“Ah 'course I’m excited!” Astrid outbursts. “Yer a real livin’ suit of armor with magic runes an’ stuff! What ain’t cool about that??” She can’t believe that Cronan seems to have no idea what an incredible feat of magic he is. Does Astrid have a metal construct of a man walking around her house? Yes. But that Blixtbot^TM is totally different than a magical, mechanism-lacking, and personable suit of armor! They’re two completely different things! Something has to make Cronan different, she just has to figure out exactly what that is that doesn’t sound incredibly farfetched.

Hopping down from her stool, Astrid takes her magic parchment, which now includes a redrawing of the battle scene on Cronan’s armor, and pulls out a leather journal so she can start copying all of the things into it. “Aye, I’d love ta repair it. I get me fair share of armor practice, which is good ‘cause I wanna make the best suits of armor in the whole world one day, but I don’t do all that much work on blades an’ stuff. Hammers are more me thing.”

She holds out her left hand and summons forth her warhammer frothing in icy mist. The weapon itself appears to be made of ice, and electricity sparks off of it from time to time. The weapon is nearly the same length as the half-dwarf is tall, yet she wields it as effortlessly as the pen in her other hand. Realizing she needs to hold the book steady while she writes, Astrid sets the hammer down on the stone floor and finishes copying the contents of the magic parchment.

Tapping the pen against her chin, Astrid stands upright. “I s’pose ya can pay me what ya want, though I’d do it fer free long as ya let me keep studyin’ yer armor.” The words come with a bit of a devious grin. She is truly giddy in this moment. “Ya can set yer sword pieces here on the table. Won’t be a quick process fer sure. Do ya know what kinda metal it is?”

---

War hammer - pale ice, heavy enchantments

"Oh, I can't use the forges." Blue stated matter-of-factly with a shake of their head.

There were several reasons the ooze couldn't use the forges. The first was their sensitivity to high temperatures. If they got too close to the forge while it was burning, they would begin to melt, their semiliquid self becoming more liquid than they were comfortable with. With that being the case, they couldn't help forge things at all, since that would involve getting very close to the fiery heat of the forge. The lightning forge was slightly different. It also got extremely hot, but they could actually manage to survive getting near it if they wanted to. Of course, that would involve them absorbing the electricity that might have taken weeks to store up which would make Astrid mad. They knew that from experience.

The main reason they didn't help with the forging though was that Astrid absolutely forbade it. Even if they wanted to help out, they weren't very skilled and Astrid was a perfectionist who wouldn't be happy if they messed up one of her projects. Sure, her prototypes could be a bit messy looking, but she always put her best into the final project. The most Blue was allowed to do was assist her by handing her tools and materials while she worked. They were even banned from just going into the workshop if Astrid wasn't in there.

"You got anything else inside you?" Blue asked excitedly. After seeing the sword, they wanted to know everything Cronan had in their pocket stomach.

Looking at Cronan, a slight cock of his head and a hunch tells you that he's confused. "Perhaps that could be interesting. I take it this is not a common occurrence?" He asks, relating to Astrid's excitement over Cronan. Surely there would have to be other constructs and such, right?

Although, hearing Astrid's willingness to repair his weapon makes him happy, although it doesn't seem to show very much, other than his head straightening out, and his attention completely on Astrid. His interest is piqued when the Warhammer makes an appearance, the sparks flying out occasionally absolutely fascinating the suit of armor.

"Hm. Well, I do not have much to my name money-wise. I would be more than happy to be the subject of your studies, Astrid." Seeing the devilish grin on the kids face is almost disconcerting, but Cronan is more amused by it than anything. As asked, Cronan summons the shattered remains of his blade, as well as countless shards which assemble into the general shape of the weapon. Overall, the blade looks to be about 7ft long. It's an incredibly ornate weapon seemingly made from standard steel - nothing overly fancy like Adamantine or Mithril.

There are a number of shards missing from the blade, which Cronan cocks his head at. "That is annoying. I seem to be missing some pieces. I hope that is of no issue for you, Astrid."

Cronan looks over to Blue, who says they can't operate the forges. With no elaboration in the slightest, Cronan is left to reach the conclusion that he simply doesn't know how to or isn't allowed to. Oh well, it is not his place to say otherwise. "Truly a shame." He ends up saying.

"Nothing else at this time, no." He responds easily to Blue's second question. "Technically speaking, it is not inside me, it is warped to a dimension outside of our own. Strictly speaking, the things I store no longer exist while they are stored. For something to be inside me, it would insinuate it still exists in some capacity, unless you lack object permeance." He corrects in his everlasting patience with the Ooze.

