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Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Friday [11/26].

Even Amaya Blackstone had to fight a little bit to get back the ensuing food coma from having eagerly stuffed herself to near bursting yesterday (all in the spirit of the holiday, of course!), but she managed to convince herself to head on down to the shop to work it off. The bed project from Billy had been a pretty swift job; with the cost they were working with, it was a pretty simple weld job, for the most part, which was kind of nice, she didn't get to pull out the good old welding equipment very often, and she'd put a few final decorative touches on it (not spikes, even if the thought was a bit tempting. But even she would admit that spikes on a bedframe was just asking for a whole mess of pokey trouble), shot off a message to let him know it was pretty much finished and ready whenvever he wanted to figure out how to actually get the thing to the apartment, and then considered what to tackle next.

It was about that time that a package showed up for her, which was a little surprising. She wasn't expecting anything and it was much lighter than anything she'd usually order for supplies and the like. She gave it a cautious shake and listened for any sort of suggestion of a trap inside (one could never be too careful, with mysterious packages!), and then, figuring it seemed safe enough, went 'round to the counter to grab a knife to help her open it.

...to reveal a large stuffed lobster.

To say that this revelation was a bit....confusing for Amaya was a bit of an understatement. She took a moment to check to see that the package went to the right person, but, no, it was very definitely clearly meant for her, not something that should have gone to Rosa instead, which just confounded her even more, because who would be sending her a lobster? Sure, it might be someone who knew about Dave and Diane, or maybe it was intended for them, somehow? Who would be sending her lobsters a lobster? And the only other context she even had for anyone sending lobsters was mired in the flirting revenege shenanigans between Miguel and Rosa during that Japan trip, and...well! She certainly wasn't going to approve of it if it turned out that sending lobsters did have a broader romantic connotation that she'd otherwise not known of. Because that would just be...perposterous! Someone! Send her a lobster on that pretense! Not on her watch!

Still, it was kind of cute, really. Hard not to appreciate a creature that came equipped with its very own armor, even if this was a rather soft and squishy version.

The Forge is open!

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Dwight had already been out and about for a bit that morning taking care of some errands and work set up he needed to do at the shop. He figured it had been long enough that Amaya was well likely up and about already and decided to swing by. Because actually, there was something really important he needed to discuss with her.

"Good morning Amaya" he greeted with a grin as he walked into the shop. "How's the morning work going so far?" Dwight glanced around and saw the bed frame sitting across the way. "Seems like you have been productive so far."

It was rare that someone would wander in the shop while Amaya was not distracted by work at the forge or at the anvil; it was even rarer that someone would wander in the shop while Amaya was distracted by a plush lobster that may or may not have romantic implications instead.

And lest she be caught lobster-handed, she looked up, somewhat startled, had a small crisis of what exactly to do with said lobster before deciding to apparently just toss it over her shoulder as if to remove it from the scene entirely, shove the box behind something else on the counter to further dissemble any potential evidence to the matter, and then turned her attention promptly and firmly to the task at hand, a task that clearly did not involve any lobsters!

"Dwight! Good morning! Well, you know me," here she gave a hearty chuckle, clearly not at all hiding anything suspicious and crustaceous, nope! Nothing to see here!, "if it's not productive, then what's even the point? Good to see you're still mobile after that feast the good doctor sprung on us all yesterday!"

Dwight watched the Lobster as it flew the short distance before landing safely on the table behind Amaya. He breathed a slight sigh of relief though he also felt a twinge of concern.... this conversation was not going to be going as he expected most likely.

"Yeah finally feeling conscious enough to be out and about" Dwight said with a chuckle, bringing his attention back to Amaya for a moment. "Can't take too much time off ya know. Thanksgiving feast yesterday and then a nice long road trip with Miguel before that. Can't let myself get too rusty."

His eyes shifted back to the lobster as it sat on the table somewhat precariously behind her.

"Seems like you have had an interesting morning so far..."

