[West Wing] Now for something completely different... (Solo)

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 7th, 2012, 8:40 pm

60th Day of Spring, 512 AV

Minerva walked into her class carrying an armful of books and notes. She had some papers on a wooden board, which had a small holder attached to the upper right corner to hold a vial of ink. She was doing calculations as she walked, jotting down notes and numbers as she tried to figure out how wide the support pieces of her device would need to be. She bumped into one of her classmates and shouted, "Oy! Watch where ya goin!" The young man just grumbled under his breath at her, shaking his head. They were getting used to her, and most of her classmates had realized that arguing with her tended to make things worse.

Of course, this class only had three classmates. Gadgeteering wasn't a very common subject. All three of her classmates were also boys. Two of them, Jonas and Kyle, were friends, irresponsible pains in the arse, and did NOT take the subject seriously. They didn't seem to understand the amount of time, discipline, and care that it took to make something that actually worked.

The other was Marcus. Minerva couldn't stand Marcus. Marcus was a novice Gadgeteer with a focus on large-scale engineering, such as building windmills, aqueducts, and other complex machines. He had been clashing with Minerva's style since the first class they shared. He disagreed with her methods largely on two major points: One, that she focused too much on smaller constructs that he considered 'toys and trinkets', and Two, that he considered her designs foolish, wasteful, and having no practical purpose.

Practical purpose, she thought, muttering under her breath. 'E jus' ain't got no vision...

They all took their seats, Minerva sitting way in the back (because that was closest to the lab equipment). Professor Beadle waddled into the room, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "G-good morning, class," he said. The boys muttered their own good mornings to him, though Minerva was still working on her project, and didn't even notice he'd come in. "Let's get started, shall we? I'll be around to... err, to assist you each individually." This was what Minerva loved about this teacher compared to her others. Her other two professors tended to spend a lot of time lecturing. Not Professor Beadle. He preferred the hands-on portion, and usually got them straight to work.

He began moving around the room, reviewing the projects everyone was working on. Jonas and Kyle barely had the beginnings of their blueprints ready. Minerva didn't even want to know useless crap they were working on. Marcus was working on a scale model for a new windmill design, working out the kinks in small-scale so that, in a few seasons, he could start building the real thing.

Minerva's project, well, that was something else entirely. She had started working out the designs a few days ago, and was about read to start production.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 7th, 2012, 9:53 pm

"How are... is it coming along, Minerva?" Professor Beadle asked, leaning over her shoulder to look down at her blueprints.

"Tock," she said, biting the inside of her cheek. She hated it when he called her 'Minerva'. No one but her teachers even knew her real name, and the only reason they knew it was because it was on her registration paperwork.

Beadle didn't seem to notice her reaction. "These are good," she said, pointing out one set of drawings. She had several sets lying around, some of the overall contraption, some of the individual parts. She was carefully measuring and adjusting her sketches, making sure everything was perfectly to scale. The current drawing was of a metal piece, an inch and a half wide by a foot long, with holes in each end for screws. She was going to need a lot of identical pieces at those dimensions, so she was being extra careful.

"This handle should be a bit wider," Beadle told her, tapping on another drawing. "For stability." She looked it over and nodded, pulling out a fresh sheet of paper to start up a new set of sketches. Beadle went to check on some of the other students, and when he got back to her she showed him the new drawing, earning a nod of approval.

"And how long is the total, err... total reach?" he asked her.

"Uhh..." she paused, scratching her head. "'Ang on a sec..." She wasn't actually sure of the answer to that one. She pulled out a piece of fresh paper and started calculating. She had to consider the total number of metal struts she was using, and their final reach in an extended position. She scratched down numbers across the page, grumbling when Beadle had to remind her to carry the two, crossed the numbers out, redid them, and finally came up with an answer. "'Bout twelve feet," she said.

"Impressive," Beadle said with a nod. She grinned, and set back to work on her drawings.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 7th, 2012, 10:49 pm

The drawings took her the rest of the day. When she came into class the following day, Marcus was working on woodcarving for his scale model. Minerva started pulling out the wooden frames for sand casting. "What the hell are you doing with those?" he asked her, frowning at the frames.

