The Lion's Forge Sings Again

The ringing of hammer on metal can be heard from the Lion's Forge, something that likely hasn't been heard by Shibuya's residents in quite some time. Each strike is in rythym yet slower than one might expect, a sign that a true master of the forge hasn't returned. Nevertheless, the Forge is singing it's smithy song once more, which is a sign that things are slowly returning to normal.

Inside the forge, a Pooka knight is the one who's hammering away at a breastplate. The metal is glowly softly after being exposed to the heat of the furnace. To those who are used to Curtana constantly wearing his armor, he may look a tad odd in a simple shirt and pants, and a frown is on his face as he carefully goes about repairing his armor.

Schneider knows two things about Armor Forging, and one of them is Jack. On the other hand, it's a bit cool out, and it's nicely toasty here in the smithy, sp this is where he's hanging out. He's not NWA, but he did march down with the army to kick out the Palace Landers, and he's claimed to have been staying here in case they make another try. Or. It could be the food, which is pretty good.

He watches Curtana at work with the curious expression of someone who could watch work all day as long as he wasn't doing it. No armor-wearer, himself, the self-styled Exploder Wizard is dressed foppishly, finishing off some bit of breakfast as he watches Curtana. "You guys do seem to have nearly everything here," he says by way of conversation attempt. He's Scale, he does tend to get a bit of cold shoulder from some, but he hasn't set anything on fire yet.

    It's kind of weird. No, not Fukaziroh herself, but her reaction to Shibuya. It's been so long since she's been here, it almost doesn't feel like her home any more. She's spent more time around Eas and Tolbana in the past while than she ever did in Shibuya, especially considering her messenger profession. So she's spending some time wandering around, getting reacquainted, and not just with Pela's pastry shop.

    The sound of a ringing hammer is like a bell summoning Fuka's attention. She peeks her head in the door, and grins as she sees what's up. "I... don't wanna work, I just wanna bang on the forge all day~" she sings, not entirely truthfully. Well okay, it's just her being silly and referencing a silly song. Nothing wrong with that!

Soujiro Seta is passing through the newly reclaimed Shibuya. Some times you just feel like walking about town and seeing what is going on. Some times that comes with a small following of Lander women, cluck clucks, and one mallard. These are those time. Souji times.

"That is a great sound to hear," the blue haired samurai says as he pops his head in. A hand waves to the Exploder Wizard. "Schneider! Do you have a hobby in weapon or armor crafting?" the Scale Samurai asks. Sparkles. Getting to know you, getting to know all abouttt yoouuuu~

It is clear the Edo period styled Samurai is all hyped up for some forge work, heading over to an open workstation, opening his menu, and spilling out a dozen katanas in various state of durability in need a quick repair. How many does he go through?!

When Curtana started work on fixing his armor himself, he was figuring that it would be some time to himself where the only sounds he hears was the swings of his own hammer. He wasn't expecting several people showing up, though he notices it seems Fuka may not have practiced her Singing skill. "Well, yes but actually no. The Palace Landers took a lot without bothering to replace it, but the forge is doing well enough."

Shaking his head and chuckling under his breath, Curtana lifts up the heated metal and dunks it into some quinching oil to cool off and strengthen the metal. The sound of dropping metal has him turning his head from his own work...with him staring at all the swords the samurai dropped, mouth slightly ajar. "That's...quite a few swords there. I thought I overdid it myself with three spare swords. Are you constantly fighting to need that many?"

Schneider laughs to Soujiro's question, shakes his head. "Nah. My hobby is fire, of course." With a negligent wave of his hand, the forge erupts a belch of flame, luckily not towards Curtana, and the temperature holds steady also. In fact, the temperature has been holding quite hot and steady without needing the occasional pump on the bellows or tickle with Fire. So maybe Schneider's useful for something.

When Soujiro heads to another forge to start his own work, Schneider warms that one up, too, the fire crackling white hot for a moment before settling back to the nice orange appropriate for steel.

Schneider's player isn't nearly old enough to know the song Fuka is sort of singing. His dad might know it. Fuka just gets a puzzled look, though. He clearly does not share the desire to work. He can't do much with the cooling, but that doesn't really need his help. He does say, "I've been wondering if I should bump up my swordplay a bit. It comes up occasionally, but normally setting things on fire is all that's really needed."

    Fukaziroh is nosy, of course. And silly. No telling where she'd heard that song before really. Clearly not when it was first released... but it's rather memeworthy so there's that for sure.

