fandomtownies | Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Saturday [11/06].

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Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Saturday [11/06].

Even with being substitute to two additional classes this week, Amaya had not let herself slack on any of her projects, and, in fact, that extra time out of her schedule only served to make her that much more industrious. The silverware set for Dr. Lecter was all cut and polished and shiny and merely waiting for that nice additional bonus of the display box she had Dwight working on, and she'd not only gotten one mask for Stark finished up and ready to go, but a second one, as well, this one with a little additional detailing with a second metal as an accent and some filigree etched in, in the event that maybe be might like something a bit fancier on occasion, and just to prove that she wasn't out to just wring more money out of him, she fully planned to offer the second mask ip at a half-off discount. You couldn't beat a deal like that, right?

So with all of that mostly settled, Amaya was taking this Saturday for herself, to go back to her roots and the stuff that really kept her bellows pumping, because she'd been feeling she'd been spending a bit too much time on alternate projects. So today she was hard at work between forge and anvil, pounding away at a nice new big old sword to go on the weapons wall....or hopefully in someone's arsenal at some point!

The Forge is open!

[[ though I may or may not get eaten by work. Only time shall tell! ]]

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The cooler weather was well upon then that morning. Dwight had forgone his morning run in favor of a little more time in the shop finishing up the box for Amaya. And do there he was, poking his head into the shop and calling out.

"Hey Amaya, got a few minutes? I have something I think you will want to see!"

"Oh, I think I might be able to find a spare minute or two lying around here somewhere!" Amaya remarked, delivering one more firm and steady blow to the steel, holding it up for inspection, and figured it was good timing for a moment's break, quenched it in the bucket beside the anvil with that ever-satisfying tssss, and then nodding approvingly as the pulled it out. Wiped the blade off and set it aside and turned her attention back toward the door.

"Come on in, Dwight, let's see what you've got."

Dwight watched as Amaya finished up, admiring not just the skill she showed with the metal work but also noting, not fir the first time either, that the last thing he would ever want to do was get on Amaya's bad side. He had a feeling he would come out looking about as beaten as that piece of steel currently did.

"Finished the box for Dr. Lecter's silverware set. Wanted to bring it by for you to look at and give your final approval of" Dwight said as he put the bag he had been carrying down on the work bench and carefully pulled out the intricately carved box and set it down for Amaya to look at.

And when she got a look at that handiwork, Amaya could only let out a long, impressed whistle, before going to pick it up and give it a good closer inspection.

"Well, I'd say the final verdict is all in the good doctor's hands, when you get right down to it," Amaya noted, "but if you ask me, I'd say you seem to have quite the way with working a box!"

....

No, she didn't hear it.

"But the real test," she said, setting the box back down and already heading over to the counter to get the silverware tucked safely underneath it, "is in seeing how the final product'll fit."

Dwight watched Amaya inspect the box and gave a bit of a grin at her reaction. He knew he was more than halfway decent at what he did, but it always felt good to see people's reactions.

"Well, as long as you didn't drastically stray from the prototypes you gave me, they should fit perfectly. Spent a lot of time getting the inlay right and getting the velvet lining down." Dwight flipped open the box. "I decided to go with the royal blue. Thought it would help accentuate the silver and make everything pop nicely."

"That is a good choice!" Amaya agreed, with an approving look over the inlay, before carefully setting down the silverware, wrapped for the time being in a soft cloth that she began to roll out to reveal all the shiny pieces of cutlery within. And with the whole set laid out in front of her, she wasted no time in starting to set them into notches and spaces.

"Like a glove," she whistled again. "Now that is a good fit!"

Dwight looked down at the box with the shiny beautiful silverware finally in place and let out the breath he didn't realize he had been holding. It all fit perfectly. He was pretty sure it would but... ya know... Until you see it for yourself there's always that hidden fear.

But it all fit perfectly and it looked amazing, if he did say so himself. He ran his fingers along one of the pieces, tracking the design on the handle and looked over at Amaya.

"They turned out great. Absolutely beautiful, Amaya! I am sure Dr. Lecter will get a lot of great uses out of these!"

