We're brothers. We're happy and we're building...

Nothing woke Adan up in the morning like the smell of fire molds and the clanging of metal-on-metal. Out of all the places in camp, the forge was definitely his second favorite. His first would be the forest, but we're not talking about that right now. The Hephaestus cabin had first dibs on the forge that day for...some reason. Adan stopped paying attention once the word "forge" was said. Anyway, here he was with a bunch of his sweaty and calloused siblings, working on a prototype of a shield he had sketched the other day. Beyond the thick goggles he wore over his eyes and the large apron that somehow managed to cover his huge frame. His CHB t-shirt had the sleeves rolled up so that they didn't catch flame, so his fireproof arms were bare as they worked with the hot metals. As long as he didn't melt his fake leg, he'd be fine.
"For Hera's sake," The demigod muttered. He'd brought the hammer down too hard on the anvil and the head fell off...for the seventh time. He had to get stuck with the sucky hammer as always. Instead of dwelling over it, he lumbered over to one of his siblings and nudged him lightly. He also realized that he didn't know his brother's name, but it was too late. "Hey, uh...do you have a hammer you're not using?"

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the sound of hammer banging against metals in the air. Malcolm Johnson was already up and ready to get to work on something of us. He honestly enjoyed the forge every much so. It gave him a sense of need and accomplishment whenever he was there. Thankfully they were given first grabs in the forge today. He wore a simple Camp Half-Blood t-shirt along with a pair of camouflaged pants. His black Tumberlands at his feet. The son of Hephaestus stomped through the forge to get to his working table, sat down, and began working. Malcolm never really talked with any of his siblings except for Sawyer so he would just...work. Work on anything and at this moment, on the little trinkets that he made was his current project.

The six foot two demigod was working on the final touches for his boar when his brother...Adrian? No, Adan came over and asked for a hammer. Malcolm nodded and without looking up from his work, telepathically lifted one of the hammers he wasn't using and gave it to him.

At first, Adan thought he was getting ignored. That would have been kind of rude, but it wasn't like Adan to say something about it. That was just the way some people are and who was Adan to judge? Even though he nodded as if saying it was okay for Adan to use a hammer, he didn't move. Maybe he meant for Adan to go find it or...
No wait look. During all of Adan's internal questioning he had managed to distract himself from what was happening beyond his brother. A hammer levitated into the sky and hovered its way towards the unprepared Adan. It hovered right there in front of his face like it wanted him to take it. He wasn't sure if this was some magic voodoo trick ol' dude was doing or if this was some godly sign from his dad, and he even briefly considered the breakfast he had before coming here as a factor. But, no, obviously it had to be somehow levitating due to what's-his-name, so Adan timidly grabbed it out of the air. When it allowed him to, his nerves eased. He felt it out first, waving it a little bit to test the balance and attachment to the handle, then nodded.
"Thanks," He was tempted to go back to his station and continue working in silence, but now was his chance to actually communicate with someone who probably wouldn't verbally abuse him. Danggit. It would involve him having to step farther out of his comfort zone, and he was already pushing it with eleven words he used to greet and thank him. Not to mention that Charlie Charlie and his magic hammer here didn't seem so talkative either. Adan nudged his goggles to the top of his head. "It's, um, it's probably bad that I don't know your name and we're related. I'm Adan."

Malcolm was continuing tinkering, not paying any attention to his half-brother or whether or not he had grabbed the hammer that he gave him. Now don't get Malcolm wrong, he wasn't a rude type of broski, rather busy with what he was working on. He was nearly finished so he decided to step away from his work and give some attention to his fairer skinned brother. "You're welcome." He looked up and gave him a friendly, slight smile. "I'm Malcolm Johnson, son of -- oh wait." Smooth, Malcolm smooth. What a way to start a good brotherly relationship. "Sorry, usually that's how I could greet someone. My brain must've set that as my default verbal greeting." Chuckling slightly, he glanced over at Adan's work bench. "What exactly are you working on?"

