Isidor Briar Durant (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
heirtothedragonsfire) wrote2018-05-28 02:13 pm
heirtothedragonsfire) wrote2018-05-28 02:13 pm
Entry tags:
Fit for a Dragon
The building was more like a warehouse than a forge. Which, Isidor realised as they entered, was because it wasn’t a forge, not exactly. Just because it was in Hephaestia’s name didn’t mean she was the one who always used it. Durants had so many properties that they often rented or loaned them to various people. Plus, it would explain the distinct lack of bizarre metal sculptures that her cousin was usually surrounded by.
Tia swung her hand in the direction of a middle aged man with cropped sandy hair. “This is Leslie Dawson. Leslie, this is Isidor.”
Leslie offered a hand which Isidor took, getting a firm shake and a friendly smile. A gentle American accent greeted her. “The infamous Isidor Durant. Good to finally meet you.”
Isidor tipped her head and folded her hands in front of her. “Likewise.”
"We've reached the point where we need to make sure everything fits properly before we assemble it any further." Done with introductions, Tia was already halfway to the other end of the workshop.
After everything that had happened, the Nexus invasions, the excursion to Cyrodiil... Isidor had been left with the stark realisation that she needed to prepare properly for the future. No sooner had she made her request to Hephaestia than her cousin had come with a thousand ways to measure her and a thousand more questions. She was almost entirely certain that the Smith had been even more excited by the prospect than Isidor.
It was anticlimactic walking over to the table with everything laid out. There was no stand for it, no dramatic reveal. Everything was simply spread out, ready for inspection. It looked like a flattened skeleton assembled by archaeologists for peering and prodding. Despite all of this her pulse quickened to see it. The kevlar tunic and trousers were thinner than she'd expected, but she was certain Tia wouldn't send her out in anything resembling sub-par protection.
"This isn't something I've been asked to do before," Leslie told her with the cheeriness of a man happy to have an excuse to push his abilities. "People have asked me to make things defending against magical creatures before, but not to make battle armour for a mage. Armour these days is all for sparring, not for battle."
Tia stepped up beside her and folded her arms. "Trying to decide on the best way to combine the kevlar and enchanted metal involved a lot of trial and error. We're in the middle of making kevlar plates with steel alloy tops to fuse onto the tunic, but once we have the process perfected we'll need more fitting sessions like this to make sure it doesn't hinder movement or get put in the wrong place."
Isidor ran her fingers over the material and stopped when her nail caught a small metal bar on the tunic.
"We have a combination of clips, hooks and straps to keep the larger sections on like the cuirass and the shoulders." Another loose wave of Tia's hand drew Isidor's attention to the plate armour.
The patron lifted the cuirass and found it surprisingly light. Weighty enough that she knew she would feel the protection once all the armour was assembled on her. Rather than a single piece of metal, the breastplate was composed of several plates that overlapped. Isidor's fingers felt out this gap experimentally.
"It gives you more flexibility, more manoeuvrability than a full plate," Tia explained without prompting. The benefits of being close with the Smith was that she'd seen Isidor spar on several occasions. She knew how the patron fought.
Isidor nodded. "And if they get a knife in under the plate?"
"That's what the kevlar is for," Leslie chimed in. "Hephaestia was firm on you needing it to be light and manoeuvrable, which sacrificed some of its strength, but it will stop anyone from shanking you. Once you have everything on you should have a reasonably good protection from bullets, too."
Tia snorted, lifting her chin proudly. "They won't even scratch it once I'm done. Steel and kevlar are fine, but extra enchantments will make up for the structural integrity lost in making it lighter."
That was a good point. One that only made Isidor more curious. "What about the enchantments? Are you only putting in strengthening charms?"