"Castin', what else?" Minerva replied without looking up at him.

"You sure that's not above your head?" Marcus asked. He was leaning back in his chair, carving out little parts for the windmill's fan. Minerva scowled, not looking up. Models. He was making models. What a waste! Minerva would rather build something useful than some stupid models.

"Shove 'er up yer arse," she told him, grabbing a few blocks of wax from the lab's shelves. Marcus was about to retort when Beadle wandered into the room, late, as usual.

"Good morning, class," he said. He stopped by to check on Jonas and Kyle, who were still on blueprints. By the time he finished talking to them and made his way around to Minerva, she was cutting the wax blocks.

"How many t-total, my dear?" Beadle asked her, checking over her work.

"Twenty-six," she replied, carving out lengths of wax and lining them up.

"Hmm... hmm..." he nodded, rubbing his chin and looking over her work. "Stone molds would be most ideal for that many copies of the s-same item," he said. "But alas, budget restrictions," he shrugged, chuckling. He helped her go over the first couple of wax carvings, to make sure she had the process down. Each block of wax had to be identically proportioned, in the exact size of the metal pieces she wanted to make. Beadle guided her through measuring and cutting them until she got the hang of it, and then continued on to help the other students.

By the time she finished cutting all twenty-six pieces, Marcus was already done carving a good number of the parts for his model. "Care to race?" he asked with a smug grin. She didn't answer. "Come on," he said. "I bet I'll have my whole piece finished before you finish making all of your parts.

"Mine'll be able ta crush yours," Minerva replied coldly. That shut him up.

Once all the wax molds were carefully cut and carved, she lugged a bag of sand over to the table. None of the boys offered to help as she heaved it up onto the table. She lined up several wooden frames, setting them flush against flat stone squares underneath. Then (making a right fine mess in the process) she started scooping sand into each of the frames. She then moved down the line, pressing a wooden board into the sand to flatten it tightly. Once she had the frames prepared, Beadle came over and showed her how to add venting channels that would let the wax run out when it melted. The wax pieces were set in place and carefully adjusted, then the frames were moved over to the oven so the wax could melt out, leaving hollows in the hard-packed sand. Finally, Beadle helped her apply the treatment that would help the frames set better.

At the end of the class, the frames were set aside until the next day. The treatment needed time to set, and the frames would be ready by the next day.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 7th, 2012, 11:37 pm

The next day, Marcus wore a smug grin as he was starting assembly of his model. "Yer fans are crooked," Minerva told him, brushing past him towards her molding frames. She was still a novice carver, but it was her full time job, working with wood. She was a fair bit more experienced in it than Marcus seemed to be. He muttered curses under his breath as he checked his measurements, realizing he'd have to re-do at least one of the windmill's fan blades.

"Your 'invention' is never going to work," he told her as he grabbed a piece of wood and a chisel to start working on the replacement blade. "There's no mechanism to power the extension."

"Oy, ya peekin' at my blueprints?" she shouted, turning towards him and stepping up close to his face. "'Ose are private, 'ey are! Ya keep ya damn fool nose out!" He backed up, not used to someone getting so close in his personal space, and no doubt expecting she might hit him. Tock had a bit of a reputation for having an explosive temper, and was likely going to get herself in trouble one day.

"Is... is everything alright?" Beadle asked as he entered the lab. Tock turned and frowned at him, then glared at Marcus.

"Everythin's fine," she growled, turning her back on Marcus and heading back to her own end of the lab.

As she was walking away Marcus whispered to her, "You'd better watch yourself, if you don't want to get expelled." She bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from snapping at him. She really wanted to deck that man.

Beadle spent most of this class session with Tock. Marcus was moving along fine in his design, and despite needing to re-carve a few pieces, he was doing fine on his own. Beadle had helped him go over his plans earlier in the week, but unless he needed assistance with the actual assembly, then he wouldn't need the Professor looking over his shoulder now.

Jonas and Marcus had finally finished their blueprints late yesterday, with a great deal of help from the Professor. They were making simple little wind-up toys that didn't need any 'custom' parts, like Tock's project did. So they were able to get everything they needed off the shelves and racks that filled the Gadgeteering lab, and thus didn't need much direct assistance. Beadle just had to stop by and check on their work from time to time, pointing out if they had the wrong sized screw, or had attached a gear backwards.

