Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Tuesday [02/08].

[special_rabbit]

Well, it was the week before that mushy holiday, which meant that, even if she hadn't gotten in a pretty decent order for some of them for Irene's party later this week, Amaya would be hitting the hammer pretty hard on getting out a good crop of her metal roses. It was pretty much tradition, at this point, even if they didn't usually sell as much as she'd like them to, but, honestly? They were a quick study and kind of fun to do, especially when she'd made things a little more interesting by using some damascus steel this time around, treading some of the Tanalore steel she had to do some different color variants, and was adding some nice gold tips to some of the petals while she was at it, too. If anything, she had a feeling thesee might sell nicely on the Etsy shop, and, well, she had those nice new glass cases on her shiny new front counter that they could go into, too, and they'd look mighty smart, sitting there among the nicer examples of her throwing stars and daggers.

There was a sandwich board right outside promoting them to passers-by, as well, with the various rates and prices listed, and then she got steadily to work.

...and only got mildly distracted when her mind started to wander a little with even more variation, one that definitely involved the phrase 'what if roses, but with spikes' as if, you know, thorns weren't already a thing....

The Forge is open!

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[alwaysonguard]

It was a little later than usual by the time Dwight showed up at the forge. Instead of the usual pastry box and coffee cups, he was carrying in a large insulated bag that he set down on the table as usual.

He watched Amaya for a moment, slightly relieved that she didn't seem to realize he was running a bit late that morning. He watched for a moment until there was enough of a break in the pounding for him to catch her eye.

"Morning, Amaya" he said with a slight grin.

[special_rabbit]

Acknowledging that Dwight was 'running a bit late' would be accepting that there had been some sort of routine developed in the past couple of weeks while Dwight was working on the counter, and that, of course, would not do, especially what with the counter actually being finished and all. Only thing left to be even running a bit late for would be fetching all the tools and whatnot that were still hanging about in the event that there'd be something else to work on, anyway.

And rare was the case where Amaya was so absorbed in her work that she didn't notice anyone endering the shop, but, that said, she was still going to finish out the rose she was currently working on, up to and past the greeting, and then, finally, after lifting the piece up and examining it a little for approval, she nodded, and turned her attention his way.

"Morning, Dwight," she greeted back, dropping the finished rose into a bucket where the others she'd completed were gathering. "How goes it?"

[alwaysonguard]

"Pretty good. Glad the snow let up long enough to get over here without too much trouble" Dwight said with a slight laugh.

He gave a nod towards the bucket of roses.

"Looking good. Got some orders coming in ahead of... ya know..." that holiday he wasn't going to mention either because he thought it was almost as ridiculous as Amaya did.

[special_rabbit]

No one thought it was a ridiculous as Amaya did. That was a very high bar, right there, to the point where her nose wrinkled with her clear disgust even at the most vague references to it.

"Well," she said, fists on her hips, chin lifted, particularly defiant all of a sudden as if someone was going to challenge her on the sincerity of her distaste, "it's quick work and easy money; a person'd be almost foolish to not take advantage of it."

[alwaysonguard]

"And at least you got some nice cases to display them in. After all..." Dwight said with a slight nod, "there are plenty of other occasions and reasons for roses. So there could technically always be a market for them to some extent if you wanted to just keep them on hand."

See? A logical and practical take on it. And profitable too. Maybe.... maybe Amaya's business savvy approach was starting to rub off on him a little. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing... that might be up for debate.

[special_rabbit]

Amaya nodded back, stout and firm, and in appreciation for Dwight's ability to see things from her perspective and humor her recognize good logic and unnecessarily stubborn justifications for even the smallest things. With that, then, she wiped the back of her wrist across her forehead and set aside her hammer for the time being.

"Glad you stopped in, though," she said, as if most of his stuff from the counter project wasn't already still there or something, and she moved toward the counter, which was already clearly getting some good use, with a few items in the display cases and a good deal of clutter gathering around where the computer was set up and...well...

Look, if there was a surface and some space around here, it was gonna get filled.

"I've got something for you."

[alwaysonguard]

And you know what? Dwight would have been almost insulted if the counter wasn't going to be used. That was what it had been made for after all. Would be a shame if it wasn't put to good use.

He turned and looked at Amata as he started fiddling with the bag for a moment. "Oh?"he asked, very much intrigued. Because you never knew what to expect really when it came to Amaya and ideas or projects.

[special_rabbit]

Just wait until the inevitable moment where there was some absurdly ridiculous weapon sticking out of and stuck into it, like with the giant shiruken and the wall...

Still, no one could tell Amaya that having a giant shiruken embedded into your wall didn't make a statement!

And, with that, Amaya pulled out a piece of parchment from underneath the counter and smacked it on the counter with a smack of her hand. "Your next few projects," she informed him, before sliding the paper over. "Did a survey around the shop this weekend, found a few more things to touch up before you pack up and drag all this back to yours. Mostly just work on the paneling, the accents, and that door to supply closet, it's definitely taking a beating over the years."

