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Caritas, Friday Evening

Fjord was at work today, absolutely.

Fjord was maybe the tiniest bit tired today, however. Not tackling his job with anything that particularly resembled finesse or enthusiasm, he was here to pour drinks and kill time, and looking up with just the slightest bit of wariness in his eye every time somebody walked through the door.

Which would be an interesting counterpoint to the way Tino was mixing drinks while wearing a pair of plush rabbit ears on his head, but there you have it.

[OOC: Open!]

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As a former rabbit herself, Amaya was mildly offended.

And maybe a touch concerned about the wariness she was sensing as she came in, but that could be all too easily attributed to the frequent offence behind the bar that didn't involve a silent J.

"'Evening, Fjord," she nodded as she settled in at the bar. "How's it treatin' you this time around?"

"Evenin', Amaya," Fjord replied, nodding her way and already reaching to pour her usual ale. "So far, so good. We'll see how the night goes."

He would... probably not end in the duck pond again tonight?

That was the hope, anyway.

"And yourself? Keeping busy, I trust?"

"Only way to be, really," Amaya said with a faint grin. "Got started on that special steel treatment today, now that Beau's set is pretty much complete. If you catch her before I do," which was more than likely, "and want to pass on that they're ready whenever she wants to pick 'em up, I'd appreciate it. Meanwhile, my day's been filled with nothing but hammering and forging and cutting, and I'm looking forward to feeling every second of it all over again in the morning."

Because that was when you really knew you'd had one hell of a productive day.

"I'll pass on the message," Fjord promised, nodding and sliding her ale her way. "And hell, that sounds like a damn fine day. Lookin' forward to seeing what it is you make."

"I'm looking forward to showing you," Amaya admitted with no small amount of pride. "Been a long time since I really carved out a good chunk of time to work on some patterned steel, and it's already off to a real good start."

"Well, it isn't like the island's been lettin' us have much of it," Fjord noted, frowning a little.

And then pausing. And then sighing a little.

"Hey, Amaya? I don't wanna get into anything resembling feelings," because fuck no, "but you mind if I ask just one thing about that kid last weekend? Tryin' to get a handle on some shit."

The grimace on Amaya's face over the F-bomb was immediate. About the kid, no less.

Luckily, she'd just been handed an ale.

That ale didn't stand a chance, but by the time Amaya set that now-empty glass down, she figured she'd bolstered herself enough to to force out an "If you must."

Hopefully not before you refilled that glass, though, Fjord.

Fjord could at least take a hint. He smiled apologetically, reaching for the glass and topping it up without missing a beat.

"Kid seemed to have his shit together, right? I mean. Fed and watered, head screwed on right?" A pause. "Not neglected."

He held up his hands.

"Just the answer, then we don't gotta talk about it any more than that. Hell, you can tell me to shut the hell up right now if you'd rather."

Amaya definitely wouldn't go that far--the man was curious, couldn't really blame him for that. But she definitely wasn't going to delve any deeper into any of this than she had to if she could help it. And she wasn't going to just polish off another glass just like that again, but she was going to add a pretty big swig while she thought about just how to answer.

Not that this one was that difficult, particularly.

"Fed, watered," Amaya confirmed, "head screwed on straight. Made it far as he did without any issues that I could see," she'd be the first to admit she'd probably miss 'em even if they bit her right in the nose, though, "managed to survive the weekend, despite his sister's best efforts....overall, seems like a pretty smart, decent, hard-working young lad."

Somehow

Fjord chewed on that for a moment, looking up toward the ceiling. Really turning all of that over in his head. And then nodding, satisfied. Maybe in the now, he was nobody who should ever be entrusted with the caretaking of children.

Didn't make him a bad person.

"Good to hear," he settled on. And then, for good measure, added a gruff, "Thanks."

Amaya nodded, perhaps a bit more stiffly than usual. "Glad to help," she said, and went in for another gulp.

"Anything else?" she asked, hoping not, but if there was, she'd rather get it done and over with while she was ready for it rather than wind up smacked by it later.

"Nothin' else," Fjord replied, shaking his head. "Now I know, I can get on my life, get back to pretending that never happened."

He paused a moment.

"Next time, if there ever is a next time, maybe I'll take a stab at takin' him off your hands for a while. Not leave you with all the work."

"Next time," said Amaya, with the miserable assurance of someone who was pretty sure there would be a next time, since she'd already got herself a recurring characters, "you might have to. I might happen to find myself conveniently out of town that weekend."

She shrugged. "Nothing to worry about, though," she said. "He was plenty old enough that it didn't really matter much, could handle himself well enough on his own. Better you'd put in the time with the littler one who might need it more."

Besides, if she was completely honest, she wouldn't know what to do with the help. Two parents in a household just seemed downright fussy, in her experience...

That would be two more than he'd ever had.

"Didn't do a hell of a lot of that, either," Fjord noted. "Fenris seemed to have it handled, though."

"Sure did," Amaya agreed. Awkwardly. Thinking that if she was going for reassuring with that one, she'd definitely missed the mark. But what did anyone expect? Feeeeeelings, and all that. Not really her forte.

She was making excellent work out of that ale, though.

"So!" It managed to somehow get choked out as both too bright and too brusque, as Amaya set down her mostly empty glass again. "What've you got in mind for teaching over the summer?"

Fjord shook his head a little.

"Won't be," he replied, happy enough to leave that topic behind in favor of something a little less raw. "Last class went well enough, but I, ah, I don't think teaching's really for me."

"Nothing wrong with that," Amaya offered, relieved that she could sound reassuring on at least that. "The important thing is that you gave it a try. But you know what they say. Jack of all trades, master of none, and I've got a vested interest in making sure you manage to master at least one."

"Couldn't have asked for a better teacher," Fjord replied, smiling a closed-lipped smile. Little bit more careful about the tusk thing since last week about this time. He knew he couldn't keep them hidden forever, but, hell, until his head was on right about himself, he was going to be faintly more reserved for a while. "While I'm swingin' a hammer, it's almost as satisfyin' as bein' on the sea."

Almost. It could never really take the place of, but at least it kept him too occupied to miss it, and it was productive, at that.

"Well," said Amaya, smirking faintly, "you could certainly ask for a better one, but I'm sure you're not very likely to find one."

Coming from Fjord, though, that felt like mighty high praise. The kind that, if she weren't careful, might just start trying to make its way straight to her...already perfectly robust sense of pride.

"I'm pretty sure having a good, competent student's a good portion of the equation, too, though."

"Probably can't hurt," Fjord replied, and now that grin did show off a little tusk, in spite of himself. "I've got an interest in it and my work ethic ain't half bad. That's probably no small part of it."

"And," Amaya added, taking a moment to look particularly thoughtful about it, "you can hit things. That's half the job, right there."

"Been swingin' a sword for years," Fjord noted, smiling crookedly. "Hammer's not all that different, and it's got the added bonus of havin' somethin' to show for it besides a bloody mess."

"Yeah," Amaya snorted a laugh. "You wind up with a bloody mess on this side of things, then that's a pretty good indication you've done something wrong."

"Fjord," Jack greeted, plopping her ass on her favorite bar seat and just sort of slumping, "If anything really fucking weird happens this weekend, I'm running through the nearest fucking portal at speed. That last one was creepy as fuck."

"Something horribly wrong," Fjord chuckled. "Still, either way, I get to work with swords. Seems like a win to me."

Hexblade warlock bias.

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Caritas, Friday Evening

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