Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Tuesday [07/19].

[special_rabbit]

Amaya was known to hem and haw quite a bit when it came to a lot of...invitations, but there was one invitation that she would never be hesitant to take up. She was glad she got the message before she found herself embroiled in anything too demanding, because she'd have hated to miss it on account of getting all caught up in her work again. So it was just light projects that morning, a little bit of maintenance and upkeep on a few pieces, a few little things for the Etsy shop, a few little things here and there in preparation for the short spell in which she'd close up the shop for a small period of time that day to go traipsing off for meats on sticks.

And then, no doubt fueled by the experience, it would be back after the class to start in on some heavier projects in earnest (not to mention that text from Diaz) that would probably take her well into the evening.

The Forge is open!

(Except for the slice of time when it isn't).

Comments

[flamesburned]

Sometime later that morning before her classes, Liz stopped by the Forge as she had started to and she was starting to feel a lot more comfortable about visiting, “hi,” she when she entered, she still had her camera with her ready to document what new progress could be made.

[special_rabbit]

"Liz." Amaya looked up from where she'd been working at the computer at the counter with a nod of greeting, then considered the shop for a moment with another nod as she already sent her brain into switching gears to see what they could squeeze in before she needed to leave for Dr. Lecter's class. "Good to see you. Have any new thoughts on that crib?"

[flamesburned]

"Same here," Liz smiled, “I’ve mostly been thinking about the filigree and the design,” she considered, “ I didn’t know if it would be too ambitious to go for something more advanced or to just leave it fairly simple,” she admitted, "especially since I've never actually done this before,"

[special_rabbit]

"Well," Amaya offered, with a faint shrug and a light grin on her face, "only one way to find out, right? I've always been a pretty big fan of aiming high and adjusting accordingly as you go along. If anything..." She gave a quick glance at the clock at the bottom of her computer, "I actually can't work with you too much today. I've got another appointment in a bit, unless you want to just come back later, but maybe, if you're feeling up to it, we can use the time to work a little bit on your metal shaping, get sort of a feel for what you can actually do and where that'll leave us on getting the design."

There was a pause for another grin. "And anything you can't manage on your own, though," she said, "I can step in and do the rest. I've worked on filigree far more complicated than this, on projects a whole lot smaller. Wouldn't take me and my hammer much to wrangle it into where we want it to be except maybe some time, and, if I'm not mistaken, we've still got plenty of that."

[flamesburned]

“I can do that, I mean I’m feeling up to working on my metal shaping I mean,” Liz told her with a nod, “I do have classes a bit later but I can also come back though as well, especially once I know exactly what I’m capable of in regards to the metal shaping,” she considered.

There was a pause, “we do have plenty of time still, I’m not due til February,” she told her with a small smile.

[special_rabbit]

"I suspect we'll be plenty done by then!" Amaya remarked, with confidence, although, really, to be fair, you never could tell around this place. Who knew what might be thrown at them that could delay the whole project, but that was still plenty of wiggle room.

"Any of those classes Dr. Lecter's?" she then asked, as she moved around from behind the counter over to the closet under the stairs, so she'd could start pulling out some of the rods she'd been treating specifically for this project that she'd tucked in there for safe-keeping.

[flamesburned]

‘It is,” Liz nodded, “I have his class and then Arts & Crafts with Sidon after that so I thought I’d try and get as much done as I could today” she added and then tilted her head curiously, “are you going to be going to Dr. Lecter’s class today?”

[special_rabbit]

Amaya met that question with a grin, as the rods clattered gracelessly onto one of the worktables. "I am," she confirmed, nodding. "Let's just say it's a matter of...special interest in where you all are headed today, and Dr. Lecter's always real considerate about letting me know when he's got a class heading that way. But I'll not say any more, lest it spoil the surprise for you. But that'd be mighty convenient, if we've got to break because we're both heading to the same place anyway."

[flamesburned]

“Oh?” Liz was definitely interested by that information, “well I guess I’ll find out soon enough won’t I? “ she grinned, “We went to Morocco last week, that was quite nice,” she added.

[special_rabbit]

"Can't really go too wrong with a class hopping all over the world just to try foods," Amaya admitted, her hands rubbing together a little in anticipation of what she already knew was in store for them that day. "One of my favorite parts about the school trips, actually, has been all the new and interesting foods. Even if it has gotten me on the bad side of the squirrels..."

She did not care, it had been worth it. The squirrels were terrible, anyway.

"But my time's already pretty limited as it is already," she said, "and I've decided to go and take two classes already, adding on a third would just eat into too much good forge time. And speaking of eating up time..."

