Hammer Lzard: When is Miho not hammering metal?

So Miho is having many orders to make and pick up. From landers ordering things like cookware and nails. To Adventurers ordering weapons and armor from her.

She works away the sounds of her hammer on metal echoing in the forge as she seeks to finish up the last of the orders for the day. She's also singing, she's off key but her dog doesn't seem to care, it's not like anyone else is hear to hear her sing something from JAM Project right?

Goldenblade enters to the sound of bad singing. Not that she can do any better. She's wearing a smithing apron, herself and a hammer and tongs in pockets in the apron. "Hey," she calls out to Miho. So many people forget that she's an accomplished weaponsmith because she's so well known as a builder. But she says, "I was wondering what you know about local weapon styles?" she explains.

    Maybe nobody would normally care about a song sung off-key by a blacksmith working metal, but Fuka's not nobody. Maybe she had a true reason for coming by, but it's quickly forgotten as she hears singing she recognizes. And for all her faults, for all her quirks, music is a part of Fuka's social soul.

    So when she joins in the singing, Fuka does so with her whole heart. And she's also a bit off key. It's wierd though; she manages to complement Miho's off-key singing nicely, failing to hit the proper notes but harmonizing rather delightfully. So long as you're not a fan of autotune or of the original song at least.

Miho hears someone enter and will pause in her hammering of the project for a moment. "I'll be done in a moment." Then as Fuka enters she gets back into the song she might as well. It's a good thing no one with Song is hear as it would be an afront to anyone with any musical skill. So she's hammering away singing along with Fuka, until she finishes up the frypan she was working on she will quenche it and put it away.

"Aye I know a fair bit given a lot of it is very Japanese or European inspired so far as the old world goes. What do you need of me Goldenblade? Also didn't expect you to be here Fuka. What can I do for you as well?"

Goldenblade has no idea what the original song is, or what autotune is for that matter. The last music she bought was by Frank Sinatra and it was on vynil, so this is all just children's music to her. Her kids might've listened to this sort of thing? She didn't really pay much attention.

To Miho, she nods gravely, and says, "You know a lot more about the styles of weapons than I do," she explains. "So I was hoping for some sort of advice on what a ruler's sword would look like. Like Excalibur was for Arthur, I'm trying to make for Gilgamesh, but it has to be the right style of sword. I can't make a no-dachi if he's a katana man, that sort of thing," she explains. "I started off assuming katana, because the game's in Japan, but then it's got so many outside influences, I figured I should ask."

    Besides singing, just what is Fuka here for? Does it even matter? The little blonde sylph shrugs, finding Goldenblade's question interesting. "I think traditionally it's samurai who use katanas." she comments. "Rulers more use scepters, I think? Which would have to be either really spiky or really heavy or both, if it's going to be a good weapon! Also really elegant, 'cause you can't just have Gil swinging a bat with nails in it! Not without like... jewels and stuff." she grins. "You could start a new trend! Jeweled bats!" she pipes up with a grin.

IF Goldenblade only knew Vinal was still alive with some of the young. She grins a bit at Goldenblade. "Good thinking, it really depend I fear I'm not too up on the king's personal weapon choices but from his armor I'd lean a bit towards Western weapons like a longsword or a Bastard. Still it be a good idea to ask around what I can do is offer aid when you go to forge whatever you plan to."

"This isn't Mother." She gives a sly grin and looks at Fuka for a moment.

"...Oh for the love of he's not an American Rapper either..." Her Tail just stops moving for a moment at this.

"A Secptor that's actually a defence weapon for if he's jumped while he's holding court hummmm...it would need enchantment work."

Goldenblade gives Fuka a look that starts out as if she's trying to explain something, that fades into just pain. "For modern kings in real life, sure," she agrees. "But this is ... historical, or historically-inspired." She hopes Fuka's not one of these roleplayers. But then a roleplayer might have given her a more useful answer? "Kings carry swords here. Like Arthur with Excalibur." Even though that's English mythology, it's quite well known here, or at least oft-copied.

She snorts about enchantment, "That part is someone else's problem, if he wants magic on it." But she nods as Miho mentions western-style swords, which she /has/ seen here, at least as much as she's seen Japanese swords. "And he's a big fellow, himself, so it'll be a pretty large sword regardless. But maybe I'll go wityh something like a longsword, but just a bit bigger without really being too big to use."

