[Wright Memorial Library] Wanna Build A Bigger One? (Kaeson)

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

75th Day of Spring, 512 AV Wright Memorial Library, Afternoon Minerva was seated at a table in the back of the library, surrounded by a stack of books. Her broken foot, still bound in a cast, was resting on a pillow on another chair she was using for a footstool. It still ached, but it was moving along a lot faster than expected, thanks to Satevis's magical healing touch. Five days with a broken foot, and his power had healed it along as if ten days had passed. It was far from being fully healed yet, but it was enough that she could be up and about, with the aid of crutches. Though they weren't any ordinary crutches. She had a book in her lap, and was taking notes from it, working on assignments for class. The book was Reagents and Catalysts, and she was studying it to get a better idea about the art of Magecraft. She was reading up in a section in the back of the book, listing some of the effects of common reagents. Biological Reagents Blood is a commonly used reagent in the creation of weapons. The use of a certain creature's blood creates a weapon that is highly effective against creatures of that type. Some of the earliest Protohuman weapons created were often forged in the blood of men, making the blades crave to taste more of that blood. Many such weapons, especially when they have their own intellect, will attempt to urge their wielder to find more blood for the weapon to shed. Depending upon the personality of the intelligent weapon, thus urge can sometimes be overpowering, to the point of becoming a psychosis. Alternately, a sample of the crafter's own blood (or the blood of the person they are making the weapon for) can bind the item to that individual. It becomes useless for anyone else. In the case of weapons, this can vary from making it so the weapon becomes unwieldy and chaotic in the wrong wielder's hands, to actually turning on a wielder and killing them. For this reason, great care must often be taken when examining an unidentified Magecraft item that was created by another person. Many archaeologists have lost their lives to the treasures they unearthed from pre-Valterrian battle sites. She took detailed notes, considering how blood was also used in the animation process. Part of that process created an emotional attachment between Animator and Automaton. It was interesting to note that blood used in the creation of a Magecraft item could have a similar effect. She wondered what would happen if the two were combined... if a blood-bound Magecrafted Automaton shell were then animated with the same person's blood sacrifice. It would likely create an even stronger bond. This was something she'd have to experiment with.

[Kaeson Dakano]

Hands resting above his head, Kaeson walked into the Wright Memorial Library. Impressed by the vast number of books, Kaeson let out a low whistle. "How am I supposed to find the books I need in all THIS?" he wondered. While the books for his herbalism class had been easy enough to find, his Reimancy books had proved more of a challenged. Deciding the Wright Memorial Library was probably the best place to find a copy of some of the books he needed, he had come right after his class having the book names still fresh in his mind.

After several minutes of fruitless searching, Kaeson decidedly gave up and sat down. Silently sulking at the sheer vastness of the library itself, Kaeson wondered if he should bother consulting a librarian, hoping to make the search a little easier. Looking back at the massive collection of books before him, Kaeson convinced himself that it couldn't be that hard to finds the books he needed on his own...could it?

Walking alongside the many rows of books, Kaeson stumbled upon someone he thought he recongnized. Of course, the last time he had seen Tock she wasn't in...crutches? Kaeson thought they looked a little different from what he normally saw as crutches, but then again, knowing Tock she had probably designed and animated them herself.