Tia rolled her eyes at Isidor. "Do you really think I'm so basic? Solitary strengthening enchantments are second generation Durant techniques. We've progressed a bit further since then." She took the breastplate from Isidor and rapped her knuckles against it, making Isidor flinch. "The metal has been infused with strengthening magic from my forge. You might think it's thin, but it's much stronger than it looks." Turning it, she waved over it's dull surface. "I have a polish that will give it extra protection from weathering or corrosive substances. After that I'm going to apply a magical resistance enchantment over it once we're done, but that has to be done last or else it won't take any other enchantments."
It was the armour equivalent of a gadget with all the extras. If Felix went mad again and threw magic at her, she'd be prepared. If Harrowheart got possessed again she might be able to survive him swinging for her.
"What about the kevlar?" She asked then, looking between Leslie and Tia. "You have all these enchantments for the steel, but there's a lot of kevlar there too."
Tia and Leslie exchanged a look, and then the Smith turned to Isidor with twisting lips. "Kevlar is a synthetic fibre. Enchanting synthetic materials is notoriously hit and miss. Some absorb magic really well, while others… don't seem to be affected by it at all."
Isidor's felt her heart drop. "So kevlar can't be enchanted?"
The armourers exchanged another look and Tia lifted her shoulders in a slow shrug. "We… don't know. We're still running tests to see if we can find out, but we might not know properly for a long, long time."
A sharp, critical eyebrow rose. "What does that mean for me?"
Tia put down the chestplate and picked up the tunic and trousers instead, pushing them into Isidor's arms. "It means you've got top of the range, experimental armour that might have perfectly normal kevlar."
"Unless the enchantment causes degradation." Leslie's helpful contribution was swiftly followed by him getting an elbow to the side.
With her companion suitably silenced while he nursed bruised ribs, Tia folded her arms and turned back to Isidor. "Put them on. You need to get everything on so we can make sure it all fits properly."
Isidor, unable to keep herself from looking a little concerned by Leslie's comment, took a moment before she finally nodded at Tia. It was only then that she turned to find the right door that Tia directed her to a small room dangerously littered with sharp and jagged tools. Isidor slowly, carefully, changed into this new second skin. It fit neatly, almost perfectly. She stretched and crouched experimentally. It was strangely personal, like meeting a partner for the first time. That shouldn't have surprised her, she thought. With any luck this would save her life and limbs. Though it was made for rougher times than a fitting at the forge, she was instinctively gentle as she rolled her arms and lifted her knees.
When she was finally satisfied, she stepped outside and the two armourers stood to attention. Tia eyed her up and down as she stepped back into the workshop while Leslie walked circles around her, peering here and there.
"How does it feel?" Tia asked.
"Good." Isidor looked behind her to make sure she wasn't about to hit Leslie and then lifted her arms and twisted from side to side. "More flexible than I expected."
Leslie grabbed something from a bench and returned, lifting Isidor's arm and starting to mark out areas with a wedge of chalk. He continued to do this, occasionally asking Isidor to move a limb, bend or straighten while she and Tia talked.
They handed Isidor a nearby hammer, letting the patron shadow fight to one side, with Leslie interrupting now and then to add a few more markings added to the protective base layer, until it was finally time to put on the plate armour. This required a bit of help, not least because Tia was insistent that Isidor would put it on wrong if left to her own devices. So the patron stood there, doing her best to stand still while her muscular cousin tugged and yanked, making her stumble as she did her best not to be sent flying.
Isidor glanced down at the overlapping plates fitted neatly to her chest. "It looks good." Lifting her head again she smirked and lowered her voice. "Did you have fun making it look like dragon scales?"
Tia met Isidor's gaze briefly and moved in closer to start fastening the pauldron. "I couldn't have der Drache's daughter running around in armour that didn't call on her heritage, could I? Besides." She tucked away the strap and smirked at Isidor. "You're probably more of a dragon than any of us."
Isidor laughed and took the moments Tia wasn't assembling the armour to test its movement. "Are you going to polish it up?"
Tia raised an eyebrow. "Do you want me to?"
"Isn't that how armour is meant to be? Shining silver steel?"
"Doesn't have to be," came the casual answer. A few moments later Tia added, "I once heard that Nandhuglynd had scales of ash and smoke."
