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Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Friday [03/15].

Before Amaya went and got herself all wrapped up in her next latest and greatest project (already startting to nibble at her brain and her fingertips with excitement for being made), Amaya decided she'd beet reel herself in perhaps just a little with and do something that probably should get done before she ordered a bunch of materials that it turned out she already kind of had.

Inventory.

Desperately needed, too, because she had a pretty bad habit of getting really excited about something, ordering stuff for it, forgetting that she'd ordered it, and then ordering more. Or thinking she had ordered something, and either hadn't actually ordered it or forgotten that she'd ordered it for the one thing and wound up using it for something else. And all that nice organization Fjord had done in the closet was already starting to veer back toward its natural state of ordered chaos. So she was going to take stock, reorganize a little, figure out what she needed, and then probably spend the rest of the day sketching out a design or perhaps doing a little practice work on the fancy filigree she had in mind for the next weapon.

The Forge is open!

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Beau had said she'd stop by and check in with Amaya, and since she'd said it on the radio she figured she had to keep her word on that.

She'd have done that anyway, because this was completely in her own interests. Anyway.

"Amaya, 'sup," she said, looking around at all the weapons on display.

"Beau!" Amaya looked up from a clipboard that had started as a nice, orderly list and had quickly turned into a bit of a mess of notes and diagrams and sketches and ideas as she worked around the shop. "Just the person I've been meaning to start thinking about tracking down! How've you been?"

"You know what? Pretty good, actually," Beau said, and shrugged while shaking her head incredulously. Seriously, it was weird having things go well. "Yeah, I kinda keep planning to come down and check in, and then I get distracted, so y'know."

Amaya grinned just faintly, recognizing a bit of that expression that went along with that shaking head. "Now that's a song I definitely recognize the tune of," she noted. "Distractions around here come up often enough, so we'll get to it before something pop up now: still interested in some of those throwing weapons? I suppose that's the reason you've come around, anyway, though if it's something else, I'd be happy to hear that, too."

"Oh, shit yeah, I'm still interested!" That was emphatic enough without punching your left hand with your right fist three times for emphasis, Beau. "How's that coming along?"

As a big fist-pumper and palm-puncher herself, Amaya could only really appreciate Beau's enthusiasm. Especially when it came to weapons.

"It's coming along great, actually," she said. "Just waiting on one of us to cross each other's path, really, which was just bound to happen, sooner or later, and see exactly what it was you might have in mind before I break out the nice metal I had in mind for your set. Put together some prototypes over here in this case by the counter." She cocked her head that way, waved Beau to follow her as she made her way over to show her what she meant, which would take them over to the little glass case featuring about six different styles of throwing weapons, from knives to stars to darts. "Come have a look, maybe get a little feel for what you might like."

Beau barely waited for the invitation before she started across to the counter, practically bounding over in two leaps. Leaning over to peer into the glass case, she made a noise that was partly a disbelieving laugh and partly a ". . . huh." It was a little bit hard to read the tone of it, really.

At least until Beau looked up, eyes wide with a slightly feral enthusiasm. "No shit, you actually came up with all of these?"

She looked like a kid in a candy store. A sharp, sharp, pointy candy store.

"Not that there's that much to 'em," Amaya shrugged modestly. "The designs are pretty much already there, then it's just a matter of forging 'em, hammering 'em, shaping 'em, sharpenin' 'em, finishin' 'em. Testin' and shinin' and sprucin' 'em up. No point in reinventing the wheel, right?"

Ignoring, of course, that Amaya was definitely someone who would not only love to reinvent the wheel, but like someone who had very much tried several times.

She unlocked the case to open it, then hitched a thumb over her shoulder. "I've got some targets and practice dummies tucked away; lemme pull 'em out for you."

Normally, she'd ask, but Amaya really had a hard time believe Beau'd say no to that offer.

"Not gonna lie, that's kind of turning me on a little bit," Beau said, staring eagerly into the case. Because of course she wasn't going to say no to that offer, really now.

She reached into the case and pulled out a dart and one of the knives, flipping them in her hands to see how she liked the weight and balance.

Well, now, that was a heck of a response that she probably didn't get nearly enough. Amaya snorted, deciding to just skip right over the regular old targets and rolling out a dummy or two.

"Good," she said. "Now I won't feel too bad about charging top coin for 'em."

Not that she would in the first place, really.

"And if those get you going," she added as she set the dummies up, "just wait until you see what I've got planned for the finished product. Those'll really knock your socks off."

Hey, she was a woman who understood the value of her own work, here. And, since she also understood the value of her own life, she waited until she was a good distance away from those dummies again before she added, "Alright, then. Let's see if you can get those suckers to do what you need 'em to do."

It was also the kind of response that Beau probably shouldn't give out so automatically, but it was basically reflex. But hey, that was probably one of the closest things to a straightforward compliment anyone was likely to get out of her, so you're welcome, Amaya!

