job about what it was, but he hadn't quite figured that was the answer. Really, he probably should have guessed.

"Not a bad idea," he replied, approval in his tone. "Maybe one of these days I'll get you to teach me how to make one of those."

It looked fit to whack more than just weeds, but he couldn't deny it would be effective for its intended purpose, too.

But, of course, it should only be used for its intended purposes and nothing else...

"We'll have to see how you do when we get around to spike work," Amaya said with a faint grin. After all, proper spike usage was crucial when it came to good gardening tools.

"And we'll wait to you finish your first sword before even thinking about that," she added. "Though, really, you're practically there. Just pommel and hilt and that's all she wrote. Onto the next one, maybe this time on your own."

"Maybe I'll try doing it with one of the other variations you told me about," Fjord mused, "now that I know what to look for as I go."

He chuckled a little.

"A couple of swords, some spikes from there?"

It sounded like fun.

"That's a solid plan," Amaya nodded. "Maybe with an axe or two thrown in somewhere in the middle."

If he was sticking around, those were easily the heft of what brought in the monies, swords and axes, so that would be the ones to really get down, she felt.

"I'm interested to see how the next one turns out without me looming over your shoulder the whole time, though."

"Hopefully even without your looming it'll be an improvement on the current one," Fjord replied, smiling crookedly. "Means I'll have learned something, instead of just going through the motions."

Buddy, you had an intelligence of fourteen. You picked this up just fine.

Blackstone Foundry and Forge, Wednesday

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