Owner	Pose
Leonardo	Sunday afternoon. For most people that means church. For some its a day of rest, relaxation and recuperation. This Sunday, for a certain teenage mutant ninja turtle, it is a day to work in the forge which is where we find him currently. The mask he normally wears over his eyes is tied around his forehead instead making his face look younger than some would judge him typically. He is also not currently armed, his swords slung over a hook near the entrance of the forge. Finally, and possibly another oddity for those who see him typically, he is wearing a leather apron that covers him from upper chest down to his knees; on close inspection it can be seen why he would do so however, as there are sing marks scattered across it from sparks that occasionally hit it. He is currently working heating steel in a coal forge and taking a hydration break squeezing water out of a bottle into his open mouth with his blue eyes closed.
Kai	Kainashi might be quieter than most human ninjas, but is she without presence enough to sneak up on Leonardo?     The canine ninja had followed the smell of 'burning', intent on finding out what was on fire and if it had to be put out. Her ears were pricked up as she comes across Leo at the forge. Her head cants to one side, watching him for a moment. Today she was wearing a tank top and ripped-up denim shorts, her tail curled upwards in curiosity, her scarred up face scrunching slightly as she tries to judge a good time to interrupt.     Her nose snuffing is the first real sound she makes.     "Whatcha doin', Blue Leader?" she questions, her tail giving a slow wag in curiosity.
Leonardo	Leo doesn't even open his eyes. Something changed to alert him to Kai's presence (a sound? a scent? The Force(tm)?)... who knows. Lowering the botttle, he swallows the water and says, "Konnichiwa, Kai," in Japanese to greet her. He looks her way for a moment and bows his head respectfully before returning to the forge fire with tongs to remove the steel he's been heating and carries it the short distance to his anvil. He pickes up a hammer with his spare hand and, using the tongs to hold the metal in place, begins hitting the layered metal to strengthen the (hopefully set) forge wields he's been working on. "I'm working on a Turkish twist damascus like I saw one of the contestants on Forged in Fire work on last week. Its quite a challenge," Leo answers. He also says, "You know you can call me Leo, right?"
Kai	Kai would bet on the Force.     "Turkish Twist? ... isn't that a kind of ice cream?" she questions, her ears drawing down as she bows her head in return to Leo, remembering her manners, and she stands back, away from the sparks as the sound of metal striking metal ring through the room, heat coming off the forge and the welds.     "I could call you many things." she states, her tail wagging, "You respond to most of 'em."
Leonardo	Leo laughs at the ice cream question. There's no ill intent in this, just a friendly laugh elicited by kind amusement and let go due to the ongoing effort. "There's twisted ice cream and Turkish delights are a kind of desert but no, this is a specific Damascus pattern for steel making," he says. He focuses on the pounding again for a bit before saying, "Generally, yeah," with a smile and, as he transfers the billet back into the forge, he explains. "This is a thirteen layer billet of 1080 and 15N20 steel I'm working with. Got Donnie to order the materials for me so I could make this blade specially for you."
Kai	Kai's ears perked up at the laughter. That was good. She finds a comfy place to 'perch' -- she never quite sits around the others, always ready for defense. Never quite relaxes. "So it's a blend of the method an' the design?" she asks, Blending the different steels for the stripey-pattern?"     And then the last thing he mentioned hits her, and her eyebrows rise up, her ears drawing up and her tail coming down and curling slightly.     "For... me?" she asks, as if she didn't hear it quite right. "I... I don't understand." she states, looking concerned as her ears flick backwards.
Leonardo	Leonardo nods to start answering the question as he watches the metal. "Pretty much, yeah," he says. "It'll produce more than just a basic stripe pattern and its more for pretty than anything else but it'll be a functioning blade with an attractive look." He stands and looks at Kai when she expresses disbelief. A smile spreads across his features and a hairless brow raises at her confusion. "For you," he confirmes with that smile. "Your name was a lie taught to you by your abusers. Embrace it but don't believe it. You have value."