"Tock?" Kaeson asked, probably a little too loud for a library.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Minerva continued reading about the effects blood could have on a Magecrafted item. Her eyes began to widen as she read the next section, which was getting into some rather dark things. She certainly hoped this wasn't the sort of thing she'd actually be LEARNING here! Life's Blood as a Catalyst Additional energy is often needed in order to bind together the magicks of a complex item. This can come from a variety of sources, but many of them are rare and often nearly impossible to find. This was especially true during the primitive Protohuman civilizations that first practiced Magecraft. Since materials like metagold and infinitite were often beyond the reach and capability of those early civilizations, they instead used lifeblood, often in the form of human sacrifice. It is possible for the craftsman to sacrifice his own life to complete the process, but most crafters are understandably unwilling to make such a sacrifice. A wizard's Djed is more focused with regards to such crafting, and thus his single life can serve as a catalyst. However, if uninitiated people are instead sacrificed, the quality of their Djed is not strong enough, and thus a full fifty lives must be taken in order to complete the crafting process. Many historical accounts show Protohuman cultures would sacrifice the lives of slaves, or of conquered peoples, in order to complete the creation of their greatest weapons. It is unknown how many such sacrifices were made, considering the poor state of records relating to Protohuman culture (which predated the written word). However, given the large number of weapons that are known to have been made in that time, it is clear that the sacrifices must have numbered in the thousands. This is even before counting the weapons that were crafted during the six millenia war. Minerva put the book down. She felt sick. She certainly wasn't going to be sacrificing living people in order to power her inventions. She'd just have to find out where to get her hands on some less evil catalysts. She sighed and shoved the book away, and reached for another. It was then she heard a voice calling her name. "Oy!" she said, waving to the man. She received a round of shushings from the nearby people, and she angrily flipped them off. She waved Kaeson over, reluctantly lowering her voice to a more appropriate level. "'Owzer, mate?" she asked him, shifting in her seat and adjusting her leg. She winced a bit as the flexing of her foot sent a shock of pain up her leg. She reached forward and adjusted the pillow her foot was resting on, then leaned back. "Whatcha doin' 'round 'ere, eh?" she asked. "'Omework? Studyin'? O' jus' lookin' fer some fun reads?" She patted her copy of The Adventures of Jillian Smythe, Lady Adventurer! It was quite an entertaining read, and she was enjoying it in between her studies.

[Kaeson Dakano]

Laughing as Tock preceded to flip off an entire section of the library, Kaeson sat down beside her.

"Just trying to find a couple books for my Reimancy class," Kaeson said, adding "They shouldn't be hard to find, but I guess this is a pretty big library." He sighed, he had hoped he wouldn't have to spend much time here, but it didn't look like it was going to be easy finding those books he needed for class.

Turning to Tock, Kaeson asked,"So, stranger, long time no see, huh?" It had been a while since they had seen each other, and Kaeson genuinely wanted to know what Tock had been up too. Considering the first night they had meet, Kaeson was sure Tock had some interesting stories to share.

Remembering the crutches he had noticed earlier, Kaeson said, "Looks like you've been having fun with out me, huh?" While he had been messing around earlier, the playful tones easily distinguishable in his voice, he eyed Tock's injury with concern. "What happened?" The foot injury had obviously been serious, or else why would she had needed crutches?

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

"Oy," she said, patting her injured leg, "some dumb ox down at my job done run my foot over with a wagon, 'e did!" She scowled, crossing her arms. "Gonna be WEEKS 'fore I can walk again. 'At's why I 'ad ta build 'ese..." She gestured to the crutches, which wouldn't look like any crutches he had ever seen before. The contraption was designed to fit under Tock's arms, with a metal brace across the back, and leather straps across the chest and over the shoulders to hold it in place. The crutch legs were mounted on flex joints and springs. There were four legs, and the whole contraption was standing on its own right now, motionless but stable. There were also two little metal plates on springs mounted on the ends of the wooden pieces that fit under the arms. "'Ow's Anne doin'?" she asked. She had a bit of an attachment to the little doll, considering she was sort of its mother. Anne was also the most... human thing she had ever built. Her other inventions tended to not look anything like real people. She preferred things like her animated crutches; mobile, but not what anyone would really consider 'alive'. Though if she ever got the expertise needed to make her wolf, that would be different.

[Kaeson Dakano]

Looking at the crutches, Kaeson couldn't help but admire them. They were interesting to say the least. Kaeson asked, "How do they work exactly? I mean, they walk for you that much I can see...but do you walk alongside them? Or are they carrying you around everywhere? What's their mobility like?" Kaeson asked. The crutches fascinated him, and anything that interested Kaeson was something he had to know more about.