She started with the knife first and ~~rolled a 21~~ sank it neatly into the dummy's gut. "Oh, fuck yeah!" So . . . probably a safe bet that she liked it. Then, spinning, she sent the dart -- well, that dummy might need an eye patch now, suffice to say.

"I think the darts have a little bit of an edge over the knives so far -- ha, that's funny -- but I really need to try those stars now," Beau called over to her. "I think we have something like these at the m -- uh, the Cobalt Soul, but the design's kinda different."

Honestly, the best compliment for Amaya came not so much in words as it did in simply getting to watch her work get used well, and those test throws provided that plenty. The grin and the light in her eyes as she watched was a proud sort, almost as if she'd done the throwing herself, in a way, and she nodded.

"Yeah, you can get a lot more variety with design with the stars over the knives and the darts," she said. "Those are pretty straight-" Ha! "-foward, but the stars, you can do all sorts of interesting things with those, which is why I think they tend to be a favorite of mine, and why I got Fjord started on learning those first, too. So we'll have plenty of those on hand...."

Her head tilted a little, though, in interest. "Cobalt Soul? That some sort of group or something where you're from?"

And they had a different design, you saaay? It was difficult for Amaya to not want to immediately know everything about said designs, how it was different, what was the weight, which design was ultimately better, how could she make hers better if it wound up being theirs?

"I mean, they're real basic," Beau said, spinning one of the stars between her fingers. "Just -- kinda more like sharp, extra-pointy triangles? I mean, they work, they're just not as cool. Not really common outside of there, though."

She let the star fly, and she'd been meaning to try for some kind of disarming hit to the dummy's elbow but she'd settle for one that took a chunk out of its shoulder. It still flew beautifully, that was the point.

Right, Amaya'd asked about the Cobalt Soul. Not that Beau thought anyone around here would know what it was, but she was going to carefully skirt around the edges of the answer anyway.

"Yeah, they're kind of . . . that's where I learned to fight," she said, offhandedly.

Basic and not as cool settled Amaya's competitive spirit well enough; those were words that were rarely attributed to any Blackstone steel she typically sent off into the world, and she nodded, feeling she could visualize them fairly well, too.

Then she nodded at the dummy. "Seems they taught you pretty well, too," she noted, "as far as I can see so far."

"Yeah, I guess they did," Beau allowed, nodding; no point in denying that she'd learned a lot from the monks even if most of them hadn't liked her much if at all by the time she left. "Could be better, but I'm working on that."

"Could always be better," Amaya mused with an encouraging pump of a fist. "Could be the greatest warrior the land has ever seen, and I'd bet there'd still be plenty of room for improvement. A lot of people don't seem to realize that, so, as long as you keep working on it, you'll always be in pretty good shape."

"That's the plan," agreed Beau just before she threw a couple more of the stars at the dummy -- both at once, just to see how well she could do that. One was a solid hit, but the second just glanced off the dummy and skittered away across the floor. "Just wish there was more shit to fight around here."

And statements like that, Beau, were exactly why Amaya, though she didn't know hardly anything about you, knew she at least liked you.

"Things have been pretty quiet around here since the snowmonsters," Amaya noted, after a moment to think it over. "Lots of people 'round here will tell you that likely means there's something big on the way; these things come in waves, they say. People certainly prep for it like they're expecting somethng, anyway, but everything seemed pretty quiet before then, too. Usually, I hate that. Quiet towns don't pay the bills, but this place still has no shortage of hopefuls hankering for something to show up, eager to get a slice of it. That I can get behind."

Beau huffed a soft, only half sarcastic laugh, and headed over to retrieve all the sharp pointy things currently embedded in the dummy for a second test round.

"I did kind of wonder how good this place was for a business like yours. The snow monsters came and I was like, 'okay, yeah, I can see it' and then it was pretty quiet after that." She shrugged and held up one of the throwing stars, as well as the darts. "So far, I think these kinda feel a little better than the others, by the way. Anyway, guess it can't hurt to, you know, not get complacent and then blindsided by some really big shitstorm."

The faint little grin on Amaya's face when Beau held up the stars may have been an indication that she was sort of hoping she'd go with those, but she had been on a pretty big (...literally!) shuriken phase lately, anyway.

"You know," she said, "it's funny. Compared to what I did in Daventry, which was mostly restocking the guard and crumbling trees, business here is booming. Even when I think I'm about ready to hit a slow patch where I might need to start thinking of green pastures, some new little job comes in and keeps me floating on. And even in the downtime, I've got plenty of side projects I keep giving myself to keep myself from getting bored. All in all, it's a great place for a shop, I could see myself staying quite a while, while Daventry, even with all its dragons and goblins, wetzel wolves and snarling snarlaxes, I could barely make ends meet. I think the key, really, is the people around here actually want to fight; they've got the right spirit in 'em, like yourself. Everyone back there any more just..." She shook her head a little sadly, "can't be bothered anymore. To caught up in Rule This and Addendum That. Place had gone downhill ever since the queen died; it's probably a good thing I got out while the gettin' out was still good."

