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Post by Silverfallingstar on Aug 6, 2017 11:15:02 GMT -6
 The rhythmic sound of hammer on anvil echoed across the artisan district as all the blacksmiths worked. Moonrise was no exception as she flicked a hot rod out of the forge, laying it on the anvil and beating it into shape. The calming hiss pleased the black equines ears as she held the now cooled blade in the light to examine it before placing it back into the hot coals of the forge. A small chirp caused her to look down, Soot had decided to come over and rub against her leg for attention.
With a soft smile she used her teke to gently stroke his back, causing the lykoi cat to purr before jumping onto his owners back, nestling into the gap between the blacksmith's shoulder blades for a nap. Shaking her head in amusement she went back to her work, a soft hum escaping her as she did so. Soot didn't seem to be too bothered by the noises caused by her work, in fact if anything he preferred to be with her while she did so.
She almost missed the soft rapping on her workshop door, thankfully a few prods by Soot in the back of the neck were enough to get her attention.
"Come on Moon, someone's at the door, probably that artisan guy you were telling this one about."
Moonrise softly chuckled in response as she trotted over to the door, opening it with a smile as her soft teke slid the goggles to her forehead.
"Hello Milan! Come on in, I hope you don't mind the soot."
Post #1 | Word Count: 263 |
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Post by ThatDenver on Aug 6, 2017 15:08:28 GMT -6
MILAN
It had only been a few short days since he had moved from his old home in the Common district portion of the Gilded Bridge, to the esteemed Artisan District. His new home – a small estate with all the luxuries one could desire, albeit not as fancy as the home of a noble would be – was still in a bit of disarray, as not all items had yet found their places within its rooms, and some items were still waiting to be delivered. Yet Milan could not contain himself and wait to get to work. As much as he had at one time enjoyed his profession as a slave trader, this just felt… Right.
He had not been waiting long before getting his first assignment. A simple thing: a fellow artisan wanted to have some sign spruced up, but making new friends in his new position would be very important for the future. Every work, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, would play a big part in making him more well known, and being well known would open entirely new doors in the future.
With the King gone and the world in upheaval, who knew what kind of new opportunities would arise.
These thoughts were on the top of his mind as he knocked his hoof on the door. For a moment he could hear the rhythmic sounds of metalwork from the inside, but they soon ceased. Milan breathed deep, hoping he looked presentable enough, and when the door opened, he smiled wide.
“Hello, Moonrise”, he said, stepping by her to get inside.
“I don’t mind at all, it is always nice to see another professional at work”, Milan added with a smile. He did mind soot in his own home, but it was to be expected when visiting a blacksmith’s workspace, so there was no reason to be fuzzy about it now.
“Hope the day is treating you well”, he smiled, polite yet curious – his eyes traveled around the space, taking in the finished works as well as those still in progress.
Word count: 344
Post #1
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Post by Silverfallingstar on Aug 8, 2017 17:39:02 GMT -6
"Glad to hear." She said with a smile, leaving the door open behind him, she still needed to get the sign down anyway. Soot perked his half bald ears up when Milan entered, making a side comment to his owner.
"This one smells of paint."
"He's a painter Soot." Realizing that comment seemed to come out of the blue she looked at her fellow artisan with a small smile. "Sorry if that sounded weird. I'm able to talk to familiars, my friend Soot here said you smelled like paint."
Chuckling she headed into the back room, coming back out carrying a step ladder and a toolbox. "Let me know if you'd like some tea or something to drink. Sometimes I find that having a nice beverage while working helps with focus, though with me that's often ice water." She beckoned him outside with a flick of her tail as she set the ladder and toolbox down on the cobbled street. She gestured to the wooden sign that swayed gently above the entrance to her shop. It read "The Lunar Forge" in elegant font with a moon and night sky painted around it. On one part of the sign, the stars formed a constellation that made an abstract looking anvil. The paint seemed faded in spots, and flecks had fallen off in places, but surprisingly the wood seemed no worse for wear.
"This sign has been part of the shop since before I was apprenticed here. It's been needing some care for a while now, I've just never had the time to find someone to restore it. What do you think?"
Post #2 | Word Count: 270
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Post by ThatDenver on Aug 9, 2017 12:09:16 GMT -6
MILAN
Milan raised an eyebrow at the mare who spoke at, or perhaps to, a cat. He had heard of familiar whisperers, of course, but he had never actually met one, so it was a bit… Alarming, at first. Apparently Moonrise was used to that reaction, as she was quick to explain herself.
“Oh, don’t worry. I’ve just never met a whisperer before”, he said: “I’d like a cat as well. But my p--- Slave says that I need something bigger.”
