Guns and Roses (Open)

[kiddie]

The reason they don't teach lance making in schools is because it's damn frustrating, requiring accurate measurements to make sure the weapon was balanced out evenly. If the balancing point wasn't the right distance from the shaft, then Artisan would be screwed...which is why having Lambda hovering over his shoulder and bossing him around wasn't something he appreciated.

"I'm trying to concentrate, Lambda," Artisan said through gritted teeth, " I know what I am doing. I've made lances before, that I have."

Heinz was busy crawling about what used to be the emergency room before the Crusaders took over. Curiously, he examined bottles of pills and medication as his master was at work. The operation table was now Artisan's work desk.

After adjusting the weapon for the third time to suit Lambda's wishes, he finally held the weapon as though he were prepared to fight with it. "It's balanced perfectly. I can't do any more with this," he sighed, "Now...you said there were thirty more weapons I had to complete before tomorrow? What was the next weapon on your list? Crossbow? We wasted enough time with the lance, that we did."

The young blacksmith set weapon aside, balancing it against the operation/work table. Working quickly made him feel irritated and with such a deadline, he doubted he'd enjoy the making of the next weapon. However, crossbows were easier to make than lances in his opinion, despite the fact they required more parts.

"I'll get started."

[[*DOC]]

"Damn right you will!" The girl exclaimed, pacing back and forth in irritable - if not slightly wobbly - lines a mere few inches away from where Artisan sat, before pausing a moment to take the lance from Artisan, whether he intended to hand it to her or not. Falling into an attack stance, she quickly tested out the lance with a series of jabs, lunges and quick swings, finding that - as he had said - it really was perfectly balance.

But of course she wasn't going to let on that she was happy with it. "...Satisfactory." She grumbled with a quick nod, before sitting down on a small stool next to Artisan and crossing one leg over the other, lance still in one hand. Tapping the sharp tip of it on the tiled floor rhythmically for a few moments, she narrowed her eyes at the side of Artisan's head, pouting a little with black cherry hue lips.

Lambda, as usual, looked her gothic best. White blonde hair today loose except for two small pigtails, one at either side tied with black ribbons, dressed in an odd shirt and skirt, with a small hole from the neck that would have shown off cleavage if the poor girl had any, and another that showed off a small amount of her midriff, perhaps a slightly better attribute of the girl. That plus thigh high stockings edged with lace and black and silver lolita heels completed the bizarre looking bundle of arrogance that was Lambda Reaper; the perhaps undeserving leader of the Crusaders.

Picking up a crumbled list from the desk that had her trademark ink splattered, spidery handwriting, she scanned if for a moment, before making a loud 'hmph' noise. "Yes, Artie, you have five crossbows to make, two recurve and three compound, four sabres, eleven guns; I believe that's six semi-automatic, two shotguns and three pistols, three rapiers and that leaves... oh, my lance and nine shields. Before nine o'clock tomorrow." She said this all fairly deadpan, her somewhat prominent Irish accent clashing strongly with her porcaline doll-like appearance, giving Artisan a hard look, positively iridescent eyes wide and crystalline.

"Do you have a problem with that?"

[kiddie]

“I don't think it would matter to you whether or not I did have a problem, would it?” he snarled. This was an assignment that would keep him up all night, making him prone to mistakes and miscalculations in the early hours of his sleep deprived mornings. Thank goodness he had some crossbow bolts premade! No doubt Lambda would request extra, but it was less of a set back.

For a few blissful moments, the room was quiet except for Artisan's gathering of materials.

Artisan's slender fingers set the yew wood inside the bending jig, attaching a strip of metal to prevent the material for splintering as he made the reverse bends in the tips. Heinz had scurried off and gathered an old humidifier, plugging it into the hospital's outlets and pushing it along the edge of the work table. The wood would need to be steamed slightly if he didn't want it to break. That meant a fifteen minute waiting period.

In a burst of irritation at Lambda hovering behind him, always critical and merely “satisfied” with his best work, Artisan whizzed around to face her, threw his hands in the air, and shrieked, “PENIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!”

Whoo. That made him feel better.

Now the next fourteen minutes would consist of Lambda scolding him.

[[*DOC]]

Letting out a feminine shriek in initial surprise as Artisan whipped round and yelled at her, it suddenly began to sink in exactly what he had just shrieked, causing her pale face to flush bright red, eyes widening and mouth hanging open, beginning to shake as if the small girl was very well going to literally explode.

Her shriek heightened into a strangely shakey, high pitched scream of embarrassment, inclining her head into her chest, hands balling into fists, looking as if she literally wanted to sink into the ground and never reappear.

