2296/For Mother

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For Mother
Date of Scene: 01 July 2020
Location: Empire Glassworx
Synopsis: A royal gift is commissioned.
Cast of Characters: Nick Lytton, T'Challa




Nick Lytton has posed:
    Ginny is at the main counter.  Because Ginny is always at the main counter.  She doesn't own Empire Glassworx, and she doesn't run it, but it sometimes seems like she should.  She's got a better business head than most of the artists, and a better hand dealing with clients and customers.
    Artists are a notoriously non-business-minded bunch.  And they like it that way.
    So within the showroom, other than various objets d'art, is Ginny, hunched over a book, with a glass mug of tea, sipping indifferently.  The working area is visible through a large window; two people are working at a bench, one is dancing not very gracefully in front of one of the furnaces, working a good sized glob of glass… in his bare hands.

T'Challa has posed:
    Outside a pair of black SUVs pull up to the curb.  A serious looking woman in crimson, brown and gold armor with a shaved heads steps out of the second SUV.  She looks around then steps forward and to the side.  A man climbs out of the other side of the same SUV and walks up beside the woman.  He is a bit taller, has a dark goatee and wears a navy suit.
    "You should have let someone from the embassy do this," the woman admonishes her charge.
    "It would not mean as much," the man, T'Challa, replies.  He straightens his suit jacket.  "Besides, New York has not been attacked for at least an hour.  We are safe."
    The woman, Okoye, snorts and leads the way into Empire Glassworx.  Once inside, Okoye looks over each person in the room then nods to herself.  T'Challa walks forward and glances at some of the displayed pieces as he passes.  When he comes up to the counter and gets the eye of Ginny, T'Challa tilts his head slightly.
    "I am looking for Nick Lytton," T'Challa says with his pronounced accent and nods toward the man shaping glass with his bare hands.  "Is this gentleman him?"

Nick Lytton has posed:
    Ginny looks up.
    She does manage to set her glass down rather than drop it, although it rattles a bit before she extracts herself from the handle.  "Holy sh… I mean, he's in the back, I'll get him sir."
    She does not run, but that's a very fast walk to the door… and she pauses, and winces, before she opens it.  Oh well, nothing to be done for it.  Music blasts out: o/` NOTHIN' LEFT TO DO BUT SMILE SMILE SMIIII— o/` *bam* goes the door, cutting off the overloud soundtrack the artists have going.
    Even without being able to overhear the conversation, it's pretty easy to follow.  Nick looks up, blinks twice, and throws the glass back into the furnace almost without looking.
    By the time Nick gets to the door, Ginny has dealt with his soundtrack so there's no overloud music.  "I… you… hi.  I'm Nick."

T'Challa has posed:
    T'Challa and Okoye share an amused look while Ginny is in the back.  When Nick comes out, T'Challa smiles and steps forward to offer his right hand, his left behind his back.
    "T'Challa.  It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Lytton," the monarch replies.  "I hope I am not interrupting.  I was told I could find you here and wish to discuss a commission with you.  Is now a good time?"
    Okoye watches Nick when T'Challa holds out a hand with an unabashed obviousness that makes no bones for Western conventions about staring.  Then her attention turns to the entrance to Empire Glassworx.  Another Dora Milaje can be seen standing outside.

Nick Lytton has posed:
    Nick shakes hands maybe more on reflex than anything else—his hand is unusually, but not uncomfortably warm.  "Yes, sir.  Now is fine; I was just jamming back there without anything to do anyway," he says.  His accent is the broad and flat "accentless" English of the Midwest; he's not a local Brooklyn boy, evidently.
    He glances back over his shoulder towards the back; Ginny is already on her way back forward with a tablet in hand.  "Did you have a particular project in mind, or…?"

T'Challa has posed:
    T'Challa clasps his hands behind his back.
    "I do not have a specific idea," T'Challa says.  "A friend showed me a piece you did not long ago and something about it spoke to me.  So when it was time to think of a gift for my mother's birthday, I came to find you."
    T'Challa looks pensive.  "She has always had a fascination with the stars and open wilds," he says, gesture broadly with one hand.  "Free, but rooted.  Does this make sense?  I have not commissioned a piece of art outside of my country before."
    "This is why you should have sent an expert," Okoye opines dryly, with a ghost of a smile.  The king smirks slightly and waves her off.
    "Where do you draw your inspirations from, Mr. Lytton?" T'Challa asks curiously.

Nick Lytton has posed:
    Nick likes to think of himself as a fairly cool customer, but having royalty walk into his studio and ask for him by name has put him a little off his usual game.  "Uh.  If I knew where my inspiration came from, I'd've bottled it and put it on a shelf in case of emergency," he answers with a little smile.  Ginny mostly suppresses a wince; she's heard that one before, and more than once.
    At least the broad outline of landscapes and stars has helped him focus a little better.  "Sure, I think I understand what you mean.  That's why I work in glass—it's a solid that wants you to think it's a liquid.  That mainly leaves the question of whether her preferences are for the functional or the purely artistic…" he muses, slowly wrapping his brain around the vague outline of what to do either way.
    Behind and a little to his left, Ginny looks relieved that Nick is getting back on track, and made notes when T'Challa mentioned 'stars and open wilds'.

T'Challa has posed:
    "Artistic.  My mother has a collection of art from all over the world.  She is very proud of it," T'Challa says.  A smile pulls at the corners of his mouth.
    He looks curious again.  "A solid that wants you to think it is a liquid.  This seems like a difficult medium.  I did not think it could form the shapes you make without additive manufacturing.  It is remarkable.  Even Okoye thinks so."
    Okoye looks up sharply and blinks once.  Her eyes narrow slightly at T'Challa, but she puts on a semblance of a smile.  "It is very good."

