It's time for a tan [Open]

[Leon Orcot]

Leon nodded his head as she spoke of a cross guard and began cutting again, slowly working the block of obsidian down into a beautiful cross guard. He paused in this to look up at her face as she started describing what she saw. He let a smile come over his face as she spoke in a wistful voice. Listening to how she described the colors, he figured it wouldn't be all that hard to integrate other colors into the blade. He could melt up a few jewels and hammer a few channels into the blade and fill them in with the molten gems, letting them cool into the blade itself and join with it. Getting back to work on the hilt, he managed to finish it up and turned to her. "How does this fit with your hand? It feel alright? If not I can recut it until it is correct." He softly smiled at her, handing her the finished pommel. It was simple, and yet elegant at the same time. The obsidian was shining in the light of the forges and the cross guard held a simple pattern of swirls, it was also grooved so that it could be filled with more of the gems once he melted them down.

Taking a moment after handing it to her he stepped back over to the forge and grabbed the heated bar with his now bare hands. Pulling it out of the fires he gave it a good once over and nodded his head. Pulling a hammer from the nearby wall, he took it to the metal and started to fold it over onto itself. He would do this two more times before he was satisfied and began to give the blade it's trademark curve and shape, placing it back in to the forge once it began to cool off. He pumped the bellows again to freshen up the air and heat the forge and stepped over to the area where they kept the gems in the forge. He selected a few different colors and brought them over to Desdemona. Smiling at her as he sat down at the bench again, he laid the jewels across the table. "We have several different colors of gems, so why don't you pick out the ones you would like me to color your blade with Mona. This way, you have all the input on the colors and you'll love the blade even more."

[Deleted]

Her eyes opened, before she held out a hand to grasp the item. Holding it securely in one hand, she brought the other one up to stroke it as she explored every crevice and feature with her fingertips. Adjusting her grip, she slowly brought the handle around in a slow but fluid series of loops and twists to make sure that it was perfectly attuned to her movement. Bringing it to a halt at her chest, she placed it on her flat palm and then offered it to him. "It fits well," she told him softly. "The balance is perfect."

As he laid out the selection of gemstones on the bench, she picked up a handful and carefully raised them one by one so she could inspect them in the light. A critical eye scanned each stone, picking out any imperfections and blemishes on the surface before she tested their weight and sorted them into a pile for desired and a pile for refusal. The darkness sight came in handy in places like this sometimes, able to pick out every imperfection. Soon, she had chosen a selection of dark blue sapphires and diamonds, with some of the rubies for her hilt that glowed blood red in the fire light.

"I have chosen," she informed him. "Please would you place the rubies in the handle grooves and alternate the dark sapphires with diamonds in the grooves on the scimitar itself."

[Leon Orcot]

Gently accepting the handle of the blade back and setting it off to the side. Sliding the spare gems off to the side, he would grab them in a bit to put them up. Pulling the three piles of gems over to him he quickly and efficiently looked over each one, not minding any flaws seen, just looking for any debris that may still be located inside. Finding only minimal amounts he nodded his head, "I can get that done Mona, piece of cake." Picking up the excess gems, he walked back over to the storage and placed them back inside.

On his walk back, he grabbed up three bowls made of a thick, tough stone material. He returned to the bench, where he grabbed up the gems and separated them into the three bowls, followed by his placing them beside the bar of iron inside of the hot coals of the forge. He slid back over to the bellows and pumped them a few times to bring the heat levels up inside the forge. Looking from the bar, over to the anvil, he decided to cheat a bit at making her weapon. Turning to the shelf that was under his workbench, he grabbed two clamps from under it and fastened them to the anvil. Taking the bar of white hot iron out of the forge, he secured it in the clamps. Looking over to Mona, he gave her a grin and a wink, "This is where things get interesting for people who haven't seen us work before. You're going to want to shield your eyes in a second." He grabbed the hilt of the weapon from where he had placed it, he put it on top of the Stygian Iron.

Pulling the celestial bronze hammer from the loop on the side of his pants he twirled it around, having it slowly assume the form of his war hammer. On what would be the final spin he gripped it with both of his hands and brought it down upon the obsidian of the hilt. For most people, this would lead to the obsidian shattering, or at least cracking and chipping. But in this instance, both the obsidian and the iron started glowing brighter. Pulling his goggles down over his eyes to combat the intense light, he continued hammering away at it. As the glowing started to fade, he paused for a moment and grabbed the bowls filled with the now liquid gems. He gently poured them over the top of the glowing form of the sword and began hammering away at it again, causing the liquid gems to start to glowing as well.