"He'll never want to work with us again," Amaya stated, stepping back to admire the whole set laid out like that for herself, then grinned over at Dwight. "People'll be so distracted by the fine silverware and such a stately, they'll barely even notice the food!"

"Well at least not on dining sets" Dwight said with a chuckle. "Though, from what I have heard and seen first hand, I am sure Dr. Lecter's food will more than outshine our efforts here. He is a bit of a legend here it seems when it comes to the fine dining."

Dwight turned back to admire the complete set again and nodded slowly. "But dang it all, we did do good didn't we? Have you set up a time yet for him to come by and see your finished set?"

"...meh," said Amaya, with a shrug, but whether that was meant to be a comment on Dr. Lecter's culinary machinations or just fancy food in general was really anyone's guess.

Although, for all the times he'd done her a solid with meats on sticks, one could put a pretty good bet on the latter .

"And not yet," she said, "but I'll probably give him a call later today now that we've got a full product to show off. The case I'm hoping will be a nice surprise; we hadn't really discussed anything to keep 'em in, but that's just the Blackstone way, always give 'em a little more than what they came in for."

Sometimes it came in the form of nice boxes, other times extra spikes. Not knowing which way it'll go was half the fun!

"Well, you will have to let me know what he thinks' Dwight said enthusiastically. Not that he was overly worried about it, bit this was the first big project he had taken on in some time. So he was equal parts nervous and excited to see what kind of reception his work got. "And glad I could help ya with this project. I think we make a pretty good team."

"You know what?" asked Amaya, grinning a little as she admired the whole set-up a little bit herself. "I think you might be right."

Her grin sharpened slightly, though, as she glanced sideways over to him and quirked her eyebrow.

"If the praise ain't nothing but glowing, though," she warned him, "I'm blaming it on the box."

"You know what? That's fair" Dwight conceded with a slight chuckle. "Your work is absolutely stunning so there's bound to be no issues there. Though I have to say... this is by far one of the most intricate pieces I have carved... ever... I think."

Dwight glanced over at Amaya and gave her a smirk of his own.

"So, ya think it's good enough to secure a spot or two on that Etsy sop of yours for a few similar pieces in the near future?"

"If you think you're up to it," Amaya assured him with a nod. "I can guarantee it. Now that I've seen what you're capable of, I'm gonna expect you to keep up on the quality, you know."

The teasing timbre of her voice, though, feel away into something a bit soften and more genuine, though, as she added, "It's some truly fine work you've done, Dwight. Not only in the work that obviously went into it, but you managed to fit the specs to a T, and that's nothing to shake a spoon...or fancy salad fork...at."

Was that a tinge a red flush passing over Dwight's cheeks. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't (it totally was). But he wasn't going to make a big deal of it. And he certainly wasn't going to outwardly acknowledge that twinge of something he felt at hearing that level of praise for something. It had been a while and it did feel good to get that hard work and extra effort recognized. So, sorry Amaya, he was just going to stand there and bask in that feeling for a moment.

Soon enough though Dwight shook his head and gave a slight smile. "Thanks" he managed, hopefully without sounding too ridiculous as he did. "Now that I know I still got it in me, I think there will be several more of these in the work very soon. Of course the nicest ones will be for your shop. I'll keep the more basic ones at my place. How's that sound?"

It would have been very rude of Stark not to show up when there was a mask waiting for him. He rarely wanted to be rude. He was going to be impressed that a second mask existed and more impressed once he saw it.

"Hello, Amaya," he said as he walked in, smiling. It was warm inside the Forge and he was in a good mood from yesterday. Of course he was smiling. He'd smile more at the masks, probably.

"Ah, Stark!" Amaya looked up from her work for a moment before sending the hammer down on the blade she was working on. She didn't seem to miss a strike all while she spoke. "Just the man I was thinking of tracking down! You saved me at least a little bit of extra walking!"

Since he was pretty easy to find in the Perk or J,GoB, it seemed, she hadn't been too worried about it at all.

