>>5877484Igniting your blowtorch briefly, you hold one bolt carefully in place, then weld it against it's neighbor with the higher heat setting. Removing your hand so the bolt could cool, you make another pair at the precise angle, eyeballing it where any other craftsman would have to use a measuring tool. You make two, four, seven sets- and by the time you finish with the eighth, the first two have cooled sufficiently for you to place them together and make another precise weld to bond them together, forming a shape that was roughly one fourth of a circle.
It seemed to be working, and so you continue to weld the pieces together, placing the pairs of bolts adjacent and making your fourth circle into half a circle, then three-quarters and finally completing the circle, welding the very first bolt to the last one.
Picking it up by the threads on the bolts, you hold up your improvised icon. The heads of each bolt had been fused together, forming an inner circle, with the threads fanning out around it like the teeth on a cog. Of course, a real cog had shorter teeth, but what you had constructed looked a bit like a sun as well as a cog this way, which felt appropriate in a weird way.
Flipping it over, you weld the ring from the can on, melting the sharp edges with a little attention from the blowtorch. Pulling the bolt from the door hinge, you break off the plate that would attach to the door, instead welding the empty hinge to the ring, such that when you hold the hinge bolt up on the ground, you can slide the entire icon down onto it, with the cog properly upright and straight. It was very top heavy, though, which meant as soon as it wobbled a bit, it would flop over and hit the ground. That was where the book stop came in, as the flat metal legs welded to the base of the bolt provided a the footprint for it to stay stable on it's own.
And, since it was made from a hinge, you could take it apart and pack it mostly flat in your bag when you were done.
Smiling a little bit, you stand up, holding the two pieces close to your chest as you return to the main street. You would go to one of the shrines and give thanks to the Emperor, while... ah. Should you put your little shrine down at one of the official shrines? You wouldn't want to offend the priests, but... no, surely it was no objection? The God-Emperor and the Omnissiah were different aspects of the same god, after all, and it seemed like a shame to not put your shrine on the same level as the icon to the Emperor. Although... perhaps it would be safer to not risk drawing any more attention to yourself than you had to. If you asked one of the priests and made them angry...
>Put your shrine together with the Emperor's, then pray.>Set up your shrine somewhere private after making your prayer here.>You should just ask for permission. There's only a chance they won't be reasonable.>[Write-In] 