Cronan’s confusion is a bit justified. After all, Astrid’s only just gotten into the Mage’s Guild a short time ago to start learning about runes and enchantments for herself. It’s rare to get to study those of a construct, and she’s exhausted all of the information she could glean from her job at Platinum Corp.

“Well, it ain’t often that we get livin’ suits of armor,” she says thoughtfully. “An’ less often that they got personalities or like… Can think fer themselves, I guess is the right word?” Tapping her finger against her chin, she considers what else she knows. “Aye, yeah, yer a bit different in that aspect far as I know. Ya know stuff, have opinions, an’ whatnot, if that makes sense. Makes me wonder how someone put ya together. Where'd ya come from? Maybe someone there might know?”

Meanwhile, she clears a space on the table for Cronan to summon forth the shards of his blade in some sort of organized fashion where she starts looking at the pieces and trying to determine how much metal might be needed to reforge it. It should need too much to fill it, but more importantly, she’ll need to see if there are any runes in need of repair. After a moment, she picks up a small shard and hands it to Blue.

“Wanna see if ya have anythin’ similar ta that floatin’ around inside of ya?” she asks before going back to observing the blade. Sometimes Blue has a pretty good idea of how the things inside of them taste, and that might be a faster indicator of the metallic makeup if they can produce something close enough in the meantime.

Blue didn't understand what Cronan was talking about. How did the things they ate just not exist? They were inside them, weren't they? And what did object permeance have to do with it? Cronan seemed to speak a lot of nonsense sometimes, but Blue was patient enough to not mind it. They'd teach Cronan what a stomach was eventually, maybe.

"Ooh, sure!" Blue replied, happily taking the piece of sword from Astrid and sticking it into their face where a mouth would be as if the shard of metal was a tasty treat. And Blue did find it tasty. It was very familiar, but with hints of something else mixed in.

"Mm. Hmmmm... Mmhmm." Blue hummed as they contemplated the flavor of the metal, trying to figure out what it was. They picked up a hammer off the workbench and stuck that partway into their face as well to taste test it. They continued with a few more tools, sampling them and then putting them back.

"It tastes the same as all your metal tools, like steel, but with something else on top. Some other metals, I think. And it's kind of tingly, like your magic hammer, but not as tingly. I don't have anything exactly like it in me though."

The piece of metal actually was tasty to the ooze. They liked the taste of metals. They couldn't digest them, but they were oddly satisfying anyways. Their favorite metals were gold and silver, but they also liked steel. And this sword chunk had the same weird feeling to it that Astrid's hammer had, the taste of magic. Blue wasn't a picky eater, but they did have a pretty discerning palette. Their memories of the things they'd eaten was like a book, all perfectly recorded. Their memories of anything they hadn't eaten though, not so much.

"It's tasty! Can I have another piece?"

"I came from the Black Spire in Sol City." Cronan says bluntly. "I believe I was on display in the spire before I gained sentience. The spire was abandoned as far as I know." 

When Cronan awoke, he did himself a bit of wandering trying to find the way out, and it was all dusty and decrepit - average abandoned building condition. The only life were rodents and various bugs and arachnids wandering the halls. He doesn't actually know the history of the spire as he's never thought to ask. It feels important since it's a spire and not just a building.

Now, Cronan has mixed feelings about Blue inserting the sword fragment into his face. On one hand, both Blue and Astrid handing the shard over to the Ooze seems to be an attempt to help but on the other, it's his sword and he'd rather it not get damaged from whatever fluid Blue is. Despite his mind protesting heavily to it, Cronan simply stands still and watches Blue. Cronan wasn't aware of his ability to do so, but Cronan is mildly irked by Blue asking for another piece.

"No." Cronan says firmly. He then thinks on what the Ooze meant in his description. Thinking for a moment, Cronan possibly finds what they meant. "Are you speaking of Enchantments, Blue? If that is the case, yes it is enchanted, but only with mana siphons and various Abjuration scripts to maintain the edge and overall durability to the weapon. It appears the scripts didn't work in the end.

"As well as that, I recall that the blade itself is an alloy, but of what seems to be escaping me. My apologies."

Cronan looks back to Astrid. "Is it possible for it to be repaired, La-.. Astrid?"

Astrid’s eyebrows raise when Cronan mentions he’s from the Black Spire. “Weird place ta wake up alone…” she murmurs. Something about Cronan just isn’t adding up, but the only thing that comes to mind seems incredibly outlandish, so she leaves it.

