12219/Daisho - Hai!

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Daisho - Hai!
Date of Scene: 29 July 2022
Location: The Forge
Synopsis: Daisho forged. Cosmetics handled. Fun had!
Cast of Characters: Colborn, Betsy Braddock




Colborn has posed:
    Forge time is actually at a premium these days. Colborn hasn't -finished- his special saber project yet. But it's at a point where it needs to set and wait for a bit. So since he has a few days available, he put in a call to Betsy, and informed her that he had time to work on her daisho. A time was arranged, and the steel was procured and made ready.

    In the end, he finds himself waiting with the forge heated and the tools all set and organized like he *gasp* actually knows what he is doing. All that is required is for the wielder to show up.

Betsy Braddock has posed:
The wielder is quick to show up, thank you very much. And surprisingly (maybe) dressed absolutely appropriately for the job at hand in a mechanic jumpsuit with 'Braddock' stitched across the breast, and a pair of steel toe boots. Her hair is slicked back into a no nonsense braid and coiled out of the way with a hairband to catch the baby hairs and escapees.

Betsy tucks the aviator sunglasses into a pocket of the jumpsuit as she makes her way into the forge, helping herself to the back room with the lightest of telepathic brushes to inform the Forgemaster who just walked in. Her thoughts are warm with excitement, although there are hints of stress lingering just behind carefully compartmentalized emotions and thoughts.

Colborn has posed:
    Once in the back, Colborn quite simply locks the front door telekinetically. It's easier. And when he is really working on -true- projects, he likes to close up shop to free his attention up fully for the project.

    He smiles and has several different preparatory billets laid out to be selected between. And when Betsy reaches the back, he gestures to them and says, "You will choose your steel. You will choose the pattern, if any... and you will choose the method. Am I to fold the steel in the traditional style? Or am I to use my own... unique methods?"

Betsy Braddock has posed:
"This is when I wish I were a better precog." Betsy murmurs to herself, so low that if Colborn wasn't what he was, with the abilities and physiology he has, even he wouldn't hear it. Telepathy, telekinesis, precognition... Is there any aspect of the mind this British shinobi with the purple hair isn't gifted with? Betsy closes her eyes briefly, breathing slowing and calming as she attempts to coax a gift that hasn't worked right in almost a decade to do the damn thing.

Does it work? Who knows. After a few moments, Betsy scrunches up her nose, opens her eyes, and points to one of the billets. "That one. Forged by your unique methods... I'm commissioning you, after all, not some traditionalist in Japan." She smiles slightly at the steel. "When you polish it, I want the traditional polish; mirror blade, matte hamon."

Colborn has posed:
    Nodding his head, Colborn steps over and picks up the billet. There is enough steel in it for both swords. Yeah, it's not a tiny hunk of metal. It is, however, already stronger than most steels. Some people might think that an alloy of steel and titanium is the way to go. Well, Colborn has here a hunk of high carbon nickel steel. "Good choice." he states as he turns and approaches the forge. "I will temper the steel differentially. The spine will be softer than the edge to guarantee flexibility and strength. So, you do not wish some damascus pattern in the metal then. Good... forge welds are just lots of potential points of weakness in a blade. If you could be so kind as to turn the dial on your side up to the green line... that will set the forge to the right heat for this steel." he says as he sets the steel into the forge.

Betsy Braddock has posed:
"No damascus." Betsy confirms, and smiles ever so slightly with a cat-and-canary smile. "I don't want points of weakness but... I also want the unobstructed mirror finish." Once the dial is turned, she moves back slightly to await the next command, and continues, "I've used my blade to shine light in someone's eyes, and it's a smashing good way to keep an eye on your back for anyone being naughty."

Colborn has posed:
    "Sure. But if you had a matte finish, it could be held in hand without having further chance of breaking stealth. Just a thought." offers Colborn. "But it is your weapon, and your choice."

    Grinning, he adds, "I am merely the vessel to shape it for you. Now...." his dark eyes traverse down towards Betsy's right hand. "You -are- right handed, yes? I know that Kenjutsu tends to teach right handedness even for someone who is left side dominant. Well, either way... when the metal is heated for the first time, and ready to be worked, my tradition... and that is all that it is, a tradition. This is not some mystical ritual to imbue power or whatnot, but my ritual is for the wielder to bleed onto the blade as I start to work it. So that I am working a part of you into your weapon." A brief pause and he asks, "Is that something you are willing to do?"

Betsy Braddock has posed:
"Usually by the time the sword is out, I've already pissed away stealth as an option." Betsy laughs, purple eyes dancing with amusement. "Either by choice or by chance. Either one is a bitch, mmmm?"

