Blackstone Foundry & Forge; Wednesday Afternoon [10/19].

[special_rabbit]

Two forge days in a row? It was more common than you'd think! Because technically, Amaya was usually there every day, even when not explicitly posted.

Wednesdays were a bit tricky, of course, since she had her class and all, but once that was finished, it was back to work, and she intended to keep it that way until she managed to finish up on that broadsword blade.

Like you do.

The Forge is open!

Comments

[two_idiots_one_body]

Arthur had been hired Monday afternoon by "Emily Goldfinch" to find Detective Diaz. He'd been skeptical to begin with, and that might have just been his natural suspicion, but then the radio report (which apparently was brought by actual squirrels?) had said he'd spoken to Rosa.

So he and John had spent most of yesterday trying to figure out what was going on and if it were anything more than a joke. In the end, they'd decided to follow the leads Rosa had given them and see where they led, so they were here at the blacksmith's.

"There is a woman forging a sword," John informed him as he looked around. "She matches the description we were given, but she looks as though she's been here for some time and knows what she's doing. Careful with your crutch, Arthur; there are a lot of sharp objects in here."

"It's hot, too," Arthur murmured back under the sound of the ringing strikes on metal. "Hello?" he called out, very carefully following John's lead further into the place.

[special_rabbit]

"Welcome to Blackstone Foundry and Forge!" Amaya called out, without missing a stroke on that blade at the anvil. "Be with you in a sec!"

A few more ringing falls of her hammer, and she took a moment to lift the blade for inspection. Shifted it slightly in her hand to deliver a few more blows, before turning to quench it in the bucket beside her and her attention shifted over toward whoever it was that had just come in.

"How can I--" she started, and then took in the state of the man and cut herself off with a whistle.

"I've gotta say, if you're waltzing in here looking to upgrade on either that crutch or that leg, I am interested. Although, really, I've heard Ween's the one you want to go to for leg-stuff, but good luck managing to catch him."

[two_idiots_one_body]

"What? No! My leg is fine!" Arthur said, a bit panicked. Look, he'd taken off part of his pinky and ended up with a wooden "prosthesis" growing into it. He wasn't keen on any more. "It's just broken, it'll heal."

"Upgrading the crutches might be nice," John suggested.

"We can talk about the crutches," Arthur agreed. "I was really coming here to speak with you, though." He balanced on said crutches and held out a hand. "Arthur Lester."

[special_rabbit]

"Amaya Blackstone," Amaya responded in kind, sending a spiritual sigh through Rosa Diaz in her office that she was also similarly always in regardless of posting, at all that wasted opportunity. Amaya took a moment to set hammer and sword down, futilely wiped her gloves on her skirt, and met that offered hand with exactly the kind of firm handshakes you'd expect from a blacksmith.

"Good to meet ya. What did you need to speak with me about?"

[two_idiots_one_body]

"Do you think we should just tell her, Arthur? She seems straightforward enough."

Arthur wasn't entirely sure, but he was also annoyed at the runaround, so why not?

"Can you tell me why someone named Rosa but pretending to be Miss Emily Goldfinch might send me to you and tell me you were Detective Diaz?" Arthur asked.

[special_rabbit]

Amaya took a moment to work her way through all that.

"Oh," she said, finally, waving a dismissive hand, "she just does that sometimes."

Well, the whole telling him she was Rosa was a new twist, but it kind of made sense, actually.

But now she was regarding that leg with a whole new light.

"She didn't do that," nodding to the injury in question, "to you, did she?"

[two_idiots_one_body]

"What? No!" Why did everybody seem to think someone local had done this? Should he worry? "No, I went to ask for a job, and she sent me to find Detective Diaz, and gave a description matching you and told me to check the blacksmith's. How often does she do this? Why?"

[special_rabbit]

"This specific thing?" asked Amaya. "Never, this is the first time, unless she's tossing around descriptions of other people, too. But she's got a whole list of names she'll pull out with new people; Goldfinch is definitely her gold standard, though. And as for why?"

Amaya shrugged.

"She's an enigma, that one. But I'd be willing to put down a few shiny gold coins that she probably did it just to mess with you. A job, though, huh? With Diaz?" Amaya threw him a grin. "Good luck with that."

[two_idiots_one_body]

Arthur smiled grimly. Yes, he'd expected that was Diaz, but it was good to have confirmation.