As Astrid looks through her various books, doodles, and blueprints, she holds her free hand out expectantly for Blue to return the sword shard. “Thanks fer checkin’,” she says. “I’ll need it back though. Every bit's important.” Her other hand rubs her chin as she sits in thought. Tingly like magical, but similar to other worked metals. Well, she’s at least got plenty of things lying around with which to try to fix the sword. “I’ll make ya a tingly metal snack after we fix the sword, how about that?”

“An alloy, huh? That’s a fancy word,” she ponders. “Steel’s an alloy. Buncha different types of ‘em, but regular steel’s ol’ reliable fer weapons, so it’ll probably do the trick! I’d be a poor smith if I couldn’t fix it!” Astrid pats her arm and gives Cronan a friendly wink. “It’ll take a while though. Feel free ta watch. Ya can see me use the lightnin’ forge!”

Laying out several sheets of parchment alongside the partially assembled sword, Astrid summons up a pair of duplicates to help her with the next step. Together, they take notes and measurements, and they get a drawn-to-scale picture of the blade with all of its enchantments noted to the side. One Astrid takes all the enchantment notes to another desk to study them and try to figure out any broken or missing runes. The other ones start working on a new mold to match the old blade.

It’s an arduous and boring process, but Astrid’s focus is purely on the task at hand. She’s going to fix this blade if it takes all week.

---

Replicant

"Oh, right. I understand." Blue replied to Cronan, nodding knowingly despite not understanding a word of what they just said.

As far as one could tell from a faceless ooze, Blue pouted as Astrid motioned for them to hand over the sword shard they'd just eaten. They crossed their arms in front of them and pretended not to see her open palm in front of them. They only relented when she offered a tasty replacement for it later.

"Okay, that's a promise! I wanna eat something really tingly!"

Blue spat the shard out of where their mouth would be with a squelching sound and it splatted into Astrid's hand with a slimy coating of blue goo on it. 

They were excited to see the storm forge in action. It was always fun to watch with all the lightning. They turned to Cronan with their fists in front of them, their gelatinous form quivering slightly from excitement.

"You should totally watch! It's awesome, with all the lightning, it's like bang! And boom! and then there's a just a new hammer! Or a sword, I guess. That's cool too! Ooh, I'm gonna get some snacks to eat while we watch!"

Blue excitedly ran up the stairs and into the kitchen while Astrid and her duplicate went about getting measurements and preparing the forge for operation.

"What is the Black Spire?" He asks curiously. Learning about it's history might help with finding out who he was, if anyone. He's almost certain that he was somebody, as memories come back to him such as the enchantments on his blade - memories he shouldn't know, but does anyway. It annoys him that he cannot recall everything.

"I will be trusting your judgement in this matter, Astrid. And I would quite enjoy seeing how your forge works." Cronan is amused by Blue's sheer excitement, and prompt departure up the stairs. Cronan stares in the direction that Blue ran with what would be an amused expression were he capable of it. He glances back to Astrid, asking an important question.

"Does he normally attempt to consume metal? And is he always this.. excitable? He is.. Quite a lot, if you'll forgive my honesty." He says, watching the trio of Astrids' work. It's a curious sight, and he can't help but wonder if he would be capable of doing such a feat. He looks within and feels that ambient magic that has been always in the background since his awakening, and feels along with it, an entire world of possibility. Perhaps with time dedicated to learning, he could do it. Something to look into.

Despite the otherwise boring work that Astrid is doing, Cronan seems to be entirely focused on what is happening, taking in as much information as possible, all the while standing stock still, doing his best, frankly impeccable impression of a statue. Every few minutes, there will be a slight tilt of his head in a different direction, not unlike a curious puppy. He is both in his own world and enraptured by the work being done by Astrid.

“What’s the Black Spire?” Astrid echoes. Truth be told, she doesn’t know a thing about it, just some rumors that float around Sol City. Scratching at the corner of her mouth thoughtfully, she says, “Erm, I dunno if I’m bein’ rightly honest. I think it’s an old abandoned wizard tower or somethin’. Lots a’ folks in Sol City think it’s haunted. I ain’t gone ta check it out fer meself ‘cause I don’t want no trouble with the guard in town. Already don’t get along with ‘em much.” There’s definitely more to that reasoning, but she chooses not to elaborate on it for now.

When Blue takes off suddenly, Astrid’s face scrunches up into an amused expression before she snorts a laugh. Her duplicates let out giggles of their own. “Blue will eat just about anythin’,” she says whilst making herself a list of materials she wants to use on the repair. Spinning around on her stool, she gets up and starts collecting a handful of metal ingots that all look nearly the same but are in a variety of stacks that must be organized…somehow.