She tilts her head at his questions, considering him and the steel both for a few moments. "Yes, right hand dominate." She confirms, still considering the steel he's preparing. Finally, slowly, she adds, "I've no problem bleeding. I bled for my last blade. The... tradition... I was taught in does tend to skew towards the mystical." She then looks up, consideringly, "It may make my psychic powers flow through the steel better, at that. Part of me inside it."

Colborn has posed:
    "Well, psychic is not mystical. The two use entirely different sorts of energies. I can work with psychic. I have never had any connection to anything mystical, magical or otherwise enchanted." admits Colborn with a shrug as the metal heats. It's not all that long before he gazes into the forge and nods before reaching in with tongs to grab the billet. He sets it upon his anvil and looks up to Betsy, "Now is the time." he says as he offers a sharp small blade with his left hand.

Betsy Braddock has posed:
"Mystical is as much a mindset as a form of energy." Betsy counters, with a chuckle and a toss of her hair. "For all the practicality of ninjitsu, my... teachers... preferred to hide everything behind talk of fate and beasts and Avatars." She waves a hand in the air. But then the excitement is starting, and Betsy straightens up, unzipping the jumpsuit and wrapping it around her torso in preparation to heat and blood.

Calm down, son. She's wearing a black sports bra, so it's not as if she's tits out while she's accepting the blade from the forgemaster, nodding to him once she has the blade and is prepared to slice it across her hand to draw the most blood with the least damage possible.

Colborn has posed:
    "And.. go." says Colborn. And as much as most men would give essential body parts to be this close to a sports bra clad Betsy, Colborn himself seems to be in love with his work more than noticing women around him. Plenty of time for that later.

    When the blood dribbles onto the metal... he does something that might draw a startled gasp from Betsy. Rather than using a hammer, he quite literally just reaches his hand to grip the metal, and begins rubbing the blood into the malleable steel with the pad of his thumb. And visually, it looks like the metal is behaving more like a sponge than like steel, as the blood seems to soak into the material rather than turning to steam and baking off.

    Colborn doesn't seem harmed as he does this, and when he finishes rubbing the blood in, he reaches a hand out to summon his forgehammer to hand... and then begins working. Now, to most people, it might not be apparent how much force is being used. But most blacksmiths don't exert more force with a hand-hammer than a power-hammer can. His anvil and hammer have been treated to be especially durable, since he is swinging with the strength to lift twenty five tons. BAM... BAM.

Betsy Braddock has posed:
Yes, that would in fact pretty much guarantee a gasp or two from Betsy if she wasn't sure that she'd somehow stumbled across a mutant or some sort of demi-god as one does in New York City because... that's just how it is. Need a katana forged by a demi-god? Just got to Queens! As he rubs the blood in, Betsy pulls a bit of ace bandage out of a pocket and begins to wrap her hand with the ease of someone that's done this a time or two.

And then she leans back to watch the show, eyes half-lidding as she attempts to probe at his process with her mind without jostling his elbow or invading his privacy. But maybe if he's using telekinesis, she can pick up on a trick or two...?

Colborn has posed:
    When it comes to forging, Colborn is using good old fashioned, if superhuman, muscle power. The cosmic energy flowing through his body makes him stronger than any mortal. It also lets him manipulate the metal on a molecular level. This speeds up his process, and helps him get flawless shapes quickly. But not only that, he can use it to make the materials far more durable than normal. Given time, he could turn this into Adamantium. But that'd take months... it's not a fast process.

    The plan here is to have what he calls a 'blood line' in the blade. On a Katana, that wave pattern most people see is the result of mud and other things used to make the steel cool at different rates. The irony is that is also how the blade gets curved. It's not forged that way. It cools into a curve. But on this blade, that wave-shaped line will be very thing and yet blood red.

    Hours pass, and he has split the billet into two parts, one larger than the other. Of course, Daisho are a pair of weapons. But the shape is becoming obvious as he works. Taking time to heat one in the forge while working the other. But he never stops. The man is a machine.

    The sun is low in the sky when he says, "Okay. Time to quench the blades." And both of them come out of the forge telekinetically, and he gently lowers them into the oil... not using mud to alter the cooling properties. He is just using his power for that... and as they cool, the metal deforms into the traditional curved blade of Katana and Wakizashi.... from there out, it is as simple as sharpening and putting on guards and grips. Butterfly guards. And of course, the blades have a tiny caterpillar marked just before said guards. As if the blades are chrysalising into the guards.