Tock's parts were being made from aluminum. It was one of the most lightweight metals, being one fourth the weight of lead, and one third the weight of copper or tin. It was a softer metal than some, and wouldn't be ideal for making weapons or heavy duty tools. It would suffice for what Tock had in mind, though, since it was still a strong enough metal for supporting weight.

Beadle helped her measure out the aluminum nuggets. Another advantage of using aluminum was it was quite common, being the single most common metal among the minerals found on the planet's surface. It was therefore cheaper. The nuggets were fed into the blast furnace, over a strong blaze, fueled by wood. Aluminum was one of the few metals that could be melted over a simple wooden fire. Over the next few hours, the metal melted, running down a channel into a pot that collected the molten ore.

While the metal was melting, Tock had to check it regularly, and feed more wood into the fire, but there was a lot of time left sitting around waiting. So she used that time to start working on the next set of wax molds. She still needed to make parts for the handle, the grips, one spool, and two large gears.

She carefully carved out the wax for the molds on each piece, with regular help from Professor Beadle to make sure the measurements were accurate. Then she pulled down more wooden frames from the racks, filled them with sand, and set the wax the same as before. By the time she was finished preparing the molds and frames for the rest of the parts, the metal was ready for pouring in the first set of molds.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 8th, 2012, 12:03 am

"N-now my dear," Beadle said, sweating from the heat of the furnace, "be sure and hold that v-very carefully..." Minerva nodded, using a long pair of tongs to grip the pot that contained the liquid hot metal. Beadle guided her to slowly and carefully pour the metal into the molds, filling each one until the metal was level with the top edge of the sand. He showed her how to best angle the pot for the smoothest pour, sometimes gripping the tongs along with her to make sure she had it steady.

Once all twenty six molds were filled, he pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his face and said, "N-now, the stirring. Most important, most important. Carefully, and regularly, to ensure no voids in the material." He showed her how to use a small rod to gently stir the metal in the molds, ensuring a smooth, clean structure during the cooling process. She ended up being another couple of hours at this, moving down the line from one end to the other, then starting back at the beginning again.

Once she had the hang of it, Beadle checked on the other students. The two arses were still getting nowhere, having spent half the class talking about the latest Hurling match with their friends. They had spent so much time chatting about their stupid sports that they had hardly made any progress.

Marcus, on the other hand, was well into his assembly. Using simple wood-carved parts made the process much simpler. He had the general body of the model started, and was starting to assemble the gears on the inside.

The other students ended up leaving much sooner than Minerva, since she couldn't leave until she was sure all her pieces were cooled. On his way out Marcus stopped by to look at her work.

"Don't touch nothin!" Minerva shouted, shaking the stirring rod at him. She would seriously injure the man if he messed up her work. Of course, then she'd get expelled, and wouldn't get to finish her work.

Marcus shrugged and kept his distance. "I still say, the dumb thing isn't going to work," he told her. "No crank. No clockwork mechanisms. Nothing to make the pieces move."

"'Ey'll move," Tock insisted, keeping her eyes on her work.

Marcus laughed and shook his head. "You're a right fool, you know that?" he said. "There's no way. You need the skills of at LEAST a second-year in order to begin assembling the parts you'll need to give this thing mobility."

"Dont'cha got someplace ta be?" Minerva replied gruffly, still not looking up at him. She didn't need his judgment. She didn't need to explain herself to him. He couldn't understand her design.

"Fine, whatever," he told her, turning and walking away. "If you get your head out of your arse and decide you want to listen, maybe I can help. Your structure is actually sound, if you just..."

"I said GET LOST!" Minerva growled, clenching her fist. "When I want ya damn 'elp, I'll bloody well ask fer it, ya blimey bludger!" He just shook his head at her as he left. She forced herself to forget him, and focus on her work.

ooc :

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 8th, 2012, 1:39 am

By the next class, the first set of parts were fully cooled and ready to be used. Minerva set up the heating for the second set, melting more aluminum over the wood burning fire. While the metal was slowly melting, she gathered up the last of the wax runoff from the sand casting frames. The wax from all the molds had melted out of the way in order to make room for the metal to be poured in, but it could be collected and remelted back into blocks to be reused.

