Homunculus Trials: 1-A

[Rayage]

3rd Spring, 511 AV The nuit stalked his laboratory ideas seeming to spill out of his very being. The confidence and authority that he showed walking in his laboratory seemed to rival that of a king when he would walk amongst his subjects. The pride in his work was evident and the next stages of the game were critical. His steps would make a soft noise as they would make contact with the floor under them, each step producing a slight echo in the atmosphere. Pride was a thing that he didn’t lack, and confidence in what was to come was absolute. Nothing was holding him back this time, and nothing will keep him from accomplishing what he came here to do. Pacing back and forth he muttered to himself the equations that he had come up with after days of meditating on them, after days of thinking everything over in his head, days of pacing, endless pacing, has lead him to this point. He furthered his views on the creation of homunculi and depending on how this next experiment goes, how this next critical phase in the testing of a hypothesis goes, determines what exactly goes into his report that he will send along to the others higher up. Mainly them being his master and Qiao. Optimistic about his thoughts he looked at the alchemy circle with a bit of disdain. There was so much to be done before the actual transmutation. So much to do and so little time, yes, so little time when you are trying to live up to your rather bold promises. Though it bothered him little because he knew in the end he will end up getting exactly what he wants, and that is knowledge, but not only that. Power comes with knowledge and that was what he was really after. So was knowledge so hard to ask for? Was it so hard to obtain? Well, if you’re basically reinventing the creation of homunculi then, yes, it is a lot to ask for, and there is a lot at stake, but the results outweighs the risks. For advancement of not only himself but of Sahova as a whole he will strive forward with his research. Advancement is what this place needed, and that is what it was going to get. As promised he will provide the force to get the island moving again. There was no time for hesitation, no; there was work to be done. Turning from the circle he walked, oh so slowly, oh so calmly, collected to the small cages that were in a dark corner of the laboratory. Three were their number and within them were held two rabbits and a lizard, each in their respective cages. The trapper golems that he had inquired about were much more efficient than he had expected, each of the specimens being of average size for their species. Then again, he smiled, why should he be surprised? This is Sahova after all. Taking a step back he bent down to further observe the animals that were slowly rotting away in his lab. They had come to him healthy, but after such a long and tedious imprisonment they were beginning to look a bit off. Though only a bit. Health mattered little, or more than the nuit would like to admit. ”Today is a wonderful day.” He smiled at them, his teeth rotting from the use of the body. Though it has been a good body, nothing lasts forever, ”Yes,” he talked to them, ”A beautiful day for Alchemy.” with that he let out a laugh before stepping further away from the cages. ”Though,” he frowned, ”I don’t think we will get to that today.” he shook his head as if in shame, ”There is so much to prepare you for.” he looked towards the lizard. ”Yes there is” He confirmed to the creature. Amused with himself he reached a hand out to touch the cage with the lizard in it. ”You have to be conditioned.” his voice was ripe with an emotion attune to glee. The hand setting on top of the cage he slowly opened and reached in the cage with the other hand grabbing the lizard. Once firmly held in the hand he retracted it taking the lizard out of the cage. Smiling at it he started to concentrate. He needed to prep this lizard for taking on lots of djed at once. So, today he thought he would start small. Small as in using his personal djed, being no mage of personal magic his reserves of djed were rather meager to say the very most. Though with time he was sure, and with practice of the art of hypnotism he will gain more tolerance and build up more of a pool. Its all about adaption, the lizard, the body, and even the soul. Adaption leads to improvement which leads to even greater things to come. That was a cycle, a circle, and it seemed life was filled with them. Feeling the flow of djed through himself and then out his hands, like a small trickle it flowed out of him and into the creature he was holding. It squirmed at the invasion of foreign force and wiggled and tried so desperately to escape the nuits grasp, but it was far too late for that. Yes, the nuit, even though he wasn’t the strongest thing in the world, kept ahold of the lizard and watched with some amusement as it tried to escape only prompting him to turn up the force. Commanding the djed further he let it out faster and more intense. He wasn’t planning on casting today and so he could afford this small price. The djed seemed like it was hurting the creature, but the pain was met with a blind eye, a cold shoulder of just not caring. The nuit had a goal and he was taking a step, even a small one, towards its accomplishment. Nothing was going to stand in his way, and a little pain on the creatures part was far from his concern. A little pain was worth it. It was worth it to him at least. Pain was nothing, nothing compared to his goals, compared to his vision, to his future. He needed this small step to walk toward the grand goal. The acquisition of power, of respect, of knowledge was not a sprint but a marathon. There are a bunch of small steps to get to the larger goal, and this entire process, this entire experiment is a small step leading to the bigger goal, the ultimate goal: Getting Sahova battle ready with creatures that can rend through armor, but more importantly things can be controlled. He had a couple ideas, but all that will come later, much later, he has to focus on the task at hand. It felt good to have a purpose beyond modifying life, bettering it. Yes and this goal was much more entertaining. Feeling the lizards movements slow, perhaps from being exhausted by all the squirming it did, he looked at it. Stopping the djed flow from his body to the lizards he frowned. He could still go for some time, but it seemed he had to be directed by the lizards limits. Living things were so fragile, that was one thing you will find out when practicing Alchemy in the hopes of bettering what is already here. Hands moving to the cage he dropped the tired thing in. ”You just rest up, ok?” he gave it a decaying smile before eyes looked to the two captured rabbits. They needed prepped too, but only one needed ‘special’ treatment. Pointing a finger at one of the cages he moved it then to the other cage and back again as if trying to decide the best one to pick. The weakest one would be the best. He would need the strong one as a fount. The weak one will be the filter. It wasn’t like it mattered to much, but the stronger one had a better chance of surviving here until the transmutation date, and until everything was in order. He didn’t want to waste a chance by killing and skinning the stronger one. Though, how would he choose? The answer was obvious, Auristics.

