Summary:You never know who needs a suit of armor built… Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
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It's near the end of a business day, and Angela is taking some time to just secure things in the shop before closing up for the night. Currently, the unassuming redhead has a pair of denim jeans as well as a green silk blouse with rolled up sleeves. She whistles cheerfully to herself as she works on tidying a few things up for the end of the day… after all, when your clients can come in at odd hours, you tend to have irregular work hours as it is.
Art is not something Toni usually goes shopping for. While she can appreciate a good landscape photo or such, she doesn't really do paintings or the like. But sculpture, something shaped by human hands into something beautiful, that appeals. Thus, she's a bit suprised to find what appears to be an armor and weaponsmith shop among the art galleries that dot Soho, blinking a bit as she slows in passing on her way back from an donor meeting at a nearby cafe.
THe purple-haired engineer looks over the displays in the window curiously, before she makes a decision, opening the door and stepping inside as she looks around curiously.
Angela grins, her back to the door as she says, "Oh, hello, welcome to Carpenter Studios. Something I can get for you?" She gestures around to the various armor and ancient weapon pieces on the walls and on display. They definitely look very authentic, even if the weapons aren't "edged" due to city ordinances.
Toni is almost immediately drawn to the Chinese armor, walking over towards it. "I'm not sure." the young woman says curiously. "I didn't realize there was an armor shop here. You made these? Or someone else did and you're selling them?" she wonders, stopping in front of a lamellar armor. "These are beautiful."
Angela smiles, "Everything here is made by me, as a matter of fact. You'd be surprised at the demand some of these things get. Most of the time it's on a commission-basis, since it costs a lot of time, but occasionally people back out… or their significant other discovers just how much they spent on it." She grins a bit ruefully, "Which is why I ask for half up front at least, but yes, I make a habit of being true to the last detail."
Toni leans in, looking at the detail in the armor. "This is…really accurate." she murmurs. "I looked at all sorts of old designs when i was working on mine…this is…Song dynasty, I think? hard to tell, but it looks like it. The helmet is lovely, I like the green and gold." She glances over. "People buy them for decoration? Or for movies?"
Angela hmms, "Sometimes decoration, I have done a little bit of consulting for movies and television, but the bulk of what I do… it sounds silly, I suppose, but cosplayers or historical re-enactors comprise the majority of my business." She grins, "Which is fine with me, to be honest, I like seeing things get passed on to those that would appreciate them."
Toni takes a second look, eyes running over Angela thoughfully. "And you make all of these?" she says curiously. "That's a lot of different styles to know how to create. This…" she says, knocking on the breastplate lightly. "Is solid. Not costume armor. The real thing not just something some rich Chinese scion can stick in his office to make himself look cultured."
Angela chuckles wryly, "I make it a point to do my research and make sure to get all the tiny details right." She pauses, and grins, "After all, it allows me to afford a studio here in SoHo." Translation: she can afford to charge quite a bit.
"Research is one thing…technique is another." Toni says thoughfully. "These are very different styles…" She grins. "Hmm I'm tempted to ask if you've got a Damascus blade hidden away back there too, while you're at it."
Angela looks a bit impish, "Well… if there was, it wouldn't be for sale." She chuckles, "Things like that are a bit out of my league, really." Though, the observant might notice that she didn't exactly deny it, either.
Toni assumes, logically, that she wouldn't know the secret of Damascus steel any more than anyone else in the world! So she doesn't think to question the response. "Hmm…do you do your work here, or do you have a workshop and forge elsewhere?" she wonders. "I'm not suprised at the prices, either, if you're doing all this work yourself by hand."
Angela grins, "Actually, I have a full forge and crucible in the back. I actually own a good chunk of the building here, I just keep this as a smaller storefront, since… well, it doesn't pay to advertise too much. If you know what I mean." She hmmms a little, tilting her head curiously at Toni.
Toni looks curius. "I realize it's unusual to ask, but I'd be interested in seeing your workspace, if you don't mind a visitor? I have one of my own, but it's more tech based than a traditional shop like you would make these in."
Angela considers for a moment, then smiles a little, "Well, alright. I suppose you could take a look around back there." She shrugs a bit, then turns off the "OPEN" sign in the front window, "There's a door out the back way, that way you don't have to go through the front again. Plus I don't want someone thinking I'd still be open." She grins at that, "Right this way." With that, she locks up the front and moves towards the back, leading the way behind the counter.
"Thanks, I appreciate it." Toni says, walking after Angela as she heads towards the back. "I'm suprise you know so many designs…you must have started smithing when you were pretty young?" she says curiously.
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Angela chuckles a bit, "Not… exactly, I've been doing it in one form or another most of my life." She doesn't really look that old, either, as she leads the way to the back room. Which, well, there's an amazing array of artwork of various kinds, in addition to the forge area itself. It's almost like a concentrated dose of a museum in one warehouse-sized package as there's a variety of things from throughout humanity's history on display. Not just weapons or armor, but paintings and sculpture as well.
