[Flashback] Making Waves in Animation

[Miro]

Timestamp: Season of Summer, Day 5, 499 AV

A young Miro sat impatiently, as his mother tried to settle him in for his daily lessons. Today’s lesson was to be special, one that would change Miro's life forever. The look on her face caused the young child to sit still for a moment, he remained silent to hear what had her so serious. "Dra-Miro, you are going to learn something today, something new. It's nothing like the magics I have taught you so far." Miro started to look a bit puzzled, he had heard her talk of the importance of focus and concentration in magic before, but even then she kept a light hearted spirit about her. "Miro, I learned to do this magic from your father." His eyes lit up with a lucid golden glow. She rarely spoke of his father, and when she did, never about his talents. Trying his best to speak, Miro stammered, "M..my..father?" She nodded in approval. ]"You need to pay extra close attention. This is what we call a 'world magic'. Instead of it coming from inside you..." She reached a hand out and pressed it against his chest. "Instead, it comes from the trees, and the ground, and everything around you. You draw power from the world that surrounds you." She drew her hand from his chest to motion to the area around them.

"Now here comes the fun part, my child. This magic will allow you to make a non-living thing move. Now, go get the doll I made you and I can show you how it's done." Miro scampered off into the small house they lived in to retrieve his favorite toy, a small doll made from various plant parts that were gathered from in the woods. It was made special by his mother to be used as an example in animation. It had bits of glass for eyes and thin stretched fabric to allow it to hear. He returned to find his mother carefully drawing in the ground. There was a large circle, and from it a line going into yet another circle. His mom sat outside of the larger two. "Come, lay your doll in smaller circle. Then sit in this circle here. You can’t leave until were done with this lesson." Miro did as he was told, but he did not look as excited as before. "You mean my TOY! And I don't want it to get all dirty!" Hearing her child say such things caused her to laugh. "Yes, of course, your toy! I'm sorry, sweetie. Oh and as for it being dirty; you do realize it is made of things I found on coming from the ground, don't you?" Sighing, Miro sat down next to his mother, inside the circle.

"Now, here comes the complicated part, so listen very very closely! The first thing we do is take some of our blood to start the process. Our blood allows us to direct thoughts and feelings through the circles into your toy. Now give me your hand, and I’m going to warn you, this is going to hurt." She took Miros hand drew her nail up to one of his fingers. He turned his head and closed his eyes waiting for the shock of pain. ]"Three...two..one." She quickly stabbed her nail into his finger, then pressed his bleeding finger down into the center of the circle opposite the toy. "Next thing we do is create what we call a 'life principle'. This may sound a little strange, so if you don't understand ask. You remember when I explained the layers of the soul to you right? The core, persona, astral body, and aura. First we start by making a core of our own. Now, were not gods my son. We cannot truly make a soul. However we can make a copy of our own in order to help our little friend here move. We start by creating a soulcore. It will be the base of life. It holds the soul together, and allows the rest of the soul to grow around it. It's like a seed, we just need to plant it with our minds. Close your eyes child, clear you mind. Focus your thought on an orb. Think of the energy flowing into it, making it stronger and stronger. Remember the orb is you. It has a part of you in it, like the water that allows it to grow. Keep it focused, contained, yet allow it to grow." Miro, forcing his eyes shut as he focused on the concept visualized it the best he could. He felt the presence seeming to show up forming into the shape he envisioned.

"Once you think you have it how you want it, we are going to add the next part of the soul, the persona. As you know, the persona is what contains our knowledge and what makes us, us. Now, unlike some children I know, animated creatures HAVE to listen. Their persona consists of ‘directives’." She paused for a second, thinking of exactly how to describe the creation of a directive. She smiled slightly after an idea appeared in her mind. ”How about we teach your toy to wave at us? It may sound simple, but it is not as easy as you would think. We can make it so he responds to the word ‘hello’ with a wave of his arm. Okay, so in order to do that we will make a list of directives to teach him. The directive will be, “wave when you hear ‘hello’”. BUT before we can do that, it needs to understand what those words mean and how they happen. To wave, it will need to understand what an arm is as well as the motion used to wave it. To know he needs to wave, he must know what the word used as a command is. So, let’s start by first imagining an arm. Close your eyes picture your arm. The way it looks, where it is on your body. Imagine it for your toy, make sure it understands. Then think of the way an arm moves when it’s waved. Imagine the elbows bending, the arm being held up. Keep thinking of the way your muscles feel as you use them, the feel of your arm moving. After you’re done picturing it, all that’s left is the word. All you need to do is picture the sound. Teach him to hear it, the way it rings in your ears as it’s said, recognizing it.” Clinging onto every word said by his mother, Miro did his best to picture everything with a clear mind and precision.

After seeing Miro stop concentrating so hard, she began to speak yet again. “Good, I can see you’ve finished that up. Now all that’s left is to make sure its astral body is shaped correctly. Make it extend through his entire body. Start at its head, end in its arms and legs. Once you’ve done that, cut the djed flow and leave the circle.” Putting all of his efforts into shaping the djed he finally completed it. A large triumphant grin spread across his face. ”I did it mom!” He ran out of the circle and gave her a hug. His embrace was met by hers and both laughed. ”Now we just need test it out, go see if you taught it to wave, Miro."[/color]

Miro’s anxious heart thudded. His mind was blank as he walked towards the toy. He picked it up and smiled nervously, opened his mouth, then paused. ”H…H…Hello!” Both of the toy’s arms started to bend slightly in an unusual creepy motion. He yelled in happiness and excitement, hugging his toy with a new found love. ]”It’s so amazing mom! Do you think dad would be proud of me?” She turned, hiding the tears in her eyes. ”of course he would. He loved you, I’m just sorry he’s not here to teach you this himself.” She held her tears in just long enough to walk into their home, though it made no difference. Her sobbing was loud enough to echo through the entire area. Miro looked down at his toy with a new outlook. He would become the best animator in the world. And he would find make a dad and a mom who had to love each other. With animation they would have to listen, have to be happy. Then he would have the family he always wanted.

[Cheshire]

Character: Miro Experience: Animation +2 Lore: Animation [Basic], How to Purpose a Golem [Basic], Making a Golem [Basic] Additional Note: Great thread! PM me with concerns.