Minds of Their Own (Zerren)

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on September 7th, 2012, 1:43 am

4th Day of Autumn, 512 AV

"You're sure you don't want the crew to help?"

Tock gave her boss a weak smirk. She was still feeling rather drained, but she was putting on a strong front. Mostly because she was tired of people asking her if she was all right. "My babies is gonna build it," she said in a voice barely above a whisper. She didn't make eye contact with him.

He gave her a simple nod. So long as her personal problems didn't impact on her work, he tended to mind his own business. He also knew how futile it was to argue with her (with the exception of times he was able to pull the 'Because I'm your boss and I said so' card). "I'll see you down at the office tomorrow then," he said, dismissing any further questions about her personal projects or emotional state.

Her coworkers (though today she was, briefly, their 'client' rather than a fellow worker) finished unloaded the building materials and supplies she'd purchased. She'd bought everything through Jacques partially out of loyalty, partially out of convenience, and partially because he knew where to get quality materials. Once everything was unloaded, her new plot of land was filled with wood, stone, brick, and other miscellaneous building materials for what was soon to become her new workshop. Her and her babies (including a few new Automatons she planned to make to aid in the construction) would be busy building the new workshop over the next few weeks. While she could have simply hired her coworkers to help build it, rather than simply delivering the materials, she wanted to do the entire thing herself. Her, and her babies. Not only did she believe that the personal tough was important, but she also planned to Animate certain parts of the building as she went along. There would be automatically opening doors, moving sections of wall, defenses against intruders, and anything else she could come up with. The workshop was going to be alive; perhaps not the entire building, but a wide variety of individual components would have minds of their own.

As soon as the work crew left, she got started. She set Diggy to work on the foundation of the new building, the Animated shovel rolling back and forth on his own will once she'd marked the area and given him his directions. Naily, the Animated hammer, rolled after his younger (though substantially bigger) brother, following him around like a loyal puppy. Meanwhile her wooden spider, Bitey, was crawling over some of the stacks of supplies, his metal fangs gleaming in the morning light.

Tock herself stood among all the supplies, hands on her hips, looking around and wondering where to begin. She needed to build a more advanced helper. Her current babies were made for digging, nailing, cutting, and chopping; but she didn't have any that were designed for constructing.

She lifted a brick off the pile of new supplies, turning it over in her hands, the gears in her mind turning as she contemplated designs.

Ledger :

by **Zerren Verre** on September 12th, 2012, 1:31 am

Zerren wandered along in the shadows of the Zeltivan street, prowling in the shadows as a panther. He walked slowly, constantly looking over his shoulders at the rather precariously balanced shirt and pants he had draped across his back. This is so inconvenient, I can’t concentrate on stalking anyone because I keep thinking that my clothes are going to fall off and I won’t notice… At least they’re black so I don’t have to worry about them being more visible than I am. Zerren normally wouldn’t have concerned himself with the clothes, but he had realized that morning that there were a lot of places a cat couldn’t go in Zeltiva, and if he wanted to stalk a person into a building to find out what they were doing, doing so stark naked would ruin the game almost as fast as if he walked up to them and snarled.

Zerren paused as he wandered, seeing a large crowd of people unloading materials from a large cart across the street. I wonder what’s going on… Most of the reconstruction was finished on the houses damaged in that huge storm, so this must be something new… I shall find out what’s going on. Zerren slowly allowed the clothes to slip off his back, and he nudged them as close to the house he was standing next to as he could. Then, having stored his clothes relatively safely, he moved a couple more houses down before darting across the street. Mentally, Zerren reviewed the rules he had set up for himself when stalking people. Rule number one; never directly approach the prey across open ground. Even if they aren’t looking at you when you start, there’s nowhere to hide should they randomly turn. Rule number two; stay out of line of sight as much as possible, stick to shadows and peer around corners.

As Zerren crept back up the street towards the men, he kept getting the strangest feeling that he had been here before. When would I have been here before? And what would have made me remember this place? Zerren shook his head and continued, he could ponder that after he figured out what was going on right now, which was that the men were unloading bricks and lumber and stone and putting them all into one yard. So they’re definitely building some kind of building… Zerren saw a woman and a man standing off to one side, talking with each other. The woman must be here to observe the construction, either the owner of the property or a gawker like me… Wait, I think I recognize that woman… She’s so strangely dressed, I’m sure that’s what I’m remembering… But from where?

Soon enough, all the materials had been unloaded and the men all left. Wait, what? If they’re constructing something, surely they’d at least get a start on it today… How’s the building going to get built if they don’t have any… Zerren saw the shovel and his mind basically stopped, save for one stray, and vastly inconsequential thought. Oh, so that’s what nearly naked girl looks like in clothes…

Zerren felt his gut reaction to flee from these unnatural things, since there was certainly more than one he could see, and probably more than that elsewhere. I can't kill them, but they can kill me... RUN AWAY!!! After his original heart attack, Zerren considered what he should do, straining with every last fiber of his mind to ward off his fight or flight response. She doesn’t know I’m here yet, and knowing that I can either leave with no chance of her sending her tools after me, or I can stay and see what in the world is going on… Maybe figure out if these tools have any weaknesses so I can protect myself if it should come down to it… Zerren relaxed himself, well tensed himself into a sitting position, in the shadow of the house and observed everything going on, wary for any sudden moves from the tools. Strange that the little hammer is following around that bigger one. Maybe the big hammer is in charge of the little hammer...

