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Characters:Hawk and anyone who wants to ~~annoy him~~ get weapons/armor/coffee
Open? Yep
Where:The Smithy
When: 5th of Rebirth's Height
Warnings: Crankypants, most likely cursing.

It'd been four days since Hawk and his makeshift family had shown up in Schwanheim. The first had been spent gathering information and procuring a reliable source of coffee (because like hell he was going to put up with this fairy tale bullshit with out it.) The second had been spent procuring him and Faolan, (and by extension his drunken mother and Aralu) a place of their own (because like hell he was going to stay in that castle. The Amontillado had been one thing, a castle in name more than anything else, and very sparsely populated, but this? Ha ha ha no.)

It'd been luck (or more likely annoying coincidence) that that place had been the home and work place of a blacksmith that had gone off to seek his fortunes in the belly of a dragon or some crap, Hawk really didn't care. It was on the edge of the city, it was well equipped, had enough bedrooms and gave him something he could work with. Between the coffee and getting back to work with his metal, he was finally starting to feel more at ease.

It wasn't that he hated change. He hated change that he had no way to predict that turned his world upside down. He hated not being in control. He hated being forced into something.

And he hated how Aralu felt the need to hang off his arm every damned time they went out. Bad enough when she'd done it before they'd come here, now she was being territorial about it and boasting in her usual mocking fashion.

And he hated how the first thing his damned mother had done was find the bar and get drunk. You'd think with a new world full of unicorn farts and stupid hats that she'd have been at peace with her insanity, but no. Off to the damned bottle it was.

And now all this ruckus about the "heroes" going off to go look at some abandoned town. No, he wasn't going, and if one more idiot asked they were going to meet the wrong end of one of his daggers.

Yep, Hawk was in a charming mood as he opened up shop that morning. He'd only had three cups of coffee, it was going to take another two more before he was going to be anything other than cranky.

Hell, who was he kidding. He was going to be cranky anyway.

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The castle was all but empty now that the brave heroes had left for West Haven. Tatra decided to spend the day out talking to the townsfolk. It didn't bother her that people stared as she walked by in her light, flowing clothes. She simply smiled at them and asked how they were doing.

Unfortunately it was so obvious to onlookers that she was one of the foreign princesses that it was difficult to get anyone to talk to her. When she entered the smithy she smiled like she had smiled at everyone and said, "Hello! Isn't it a lovely day?"

Hawk raised an eyebrow at her before taking a drink from his mug. "What do you want?" he asked, not sparing any pleasantries. He doubted she was here to patronize his business. And even if she was, he wasn't exactly the kind for small talk.

"A look at your wares," she answered cooly, "and a few pleasant words." She approached the counter, holding her head high but still smiling sweetly.

"Do you have the time, or are you too busy?"

"Only if you're serious about looking for something. I don't do small talk," he answered bluntly. That went even more so for princess types.

She nodded her understanding and took a long look at every piece he carried. After a moment, she spoke again.

"You do excellent work. Can you make anything more delicate?"

Hawk did his best not to sigh, running the hand now holding his mug through his hair. Damned delicate women. "Yeah. How delicate we talking here?"

If he could coax the metal to want to be that shape, he could make anything. It was always just such a pain to get it to be something dainty unless it was that type of metal.

"Thin enough to reinforce clothing without being noticed," she explained, struggling with the image she was trying to get across. In truth, it was an excuse she had made up to come in without disturbing anyone. It seemed she couldn't escape it, though. This man simply wanted to be disturbed.

Hawk raised an eyebrow, stance shifting slightly as he finished his mug of coffee. "So you're looking for armor more than a blade," he replied, setting his mug down and giving Tatra proper attention. "Or something that can be used for both."

She nodded. He was headed in the right direction at least.

"Something I could dance in," she added, "that might help channel power." After all, she could sense that her power was weakened here. She couldn't summon her Djiin at all, but maybe she could work some smaller spells with the right equipment.

Interesting. Something that sounded like it would be a challenge to make. That hadn't taken long at all. Good.

"How much weight are you used to carrying around and how flexible are we talking here?" he asked, moving around the counter to grab his notepad and pencil. "Stuff that bends easy isn't going to channel much of anything." And she didn't exactly look like she was a ball room dancer...

She leaned in closer to watch him take notes. Perhaps now that she was of some use to him they could both benefit from the transaction. Money wasn't an issue.

"It's the motion that creates spellwork," she explained. That was the nature of her dance. "I can get used to the weight, as long as it doesn't look suspicious."

After all, it would do no good for a princess to be seen wearing armor, no matter how suspicious she might be of her circumstances. Her life was about diplomacy.

"So you wouldn't even need anything continuous, huh?" Hawk mused. "You looking for this to be able to stop a blade or just be a conduit?"

