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Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Tuesday [08/16].

Thanks to a little bit of inspiration in her pocket now, Amaya had actually spent a good deal of the weekend dealing with the foundry part of her business for a change and had been doing some mold-making and iron-casting, and, as a result, she was putting some finishing touches on a third anvil for the shop, once and for all.

Granted, that third anvil was rather small and specifically rabbit-sized, to go along with the rabbit-sized hammer she'd already put together, and today she was going to work on a rabbit-sized forge (which, really, wasn't much different from the mini-forges they created in her shop class, so that wasn't as much of a concern). Sure, in all her years here, she'd only turned into a rabbit twice, but once you got it in your brain that there was no reason to miss out on decent work just because you'd gone lagomorph, there was really no avoiding making sure to have that extra precaution.

Plus, it was kind of adorable. And maybe it could be adapted a little for lobster use, too, one day.

The Forge is open!

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Liz was feeling much better than the last time that she had stopped by the Forge, even though she hadn’t done any work towards her crib at all in the last week and had decided it would be okay if she did end up missing a week, especially since there was still plenty of time.

She also hadn’t realised that Amaya had been a rabbit last week so there wasn’t any chance of getting any work done at all.

“Hi,” she said with a smile when she came by later that morning before her classes to get some work done.

"Ah, morning, Liz!" Amaya greeted, looking up from polishing up that adorable little rabbit anvil and taking a moment for her brain to switch gears out of planning a rabbit-specific space in the shop.

(She really needed a bigger shop...)

"How's it going? You ready to get some more work done on thay crib?"

(Sooner that got finished, really, sooner she'll have that little bit more space...even if it was only inevitable that some other project would move right in the moment this one was done and gone).

"I'm definitely doing better this week, thanks," Liz told her with a smile, "but I'm ready to do some more work," she nodded, "I didn’t get a chance to do any last week but I’m feeling a lot more focused,"

"Well, that might've worked out for the better, then," said Amaya with a shrug, "on account of the fact that I was a rabbit for the better part of last Tuesday, anyway. But if you're feeling good and focused this week, maybe today might be a good one to knock out the framework. Or at least the base of it."

“Oh,” Liz blinked a bit at that, remembering that Summer had said she’d been a squirrel last week, “I hope you’re okay now?” she asked, she still wasn’t sure if that was what you asked someone after they’d been turned into animal.

She nodded at that last part, “I think I’m ready to work on the base,” she said.

"Right as rain," Amaya assured Liz. "Took on a few bumps and bruises on the way back, but, other than that, it was a relatively smooth transition, especially with how those sorts of things tend to go. But excellent. I'll grab the materials and the blueprints, put on some music, and we can get started. You gonna want to hammer out the bars yourself, too? Or wanna just stick to the welding?"

Liz nodded, “I’m glad you’re feeling better,” she told her as she considered the options that she had, “I think I’d like to do some of the hammering as well if that’s okay,” she had started to feel more confident in working with the different blacksmith tools since she had been taking Amaya’s class and had started doing work on the crib.

"Good choice," Amaya nodded approvingly. Sure, sure, with Liz's inexperience, it would take a whole lot longer to get the pieces shaped to the level of perfection you'd want for something you were keeping a small tiny human in most of the time, but it was good, honest work, and there wasn't much of a rush, anyway, and Amaya could focus on monitoring the process and correcting as necessary. That said, she started, then, by grabbing the blueprints for the design, clearing away some of the rabbit-forge space on the worktable to spread it out for Liz to have a look and remind herself of where they were going while going to go get the materials and dumping that on the table as well.

"Let's get a few of these rods in the forge, then," she said, cocking her head toward the furnace, roaring and blazing as always, "and we'll get 'em good and flattened and straightened out before we then see about maybe getting a few of them bent, that'll be the trickier."

Liz watched as Amaya cleared the space and got things ready and then she had a look over the blueprints just to make sure that she remembered the designs and what they were going for.

“Do you think we will still be able to bend them?” Liz asked, looking up from where she had been going over the blueprint as she moved to start getting the rods ready to put in the forge.

"Not like the filigree with your hands," Amaya clarified, "but the good old old-fashioned way, with hammer and anvil? It had better, or else we're in a bit of a tough spot! I know I can, at the very least, I get get a bend like that in my sleep, but whether or not you can get it, too, well, that's to be determined, but we won't know until we give it a try. Won't be easy, though, will probably take some time and a lot of practice, but, really, anything worth doing often does."

