[Flashback- Caravan] A tool of the trade

[Calvin Freeman]

evening, 60th day of summer 509 AV

Calvin was behind the curtain of the gran tent. He peeked around the corner to see the giant crowds of people. They were all here in the gran tent. Calvin looked up to see the peak of the tent 50 feet in the air. On the floor of the gran tent there were three rings, all 15 meters in diameter. Calvin was behind the center ring watching the show from the shadows. As he looked to his left his eyes rose to see Ivana and Grisa, the twin acrobatic princesses. Calvin, as a teenage boy, felt his hormone levels rise. He loved to watch the young girls flip and twist in the air. Their bodies hot and so... flexible. Calvin felt his heart skip a beat and his face flush. He turned away swiftly and then faced to the right of the center ring. The right ring had James the tamer. He held a whip and a shield made out of some old iron our traveling black smith made. He whipped at the lion making it seem as if it was obeying his every wim. The lion was following his every wim, but not because of the whip, it was the slight sparkle in James’s eye. James was a hypnotists he had been practicing the magic all his life and now he used it to entertain common folk. Calvin grew bored of this slight of hand. He turned as a man in the center ring began to speak.

“Ladies and gentleman, kids and parents, all who in joy the entertainment of my antics.” The man spoke with a convincing tone. He knew what they wanted and that he had it. “You are lucky to come to us tonight. Tonight we have a special guest and his name is... Luke, the mysterious escape artist.” The title fit him well Calvin met Luke 5 days earlier, but he had heard story's about Luke from every one. Luke had first come to the carnival at a young age. He had a extensive knowledge of chemicals and chemistry. “Luke will escape this glass box while raped in chains.” That's my que Calvin opened the trap door by his feet and proceeded under the tent’s stage. He could hear the pandemonium as he approached the second trap door. He hear the thud of a smoke ball hitting the trap door and the opened it. Luke fell down and calvin unlocked his chains and together they walked back to back stage

[Calvin Freeman]

After the show Calvin was walking to Luke’s tent. Luke had invited him for some beer. On the way Calvin was thinking about his last heist and how he had failed father. Earlier, Calvin had seen farther talking to Luke. They were having a serious discussion, it sparked Calvin's interest he decided to try and get closer as to overhear their conversation. he moved as silently as his teenage body would let him, controlling his breathing, crouching down making sure to be soft of foot and sticking to the shadows. As Calvin got closer to the two men he began to overhear their conversation.

“He came to us a few months ago. Claimed he was from Nyka. Actually, he is not much older than when you first arrived, Luke.” Father explained.

“I see, Nyka is typically a rich town and he looked as if he was from noble decent, However he is kinda scruff a little tough around the edges so to speak.” Rough around the edges!!! Calvin angrily thought. “You said he was an alchemist?” continued Luke.

“Yes, strange isn’t to have a alchemist come from a religious capital like Nyka? but you know that we don’t ask too many questions around here.”

“Yes, very strange and you said you wanted me to---”

Calvin’s eavesdropping was interrupted by a hand falling hard on his shoulder. He turned around to find Brute. He worked as Carnival security. He lifted Calvin out of the shadows and presented him to Father.

“Why hello father” Calvin said as he was dropped by Brute, ”Me and Brute, her’ were just havin’ our selves a little wrestle. Isn’t that right, Brute?” silence... never was one for words

“Calvin!!!” fathers voice boomed with demand, “what were you doing?! Never mind i don’t want to know” his voice began to cool Calvin could see his skin calm, “This Luke, he needs to speak with you.”

"'ello Luke 'ow do you do?" with this gesture calvin bowed and tipped his hat. Luke scruffed at this gesture and turned his attention back to father.

"I don't see the potential in him."

[Calvin Freeman]

As Calvin walked with luke down to his tent. The silence grew more and more awkward, finally it was broken by Luke, "So... I heard you are an alchemist. Do u know a lot about chemistry?"

"No I can't say I know particularly much about chemistry, don't see why I need to. I can transmute anything infant just 3 days ago I transmuted a homunculus."