Ash and smoke. Somehow that seemed more fitting than glistening silver. Isidor stood in quiet thought as Tia tugged her this way and that. Eventually she said, "The Durant colours are black and purple. Can you make it black?"
"Of course," Tia scoffed. "Will you be looking for gold trim, too?"
Isidor frowned down at the armour on her arm. "No. This isn't a dress for a ball. This is for actual fights, not petty sparring with fat old men."
That got a chuckle from Tia who slapped Isidor's arm fondly. "You're the only reason I know I'm related to this family, Isidor."
Once everything was on Tia stood back and Isidor got a chance to see how everything fit she could feel the weight of it. It wasn't anything she couldn't handle, of course, and it was far lighter than it should have been thanks to Tia's enchantments... but there was no mistaking that it was there. Leslie and Tia took notes, discussing things and making marks as Isidor moved. They talked and she... got acquainted with her new armour. Now that it was all on, all together, she felt the unmistakable keening of her heart as she tried to remain stoic but felt herself falling in love with it all the same. The plates that made the cuirass were shaped perfectly to her body to allow for movement, protection, and to mimic the strong chest scales of a dragon. The spaulder on her right shoulder gave her extra motion while the pauldron on her left gave her a little extra protection. The subtle dragon motif continued right down to her boots and gauntlets. It wasn't obvious or kitsch, but it was definitely there, and there was more to come. Black would suit her, she thought. And it would match Harrowheart a little more closely. The thought flitted past until she smothered it with a smile.
"You won't be protected from blunt force trauma," Tia warned. "Or anything that gets your skin. We'll need to discuss a helmet, if you're looking for one."
"It should resist most street firearms with Hephaestia's enchantments, but best not to test it if you can help it," Leslie added. "A shotgun is still going to wind you."
Tia nodded. "Vibrations from a mace or grenade..."
"Can shatter bones," Isidor finished and levelled a look at her cousin. "I've had the training, remember."
Tia smirked. "Call this our disclaimer, then."
And so the day continued with them giving warnings, advice, instructions on how to care for the armour and what to look out for. They prodded and poked while Isidor tested the fitting. Now and then they hummed or grumbled, but Isidor had already decided: This armour was going to be perfect.
Tia swung her hand in the direction of a middle aged man with cropped sandy hair. “This is Leslie Dawson. Leslie, this is Isidor.”
Leslie offered a hand which Isidor took, getting a firm shake and a friendly smile. A gentle American accent greeted her. “The infamous Isidor Durant. Good to finally meet you.”
Isidor tipped her head and folded her hands in front of her. “Likewise.”
"We've reached the point where we need to make sure everything fits properly before we assemble it any further." Done with introductions, Tia was already halfway to the other end of the workshop.
After everything that had happened, the Nexus invasions, the excursion to Cyrodiil... Isidor had been left with the stark realisation that she needed to prepare properly for the future. No sooner had she made her request to Hephaestia than her cousin had come with a thousand ways to measure her and a thousand more questions. She was almost entirely certain that the Smith had been even more excited by the prospect than Isidor.
It was anticlimactic walking over to the table with everything laid out. There was no stand for it, no dramatic reveal. Everything was simply spread out, ready for inspection. It looked like a flattened skeleton assembled by archaeologists for peering and prodding. Despite all of this her pulse quickened to see it. The kevlar tunic and trousers were thinner than she'd expected, but she was certain Tia wouldn't send her out in anything resembling sub-par protection.
"This isn't something I've been asked to do before," Leslie told her with the cheeriness of a man happy to have an excuse to push his abilities. "People have asked me to make things defending against magical creatures before, but not to make battle armour for a mage. Armour these days is all for sparring, not for battle."
Tia stepped up beside her and folded her arms. "Trying to decide on the best way to combine the kevlar and enchanted metal involved a lot of trial and error. We're in the middle of making kevlar plates with steel alloy tops to fuse onto the tunic, but once we have the process perfected we'll need more fitting sessions like this to make sure it doesn't hinder movement or get put in the wrong place."