[Rayage]

Even though he was not the best at the art he could still tell something about the auras that he was presented with. Of the things that he could tell he was sure of his ability to at least discern which one was stronger; that much has to be at least somewhat obvious. Focusing the djed now to his eyes he stared at one of the rabbits as the aura slowly came into view. Being untrained really in this art the arua itself seemed translucent, vague, weak. Curse him, and his inability to be really great at personal magic. Curse these untrained eyes. Frustration building as he stared at the creature he watched as it looked at him curiously as if asking what he was doing. Though they could not talk sometimes things were obvious by the look in their eyes, and made even more so by the aura that was coming into clearer view. Focusing even more he sighed as the aura seemed strong enough, but that wasn’t enough to make an accurate comparison. No, he had to study it, watch how it flowed around the creature, look for any sign of weakness, and looking past emotions. The colors blue and gold seemed to swirl about the creature in an elegant dance; it was amazing what beauty that this magic brought onto its caster. The colors swirled, and danced, and became one turning black at the outer edges of the aura, a sure sign of something, but of what Ray could only guess. Aura reading was an art that took much personal experience and training, something that the nuit lacked. He had about zero experience in reading aruas and guessed the art was something much more instinctual, something primitive, something that logic couldn’t perceive. Perhaps that is why he lacked so much in this skill, and was having a hard time finding what he was looking for. He had given up his instincts for logic many, many years ago. Shaking his head in frustration he could feel the draining effect that this prolonged awakening of the art was having on him. Taking final notes on the aura and the initial thoughts that popped up when he viewed it he let the djed flow die. Taking a couple of exhausted steps backwards he closed his eyes, darkness, and just stood there for a moment. ”Darn this skill…” he muttered to himself before opening his eyes again and looked at the rabbit, ”Well, one down, one to go.” he then looked at the other rabbit whose fur was deathly white. Forcing the djed back to his eyes he knew he could only observe the being for but a moment, and then compare it to what he got from the other rabbit. Five hundred years of magic and one will quickly find and be able to recognize the signs of overgiving. He never was much of a personal magic wizard; most of his djed came from his dabbling in the art of Hypnosis. Sending a bit of the djed to eyes he awakened the aura vision again and stared at the rabbit. With the swirl of colors coming into display again he observed how they seemed to be like smoke, stronger at the animal and as it traveled away from the being it got weaker and weaker gradually fading into reality, unseen even by the Auristics. Taking note and gradual feeling that came to him when he looked at the rabbit; he felt weakness, even more so than the one before. Smiling, that was all he needed, and he would stop the flow of the djed. He would save the last of his djed for something important if that should arrive. Even though he wasn’t the best at aura reading and what everything meant he was glad he could at least get what he was looking for. Noting that he would have to practice that more, but he was hesitant to because how limited his djed was, and the vision usually tired him out more than what it was worth. Taking the weakest of the pair of rabbits out of the cage he walked over to one of the tables and quickly ended its existence. Everything needed to be just perfect for this transmutation. Nothing could go wrong, no, not when so much is at stake… Turning away from the table he walked to the Alchemy circle and looked down at it. Soon enough everything will go just as planned. Five hundred years of research and development have gone into this act and if, no when, it succeeds many more will follow this rather simple example of modified life. Soon