Zeltiva Puppet Theatre Part III (Satevis)

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock watched as he pulled out a notebook... the same one he kept his school notes in. She frowned, wondering what he could possibly be getting out of his notebook for her. A drawing? A poem? Then he started talking about Glyphing... Wait... Was he showing her the homework he had to fix after it got soup spilled on it? That had BETTER not be the surprise! She followed what he was saying with vague understanding, having had a small bit of experience around Glyphing before. She didn't know much of anything about how it worked though. So she wondered what... ...enhance... ...her Animation circles!? Her eyes went wide, and she threw her arms around him. "Oy, Satey, love!" she said. "Yer an angel, ya are!" She pulled herself up and kissed him more passionately than she ever had yet, her heart pounding. Her boyfriend (yes, that word was now cemented in her mind), had gotten her magic as a present. She held his face in her hands as her lips thanked him eagerly and deeply, her tongue seeking his, moans of excitement escaping her. Then she pulled back slightly and planted a series of kisses all over his face, before turning right to her Animation circles, pulling him over, hopping all the way. "'Ow's it work, love?" she asked. "C'mon, 'ow's it work, let's do 'er, let's go!" She was laughing with giddy anticipation, and grabbed her chalk and a knife, ready to get started right then and there. "C'mon, love, show me!!!!" Her earlier exhaustion was completely lost, adrenaline pumping through her at the prospect of performing some sort of 'enhanced' magic. She felt a cackle building in her chest, and her eyes flashed a bit with wild determination. Tonight she got to make a new, special baby!

[Satevis]

Satevis was thoroughly taken aback by her reaction to his present...but that wasn't to say he minded it in the slightest. He leaned into her kiss, his heart beginning to beat more rapidly as he returned the gesture. A voice at the back of his mind, calm and strangely detached from the situation, spoke up. For future reference, magic is a great present. When she pulled away, he stared at her blankly for a few moments, trying to think through the sudden fog in his mind. What was he supposed to do? Right, glyphing. And why was he doing that again...? Satevis shook his head to clear it, clearing his throat as he stared down at her animation circles. "Right," he said. "...Of course.". He exhaled slowly, trying to restore the same focus that he usually maintained while practicing magic. "These might take a while to draw," he said, taking the chalk from her. "But you're welcome to sit and watch if you like." If she chose to watch, he would help her over to a chair. He studied the circles for a moment, then set the notebook open beside him and got on his hands and knees, beginning to draw. Satevis started with the 'yaq' runes, carefully drawing two runes on each of the circles. He spaced the runes so that they were exactly opposite each other, his eyes narrowed in focus as he carefully drew out every line and every curve of the glyphing rune. Once they were in place, he started working on the bridge. Satevis drew the 'korad' runes on either side of the bridge between the two circles, making the runes as close to equal as he could. He paused to rub out a misplaced line, moving over slightly as he redid that part of the symbol. Satevis paused here, sitting back on his heels and shaking out his hand as he looked down at his work. Two more runes to go. He did the 'pond' rune next, drawing it in the center of the two circles. Finally, there was daraq. These runes had to be exactly identical, so he took great care as he drew one in the center of each of the two symbols. With the last line of the daraq rune finished, the circle was complete. Satevis stood up, dusting chalk off of his clothes and wiping some of the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. He handed the chalk back to Tock, pausing for a moment to explain his design. "Glyphing is one written form of the Ancient Tongue," he explained, pointing at one of the four 'yaq' runes. "That rune represents 'yaq'. It's meant to help the Djed follow the curve of the circles, instead of continuing in a straight line and getting lost. Those two runes connecting the circles represent 'korad'. It should help tie the circles together. The 'pond' rune at the center is meant to help balance out the Djed in both circles, so that it flows evenly between them. Finally, the 'daraq' runes represent equality between animator and automaton. They should help you develop a stronger connection." He frowned, staring at the circles. "At least that's how it's supposed to work in theory, but I'm not an animator, so I couldn't actually test it. Go ahead and try it out." This was the moment of truth. Would his runes hold up against actual magic?