"Give me just a moment longer with this," she said, with another steady strike, "and I'll be right with you! I've actually got for you a little surprise!"

Stark was a regular visitor to both of those establishments, it was true. That did make him fairly easy to find. He might even stop off at one or the other today before heading back to the apartment building.

"I'm in no hurry," he told Amaya. "I can wait." He almost asked what sort of surprise but that would rather defeat the purpose of a surprise so he managed to refrain. For now.

Amaya gave the sword-in-formation two more good hits, inspected the results, then delivered two more before finally quenching it in the bucket to her side, wiping it off, and setting it aside with her hammer.

"Right, then," she said, with a firm nod and a tig at her gloves. "First things first," and she moved over to the counter so she could pull out a bundle wrapped in cloth, which was quickly revealed to be the mask. "Your back-up mask," she said, handing it over, "or, if you don't mind me saying so, maybe your default, I'd say that one there's been through enough to be retired to back-up. Go on and give it a try, make sure we got the fit right, because if not, then the second part's going to be a bit moot right off the bat."

"I'm used to this one," Stark said, just a touch defensively, reaching a hand up to touch the mask in question. It had been through a lot, and so had he, and there were plenty of visible marks to show that. "But this looks good. I could think about it." Put it into regular mask rotation, at least.

His hand had already moved to the buckle at his neck to undo it so he could remove it and carefully lay it on the counter before picking up the new one.

"What do you think?" he asked, settling it into place. "It feels fine, I think. Different. But fine."

"Well," said Amaya, moving around the counter to get a better inspection of ot from a few different angles, "I'm no expert on masks, but I'd say that looks like a mighty fine fit. But," she circled back around to the counter and pulled out a mirror, brushed some dust off the surface, and handed that over next, "don't just take my word for it."

Stark nodded taking the mirror in his left hand and tracing the edges of this new mask with his right.

"It looks right," he said, turning his head and then moving the mirror to try and get a better look. The perils of having only one eye. "Thank you. I'll have to show Faye."

Amaya nodded. "Certainly no light leakage that I can see from here, either," she added. "And, it that one there's a good fit, then I reckon this one--"

Always a sucker for a reveal, Amaya grabbed the fancier mask from below the counter as well and unwrapped it from its cloth.

"--will just as well!"

"No leaking," Stark confirmed. "I'd feel it...oh."

He put the mirror down, carefully, before reaching for the fancy mask. "Oh. Amaya. That's...It's lovely."

Don't mind if Amaya did a little glowing of her own, with a reaction like that.

"Figured I might as well," she explained, once a good preening was out of the way, "since I had the mold and the time and what not. I don't think you could really have too many masks," said the woman with maybe all of five outfits, and that was including a swimsuit, "and there's enough fancy stuff going around here that it won't just completely collect dust. 50% off the asking price, too, if you're interested, but no worries of you're not. I'm sure I can find a discerning buyer somewhere down the line for it."

"Of course I'm interested," Stark said quickly. Of course he was! It was for him and it was lovely.

He was tracing the filigree with one fingertip as he spoke. "I've never had more than one before. Definitely never had one that was pretty. Never any reason for it but this is... it's perfect."

"It's a good thing that mask is for you and not me, then," Amaya noted. "You keep going on like that, my head just might get too big to actually fit it!"

A beat.

"But since we don't have to worry about that, please, go on."

Never let it be said that Amaya lacked in confidence.

Well, in certain things, anyway.

"Honestly, though, I really enjoyed working on the first one, and it didn't take too much, so I just thought it would be a bit fun, see what I could do with another one. The mold we made sort of felt like a blank canvas, just waiting to be filled in with something interesting."

Just be glad she went with fancy filigree and contrasting, Stark, instead of he go-to spikes.

Stark would have been much less receptive to a spikey mask. He didn't want to look frightening and he wasn't terribly fond of the ~~name~~ word Spike at this time.

"I meant all of it," he said, looking back up at her, still running a finger over the mask. "I'll have to wear it to something special." New Year's maybe? Or a Christmas party if one of the plainer masks wasn't bedazzled for either occasion.