"I was a private investigator at home, so it seemed the logical place to look. What is she like when she's not messing with people? Is it worth it to work with her?"

[special_rabbit]

"She..." Amaya hesitated a moment, figuring Diaz wouldn't particularly approve of any unnecessary divulgence of information....and she'd expect the same from her if anyone came poking around the D&A asking about herself, but, on that same token, she had sent the guy directly to her. "...mostly keeps to herself, really. And she's not an easy person to get along with, but you could definitely do a lot worse than working with her. We usually teach together, in the spring semester." She quirked a grin and gestured at the weapons wall. "Weapons, actually. If you'll believe it."

[two_idiots_one_body]

"She is gesturing toward a wall covered in edged weapons," John noted. "Some of them are fairly impressive."

"I'll believe it," Arthur said. "And if you work with her repeatedly, she must have some redeeming qualities. She did have a sharp mind."

"To be fair, Arthur, keeping to themself and not easy to get along with could easily apply to you, too."

Thanks for that, John.

[begmetwice]

"'Maya," Irene called as she swanned into the forge today -- no, she didn't do anything silly like look for signs regarding whether anyone might be in, don't be ridiculous -- "they mucked up my order at the Perk and gave me a coffee instead of tea and then let me keep it, d'you want it?"

If Irene had been wearing trousers, they might well have caught aflame right then, since she had ordered the coffee on purpose. Liar, liar.

[special_rabbit]

"Well," stated Amaya, halting her hammer for a moment to confirm that tell-tale swanning as Irene came in...and set it down. "You know I'm not one to turn down free coffee."

Even when they came with highly suspect origin stories.

And then, the nod. "Irene."

[begmetwice]

"Amaya," Irene returned with a similar nod, dropping into faux-formality that barely lasted as long as it took to pass over the drink. (Which, miraculously, Amaya would find was doctored the way she typically took her coffee. Almost as though someone had been observing to see what that way might be, hmm.) "Sword for anyone in particular?"

[special_rabbit]

Ah, yes. Don't worry, Irene. Amaya was very impressed that she'd been able to retain hot and black.

There was bonus points for strong, though.

"Just a warm up, really," she said, shrugging a little as she looked at the sword while taking that cup. "A week is a long time for a forge to go cold."

Shifting the cup for a sip, she then asked, "What've you been up to, Irene?"

Besides being so terribly inconvenienced by incompetent baristas?

"Too quiet at the store today?"

[begmetwice]

"Oddly enough, no one has come in to purchase the jack o'lantern ball gag I put out this morning," Irene told her, tsking sadly into her tea. "It's been devastatingly quiet aside from catching up on the gossip I missed while we were away."

Namely, that there was a guy around now with some bullshit, so she was eager to figure out what the hell was going on there.

[special_rabbit]

"Can't imagine there's be much gossip to catch up on," Amaya remarked.

Then again, she was perfectly fine leaving whatever gossip there had been to Irene and the squirrels.

[begmetwice]

Irene needed the possibly more than air or water, so that was fine by her. And she was much more discerning than the squirrels, she felt.

"Not much, no," she admitted. "Most of the town was on holiday, either with us or in other places. It's honestly so quiet that I'm waiting for PSL to start out the taps tomorrow, or the like."

And that was her cue to knock on something wooden, which she promptly did.

[special_rabbit]

And if you asked Amaya, the squirrels not only needed far more discretion, but they could also use a good lesson in definitions and not exaggering the nature of certain activities that occured at parties and the mornings after.

"Don't they usually wait until at least December for all that nonsense?"

If she needed to brace for mistletoe again, she definitely didn't want to be caught unawares.

[begmetwice]

Irene felt the squirrels had been remarkably accurate in their reporting last week, however. Remarkably. At the risk of their own squirrelly lives, even.

"Eggnog and mulled wine in December," Irene corrected, and she was one of those people who always found out the hard way and never thought to peek in the shower before getting in. "Sometimes there's funny business around Halloween, too, isn't there?"

[special_rabbit]

"I don't really remember things coming out of the taps so much around this time," Amaya admitted, but, to be fair, she wasn't usually to bothered by those days so she didn't pay them much mind. "Most of what I remember around Halloween is that it sometimes changes you into other things."

And then you wound up waking up in a basement with a bunch of your blood drained by two unexpectedly temporary vampires...