Once the wax was set back in molds to be melted, she set to work collecting her completed pieces. She gathered them up and set them aside, then worked on cleaning up the sand casting frames. Since they would be reused by other students (or herself) in the future, everything had to be returned to the way it was. That meant discarding the sand (which was filled with bits of wax and the occasional glob of aluminum from dripping), and cleaning the wooden frames off before returning them to the racks.

By the time she finished all that, and checked on the progress of the melting metal, Marcus was running his first tests on the gearage for his device. He was wearing a smug little grin when Minerva sat down with her twenty six metal pieces to begin putting the finishing touches on them. "Finally starting your work, Tock?" he asked. She ignored him. Every time he made a jibe at her, she wanted to just deck him. As much as she hated her hometown, back in Sunberth nobody would have looked at her twice if she did smack him one.

She set to work cutting off minor lines of metal left from the casting. The little bits were gathered in a pile off to the side. It wasn't much material, but on the whole, the trimmings from all the parts would add up to a lot of spare metal, which could be remelted. Then she worked to file the edges and smooth the pieces out. Considering how many she had to do, she didn't get far before the second set of parts needed to be poured and cast. Most of the filing had to get left for later, since she spent the rest of the day pouring metal into the second set of molds, and carefully stirring it as it cooled.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 8th, 2012, 2:16 am

It took Minerva another two days of careful filing and smoothing to finish getting all the parts ready to use. Everything needed to be straight and smooth; one little piece of metal jutting out from the side would jam up the entire machine. She needed to make sure there were no kinks.

By now, Marcus had the main workings of his model finished. He was putting on detailed touches now, carefully carving on the designs that would make the model look more real. He had mostly refrained from talking to her during the last two days, though he couldn't keep his mouth shut forever. He seemed to enjoy setting her off.

"So I'm almost done," he said.

"Shut yer arse'ole," Minerva snapped. The file in her hand was pretty sharp. She didn't have to do any permanent damage...

"I'm just saying, I could give you a hand," he said. "You know, to be friendly. We're classmates, after all..." Minerva kept her eyes on her work. She knew he wasn't really offering to be friendly. He was being a smug son of a bitch, and trying to rub it in her face how much further along he was in his model. A freaking model! She didn't care how detailed it was, it was useless.

Marcus got up and walked over to the table she was working at, leaning over it to peer down at her work. Except when she looked up at him, she noticed that wasn't where his eyes were looking down. "Come on," he said with a smirk. "I'm just trying to be friendly. I'm a real friendly guy, once you get to know me..." Her fist tightened around her file. She could just nick him... he looked like a bleeder...

He leaned a little closer, no longer even trying to pretend like he wasn't staring right down her top. He smirked wider and said, "You look tense. Ever had a real man loosen you up?"

That was it. "Why, ya slimey, rotten, no good!" she stood up and grabbed his shirt collar, ready to hurt him.

"Students! What is going o-on?" Professor Beadle asked, looking up from the other table, where he was helping Jonas and Kyle. He hurried over to them, putting a hand on each of their shoulders to push them apart. "This is a laboratory!" he said, stammering and sputtering a bit. "Y-you should both... g-get back to work!"

Minerva dropped her file on the table and stalked off. She needed some time to cool down.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 8th, 2012, 3:03 am

oocSince this thread is skipping ahead a day or two at a time, this section should be around the 65th. The astronomy tower is fully restored on the 67th. So I figured on this day, the Geomancers would probably be at work on the repairs.

"Everything alright, my dear?" Beadle asked, stepping up next to Minerva. She was overlooking the downed astronomy tower, and watching the mages there at work. Watching people working on a project was almost as soothing as working on one herself. She would have preferred to be at her own work, but if she picked up a chisel or file right now, Marcus was going to get stabbed.

When she didn't answer, Beadle cleared his throat, and shuffled his feet for a moment. He wasn't really good with people. "Are you and M-Marcus... not getting along?" he asked. Minerva's hands tightened into fists. Beadle sighed, and took off his glasses to clean them with a handkerchief.