Kai	The pinks inside of her ears turn darker, and Kai rubs the back of her head a moment, the slightly longer fur sticking up in all manner of odd direction as she looks to Leo with mixed confusion and a flash of shame. "It's just a moniker. It doesn't..." she states, and her hand goes up to close over her left ear where the cruel tattoo of the kanji that make up the title given to her by the Foot Clan is seen, and there's an audiable whine.     "... I wasn't useless to them. They found uses for me. I just... wasn't as good or smart as Alopex. That's all."
Leonardo	A flash of anger, clearly directed at the Foot based on his direction and slight gazed into the distance, is heard in Leonardo's voice as he replies, "Of course you weren't. They were using you." His anger disipates however as he takes a breath to center himself, but there's the hint of Raphael in the Blue Leader showing though for a moment. "But that's not your fault," Leo states before adding, "So yeah, I've decided to make you a tanto." He pause and asks, "I mean, you don't mind do you?"
Kai	Kainashi's mouth hangs open a little as she pants, rubbing the back of her arm a moment as she looks down, and then raises her free hand to the scars criss-crossing her face.     "I... I don't mind, but I don't understand why... you would be so kind?" she asks, trying to put it into words. Her weight shifts uncomfortably as her fingers curl, and she looks at her dull claws before her ears go limp.     "I'll... have to do more focus on blade training."
Leonardo	Seeing Kai panting, Leo steps over to a cooler and pulls out a bottle of water. Tossing it toward her with gentle underhand, he asks, "Will this help?" He returns to the forge and checks on the metal, turning it in the coals so as not to risk burning the steel. As he rotates the metal with the tongs he speaks again, "I could make some kunai instead, more versitile tool, less training required." He verbally drifts to the question with a pair of his own "Why shouldn't I be? Are you secretly unkind to my brother?" The unspoken implication there is that maybe Donnie sugar coats what he deems to share with his brothers... and its totally a friendly dig done as obviously as possible to reduce risk of misunderstandings.
Kai	"Oh! Yeah, probably --" Kai states, grabbing the water mid-air, and finally settling in her seat, she cracks it open, then holds it against her neck a moment as she considers.     "No, no, a tanto would be prettier. More swirls." she states, rotating one hand as she tries to show she's definitely not unappreciative.     "I'd never be mean to Donnie. He... he doesn't even mind that I'm all scarred up and kinda dumb." the canine points out plainly, her tail curling slightly as she gives a shrug. "I guess it's that I'm not used to team leads being... y'know. Nice. In the Foot, you had to be mean. I watched a lot of people get meaner over the years. They beat being nice outta you." she explains quietly, and drinks down more water.     "Alopex remained kind, but she was the... excep.. accept.. she was different. Y'know. Fox."
Leonardo	"Exception," Leo says without any hint of judgementalness in his voice. "Or reigai in Japanese if you'd prefer," he adds as he again retrieves the metal from the fire and begins hammering it again. "Its hard to balance being tough and being kind. Master Splinter taught us the latter as he taught us the former so that we learned both at the same time." Then, obviously quoting someone but not citing his quotation, the blue bandana-ed turtle says, "Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind," right before stepping back from the steel which he left on the anvil to say, "I think I have all the forge wields locked in. After it cools a bit it'll be time to cut and twist."
Kai	"Reigai... reigai... <I shall try to remember>." Kai replies in Japanese, pleased with herself as her tail wags a little bit.     "But what about when you are faced with someone who will not show the same kindness back? I don't know if the captain who named me would be kind. Or Dom the Bomb." she states, her ears pricking forward. And she looks at the glowing steel.     "... Alopex has been very busy lately. Do you think I could practice with you sometime?"
Leonardo	"Being kind does not require being /nice/, Kai," Leo says as he stretches his arm to work out kinks developed while hammering metal on metal on metal. "But yes. Its hard. And sometimes being kind to one person means being hard on another. Its a matter of balance," he attempts to explain. His expression shows its not an easy explination for him anymore than its easy for Kai to understand. He grins then also, "Plus I was quoting a character from a show Donnie likes to have us all watch. Its fun but sometimes very strange." After strectching Leo says, "Of course you can, Kai," regarding the request to practice with him.