He followed the black mare deeper into the workspace, and nodded his head at the invitation: “Some tea a bit later sounds nice, thank you.”
Then they were moving out, with Milan following dutifully. His eyes went up to the sign. It was obviously an old one, a traditional business sign piece. Quite nice, actually – he took a moment to appreciate the previous artist’s vision, and the way the stars had been painted. Very nice typeface as well, just in general a highly professional piece, but very faded at places. Some details were hard to make out anymore, but the wood itself seemed to be in good condition.
“It’s a very nice piece, certainly worth restoring, rather than replacing”, he said, climbing up the ladder for a better look. Up close, he could see the strokes of the previous artist, carefully placed and calculated. It was very precise in execution.
“I should think that a new layer of paint and a coat of protective varnish should do wonders. I won’t change anything about it, but the colors will seem more vibrant after a repaint, even if I try to match them as closely as possible – that should fix itself shortly as the sign is outside”, he explained, lowering himself down the ladder.
“Do you want it painted where it is, or can we take it down and do it inside?”, he asked, adding: “I would personally recommend doing it inside for more precision, and then we won’t be as vulnerable to weather conditions.”
Milan smiled slightly. He was liking this project already.
He had brought with him a sack of supplies – some paint for mixing, brushes and varnish. It was not a very elegant solution, but Milan did not do home calls often enough yet to warrant the purchase of something more fancy. It did it’s job.
Word count: 387
Post #2
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Post by Silverfallingstar on Aug 9, 2017 14:17:24 GMT -6
"Psh, this one can be just as scary as any dog, and so can any feline." The lykoi quipped, words lost on all but Moonrise who chuckled. "Soot would disagree with your slave on that one."
She listened calmly to Milan as he explained what he wished to do so the sign would be restored. She nodded with a smile. "That sounds like a plan. And don't worry, I planned on you restoring it inside, I just wished for you to see it hanging before I took it down so you could envision it in your head."
She stepped up on the ladder after Milan came down, taking the toolbox with her. Soot, finding the angle his owner sat on to be less than desirable for his situation, jumped down onto the windowsill next to Milan. He proceeded to sniff the painters face, little nose twitching as he took in the smell. After being satisfied with a good sniff, he seemed to smile as he blinked happily at the black and white equine.
Meanwhile Moonrise was working on taking the sign down from it's rod affixed to the building. Once the last clip came off the chain that let it swing in the breeze, she put her tools back in the box and brought both the toolbox and sign down. Heading back inside for a moment to put the toolbox down before grabbing the ladder and beckoning Milan inside. Soot jumped back on his owners back as the trio returned to the forge.
"I figured you could work at this workbench over here, this part of my workbench is for decorating finished armor pieces, so it's cleaner than the other parts." She said, placing the sign down on the counterspace she indicated. Using her Teke she carefully unscrewed the two eyehooks that had been screwed into the top of the sign to hold it to the chains outside. "I'll be making new eyehooks for the sign, I hope you don't mind the noise while you paint?" She asked, holding up the two lumps of metal for emphasis.
Post #3 | Word Count: 347 |
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Post by ThatDenver on Aug 12, 2017 0:01:20 GMT -6
MILAN
Milan settled for a soft chuckle when Moonrise informed him that the cat disagreed. Of course it did. As fascinating as it probably was to talk to familiars, he was regardless rather pleased to not possess this ability.
“I wasn’t thinking a dog as much as maybe a bigger cat. A sabertooth of something”, he clarified
He allowed the cat to sniff and inspect him, and returned the slow blink without much thinking. Cats had always been his favorites, and even with Bale’s overprotective tendencies, he was pretty sure a sabertooth would be fierce enough. Then he could maybe get a cat later for the companionship.
“The armorbench sounds fine”, Milan smiled, and began to unbundle things from his sack, setting them on the provided space in the way he was used to having them. The bench was big enough for all of it, and when he was done setting things up, it looked like a nice workspace.
“I don’t mind at all”, he replied, inspecting the sign once again now that it was down, and the hooks were gone. There seemed to be no damage to it, but some spots were a little dirty – particles of sand clinging to the old surface. Milan wetted a piece of fabric, and gently rubbed off the dirt, creating a smooth surface on which to work. The sign was propped against a piece of smooth stone, and the dark stallion began mixing paints for the project.
“Have you been working here long?” he asked while working, smiling a bit to himself: “I used to be a slave trader until very recently, but my mother taught me when I was young, and painting was always a hobby I enjoyed.”