"You know, Minerva," he said, which just made her angrier. She hated her first name. "You don't have to work with him. It's a rather large lab... plenty of room for you to... to avoid each other..." He licked his lips and scratched the back of his balding head.

Minerva watched the rubble being moved about below, picturing throwing Marcus down on the rocks. "'E's a worthless oaf!" she said, clenching her teeth. "'E thinks 'e's so 'ot, buildin' 'at stupid little model..."

"Well," Beadle replied with a shrug, "he plans to go full scale, once he--"

"I don't give a rat's arse!" Minerva shouted. Beadle coughed, shuffling about uncomfortably. Like most people in the city, he wasn't used to dealing with someone who was as explosive as Minerva. Times like these were the only time she missed living in a place where no one cared if she smacked someone around... except, of course, for the parts where she had been the one smacked around. Thinking of her father just pissed her off more.

Several more minutes of silence passed, while Beadle tried to think what to say. This sort of thing wasn't really his area of expertise. "I'll try my best to... to keep him from bothering you," Beadle said. "As long as... as you p-promise to control your temper..." Minerva sighed, and nodded. She didn't want to get expelled.

She wondered if it would count if she beat him up outside of class...

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 8th, 2012, 6:24 am

During the next class session, Minerva started on assembly.

Marcus was leaving her alone today. She didn't know if it was because Beadle had talked to him, because he was afraid of getting stabbed with a chisel, or because he was just bored of messing with her for now. Either way, the quiet was nice. He was adding purely decorative touches to his model now... a lining of green cloth around the base to give the appearance of grass, and little tiny carved pieces of wood that looked like trees and shrubs. It seemed like a complete waste of time to Minerva... the gears and such inside were the important parts.

She barely glanced up when she saw him wind up the windmill, and set it in motion. The back side of the model was hinged, so the interior of the small building could be viewed. With the windmill spinning, using the winding mechanism to simulate the wind's effect on the fan, the gears and clockwork parts inside started to spin. A tiny wooden wheel inside spun across the milling surface. In a real windmill, grain would be placed there, to be ground into flour by the wheel.

Minerva scoffed. Her design was better. She would prove it.

All day today was spent on assembly, though all said and done that was by far the easiest part of the overall process. The main foot-long metal pieces were lined up and screwed together, thirteen on each side, in an alternating X pattern. She screwed on little bolts and connectors through the holes in either end, attaching all the pieces systematically. In the end, she had a line of metal that shrunk down to a mere nineteen and a half inches when the device was pressed together, the metal strips all lining up in a neat little row of vertical strips. Yet when the ends were pulled apart, the strips stretched out in wide X's, until all the pieces were nearly horizontal, and the entire thing stretched out twelve feet. Once pressed back together, the strips folded neatly into place, collapsing back to the closed form.

She carefully assembled all the parts, keeping the bolts just a bit loose until she was sure everything was aligned right, then tightening them all firmly. After that, one end of the line of strips was attached to the handle, along a slot that would allow the pieces to slide. When closed, the two end strips had their tips a foot apart, but when the device extended, those end tips would be a mere inch apart. The handle had a long slot down the front to allow the bolted in strips to slide together and apart.

A similar setup was mounted at the other end, with a slide that would allow the opening and closing movement. Except instead of a handle, there were two flat pieces of metal there on a hinge.

Large, flat gears were attached to both the handle and the other connection at the far end. These had a chain looped between them, which ran down the length of the extensions. The metal spool was attached to the handle as well. When the device was closed, the spool had the majority of the chain length looped around it. It then fed through the first gear, across to the second, then looped through the second back to connect at the first. This design allowed the chain to keep both gears turning in synch, unspooling the chain when the extenders stretched out, and respooling it when they were drawn back in.

The gears on each side were attached to clasps that would shift the position of the metal strips, pulling them closer together during the extension, and widening them during retraction. So the gear would spin one way to unfold the metal strips and extend the arm, and the other way to fold the strips back together and pull the arm back in.

It took the rest of the class, with Professor Beadle helping her work out any jams and helping make adjustments to be sure all the parts moved smoothly, but finally she was done the construction. Marcus decided at this point that he needed to speak up again.