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

"WATCH!?" she asked, deeply offended. He did not just give her magic as a present and tell her she had to sit there and watch... Grumbling, she grabbed some paper and a quill, casting him an annoyed glare. Not completely annoyed, since she was still extremely pleased with him. But how could he expect her to sit there and watch? She declined the chair and sat down on the ground next to him, holding a wooden board in her lap to lean the paper on. She started drawing the runes he used, watching very carefully and doing the best she could to mimic them. One thing she did know about Glyphs was they needed regular replacement, and she intended to know how to do it. She leaned in close to watch the runes he sketched, copying them as precisely as she could. She might not know Glyphing, but she was pretty experienced at drawing blueprints, and as far as she was concerned, these were the same thing. Once she'd carefully sketched out each Glyph he'd used, she wrote the names next to them, and wrote down the description of what he said about each one. Then she waved him over to check her work. "Oy, love, 'ese awright?" she asked. She insisted he spend some time going over them with her, and wouldn't take no for an answer. Not until she'd resketched each of the runes several times to get them right did she start thinking about moving on to the Animation itself. After they'd reviewed the runes thoroughly, she set the pages aside and said, "Oy, Satey love, ya sure know 'ow ta make a girl feel special!" She kissed him, and looked over the Animation circles. Then a thought occurred to her. Her lips quirked up into a smile, and she looked up at Satevis, her eyes twinkling in the lamplight. She scooted a bit closer to him on the floor, her leg stretched out to keep her broken foot clear of everything. "Oy, love, I just 'ad an idea..." she whispered, biting her lip and reaching out to run her fingers gently down his chest. "'Is last puppet, 'e's gonna be yer Daddy, aye?" She giggled, scrunching her nose up cutely. She leaned her face up close to his and whispered, "'Ow'd ya like ta be the puppet's Daddy, aye?" She pulled out the third as-yet-unanimated puppet, holding it lovingly to her chest. She smiled up at Satevis, stroking his chest through his shirt, her eyes twinkling with eagerness at the idea.

[Satevis]

Satevis winced at her offended tone, mentally hitting himself. He had done so well all night, and now he had to go and say that. Now, though, he knew Tock wouldn't be content with just watching. He apologized quickly, letting her study and copy his runes as he got to work. When he was finished, he looked over at the runes that she showed him. "Those are great if you want to copy my runes," he said, frowning as he looked them over. "But if you want to do your own magic, your runes will be slightly different. It's...you could say it's like magic handwriting. Everyone has a different hand, but they all say the same thing. You need to sketch each rune yourself." The next period of time passed with her doing just that. Satevis watched as she sketched and resketched each of the four runes that he had drawn into her circle, helping her along and offering her advice where he could. Mostly, though, he sat back and watched her draw. He didn't have enough experience in glyphing to teach her much about the inner workings of it, but he had just enough to show her how to draw the runes. "You should take a glyphing class next term if you're interested in this," he said as she finished. "I've already made plans to continue my studies, so I'll be enrolling in it in the summer as well..." The idea of being classmates with Tock crossed his mind briefly, and he wondered whether that would be helpful to his magical education or detrimental. He found himself not really minding which it would be. "I'm glad you like it," he added with a smile, after she kissed him. Tampering with her animation circles had been as much curiosity on his part as it had been wanting to do something for her, but he was willing to forget that he had other motives for the moment. He looked up as she told him her idea, a questioning frown on his face. "How do you mean...?" he asked, watching her carefully. He wasn't sure what she meant by having him be the puppet's 'father'. The only way that would make sense in this context was if he were to animate the puppet himself, but she couldn't mean that...