"Anne? Great, well as far as I can tell." Kaeson smiled as he continued,"She's still walking as well as the day we animated her."

Reminiscing, Kaeson remembered how much fun it had been animating Anne. "Yeah, so it was a little tiring," he admitted to himself, but Kaeson had had a great time working with Tock. In fact, Kaeson had been wondering if Tock would be interested in working together on another project. Seeing those crutches had given him a couple of ideas tha SHOULD be doable...

"Hey," Kaeson said, eyeing the large stack of books in front of Tock. Hoping she had finished most of her studying, Kaeson asked,"How about working on another animation? It was fun working together on Anne, so why not try something...I dunno, bigger?"

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

"Oy, 'ere, I'll show ya," Minerva said. Pushing her chair back, she got up on one leg, holding the injured one carefully so as not to bang it into anything. She hopped on her good foot over to the crutches, then turned around and backed herself into them. She raised her arms up over the supports, then lifted herself into place. The height of the device allowed her to still keep her toe on the ground if need be, for balance, but once she was settled in place she could relax her foot and be held suspended a couple inches off the ground. She secured herself with the leather straps across her chest and shoulders, then placed her hands on the end caps of the wooden pieces under her arms. Once everything was set, she pressed the metal discs on each side, and the crutches began to walk. They alternated movement to maintain stability, first moving the front left leg, then the back right, then the front right and the back left. The movements weren't very smooth, since the crutches had no knee or leg joints. But there hadn't been much choice, if she wanted the whole thing to support her body weight. She guided the Automaton to walk around the table to Kaeson, grinning the whole time. While the movements were a bit jerky, it moved quick. "I figure, even after my foot 'eals, 'ere's still plenty I can do wit' 'er," she said. "The Animation is all in the main body, see?" she patted the pieces under her arms. "I attached the legs after. 'Ey ain't tied in ta the magic, so's as I can change 'em up later. Maybe build 'er up inta a big bugger what I can use at work. Mighty convenient, aye? Gettin' 'round without needin' ta walk. Maybe I'll replace the legs wit't elescopin' extensions. Won't need a ladder no more 'en, aye? Aye." When he asked about building something else together, she grinned and said, "Aye, whatcha got in mind?"

[Kaeson Dakano]

Kaeson's head followed the automaton as it quickly made its way along the table. He noted the way it jerked this way and that, seemingly forcing its legs to move. Kaeson wondered why Tock hadn't used joints for the legs, they had worked so well for Anne after all. Kaeson could only assume it would've let the automaton move more fluidly. "Maybe it wouldn't be able to support her otherwise?" he thought. Kaeson looked at Tock and back at the automaton. Tock was far from heavy, but then again, Kaeson couldn't really gauge how much the automaton could lift without testing it out himself.

Hearing Tock begin to talk, Kaeson tried to focus on what she was saying but couldn't tear his thoughts away from the automaton.

Kaeson frowned, he had thought the legs hadn't seemed as connected as they should be, magically anyway. It wasn't necessarily something he would do in an animation. Kaeson assumed that there would be risks to not completely connecting the entire body in the animation process. Sighing, he supposed Tock was right though, allowing for interchangeable parts certainly increased the usefulness of the automaton. Kaeson realized that as crutches the automaton would shortly live out its own usefulness to Tock, but as a ladder? Or a automatic wagon? Kaeson imagined Tock could use any of those for years to come.

Lost in thought, Kaeson almost missed Tock's question. Quickly responding, Kaeson taking out some ideas he had been working out. Beginning to roughly sketch on some paper he had grabbed out explaining, "Well, I was thinking about something a little bit more complex then Anne. Maybe we could do a larger Automaton, like adult size?" As he spoke, Kaeson continued to draw. Kaeson made sure to draw large circles where he imagined the joints would be going, carefully labeling them for reference. "Like, instead of just having it walk, we could try and give it a set of simple tasks to do throughout the day. Maybe opening doors or something?"