"It looks fine when you pull it apart by hand," he said. "But what good is it? You need someone pushing from each end to fold it back together. You need a crank."

Minerva just got up, carrying her invention with her as she walked away. She didn't say a word to him. Technically, he was right. Without a crank or anything else to turn the gears, the device was seemingly useless.

What he didn't know, was that the device was going to be powered by Animation.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 8th, 2012, 5:51 pm

Beadle couldn't help her with the Animation process. He was an engineer, not a mage. As far as she knew, he didn't know the first thing about magic. There were others in the University who did, and she could have gone to talk to Professor Claudia, her Animation professor. But she didn't think it was necessary; this invention wasn't going to be truly sentient, it didn't need to know any complex skills, and it didn't require any fine-tuned sculpting of a soul. All it needed was the most basic Life Principle, and the ability to turn the gears and grip the clamp. She could do that on her own.

She took her new toy home, and got to work. First she had to clear everything off the floor space. I needs me a proper lab... she thought. She could have used the University lab, but Professor Claudia would have insisted on lecturing her for ihours about the type of soul she was making, before she was allowed to begin. She'd rather just do it at home.

Most times, the Animation circle was fairly small. But she needed to make sure the device could extend to its full twelve foot length, and that meant a larger than average circle. She had to lug all her furniture into one corner, piling her table up on top of her bed, and dumping her other possessions on top of that. She needed a huge chunk of the floor.

Once the space was clear and the floor was cleaned, she etched the circles in chalk, and securing her device in the larger one. She nailed some wooden pegs into the floor so that she could slip the handle of the device over them, ensuring that it would remain in a fixed position even when extending. She then manually extended it and retracted it a few times to make sure it had plenty of clearance, before she settled in to start.

A drop of blood, a few moments of meditation, and she found that place inside her own soul, the part of her that gave birth to her inventions. Sitting cross-legged in the smaller circle, the spiritual energy flowed outwards, causing her body to glow. She stretched her mind across the space between the circles, seeking out her creation. Getting the spiritual energy to flow required making a connection, and after that, patience. Once the connection was established, the energy wanted to flow, like water pulled by the force of gravity. She just needed to guide it. Slowly, a globe of energy expanded from her, drawn from her own soul, and dropped down to the construct to splash into it, pulled inside.

The Persona was easy to construct. This invention didn't need a detailed personality. It was simply designed to respond to basic stimuli. She gave it a directive of loyalty to her, and programmed it to respond only to authentication by touch, requiring a certain grip placement on the handle. Someone who held it the wrong way wouldn't be able to get it to work. This would prevent anyone else from getting their hands on it and using it wrong, unless she instructed them on which grips the device would respond to. Contact at certain other points would command the device to move; a finger pressed here would command it to expand, a finger there would command it to retract, and a thumb sliding along the back of the handle would command the gripper to open or close.

The next morning she began training it to move. The small object only weighed about ten pounds total, which is why she used aluminum in its construction. That made it easy for the parts to move, and she only had to teach it a few basic motions. She held her hand up, the glow surrounding it mimicking the glow on the creation, and she began working through the movements. She twirled her finger in a clockwise motion, as if turning a wheel, and the gears on each end began to turn. The motion moved the clasps that pulled the ends of the metal strips inward and horizontal, the criss-crossing design of the strips causing the entire length of it to expand. The chain uncoiled, holding the gears in synch with each other. It made the animation process easier; training the gears to move in perfect synch would have been a lot harder if they were unconnected, but with the chain linking them, it was natural design for them to move as one.

She twirled her finger the other day to work the gears through the retraction, then worked through the motions several more times until it was moving a bit more smoothly. Then she moved on to the gripper, opening and closing her hand multiple times to get the gripper to mimic the motions.

Finally, her toy was ready to be awakened. She named it, "Grippy," and smiled at it, snapping her fingers. The final life spark flew from her fingertips into the device, Awakening it, then the glows faded.

Laughing with giddiness, she snatched up her new baby and held it in both hands, aiming the gripper away from her. "Oy, let's go show ya off, aye?"