"A-A-A-A-ARTISAN!!!!!" She finally managed to stammer out once she was finished screaming, still bright red in the face, tears in the corners of her eyes, looking as if she was caught right between the urge to scream 'kyaa!' and hide, or slap him as many times and as hard as she could. "W-W-WHY W-WOULD Y-Y-YOU S-SAY S-S-SUCH A-A T-T-THING, Y-YOU... Y-YOU... M-MONGREL! Y-YOU P-PATHETIC, F-FILTHY R-RABID M-M-MONGREL! M-MONGREL! MONGREL MONGREL MONGREL! Y-YOU... BAKA!" She stopped, taking a deep breath, mentally scolding herself for having let herself get so upset that she resorted to using the 'weeaboo' esque Japanese words that she'd sworn to herself she would never.

Even if she did love dressing up like a lolita. And watching anime. And using their language. And yaoi- Swallowing hard, still blushing, she glared at him as harshly as she could, despite this attempt just making her look like a sulky 'tsundere' little girl, pouting at him with blushing cheeks and shining eyes.

[kiddie]

Sighing in irritation, Artisan rolled his eyes at Lambda and waited for her to finish. “Lambda, it's not a curse word. All guys have one. It was either that or fu...Never mind. But if you insist, fine. I'll say something else, I will,” he said sweetly, “KOCHU! KOCHU! KOCHU! KOCHU! KOCHUUUUUUU! ”

Heinz scurried under the work table in fear, although curious as to why his master was shouting: “Dick” in Korean. The poor creature trembled under the worktable, waiting for another Lambda and Artisan argument to pass over like a class seven hurricane.

“Ha! I'M a mongrel? Hop'ung ” Artisan seethed, “If you hate me so much, why don't you just fire me? Put me out of my misery!” Heinz risked looking up at his master to find the color had drained from Artisan's face, a trait reserved for when he was furious with someone...he also had said “bullshit”. It was such a drastic change from his usual steady demeanor, but Lambda should've known better than to give Artisan crap for his work.

“You aren't even Japanese!” he said in exasperation.

There was a great deal more he could've said to his boss, but when she looked at him like that, his words seemed to evaporate into the atmosphere. He chewed on his lip and spun around, refusing to look at her anymore.. Instead, he rested his hands on the edge of his work table and hunched over it. “Lambda, you saved my life, you did. I owe you. But if you keep treating me with this attitude...I'm trying to do a good thing and help you, but everything I do is never satisfying enough for you. If that's the case, fire me right now. If I'm not good enough to work for you, fine. It'll be less of a headache for me, it will.”

[[*DOC]]

Flushing an even brighter red than before, she shook her head violently from side to side, putting her hands over her ears to try and block it out. "STOP IT! STOP IT STOP IT STOP ITTTTTT!" She whined, before he turned his back on her, causing her to stop short in her complaints, sniffing a little.

There was a long, heavy silence after he had spoken, only broken by another sniffle, Lambda now staring at the floor, eyes welling up with tears, an angry flush still spread across her cheeks, lip quivering. "Y-you're... you're a jerk..." She mumbled, looking quite genuinely upset by what he'd said, remaining uncharacteristically quiet.

"If you hate me, just say it... Then you can go... It's not... l-like I care... or anything..." Her voice trailed off weakly, one hand clutching at the material of her skirt at her lap, knuckles turning white.

[kiddie]

“So are you,” Artisan shot back, “You knew that nobody can possibly finish thirty quality weapons in twenty-four hours. You just did it for an excuse to treat me like crap and insult me when I don't finish everything. This isn't the first time, Lambda, it's not. You do this to me almost every week now. I'm not a slave. I'm only helping you because you helped me.”

If he didn't look at her sniffling little face, then he wouldn't feel the need to apologize and get back to work. It felt like Medusa herself stood behind him, waiting for him to turn around so he could be petrified into stone. He knew it was a stupid idea to turn around...yet he did it anyway.

Artisan's face fell.

“I don't hate you. But you aren't giving me very many reasons to like you either,” he sighed, “And you know as well as I do that you care whether I'm here or not. I'm the only person in this group who can duplicate a weapon after seeing it once, that I can.”

That's what Artisan believed to be the basis of their relationship. It never occurred to him that Lambda could possibly want him to stay because of his eagerness to help others or his hard working attitude. The only reason that anybody would keep him around, in his opinion, was because he could give them whatever they wanted. Did someone need a weapon constructed? Artisan could figure out its parts by looking at a photograph. Did a girl want a specific type of jewelry? He could remember the tiny indentations on the necklace chains after seeing it once. It was like photographic memory with limitations. There was no way in hell he could remember what he ate for breakfast the previous morning or how many centimeters are in a foot, but when it came to engineering, it was as if his mind had a “translate to blueprint” button.

