Workshop Visit

[very_sharpe]

Thomas was quite pleased to get a text from Daine asking if he was free, or at ihs workshop. He answered her: yes to both.

Come through the alley at the back of the building. The shop is closed but I'll let you in through the workshop if you'd like to visit.

He'd be happy for the company.

At the moment he was restocking after the lunar new year; he'd spent all his time making little rooster mementos and hadn't bothered to make anything else. Steve had warned him that they were selling out on things, and that one or two people had been by to request commissions. He had a board with all the commission receipts and descriptions and sketches for the commissioned pieces. The long work benches were well organized and at the moment it seemed that he had a little assembly line going for some of the smaller pieces he sold. It helped to set things up that way when he had Steve helping him.

When he heard a knock at the door he wiped his hands off, as best he could, and went to open it for Daine.

Comments

[very_sharpe]

"She'll have as many as she likes here, so long as you don't mind me spoiling her a bit." Thomas knew this place might not be as entertaining for Kitten, so he'd try to come up with things to keep her interest.

He smiled at the mention of the dragons. "I do, certainly. Hold on." Thomas disappears through a door to the front of the shop and comes back a moment later. He sets one of the medium-sized dragons - about a foot tall - on the table for Kitten to examine. He showed her how to make smoke come out of its mouth. "Daine's told me that's not how your sort makes fire, but those are the only stories I'd ever heard before that."

[wildmage_daine]

Daine shakes her head, the gesture echoed by Kitten a moment later. "You may as well," she says her smile turning wry. She's more worried about Kitten being bored than spoiled; and that's if you can even call it 'spoiling' when the dragon's already dealing with far less freedom than she's used to. Thomas could make her a whole pile of toys, and it would still feel less like an indulgence and more like damage control.

"Only if it won't put you behind here, though," she hastens to add. She wouldn't presume the toys to be gifts, but he still has a whole shop to run, and customers to consider besides her and Kitten.

The model dragon earns an admiring whistle from Kitten. She even stretches her tiny wings in imitation of the flapping move the model makes, though the smoke makes her sneeze. "That's what you get for sticking your nose in it," Daine says mildly, knowing how tough the dragonet is despite her appearance. For Thomas's sake, she adds, "She's done worse to herself." She doesn't know what exactly is in the smoke, but considering the things Kitten's eaten in the past without any long-term ill effects, she doesn't expect it's anything that would harm her.

[very_sharpe]

"Well, I should prefer that she not try to explore the workshop itself too much. Perhaps she'd be alright, but I'd feel terrible if she managed to find anything that actually could hurt her in here."

Perhaps Kitten was resilient - Daine had said as much about her - but Thomas would rather not test that theory around tools and technology that Kitten might not have run into in her own world.

"But she's welcome to visit - both of you are - as often as you'd like." He offered Daine an almost shy sort of smile.

[wildmage_daine]

"That's fair enough," Daine is quick to agree. This is Thomas's workspace. Even if his concerns are for Kitten's sake, Daine doesn't want the dragon to muck up his business, either. "I wouldn't want her to mess about with your things, whether they'd hurt her or not. It's still your shop."

Kitten lets out a mild cheep and ducks her head, lifting a paw to rub at her snout. "And that's kind of you to offer," Daine adds with a grateful smile. He really has been terribly kind to her, ever since she met him. "You'll spoil both of us," she adds with playful good humor, nose wrinkling. "You've already been fair sweet to me, and now you're going to start in on Kitten."

[very_sharpe]

Thomas actually looked a bit shy for a moment, very nearly blushed when Daine said he'd been sweet to her. "I rather like seeing people happy, and you've been kind to me as well. I've-- sometimes I feel I've a great deal to make up for. But when I was happiest, when I felt best, I was making things for people I care for and making them smile. So if I can even do that even a bit for you, and Kitten, I'd be terribly pleased."

[wildmage_daine]

He looks a little sheepish for a moment, and Daine wonders if she said something wrong or embarrassed him somehow. She didn't really mean it, the stuff about him spoiling them, but she'd thought that was obvious. They've all three of them been yanked into a foreign realm and trapped in a single city; after all that, it would take an awful lot of fine treatment before it started to feel like spoiling.

She understands having a lot to make up for, though, and she nods sympathetically. Well, she doesn't understand what it means for Thomas -- and while part of her is curious, wondering if Edith might have anything to do with it, she knows it's none of her business. If he wanted to tell her more, he could, but it'd be fair rude to pry. She wouldn't relish telling him about Carthak, after all.

Instead, she focuses on the nice bits. "I'm sure you'll manage," she says. "And I'm glad Darrow lets you do what makes you happy. If we're all to be stuck here, it seems only fair that we have that chance."