enough everything will be perfect, and perhaps he could prefect the body he was in, but the moment for such thoughts was not now. He had to focus on the task at hand, but first the lizard needed rest. Everything else was prepared and set up. Standing over the circle he clasped his hands together in front of him. ”This time will be different.” he told himself, bending down a reaching hand caressing the keystone as the art itself held so many memories for the rather old Alchemist. So many transmutations, so much effort, so much thought and energy went into bringing him to the point where he was now, so much loss, pain, suffering of not only himself but of others as well. Yes the circle represented his life, his sad tragic life as a human once so long ago, and even though he tells himself and others he has forgotten what it was like to be human the memories still hunt him and the oh so real feeling creep up on him when his guard is down. He was human and in a way never stopped being one. Shaking his head he stood up and turned his back to the circle going over to a chair, his personal throne by his desk, he sat. Closing his eyes rest was what everything needed, and careful thought would be needed before continuing on this path. Slowing his thoughts down to but a trickle he focused on the next steps he would have to take: Skinning the dead rabbit, checking on the lizard, prepping the lizard once more and letting it rest once again. Then and only then with the two days of preparation everything will go just as planned, a small smile creeps on his face as he mentally envisioned what the product of all his hard work will be. A lizard transmuted with two rabbits, one being on the fount side and the other on the filter. Of course there was an order to all this madness, all this thought. The live rabbit will be on the fount side and therefore giving its properties to the lizard, which has been conditioned to djed strain, and the dead, skinned rabbit will be on the filter side taking away all the unwanted traits, such as the extra muscle, tendons, ligaments, basic bunny shape, and the fact that it was dead. Though even the brightest of alchemists knew one cannot prevent death with a transmutation. He would have to be crazy to consider that. In fact, the transmutation might kill the lizard like it has done with the numerous other experiments he has performed in the past. All that was desired was the fur of the rabbit, though there was seemingly easier ways to get this property on the lizard this was the path that was chosen. Leaning further back into his chair he envisioned the transmutation, everything perfectly in place and everything going according to plan. He saw himself kneeling at the keystone and sheading his precious ichor on it; with the blood toll being paid he was given control of the djed of the circle. He felt the connection as if he were doing it right now. Having done so many transmutations he has memorized the connected feeling one has with the circle and feeling of absoluteness it brought with it, and the will that it takes to move djed fast enough to get any reasonable reaction. All of this knowledge acquired though alchemy, and with it he will be modifying life, he will play with his god: Alchemy. Feeling, hearing, seeing the transmutation play out in his head he grinned and the grin turned into laughter as he could feel, though his mind, the reaction reaching its peak, the artificial high of an active imagination engulfing him as he saw the process through completion. Taking his hand off the keystone he watched as the djed rushed towards the center completing the reaction, and now all that was left was to see the product. The laughter dying down his eyes snapped open. He was unaware how long he had been engulfed in his little fantasy but now wasn’t the time for rest. Hand grabbing some ink and the other reaching for a paint brush among the scattered items that lay about the laboratory he stood up renewed with his vision. It was imperfect, it was not complete. If he was going to truly focus on this reaction he would need some extra help, and what better to help focus a reaction, and therefore a mages mind than glyphs?