[[*DOC]]

As soon as Artisan turned to face her, his brutal honesty seeming to hit like a punch to the face, she looked down to the ground, the tears welling in her eyes threatening to spill over. One tear broke the barrier, and soon the rest followed, streaming down her face and taking dark eye makeup with them, just about managing to look up at him as she stifled a tiny sob, looking quite genuinely hurt and heartbroken.

"I... I like having you here..." She murmured quietly, hating to admit such things, averting her gaze to avoid seeing his reaction - most likely surprised, and then rather smug - to her words, chewing on her lower lip to try and quell the sobs rising in her throat like hiccups, tears still falling from her eyes, causing them to lighten in shade, positively glowing a bright, sky blue.

"You work... really well... and you would never live up to your full potential if I didn't push you..." She said flatly, the sentiment there but the emotion seemingly sapped from her voice, squeezing her eyes shut, the compliments leaving a bad taste in her mouth. She hated this. She hated the fact that he could hurt her feelings so easily... Why did it even matter? He did have a point, she did like to dump work on him like weight on a mule's back just to try and get on his nerves, but now he was making her feel bad about it, and she simply hated this feeling.

Letting out a few more sobs that she couldn't hold back, she hunched into herself, not wanting to let him see her crying like this. She had to maintain some sort of dignity...

[kiddie]

”Wh-what... what are you doing? “ stammered Artisan, “You're crying!? NO! No CRYING! Don't cry! No more tears! Stop the tears!” Freaking out, he turned in a small circle, awkwardly patted Lambda's shoulder, and spun back around. He glanced over his work table and lunged for a small stack of gears, the metal rattling against the table. “Look! I'm working! See? That's just what you wanted, that it is! Don't cry! Everything is okay, now!”

The bow still had a few more minutes of steaming before Artisan could work on it, so he tinkered with another project of his instead. Bolts sank into the metal with the press of his thumb, yielding to the will of the Earth Carrier without the force of a drill. The shape itself seemed to listen to Artisan, acting like clay in his fingers, sculpting itself into the proper final product.

It took him little more than six minutes to mold the metal into an egg shape, slap a few gears inside it, give it two bolts for eyes, and attatch two square metal sheets for wings. The final result wasn't as polished as he would've liked it to have been and the eyes were lopsided, but this was an emergency. He needed to distract Lambda.

Artisan turned the knob the simple wind-up toy and set it on the floor. The sound of gears mingled with Lambda's sobs as a tiny mechanical bird waddled its way towards her, bumping into her legs but continuing trying to walk forward.

“F-for you!” Artisan stammered weakly, “Keep it! It's a peace treaty, it is!”

[Sky]

Calista had just been taking one of her usual breathers, relaxing a bit as she walked around. She needed to, keeping Lambda in check most of the time was tiring. She could be very picky and cranky at times, it was hard to believe the two were related. Calista with her usual smiling self and Lambda, her crazy, power hungry, uptight, and cranky self. She did make a good leader though, she just needed a little bit of a shove in the right direction.

Then she heard shouting and yelling. It sounded as if it was coming from the place that Artisan had claimed as his work room. She sighed and shook her head, Lambda had to be giving him a hard time again. Those two were like a married couple after all. It was crazy, but she would never say such a think to Lambda, that would only result in Lambda either blushing and crying out of frustration or trying to kick Calista's ass.

She sighed and shook her head, turning to head towards the room. It would be best to break up the two before things got too serious. She didn't need the two love birds kissing or anything. She walked in, her usual happy vibes seeming to flow off of her, even though everyone who actually knew her knew that it was more to hide the fact that she had killed a subway car full of people.

"Why are you two yelling at each other again? Lambda, are you pushing him too-" Calista stopped short as she saw Lambda crying. At thsi she ran over and hugged her cousin, giving Artisan the evil eye, ignoring the little mechanical bird.

[[*DOC]]

Having been wiping her eyes and trying to quell her sniffles and sobs as Artisan exploded into somewhat of a flap, trying to stop her crying, Lambda was caught off guard as Calista suddenly pulled her into a hug, dropping the new lance an inch or two from the floor, causing a loud clatter to ring through the room. "I-I'm fine, I'm not crying, shut up." She stammered, wiping the tears from her face, her eye makeup having run to give her the appearance of a sulky little panda.

Allowing her cousin to hug her for a few moments longer before she haughtily shrugged her off, with one final sniffle, she picked up the small mechanical bird, unable to stop herself from smiling faintly at it, gently stroking one metal wing with the tip of her index finger. It was a lovely gift... But Lambda wouldn't allow herself to gush over it, particularly not after the jerk had just made her cry. "...t-thanks." She muttered with a quick nod of her head, keeping a gentle hold of it to make sure it wouldn't get damaged.