Kai	Kai flicks her ear a moment. "The one with the phone box, and the guy with a lot of teeth or big ears or big hair or --" she trails off a moment, then rubs the back of her head a moment, and she gives a grin back to Leo.     "I still like the one who has the brown suit and the long coat the best. HIs accent's weird."     And she stretches her arms up, accidentally spilling a little water, and she gives a surprised jump as her head gets wet.     "OK, cool, cool..." she trails off.
Leonardo	"So, what exactly has your ongoing training been focusing on?" Leo asks as he picks up the billet after lightly touching it to confirm its not too hot anymore. He carries it over to a bandsaw that clearly shows signs of Donatello's fingerprints in its own rebuild; its a muscle powered bandsaw that combines a stationary bike with the bandsaw mechanism. Leonardo mounts the bike, places the billet in place and uses additional tools to hold it while bringing the blade up to speed by pedaling the bike. Once the blade has a nearly steady flow he uses the pushing tool to slide the metal though and get the first cut. After disengaging the blade from the flywheel he repositions the smaller billet and repeats to get five sections. As he does this he says, "I mean, I assume there is ongoing strength control training and general weapons but...," then comes the important question, "What specifically are you wanting to focus on?"
Kai	"... ah... mostly strength control. Somewhat so I stop breaking the fridge. Those hinges can only be welded so many times..." the canine replies in embarrassment, rubbing the back of her head. She hops off the crate she was sitting on, following Leonardo in curiosity as she watches him work.     "That one time I slung a van at one of the Foot ninja, I hadn't meant to hit quite so hard, so that's where I was focusing. Along with, y'know. Balance. Agility, the art of invisibility an' trying not to *sneeze* every time someone pops a smokebomb." she replies with a shrug. "Still tickles my nose awfully."
Leonardo	"Oh um... yeah," Leo seems thrown off by the sneezing comment for a moment, perhaps caught up in a memory. Shaking the memory off he then asks, "Hope this isn't too personal, but is your sense of smell as accurate as a normal dog's then, Kai?" While the conversation continues he takes the five sections of steel to the forge and puts them each in, one at a time with a minute or two between them, and then pumps the bellows via a foot petal installed into the forge.
Kai	"Yeah. I smelled burning from the back end of the Hot Topic, and it wasn't coming from the Food court. So I came to check it out." she explains. "I'm able to track people by smell, which is why sometimes my nose gets all wrinkling if someone visits an' their perfume's all thick. It doesn't smell good all the time." her nose wrinkles in illustration and memory. "An' it's not personal. I mean, you've... gotta know about everyone's talents an' skills, right? So you can be a good leader!"     Her tail wags again, satisfied with her own answer to an unasked question.
Leonardo	A nod indicates agreement with that answer. Leo starts pulling the small square profile rods out of the fire and sets them down in order, once that is done the first goes into a vice and then is grabbed by a pair of tongs and he begins to twist. Once the rod has a uniform twist running down its length he repeats the process with each rod, the timing apparently sufficient to have each be at the same temperature as the twisting starts as the last. "So... I'm not sure how to help with that. More sensitive means... well, more sensitive of course," Leo says this without cracking too much of a smile over the tautology. "I'll try to do some research... maybe it'll just be a case of continued exposure to acclimate you to it better?" Yeah, Leo's thinking on this already even while doing the labor on the metalwork.
Kai	"Don't... don't worry about it too much, Leo. I'm sure I'll get used to it! Or y'know, hold my breath." she states, rubbing the back of her head a moment, and then she seems to wilt. "Dunno how you can stand this... so hot in here..." she trails off, and then hops off her perch.     "I'm gonna go find something to eat... an' then maybe try and move those concrete barriers to try and get a grind off them on my skates." she states, "Take care, Leo! Don't get too burned!!"