"A conduit would be simple enough," she mused. "If I could use just a bit more of my power, I wouldn't need it to stop a blade." After all, she had studied enough defensive magic as a girl.

"Copper," Hawk nodded, scribbling it down. "You use your hands for this stuff?" It'd be easier to make it an accessory rather than slip it under clothing, especially if it was copper. Bent less that way.

She nodded.

"I use my hands, feet, hips and chest."

"Two bracers, anklets, belt and a pendant," Hawk nodded, continuing to make notes. "Any insignia or whatever you'd want on em?"

"No, thank you," she replied with another smile. "I can pay whatever it costs, but I was hoping you could also tell me more about this place," she ventured, now that their transaction was nearing completion. Perhaps she could catch him off guard and actually learn something.

Hawk paused, looking up slightly at her. "Unless you're asking about the shop's glorious 2 day history, you're in the wrong department, lady," he returned flatly before going back to his notes. "I'll have to see how much getting the metal costs before I can give a price estimate. No such thing as a stable price in this place, apparently," he scowled, mood soured a bit.

She shook her head again, still smiling sweetly.

"Your impressions. Charge me extra, if you wish."

CRANKY PARTY IS GO.

There was another soul who stayed behind from the adventure into certain doom. A twiggy man of supposed magic dragged himself through the streets with a book under one arm. He hadn't had a very good morning and he was pretty sure he was going to have an equally crappy day unless he happened upon some glasses or some kind of magnifying paperweight to use with the book the littlest mage had given him. He had never seen a Ye Olde Smithy before. Not in person. He hadn't tried to talk to the locals outside the castle so the loudly-dressed man wandered over to the building and stood there, staring, not really expecting to be addressed.

A selfish part of him wondered if he were to 'invent' gunpowder he could put an end to this silly mess...or maybe he could just find a nice knife. A man needed a knife if he was going to be any kind of Adventuerer. Even if the Adventure didn't take him out of his own back yard.

Hey...hey Hawk there's an ugly thing standing outside your shop. What are you gonna do about it?

Keep drinking his coffee, that's what. If the weirdo with the robes wanted to order something, he'd have to actually speak up. Hawk wasn't very inclined to start talking to strangers, nor did he have much of a high opinion of people walking around in idiot robes.

...or anyone else for that matter.

Alright, James, you can stop being a human doorstop now.

"Hey." That was a good icebreaker. "How much would a big impressive 'fuck-off don't rob me' dagger cost?" He knew he didn't have enough on him, but it would give him a goal. He'd been told everything was free but he'd believe that when he saw it.

Hawk's lips quirked in what might have been a smile. "Depends. Are you going to bother even drawing it? How much of a crazy bastard did you want to look like? And how likely are you going to cut yourself instead of the guy you want to fuck off?"

"Crazy enough." He narrowed his bad eye. "I know how to hold a knife. How much are your daggers?" James invited himself into the little space and took a look around. So this was a smithy? Looked like a smithy. He'd accept that. "Wouldn't trade for a fairly stupid looking hat would you?"

"The fuck use would I have for a stupid hat?" Hawk snorted. "You want to barter, get me something I can use and we'll talk."

Prices were something based very loosely on cost of materials and time, but far more on how much someone looked like they could pay. This guy? He'd be lucky if he could get material cost for.

JW snorted a laugh. That's about what he thought he'd hear. Hawk didn't murder him on the spot. This guy was alright! "What's somethin' you need? I just got spat out here, I don't expect this here trade to happen tomorrow...but I'd like an idea of where to start."

"Metal. The more the better. Iron, Steel, Copper. Hell, even silver if you can find it. Doesn't even have to be pure, I can fix that. Any bits you find, scrap, tainted, mixed in with other crap, all fixable." Hell, he almost preferred working with damaged leftovers. Normally the metal was so eager to be released that it was easy as anything to shape.

James stroked his chin and then nodded. "That sounds doable." He was good at picking up scrap! "I'll keep an eye out. Thanks...they don't have optometrists here, do they? What about a glass blower? I need some kind of magnifying glass."

"They must somewhere," Hawk jerked his thumb over to where his coffee maker rested, looking far more like something out of a scientist's lab than a coffee percolator.

James leaned and squinted at the contraption. Huh. Well that was...a different kind of coffee maker, wasn't it? "I can't figure out if this place is just old fashioned or flat-out backwards."

"What, it can't be both?" Hawk returned dryly. "I wouldn't mind it so much if it weren't for all this storybook bullshit." And other things.

"That. That thing you said. Yes. I guess you're not local either. How long you been stuck here?"

So far, everyone he'd met had only mentioned a few days. This was good because if he never yeard 'a year or something' from somebody maybe there was hope! Maybe they were still early enough in all this bullhonkus that King Sitsonhisass would get tired of them and send them all home!

Maybe.

"Couple days," Hawk shrugged before refilling his coffee mug.

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*LOL*

LOL