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock piloted her device over so she could peer over Kaeson's shoulder at his preliminary designs. She frowned slightly, considering what they could do. Animating something that big was still a BIT beyond her capabilities. Though Kaeson seemed a bit more experienced in Animation than she was, most likely because she had divided her magical studies between Animation and Magecraft. As far as she knew, he only studied the one. On the other hand, she was a lot more experienced in carving and gadgeteering, and would be better suited to making the body. Maybe that made them the perfect team. She could compensate for his lesser experience in construction, and he could compensate for her lesser experience in Animation. Their combined experiences might just be enough to pull it off. She unstrapped herself and hopped over to a chair, leaving the crutches standing motionless behind her. She grabbed a spare quill and started helping him with the designs. She pulled out the strip of leather tape she used for measurements, and started measuring Kaeson's arms and legs, as well as her own. It didn't occur to her whether he might be uncomfortable with her measuring him. She was on a project, and that was all she thought about. She jotted down the numbers, then measured their limbs around their circumference as well, reaching out to wrap the tape around Kaeson's limbs. Then she pulled over one of her math books and started some calculations for surface area. "Might need ta 'ave my Professor double check 'ese numbers," she muttered, referring to the book several times to check her math. She had to know how much wood they'd need if they were going to make a proper body. The kinds of motions Kaeson was suggesting would need more moving parts throughout. That meant hollow limbs, which in turn meant knowing not just the length and thickness of each limb, but other dimensions as well. She needed to know the number of square inches of surface area for the outer form of the limbs, as well as the cubic inches of volume inside, so she would know how much space there was for the parts inside. "'Ope ya know 'is one ain't gonna be no two day project," she said. "Bigger means more complex, which means a long project a'ead o' us..." While Kaeson worked on his sketches, she worked out a long line of numbers and calculations, every once in awhile adding some sketching of her own to his design in order to adjust based on her numbers. "An' if 'is's worth doin', 'e should know more'n jus' openin' doors, aye?" she added. "Should make up a proper assistant..."

[Kaeson Dakano]

Kaeson hadn't really been paying attention to Tock, but jumped a little as he felt something tighten around his leg. Looking underneath the desk, he asked "What the pet--?!". Realizing it was Tock, he asked "What are you doing?", perhaps a little too loudly. As he was barraged with Shhhhs! and a few Shut ups!s, Kaeson realized that while most people would have asked, Tock wasn't most people. Grudgingly, he stuck out his leg and arms to make the measuring go a little bit easier for her and a little bit quicker for him.

Relief filled him as Tock finished the last of his measurements. Kaeson had never been comfortable with people coming so close into his own personal space, and he was sure his face had clearly shown his discomfort.

Seeing Tock constantly referencing her math book, checking over the work she had done in accordance with his sketches, Kaeson couldn't help but note the somewhat confused look on her face. Kaeson remembered how assured and confident she had been working with Anne, but also knew Anne had been relatively simple compared to what they wanted to do now. Looking over the calculations, Kaeson let out a low whistle. "Wow," he whispered. "These are some serious calculations" Kaeson thought, trying to think what they covered. Kaeson supposed they would be mostly for calculating the surface value, but this was just an educated guess. Anne was the only experience he had ever had building a shell for an animation.

"An assistant?" he asked, a little dumbfounded. Kaeson had never considered himself able to do something that complex, but then again he had been animating for a long time now. He had given things emotions, and rough intelligence. Kaeson had embedded several commands and the 5 senses in more things then he could remembered. "I guess...yeah, yeah we could do that." he said a little bit more confidently.

"It'll be a while, of course. I don't think it should take longer then a week though, but I guess it just depends on what all we want it to do." Kaeson said, adding," Do you know somewhere we can get the parts."