~Skephalo & Jefhalo - Oneshots, Drafts, and More~

~Illegal Love pt 4 - 🔵🔴~

Skeppy entered his shop, having walked there after he finished eating at the cafe. His little shop was on the outskirts of the city, one of the streets in a neighborhood known for its bad reputation. It was the only building he could afford to pay rent for. Otherwise, he would've gotten a nicer place that didn't scare away customers.

Regardless of its flaws, Skeppy loved his shop. It was a peaceful place, and when he wasn't helping a customer, he loved to get lost in the disorganized mess that was his office. He would tinker with his crystals and create new designs. It was a good way to spend time.

Skeppy was a jeweler. He could create crystals out of thin air; temporarily or semi-permananently. None of his creations would last forever; even the more permanent ones would disappear when he died, but they could still last for many years. He created jewelry with his crystals: bracelets, necklaces, brooches, rings, and earrings. He could generate complex patterns and shapes, and different colors. As long as he could picture it in his mind, he could create it in the real world.

Being a jeweler also meant he got to appraise jewelry that customers brought to him. He could identify minerals and gems easily, and he had no difficulty spotting a fake jewel from the authentic.

Most of his customers, however, came to him for custom-made jewelry. A large percent of his sales came from young suitors placing engagement ring orders, or couples buying jewelry for each other.

He had tried, in the past, to drift away from the jewelry business and put his talent to a different use, but his endeavors had never been successful. He always ended up right back where he was, making pretty little bobbles and trinkets for those who wanted them.

Skeppy walked past the display cases set up in the front lobby and headed to his office. He put on the gloves that had been laying on his desk, and slipped his goggles onto his head, sitting down to check his orders.

He looked at the paper on the top of the stack of order slips. It requested a necklace, with a thin silver chain and a pendant designed to look like a crystalline carnation, tinted pink. A fairly simple request.

Skeppy grabbed a fresh sheet of paper and sketched the design. Of course, he didn't need a sketch to create the product, but it was always nice to have a plan, and the visual aid helped him a lot. The customer had asked for it to be semi-permanent and long lasting, so it needed to be high quality.

Once he had a finalized sketch, he created the crystal pendant. It took a lot of his concentration to make a permanent crystal structure, even if it was small. That's why permanent products were more expensive than semi-perms and temporaries.

As soon as he had the roughly shaped structure in his hands, he pulled his goggles down over his eyes. The goggles were like magnifying glasses, except, well, they were goggles. They allowed him to get a better view of the details of his products, which was necessary for refining and shaping. Slowly and surely, he refined the carnation pendant, defining the shape of the petals and sharpening the edges.

It took a while, but eventually he had the finished pendant in his hand. Now he just needed to turn it into an actual necklace, rather than just the pendant on its own.

He was just about to grab a silver chain when he heard the chime that signaled someone entering his shop. He stood up, leaving the pendant at his desk as he walked into the lobby.

"Hi, can I help you?" He asked, greeting the man who had entered.

The man, who was dressed rather wealthily, turned to look at the displays. "Are you the owner of this shop?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you know who I am?" The man's scrutinizing gaze swept back over to him.

"No, sir," Skeppy said. Judging from the way the man's frown deepened, that was the wrong answer.