(Untitled)

[ready_aim_toss]

Name(s): Winry, Godot
Location: Ravenclaw Tower
Week: 30
Time: Uh. I truly have no idea what day this is. Let's say Monday, to be simple. In the evening some time.
Rating: PG

Comments

[bitter_inferno]

Sitting in his office, Godot didn't take a sip from the cup of coffee resting on his desk. It sat there, cooling, as it had for the last few minutes. His hand rested by the journal entry where he had been talking to Mia, although the conversation hadn't done much to put his mind at ease. Rather, it merely stirred up the muddy waters a little more.

He had left his door unlocked, awaiting the girl's arrival with a growing sense of dread. "Come in," Godot called out, voice calm and collected as ever, easily heard over the jazz he had quietly playing.

Was he Godot now? Or would this girl catch a glimpse of Diego?

[ready_aim_toss]

After locating the Ravenclaw Tower, it took Winry a couple more moments to find the Professor's office (he hadn't exactly been specific).

She knocked on the door, pushing it open after receiving permission. "Hello, Professor," she said easily, smiling happily.

She spotted the mask immediately. It was difficult to miss, being on his face and all. It looked sort of like a toaster.

[bitter_inferno]

"Winry," he replied simply. The economy of words might be enough to show he was feeling somewhat uncomfortable if someone knew him well, but the fact was this kid has only discovered his name over the journals a short while ago. The professor knew her, of course. Sasuke seemed fond of the girl. That was something, then. "You weaved through the maze all right?"

Still, he wasn't quite looking at her, and suddenly the scrutiny that his mask received and he usually brushed off dismissively was very... uncomfortable. "How can I help you, amiga?"

[OOC: I got your message but for some reason LJ wouldn't let me reply. But basically - that sounds cool. He's probably be tense initially though, what with the needing the toasterface to be able to see at all, and everything.

Oh, random - in a couple of his nomask!icons there's his canon!scar? But he doesn't have that in SW. At least not yet. Just a heads up in case the icons were confusing.]

[ready_aim_toss]

"I got lost once or twice, but I figured it out in the end." Winry cocked her head to the side, scrutinising the mask. Her sense of the socially appropriate had a tendency to diminish when she was faced with a new piece of metal.

"I was hoping..." She trailed off, eyebrows twitching together slightly. "The design of you mask looks like something I've seen before." She mentally scrolled through one of the many lists she kept in her mind, perusing the files on odd metalwork design.

[bitter_inferno]

Under normal circumstances, Godot might have found her curiosity entertaining. At this moment, however, they were engaged in a dance he didn't know the steps to, to a song he wasn't sure he'd like. "You wanted to get a closer look?" he asked, and it was followed by a quiet chuckle. This. To open her eyes he'd have to close his. But this was the bitter fire that would have to burn away at his gut. He had already sworn to himself never to let a student down. Godot was a man of his word.

So was Diego Armando.

One hand strayed to his mask, fingers gently tapping against it. "Can you keep a secret, Winry?" Finally, he looked at her. "We all wear masks, but some cover our hearts as well as our faces."

[ready_aim_toss]

"I...did." There was a thought niggling at Winry. She definitely recognised the design of that mask from somewhere, but she couldn't quite... "But, if you don't want me to, that's fine!" She was starting to realise that she might have stumbled onto something a little personal here.

He asked her if she could keep a secret, and then he looked at her through the mask, and suddenly she understood. She remembered where she had seen that design before.

It was something the head of Rush Valley had shown her the papers for. A prototype.

"O-oh," she said softly. "You're blind."

[bitter_inferno]

Her realisation was met with a drawn out silence.

This is what separates the men from the boys. Take the plunge. Brave the depths.

Carefully lifting the mask off, Godot shook his head slowly. Whether it was just a simple motion accompanying the relief of the pressure that the mask applied or a response to Winry's words was unclear.

"There's a heavy fog," the professor finally replied. "But better my eyes be lost to it than my mind." He smiled, not as bright as his usual grin, but enough that it would hopefully assure her he was fine.

He wasn't. Not really. But that was beside the point. He was not a coward, and that was more important at the present moment. Godot - no, Diego, now - looked over in direction he knew Winry to be in, brown eyes vivd but unseeing. "Take a look," Diego murmured, holding out the mask.

[ready_aim_toss]

Winry bit her lip, feeling guilty. She should have known. Why else would someone be wearing a mask with magical properties? In her eagerness to get her hands on some new metal, she'd assumed it was just an affectation.

That was dumb.

"I-I'm sorry," she stuttered slightly. "It's okay, really, you don't have to - no really, it's okay!"

He took it off anyway.