Sucking in a deep breath, she stood up from the stool, putting one hand on her hip, trying to look imposing; despite looking like a strange, tiny gothic girl with little more power than a mouse. "W-we're at peace now, so... g-get back to work, okay?" She demanded, the power returning to her voice, trying to stand strong. "And... this never happened, okay?" She added, wiping the last bit of tear residue from her chin awkwardly.

[kiddie]

Artisan resorted to looking down at the floor, nothing left to do besides standing uncomfortably under Calista's evil eye. Averting the girl's gaze, he looked to Lambda and smiled tiredly. “Of course you aren't crying,” he said, “My mistake, Lambda, my mistake.”

The small fell from his face as he turned back to his worktable, disappointed by Lambda's lack of enthusiasm. He'd taken her careful treatment of the silly toy as another one of her examinations, rather than the acceptance of a gift. Defeated, he haphazardly started to drill a bow lock plate into the material, temporarily clamped the material together, and marked the spot he wanted to place a scope for accuracy.

“Of course,” he said wearily, “I'll have them finished by tomorrow.”

Somehow, he'd get the other twenty-nine weapons done, if only to avoid seeing Lambda throw another fit. Or perhaps it was because, it did brighten his day to see her happy...somewhat.

The young man shook his head and tried to concentrate on his work, knowing he had another stressful twenty-four hours ahead of him. He hadn't slept the previous night either, desperately trying to complete another order of Lambda's. Even as he stood, he could feel his eyes closing and his movements slowing down.

[[*DOC]]

"Good. I'll be back to check on your progress in a few hours." She fidgeted for a moment, picking the lance up from the floor, noting how tired and sluggish he looked. Perhaps... she was working him a bit too hard. Maybe. "Just don't forget to eat and drink... I don't want you to get sick." She quickly turned away as she said this, before marching out of the door with lance in tow.

Having gone and practised with her new lance for a good two hours, she returned after having showered, looking incredibly different to her usual self; a lack of makeup showing just how innocent and feminine her facial features were, her hair still a little damp but in its natural slightly wavy state, her skin fair instead of powdered white, dressed in a fluffy pale blue dressing gown with rabbit ears on the hood.

Padding down to Artisan's work station, her footsteps shuffled in slippers, she huddled down into her gown for warmth, wondering how many weapons he had managed to complete in her time away... Putting one hand into her pocket, she ghosted her fingers over the gift he'd given her earlier that day, the small mechanical bird that she, secretly of course, had decided she wanted to keep with her at all times. For sentiment's sake, of course.

Pushing open the door, she wandered in. "Artie?"

[kiddie]

Focused on attaching the scope to the crossbow, Artisan waved Lambda away without looking back. A few hours for Lambda was the equivalent to an hour, maybe two if she found something to busy herself with. That left Artie very little time to construct, even with Heinz fetching tools or chittering every time Artisan couldn't hide his yawns. After a few minutes of standing, his preferred position to work in, Artisan's legs were so tired he had no choice but to drag a chair up to the table.

There he sat for about an hour and a half, completing about three and a quarter crossbows before he'd fallen asleep, a pair of pliers still clenched in hands. Head resting on the table and expression relaxed for once, Heinz couldn't bring himself to wake Artie up. The dark circles under his master's eyes were reason enough to let him enjoy a few moments of bliss, let alone how exhausted and weak he acted during the day. The tiny monkey curled up on the work desk and drifted off himself, right next to Artisan's unopened water bottle.

Fast asleep, Artisan didn't budge when Lambda called his name.

[[*DOC]]

Confused when she heard no reply, Lambda was suddenly met by the sight of Artisan slumped over his workspace, seemingly fast asleep, breathing slowly and heavily... Hell, even Heinz was fast asleep too. Unsure of quite how to handle this situation, wondering if she should wake him and yell at him for a while, Lambda found herself wandering over to where Artie sat, standing beside him and gazing down at his gentle sleeping face, suddenly struck dumb with how peaceful he looked.

It was... cute. Reaching out with light, shaking fingers, she gently ghosted them over his cheek, up to his hair, surprised at how soft it was. Blushing a little, she smiled at his sleeping form, before glancing to the work he'd gotten done, picking up one of the completed crossbows, admiring the workmanship. Perhaps she could be a little more lenient with him today... She had been a little harsh, after all.

Placing the crossbow down as gently as she could so as not to wake him, she picked up a shock blanket from one of the door-less cupboards in the room, gently draping it around his shoulders to make sure he wasn't cold. Lambda couldn't help but feel at least something in terms of Artisan's wellbeing, but it was always easier to act when, well... when he wasn't awake or around to see.