“Oh,” Liz said, nodding as she understood where the differences were, “I guess there is only one way to find out if it's something that I can do," she admitted, "but I think my focus is at least decent enough to give it a try though, even if it does take a bit longer,"

"Well, then," said Amaya, with a nod toward the rods, and switching entirely into instruction-giving teacher-mode, before moving to the counter to get the music turned on for Liz, "go ahead and get those into the forge to heat up, and when you think one of 'em's good to go, you can get to flattening it on the anvil. But, if you find yourself getting a little tired, especially with the..."

Pregnancy, Amaya. You were a grown ass woman of a certain age, you could just say the word, you know. But, instead, she just sort of trailed off with a vague gesture toward Liz's midsection, before firmly moving back into the more comfortable territory of business.

"...then I'll take over and you have a rest. Plenty of water here by the counter. No point in pushing yourself beyond what you need to, not with the...."

Baby, Amaya. The word was baby. But, apparently, since she now had the music going, she felt she didn't really need to finish that thought, anyway.

Liz blinked a bit as she followed Amaya’s instructions, nodding to show that she understood, “okay, I’ll see how I go,” she told her and she went to put the rods into the furnace, humming along to the music as she kept careful watch on the rods while they started to heat up.

She waited a bit longer to make sure that the rods had heated up enough and then she carefully took one out so that she could begin work on it on the anvil. She was careful to not over exert herself but she was finding that it was a lot of work at trying to hammer it to flatten it out and she did tire a lot more easily these days.

After working on for a while, she did have to eventually stop, “I think I need to stop for a while,” she said apologetically, finally looking up at Amaya.

She had made a bit of a dent in starting to flatten the rods but there was still a long way to go before they were ready.

"Hey, that's alright," Amaya assured her, nudging one of the jugs of water she kept under the counter, especially since certain people seemed to think she didn't understand the concept of proper hydration, forward for her. Sure, it was a little more than lukewarm on account of the forge in general being at a constantly slightly-baking temperature, but it would get the job done. "It's a lot harder than I make it look! And that's not a bad start at all. Whatever you get flattened out today, I can make sure and square up nicely for next time, though we'll probably not get to the bends until then, it looks like."

Liz gratefully took the offered water and took several gulps, not minding that it was at room temperature, “I did think I could get a bit more progress done,” she admitted, “but I think I forgot how tired I do tend to get these days,” she added, taking another gulp of water, “but I do think that would be better, if you don’t mind getting them ready for next time,”

"I am the expert," Amaya assured Liz, "and if blacksmithing were easy enough that anyone could pick it up so quickly, then I'd be out of a job in no time!"

Liz did smile at that, “I have enjoyed being able to work on the crib even though I think I’m going to stick to photography for a career,” she added, taking another gulp of water.

"Photography, huh?" asked Amaya with a small tilt of her head, and then a hitch of her thumb over her shoulder toward the computer. "Maybe I should get some of your help on my pictures for my Etsy site. What I've got up'll do the job, but I wonder if some better shots would catch more attention."

“I could definitely help you with those,” Liz told her, nodding as she tilted her head towards the computer, “did you have a particular shot in mind that you’d like? I can always edit the photos with photoshop if you wanted a certain background or style of photo as well,”

"Well," said Amaya thoughtfully, with a faint smirk, "whatever gets 'em to sell, mostly, but I'm sure some dynamic shots with the forge itself as a backdrop that could really also feature some of my finer pieces could be pretty effective."

Liz took a look around the forge as she considered the kinds of angles and shots she could get with the background, “that could definitely work,” she nodded, “I think I could get quite a few different shots to showcase the pieces you want, the forge as a backdrop will be quite effective,” she considered.

"Are you taking on some sort of very tiny apprentice?" Irene wondered as she wandered in today, quite pleased indeed to see that Amaya was not, in fact, still a rabbit.

One of these days, Irene would probably have to face the hilarity of being transformed into an animal and then being un-transformed, but for the present moment, it was something that had exclusively happened to other people and her attitude was one of distant, schedenfreude-laced amusement.

Was that a faint twitch at the word apprentice? Always. But Amaya, if she noticed it all, was swift to move right along.

"More like a precaution," she answered, "for the next time I'm very tiny."

