Sorta 2nd Skin

[Circe]

Circe waited outside a door in a back alley. She had a purse on one shoulder over, a t-shirt, jeans, and a hip holster. She was checking her smart phone, using the signal from the portable hot spot in the purse. For work, not cat videos. That could come later.

She awaited her favorite Spring Beast to arrive.

[Sonnie Wu]

Munching on a street taco as she strolled down the alleyway, Sonnie Wu arrived dressed in blue jeans, her messenger bag and staff, her hedgespun boots and pendant, and a hoodie that looked like a monkey. On her, the last item seemed redundant... at least to fae eyes.

"Yo!" she waved with her free hand at the blueberry elf. "Whatcha watching? Cat video?"

[Circe]

Circe looked up at Sonnie, quirking her left eyebrow and ear at the sight of the hoodie. That was fitting. "Ocean forecasts fer work. Hate boats. Welcome ta my front door, lets talk in my backyard."

Circe draws the pistol and twirls it once forward, then backward, then forward. She opens the door.

Thorns bordered a box of open space with what look like old street lights poking out at odd angles providing the illumination. The street lights have some kind of crystal within that provides the light. The space is dominated by a, mostly grey, stone forge. A few sections of this forge are turquoise colored, coincidentally they are the portions Circe had previously tried to repair with cement.

The rest of the Hollow has more mundane furniture, a recliner, a pullout couch, cupboards, a gun cabinet, and a kitchen area. Well a kitchen area the same way an un-powered cabin has one. And next to the old school kitchenette? A small grove of fruit bearing bushes.

Finally there is a workbench with a set of mundane tools and materials next to the forge. And a lot of stuff on and below it.

Circe walks in backwards so as to give a flourish with both her arms, "Welcome my favorite Spring Beastie, welcome. To Il mio tela. Name in progress," gives her two thumbs up. "Come in, come in."

[Sonnie Wu]

The hoodie didn't have a tail, at least. That would have been silly.

Sonnie finished her taco while watching Circe do her twirly gunslinger trick. She was impressed.

"Thanks! I'm, like, the only Spring Beastie. I'm outnumbered and surrounded by three magical supermodels," she laughed.

Licking taco juice off her fingers, she followed the Summer Queen into the Hollow. Curious eyes wandered about the interior, taking in every detail. The forge was the most interesting thing in the place, of course. The Beast walked up to the huge stonework and peered at it closely.

"Do you make faerie guns in this, or what?"

[Circe]

Circe scoffs at Sonja's complaint, "But yer cuter then any of us. And cute makes right!" Circe struck an over the top pose with her right index finger pointed up in the air.

And then she deflates at the question of faerie guns. "Eh, heh heh heh that is a work in progress. I mean," she turns to follow Sonja up to the forge. She fingers the blue stone, "Hedgespinning needs power, time, and ingredients. I THINK any 1 can make up fer the other 3 but time is lacking and this blueberry is not weird enough," she shrugs, "So if I want somethin' better then a normal gun Imma need ingredients. Hedge monster bits, really sharp Thorns, strange metal growths in the Hedge. That kinda shit."

She knocks her knuckles on the blue, "Also the blue is new. Last attempt without it needed a fire extinguisher. But!" she pokes the monkey ear of the hood, "The material I'm offering is purely mundane. Over here with my tools," she motions to the workbench.

There is a black body glove on top of it with a paintbrush coated in some black resin. A small bucket with the various chemical symbols like C, H, O, Si, and a few others is next to it. "Hedgespinning helped be cheat by a lot but the chief ingredient is mundy. I've even tested it against a knife and it absorbed the blow enough ta protect skin."

She'd gloss over how she knew it was sufficient to protect skin. No need for Sonja to learn about that safety oops.

[Sonnie Wu]

Sonnie watched the Larcenist strike the anime pose, but not having seen that particular series, she didn't get the reference. So, her expression was blank. "Um, okay. Thanks, I am pretty cute!" She nodded.

Her tail reached out and prodded the outer wall of the forge, "Oh, I know. I hedgespin sometimes. I made my boots, and this coin pendant!" The Steepscrambler gestured at her own enchanted items. "It's all about the ingredients fitting the theme of what you want it to do. Monster bits and thorns sound good for hedgeguns. Stuff that hurts!"

"Mundane, hm?" A touch disappointing after all the hedgespinning talk, but mortals still built some amazing things. Sonnie eyed the body suit curiously, even leaning down to sniff at it. "Really? This thin stuff turned a knife blade aside? What is it made of? Rhino hide?"