“I think it’s an ooze thin’, just always bein’ hungry, but I don’t really fault ‘em fer that. Sometimes when we’re both real hungry, we could eat as much as one another, an’ then Blue would still have room fer more!” Carefully, she plucks a couple of tiny ingots from their storage and adds them to the pile in her arm. “They can be a lot sometimes, but most oozes aren’t like ‘em in my experience. They don’t talk or think fer themselves. Blue’s a real anomaly, but in the best kinda way. They’re the first friend I ever had, an’ we’ve been through a lot together. Besides, not everyone would take kindly ta knowin’ their secret. Heck, they don’t even take too kindly ta me an’ all I got is some horns. Us weirdos gotta stick together.”

Cronan listens to Astrid as she states that she knows very, very little about the spire. The rumor that it's haunted is interesting, however. Perhaps that could be an avenue to look down when he eventually tries to discover why he was awakened.

"I see." He responds, a hint of solemnity in his unnaturally natural voice. He has nothing else to say on the topic so he shifts it to Blue, questioning why he does the things he does. Learning that he is an enigma as an Ooze is curious. The ability to speak and have sapience sounds to be something that never happens with oozes.

Cronan listens quietly, watching Astrid speak, standing stock still. "May I ask why you have horns? If I am not mistaken, dwarves generally do not have the horns of a Fellblood." He asks, not realizing that such a question might be a smidge personal. He continues to watch Astrid take ingots into her arms. His untrained eye can't even begin to discern what each metal is, let alone the role they play in repairing his weapon.

"The way you've described how Blue is strange seems to work somewhat with myself. Does that mean I fall into the.. Weirdo classification?" The way he pronounces the word weirdo is almost like it was a word he'd never heard before. Either that, or it's a word that he doesn't particularly like saying. Truthfully, he doesn't know how to feel about it - because indeed, he's never heard it before. He can safely assume the meaning being someone that is weird, but still. It's foreign like new slang.

A question appears in his mind that he doesn't know the source of. Yet he has a distinct urge to ask it. It's forced itself into his mind like someone cutting in front of a queue and demanded that it be served first. "Do you know anything about Astralbloods? Perhaps any wars surrounding them from some time ago?" If he were asked, he wouldn't be able to explain why the question arose. It wasn't curiosity since Astralbloods were never brought up, nor was it due to a sense of urgency. He's not even sure what an Astralblood looks like, let alone who they are. Even without a face, Cronan somehow looks confused by his own question.

In the midst of sorting and collecting ingots, Astrid pauses. No one has ever asked her why she has horns before. Usually, mention of her horns ends up being derogatory comments about how she’s hellspawn or something of the sort. “I… don’t know why I got horns, if I’m rightly honest,” she says with a shrug. “Ma was a dwarf, but I ain’t ever met me birth da, so I dunno. Maybe he were a Fellblood. But most Fellbloods look more… Well, they got more than just horns as far as I know. Even the halfies. Fer me, that’s all I got.”

While she returns to collecting proper materials and explaining the enigma that is Blue Raspberry, and upon the question of being a weirdo, she looks over her shoulder at the walking, talking suit of armor with an amused smile. “Aye, I suppose it does,” Astrid says good-naturedly. “Bein’ a weirdo ain’t a bad thin’ though, just means yer unique.”

With everything collected, Astrid goes over to the lightning forge and pulls a lever beside it. A dull buzzing turns into a loud and threatening hum as light leaks out from behind a closed metal door. Astrid starts piling the ingots into a smelting pot and then pulls on her goggles.^[1] “Maybe don’t look this way fer a second,” she says before opening the latch and setting the pot of ingots inside. The hum becomes a crackling as lightning strikes the pot and metal inside, beginning the heating process.

Once she closes the door, she pulls her goggles up and contemplates what she knows about Astralbloods, which is… very little. “Nope, I don’t really know a thin’ about Astralbloods. Can’t recall if I’ve ever even met one.”

---

1. Sun sparked goggles

Cronan listens intently, his head tilted curiously. Cronan doesn't know if he had parents, so it's not like he can relate in the slightest. Hell, what even makes a parent? Is it a caregiver or just someone that had a hand in your creation? "Fascinating.. What are your opinions on them? Do you like the horns or not?" It still doesn't quite reach him that such questions might be a touch personal. Well, who is against learning experiences? Not Cronan, that's for sure.