Winry's eyes zeroed in on the mask. Oh man, she really wanted to take a look at it. It was the same feeling she'd had when faced with Sasuke's sword, except about ten times worse because this thing was the prototype. She'd looked at the design papers and everything, but that was nothing compared to getting her hands on the actual thing.

"I - If you're sure?" she asked uncertainly.

[bitter_inferno]

With a slight frown, Diego considered her hesitation. That had not been his intention in his delay and it was not what he wanted. Students were here to learn. If this could help her learn in absence of a metal working specialist, then he would grant her access to the mask. He had committed to being a teacher. Committed to guiding this children as best he could, no matter what.

Once you committed, you gave one hundred and ten per cent. That was one of his rules.

"Take it," he repeated. "Once a lion commits to the hunt he must follow through. There's no survival in second guessing your opportunities when the prey is laid before you." Diego looked seriously in the direction of her voice. He didn't like being in the dark, but there had been a stretch of time in between waking up and getting his new eyes. Offering a warmer smile, he continued. "Be the lion, Winry. Not the gazelle."

[ready_aim_toss]

This time, Winry didn't hesitate. He seemed to be fine with the whole thing, so she smiled and took the mask with steady hands. "Thank you!" she said, almost giddily

[bitter_inferno]

Carefully Diego reached for his coffee and tipped it back. Nowhere near hot enough, the cooled brew was distinctly lacking. He stood, mug in hand, and eased himself out of his chair, smoothly making his way towards his coffee machine. It didn't matter that he was blind - he had the steps memorized, each pace and each step at the machine burned into his very being. It was the blackest of life bloods. He could practically make it in his sleep.

As Winry worked away, he prepared his precious blend, counting off the second until it would be ready. She could hear the song of metal and he could read into the soul of coffee, reaching into the flames to draw out the best of roasts where others would just see a pile of beans. That was the magic of coffee.

The question caught him by surprise. He looked up from his coffee, paused, and took a sip. "It is a beautiful part of the spectrum," Diego replied calmly. "Have you found something interesting, amiga?"

[OOC: My god, he is such a freaking drama queen. Oh, Diego.]

[ready_aim_toss]

"There's a hole," Winry replied absently, searching through her bag for her notebook. She pulled it out and started scribbling down notes, eyes and wand trained on the mask. "In the spellwork, I mean. At first I thought the maker might have missed it, but it looks like it has to be there. If I figure out why, I might be able to..." She fell silent, mouth unable to keep up with her mind as her hand flew across the page.

"My old master, he was working on the prototype for an automail eye just before I left. It was the last project I ever worked on. This is different, but it uses a lot of the same spells. There's nothing here that I don't recognise, at the very least." She stopped writing and frowned down at the thing. "This is horribly designed, you know. Isn't it heavy to wear?"

[bitter_inferno]

"You might be able to let me see red again." Walking back from his beloved coffee machine, he absently pushed a hand through his shock of white hair as he considered the possibility. It was odd that the way his eyes interpreted light's reflection should mean so much... and yet. "It is my favourite colour," he added. "And being able to bring down Hellfire on the Gryffindors would be so much more enjoyable." As it was, looking at Gryffindors red items and even Shalice's hair induced something of a headache

[ready_aim_toss]

"Maybe," Winry said cautiously. "I can't really know for sure. I'd have to get a proper look at the design papers, and some of my old master's work as well. But I think it's doable. There have been a few breakthroughs in this area recently, but no one's really gotten around to working with them properly." She grinned. "I could be the first."

Winry blinked over at him at the question. "A lot...?" She laughed. "I've been surrounded with it my entire life. There's never been anything else I've wanted to do." Well. That wasn't entirely true. There had been a brief period in her life when she'd wanted to become an Auror to find the person who'd killed her parents, but she'd soon realised that she'd have no idea what to do with that sort of information, and promptly set the idea aside. She would have been miserable as an Auror, anyway.

She huffed, mildly outraged. "It's horrible! What, did they think the size made it look cooler or something? It looks like a toaster!"

Tact; Winry lacked it. At least when it came to metal working.

[bitter_inferno]

Even if it was just a possibility, that was enough to make things look up a little. "That path is easier to find once you have a map. If you need access to papers, I am sure something could be arranged

[ready_aim_toss]

"That would be great!" Winry said happily, tinkering with the mask a little. "It'd probably be easier if you were to get them. There tends to be a little...healthy competition in the automail field. This mask isn't exactly automail, but it's the same sort of principle." Working quickly with practiced ease, she switched over a couple of generic parts that weren't anchored to spells with her own (better) versions. "There! That should make it a tiny bit lighter, for the time being. I don't know if it'll make too much of a difference, but it can't hurt. You can't use magic on it, by the looks of things. It interferes with the sight spells. Looks like I'll have to build a new one from the ground up." She didn't look too disappointed at that prospect