"Ohhhh," said Amaya, drawing it out a little as she promptly told herself that clearly, that wandering gaze that Dwight seemed to have on him that morning was just another extension of the whole thing that seemed to make it look like he was winking on occasion, and, really, she needed to find a nice way to gently suggest that he go have someone look at that before it was too late, "well, certainly nothing to write home about!

"Unlike," she added, quick to jump on any topic that she could only assume had nothing to do with her morning, "this road trip of yours! How'd that all go? Let's hear more about that!"

Dwight gave Amaya a considering look and then a smirk.

"Miguel and I headed out for a few days. Checked out some good food, including a few offerings on tasty sticks" he added with that aforementioned wink. "Hit up a really cool Ropes Training Course, a few other things here and there, and... spent an entire day at a really cool local fall fair and carnival that we stumbled upon."

Ya know, carnivals. Those places with games and prizes that usually take on cute and over-the-top toy prizes?

"Between Miguel and I, we cleaned up pretty well- the poor carnies didn't quite know what to do with us as we won basically every game we tried. It was a really good time. Nice break from all the island shenanigans."

Amaya shook her head faintly, knowing there was no way any friend of hers would dare to besmirch to good name of foods-on-sticks with something like a wink, and wondered if maybe, especially with the next holiday heading their way, she should find a good set of work goggles for the poor man, because clearly he didn't have proper protective equipment over in his shop if he'd gone and developed a twitch in his eye like that. And one of the things she always emphasized in her classes was safety first! Really, you'd think he would know better!

But, putting that aside for now, she had to grin a little at the rest of the report. "Basically every game?" she asked. "Between the two of you, I can't say that's much of a surprise, but that does make me mighty curious about which games managed to best you instead."

"Ah, it was more so the few games we didn't try were the ones we didn't win" Dwight said with a smirk. "We wanted to be able to enjoy our time, not get chased out right away" he reasons with a chuckle.

"We did do a number on them though. Gave away quite a few of the prizes we won to kids who were there. Even won and gave away a goldfish from one of the games. Miguel kept a huge pink dog that he's going to give Rosa whenever she gets back. I kept... a few of the ones I won too."

Dwight resisted the urge to glance over at the table to make sure the lobster hadn't toppled off the edge yet. You know... the stuffed lobster? The one that looked an awful lot like the kind of thing you would see at a fair? Adorable but also totally ridiculous at the same time? That lobster?

"It was a lot of fun, make a bunch of kids smile, and really annoyed the cheating carnies so, all in all a good time!"

That lobster? What lobster? Only two lobsters here, and they were filled with potentially tasty meat, not fluff and stuff, so Amaya wouldn't have any idea of what lobster Dwight could possibly be referring to!

"How huge," she had to ask, much more willing to discuss large pink dogs in other people's places over smaller red lobsters that were absolutely not in her place at the moment, "are we talking about?"

Yes, Amaya. THAT lobster!

"Oh... about yea big" Dwight said holding his hands out a good ways away from each other. "Probably almost 4ft. Big enough Miguel and I were carrying it around on our shoulders at the place and big enough we actually buckled it into the backseat of my truck afterwards." Dwight grinned as he pulled out his phone, fiddled with it a moment then handed it to Amaya so she could see the pictures.

Edited 2021-11-26 14:54 (UTC)

Never heard of it!

"Ohhhhh," said Amaya, full grin blossoming into an amused and approving chuckle as she shook her head, "she's gonna love that. I sure hope this mission she's on right now takes a good long time, though, because I like Miguel. I'm gonna miss the guy once she's done with him coming home to that."

And, with that, she took a second to pull off a glove so she could take the proffered phone and give them a look. Of course, it only took a few swipes before she started squinting at it a little, because if she wasn't mistaken, some of those lobsters hanging from one of the game stalls in the background looked almost kind of familiar...

...nahhhh, couldn't be! That was the thing with lobsters, right? Once you saw one, you've pretty much seen 'em all. If anything, it was just a coincidence. Way things were made these days, mass produced and spread all around. No sense of uniqueness or quality in these things...

