you must be sure that the doubts and questions are your own

[serjeant]

Who: Seoraj and YOU.
What: The smithy is open for business, which means taking orders and working up basics for sale.
Where: Seoraj's Forge in Stoneshell.
When: Weekdays, business hours. Specify if it matters.
Notes: This is generally here for anyone to whom blacksmiths are relevant!
Warnings: Archaic sexism.

Business may not be booming, but nevertheless it is well underway within a short time of Seoraj's acquisition. Most of his work to start with comes in through the farming communities, and the occupation is familiar in a way that lays out most starkly how familiar so much of this place is not. Steel works under his hands as it ever has, and the world outside the smithy marches on in its own, new way. Immersing himself in that is his way, though he's never had an opportunity like this before; he insinuates himself into life here as if it were an old cloak and not so crisply new as it is.

People begin to talk to him. That will be good, he thinks, though he doesn't yet know what for.

Comments

[suninhades]

Kitted up, she swings on the horse with ease. "Until next time."

And she's off.

[wandandsickle]

It's not an unfamiliar speech, at least in tone; it would be an understatement to say that mages tend to be concerned with seniority. She knew she wouldn't get to make anything on her first day, although a part of her is still a little disappointed. Her fingers itch a little bit. But she's no stranger to hard, boring work, and knows the importance of well-maintained tools.

"All right," she says, nodding. "That's fine." If he thinks that's going to scare her away, he's going to have to try harder. "Show me what to do, Master Stoneshell."

[coffeeking]

Ianto clasps his wrist amicably with a professional smile, a little thrown by the old-fashioned greeting, but quickly recovering. "Good morning. I was wondering if you're skilled in making ammunition. Specifically, bullets for automatic guns, or revolvers."

Even if he's not, Ianto's willing to let him give it a go. The lack of ammo in Baedal is quickly becoming a problem.

[serjeant]

It's not a matter of scaring her away, or trying to knock her down a peg; it's the way he was taught, with care and patience, to make sure that at the end of it he would know how to do it right with all the entailed responsibilities of this work, and it's the way he'll teach anyone who comes to him. If it had been enough to make her pout, he'd have dismissed her as someone wasting his time for a lark.

That she's not is a good thing. A girl, he supposes, has more to prove; she might work harder, be better at the end, and he wouldn't mind being proud of that.

"Here," he says, leading her to where she can sit with him and he'll show her what he wants her to do. "I'm working a set of lockpicks tomorrow, you'll want to see how I do that."

[serjeant]

As he lets go, he sucks the back of his teeth in thought with a shake of his head. "I don't know the weapons," he says, apologetically; they're not at that level, where he's from, and the scarcity in Baedal means no one has had a need to explain them to him yet here. "I'd be happy to give it a try, if you can show me what it is you need."

[coffeeking]

Ianto nods agreeably, not terribly surprised, and removes both his gun and Jack's from beneath his coat, where they're tucked under his waistband. He places them on a nearby table before digging two rounds out of his pocket -- two of the last rounds for both guns, respectively -- and then two more from another pocket that he's already taken the liberty of taking apart. The bullets are separated from their cartridges and primers. There's no powder. He lines them up on the table.

"The ammunition looks simple, but it's actually somewhat complex, and requires precision work." He briefly explains how the rounds need to be assembled and then shows how they're loaded into the guns. "When the trigger is pulled, the firing pin hits the primer on the bullet, which causes the powder to erupt in a contained explosion that forces the projectile out of the cartridge at an extremely high speed."

He looks at Seoraj, brow furrowed. He knows this is probably out of the blacksmith's current depth. The question is, can he rise to the challenge? "I know it's asking a lot, but do you can give it a try? We have a supply of powder, and a press that can assemble the rounds accurately, we just need the individual pieces."

[serjeant]

The light of interest in his eyes probably answers the question before he says anything - curiosity alone would be enough to get him to try, but professional pride adds another unnecessary push to him.

"Leave these with me," he says, tapping the table beside the rounds that Ianto has shown him, "and if I can't do it, I'll give them back and you'll owe me nothing. If I can, we'll negotiate a price."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

a.k.a. backdated to the day when Njoki was working for Seoraj sorting tools and doing general prep work.

"Seoraj, I've a question for you."

[serjeant]

"Mmmn?" Seoraj doesn't quite look up from what he's doing, clicking his tongue against his teeth. "What's that, then?"

