(no subject)

[tragic_mask]

Arriving at the Visitor's Center, Melpomene takes a look around.

"Well, this is it. In all its touristic glory. "

Comments

[tragic_mask]

She tilts her head.

"What sort of materials would these be?"

[mechanicalswans]

"It depends," he says. "Say someone wants to have a charm made that will help them move more quickly. I could ask them for a wheel from a very old car that had traveled an extraordinary number of miles during its time... or I could ask them for six inches of rail from a particular platform of Grand Central Terminal, that they must cut themselves."

[tragic_mask]

"So... like attracts like?" she asks.

[mechanicalswans]

"It does," he agrees. "But there are always easier or more difficult materials to use--easier for me to work with, or easier for them to find. I won't take any more effort than I have to, with people who annoy me."

[tragic_mask]

"Understandable," she says. "I try to pick and choose, too-- the people who will be easiest to work with, to inspire. Unfair, I suppose. But that's how I do it."

[mechanicalswans]

"I prefer doing work for people I like," he says. "Teja, for instance--I would have no trouble making nearly any project for him. But there's a certain sadism involved in doing work for people I dislike, and that has its appeal."

[tragic_mask]

"If you say so," she says, quirking a brow.

[mechanicalswans]

"I don't have the option of saying no," he says, barely audibly, looking away. "We've all got our limits."

[tragic_mask]

"Always," she agrees, but sadly. "I can't imagine being forced to create something for someone I couldn't stand."

[mechanicalswans]

"So I make it more difficult for them," he says quietly, "make it more costly, so they will change their minds, or possibly be killed trying to get the materials or payment."

[tragic_mask]

"I see," she says.

[mechanicalswans]

"It's my only defense," he says with a light shrug.

[tragic_mask]

"I think I understand. So the more you like someone, or want to complete their commission, the easier you'll make things on them."

[mechanicalswans]

"Exactly," he nods. "I have a bit of a romantic side still, it turns out, and that makes me go much easier on certain people even if they are strangers. But I am kinder to my friends."

[tragic_mask]

"Good to know," she says with a smile.

[mechanicalswans]

"I would make you just about anything you could want, easily," he says with a small smile in return. "I won't say I would make anything easily, but most things."

[tragic_mask]

"I'm sure my imagination couldn't encapsulate all the things you could make," she says. "So don't worry about that."

[mechanicalswans]

"I don't know you completely, not yet," he murmurs, "but what I have seen of you, I can't imagine you asking for something I would not willingly, even gladly, make for you."

[tragic_mask]

"I'd hope you wouldn't know me completely already," she says. "I don't like to be so transparent."

[mechanicalswans]

"The only way to know someone, truly and completely, is for them to be dead," he says. "But I don't even know you completely up to this point--very far from it. And I prefer it that way. Just as long as I know you at least a little..."

[tragic_mask]

"I suppose that's the best one can hope for, with gods."

[mechanicalswans]

"I feel honored that you let me get this close to you," he says with a smile. "And I hope I don't disappoint."

[tragic_mask]

"No," she says. "You match and exceed all my expectations of Northern forge gods. Such as they are."

[mechanicalswans]

"What kind of expectations would you have had?" he asks, eyebrow raised. "Some particular to Norsemen, or to forge workers, or some combination of the two?"

[tragic_mask]

"Oh, both." She nods, sagely. "Of course, my image of forge gods comes from Hephaestus. But he's a lot less formidable than I imagined the Norse gods to be. He's a big hunchbacked softy, when it comes right down to it."

She quirks a brow. "So, my expectations were of someone like Hephaestus, only... dangerous."