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Daja fired up the forge, feeling a sense of pride and accomplishment as she watched the burning flames. It had taken her some time to fully clean our the dust and other strange debris, organise and clean the tools, and get everything into working order - but she now had a place where she could work her craft.

But now it was time to get to work. Metals were scarce, but she had found some pieces of scrap-metal that were workable, and so she began the task of melting them down into something she could use.

She wondered if anyone would respond to her message – she hoped she had managed to use the omnicomm correctly – or perhaps even see the smoke from her forge, and visit her today.

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Daja smiles a little at the sight, and takes his hand her own. "How about we take a seat? I do have a few chairs out that would be more comfortable for while we talk," she said, gesturing to the door thank linked to the other part of the cottage. Before it came to be in Stacy's City, it would have been where the Blacksmith who owned this forge would have lived. Now it was completely bare, except for the two wooden chairs and table Daja had managed to find.

While she waited for Allen to go sit down, Daja put away her work. "You can put your things down anywhere you like," she said.

He puts the arm and box down carefully. There's some complex hardware in there.

"I like what you've done with the place, he says, as he pulls the chair up, propping one foot on his knee. "Was this yours, or did you just find it?"

"I found it," Daja explained as she came to sit down next to him. "I do...did...have a forge of my own back home, but this isn't it."

Now, to explain her abilities. "You already know that I'm a blacksmith. I don't have any one particular specialty, as my teacher ensured that I had a good education in a broad range of fields.

"But I also have smith-magic. I don't know how familiar you are with magic, Allen, but in essence my power involves both fire and metal."

"I'm interested. Go on."

Allen's familiar enough with magic to know that saying one is familiar with it is like saying one is familiar with science. It's not nearly specific enough to describe the branch he's familiar with, or the branches he's not.

Daja paused, wondering how best to explain her magic to someone who, apparently, didn't know anything about her power.

"I can manipulate and identify metals magically, as well as place spells on them," Daja explained. "But while I can shape metal with magic alone, this takes a lot of energy. Using normal smithing methods is much more effective in the long run."

"As for fire, I can touch it without being burn and control it. But that's more useful for the forge itself. I imagine my abilities with metal are of more interest to you."

Allen nods. "Very much so. Anything else?"

Daja nodded. "Just one more thing." She held out her left palm - it was covered with a strange kind of brass metal.

"This is living metal. I got it in...well, I guess I got it from trying to hold back a forest fire that was just too big for me to really handle. It's warm, and flexible like real skin. I have to peel off flakes of it all the time, so it doesn't catch on anything. I can also make more of it using my blood. With that, I can make metal creations that aren't possibly with normal metal."

"Cool. What sort of properties does it have, lend to a creation, and what sorts of creations that aren't possible with normal metal?"

He leans in to get a closer look, and the abnormality of his cyborg structure is probably becoming more obvious to Daja with the proximity. Metal does not make up the entirety of his inorganic structure, but he's got more than just a plate or two.

"In many ways I'm still learning," Daja admitted. "Since it was an accident, there isn't really anything else to go by. But mostly I use it for the fact that it's flexible, and can be moulded into something more like a metal cloth, and the fact that it's very good for magical workings. With it I've made fireproof gloves, glasses that block out magical visions, and an artificial leg."

When he leaned closer, something which had been niggling her became even more prominent. "I'm sorry if this is rude but...I can sense metals and...how did you get so much of it in your body? I can't see any magic..."

"Don't worry about it, I was gonna bring it up if you didn't. Do you know what a cyborg is?"

This will be a decent lead into a discussion of the robotic arm.

"No, I'm afraid not," Daja admitted. "This place seems to have many things that I've never heard of before in my life."

"A cyborg is a being that has both organic and inorganic or artificial systems. You said you made an artificial leg, so technically you may have already met one, depending on the technological capabilities of the leg. The guy I'm going to give this arm to is going to be a cyborg as soon as I connect it up."

He pats the arm proudly. He worked hard on it!

"My neural system, as well as certain organs subject to biological instability, are enhanced by very complex machines designed to mimic and enhance the function of my natural body." He taps his temple. "For example, a significant portion of my brain is a man-made machine of a design I crafted myself, which enhances my computational and intellectual capabilities to the maximum human level of potential and beyond." Oh is he proud. "Not all of it is made of metal, but clearly there's enough to ping supernatural radars, if you're any indication."

There's a chance she can see now, as well as sense, a hint of inhumanity about him. The way his eyeballs stay perfectly (not just mostly) still when he focuses on something. His absence of physical tics.

He pats the arm again. "This is the sort of thing that I'm hoping you'll be interested in learning and working on. One crew member has already lost an arm in the course of his stay on the ship, and as much caution as we take, I'm willing to bet more unfortunate accidents of the kind will happen, and the ability to create machines that mimic and enhance the function of lost body parts may become an essential part of keeping crew members whole, as well as potentially saving lives down the road."

"You are part machine?" Daja said, very curious. How does it work, if there's no magic involved? Do you find keeping everything in working order difficult?" And yes, she can see a little of that inhumanity, now that she's looking for it. It doesn't scare or repulse her though - she finds it fascinating.

"And yes, I'd be very interested in that!" Daja said. "How does the cyborg arm work? May I take a closer look at it? How do you plan to connect it up with it's owner?"

"There's going to be a small amount of surgery involved." Allen smiles wryly. He holds the arm out to her - it was built to withstand the daily wear and tear of use sustained by a regular arm, so laymen holding it shouldn't damage the machinery. "Take a look at the point where it joins the arm. The individual nerves will be hooked up to sensors, so that the machine will respond to the brain's signals as a real arm would."

Daja took the arm, inspecting it carefully. "That must be very painful," she said, frowning. And paused - she hated feeling like she was bragging, but if there were other people who may one day need replacement limbs, then... "The leg I made - I used magic to allow it to respond to Polyam like a real leg. Connecting it right into the nerves...you wouldn't be able to take it off again, would you?"

Running her fingers over the limb, inspecting it with her magic as well as her eyes, Daja considered the applications. "But an arm would present different challenges than a leg. A leg supports the body, but the body has to support an arm. If I were to make an arm with my living metal, I'd need to experiment more to see if it were possible."

She peered at the end of the arm: the place where it would one day connect to a person. "This is excellently made though. I can't imagine how you managed it without magic."

"He'll be under an anesthetic for the procedure, most likely. And thanks. The science is very, very advanced."

And part of his understanding of it comes from a magical background, but that's not relevant to the limb at hand.

"If you'd like to be part of Engineering, I can give you your first job now. It would involve writing, though." Allen raises his eyebrows. "Hope you don't hate written homework or anything."

Daja nodded. She had her doubts, her - she couldn't help but find Allen's description of exactly how the arm was attached unsettling - but she trusted that he knew what he was doing. After all, Allen himself was a clear example that it worked.

"Usually the type of homework I always hated was making nails," Daja said with a hint of amusement. "I'm happy to do a bit or writing. What exactly did you have in mind?"

"I'd like a detailed written explanation of the process and mechanics, magical and mundane, by which you made that leg of yours. I'd also like you to experiment by making a small practice prosthetic - a finger, or hand - and outlining the exact process of that. Please include a speculative section in which you plan an arm, concerns you would have in building it, as well as any bugs which might need working out of the process in order to use your abilities to replicate any functioning part of the human body."

Too much?

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