Forge post

[ostro_goth]

It's still early, but in the morning light, the sound of hammer on anvil is ringing out from the forge.

Teja, after all, is Teja; and in case of any trouble, he starts making blades. There is much trouble among those dear to him, now, and Teja is making a dagger -- fine and thin, of folded steel, pliable and deadly.

The cats are outside, chasing a snarling demonic rabbit between them.-


[[OOC: Forge post -- open to all and sundry, business or chat -- open until it falls off the front page!]]

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[the_dorian_gray]

Dorian finds his way to the forge in the early morning, having left Ganymede to sleep in. He's dressed in jeans and a formal, button-down shirt, but his feet are bare. It's a strange contrast, casual mixed with formal.

He comes closer, giving a call.

"Hello?"

[ostro_goth]

A frightened young demon bunny runs between his bare feet, chased by a tabby cat.

The hammer keeps ringing, inside. "Enter!" a voice calls, mingled with the metallic clangs in strange harmony.

[the_dorian_gray]

He's never been inside a forge, and so Dorian enters with caution.

"I am looking for the master of the forge?" he calls again.

[ostro_goth]

The smith is standing with his back half-turned, beating his hammer on the glowing metal upon the anvil; he had dark hair tied together in the back, and is wearing leather breeches, and a large leather forge apron, covering only his front, and leaving the muscular, sweaty, grimy back bare, except for leather straps crossing over it.

"I am he!" he calls out, over the ring of his hammer. Clang, clang, clang, clang, CLONK -- with every fifth beat, he hits the anvil, adjusting the position of his loosely held hammer in his hand.

"Wait a moment, there; I must finish this, first."

[the_dorian_gray]

Dorian looks around, passing the time until the forge master had time to speak with him.

It is hot, humid, and terribly dirty.

It is, Dorian decides, not a place he wishes to remain long.

[ostro_goth]

It takes about three minutes of incessant hammering, while the glow of the metal dims from dark orange to light red, until the small blade in the making is returned into the forge.

The smith pulls on the bellows a few times, to get the fire glowing hotly; then, he picks up a clay jug of water, thirstily gulps down rather much, and then turns to face his visitor.

"Greetings. What may I do for you?" Teja asks.

[the_dorian_gray]

Dorian feels himself pale.

"Oh, bloody, fucking hell, you?"

[ostro_goth]

"Bloody fucking hell," Teja agrees, smiling. "Me."

Pause.

"What may I do for you?"

He refrains from asking about strange devices to inflict unspeakable things upon a man's private parts; not to spare Dorian from mockery, but simply wishing not to be taken by his word.

[the_dorian_gray]

Dorian pinches the bridge of his nose.

"I came to commission a collar."

[ostro_goth]

"Made of what metal, and in what style, and for what creature?" Teja simply asks.

A golden, jewelled cat-collar? A spiked collar for a fierce fighting dog, to protect its throat from the teeth of its attackers? A collar of thin woven wire, with pearls, to ornament the lovely neck of the man's newest sweetheart?

[the_dorian_gray]

"It needs to be solid platinum, slender but tight-fitting -- but comfortable -- to the throat. I wish for it to have the darkest, purest ruby that can be used at its front, just above a D-ring so that something may be chained to it," he explains. He produces a slip of paper. In elegant handwriting is a number. "That is the circumference of his throat. However, I need the clasp to be very specific."

He pulls out a second piece of paper, one he had received from bar. It shows the details of a very secure latch system for the collar.

"Like so. Can this be done?" he asks Teja.

It is quite an expensive piece, he knows, but Ganymede is well worth it.

[ostro_goth]

Teja looks at it a while. "Yes, of course it can," he says. "You'll want it seeming solid, built like a torque, so it can be twisted for putting on, without losing its shape; or made of links so it moves, and adjusts itself precisely to his neck?"

It is simply a craftsman's question; Teja does not question the costliness or the purpose of that ornament, or mock Dorian for thinking the sweet godling worth such metallic attention.

Manners of style in loving are different; but all want jewellery and gifts to their beloved. Teja thinks of the screw-like ornament with the dragon diamond, to fit into the hole in his Charlie's belly-button, that he is still carrying about in his belt-pouch much of the time, waiting for a good moment to surprise him, and briefly smiles to himself.

[the_dorian_gray]

"I do not wish for it move with him when he moves. It needs to be as solid a piece as you can make it while allowing it to be taken on and off as needed. I trust your eye for that," he says.

[licensed-pro.livejournal.com]

Charlie steps over the frightened rabbit, and the cats, on his way into the forge.

Despite it being dirty, he doesn't mind. He just shrugs out of the shirt he had on. "You're making weapons again? Who are you planning to kill with these?"