So he was nice, which was unexpected but a pleasant surprise. Again, maybe he wouldn't verbally abuse Adan which would really be a great turn of events. He actually didn't know how to take this niceness at first and was taken aback for just a few seconds. He said that his name was Malcolm Johnson...Malcolm...Oh, Adan remembered him now. He'd seen him around the cabin a few times, but Adan never stayed in there long. All of those people in one place, related or not, made his palms sweat. He started to introduce himself as a son of Hephaestus, which Adan had already knew of course, but corrected himself. Adan laughed along with Malcolm since he could relate.
"Me? Oh, just a shield. Figured I'd need something other than an spear to survive here." Adan nodded his head towards the still red-hot slab of metal on an anvil near his table then turned back to Malcolm. "What about you?"

"Oh, that's cool. Shields are sometimes better than swords, y'know? A great deflector as well as awesome head basher." Malcolm stated after Adan explained what he was making. He always did that, give more information than needed. He could've just said "Oh, okay" or "that's cool".
The son of Hephaestus gestured toward his metal boar. "Just tinkering around." The boar was almost finished. It's body frame was the size of a full grown pit bull with it's tusks five inches long. "98% celestial bronze metal."

Adan's eyebrows knitted. "Yeah, exactly." He was surprised that he didn't get the shorter half-interested answer he expected. I mean, come on, most Hephaestus kids weren't so talkative and would be quick to dismiss and distractions. That's what Adan would've done anyway. This? This was cool. Malcolm went back and showed Adan what he was working on. It looked like a boar, and Adan circled around it to get a good look at all of it.
"Wow," He whistled in approval. No doubt that when this thing was finished it would be fully functional. "98%? What's the other 2% then? Can I...?" Adan hovered his hand over the frame of the invention, asking if it was okay for him to touch. He knew how he was about his creations, so he just wanted to make sure feeling it was alright.

"The other two perfect is just stuff I found around camp."The eighteen year old shrugged his shoulders and smiled slightly at the boar. "Yeah, you can." He answered. When Adan finally did touch the celestial bronze boar, he decided to bring it to life. The boar grunted, jumping a couple of inches off the ground before sniffing at Adan. The animated boar exhaled steam from its nose and slowly went back to being stationary. "Like I said, it still needs some work."

Adan didn't hesitate. As soon as Malcolm said yes, he felt the smooth metal beneath his palm. You'll have to forgive him for nerding out over a project, but this type of stuff was his thing! He probably looked like a scientist or a critic marveling over the craftsmanship. It didn't last for long though, because almost immediately the boar jumped and same to life. It sniffed at Adan, then exhaled steam right near his face. Adan laughed gleefully and looked at his brother after the boar stilled. It was a bit odd, seeing a 6 foot 5 inch tattooed demigod grinning like a little kid who just got ice cream.
"Dude, what did you use? His joints move way more fluidly then I expected." He realized how odd his childish grin probably looked and shrunk it back down to a calm smirk. You could tell he was trying not to be excited. "I'd kill to have that kind of movement." Adan knocked on his prosthetic, gesturing towards the knee joint that always seemed to get rickety.

"Uh. well, like I said earlier, majority of it is celestial bronze while the rest of it act as joints and such." Malcolm tried to explain the best he could without sounding like he was trying to keep a secret from him. The son of Hephaestus had a kink for, well tinkering. In the past he had made spiders, flies, turtles, even mini warriors out of the scrap metal that he was given. The boar would be his biggest project. Malcolm looked down at Adan's leg, frowning a bit. "Who made that for you?" He asked, curiously.

Adan had gotten his answer, but it wasn't what he expected. It didn't really answer his question, but hey. It wasn't his place to harass someone for an answer. Especially with something as serious as inventions, I mean, you tell one person and next thing you know there's a million replicas lying about. Then Malcolm asked who made Adan's leg, and his eyebrow rose in question. He didn't just make shields. People forced him to make all kinds of crazy things - his leg was simple. But it was an honest question so Adan wasn't offended.
"I did. A friend of mine..." Friend? Not likely. "Well someone else made the design and left it on my bunk. It took me a few tries what with finding a good material, but yeah. I made it."

Malcolm nodded his head, studying his half-brother's leg. He wanted to get up and look at the design, but he decided against it. "Oh, well. What is it made out of? I'm assuming celestial bronze or something?" He asked thoughtfully. the 6'3 demigod now felt the need to help Adan with the stiffness of his prosthetic leg, but he didn't want to insult his work by any means. Maybe this was his next project?