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

She grinned wide when he seemed interested in the idea, setting the puppet into one circle, and grabbing Satevis' hand to pull him towards the other. "Ya can be the Source," she said. Then she realized that maybe he didn't know enough about Animation to understand what that meant. He had watched her do the magic for the crutches, but she had only explained some rudimentary aspects of it. "Oy, love, okay," she said, guiding him into the circle. "Sit 'ere, an' relax, aye?" She had a huge smile on her face. She had never worked with another person as her Source before. She had been someone else's Source, but that was different. She had used animals as Sources, but that was nothing like this. "We's gonna make 'is one up extra special, we is! Yer runes, an yer soul's gonna be what makes 'is soul, aye?" she nodded towards the limp, lifeless puppet. Soon it would be a living, thinking thing. She pulled out a knife as she sat next to the circles, near the connecting line. "Oy, so, it's like, I's gonna drive," she said, "an' all ya gotta do is sit 'ere, an' does what I says. I's gonna take a wee piece o' yer soul... don't worry none," she waved a dismissive hand, "she grows back right fine. It's like, when ya get cut, but ya 'eals up jus' fine after, aye? 'Cept she don't 'urt none, 'kay?" She was giggling eagerly and bouncing up and down where she sat. "Ya ready, love?" she asked, holding her hands out over the circles. "Ta start 'er off, jus' sit quiet, an' think o' somethin' real 'appy like. Somethin' what makes yer heart skip a beat..." Her heart was already beating fast, sharing something like this with him. She'd only collaborated on an Animation project once before, and that had just been work. Two Animators, sculpting a creation together. This, however, was different. It felt... intimate. She cut the palm of her hand and added a drop of blood to start fueling the Djed flow. She closed her eyes, and reached down to find that special place inside her. It was right near the surface tonight, lifted by her tender, new, and exciting feelings for this man who'd found his way into her life. She pulled it forth, and a blue glow emanated from her body. She raised one hand towards Satevis, turning to look at him with glowing blue eyes. She was seeing beyond him, into the Astral plane. She reached out, and searched, trying to find that special place inside him that would mark where his soul might lie.

[Satevis]

He listened as Tock explained what she was planning to do, glancing at the puppet she had built. A normal person would probably have been a little more cautious about the prospect of having a small piece of his soul copied and transferred to an inanimate object by another wizard, but Satevis wasn't exactly normal when it came to the arcane, and it was really no different or any more dangerous than using his own energy to fuel his spells. He was actually strangely curious to see what would result. So he nodded once in consent, stepping into the center of the Source circle. Besides, he reasoned with himself, Tock had done this sort of thing many times, and it clearly hadn't affected her...too much. He sat cross-legged on the floor inside the Source circle, taking care not to step on any of the chalk lines. Satevis listened as she explained the mechanics of it. "Ready," he said when she asked. Tock pricked her finger, and the magic started, a blue glow beginning to surround her. Satevis stared for a brief moment before he remembered that he had something else he needed to be doing. As far as his own magic went, he was firmly a personal mage. Glyphing aside, there was something about using his own energy, his own power to fuel his magic that appealed to him. But that didn't make world magic any less intriguing, and he was starting to learn that the mechanisms that channeled Djed from the environment were just as complex and interesting as those that drew it out from inside himself. But he couldn't afford to watch now. He closed his eyes, said a quick prayer that the glyphs would work, and then focused on what she had asked him. Something that brought him happiness... He thought of the Ukalas, of the two hundred or so years that he had spent in the company of the gods, and he felt his heart ache with longing. He had been happy there, yes, possibly the happiest that he had ever been, but his memories of his time there were colored by the hurt that characterized his fall. He remembered happiness, but the wound was too fresh for him to remember it without pain. He thought of his magic instead, of fire, raw and elemental, bursting into life at his fingertips, trails of silvery Res consumed in orange flames. He thought of water, delicate and graceful, coming into the world in gleaming droplets and gentle curves as they scattered around him. But his magic was a knife, both beautiful and deadly. He had killed with it once, and while the act had been justifiable self-defense, the memory of searing flames darkened his perception of his own abilities. There was a reason he seldom used fire anymore... So he thought of other things. He thought of learning, of the smell of ink and paper, of desert nights and the moon hanging over endless seas of shifting sand. He thought of questions, of endless questions with fewer answers, of books and little hidden niches in which he could read. He thought of Syna's bright warmth against his skin, of the simple joy of finding water in the desert, and of the infinite expanse of stars in the sky above. And he thought of her. Whatever was happening between them was too new, too fragile to define, and they didn't speak of it. With her, it was simply personality. Tock was spontaneous, she went with the flow of things and didn't think too much about what came before or what came after. With him, it was slightly different. He didn't speak of it out of caution, or fear. Like a candle catching fire for the first time, he worried that the slightest breath would kill it, end it before it had had a chance to start. But it was those new and fragile feelings that he brought carefully to the forefront, along with the collection of all of the other things that made him happy. He thought of her, and he thought of how he had begun to look forward to seeing her every night. He thought of the two of them painting the stars. He remembered laughing. He thought of how she had told him her name, and it was those thoughts that exposed to her the thing that she needed, the single thread that linked Satevis with Taras and with all of those that came before. The soul.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