A bit oversharing, perhaps, but it wasn’t too personal, just talk of hobbies and professions. They were both artisans here, after all.
First batches of paints done, he began to meticulously add new, vibrant color to the sky, carefully tracing the strokes of the previous artisan.
Word count: 331
Post #3
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Post by Silverfallingstar on Sept 21, 2017 14:05:00 GMT -6
With a smile she nodded at his question.
"Yeah, this used to be my old mentors place, started apprenticing here when I was a teenager. Sindar, my old mentor, gave it to me a few years ago when he retired. Surprisingly I was the only apprentice he took, I guess he never really wanted to teach anyone until he saw how excited I was about learning. He was an old friend of my grandfather, and was kind of like an uncle to my father as he was growing up, made my dad's chevalier armor in fact." She said, searching around her boxes of ore before she pulled out a lump she found adequate and placed it into the forge.
"A slave trader huh? Can't say I've heard of that kind of transition before. But it's always nice to see new faces around here. Speaking of your mother though, does she still paint? My mother is mostly retired, but she still goes to the gilded bridge to sell things from time to time."
She pulled out a red hot lump from the forge with a pair of tongs, placing it onto the anvil and with another glow of teke brought it to bear with a sledgehammer. It went from a shapeless lump to that of a rod, the red hot heat slowly dissipating with each hit. She threw it back into the forge and repeated the process with another lump. As that rod cooled, it too, went back into the furnace.
Soot meanwhile, had taken to sitting next to the bottom of the forge, his semi-hairless form pressed against the warm stones with a soft purr. She pulled one of the rods from the fire, and began to slowly pound one end into a broken circle, putting it back in the fire for small moments as she worked. Once the hook was formed, she dipped the end in cold water. The metal let out a low hiss as the water rapidly cooled the eyehook.
"So I know for us blacksmiths we tend to have favorite things to work on, like for example, I enjoy working on blades. What do you like working with? Mediums, subjects, the like." She asked Milan, glancing over in his direction as she plucked the hook out of the fire again and began with a smaller tool to form grooves on the bottom end so it would screw into the sign easy.
Post #4 | Word Count: 405
ooc: So sorry for the wait! The chapter and college have been keeping me busy
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Post by ThatDenver on Oct 3, 2017 5:01:18 GMT -6
MILAN
There was an odd sense of mimicry in working on top of what someone else had once designed, yet Milan tried to stay as faithful as possible in both use of color, and the way he used his strokes to form the shapes. Simple, yet striking, that was the design behind this artisanal sign. While he was painting, the dark stallion also performed small checks to make absolutely sure that there was no damage to the sign, such as rot within the wood or any emerging splints.
“I never had a mentor relationship like that”, he simply noted, wondering what it must have been like to have a mentor. Sure, his mother had taught him, and he had gone to school like any proper Aodhian child, but having a mentor was a different relationship altogether. Somewhere between a teacher and a parent, a blend of both.
Milan didn’t really watch Moonrise work, afraid of slips in his own task if he allowed himself to take a keener interest in the actions of another. By what little he noted between strokes of paint, Moonrise worked with a certain calm knowledge, with well practiced movements from training. Although both were artisans, Milan couldn’t help but wonder at how different their trades were. Art, true art at least, was not practiced – it was wild and drawn by inspiration. Metalwork was art as well, but the base of it – the movements needed to start on a piece before it could reach its full potential, were quite mechanical.
He wondered if he might find Moonrise’s work less mechanics based if he was more than passingly familiar with it.
“Yes, I suppose it is not entirely traditional. But slave trading was lucrative, and seemed attractive when I was young. Left me with enough to buy my own place in the Artisan District as well”, he said, smiling slightly. His mom would certainly have paid for the difference if it came to that, but he was happy to not have needed her help.
“She does, yes. She has only just got into her fifties, says she is still young enough to paint. Which I wouldn’t disagree on”, Milan replied a fondness in his voice. His mother was a gentle soul, but she could be willful at times when something was important to her.
Moonrise’s question made his brow furrow a little. A favorite thing to work with? He felt that it was a little early to make any definite calls on that, but of course he had favorites. Some things felt easier to do, and required less deep thinking, which made them more pleasant, of course. There was always an attraction in the easy path, even if he did genuinely enjoy developing his skills. After a difficult work, it was always nice to return to what you already knew.
“I enjoy traditional painting on canvas most. Oil paints are a favorite of mine, but I like to experiment with different mediums and combine them”, Milan replied, and then added: “I’m still a bit new to all of this.”
Word count: 511
Post #4
OOC: No worries, a bit slow on the reply myself.
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