    Fuka would be wounded by Goldenblade's look if she were the type to pay attention to such things. She's Fuka however, so she ignores it. "A sword is fine I suppose. I have a thing for big.... swords. Might be a bit awkward for a king, but you can't go too wrong with a sword anyways."

    She agrees with the idea of a longsword, nodding along. Probably for the best it be something reasonable. She frowns at the other part though. "If you want a weapon fit for a king, it'd *better* be enchanted! You don't just lay that sort of thing on the blade after the fact! All the runes would have to be exposed on the blade, they'd interfere with the edge, it'd be a disaster!" she explains. And ... perhaps surprisingly, she says this with a serious and possibly even convincing demeanour. Then again, she's a reknowned enchanter. Not even of the Unknown variety. Maybe she has some idea what she's talking about.

    "Besides, this world is like a game, right?" Fuka adds, somewhat less seriously but not entirely casual. "What would be a better weapon for a king? A beautiful sword, or a beautiful *magic* sword? No, you probably want to involve enchantment throughout the build. Selecting the materials, and channeling mana into the weapon, it'll be much better if it's designed from the ground up to support such things!"

Miho says "So a sword then and Exclibur had magic to it did it not and I can enchant." She notes with a smirk. "So it may be my problem no? As for that size sounds like you got the wheels turning already." She look to Fuka with interest listing to what she has to say on the matter of enchanting. "Good point but it's not our project but if we did something more akin to hummm a Western RPG it might work better?"

Goldenblade nods as Fuka comes around to the subject of swords. "So, the first question is: is he a sword-and-shield person, or a just-the-sword person?" Both types being common in ETO. She grumbles at the truth, that in this game magic is practically de rigeur, but she says, "I can't do any magic, so I can't really put any in. But I suppose I can put fire in the heart of the sword. That's good and metaphorical, that ought to be pretty effective. Anyhow, for every spell I leave out of the sword, that's that much more raw damage base I can put in." Which is maybe a bit meta... But Fuka mentioned it being a game.

Whhen Miho mentions the enchanting, too, she sighs. "Trust me when I say I can make a fine sword /without/ any magic. In my day, stories were about regular people who were heroes because they had heart and spirit, not because they had sparkly wands. Excalubur may have been magical, but I saw that movie, too," the one in the eighties, she probably means, "And the sword didn't do anything magical beyond being very sharp and having Arthur wielding it." Goldenblade's imagining a fixed-value sword, so for every point of magical oomph you put in, it comes at a cost of mundane pow. Otherwise there'd be swords that do all the damage in the world by stacking -every- type of bonus.

    "Hmmmm.... yea I could see it." Fuka muses, and swishes her hands around like she's wielding a massive weapon and, seemingly, cutting down entire armies in her head. "Not an enchanted sword, but a mighty weapon, the peak of the weaponsmith's art!" she says enthusiastically. Not being a weaponsmith, Fuka doesn't know how such things work, so she'll take Goldenblade's word for it.

    Sheathing her imaginary weapon with deliberate dignity, after first wiping the blade of the gallons of virtual blood of the army she apparently wiped out, Fuka pauses a moment before continuing to speak. "Why don't you just ask him? You know, if he's a sword man? If he likes his swords long and narrow, or thick and heavy?" She pauses a moment, considers. "Maybe that's a bit personal..."

Miho says "I would suggest finding out what he does like before you set down anything on an Anvil so make it a master worth. Aye it was as are things like Grass Cutter." She pauses for a moment "Moon Cutter...why didn't I..." She trails off for a moment and will hug Goldenblade if nothing stops her. "That it hats it you just helped me with another project!" She retains control after that. "We're here to help you not me though. So you want to hone a blade to as perfect as it can be?"

Goldenblade considers Fuka's words as she works out what a weapon like that could be, and she nods, agreeing with Miho, "I suppose I ought to just ask, yes. Surprise is overrated, and this way he'll know not to ask someone else to make one while I'm working on this one." She nods slowly, and is taken by surprise by the hug. She doesn't fight it, though she does seem a bit confused by it. But she shakes her head to Miho about honing the blade specifically. "It's a more holistic thing," she explains. "The hilt and pommel, the quillions, the scabbard, that has to speak of the majesty of the king as well. It's more than justr raw sharpness. Understanding the whole of the thing, that's the insight I need to have."