Well, maybe if people didn't keep getting stuffed into it and locked in!

"Also, there's a step about halfway up the stairs to the apartment that's been creaky for a while now. No point in anything on the floors or the worktables, though, they take such a beating on the regular, you'd be right back to where we started in a week's time, if even that long! But after all this, I think this place'll be fine for a good while."

[alwaysonguard]

Dwight looked at the paper and then to Amaya and then back to the paper, trying- and failing- to hide a smirk as he did. Had he been trying to find some things to work on once the counter was done himself? Maybe. Purely because it would have been foolish to pack everything up and haul it back to the shop just to find that there was more work needing to be done around here. It was totally a practicality thing... absolutely no other motivation at all, thank you very much!

"I think we can manage this list," Dwight said giving Amaya a grin. "Should definitely keep me busy for a while." So, sorry if that wasn't your intent Amaya. But you just got a shop mate/partner for the foreseeable future with this list... and whatever else would inevitably get added to it along the way.

[special_rabbit]

"Enough to save you the trouble of hauling all your equipment back should the weather give us more snow before we're in the clear for springtime, anyway," Amaya noted, and, with that out of the way, she turned her attention to what Dwight had brought in with him with a nod toward the insulated bag.

"And what's that you've got there?"

[alwaysonguard]

"Very good point there as well... the snow and ice definitely makes it a bit harder getting around with the equipment and all" Dwight said with a nod.

Because really there was still a good bit of winter left and they could still get some snowed in condition between now and the start of the thaw. Always better to plan ahead as much as possible for the winter unpredictability.

"Ah that," Dwight said turning his attention back to the bag with a grin. "Just a little something I threw together to celebrate the completion and...." he glanced back at the counter, "the immediate christening of the new counter."

He opened the bag and pulled out a few trays of food, set them out on the available space on the counter and removed the lids. There on the dishes were various meats on sticks- meatballs, shrimp, and chicken along with several different vegetables, and even a simple strawberry shortcake dessert skewers.

[special_rabbit]

Ah, so Amaya had been picking up on a rather tantalizing aroma of meats on sticks after all! She'd half suspected it was just a case of the usual wishful, wistful thinking, and the fact that Dwight kept pulling stuff out of the bag definitely had her interest (and her stomach!) locked in with bright (and hungry!) eyes.

She had been pretty focused on her work, after all, and things like eating sometimes tended to fall by the wayside when she really got a good rhythm going.

And she was just about to comment when a different thought nudged its way out of her mouth instead.

"Christening?" she said. "Does that mean we've got to name it all proper? But, additionally, doesn't that usually involve smashing something over it?"

And, why, yes, she sounded just about as excited about that as she'd looked about the food.

[alwaysonguard]

"Well I mean you can smash something... but it doesn't have to be something so messy... (yes totally a mood killer there, sorry Amaya). Back in boot camp and training we used to sort of christen our new gear before we would use it. Nothing too fancy and all, more a rite of passage for us really."

Dwight thought for a moment.

"Could always just give it a nice wipe down and polish before the... clutter... gets too thick on it" he added with a smirk and a quick wink.

[special_rabbit]

Pretty much everything after the word but was earning Dwight a long-suffering, withering sort of look, that somehow seemed to wither even more the longer he went on. And she was going to let that final withering just linger for a moment so he could feel the full weight of what he was suggesting before stating, conclusively, "I'm going to see what I've got upstairs that'll work."

She was, however, going to just help herself to one of those skewered meatballs before she turned around, though. And, in turning around, turned back to add some chicken to it...and, heck, at that point, might as well go all out, make it a trio, grab one of the shirmps as well.

"Back in two wags of a wetzel's tail," she promised, then headed up the stairs--pausing, for a moment, to push her boot with emphaisis on the squeaky one she'd mentioned with an addtion, "See what I mean? About this step?" and a few more squeaks for emphasis, finished the journey up into the apartment.

Only to return a few moments later, sans skewers, but with a bottle in hand. "This rum's almost empty," she reported. "It's not too early for rum, is it?"

Somewhere off to she side, there was a faint chittering of agreement.

"We can just use this."

[alwaysonguard]

"Aye that is a troublesome stair there" Dwight said with a nod as Amaya headed up the stairs. "We'll take care of that next to get it out of the way!"

And while Amaya was rummaging around upstairs he started laying out the food a bit more and helped himself to a few of the skewers himself. And so, when Amaya came back downstairs, Dwight may have just finished popping one of the jumbo shrimp into his mouth.

He gave a nod as he finished swallowing and then looked at the bottle in her hand. "There's always time for rum" he said with a nod. "Specially when its for something important like this."