    "Hey, using a sword is cool!" Fuka notes to Schneider, grinning. "Something gets in your way you WHACK it! Just..." she pauses, glancing over at Soujiro's pile of weapons. "I mean, swords aren't for throwing right?" she asks. "Or maybe too much flame-branding ruining the metal? I don't know much about weaponsmithing, armorsmithing's more my thing." she shrugs. "Anyways, a good sword's better than a bunch of bad swords. Need any help, Will?"

Soujiro Seta sorts the katanas out on the work bench so that they are aligned in a formation. They all look similar to each other, but Souji is able to identify them with unique properties. They are his precious swords. "They all want to be of use in battle and I ensure my precious friends here have an opportunity to reach their full potential," he says to Curtana. It is the voice of the material. To be what they want to be. He doesn't treat them as objects to be used and discarded when they no longer interest him. They are always interesting to him! He picks one of them up and draws a repair hammer out from his inventory.

"Thanks Schneider, a hot forge is exactly what is needed here," the upbeat Samurai says, starting with gently raising the temperature up to repair the metal. "If you ever want to get some training in, I am always up for it!" That, of course, extends with a smile over to Fuka and Curtana. Yes, its clear how all those katanas are damaged now. All that training.

Using a sword /is/ cool. Soujiro uses two. The jab about a bunch of bad swords has the Samurai pat the hilt of the blades that are waiting their turn. He doesn't feel that they are bad, but they have put their all into fighting alongside him and its his turn to show the same level of respect and care during some forge time. The Samurai does miss fighting with Kogarasumaru, though, and in time will solve that issue. The forge is even more crowded immediately outside with the small crowd that Soujiro brings with him. They watch the group with interest and share light hearted commentary. He reinforces the durability, cooling and honing the blades one at a time, going into a focused trance for a while.

Laughing softly despite the sudden increase of flame, Curtana lifts up his breastplate and looks over it for a moment before placing it back into the furnace for reheating. Not quite there yet for his tastes! "It always help to branch yourself out instead of focusing on just one or two things, at least for me. Construction, both types of smithing, pharmacy, bargaining...you never know just how useful a bit of training will be."

Fuka's comments does draw a bashful look, and he carefully pats his longsword, still worn at his waist. "I...may have been doing both? I accidently made a sword arte doing both of those things, but my main sword is doing pretty good. Might be all the upgrades I put in it over these years." Peeking into the furnace for a moment, he carefully pulls it out and places it onto the anvil. "Well...if you don't mind? I know the basics of armorsmithing, but the repairwork is taking a while."

Hearing Soujiro's comments brings Curtana's mind back to the trusty blade at his side. "I know what you mean. I made this sword two years ago, and it has never let me down once, despite how many times I might throw it now." The thought of training is certainly a good one, and after what he's seen of the war so far... "I fall more on the defensive side of combat, but that does sounds like a good plan to me."

Schneider smirks at Fuka's comment about swordplay. "It -does- come up from time to time, monsters immune to magic for whatever reason, and need a smacking," he admits, and as Inspect shows, he's one of the very rare Rune Knights, which is a very hybrid class. "I -can- smack them, it's just not a focus. So wondering if I should lean into it a bit more."

As far as training goes, he shakes his head, "Oh, no. I'm not one for the sweaty gruntwork. I leave that to you," he says. "I'm the handsome hero, I don't need to hit things with a hammer," he asserts glibly, which is more attempt-at-RP than his actual feeling. He just remembers the wind sprints in basketball back in RL and will take a pass on the hard work. It's a game, the point is to have fun, not work hard.

As far as learning things, he says, "I've worked on a bit, but what I really want is the power I saw this one player had, and I have no idea how to get, and I can't find the player, now. I've tried a couple other things, but I don't really know enough physics to make nukes work." He says that so casually. "I did a report on it, the first year of college, but I didn't get as far into the physics as it turns out I would have needed to."

    Fuka snickers at that. "How do you *accidentally* make a new arte?" she asks, clearly amused. "I mean sure, I guess you can throw your sword. Hey, can any of you like, make a curved sword so you can throw it and it comes back?" she asks, making vague gestures in the air to either represent a boomerang sword or the curve it takes when flying. It's a silly idea though, and she doesn't exactly make her gestures explicit or even attempt to make them resemble anything actually useful.

    She *is* useful though, never say otherwise! She quickly shucks her coat, revealing the armour she wears underneath. Plate-and-chain, which ought to be enough to protect her from the forge. without risking heat exhaustion or setting her clothing on fire. "Hey, some people *like* a little sweat!" Fuka observes cheerfully. "And if you're too handsome to sweat, you're too handsome to have real fun with!" she claims, though the words are probably meant to tease rather than chastise.