Edited 2019-03-16 22:33 (UTC)

"It's kind of my thing, you know?" That was an understatement, but Beau wasn't about to wax rhapsodic about how being in the middle of a brawl was when she felt most alive.

Deflecting the conversation to something else, though, she could do.

"That sounds kind of boring," she said, making a face. "Kinda like -- what, getting bogged down in bureaucracy or something like that?"

"Something like that exactly," Amaya confrimed with a nod before making a face of her own. "I can't stand it. Just a whole bunch of talking about doing something...without actually doing something. At least they still have the annual Tournament of Hopeful Knights."

She gained a grin here, her voice going a bit eager. "Used to be my favorite time of year Fire-eyed new recruits, the clanks and clinks of armor clashing, and the action...the very finest. I love it all..."

But she finished with a sigh, shaking her head, folding her arms in front of her. "But some people in that town, they started complaining about the barbaric events, but it was a tradition I was always proud to be a part of. Now there's talk of getting rid of the best even, the Hunt for the Eye of a Hideous Beast. Now you tell me, Beau, what's the point of even competing for knighthood when you can't go after the biggest, scariest beast you can find, even if it means certain death?"

"That sounds awesome," said Beau, who had been getting visibly more and more into the description as it went on. "I'd totally do that, except I think knighthood wouldn't be a good look on me."

In part because she had that unarmored defense bonus as a monk.

"Is it just because it's too violent for them that they want to get rid of it?" she asked. "Or like, I don't know, maybe they're starting to run low on hideous beasts?"

"Definitely no shortages on hideous beasts," Amaya grinned faintly, "even with me out of their hair. So that leaves the first one, and there's no doubt about it there. They're getting soft, the whole lot of 'em. I hear even the bridge trolls are taking about unionizing. Because that's what the world needs more of. More rules and regulations, more meetings where the only thing that gets done is pattin' yourselves on the back for...having a meeting. And maybe for planning the next."

"I mean . . ." Beau thought about that and then shrugged, deciding she didn't have any particularly strong opinions one way or another on the subject. "Kind of ironic that you ended up doing better in this weird-ass place than there, but good job, I guess?"

"It has worked out, in the end," Amaya allowed, "better than I thought it would. But, let me tell you, it's been a journey getting here. Let me give you some advice, Beau, and that you can have for free. If a gnome ever tells you he's got a hot deal on some nice property that sounds too good to be true? You'd better believe, as right as rain, it is."

Don't mind Beau's eyebrows slowly twitching upward there.

"I'll keep that one in mind," she said, retreating back to a good throwing distance and winging two of the stars in rapid succession at the dummy. Two nice solid hits, maybe not placed quite as precisely as she would have wanted, but they would have hurt. "That how you ended up here? Sounds like maybe it didn't work out too badly for you in the end."

"It didn't," Amaya agreed stoutly, after a nod of admiration for the consistency in Beau's hits. She'd always feel good when a customer left her with a dummy needing a little bit of mending attention, after all. "But if you see a little gnome running around in shorts much too short for anyone, don't you go around telling him that, or else I'll never hear the end of it."

Beau took about a half second to attempt to picture that before deciding, emphatically, that she didn't want to and shaking her head hard to dispel the image.

Also, hurling the dart with a surprising amount of force so that it embedded itself all the way into the dummy's chest.

"I kind of don't really want to see that, but don't worry. I can keep a secret."

The knives were next, and from the slight furrow to her brow she wasn't as happy with the feel of those.

"Yeah, I think I'm super into the stars. And the darts. The knives are pretty dope too, but they might not really be my thing as much."

Well. It would be interesting to see how easy that could be to get out.

"I was hoping you might say that," Amaya admitted, grinning. "They definitely seemed the most natural for you, though did a fine job with all of them. Perhaps we can make you up a set with both, then?"

"That'd be perfect," Beau said, so enthusiastically that it didn't even sound like there was some kind of veiled insult there. "Hitting things is really more my preference, but there's a whole reach issue that comes up sometimes too, you know?"

Ah, Beau. You really were a kindred, punchy spirit, weren't you?

"Well, these will help cover you on the while reach issue until you get close enough for the punching," Amaya grinned faintly. "I'll get started on a set for you right away; the steel I wanted to use specifically for them arrived a bit ago, just waiting to find out what it needs to be. Should probably have then done...oh, end of the week after next, assuming nothing too big or distracting pops up."

...little did she know...

...she hated to miss a deadline, even self-imposed, but there was little she was going to be able to do about that when the time came.

She was a long way off yet from getting the cool lightning gloves, so yeah.

"Fuckin' sweet," Beau said with a slightly unsettling grin. "Do I owe you now or later?"

Good thing Beau was totally going to understand why that projection wasn't going to pan out, huh?

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Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Friday [03/15].

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