[Rayage]

Turning back to his desk the ruffling of papers could be heard as he shuffled though the chaotic mess that accumulated and grew on his desk from his short stay here. The papers were from the other alchemists past experiments that he had been reading up on, some hand-made books carefully picked apart for the useful and valid information for surely the nuit must know some secret that made him so valuable to Qiao. He wanted to share in the now dead alchemists knowledge, but that was kind of hard considering most of the ‘research notes’ read like some childs story book. Encrypted of course and in some sort of code, he wouldn’t expect anything less, but it has also hindered his progress in finding the information. Knowing there must be blank paper on the bottom just covering the fine wood of the desk pages of the research notes of the long dead alchemist, at least in Rays perspective, were sent scattered along the floor. They were too much of a bother to sort through when he knew his objective was under them. They were better that way, out of the way at least, and he could always pick them up later. They were beginning to frustrate him anyways. Though, he smiled to himself, he didn’t need to justify his actions to himself. Finding scattered sheets of blank parchment he quickly grabbed them up along with a bottle of ink and a quill and made his way to the circle. Placing a sheet of paper on each of the charges within the alchemy circle he threw what leftovers he had grabbed aside, right now the experiment and its proceedings were much more important than the state of his laboratory. Though, of course, it will all be quickly cleaned up after words. Dipping the quill in the ink he set to work crafting each glyph to be unique and one to really catch attention and focus on. Each had a particular style to it. One was swirly and eccentric while another was blocky and symmetrical and yet another seemed to be a mesh of lines that had no order and seemed to go wherever they pleased and finally the last one was just the simple Nadar-Canoch word Djunn, but all the letters were formed into one symbol. Each glyph was carefully crafted, the lines as straight as the nuit can make them and the entire process took a considerable amount of time. Satisfied with his glyphs he took a step back to observe his circle, certainly the paper would not get in the way and neither would the ink. Plus one minus one is nothing and the same could be said with two. Anything minus itself was nothing, but anything minus only part of itself still has what was not taken away. That was the basis of the whole experiment itself, but with a little twist, one that only alchemy can provide which is the transplanting of whatever is left form the equation onto subject in the middle. Everything was falling into place. Rubbing his hands together he turned to the cages and dropped his hand to his sides. Nothing was going to stop him now. He has come so far and everything was going oh so perfectly. Reaching into the cage with the lizard, it was still exhausted from the treatment that it had got earlier; he picked it up without much trouble and set it in the middle of the Alchemy circle. The poor thing just sat there, unmoving, weary, but it has had enough of a break. Going back he did the same with the remaining live rabbit, but placing it carefully in the position of the fount at one end of the circle. He was aware that he had altered his plans just a little bit, but he found that he couldn’t wait any longer. Was this haste going to ruin him? It was a chance that he was willing to take. Going over the dead rabbit that was till laying on the table he turned it over on its belly and grabbed his knife. He carefully made an incision down the ventral side of the creature and then made two smaller incisions turning the line down the middle of the creature into what resembled a capital ‘i’. He then tugged on one ‘corner’ of the skin (Where the top of the I and the line to make it look like a T intersect) peeling it upwards quite forcefully, because skinning something wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Seeing the connective tissue between the skin and muscle he quickly severed it while at the same time being careful. He wasn’t the best at this, but he knew how to do it. Taking away more connective tissue that bound muscle and skin together he would tug some more on the skin putting into light more and more tissue, more and more white fibrous strands to be cut away to lose the skin from the animal. He would continue the laborious task until the animal was completely skinned and all that showed was the red layer of muscle freshly dead. Grabbing the skinned rabbit he placed it in the filter place of the circle. Not minding the mess on his hands he proceeded to the keystone and dropped to his knees. This was it. All this planning comes down to this reaction. Wiping one hand on his cloak he deemed it clean enough, for everything can be cleaned after the experiment, and bit one finger. Precious ichor dripping out of it he placed the finger it lightly on the keystone before pressing his entire hand to the stone.