    She sets in to work. Fuka is practised at armor forging, but in this case she'll just help out and let Curtana make the big decisions. She's actually not bad at the work, owing largely to experience and the sort of physical power that belies her actual size.

    Frowning while working, she looks over at Schneider. "A good Lord of Vermillion's kind of a nuke. Epic fireball. But ... I hope you're not trying to make actual atomic bombs!" she says. Actual atomic bombs, or worse, would be ... rather bad. Nasty, and a major escalation in the game.

Another ring of the hammer striking hot metal before the Pooka takes a break, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "Well...okay, I was helping out a farmer deal with some dire hawks, but I never really put much practice in archery. I managed to get one of the hawks onto the ground with magic and was attacking it with my sword, when it started to fly away again. With my sword alight and desperate...I may have accidently thrown it just to kill it?" It isn't just the heat that's making Curtana's cheeks turn pink, at any rate. "Realizing what I done, I used some wind magic to call it back just as it hit the hawk, causing it to spin before coming back to me. That's...basically it, yes."

Thankfully, Schneider is there to help distract Fuka a bit. "Well, practice does make perfect, as they say. There's been some quite impressive things made with plenty of sweat poured into it." To him, Fuka's comments can sound like it could mean something quite different...but he's not going to say anything about that. That would give her an opening for more chaos.

The mention of a strange power does draw Curtana's attention, but it being compared to a nuke...?! "Like a massive fireball or explosive? I thought trying to protect against falling meteors was bad, but anything compared to a nuke...I certainly don't want to be at ground zero for that."

Schneider smiles to Fuka in a worrying way. He's Scale and he's Dark Schneider. Clearly he -does- mean actual nuclear weapons. "Yes," he agrees. "It would mean a major escalation, but it was looking nearly impossible to fight the Palace Landers at first, and there's the ancient whatevers we've had to fight." He's referring to Machina like the Tear of Ice that had been set against them. "They have more /health bars/ than he," he points his thumb at Soujiro, "has girls following him around. But the Palace Landers are looking less unbeatable, so I've shelved the project. Not getting any traction anyhow, the Landers wouldn't even let me go through the scraps from their silver mine."

He shrugs off Lord of Vermillion. "My Helloween or Megadeath are better," he claims. A bold claim, but the truth is a bit more situational. He nods to Curtana, and says, "I'm considering what I should do with regard to powerups. Venom is iconic. But so is Black Sabbath, and both are pretty viscious.

    Fuka laughs in delight at Curtana's explanation, shrill and free-spirited. "Oh wow that's amazing!" she grins, quite possibly wanting to learn such a technique herself. "Say, I should adapt that! Throw my sword, use air to control it, and then call down lightning through it!" she enthuses. As to her innuendo, she won't clarify. The blush is enough for her... for now!

    She's a little less pleased at Schneider's words. But then, he's Scale. And in her opinion he showed his character that time he abandoned fellow riders during a peko race to cross the finish line in first place. Appealing to his better nature seems like a poor option. "Can't blame the Landers." she says, almost offhandedly. "Trying to destroy their world so you can escape it... not really surprising they won't help." she says. Perhaps a hint of disapproval and more than a little snark in her tone.

The breastplate is placed into the quenching oil again, sending up steam as it rapidly cools. He lets out a sigh of relief that actual nukes are not really a thing at the moment. That's the last thing everyone needs to worry about, but one comment from Schneider has Curt blinking owlishly at the Rune Knight. "Wait...why would girls follow him around? I can't imagine they would be interested in swordtraining."

Score one for completely missing the point.

He's not really familiar with those spells, but they sound like some music songs or bands he might have heard about once or twice. Never was his type of music. Give him some classical or rock, and he's fine.

Smiling softly, he motions to Fuka, perhaps trying to distract her before her words can really get heated. "I'll be happy to show you sometime, if you'll like. Might work differently if you're using Frank, but an electrical version sounds awesome."

Pulling the breastplate out of the oil, he holds it up for inspection before nodding happily to himself. With Fuka's guidence, the repairs are coming out better than he expected. Just needs some polishing and it'll be back to it's shiny self! "Maybe one day I can upgrade from Steel to some Rune Platemail...well, a guy can dream." He chuckles to himself, even if he's certain nobody here would get the small joke.