...aaaand there was one of Dwight actually holding one said lobster in victory. But that was just... there was no way...

"Huh," she said, before she could really think not to, squinting a little more.

Maybe it was just because she wasn't wearing her glasses that she couldn't quite pick out the differences...

Amaya.... you are going to make him be obvious and come right and ask aren't you?

Dwight watched her expression change as he fought back a grin. He waited for her to say something and sighed softly when all she did was continue to stare at the phone, like she was trying to convince herself she wasn't seeing what she was clearly seeing. He had an idea what picture she had stopped at as he spoke.

"There were some pretty interesting things to win at those games. large neon pink dogs, typical bears, we won a really cool looking snake Miguel gave away..." Dwight gave a quick glance to Amaya as he continued. "One of the games even had lobsters as a prize, which I thought was pretty cool and unique. Especially since Miguel seemed to find the perfect prize to keep for Rosa, and well when I won the lobster, there really wasn't any other logical option for what to do with it in my mind."

You know, Amaya. Going through the motions of just idly swiping through the pictures like you were only half-listening wasn't going to do anything about your face. Which, by the end of all that, was quite a bit scrunched up around her nose and turning a bit pink, and she shook her head in firm denial.

So firm, in fact, that she was just going to go ahead and be so bold as to lift her chin in defiance of any dots trying to connect in her head as she handed the phone back to Dwight and ask, with as much blatant, blind ignorance as she could possibly muster, "Oh, yeah? And what's that?"

You were saying, narrative, about the need to be obvious?

Edited 2021-11-26 15:37 (UTC)

"Give it to someone who could appreciate it and maybe get a little laugh out of it" Dwight said, shaking his head slightly. "And who do I know who would hopefully appreciate the irony of finding a lobster like that at a fair?"

Silence fell over them for a moment and Dwight could almost swear he heard cricket chirping from somewhere nearby.

"You Amaya" he said with a smirk. "I wanted to give it to you!"

Amaya's chin lifted just a slight bit more, although this time it was more in an attempt to squint a reading of Dwight's face than an attempt to infuse just that slight bit more of defiance into her stance.

"Dave did come from a vending machine," she noted, "and Diane from a bed, so I suppose a fair would the next logical, and hilarious, step..."

A framework that sounded entirely acceptable and far removed from any suspected romantic intentions, to the point where her mouth sort of twitched a little with the beginnings of a smirk. And then the faint breath of a laugh, and then a shake of her head, as she sort of just relaxed and reprimanded herself for getting so worked up about such an outlandish premise to begin with.

"So, then," she declared with relieved, bright acceptance, "where is this newest addition to my amusingly growing collection of lobsters, anyway?"

Look. When you'd already gotten yourself in that deep, you weren't about to be able just climb right out of the hole without anyone noticing, so she absolutely was going to keep her boots mired right there in the ground.

Dwight gave Amaya a look for a moment, almost as if he was still trying to convince himself that someone could be that intentionally and willfully oblivious to things. Or at least put on such a convincing showing of such.

Slowly, without a word, he walked over to the table and picked up the lobster, spent a moment pretending to brush it off really good and then walked back over. He stood in front of Amaya and looked at her for a moment, a odd expression passing over his face for a moment before holding it out to her.

"This one right here" he said simply. "Figured you would have found it this morning but I guess something happened with the delivery." He was giving you such a pass here Amaya, you had no idea.

"But yeah, this one is for you" he said simply. "Had hoped you would like it."

At least Amaya, even in all her stubborness, still had the decency to look apologetically sheepish for a moment, while she could feel her face get increasingly closer to matching the color of the lobster, as she took it from Dwight. There might have even been the faint hint of an appreciative grin in there, too, once she seemed to think that dropping her eyes to the lobster itself afforded her some sort of privacy to do that.

"Now how in the world," she declared, because if you thought she wasn't going to take that out and run with it, then you clearly didn't know Amaya Blackstone, "did that even get there? I guess that's just Fandom for you, am I right? Conveniently manifesting lobsters at opportune and topical moments!"