A whole week's of potential work, thrown right out the window! It had been downright tragic!

But her attention now shifted from quite possibly the world's cutest hammer with a nod. "Irene," she greeted. "What can we do you for?"

A new project, maybe? Perhaps some catch-up work before the last class coming up? Surely absolutely nothing else, at all, right?

Edited 2022-08-16 13:22 (UTC)

Irene being Irene, she caught that twitch and filed it away (though Amaya was already so delightfully mysterious at times that it just sort of added to the pile of things Irene wanted to ask her about someday.)

"Came to visit the pretty blacksmith," she answered, easy and casual as ever as she leaned her hip on a table with a bright smile. "Now that she's not a simply adorable bunny rabbit. How long were you stuck?"

And, more importantly: did you somehow think it was going to get you out of going shopping, Amaya? Because Irene was also here to make assurances regarding rescheduling.

Had Amaya expected to manage to get out of shopping thanks to the convenient timing of her rabbit-ification? No, of course not. She was smarter than that, thank you. Had she still somewhat foolishly still hoped that mayyybe...

A bit, yes. Not enough to think that last week passing by without incident was anything but a delay of the inevitable, though....

Was she still going to try and delay it as long as humanly (especially now that she was human again) possible?

Of course. Everyone knew the answers to these questions already; why was the narrative even asking them at this point?

She opened her mouth on the edge of a protest regarding a few word choices in all of that, thought better of it, and changed tact.

"A full week," Amaya reported, with a sigh for all that lost time, "to the day. Turned on a Tuesday, back by the Tuesday next.

"And this," Irene noted, with an incline of her head towards the tiny anvil and the wee cute hammer, "is so that next time -- should there be a next time -- you can keep on working through?"

Did this help or hurt Irene's case that she thought Amaya could use more leisure time? She felt it was a strong argument in favor, personally, but it did hinge on her follow-up: "Did you fall all that much behind as a rabbit?"

She had other questions, but the answer to that one would really determine the next.

"Well...no," Amaya admitted, reluctantly, and sounding a little bit disappointed in that fact. The only projects she had going on at the moment were both collaborative, with very roomy deadlines. "But I figured, best be prepared for next time."

Plus, once she got the thought wedged in her brain of blacksmithing as a rabbit, she mostly just wanted to see if she could.

"Nice having a little break, though, I'd imagine," Irene offered, predictably as hell. "You really were quite adorable when Dwight brought you in on Thursday to share why we weren't having class. And, you know. Seemed happy, for a rabbit."

Irene didn't pretend to know how to read rabbits.

Amaya looked incredibly skeptical about the break part and the adorable part in all of that, but she seemed willing to concede the last part.

"Well," she pointed out, "I was a rabbit. Didn't really take much, long as I had a place to bounce, a place to burrow, and a place to bite, it seems."

"I daresay you're a bit harder to please outside of rabbit form," Irene noted casually, "though I think I could still offer all three of those easily."

Just to say. You couldn't say things like a place to bite without reaction; be glad Irene hadn't actually offered up her own neck or decolletage as a direct prospect, there.

"Pity about our shopping excursion, though." There it was!

Take the red slowly creeping across Amaya's face as a pretty good indication that an elaboration any of those applications was not entirely necessary.

Blast you, persistent appreciation for alliteration!

But more to the point, Amaya was thankfully far too focused on the measured tone of her next response.

"Yup," she agreed. "Real pity, that. A shame, really, but what can you do? Fandom things. Can't be helped."

Sooooooo disappointed. Just...heartbroken. Really.

"Shame. Oh, well -- I'm still fairly free for the next few weeks, so we'll just have to reschedule," Irene replied cheerily, as if it was just as simple as that. (Because it was, despite certain people's determination to make this difficult.) "Especially seeing as you'll have a break from classes, won't you?"

Oh, look at that -- preemptive awareness of a potential dead spot in Amaya's calendar! It was almost as though Irene had thought up potential excuses that might be offered on her way over today.

But making things difficult made it feel like a worthy investment! What fun was something if it was just easy?? What was the point?

"That...is how these semesters usually go," Amaya confirmed.

While now realizing what she'd taken for a blessing in her timing before now revealed itself to be a curse. It could have been done and over with by now, but, nooooo. Someone had to go turn into a rabbit!

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Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Tuesday [08/16].

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