She gestured to the rods on the table. "Figured we could start by seeing if you can manage to get any of these hot enough that it'll be more malleable. I still have a feeling the forge is going to be the quicker way to go with that one, but that's why we try it, just to make sure. I could be entirely wrong, and it'll be the other way around, and I'll be calling you up any time I have a rush job that can't wait on the oven..."

[flamesburned]

Liz nodded as she listened to Amaya talk about classes and the trips, “I didn’t expect to take so many this session but I thought they’d be useful to take, especially the crafting class and yours as well,” she added.

There was a pause as she looked at the rods, “I suppose now we’ll find out if I can,” she said feeling a little bit nervous, “it would be nice if my powers could be used for something creative like this,”

She took a deep breath and summoned her flames in one hand, to be on the safe side and then she reached over to pick up one of the rods.

She kept holding on as she felt her powers work at the metal, she could feel it getting hotter but she wasn’t feeling any pain while she was holding on.

“So far so good,” she said, trying to keep her focus steady.

[special_rabbit]

Amaya nodded, making a small grunt of acknowledgement, her own focus mostly on just watching Liz and her flames but mostly watching the metal rod, looking for the tell-tale signs of color changes that would start to indicate when it might be at its most malleable. She was also regretting not having grabbed a stopwatch of some sort so they could time this, but they had plenty of metal to work through and, as she said, plenty of time to work through all the finer details, too. But there was no doubt about it. No matter how much manipulation of the bars she'd manage while they were good and hot, either by her own hand or by the forge, it was definitely going to make a lot of aspects of this project a whole lot easier.

She might even be a little bit jealous, if it weren't the fact that welding torches were cool as hell and proper smithing wasn't still one of the most satisfying things in the world.

[flamesburned]

Liz was starting to feel a lot more comfortable holding the rod and maintaining that level of control.

The last time she had done anything remotely similar had been training with Steven and she was pretty sure she had …well burned that bridge after everything and it wasn’t like she could actually train with the pregnancy …

She lost a bit of her focus at the memories that were starting to surface and her flames flickered slightly and then disappeared.

“Sorry,” she apologised, quickly dropping the rod back down, “I lost focus there,”

[special_rabbit]

And Amaya, just as quickly, turned to fetch her tongs so that she could pick that rod back up. It clearly hadn't gotten nearly as hot as it would need to have gotten in order to be useful for what she had in mind, but it was definitely probably hotter than she could have handled with just her own hands, no matter how good her gloves were. Besides, she did want to test it before it started to cool down, so she quickly had a hammer in her other hand and was moving toward one of the anvil.

"No worries," she assured Liz. "We're just getting started, anyway, and that's not a bad start."

A few ringing hammer strikes later, and she frowned a little as she held up the rod for closer inspection.

"Need a break?" Amaya then asked, tilting her head with consideration to the whole focus factor. She'd thought Liz had seemed pretty focus already, but, then again, Amaya herself had been more focused on the fire and the metal than she had been on Liz. "Or you good to try again?"

[flamesburned]

Liz took a deep breath, shaking her hand out slightly, she hadn’t burned herself but the sensation had still startled her.

After a few more deep breaths to steady herself she felt more prepared.

“I’m ready to try again,” Liz nodded.

[special_rabbit]

If she was completely honest, Amaya would have to admit that knowing Liz might be having some trouble focusing in light of knowing that she sometimes didn't really have a good grip on those powers of hers made her just a touch nervous. But, at the same time, that could definitely make things a little more interesting...

...it would potentially mean having to miss meats-on-sticks, though, so while Amaya nodded encouragingly, she also said, "Just take your time. No need to rush into it if you're not ready...."

[flamesburned]

Liz nodded, "its been a while since I've tried to focus my powers like this," she admitted as she took another few deep breaths to steady herself, "the last time ..." her voice trailed off because she was pretty sure Amaya didn't want to hear every detail about her love life.

She took another few deep breaths and then carefully summoned her flames, "I'm ready to try again," she said and reached over to pick up another rob.

[special_rabbit]

Amaya really didn't care for hearing about any details about anyone's love life, not even her own, so good call on that one, Liz.

But since she wouldn't have even thought the two things would even be remotely connected, she just quirked a bit of an eyebrow, and then just let Liz do her thing, because if focus was the issue here, Amaya wasn't about to be the one to mess it up by running her mouth and distracting her.

[flamesburned]

This time round Liz did a much better job of keeping her focus, making sure to keep her breathing steady and doing her best to not think about what had happened last time since that wouldn’t really be productive right now.

She kept holding on to the rod, feeling it get hotter and hotter as she did but this time she was able to keep her grip and not waver from seeing how hot she could get the rod.