The suit of armor silently observes Astrids work, and the look over her shoulder at him with that smile Cronan can't read. It looks amused, but he could be wrong. He looks down at himself and at his hands after being told he's 'unique'. "Is unique a good thing? I am unsure if I want to stand out in a crowd. I would not be against being able to blend in and live my life. Perhaps study the stars? They fascinate me to no end."

Blending in is nothing more than a dream at this stage. He is a hulking suit of armor, for crying out loud. Unless he somehow finds a way to move his very being from this suit to something more natural, or finds a way to disguise himself, he will always stick out like a sore thumb. And by his estimations, his current knowledge on magic and the world around him, an significant progress in either department would take years by himself.

Cronan continues to watch with curiosity as Astrid works, taking in as much information as possible. Despite the dwarf's warning, Cronan did not look away, and was punished accordingly. The bright arcs that were generated practically blinded him, causing him to cover his eyes and stagger back a step. Moments like these make him wish for eyelids so he could blink away the dark spots in his vision. "That was extremely unpleasant. My apologies for not taking your warning." He says, almost sounding pained.

He was still trying to regain his vision when Astrid said that she didn't know anything about the Astralbloods. That was disappointing, but not entirely unsurprising. Astralbloods are a rare people, that are often called liars when revealed to others. How he knows this..? Cronan can't recall. "I see. A shame. Would you know where I can look for such information?" He asks, finally shaking off the blindness.. Mostly.

Cronan’s question catches Astrid entirely off guard. She’s never been asked her opinion of her horns. Absentmindedly, her hand reaches up for her fingers to rub along the ridges of the red protrusions. “Huh,” is all she manages for a moment while she contemplates it.

“Well… I s’pose I don’t mind ‘em. Me opinion of ‘em’s probably changed since I were little. At first I thought they were real cool, but… ah… me ma didn’t seem ta like ‘em, so… Guess they made me feel… ashamed.” It’s strange to put this into words for the first time, but thinking about it, Astrid has a vivid memory of feeling the tiny nubs on her head and her mother’s particularly horrified reaction to them. She almost seemed… distraught. Is that what she was, or is that what Astrid thinks she was, her memories tinged by the colored glass of nostalgia and longing?

“I definitely wish I didn’t have them fer a long time,” she continues, remembering her time on the streets of Sky Peak where superstitious dwarves threw jeers her way and avoided her. “Devil child,” they called her. But Astrid has been anything but, at least according to most of the people she knows now. “I think they grew on me though. Made me feel like…me, even if it were hard.” Finally, her eyes drift back up to Cronan, and the melancholy fades into a warm smile. “I’m glad ta have ‘em now though. Makes me look more like me Da that adopted me.”

It’s a fitting segue into the question of uniqueness. “Uniqueness can be as good or bad as ya make it,” Astrid says, all the while continuing her work. “Everyone’s unique in their own ways. It’s usually how they look or act or think. Depends on where yer at. Some folks would think eatin’ mystery swamp meat is unique, an’ others would think it’s normal.”

“Bein’ a walkin’ suit a’ armor’s definitely gonna have its challenges,” she continues. “Before Blue knew how ta look like a human, they kept their armor on all the time. Definitely had some folks askin’ questions that were tough ta answer. Some people wanna see yer face, but if ya play the part of a diligent knight or maybe say yer tryin’ ta keep yer identity a secret, it might work fer ya. That’d let ya do whatever ya want, studyin’ stars an’ all.”

Hearing Cronan stumble back when the flash of light from the forge smacks him in the face, Astrid looks over and stifles a giggle. “Ya don’t have ta apologize ta me, yer the one that suffered fer it. Curiosity an’ the cat an’ alla that.” She quickly gets the door closed to let the magic happen behind it without risking massive blindness. Luckily, the metal heating won’t take too long.

“Ah, best place ta find information tends ta be libraries,” Astrid says. “Which is a place full a’ books. The biggest one is in Sol City, but I think we got a smaller one here in Sky Peak. Might be a good place ta start. I can show ya there later so ya can get started.” Resting her elbow on the table, Astrid continues an earlier line of thought. “If ya need ideas fer how ta get around society pretendin’ ta be a normal person, Blue could probably better tell ya about their experiences.”

The buzzing from the lightning forge takes on a different tone, and Astrid turns back to it. “Watch yer eyes,” she announces before pulling the door open and reaching in to collect the heated materials. Then she takes it to the anvil and begins the shaping process, hammer to metal on the anvil. It is unsurprisingly very noisy but rhythmic.