[Rayage]

Feeling the connection to the djed, to everything in the circle he placed his other hand on the keystone. Now it all comes down to this. He slowed his mind and focused on the circle, and on the symbols within it. Making a mental map of the circle with each charge represented by the symbol he drew he found that it was easier to make a connection and command the energy with a mental visualization. Seeing the djed in his mind he saw it flow from one glyph to the other, and he willed this to happen in reality, slowly the djed started to move, it started to follow his mental visualization, his commands. The energy felt dreary, sleepy, and didn’t have much oomph behind it. Though he had to remind himself that it was just getting going, it would take a while for it to really feel alive. For now he had to concentrate. Trying to just focus on the glyphs that he had drawn he pushed all other reality out of the picture. He couldn’t mess this up, no, he had spent too much time setting up the reaction and mentally preparing for it among other things. Chimes passed and it still was a trickle, but he wasn’t in any hurry. He was going to get it right. As time passed by he would will the reaction to speed up, alchemy was not a race, but it was about control and mental discipline. Though the discipline and control you can make the energy go as fast as you want around the circle that is given enough time. Chimes turned to Bells as he kept his mental grasp on the subject at hand, as he slowly brought the power up to speed and as his influence over the circle was absolute, at least as absolute as one could get at his current skill level. Oh, so slowly the speed picked up, and a smile broke out on his face, this was it, all his work… It was going perfectly just as planned, just as envisioned. Soon the energy was at speeds that Ray had never before met, and it was thanks to the glyphs, to the extra focus that he had acquired though their use. The djed was spinning and one could actually feel a current of air as it whipped around the circle, sending the papers discarded on the floor into random directions and Rays own cloak flying around him. He didn’t let that distract him though as he would cut decide to end this transmutation here and take his hands off the circle willing the high velocity energy to the center and into the lizard. A flash of light would meet the wizard as he fell backwards, a result from all the djed trying to enter the small being at once. Dazed by it he blinked a couple times, did it work? Another blink to get the light out of his eyes he laughed a little as he saw what he had created, but was it alive? Quickly scrambling over to a pale of water he snatched it up and went over to the small creature and threw the water on it. He wasn’t sure if the water would absorb some of the excess djed but it was worth a try; hints why he did it. It moved. Ray froze. The movement was just barely one if one at all. Had he imagined it moving? Has he finally gone mad? A careful hand reaching towards it he scooped up the white furred creature. If it was indeed alive it needed to rest. Walking over to his desk, unminding of all the papers that were scattered about the lab thanks to himself and the experiment, he sat the creature down on it and sat down in the chair itself to better examine it. The creature still kept its lizard body, the small lizard frame, and even the lizard looks, but what was different about it was instead of the scales it carried in the beginning there was white rabbit fur. The entire thing was covered in white rabbit fur. Looking back at his past experiments he noted that in earlier attempts the entire subject wasn’t covered, but then again in past experiments the surface area of the subject was much bigger than the surface area of the charges. So one is to assume the lizard was covered in this experiment, in one go no less, because the surface area of the rabbit fur exceeded the surface area of the lizards scales. More tests will have to be done to determine truth to this statement. One life was created, one question answered only brought up even more. A mixture of emotions rose up in him, happiness, joy, but also disgust and confusion, the feeling of accomplishment… The small lizard creature moved again, this time more pronounce. Jumping out of his chair he smiled and laughed, ”Its alive.” he screamed, followed by another laugh. The laugh was dry, long, drawn-out and seemingly overdone, but then it just stopped. He sat down and put an elbow on the desk and rested his face in the hand. ”You sir, are the first one to survive such a procedure of mine.” he smiled down lovingly at it as any creator would at one of its own creations, ”And you will be Homunculus 1-A” he named the lizard-rabbit while grabbing for a piece of paper to start writing down the experiment in full and the result: Homunculus 1-A.

[Panna Cotta]

RAYAGE Hypnotism 1 Observation 2 Auristics 2 Research 3 Glyphing 1 Meditation 2 Alchemy 5 Lore of Mad Planning Lore of One step at a time Lore of Lizard Subjects Lore of Rabbit Subjects Lore of Skinning a Rabbit Lore of performing alchemy in a laboratory Lore of conditioning and/or preparing the ubject Lore of the feeling of success OTHERS: Homunculus 1-A - The result of joining a lizard and a rabbit through alchemy; a lizard with fur instead of scales. The points in research is because I could not think of a skill that involves "planning" - there was a great display of method and cautiousness in these posts. Feel free to contact me should you come up with an alternative/ something of equivalent. I am giving you full points in Alchemy because I like the technique of using other magic to augment your main skill. That and you displayed it quite perfectly! Now if you can only make a hundred more... haha. I kid.