With one final swing of his mighty hammer, the glow faded completely, revealing something that he would bet a few dollars on that Mona wasn't expecting. Resting on the anvil was a tasteful pendant, a shining black chain with a Gothic stylized letter L hanging from the chain. The L had traces of red, blue, and silver from the gems. Picking up the cool chain, he unlatched the clasp holding it together and turned to face Desdemona. Smiling at her, he said, "I hope you like it, I think this is one of the finest things I've ever made. Now turn around for me and I'll place it around your neck."

[Deleted]

The black eyes continued to watch his progress silently, the mind attached to those eyes wondering why he was repeating the same task that she had just completed only a few seconds ago. The gemstones had already passed her own critical tastes so the need to repeat the inspection was a strange thing. She could have asked him why he was rechecking them but something inside of her whispered that it might be rude to question him again, after the many questions she had already put to him in the course of the day. So she simply allowed herself to chafe inwardly without any indication of what she was thinking. Mona was good at concealing her feelings, just like her brother, and they would clean up if either of them ever entered a poker championship or some such nonsense. They had perfected their mothers sneaky, underhanded backstabbing nature into a perfectly honed machine. Well, she had at any rate. Xenos was less capable of smoothing over strong emotions in the heat of the moment.

Slipping off her stool, she glided over to the forge to inspect his work and rested her hands against her stomach neutrally as she watched the fiery glow of the materials shimmer and shift in the forge. As he spoke to her again, she nodded silently and then summoned a shadow to film her eyes as she watched him hammer and work at the metals. Bright lights were her one major weakness and strong light sources gave her headaches but she still wanted to watch him work. The shadows made everything look like they were in a form of black sepia, filtering out the nasty effects of the firelight and adding a touch of old world mysticism and mist to the area. Even through the shadows, her eyes glinted with a reflection of the fire that made her eyes look cat-like.

As the glows faded, the shadows vanished and she was left to look at the pendant. It glittered back at her in the darkened environment, the traces of jewels almost coming alive in front of her. A genuine smile appeared on her lips, before she turned her head to view Leon.

"Of course," she spoke.

Turning so her back was to him, she gathered her long black locks into a ponytail and draped it along her shoulder so it fell over her chest. Tilting her neck down so he could get to it, the white skin exposed to him glimmered and glittered with scars. The scars arced and curved across her skin, forming white lines that gave an almost tattoo effect. In the darkness of the forge, her pale skin was an aberration. It was also alluring, holding a subtle enchantment on it. Holding her hair, she waited for him to place the chain around her neck.

[Leon Orcot]

Leon watched as Mona turned around and pulled her hair out of the way of him placing the pendant around her neck. He paused for a moment and traced the lines of her scars with his eyes before slowly draping the pendant around her pale neck. Gently fastening the clasp, he rested the chain on the back of her neck before walking around to face her and look at his craftsmanship. The stylized "L" looked quite good resting just above her chest like it was, the subtle sparkle of the jewels glinting a bit in the light from the forges fire.

Smiling to himself, and at Desdemona he stepped slightly to the side. "Time for the real test here Mona. Let's look at this baby in full sword form. How this is achieved is pretty simple. Grasp the L, gently twist it as you pull it away from yourself, imagine it becoming a scimitar, and you will have your own, custom, Leon Orcot weapon in your hand." Leon stood there a little nervously, idly twirling his now smaller hammer in his hand. He was hoping that she liked the blade once she saw it, he had poured a little of himself into it as it was being made, as he did with all of his creations. Calming his nerves, he slipped the hammer back into it's loop on his pants and brushed some soot off of his shirt.

He knew all that he needed to know about the blade. It was flawless, resting at seventy centimeters long, it held the exact proper curvature to it that it was supposed to, perfect for fighting from horse back or in ground combat. It held several channels where the gems had flowed perfectly into that glowed softly with an inner light, arranged in a swirling tasteful pattern around the blade. The single sharp edge of the blade was sharpened to the fullest extent of his abilities, the only way to sharpen it further would be to ask for his father to sharpen the blade. As it was now, it should cut through a piece of paper that was dropped on top of it. There was an inscription running up both sides of the blade, one in english, the other in greek. It read, "Forged in the flames from my own body, I, Leon Orcot, bequeath this blade to Desdemona Callus, for her to use at her own discretion. It will serve you well."