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

"Back home, I do conjure. It's a sort of folk magic. You have opinions on that?" She might as well ask if he's a fan of burning witching before she continues any further.

[serjeant]

Right, that does actually require he pause in his current activity and give what she's saying some focused thought. He sets his files down, sinking down onto the stool nearby and considering her. Before Nekweros, maybe he would've said he didn't believe in that sort of thing. He would have said it's hard to have an opinion on something he doesn't believe in; he would have said the hatred he sees springing up in others about it worries him, not for what it is but for the harbouring of such hatred and the cruelty that blind rage can strike with.

Nekweros shook up his world, and Baedal's turned it all the way upside down. Some of what he thinks is the same, but he no longer dismisses the occult out of hand as he might have once.

"I don't like to talk about things I don't know," he says, finally.

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

"Good. You willing to hear about it? I'll even ease the way with a drink if you need it." Njoki is tempted to reassure him that she's not a bad person, but if he's not even willing to hear her out then there's no point. While she'd like to trust Seoraj, she's spent a long time being very cagey about her abilities.

[serjeant]

"Give it to me clear," he says, with a wry grin; he can guess at the trust necessary, he's seen what a witch-hunt can stir up, and a part of him is pleased to be considered worthy of broaching such a conversation with, "and I'll tell you if I need a good stiff drink after."

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

"Conjure or rootwork is a tool. It's a way to make things happen, not a religion or a belief system. Most of it has to do with the principle of like-to-like," she says settling into what seems to be a natural patter. "You want something good to happen, something sweet, you make a honey jar. You want someone to get away from you, you get the dust from their footprint and mix it with chilis to give 'em a hotfoot."

"There are folks who do bad things with it and some think that it's fine, 'cause it's just the worker acting as a conduit for the client's wishes, but I'm not so sure. People aren't tools."

[coffeeking]

It's with some small relief that Ianto agrees. No promises have been made, but frankly, he can think of few other people to ask. Those few he can think of are not in their cohort, and he doesn't like the lack of security going to them might entail. If anything, he can be paranoid.

"Thank you. You can reach me any time on my CID." He gathers up the guns, but leaves the bullets.

[serjeant]

"I'll be in touch," Seoraj promises, looking pleased; he doesn't mind the usual work, shoeing horses and repairing wheel axles, making tools for farmers, but this is a little more engaging and he's confident he'll be able to produce something more than workable for Ianto. Maybe he'll look into these guns himself, too, but that's a different flavour of curiosity. "You let me know if there's anything else you need." In general, he means, not right now. Presumably if there were anything else now, he'd have said as much.

[serjeant]

"You do something bad, you've done something bad," Seoraj says, mildly and simply; it makes sense to him.

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

Njoki wuffles and agrees. Conjure is a job like any other where you can take or leave clients as you please.

"Right. I asked about this, 'cause you seem like a good man, I like the forge, and I could use good word of mouth -- d'you want me to protect this place?"

[serjeant]

"I won't say no." It's a good thing that she wants to, the way he figures it, and he can always use a leg up in the world. Maybe he should be warier about something he doesn't understand, but that's no way to learn - and besides, he has a good feeling about Njoki. She's good people. No sense turning his nose up at good people. "Will it cost me?" He's still saying yes, he'd just like to know.

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

"I'd like to take it in trade, if possible. Some of what I do needs nails or small metal figures." If he's not interested in paying, she'd probably still offer some work, just to get her name out.

[serjeant]

"I can do that for you." He's got no objection to paying her, and if her work doesn't pan out, what she's asking for is little to lose.

[wandandsickle]

"Ooooooh..." She can't stop herself from voicing excitement. Jones herself owns a set of lockpicks (and knows how to use them, and no one will ever know where she learned), and to see how they're made sounds fascinating. (That, and help considerably considering the rate at which she seems to be getting extradimensionally relocated.) She sits. "All right. Well, what do I do?"

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

"Nice. Now, I really don't know much about how a forge runs, so what're your usual problems? What are the rare and terrible problems?" Along with the usual business concerns - nonpayment, no customers - Njoki thinks there must be some specific things like fire.

mun apologizes for the delay, the tag got lost in the shuffle :/

[stepintoshadows.livejournal.com]

He nods curtly, accepting the timeframe; he shouldn't need anything more on his end provided everything goes smoothly, and if he does...well. He won't. It's as simple as that, his code doesn't leave room for failure.

"Appreciate it. Will be back then."