[Circe]

"Yeah, predator bits. I imagine hide would be best fer armor. Or stranger things." She nods in agreement as she looks over Sonja's juju trainers and coin, "Nice work. They have powers? That dark dress I made from a sunset in the Hedge, no powers just pretty. Aaand I don't know what the runes on it are either," she shrugs honestly ignorant. "Personally I hope ta find a hedgebeast that will give a gun, like elemental traits. Like in a videogame with fire, ice, acid bullets kind thing." She was rambling a little.

The suit had a slight sulfar smell to it but mostly Sonja would find it smelt like rubber. There was a reason for that. Circe giggles in amusement at Sonja's inspection. Circe checks to see if Sonja's tail sways with her curiosity. As for the question, "No that'd be heavier. Also expensive," laughter follows before an explanation. "Its a kind of silicon rubber composite. Totally kept me saaaf, satisfied that it stopped the slash, ha ha ha." That was a obvious nervous laugh.

And her face was a little purple. Circe tries to keep talking in hopes Sonnie won't notice, "Ahem, I got it from a coworker that, hmm," she things how to say it. Then nods her head, "Not sure how ta say she fucked up with being nice about it. Just silk lined it but that one is mine. So it'd be a lil' too tall fer ya," she laughs, "Ya want ta try stabbing it? Live action is better then words."

[Sonnie Wu]

"Yeah!" Eager to show off, Sonnie hopped up and down on one foot to display the red leather hedgespun boot on her other foot. "These let me run faster! The wind kinda pushes me along!" Both feet returned to the floor. She then simply gestured at the coin, which hung around her neck on a leather cord. The coin had Chinese lettering and the image of a monkey engraved into it. "This makes me lucky... but only for avoid danger. Like, if someone tried to punch me or stab me? They'd have a harder time connecting."

The Beast thought a moment, "All kind of strangeness out there. Maybe you'll find some sort of faerie fire. Oh, like a will-o-the-wisp! Those exist, right?"

The tail? It did sway quite a bit. The fuzzy appendage regularly reflected Sonnie's moods. If she noticed Circe's embarrassment, she didn't show it.

"I can test it? Cool! I got my throwing knives!" She looked up one of her own sleeves. "If I cut you I got some ertwen pods you can eat that'll heal you right up and... oh, wait, that'd probably be a dumb thing to do. You'd never test the suit on yourself!" She nodded as she fished a small steel throwing knife out of her shirt sleeve. "Maybe just hang it on a wall?"

[Circe]

"Oooh," Circe responds to Sonnie showing off her bling. Because it was interesting. "What'd ya use fer ingredients?"

As for the existential question, Circe actually knew the answer. "Yes they do, but ya'd need a dust pan or portable vacuum. Shot one once, thought it was a trap. Huh," she folds her hands and nods, "Given how they function in myth technically it WAS. Anyway, it just left a bunch of ash behind." She giggles, "Starting ta think hedgespinning follows MMO rules, oh ho ho ho!"

"Yes, it would be stupid and I ain't trying ta sell it so no need ta go fer super proof, ha ha." Circe picks up the suit and ducks under the workbench. With a grunt she hefts up a pair of semi-solid clay bricks. "Okay," she walks the short distance to the cold forge and puts things down. One clay brick in the open and the other? Shoved into the suit's left leg.

Circe walks back over to Sonnie. "Ta da! Like I planned fer ya ta test it. Though," she hums to herself as she stands beside Sonnie. Looking the Beast up and down, "With the way Mask and Mein work if I DID make ya a suit with the tail hole, people might think ya have a butt fetish."

With the tight rubber suit they'd probably think she had other fetishes too. "I also ordered some hockey pads. Hobs don't use guns so should be good fer Thorn trips. Or selling ta 'em too," she nods as if this was a brilliant idea.

[Sonnie Wu]

"For the coin, lots of lucky things. Like a rabbit's foot, a horseshoe, some dice and playing cards. Stuff like that," she spoke as she fished a second throwing knife out of her other sleeve. "The boots were stuff that represent speed or travel. Pieces of a trod, sparrow feathers, the sound of hurricane winds, and so on."

"Hmm, maybe the ash is useful?" Sonnie shrugged, trying to be helpful.

Twirling the knives in her nimble hands, she watches Circe examining her tail. "Oh, yeah. Usually my tail just hangs over the waistband of my jeans or whatever. Otherwise I gotta harden my mask for a while."

The Beast looked at the set up with the clay bricks, curiously. "So, you want me to throw at the one in the leg?"