Behind the Vizsla T-Visor

[Zef Halo]

Grim had taken the rest of the day off feeling too tired after having forged Skorri's armor for almost the whole day. The forge of Aunt Verd had a chamber with a couch that the Mandalorian took to sleep on for the night. His head was already feeling tipsy from the amount of black ale he had drunk and Grim knew it would be better to take some rest before continuing the forging of his own armor tomorrow.

When he woke up, Grim immediately went for the necessary dose of caf and nicotine. Otherwise, his day wouldn't have started. Nothing could replace the feeling of caf and a cigarette in the morning. After taking his time with it, as he believed that was always the most pleasant time of every day of his life, the Vizsla went to don his apron and proceed with filing the beskar plates he had already sawed yesterday.

Time to get my own beskar'gam up.

 

[Zef Halo]

Grim began precisely and cautiously to file his beskar plates, equalizing the barely visible to the naked eye sharp edges that were left after sawing the beskar into plates for different parts of his armor. He’d double check if he had done a good work after he finished by calling one of the droids to inspect it. Similarly to what he had done with Skorri’s armor previously.

The filing of the plates did take much longer than the filing the Mandalorian had done for the young Mandalorian girl due to the fact that she was definitely not going for a full body armor as he was. Numerous times, Grim had to halt and mop up the sweat that had gathered on his forehead before continuing once again.
The forging of this armor would take him much longer than the other one but his mind and body had rested well after the aspirin he had taken before sleeping. Grim had enough cigarettes, jerky and black ale for the rest of the day.

 

[Zef Halo]

Taking a break after half an hour of carefully filing the plates, Grim lit up a cigarette and opened up his favorite Mandalorian black ale. He had started early in the morning and slowly Grim was nodding in a greeting to the steady arrivals of apprentices that were coming to practice their beskarsmith skills under Aunt Verd.

“Doing good, Vizsla?” Aunt Verd’s voice came up from behind.

“Pretty good. Much more time for this one than that girl’s.” Grim replied with a smile.

“If you had less breaks for this damn poison called tobacco, you’d finish faster.”

“I am tryin’, Aunt, you know how it is with these.” Grim gestured at the cigarette in his hand.

“Thank Kad’Harangir, I don’t, Grim.” She replied as she made her way away from Vizsla’s Aliit’buir.

“Wish I could say the same, Aunt.” Grim scoffed at her as he extinguished the cigarette and went back to file the rest of the plates.

Taking the diamond file once again, the Mandalorian continued filing the rest of the plates left which were much less than half already. He was really taking more time between breaks than before. It meant that he truly enjoyed beskarsmithing.

 

[Zef Halo]

After finishing the filing process, Grim called a droid to inspect it while he went to where he had left his armor along with different attachments for the wrist, the shoulder and the kneepads. The Mandalorian wanted to take bring them to the worktable now rather than taking another break for cigarettes.

Bringing the gadgets to the large worktable, the droid patiently awaited him. When he got to a closer distance the droid spoke up:

“There were two plates that needed my intervention. I have done so. Otherwise, the plates are perfectly equalized. No risks for the user’s welfare can be seen. Do you request anything else?”

“Good and no. You’re dismissed.”

Grim withstood the pressure of his physiological need to smoke a cigarette and began the shaping process with the different hammers that were on the work table.

 

[Zef Halo]

No matter how much the Vizsla wanted to manually forge his armor, he knew if he had to do it so it would take him more than one full day and he really wanted to get this armor up by today. That could only happen if he resolved to the power hammer. That is where he was more adept, as well.

Leaving his work table while ordering a droid to carry his beskar plates to a vacant power hammer, Grim put the beskar plates into the forge once again bringing them up to the necessary temperature for hammering the precious Mandalorian metal.
Taking the plate he was currently working on from the forge, Grim always seemed addicted to the molten color the metal took when heated in the forge. The Mandalorian held tight the metal with the open bit in his left hand as he moved the beskar under the power hammer to shape it in the necessary form.He had finished with the shoulderpads and their aesthetics which needed his precise manual work to make the sharp edges on them.

Grim was left with the bigger beskar plates - torso and thighs. They needed a lot of work, despite the lack of aesthetics they had. Before beginning them, the Mandalorian knew it was time for a cigarette break and a bit of jerky to satisfy the aching of his stomach.

“Droid, give me another towel. It’s freaking hot on this side of the forge.” Grim ordered a random passing droid.

He was feeling much more sweaty and craved for a shower but there was work to be done and back on his worktable where it was far from most forges, he would not be done with his armor today. Grim’s location was quite prime and most forges were quite close to his with numerous apprentices working on beskar around. The unsynchronized noise of hammers was oddly soothing.

 

[Zef Halo]

As the time passed by while he worked on his armor, Grim knew that even on the power hammer, he wouldn’t finish the armor today. The Mandalorian needed help. Now. Requesting Aunt Verd was totally out of the question. He had looked at the watch to see it was almost noon and the Aunt would definitely be busy but she probably could spare an apprentice to help him out. Or hopefully a journeyman.

“Aunt-”

“I will send you an apprentice in a bit, Vizsla.”

“Wait, how-”

“You damn well know how.”

“The damn Force runs strong in your clan, Auntie.”

“Eh, it ain’t much of a blessing. I just know who has the urge to smack me with a straight peen hammer in the back.”

Grim laughed out loud at that and awaited the apprentice before proceeding once again with the task at hand.