And then that soft smile was back, and she found she couldn't really look up at him without feeling that heat rushing straight to her cheeks again, so thank the stars he was so dang tall so she had a good excuse just not to look up.

"Thanks," she said, and that was skirting a bit closer to a sincere and genuine emotion than she cared to be, but, well...at least it wasn't so close that she couldn't just hop right back into less tumultuous ground. "I don't know how Dave and Diane are going to feel about the whole thing, but you're right. I do like it."

Suddenly a bit more than she felt she probably should.

"Well hopefully Dave and Diane like their new arrival" Dwight said with a slight shake of the head. How someone could be so genuinely frustrating and yet equally adorable at the same time as still a mystery to him. "Glad you like it though." A mystery named Amaya Blackstone.

"So keeping with the current naming convention, what are you going to name him?" Dwight asked simply, somewhat distracted by the grin Amaya thought she was hiding at that moment.

"Now that," Amaya remarked, glad to find purchase on something that seemed comfortable, solid ground, a nice practical thing like giving a new lobster a good name, "is an excellent question."

She took a moment to hold up the lobster a little and give him the utmost of careful considerations.

"Well," she mused, since his connection with the trend in the names had certainly not escaped her notice, "he obviously can't be a Dwight, because that'd just be silly." And would also throw open the door to a whole 'nother level that Amaya was not even going to start going near! "So I'm thinking....maybe Daniel."

These lobsters obviously needed the most basic-ass D-names she could think of.

"Daniel is a fine name for a fine lobster" Dwight agreed with an almost straight serious face. "And I'm glad to see he is already fitting in just fine here. He was actually one of the harder prizes to win at that fair. So you're lucky I was able to get him."

Was this a rare moment of Dwight bragging and putting on false airs of humbleness? Yes, yes it was. Let him have his moment gosh darn it! That legit had been a tough game to beat.

Well, then, lucky for him, Amaya rather appreciated a good tale of well-earned boastfulness, and her expression lit up at the opportunity to bear witness to one now. "Is that so?" she asked, grinning crookedly, both hands now on her hips (yes, even the one still holding the lobster) almost as if in a challenge. "Well, then, out with it! Let's hear the thrilling tale of how this lobster here came to be won by none other than Dwight the Dauntless himself! Or, at the very least, I should like to know what the nature of this game actually was," the challenge increased slightly, because now her arms (and the lobster) were folded in front of her, "and then let me be the judge of whether the challenge was truly the insurmountable feat you claim it to be!"

"Well, I am assuming you know the basics of the water pistol shootout games? Use the water gun and hit the target with the stream of water? Well, it was one of those kinds of games but with a twist."

Several evil, sneaky, cunning twists that thankfully Dwight and Miguel knew and could account for. Dwight paused for a moment, letting the anticipation build as he watched Amaya.

"For one, the guns were pathetic and looked about as comical as a jumbo water gun would have looked in the hands of Sidon" he said to draw a vivid comparison. "So they were difficult to manage anyways. Never mind that they were attached to the counter of the game kiosk so you couldn't move freely.'

A glance at Amaya and a smirk as he continued.

Secondly, the water pressure coming out of the things was barely enough to reach the targets when you were getting your aim just right. And thirdly, they had then set to randomly raise and lower the water pressure so sometimes you literally couldn't hit the target even if your aim was right!"

Dwight reached out and patted the lobster that was still trapped in Amaya's folded arms and smiled.

"But it was me and Miguel and a few other kids playing the game. Miguel got first place. Total cheater with his spider sense and all but eh, what can you do? That's where the dog came from, and of course Daniel is now yours."

Dwight fell silent as he looked at Amaya with a look that almost said "impressed?" all on its own.

To which Amaya's own expression was going to respond with a resounding ....meh.

With an actually self-aware grin that she knew she did make for a pretty tough audience when it came to thrilling tales of victory and success.