A great deal of the process of Animation required focus. One had to reach out into the Astral plane, and touch upon the less tangible things, the Djed, the soul. It was hard to do amidst distraction. That was one reason it was always performed in a private, closed off space like Tock's home. It was also difficult to do if one was too tired, or hungry, two states that seemed to plague Tock eternally lately. She was pushing herself too hard, working full time, going to school, and trying to squeeze in time for her personal projects. Tonight hadn't been the first time she nearly passed out from exhaustion. It was made all the worse by the gnawing in her stomach from lack of food. All of these physical sensations were distractions that she had to fight past. She needed to be focused on the things that would be transferred: the spiritual energy, the memories, the capacity for movement. Making sure those things could be transferred required a clear mind. As she reached out and found the swelling energy of Satevis' soul, something happened. As soon as she touched it, his body began to glow, and somehow... the Djed began to flow. She frowned, confused, and watched as the energy flowed with shocking ease from one circle to the next. Then her eyes widened, and a grin touched her lips. The Glyphs were working. With a tired mind and the distraction of an empty stomach, she expected to have to fight harder to get the Djed to flow, but the runes for balance and equality made it so much more natural. It was like the motion of water between two containers, something Tock had been studying in her gadgeteering classes. Water naturally wanted to flow from high to low, and when two glass vials were connected with a tube, the water would equalize between them all on its own. The flow simply continued until the water level on each side was balance and even. It was like that, the flow between the circles. The addition of the runes created a natural flow of spiritual energy. The Djed wanted to flow from one circle to the other, and the yaq runes kept it from overflowing or escaping the circles. With the energy flowing so firmly, Tock was able to form the puppet's Soulcore faster than she ever had before. Before she knew it she was shaping its persona, programming it with directives for obedience and love. It was all so simple all so natural. Then she had to pause, for the next stages she needed to program from her own mind. She closed off the flow, and asked Satevis to get up so she could take his place in the circle. Once she was there herself, the flow was even easier. The concepts she needed to teach the puppet, the commands she would use via hand motions, the poses it had to know, all had to come from her own mind, since she hadn't explained the specific poses and signals to Satevis. The aid of the runes made it so the knowledge she was instilling ended up taking half the time. It was amazing. She worked through the muscle memory the puppet would need, going through the motions as the puppet mimicked her in the other circle. With the Glyphs for balance and equality, it was like she was the puppet. Normally, when she worked an Automaton through muscle motions, there was some lag. She would raise her arm, and the creation would follow with the slightest delay. But today, the motions were in perfect unison. It was like looking in a mirror (save for the fact that the puppet was 1/16 her size), her creation raising and lowering its arms, moving its legs, and following through the poses she worked through. It was well into the wee hours of the morning, past midnight, before she finished and gave the creation the final spark of life. She hopped over to Satevis and wrapped her arms around him, exhausted yet satisfied. "Yer a Daddy, love," she whispered in his ear. While she had done the programming, it was his soul that had formed the Soulcore, and his mind that the main persona had come from. There was a connection between him, Tock, and the puppet. It had a piece of his soul and mind, but her programming and style of movement. Tock clung to Satevis, tired beyond belief, and gently kissed his neck. Then she started to drift off, falling asleep right there in his arms.