"You guessed it, though there're a few wires in there to connect to some nerves. If I get eaten, at least the monster will have a hard time." Adan joked. He saw how Malcolm was studying the design, comparing it to how Adan was looking at the boar. He wanted to show him, but he thought better of it considering a) it was difficult as hell to put it back on comfortably and b) what was left of his leg would look pretty gross right now since the forge was like a sauna. "I could take it off or something, but I have a feeling that you wouldn't want to see a nub."

Malcolm fought back a chuckle when Adan made the monster joke. He studied the thing more. "Yeah, let's not do it in here. The last thing we need is to haul giants out to the infirmary." His statement was funny, but true. The majority of the Hephaestus kids were big boned and large; just like their father. "Most of us rather deal with metal and oil than bone and blood."

Adan did a laugh that turned into a snicker, imagining someone having to tow both of these huge guys all the way across camp to the infirmary. Surely their other siblings were strong enough, but did they really want to go through that? Probably not. "Yeah, I know I do. When I first got it hacked off I was a wreck. You should've seen me." It was a lot easier building a new leg than dwelling over the old one. He weighed his options: sit there and stare at the stump feeling sorry for himself or pretend it never happened and become part robot. He obviously chose the latter. "Now you could say that I'm pretty much use to it."

"I believe you completely." He smiled slightly at him before standing up from his work bench. Just the thought of having a limb being ripped off his awful...makes his skin crawl. Anyways, the gentle giant squatted down by his Adan's leg, studying up close. "I could maybe redesign it if you want? Make it more comfortable, efficient. I could be different settings on the leg like for running, walking, fighting, swimming. Other forms of motion, but I would have to analysis how you usually do those things so the prosthetic can be in sync with the rest of your body."

"It's sort of in sync already, but it could definitely be water proof." Adan lifted his real leg and moved around, then did the same with the prosthetic. They moved similarly, yet the prosthetic creaked and went slower. And it could definitely be more comfortable; at the end of the day the part of his thigh it was attached would be swollen and aching, and Adan had to take a shot of nectar to numb it. He had no problem getting help from Malcolm with stuff like running (he used to do a lot of that before he got jacked up), and he wasn't the type that refused help when he needed it. "I don't see why not. You'd be doing me a huge favor, man."

Malcolm nodded his head slowly. "Yes, yes. I see." He frowned a bit as he tried to concentrate, running ideas through his brilliant brain of his. Waterproof? That'll be...number three He thought to himself as he made a list that needed to be done. He got up and rushed over to the bench were there was paper and pencils. In the process he knocked some things down off of work benches. Oops. The son of Hephaestus came back and started to jot things down. "When are you free, Adan?" He asked, sketching out the design.

It took Adan a little bit to think since most of the time his free times were taken up by either building things in solitude or spending time with Aliana (oh, he loved Aliana). What could it hurt to knock a day off of building tomorrow? He wasn't in the middle of one of his independent projects, and didn't see any trouble with missing a day. He shrugged his shoulders and spun the hammer in his hand. "Is tomorrow good? Maybe sometime around 3 or so?"

The son of Hephastuss nodded his head in agreement. "Tomorrow is perfect. No problem at all." He stated before sticking the pencil in the space between his ear and his head and folding the paper up and placing it in his back pocket. "Alright, so I'll do some more sketches and you tell me which one you like, then we'll go from there." He smiled slightly, nodding once. "I'll need to make some measurements of course."

"That sounds like a plan to me, Malcolm." Adan nodded his head appreciatively to his brother. Look at that, it didn't hurt to be social sometimes. Not like Adan would be becoming some sort of socialite, but it did change his view of other human lifeforms. "I should go back over there to my shield, let you finish up on your boar. It was nice meeting you." He walked back over to his station after calling out a thank you and went back to work.

With that being said, Malcolm went back to tinkering with his mechanical boar. "Sure thing, Adan. What are half brothers for?" He smiled slightly, not looking up from his work. It was almost complete; only needed some fine tuning and the boar would be ready to go.