Luke ignored the obvious lie. "I'm not an alchemist myself, I'm a chemist but I've found the chemistry is a needed knowledge to preform about 2/3 of alchemy, you see if we think about substances in their base elements and reactions we can use djed to force a reaction" As they reached Luke's tent, Luke pulled out two test tubes from his belt and showed them to Calvin. "what would you say this is Calvin?" The substances in the tubes were clear and Calvin's answer was typical.

"I'd say it looks like water."

"Yes it looks clear like water but it isn't." Luke then proceeded to pour both liquids onto the table. In the puddle of the liquids a yellow substance formed on the table. "in the first test tube was filled with ionized silver and the second tube was filled with ionized phosphate, when I combined them i got silver phosphate. Now using alchemy we can reverse or force any substance to create another substance." Luke pulled out a rock and a texture from his cabinet he then place the rock on the table and poured some of the liquid over it. A silver deposit began to accumulate on the rock. "This is another natural reaction the liquid was silver nitrate and when combined with the potassium in this rock it creates silver and potassium nitrate. Now using alchemy we can revers the reaction. Calvin can u draw me an alchemy circle?" Calvin began to make an alchemy circle in the dirt floor of the tent. Luke pulled a silver coin out of his pocket and picked up some dirt from the ground. He placed the coin in one of the reactant circle. “Ok, Calvin if you think you can” Luke scuffed and laughed at his own insult, “transmute these into Silver nitrate just remember where the elements are coming from. Air is 79% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen so you can create nitrate out of the air.” Calvin felt angry after the insult but he wanted to show Luke that he was no impostor of alchemy. Calvin clapped his hands together for a second and then pushed his hands on to the edge of the transmutation circle. It took a few awkward settings of Calvin’s focused heavy breathing and Luke’s disappointment before a blue light shined and followed the lines around the circle with in an instant. Luke’s expression was now replaced by pure surprise he did not think that some one small could accomplish so much, however he quickly replaced this surprise with smugness as if he expected more from Calvin. As the reaction ended a liquid substance appeared in the center of the transmutation circle. Luke through the dirt over it and the boy and man watched as small silver flakes developed in the liquid. “Very good” Luke congratulated as he moved to his desk pulling a bag, a piece of paper and a pen he wrote down...
[center]9KNO3 +C12H22O11[center]
“Remember this and lets try and practice. The second substance, sucrose, is very chemically similar to glucose so to create it we will subtract water from glucose this will result in half our glucose becoming this chemical. The first chemical is potassium nitrate an aqueous solution it can be made simply from dirt and air, how ever since it is aqueous will create that last. I have some sucrose but i want to see you make some from alchemy so...” Luke bent down and dumped the bag of sugar in one reactant circle and water in the other. “Try this.” Calvin clapped his hands together and pushed them to the edge of the circle just as he had done before. This time the reaction started up right away and once again Luke was surprised at the skill of this alchemist. As the reaction finished a pile of white crystals formed in the center of the reaction. Without saying a word Luke bent down and threw some dirt in the first reactant circle calvin repeated his action again and once again the reaction happened instantly and as the blue light from the alchemy circles grew dimmer smoke began to rise from the center of the circle.

“How long will this last?” Calvin coughed out from the smoke.

“15-20 minutes, but on the bright side you have just made your first smoke ball” A response came from the cloud. Although, the response was hidden, Calvin was still satisfied by the answer and thanked Luke for teaching him

[Hermit]

Thread Award

Stealth 1
Observation 1

Lore of Circus

Hello Calvin. I enjoyed the detail and thought you put into the experiment in this thread. However, I do have a few problems.

The thing you are doing that you are calling Alchemy in no way represents the actual article on the World Magic. There is even an OOC note at the top of this page that clearly states that mundane chemistry has nothing to do with Alchemy in Mizahar.

I'm glad you are making another effort at writing in Lhavit, but you might want to leave out future references to a 'criminal carnival' as such a thing would not last very long in Lhavit.

If you would like to address any questions or concerns, please feel free to PM me or post in my Office.

Good Luck,
Hermit