Isidor ran her fingers over the material and stopped when her nail caught a small metal bar on the tunic.
"We have a combination of clips, hooks and straps to keep the larger sections on like the cuirass and the shoulders." Another loose wave of Tia's hand drew Isidor's attention to the plate armour.
The patron lifted the cuirass and found it surprisingly light. Weighty enough that she knew she would feel the protection once all the armour was assembled on her. Rather than a single piece of metal, the breastplate was composed of several plates that overlapped. Isidor's fingers felt out this gap experimentally.
"It gives you more flexibility, more manoeuvrability than a full plate," Tia explained without prompting. The benefits of being close with the Smith was that she'd seen Isidor spar on several occasions. She knew how the patron fought.
Isidor nodded. "And if they get a knife in under the plate?"
"That's what the kevlar is for," Leslie chimed in. "Hephaestia was firm on you needing it to be light and manoeuvrable, which sacrificed some of its strength, but it will stop anyone from shanking you. Once you have everything on you should have a reasonably good protection from bullets, too."
Tia snorted, lifting her chin proudly. "They won't even scratch it once I'm done. Steel and kevlar are fine, but extra enchantments will make up for the structural integrity lost in making it lighter."
That was a good point. One that only made Isidor more curious. "What about the enchantments? Are you only putting in strengthening charms?"
Tia rolled her eyes at Isidor. "Do you really think I'm so basic? Solitary strengthening enchantments are second generation Durant techniques. We've progressed a bit further since then." She took the breastplate from Isidor and rapped her knuckles against it, making Isidor flinch. "The metal has been infused with strengthening magic from my forge. You might think it's thin, but it's much stronger than it looks." Turning it, she waved over it's dull surface. "I have a polish that will give it extra protection from weathering or corrosive substances. After that I'm going to apply a magical resistance enchantment over it once we're done, but that has to be done last or else it won't take any other enchantments."
It was the armour equivalent of a gadget with all the extras. If Felix went mad again and threw magic at her, she'd be prepared. If Harrowheart got possessed again she might be able to survive him swinging for her.
"What about the kevlar?" She asked then, looking between Leslie and Tia. "You have all these enchantments for the steel, but there's a lot of kevlar there too."
Tia and Leslie exchanged a look, and then the Smith turned to Isidor with twisting lips. "Kevlar is a synthetic fibre. Enchanting synthetic materials is notoriously hit and miss. Some absorb magic really well, while others… don't seem to be affected by it at all."
Isidor's felt her heart drop. "So kevlar can't be enchanted?"
The armourers exchanged another look and Tia lifted her shoulders in a slow shrug. "We… don't know. We're still running tests to see if we can find out, but we might not know properly for a long, long time."
A sharp, critical eyebrow rose. "What does that mean for me?"
Tia put down the chestplate and picked up the tunic and trousers instead, pushing them into Isidor's arms. "It means you've got top of the range, experimental armour that might have perfectly normal kevlar."
"Unless the enchantment causes degradation." Leslie's helpful contribution was swiftly followed by him getting an elbow to the side.
With her companion suitably silenced while he nursed bruised ribs, Tia folded her arms and turned back to Isidor. "Put them on. You need to get everything on so we can make sure it all fits properly."
Isidor, unable to keep herself from looking a little concerned by Leslie's comment, took a moment before she finally nodded at Tia. It was only then that she turned to find the right door that Tia directed her to a small room dangerously littered with sharp and jagged tools. Isidor slowly, carefully, changed into this new second skin. It fit neatly, almost perfectly. She stretched and crouched experimentally. It was strangely personal, like meeting a partner for the first time. That shouldn't have surprised her, she thought. With any luck this would save her life and limbs. Though it was made for rougher times than a fitting at the forge, she was instinctively gentle as she rolled her arms and lifted her knees.