Toni stops, looking suprised as she sees all of the work on display, looking around, then slowly starting to walk farther in as she runs her eyes over all the gear. "/All/ of this?" she says, looking very suprised now. "This is…a lot…"
Angela smiles, "Well, I didn't do all of it, most of it was collected at one time or another. Sometimes I managed to do a trade of sorts, but it's all very authentic, I assure you." She mmms, leading the way back towards the forge itself, "I do use some modern technology just to make it easier, but sometimes you need to do things the old fashioned way."
The purple-haired engineer nods distractedly, a bit entranced by all of the sculpture and constructed relics. "This is almost a museum rather than a collection…" she says, sounding impressed, as she heads back to the forge. "I prefer to design and program how it's built, but i put my hand in sometimes when there's something that's easier by hand.
Angela nods, "Of course, there's just something about creating with your own hands that's still special, even in this day and age." She chuckles a bit, "Well, I've had a long time to accumulate things over the years, so it's still hard to pick and choose certain things over others…" A bit of a wry shrug, at that.
"I can't imagine your insurance with all this…" Toni says wryly, glancing around. "I'm really impressed though, you have a lot of talent to have made even a portion of all of this."
Angela chuckles, "Well, talent and patience and… just being in the right place at the right time." She looks a bit amused by that, for whatever reason. "So, you're more of a computer engineer of sorts then? I freely admit, that's something that eludes me a bit, at least as far as messing around with that. Maybe in my next life I'll take a stab at it."
"Mm, robotics, computer engineering, high energy physics." Toni says thoughfully as she wanders slowly through the displays, giving them her attention. "Mostly power armor, which is why I was interested in coming in. I don't make them by hand, of course, but I do design them and build the tools that construct them."
Angela ahs, then blinks a bit at the mention of, "Power Armor? You mean like Iron Man uses? Because that is a masterful piece of engineering, I have to say." She looks at Toni with newfound respect, "Even if that's not the scale you're doing, that's some pretty impressive stuff there."
There's a definite twitch when Iron Man is mentioned. "Not exactly the same. In form, perhaps, but I don't build weapons, I build armor to help people. For search and rescue and emergency crisis intervention, mostly. No lethal weapons though." the Chinese woman clarifies. "Iron Patriot, that's my armor."
Angela nods, "Well, that's a very admirable goal, and I do appreciate it." She smiles and gestures, "I'm afraid I don't really have much that would help work like that, save perhaps some inspiration perhaps." She tilts her head, glancing back at Toni, "Crisis intervention is definitely something that needs to happen more often, considering the cost to humanity."
Toni mmms "I think so too. I think it's what most powered people should be doing, really, not…fighitng supervillains constantly. Think of the good they could do, just showing up to help with disasters and such!" She sighs. "…but we'll always have either dumb, selfish, or just plain evil people with powers around too. Someone has to stop them too. I just wish it was…I wish things held humanity back less."
Angela nods, "Well, humanity is pretty good at kicking themselves in the shins. I've seen… well, quite a lot. But there's good in most of it, though. Just some rotters ruin it for everyone, I guess." She smiles a little, "I prefer to see what could be done with the raw power of creation that so many seem to have, the wonders it could make…"
"Exactly! I feel like sometimes we've trapped ourselves in a status quo that keeps us from advancing as a species." Toni says with a faint frown. "It's why I just….want to create things that help people. Everyone. Something that can't be just used as a new type of weapon."
Angela smiles a bit, "Well, I don't know what help I could be there… but that definitely sounds like a worthy endeavor. Humanity is capable of so much, it's been interesting to see."
"Every hand helps…and you can build things, well…" Toni turns to regard Angela thoughfully. "Maybe you'd be interested in volunteering for RESCUE sometime. It's the company I run. We have an element that does a lot of disaster response and such, if nothing else. They can always use someone who knows what they're doing for building. Or rebuilding."
Angela hmms, "Well, I can build things, and I'm pretty good at repairing things that are broken, so there's that." She smiles a little, "I'd be happy to stop by and check things out, if that wouldn't be a bother. And well, if you ever need some armor made for some reason, I'd be happy to help."
"Hmm, sure. I might take you up on that. I do like the lines of old armor like this, the Chinese dynasty armors in particular." Toni says thoughfully. She walks over, rummaging in a pocket, then pulls out a card. "Here. This is my personal line, if you ever want to chat some about it. Either I or Dr. Kelsey…she's the other CEO…we should be around to point you towards a good direction to help out?"
Angela takes the card and nods, "Well, certainly. I'll make it a point to stop by sometime. It was nice to meet you, Doctor." She grins a bit, "It will be interesting to see what you're coming up with over there."
Toni smiles back and nods. "It was a pleasure…thank you for taking me through the tour for your personal collection here it's nice to see so much that's been built by skilled hands. Refreshes me a bit, you know?" She waves and heads back towards the front of the shop. "Take care, Angela, was nice meeting you." And then she slips out of the shop, her thoughts turning towards her own creations….what can she make in spired by what she's just seen today?