[ostro_goth]

"My Charlie!" Teja says, happy to see his beloved, a smile cracking open his sooty, sweaty face.

Pause.

"I am just making a blade in general; I wish I could kill Anita Blake with it, but I know I cannot, without upsetting our friends' world and well-being."

Another pause.

"But I am almost done with it now; and I have a commission of jewellery that seems urgent."

[licensed-pro.livejournal.com]

"Well I'm glad you're not going to kill anyone. That tends to not upset as many people."

He leans over and raises an eyebrow at the knife still being heated. "What sort of jewelry?"

[ostro_goth]

"You have heard that she arrived here?" Teja says. "She tries to come between Asher and Nathaniel, it seems, even though she does not even know they are never, and never should!"

Pause.

"But the commission is entirely unconnected to that -- it is a jewelled collar, that one immortal I have met lately would have made for another, his beloved, or at least his current plaything."

There are two rubies already on the workbench, and some platinum and titanium.

[licensed-pro.livejournal.com]

Charlie blinks at the latest information.

"Current plaything? Usually that's not the case if you're going to collar someone...or it's a training collar, but those usually don't involve jewels." He leans over and picks up one of the rubies, turning it over in his hand. "They're pretty. What kind of collar does this immortal of yours want, other than jeweled?"

[ostro_goth]

"You know about these customs?" Teja says. "Mere days ago, that immortal swore to me that he would never love, that love was not worth it, and so on."

Pause.

"It shall be a metal band, of platinum, with a core of titanium," he then says. "So it shall be pliable, and can be twisted open to take it off, or put it on. It will a narrow, solid band close to his throat, with a ring to attach something, and a complicated lock that will open easily if there is a emergency, but remain safely shut otherwise. The one ruby goes on that one, the other on an anklet that is the same, only in miniature, and looser, as it is more jewellery than symbol of possession."

Pause, again, as he turns to look into Charlie's eyes. "What does such a collar mean?"

[licensed-pro.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I do know some. People have wanted to collar me before, and I refused." He listens to the description for that as he turns over the two jewels resting on his fingers.

"Sounds like a good collar," he notes. "Usually, at least as far as I'm aware, if you collar someone it means the same as a personal commitment. It's like saying you'll keep them and take care of your partner, if it's an every day collar. If it's a training collar, as far as I know, it's more to get someone accustomed to the idea of being owned."

Charlie shrugs. "But I could very well be wrong, I never got into BDSM."

[ostro_goth]

"It would be amusing, were it the former," Teja says. "Perhaps it is, as he wants the anklet for him to wear always. I think rarely would have love caught up with one denying it quite as fast. It would be the magic of this place."

Pause.

"That reminds me."

He puts the dagger down by the whetstone, and bends to his bucket to wash his hands, arms, face.

[licensed-pro.livejournal.com]

Charlie shrugs. "Not my idea of a fun time, but then I'm not the one asking for a collar. You know who it is that's comissioned both of these. out of curiosity?"

He raises an eyebrow at Teja setting all his tools down, and sits back to watch him. "What are you up to?"

[ostro_goth]

"He did not request it to be kept secret," Teja says. "His name is Dorian Grey; he is an immortal, and proud of being fearfully jaded."

Pause.

"Or was, before the magic of this place got at him."

Having dried himself off, Teja goes to the door and takes his belt and belt-pouch from a hook; and from the pouch, he gets a little leather bag that he hands to Charlie.

"Speaking of his gift to his sweet godling, I was reminded that I still have something for you that I made, from jewels that I received as part of a payment."

Inside, there is a corkscrew-shaped piece of jewellery for Charlie's navel piercing, made of white gold, and with a small diamond at one end.

[licensed-pro.livejournal.com]

There's a pause at the name, while Charlie blinks. "Dorian Gray. You're kidding."

That would be too priceless. "Maybe he found someone as jaded as he is, to play with? You said a godling, maybe he hooked up with the irritating purple one," he says, half-laughing. He accepts the bag, and slides a tiny corkscrew out of it, and smiles.

"It's beautiful."

[ostro_goth]

"The stone is a dragon diamond, from the world of a young woman called Mia Ausa," Teja says. "They are made in the heat inside a dragon, and are incredibly rare. She had me make a cuff for her husband, with some of these in it, and left me those as payment. Those, because I have another one, set in a ring to wear upon the flesh of my chest, to connect me and you."

Pause.

"And no, it is a Greek godling that Dorian Gray has taken up with: - the fabled Ganymede, cup-bearer of the gods, and catamite of Zeus. He is not a full god with a duty like Demeters, but a smaller immortal: - hence, a godling."