[Satevis]

Satevis felt the Djed beginning to flow around him, but he didn't open his eyes for fear of breaking the connection. Instead, he took a deep breath as his body began to glow, focusing on the feeling of happiness that Tock had asked him to concentrate on. His heart beat quickly in his chest as he felt the Djed around him begin to grow, feeling the circle complete. If he had to guess, he would say that the glyphs were working. They actually worked. When Tock cut off the flow of Djed and took his place, he got up and moved to sit on the outside of the circle. He shook out his foot that had fallen asleep, watching as she completed the animation process. This time, as the Djed flow started he watched, feeling a small amount of pride run through him as the runes began to glow. They worked. Each rune worked. As far as he was considered, that meant it had been five days well spent. He watched as Tock programmed the movements into the automaton, the small puppet mimicking her movements. It was times like these when he thought that the terms 'personal' and 'world' magic were a bit of a misnomer. What Tock was doing was every bit as personal as what he did with his magic. No matter where the Djed came from, it still needed to be shaped under the hands of a capable mage. The hours ticked by, and Satevis found himself falling asleep as he sat there watching Tock. It had been a long week, and with the addition of Yvera, the puppet show, finals, and his glyphing project, he hadn't had much time for sleep. Being an Ethaefal kept him from needing food, but it didn't keep him from getting tired. He dozed off a few times as the animation process went on, waking up when he felt Tock wrap her arms around him. Satevis opened his eyes, looking over at her as she spoke. He should have gotten up then. He should have woken her up, helped her to her bed, and then left. He should have done a lot of things. But it was late, he was tired, Tock was asleep, and this whole thing just felt...comfortable. So instead of doing any of those things that would have made sense, he nodded once, holding her close. "Good to know," he replied quietly, before going back to sleep. OOCFeel free to say he changed forms in the morning while sleeping, if you want. I already said he sometimes sleeps right through the sunrise transformation.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock awoke to the familiar sensation of Bitey lying on her, his wooden legs curled up under him. Also, Naily snuggled up against her, his hammer head nestled under her arm. And the not so familiar but very nice sensation of her boyfriend next to her. Her head was on his shoulder, an arm draped across his chest, one leg lying over his. She blinked, and yawned, shifting a bit and feeling Bitey jump off her and scurry away. She was sore from sleeping on the floor. Her foot ached, as it often did in the morning since the break. Her stomach grumbled, and she realized there was no food in the house for breakfast. This thought made her groan, since the last thing she wanted to do today was fight her way through the lines of people waiting for their ration of food. She sighed and lay back against Satevis, holding him close. She didn't want to be up... Unable to get back to sleep, she looked up at his face, smiling. He looked so... peaceful. Not to mention handsome. She leaned up and started kissing his cheek gently, then slid her lips down to his neck. They'd shared something last night... something special. It made these last two or three weeks they'd spent together seem all the more meaningful. She shifted closer, ignoring the soreness in her back and the tightness in her empty stomach, sliding her leg up higher, planting kisses on his neck and ear. When the activity caused him to stir she leaned up close and whispered gently in his ear, "Mornin', love." Then she giggled and cupped his cheek with her hand to turn his face towards her so her lips could seek his. She didn't care to be anyplace else right then but lying in his arms.

[Satevis]

Satevis slowly began to stir as he felt Tock shift around and start kissing him, slowly opening his eyes. He blinked once or twice as her face came into focus, as if he wasn't entirely sure what had happened or what he was doing there. The memory of last night returned, and he smiled. "Good morning," he said in reply, lazily kissing her back. When they broke apart, he took stock of his surroundings. They were lying on her floor next to her animation circles, and judging from the sounds of movement, her automatons were also up and about. Sunlight shone in through one of the windows, reflecting against the wall and creating a mixture of light and shadow. He glanced down at his hand to confirm that, yes, he had once again slept through his sunrise transformation. He wondered vaguely what time it was, and whether or not he had a class he should be going to. Satevis shook his head, deciding that it really didn't matter. If he did miss a class, it would be anthropology, and he had been doing well in that class all of term. He looked over at Tock. "We really slept on the floor, didn't we?" he said, beginning to slowly sit up. Satevis ran a hand through his now-shorter hair, sitting against the wall and rubbing at his shoulder. He was no stranger to sleeping on the floor, but it was still a little sore. He helped Tock up as well, aware that her foot was still injured and healing. "...Did you sleep well?" he asked.