Nick Lytton has posed:
    "Well, no one else can work with glass the way I can," Nick replies with a shrug.  It's not a boast, it's a simple statement.  "I mean, I'm sure there are other metas out there who could if they wanted to, but so far I seem to be the only one who wants to."
    His mind drifts back to the specific problem at hand.  "Hm.  I don't get to work in the purely artistic as often as I would like, and that's several cans of worms to open right there—abstract or representational, traditional or modern, and that's only the beginning."  His eyes seem to have lost focus as he wanders deeper into thought.  Fortunately Ginny is there to keep good notes.

T'Challa has posed:
    A smile spreads on T'Challa's face as Nick lets ideas swirl.  "I would like to see how you craft.  Could you show me some of what you do?"
    Okoye gives T'Challa a barely veiled 'you have got to be kidding me' look.  T'Challa laughs.  "I will not fall into a furnace," he assures her then looks back to Nick.  "There will be an exhibit of some of our foreign collection in the fall.  I would like to be able to tell the story of how work.  How did you get started in glasswork?" he asks, genuinely interested.

Nick Lytton has posed:
    "Oh, sure," Nick says brightly, turning and slipping past Ginny.  She gives him an exasperated eyeroll, and rather more graciously and gracefully indicates the way to the back with a slight bow and a small wave of the hand.  Truth is, she's normally not this quiet, but she doesn't want to commit another near slip of the tongue.
    For his part, Nick apparently couldn't care less.  He was asked one of his favorite questions.  "Oh, that's easy," he says breezily, holding the door.  "Completely by accident.  My family was vacationing up on Lake Erie.  I already knew I was meta by then and just kinda melted some beach sand into a blob of really rough glass, just to see if I could do it."  Ginny indicates a place to stand that's in the path of a cooling fan while Nick walks up to one of the furnaces and pulls out a small glob of glass.  He carries on, "As it turned out, I could.  Downhill all the way from there.  Fortunately I'm from Toledo, and the museum up there is the place for art glass."  He barely watches his hands while he talks, stopping to look only when he needs to choose a color of frit.
    One side of the glob goes into a bowl of dark green.  "I didn't start working with my hands until I learned all the traditional techniques," he remarks, "and I still get accused of cheating.  Which if you ask me is like telling a basketball player being seven feet tall is cheating.  Just using what I got, that's all."
    The glass blob has somehow gotten turned inside out; what was a mass of green glass shards looks like a spray of bushes, frozen inside the clear glass.  He holds it between his hands a moment and goes quiet with concentration… and then offers it to Okoye.
    Should she reach for it, it's already cool enough to handle easily.

T'Challa has posed:
    Okoye raises an eyebrow when she is handed the glass.  The eyebrow rises further when she looks down at it.  T'Challa smiles a bit.
    "It is very good," Okoye repeats herself, as if it had been her opinion all along.  She hands the glass to T'Challa who admires it as well.
    "People will always be jealous," T'Challa remarks as he studies the effortlessly produced design.  "What we leave behind is the most important thing.  I think mother will be pleased.  Even if some of our own glassworkers will not be," the king adds with a hint of mischief.
    "I am not concerned as long as you are reasonable," T'Challa says, this time directly to Ginny, speaking directly into the looming question.  "I will have someone from the embassy contact you for the arrangements.
    "My mother's birthday is in two months," T'Challa says to Nick.  "You can be finished by the start of August?"

Nick Lytton has posed:
    "Depending on the size and complexity of the piece, I believe so," Nick says, glancing at Ginny.  "How's the schedule look, I'm not going to put any one out, am I?"
    Ginny taps the screen, and shakes her head.  "Don't know why you ask, no one else ever schedules your furnace," she comments, half under her breath.  Nick's workspace is the easy one to spot: no cooling fan pointed anywhere near it.  "Yeah, you're good."  Extracting a card from her pocket, she hesitates as to whether it should be offered to T'Challa himself, or to Okoye.  She compromises and holds is where either could take it easily.  "If you could send us some parameters for size and shape, color, any design elements that should be included—or avoided?"
    Nick nods.  "What she said."  Grin.

T'Challa has posed:
    T'Challa accepts the card from Ginny then clasps his hands behind his back again.
    "It will be an installation piece," he says.  "The space I imagine for it is about one cubic meter."  The king's expression sets minutely and his tone becomes graver.  "It should not include elements from my culture.  It should be authentic.  I chose you because of what I saw in your work already," he cautions.  "The universal".
    Then the expression and tone lift completely.  "It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Lytton," T'Challa says and holds out his hand again.  "My people will answer any other questions you have when they make arrangements with your assistant."

Nick Lytton has posed:
     Ginny flicks a look at Nick, whose eyes widen—in the manner of one who's heard a challenge that he likes.  "Ooo, a big piece… yes, I—"  He catches for a second, blinks rapidly a few times, and finally continues, "—think I have a few ideas."  He shakes hands vigorously.  "Yes, I definitely have a few ideas.  Would you like to keep you in the loop on progress… or would you rather be surprised?"  He grins again, this time impishly.

T'Challa has posed:
    "It is always surprises with him," Okoye mutters to herself.
    T'Challa just shakes his head a little and looks amused.  "I would prefer a surprise," T'Challa confirms.  "I look forward to seeing it."  He hands the green glass piece from Nick back to Okoye.  Then T'Challa nods to Ginny and Nick and makes his way out.
    Okoye lingers.
    "And a vase of this," she says after a half second pause, and holds up the green glass piece.  Then she too turns and leaves.
    T'Challa slides into the waiting SUV, followed by his Dora Milaje.  The vehicles pull out and disappear into the flow of New York traffic.