"That was the idea," Amaya agreed, with a pleased-as-punch sort of grin. "You'll cut a fine figure in it, Stark, I'm sure of it."

Stark returned the grin, reaching up to swap out the first mask for the second. "I ought to try it, just to make sure," he said. Of course it was going to be fine if the first one was but he did want to check. Just to be sure.

"Thank you," he added. "I wouldn't have thought to ask for anything like this." It had taken over a year to see if she could make a plain mask!

Later in the day, Hannibal dropped in to see how his silverware was going. "Good afternoon, Amaya. How are you?"

Amaya head went up first to see who'd come into the shop next, then her eyebrows went up, and then her eyes.

"Honestly?" she said, looking back to Hannibal. "Kinda wondering if some sorta beacon or something's gone off over the shop because it's the darndest thing, you're the second person today who's just come in right in the nick of time. I was just thinking of giving you a ring once I finished up on this," the hammer in one hand gestured to the sword-in-progress in the other, "thing here."

Hannibal smiled. "My husband was the psychic one, I'm afraid. Please, don't let me interrupt you. I will wait until you're finished."

"Eh," Amaya shrugged, giving the already cooling steel a glance-over and giving a faint shrug. "It's just an extra piece anyway, and that's the beautiful thing about steel. Sometimes, it's all about getting just the right timing on it, other times, you can just heat it up again and start over."

So the hammer and the sword both went down on the anvil and Amaya took a moment to wipe her gloves, adjust them, before giving Hannibal a little pump of her fist and headed over to the counter. "I've got some news for you, Doctor, and I'll give you three guesses for what it pertains to, but the first two don't count."

"Either my silverware is ready, you've decided to do more work on it, or you've got some really lovely knives and skewers for me," Hannibal said.

"Oooh, I do kind of wish it was that last one," Amaya admitted, now that it was said and she was already thinking of what she could do with some skewers, "but, I guess there'll be plenty of time for that coming up here soon, because..."

She reached under the counter to grab the box Dwight had brought in earlier, set it (carefully! as nice as a big dramatic thump would have been!) on the counter, and opened it up to showcase all the silverware pieces nestled so neatly inside with the royal blue velvet lining.

"I present to you a set fit for even the finest dining halls across any land!"

A pause. Because, for all the earlier pride and compliments bandied about, Amaya had dealt with more than enough high-falutin clients to know that sometimes her own idea of what was good and fancy didn't always quite...well...match theirs.

"Pending approval," she added, "of course."

Hannibal smiled as he picked up one of the forks, running his hands over it and turning it to catch the forge's light. "I would say that you have outdone yourself, but I am well aware of your level of talent. They are beautiful." He set down the fork and picked up a spoon. "As is the box, which I was not expecting. You're not taking on woodwork?"

Today was turning out to be very good for Amaya's ego.

Amaya's ego didn't really need it, but Amaya's ego would take it, all the same, and she lifted her chin and beamed happily at the approval.

"The box, I figured, would be a nice little surprise," she explained, "a bit of a bonus, and a collaborative effort between my metal work and the fine woodworking of Dwight over at the Fix & Clean. We've joined forces on a few other projects I've been working on, and I figured, if you're going to have this here nice set of cutlery, well, why not have something nice to keep them in? And, as a result, you've got yourself a bonafide Fandom Island orginal, not to be found anywhere else!"

"I do indeed," Hannibal said. He smiled. "In addition to payment, will you and Dwight both visit me to make first use of these? No fancy dress required, and I promise plenty of meat."

"Ah," said Amaya, as if about to ask a truly all-important question, "but will any of those meats be on sticks?"

She was kidding, of course. They didn't have to be on sticks. That kind of defeated the point of the silverware, now, didn't it?

"And I can't speak for Dwight, obviously, but for myself, I can tell you I'd be honored to take up the invite."

"They can be cooked that way," Hannibal said, amused. "Although that also brings up the question if you'd like to make me some wonderful skewers and beautiful knives next."

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Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Saturday [11/06].

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