Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Tuesday [12/27].

[special_rabbit]

A few days ago, Amaya had discovered Christmas crackers, was thoroughly disappointed in them, and had since made it her goal to figure out ways to improve upon them substantially. Paper and chemicals weren't exactly the strongest elements of her arsenal, but, in a way, that just made it more challenging, and she did enjoy a good challenge. And anyone could make things explode, she figured, but the real goal here was to keep in the spirit of the crackers being harmless fun, while making them maybe a little less...anticlimactic.

But since there was a good deal of trial and error and volatile chemicals and heat involved, and now that she was no longer pushing the holiday business rush, the advertisement on the sandwich board outside the door was replaced with but a simple warning:

Experiments in Progress!
-Enter at your own risk-

But at least on the bright side, she didn't need to add a 'sharp flying objects' warning on it this time.

...so far.

The Forge is open!

Comments

[begmetwice]

"Should I come back with goggles?" Irene teased, an arm cast out before her face as a shield when she ducked into the forge today.

After Sunday, she had a fairly good idea of what sort of experiments might be taking place, which was both why she was brave enough to enter without questioning it further, and why she'd brought a larger handbag than usual draped over the crook of one arm -- she had unearthed another set of crackers, and figured the more Amaya had to dissect, the better.

(That wasn't the entire reason for a slightly-larger-than-clutch bag this visit, of course, but it was one of them. Her beautiful, new -- and entirely thus far unmentioned by Irene -- switchblade was tiny enough to fit in a pocket, though, so it couldn't have been that...)

[special_rabbit]

"Shouldn't be an issue," stated Amaya with a snort, "though if you're that concerned, you know I've got a spare or two lying around."

Which she herself should probably be wearing, actually. Safety first, indeed.

(The difference, of course, was that Irene would look kind of adorable in goggles).

But, as it was, she looked up from an assortment of papers and books and notes and metals and flasks and all sort of other clutter on the worktable and took care to wipe the sweat off her brow with her arm, rather than the back of her glove, before offering up a nod.

"Irene."

[begmetwice]

As though Amaya would not be heart-stoppingly charming in goggles, please. Irene remembered those childhood glasses quite well, thank you.

"Amaya," Irene replied evenly, unable to keep from smiling fairly fondly as she took in Amaya's whole appearance and the care with which she'd wiped her brow. "I found some old crackers at the bottom of a closet, figured I'd bring them by to see if you wanted to dismember the lot."

Also, other reasons, but Irene always did love burying a lede.

[special_rabbit]

"Of course I want to dismember the lot," said Amaya,surprising absolutely no one, chin lifted and eyes keenly interested, before she gestured toward what could only be described as discarded cracker graveyard. "I could definitely use the reinforcements."

[begmetwice]

"Marvelous. It's not like they go off," Irene noted, pulling the little package of crackers out of her bag to add neatly to the graveyard --

-- and in the process, with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it swiftness and precision, added another little parcel to the various detritus on the table Irene had positioned herself against as today's Designated Leaning Spot.

This particular small, squashy package, wrapped in discreet paper and bearing Amaya's name in Irene's neat penmanship, would reveal itself once unwrapped to be a pair of work gloves made from fine, soft, but durable leather. They were lined with something that might have been cashmere, but Irene had dutifully ensured there was no wrapping or tag that would indicate anything of the sort, lest anyone get hung up on the material itself rather than how very nice the texture was.

But anyway. That was there to be found eventually, since the best way to give and receive gifts was to pretend you hadn't. (And while it did kill Irene a little to not immediately take credit -- sometimes the long game was the best one, anyway.)

"Does this mean that I should expect a more explosive display come next twenty-fifth December?" Irene added, eyeing the discarded and dismembered crackers in Amaya's wake with interest.

[special_rabbit]

Amaya would actually argue that the only way to give and receive gifts was to pretend you hadn't, with an addition of never speaking of it ever, but, anyway...

"So far," she said, "they've been worked to go two particular ways: more explosive, or, at the very least, more interesting. So far, I've mostly just gotten a handle on different colored smokes."

Sometimes even with glitter, but Amaya could not actually determine whether that had been by her hand, or more just the island's doing.

[begmetwice]

Well, considering what was likely to happen to the radio notes concerning the forge today -- could quite well be the island, indeed.

"Different colored smokes sounds intriguing," Irene noted with interest. "Matter of not cheaping out on the chemistry, I'd imagine?"

Those little flashbang strips were fun, but there was clear room for improvement there in terms of all matters smoke and explosion. (And the prizes within, but one thing at a time. And honestly, Irene sort of found it charming how terrible cracker prizes could be.)

[special_rabbit]

"Just so," Amaya confirmed with a nod, before launching into a...very detailed ramble with regards to the various chemicals put to use and how they related to the processes she might use for some of her normal work, but the exhaustive explanation was not completely without reward, because, by the end of it, once some of the prototypes (hardly very festive, constricted as the were out of just the brown packing paper she used for her online orders) she'd put together had come into it, she was handing one over to Irene to try.

"Don't know which is which color," she added, "truth be told. I figured that would just add to the fun of the surprise."