Appealing to Dark Schneider's better nature has always been a plan for failure, Fuka is entirely correct on that matter. As far as Landers go, he asks, "Who's trying to destroy their world? Anyhow, it was you NWA clowns that cheesed off the Palace Landers. You can't lay that on Scale. That's caused more grief for Landers than anything Scale's done."

He shrugs to Curtana about sword training. "Who knows what girls want?" he muses, smirking to Fuka. He doesn't know what she wants, either, so that fits. As to what his spells are named, or what they do, he laughs. "I can't demonstrate them in here, it'd wreck the place," he explains, having missed whatever joke Curtana was making.

    Fuka can use fire and air and sword magic, so she can probably learn Curtana's arte. Still, she seems amused at the idea of creating her own Frank Attack so why not? She laughs too at Curt's confusion. "I used to know girls who did that sort of thing back in high school. Doesn't make any more sense to me now either!" she grins. She's as interested in good looking guys as anyone really... she just doesn't see the point in chasing after them. "I mean, maybe they ARE just interested in his sword! Swords." she claims. "The only sword I need though is Frank!"

    Schneider gets a puzzled look at his claim that the Palace Landers were particularly upset at the NWA, but she shrugs. He can believe what he likes, she supposes. "Maybe destroying the world isn't the right term." she says instead, deciding to shift to that topic rather than argue. "Ruining it then. By making nukes. Destroying everything that makes this world special." she claims. She IS NWA after all. Dedicated to experiencing the world, not nuking it.

Curtana's having a little bit of trouble getting a hold of Schneider's logic. Perhaps it was due to Shibuya being taken back? Well, in that case, Curtana will be more than happy to continue 'cheesing off' the Palace Landers. He certainly don't want to get mind controlled by a Crown. "Yeah, nukes would cause far more harm then good, even if we went with nuclear power. Far too many disasters back in the old world that will take thousands of years to clear up. Renewable power is the way to go, if we get it going." Hmmm...maybe a wind farm around Shibuya?

Curtana nods his head at the demonstration comment. "Same here, I just made sure these walls really were sturdy last week, I don't want to tear anything down if I had to." That was a huge hassle, and there's still more work to be done in that regard. He has a feeling he won't be leaving Shibuya anytime soon...

Running a cloth over the repaired armor, the dull gray is quickly returning to it's polished sheen. The light from the furnaces glimmer over the metal, and Curtana fondly pats the armor plating a few times. "There we go! Just need to make sure I don't get used as a flail again."

Schneider shrugs about ruining the world. Since it never came anywhere close to that, it's kind of a moot arguement. "You're welcome to experience the world /all/ you like. I've experienced as much as I'd like and am ready to go home now. The Palace Lands are the ones trying to make this place not-special, anyhow." He grumbles at Palace Landers. "They seemed to like your place here in Shibuya well enough, though," he observes. "But they still all need to die."

His logic is simple, if shortsighted. NWA opened up Yamato to the Palace Lands. The Palace Lands attacked Yamato. Now the Palace Landers didn't care if it was Scale or NWA or the Goblin Slayer who came over. But it was NWA that did it, so NWA gets the blame, in his mind. /He/ never went building a city on someone else's continent.

    As far as Fuka understands, the Palace Landers were in a war with Adventurers well before NWA or whoever unlocked the Palace Lands boundary. And whatever their grievances, they didn't have anything to do with the assumptions of the early days, like the waves for example. She shrugs offhandedly, and nods. She'll experience the world indeed! That's her thing, or at least one of them! "I don't intend to invite them back here, that's for sure!" she claims. As for death, well, probably not. She has some definite feelings about the Palace Lander leadership, but less so about the landers or crowned adventurers. Not worth getting into though.

    She peers at Curtana's armour. "Looks good! You seem fit to be yeeted at the enemy now!" she claims enthusiastically. Hey if he won't be a flail, he can be a hammer! Or ... a sling stone, or whatever! "Tank life." she adds. "Though there was that one time Yuuki was shot out of a cannon. I was SO jealous!" she adds playfully. "HEY WAIT I KNOW THAT SPELL NOW!" she adds, eyes gleaming intently.

It seems like it's boiling back down to the usual argument between those who wanted to return and those who wish to stay. There's no telling if there actually is going to be a way for both parties to get what they want, hence the occassional fighting that tends to happen. "They like Mac Anu just as much. Far as I know, they're the aggressors here, and I just want to give them the boot while freeing anyone who had been Crowned. No one deserves that."

