God Of Crafting

"Okay, so those are the five items we will work on and, as is my hope, complete before running out of the time we can secure in this place."

I took a deep breath as I displayed a total of five pieces of paper, each covered with intricate yet only roughly sketched drafts of an item.

This was the culmination of all ideas that both I and Claire came up with during the long process of sorting through all of the items we had on hand and then spending a whole other cycle doing nothing but studying various crafting manuals prepared here.

Now, however, with two whole cycles completed and acts ranging from standing cuddles, through both shallow and deep kisses, all the way to outright caressing each other, I could feel the pressure of the time mounting.

Because while coming up with ideas put a great strain on our creativity, it was never meant to be the most time-consuming process to begin with.

"What do you want to start with?" Claire asked, intentionally putting herself on the other side of the table, just so that our proximity wouldn't make it even harder for her… No, wouldn't make it harder for either of us to push our desires aside.

As much as we wanted to just drop everything and continue, now that we've committed to the project for two full cycles, we couldn't even fathom the idea of just giving in to our wants and needs, prioritizing them over actually working on our project!

"While it's the least important piece, I think that ring-staff thingy should take priority," I pointed out at the paper showcasing how an entire, full-scale wand turned into but a slightly thicker ring.

Out of all the designs I came up with, this had to be the most ingenious one, allowing me to reduce the size of the desired object to but a tiny fraction of the original while maintaining all the benefits its structure held to begin with.

"Even though it's the least important one?" Claire asked as she ran her eyes through the other four blueprint pages, one of which we wanted to craft three, maybe even four times over.

"That's right," I nodded my head as I stood away from the desk, dropped my hands down on my hips, and then stretched my spine off to the back. "Once we have at least one of those, the whole crafting process should speed up a fair bit," I explained. "It will essentially be like having a third set of hands to work with."

Hearing my explanation, Claire nodded her head, indicating her satisfaction with my explanation.

"Then, what do you want me to do?" she then asked as she raised her eyes from the blueprint up to my face. "Coding the Djenga stone?"

"That's right," I nodded my head as I already started to put myself into the crafting mindset. I then turned around and, after searching for it for a short moment, pulled out two books from the stack of thick manuals we gathered near the so-called 'thinking table.'

"I believe those two manuals should be of help," I passed the two thick pieces over. "You are better at this than I am anyway, so it would be great if I could entrust you with this. And, just to make it clear," I looked up and raised both of my eyebrows, keen on driving down the next point as deep into Claire's mind as necessary before she would even get to working, "I don't expect you to finish anytime as soon as I should be able to complete my part."

I took a deep breath only to then slowly sigh it out.

"Crafting the structure for the Djenga stone is a lot simpler than actually programming its runes. This is another reason why I decided to start with it too. In this way, once I'm done, I can already move on to preparing the molds for the other projects," I took a quick glance at the remaining blueprints on the table, "so that once we are both ready, we can just power through the rest of the work."

"Tim…"

After patiently waiting for me to finish, Claire locked her eyes on my face with a silly, defenseless yet perfectly warm smile.

"What's up?"

Claire looked me right in the eyes for a few seconds, only to sigh out as she lowered her head before lightly shaking it to the sides.

"I can tell that you are worried about how I would feel by finishing much later than you can with your part, but…" she leaned her head over her shoulder, giving me a petrifying, slightly exhausted look, "do I really seem that clueless about the process not to figure it out myself?"

"Ah…"

Only now did I realize my attempts to stop Claire from feeling bad about something neither of us had any real control over… were actually dismissing exactly what she pointed out—her ability to see the truth of the matter for herself.

"I'm sorry…" Having nothing better to say, I hung my head low and apologized.
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"Don't be," Claire shook her head, her smile relaxing a little bit. "I knew why you said all of that. And I'm not going to fault you for trying to be considerate. It's just…" she hesitated for a second before allowing her smile to turn slightly troubled, "in your bid to stop me from feeling inadequate over finishing later, you kind of make me feel inadequate about an entirely different topic…"

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"Then again, I apologize," I bowed my head for the second time. "Even if it was out of consideration, it's my fault for making you feel the way you did. And whether it's due to my social ineptitude or not," I shook my head, "it doesn't matter. And I hope you won't mind this shortcoming of mine."

"How would I?" Claire's natural smile returned to her face as she quickly shook her head before jokingly rolling her eyes. "Now, let's drop this and move on," she requested, only for her eyes to dart over to the other three designs remaining on the table. "Say whatever you want, but just from those blueprints," Claire's eyes suddenly flashed up with excitement, "I just can't wait to see those bad boys made flesh!"