"Would have been better," she pointed out, "if you didn't come in second place, but..." She was going to add her own dramatic pause there, "you at least came by it honestly."

Another very important pause.

"Against a bunch of kids," she concluded, both brow and grin quirked, because, come on. She kinda had to.

"Yeah yeah... laugh it up, Blackstone," he said with a grin and laugh. "Dwight the Dauntless can't have all great adventures of dragon slaying and what not."

He flashed her a grin to let her know he was joking with what he was avoid to say. "I could always just keep Daniel if you can't appreciate the work that wen into getting him here."

To that, Amaya could only gasp, a small little injured sound as she turned slightly as if to keep the poor prize out of reach. "And deprive him of the fine company of such upstanding lobsters such as Dave and Diane? Did you hear that, Daniel?"

...yes, Amaya would be facepalming at herself so much in retrospect for talking to a stuffed toy lobster in this moment, but in this moment, she was proving a point. A point to help ensure it wasn't going anywhere.

"All for the sake of pride, no less!"

And, with that, she was just going to fix Dwight with a defiant look that seemed to ask just what he had to say about that!

"Naww, I'm just messing with ya" Dwight said with a smirk. "He's in good hands. Ya know, now that he's in your hands and not sitting forgotten on a table at the back of the shop."

Sorry Amaya, he had to get one last jab in there. He couldn't help himself.

Though the smile on his face made it perfectly clear just how relived he was that Amaya had liked the lobster....errrr... Daniel. It had just been too perfect when he spotted them at the fair and he knew no matter how much money he had to spend at the games he was going to get one for Amaya. And it had all been worth it.

Forgotten and willfully ignored were two entirely different things, thank you very much, and Amaya would like to submit, for the record, that neither actually happened, because the lobster had appeared as a freak moment of Fandom being Fandom and nothing else!

And if a chin lift could silently maintain as much, well, then, that's exactly what the lift of Amaya's chin was attempting to do at precisely that moment.

"I suppose," she allowed, "that I have become quite the expert in lobsters these days. And, if anything, he's a bit softer than the others, he'll be needing a shiny new set of armor even more before we can even think of sending him,"--the stuffed animals; zards, she was going to need Tylenol to recover from all the facepalming she was going to be doing later--"out into the world again."

"Well, you will have to show me at some point" Dwight said with a nod and an amused grin at the stuffy. "Sounds like a project right up your alley. Also, might finally get to see the famous Dave and Diane for myself!"

Silence fell for a moment before Dwight rubbed the back of his head slightly and looked back at Amaya again.

"I should probably get going here soon. Just wanted to come by to make sure... Daniel... got to his new home safe and sound. And to see how you were doing, of course..."

Good job there Dwight. Nice. Very eloquent... ya great goober.

Edited 2021-11-26 20:34 (UTC)

And, well...one awkward moment was bound to just tumble right into another one, and the nice momuntum Amaya had gained in staving one of started to falter a little as Dwight fell prey to his own...

"Well," she said, sucking in a breath as if in defense, "never a dull moment, that's for sure. I'm sure you've got your own mountain of projects to tackle, too. I still owe Dr. Lecter that set of skewers, and now I've got a whole new set of lobster armor to add to the pile. He'll probably need to defend himself with some new weapons, too."

As if she didn't absolutely love making lobster-size weapons. Honestly, half the reason for the lobsters in the first place was the conventient excuse to put tiny weapons in their claws.

And now the awkward had caught up with her completely as she ran out of other things to say and wondered if it would only make it worse if she thanked him again for the lobster, but, ultimately, she figured it was just easier if she didn't bring any more attention to it than necessary...

Dwight gave a nod, the awkwardness really getting heavy in the silence.

"Well, sounds like we both have a lot to keep busy with. And you know where to find me if ya need anything."

Dwight was gonna say something else but closed his mouth as soon as he had opened it and just gave Amaya another small smile. With a quick nod he turned and started on his way giving a quick wave and over his shoulder as he went.

"Take care, Amaya," he called out as he went.

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Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Friday [11/26].

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