Inspecting the armor and seeing nothing wrong, Curtana stores it into his inventory for now. He'll be more than happy to wear his usual armor soon, he feels almost naked without it. Though hearing Fuka proudly claim she knows a spell that can launch people out of cannons has him panicked. "Don't even think of doing that in here! I'm only borrowing the forge, there's no way i'm wrecking it!"

Schneider nods about not inviting them here. "No, they invited themselves," he agrees. NWA's really guiltly of little more than popping their head up and painting 'We're here' on Yamato. Curtana might not have been aware of the global situation when that happened, thhough. Sadly, the Palace Landers did the rest on their own. "And they haven't even cleared their own continent. All the stuff in the southwest was uninhabited wilderness, I'd heard."

He can't really comment on armor, he knows so little about it. He probably could, Rune Knights do get a bit. But the armor he'd found don't look as cool as the clothes. Fashion really is Schneider's endgame. He does nod about decrowning anyone who's been crowned. As far as being shot out of a cannon, he says, "Best I can do is a glider." the other thing Schneider is sort of famous for is advancing flight, sort of. "And a parachute."

    It's not quite that Fuka wants to stay... her theories mean staying or going is futile, and it's more about prioritizing her life over some possible escape. She might even help Scale from time to time, because there's absolutely no danger of clearing the tower any time soon, and helping others is kind of her thing. She's not really interested in debating the point though, not when there are other things to deal with instead!

    "Don't be silly, Willy." she deadpans, or she would deadpan if she weren't too amused to fail to show it. "There's no enemies in here to shoot you at!" she clarifies. No, not even Schneider. She may disagree with his priorities, but never to the point of intending to yeet adventurers at him by way of crucible cannon!

Schneider hasn't advanced any theories to the point of being useful or not, and nothing really seems like it's testable. He could get someone to kill him until he turns into a Lander, and once more again so he doesn't respawn, but if he's still logged into the game, that means enternity in the waiting-to-respawn place, which is far worse than being here in the game world. "Anyhow," he says, "It looks like the Palace Landers aren't going to pull a 180 and come back here, so I ought to head out. You guys have good food here, though." He smiles, gets to his feet, and will head out.

The pooka knight lets out a slow sigh in relief until a moment of realization strikes him. "Wait...I would be the one to be launched? I thought that would launch you instead." Setting the smithing hammer down, Curtana does edge away from Fuka, just a few steps. Even if there's no enemies around, being launched likely would hurt more than being used as a flail. "Sounds a bit like one of those roller coasters that launch you from the start instead of letting you climb a hill..."

He does give Schneider a bow as he departs and even waves his hand once or twice. "Thank you again for the help with the fire as well, it helped made using the furnace easier!" Rubbing at his face to clear up some sweat, Curtana frowns for a moment before materalizing a bar of iron from his inventory and throwing it into the furnace. Might as well make some extra nails for reconstruction later on. "Anything I can help you out with, Fuka? For the tips you gave me?"

    Do not offer to use your mighty cannon on Fukaziroh; she'll never let you hear the end of it! She grins at the talk, looking delighted at the thought and perhaps only slightly wicked. "You'd have to LEARN the spell first!" she grins. "It's a tricky spell, and it was Prof that came up with it, but I see no reason you can't learn that. If the time comes you have my permission to shoot me at the enemy!" she grins. "Otherwise, I might end up launching you someday, if you REALLY REALLY need to get there fast!" she says, making a sound disturbingly halfway between a giggle and an unladylike snort.

    She pauses and considers when asked if she needs anything. About to handwave and dismiss the offer, she actually nods. "I'd love to learn that arte where you throw your sword and call it back! That sounds pretty awesome!" she agrees. "Always looking for new techniques, new ways to get better!"

Learning a spell that launches an ally headlong into danger doesn't sound like the safest of spells. It's also why it makes perfect sense that Fuka would know something like that. Her creepy giggling only adds onto the effect, but it does give Curt a thought. If you can cast it on allies and send them flying, what if you were to cast it on an enemy...? Certainly not an idea a knight should have, but it could be useful in the future. "I might just take a rain check on that kind of spell, but if I ever need to get somewhere fast...you have my permission to cast it on me. With a warning first!"

While it wasn't quite what he had in mind, the thought of teaching someone his own Arte does certainly sound fun. "That's fine with me! Honestly, it would likely be even more effective, just considering how big Frank is."

Soujiro Seta finishes up repairing the dozen katanas that he brought with him. One at a time with plenty of time and attention. That has pulled him out of the conversation for a while. When he snaps to, he realizes it has been a while. "All finished up here. See you later," he raises a hand to the people still in the forge. The weapons go back in his inventory and he heads on out himself.