When she was finally satisfied, she stepped outside and the two armourers stood to attention. Tia eyed her up and down as she stepped back into the workshop while Leslie walked circles around her, peering here and there.
"How does it feel?" Tia asked.
"Good." Isidor looked behind her to make sure she wasn't about to hit Leslie and then lifted her arms and twisted from side to side. "More flexible than I expected."
Leslie grabbed something from a bench and returned, lifting Isidor's arm and starting to mark out areas with a wedge of chalk. He continued to do this, occasionally asking Isidor to move a limb, bend or straighten while she and Tia talked.
They handed Isidor a nearby hammer, letting the patron shadow fight to one side, with Leslie interrupting now and then to add a few more markings added to the protective base layer, until it was finally time to put on the plate armour. This required a bit of help, not least because Tia was insistent that Isidor would put it on wrong if left to her own devices. So the patron stood there, doing her best to stand still while her muscular cousin tugged and yanked, making her stumble as she did her best not to be sent flying.
Isidor glanced down at the overlapping plates fitted neatly to her chest. "It looks good." Lifting her head again she smirked and lowered her voice. "Did you have fun making it look like dragon scales?"
Tia met Isidor's gaze briefly and moved in closer to start fastening the pauldron. "I couldn't have der Drache's daughter running around in armour that didn't call on her heritage, could I? Besides." She tucked away the strap and smirked at Isidor. "You're probably more of a dragon than any of us."
Isidor laughed and took the moments Tia wasn't assembling the armour to test its movement. "Are you going to polish it up?"
Tia raised an eyebrow. "Do you want me to?"
"Isn't that how armour is meant to be? Shining silver steel?"
"Doesn't have to be," came the casual answer. A few moments later Tia added, "I once heard that Nandhuglynd had scales of ash and smoke."
Ash and smoke. Somehow that seemed more fitting than glistening silver. Isidor stood in quiet thought as Tia tugged her this way and that. Eventually she said, "The Durant colours are black and purple. Can you make it black?"
"Of course," Tia scoffed. "Will you be looking for gold trim, too?"
Isidor frowned down at the armour on her arm. "No. This isn't a dress for a ball. This is for actual fights, not petty sparring with fat old men."
That got a chuckle from Tia who slapped Isidor's arm fondly. "You're the only reason I know I'm related to this family, Isidor."
Once everything was on Tia stood back and Isidor got a chance to see how everything fit she could feel the weight of it. It wasn't anything she couldn't handle, of course, and it was far lighter than it should have been thanks to Tia's enchantments... but there was no mistaking that it was there. Leslie and Tia took notes, discussing things and making marks as Isidor moved. They talked and she... got acquainted with her new armour. Now that it was all on, all together, she felt the unmistakable keening of her heart as she tried to remain stoic but felt herself falling in love with it all the same. The plates that made the cuirass were shaped perfectly to her body to allow for movement, protection, and to mimic the strong chest scales of a dragon. The spaulder on her right shoulder gave her extra motion while the pauldron on her left gave her a little extra protection. The subtle dragon motif continued right down to her boots and gauntlets. It wasn't obvious or kitsch, but it was definitely there, and there was more to come. Black would suit her, she thought. And it would match Harrowheart a little more closely. The thought flitted past until she smothered it with a smile.
"You won't be protected from blunt force trauma," Tia warned. "Or anything that gets your skin. We'll need to discuss a helmet, if you're looking for one."
"It should resist most street firearms with Hephaestia's enchantments, but best not to test it if you can help it," Leslie added. "A shotgun is still going to wind you."
Tia nodded. "Vibrations from a mace or grenade..."
"Can shatter bones," Isidor finished and levelled a look at her cousin. "I've had the training, remember."
Tia smirked. "Call this our disclaimer, then."
And so the day continued with them giving warnings, advice, instructions on how to care for the armour and what to look out for. They prodded and poked while Isidor tested the fitting. Now and then they hummed or grumbled, but Isidor had already decided: This armour was going to be perfect.