“Alright, so here’s the blue prints, kid.” The Aliiut’buir of Vizsla gave his own datapad to the kid where his armor's blueprints were currently in, full with all sorts of details.

“Got it, we will finish this today.” The young enthusiastic beskarsmith apprentice nodded. “You’re Aliit’buir be Vizsla ?”

“Yep, that’s me.” Grim nodded with a smile as he took his seat infront of his power hammer. “You’re a Verd, aren’t ya ?”

“Adras Verd, beskarsmith-to-be.” The boy answered with a smile as he took on forging the beskar plates for Grim’s armor.

“Well then, Adras. Let’s do this.” The Vizsla turned to his work with a smile.

 

[Zef Halo]

Working with Adras quite dropped the workload from the Aliit’buir and he found out that he was taking breaks much less and working more hard. The boy’s enthusiasm had amplified his own and the work they were doing was tremendous. Grim could see for himself that the young Verd was quite talented.

“He’s one of the most promising I’ve got, Vizsla.” Aunt Verd like a shadow once again, confirmed his thoughts.

“Damn it, Auntie, you gotta stop spooking me out.” Grim halted his work and received a smack on the back of his head.

“Keep going, Grim.” She went to leave the two to work once again.

As both Mandalorians continued on working on Grim’s future armor, they would synchronize so much their moves that they would put beskar at the same time back in the forge and the tools such as the bits back into water to keep them from gathering too much heat themselves.

Considering the cacaphony of Aunt Verd’s forge, their work together sounded as pleasant music to his ears. Even though earlier, Grim had found the chaotic noises in the forge as soothing, this synchronization was quite pleasant as well as soothing. It seemed to clean the taint within him. The taint of the nicotine addiction.

 

[Zef Halo]

Even on the power hammers, the process was taking a long time. Too many plates and too many aesthetics that had made both Mandalorians jump to use a hammer manually to get them as good looking as possible. The fact that Adras was a perfectionist was quite motivating, some would find it annoying but not Grim. The Vizsla felt inspired by it.

The young beskarsmith prodigy had taken to the worktable to put a personal touch to some curves of the plates. The Verd had told him that he preferred the traditional way of hammers rather than using the convenience of the power hammers. The result of the young Verd’s forging skills on the plates was surprising. He was quite talented as Aunt Verd had said.

Not so long after the boy had finished with the worktable, Grim requested for both to share a black ale and a pack of jerky to relax a bit. Although the boy looked as if he had endless energy and would have proceeded, out of courtesy he joined the Vizsla for a short break to rejuvenate.

 

[Zef Halo]

“So, Adras, apart from a beskarsmith, anything else ?” Grim asked the younger Mandalorian as he took a drag from his cigarette.

“I cannot wait to join the Mandalorian conquest of the galaxy that is bound to come soon.” The boy responded to the Vizsla.

“Soon, kid, soon. The galaxy will tremble when they hear the name Mandalorian once again. Bring back the good old days, once again.” Grim said ambitiously as Adras nodded in approval. With a tilt of his head, the Vizsla implied it was time to go back to forging the armor.

Adras’ hands seemed itching to get working on the armor again. Grim as well, looking at the watch on the wall, it seemed that they had done a lot of work for a shorter amount of time as it was mid-afternoon now. He was absolutely sure that both Mandalorian’s efforts would be enough to complete the armor today.

When they arrived back at their places they saw Aunt Verd with two more apprentices apparently awaiting the pair of Mandalorians.

“I’ve already showed the blueprints of your armor, Vizsla. They will help you out too.” Aunt Verd stated and left.

“I will be glad to work with you, Adras!” The bushy haired youth said enthusiased while the skinnier one next to him confirmed with a nod.

“Same, Rhyze, Hurath.” The Verd responded with a smile. Apparently his talent had gathered for him a following. That was good to hear and the additional skilled manpower was welcome by the Vizsla.

His armor would surely be done by the end of today.

 

[Zef Halo]

With the help of the new ‘recruited’ apprentices, the forging of his armor was becoming much faster and twice better. Hurath was the boy tasked with checking every plate with what was on the blueprints along with a few droids helping him out. Grim was very pleased with the help and he truly had a debt to repay to House Verd after this was all done.

Aunt Verd herself passed a few times to check upon the work, even she smiled once at the work at hand.And there was reason for such pleasantries, the work among the Mandalorians was very synchronized, the noise of their work seemed as music compared to the chaos around them.

All of the apprentices that passed by took a pause to observe the Mandalorians forging and enjoyed the view. Grim’s energy pools seemed to have grown larger due to his inspiration of what was currently occuring.

 

[Zef Halo]

At last!

The armor had been complete. It’s helmet done as well. The Mandalorians all looked quite happy with the result but now was the part of giving the armor a ‘soul’. Without it was a simply nice and close to indestructible metal decoration. Hence, the droids arrived with numerous different electronics and attachments to make the armor a true Mandalorian armor.

Adras finished with the forging of the crushgaunts just a minute after the others had began attaching different gadgets and additions to Grim’s beskar’gam. Even Aunt Verd came to monitor what was happening, giving a few instructions from to time. Augmenting the power armor with the necessary ion and emp resistance to prevent electric shortage, Aunt Verd followed with checking the software on the helmet’s HUD.

“Alright, Vizsla, try the helmet.”

Simply nodding, the Aliit’buir of Clan Vizsla took the helmet and put it over his head. The software was much more upgraded than what he had gotten used to and seemed much more simpler.

Everything was going to plan.