    Fuka nods along enthusiastically with the discussion, though of course the true mettle of the weaponsmith's art is beyond her. It all sounds fine though, and she's amused at the sight of Miho being inspired. "Ah yes, legendary swords!" she comments, drawing out the sound a little, making it clear by that cue that she intends to say something attention-drawing and quite possibly profound.

    "The sword that could cut through any knot." Fuka states solemnly, her tone no doubt meant to sound wise. "Suspended over the head of Damocles." she elaborates. "Personally, I don't think that's terribly impressive. Cutting through a knot? I'd be more impressed by the man who can make a knot thick enough you can't cut through it in the first place! That man should be the true king!" she proclaims.

Miho says "I have to agree on the knot, how do you tie something like that?" She smirks leaning on the anvil for the moment. "It's got to be the best and look the best if its for something like this right? I got faith in you, your on the short list of people I would take as a student far as Adventurers go." She grins a bit at this. "Sounds like you needed some people to talk to to just sort this plan out."

Goldenblade smirks as Fuka shifts topics, but says, "You've never seen a warship moored pierside, have you? Ropes as thick as your forearm, knots as big as .... well, I suppose a ..." she has to think of things the right side. "... I suppose as large as a minifridge?" Not a lot of things that specific size. And anyhow, that's not so much a knot as the loose ends of the mooring line coiled up around the bitts. But she's no sailor, and it /looked/ like one big knot, and you'd need an artillery piece to cut it if you couldn't uncoil it, or else an hour with a chainsaw. (OOC: https://cache.getarchive.net/Prod/thumb/cdn10/L3Bob3RvLzE5OTAvMDEvMDEvY3Jldy1tZW1iZXJzLWFib2FyZC10aGUtZ3VpZGVkLW1pc3NpbGUtY3J1aXNlci11c3Mtam9zZXBodXMtZGFuaWVscy1jZy0yNy1zZWN1cmUtM2E0ZGQ4LTEwMjQuanBn/320/210/jpg Sorry for spammy link)

As to how to tie that knot, she hasn't got the foggiest idea. But she nods about talking the plan out. "Yes, and that's a fact. That's why I'm here, of course."

    "Worship? What does worship have to do with ropes? Is this like how Aunt Elly wears those chains?" Fuka asks, digging into subject matter she probably shouldn't. No doubt deliberately so. "She's some kind of priestess of the Beautiful One right? So ... chains and worship. Probably not a good thing to cut." she blathers.

    Shrugging, she cuts off that line of thought before anyone's brain breaks too much. "Anyways yeah, sounds like a good idea to look into his preferences. Just don't ask in a lewd way you might actually get an answer you don't want!" Fuka smirks. "Looking forward to seeing the sword. Like, the metal sword, not... well, you know!"

Miho gets an utterly embrased look on her face as she flushes hard in embrassment as she clicks on it.

"Never in person I fear." She looks over. "I do not question or dare to dig into The Baroness love of chains that's a private affair as far as I'm concerned." She looks back to her friends now as she changes topic. "Sounds like it will be a weapon to behold."

Goldenblade peers at Fuka, who has drifted off on a tangent so far even Goldenblade is lost. "What's Wake have to do with any of this?" she asks, confused. And chains and preferences, and Goldenblade is completely lost. She looks over at Miho, and guesses that Fuka has made a double entendre of some sort that went over her head, or else under her radar. "What?" Now she's completely confused.

    Solemnly nodding yet again, Fuka breaks out an old standby. The old sage voice, crackling with age and wisdom. Or just plain cracked, perhaps. "Ah yes. She has TIED THE KNOT." Fuka observes in that creaky voice that sounds like she at least intends to sound wise. "The knot that no sword may untie. She is the true ruler, ordained by the gods!"

    She pauses, and her voice reverts to its more casual and conversational tone. "Or at least by a goddess. I will have to tell her about this sometime soon, about the divine properties of knots and swords and the destiny of divinities. She'll like it!" Fuka claims. "Or be confused. Hm."

Miho says "Well not that we have been talking this out how about we all head to Hifumis to go get something to eat?!" Miho grins and will move to start closing up the shop.

Goldenblade asides, "My money is on her being confused, if you're the one explaining it," she tells Fuka. "Tying the knot means getting married, yes, but it's not the same as the Gordian Knot, which is a tangled mess. I certainly hope, for her sake, that her marriage isn't a /Gordian/ Knot. Tae seems quite talented and resourceful and loving, as far as I've known them both." She nods to Miho, though, the discussion can be continued with food.