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on September 12th, 2012, 5:11 am

So far unaware that she had a visitor, Tock continued pondering the design of a helper. There were tasks she needed to perform that her current babies just couldn't help with. She worked while she thought, pulling out wooden boards from the stacks and laying them across the ground. She whistled to Naily, summoning the little wheeled hammer to her side, and set Handy down on the ground next to him. As she laid out the wood, she marked spots with a piece of charcoal. Under her direction, Handy started placing nails on each mark, and Naily rolled over to nail each one in place. Having her children perform the actual physical labor allowed Tock to occupy herself simply with taking measurements, carrying the wood, and laying it down and aligning it the way it needed to be.

But her thoughts were on bricks. If she moved on to taking care of the bricklaying herself, then none of her babies could continue constructing wall frames, without a pair of hands to carry the wood. Handy, the little wooden hand, was only strong enough to carry light things. He was perfect for holding nails in place for his brother to hammer in, but he couldn't carry things.

Tock looked at the brick piles and grumbled, "'Ow's I s'posed fer ta does all 'is... I's only gots three 'ands..."

Three hands...

Tock tilted her head to the side, looking at Handy. Last time she had needed a spare hand, she had simply built one.

She grinned. If she needed some extra hands around the work site, she'd simply build them. Except this time, they'd have arms. And a more stable structure that would allow them to carry more weight. And she'd make them from metal... brass, so it would be stronger than wood. With a wheeled base that would let them get around easier. And maybe an extendable reach like Grippy had.

Once her babies were set on their tasks, the foundation being dug by Diggy, the initial framework being nailed together by Handy and Naily, and with nothing left that needed Mommy's immediate attention, Tock headed inside. She returned a few minutes later with her table, some drawing supplies, and some of her old blueprints. She already had detailed hand drawings from when she'd made Handy, and she also had some rough designs already worked out for human arms and legs. Now it was just time to finalize the designs and adapt them to her current need.

Before long, she'd have a new assistant. A highly advanced, highly intelligent, and extremely versatile one. An extra pair of hands around the work site.

OOCI figured Tock wouldn't see the lurking lurker until he moved closer, so here's more chance for you to observe the way the Automatons are interacting on their work.

by **Zerren Verre** on September 16th, 2012, 11:00 pm

Zerren watched as the strange contraptions and their master moved about in the cluttered yard. The woman whistled and the smaller hammer stopped following around the bigger one and came wheeling over to her. The hammers look like they'd be easy enough to take care of, they're small enough that I could just knock them over. And without arms they couldn't stand back up... Wait, is that a hand?

Zerren leaned forward a bit and squinted through the bright daylight. Everything was a little washed out, but he was fairly certain that what he saw was a wooden hand crawling about on the ground and holding nails for the hammer when it was asked to do so. Huh, so she doesn't only have tools wheeling about, she's got body parts as well... Zerren was almost more willing to accept the idea of a wooden hand than he was tools on wheels. But that wasn't saying much. How can it tell where it's going? It's got no eyes on it... Wait, none of these things have eyes, so they must see some other way...

Zerren watched the hand and hammer as they nailed together a few pieces of wood, then got bored and watched as the girl walked inside her house and grabbed a table and some papers and started to write out in the sunlight as her contraptions continued with their work. I wonder what she's writing about. Maybe she's got blue prints that she's looking over? Perhaps she's trying to make some kind of... OH GODS WHAT IS NEXT TO MY FOOT?

Zerren sprang back and gave a snarl as he noticed a large spider that had crawled next to him. Normally that wouldn't have bothered him, Zerren had no problems with insects. But when it was a giant spider, made entirely of wood and metal, he became a little less comfortable. He hissed at the spider and backed away as it continued to move closer to him. What should I do? What should I do? Can a wooden spider be poisonous? Should I try to knock it over? Or will it just get back up again and be angrier? What should I do? What should I... It's leaving?

Zerren watched, more than a little amazed, as the spider turned and wandered off in a different direction, seeming to forget about him completely. What? It wasn't attacking me? So... It was wandering around and happened across me... And didn't do anything? It seemed to good to be true, but Zerren watched as the thing scrambled across the piles of wood, just like it had been before. Then he looked around and realized that none of the other contraptions seemed to have noticed his hissing either. Well it's not a very good army, if that's what it is.

oocSorry if I'm not supposed to roleplay your automatons, but I figured that having Bitey wander over to Zerren and then wander away again would give a good excuse to have Zerren become more noticable while remaining fairly harmless. I can change it to something else if you'd like me to.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on September 17th, 2012, 1:41 am

OOCI'm fine with the way you did it

. Minor actions are fine. I just draw the line at a) major actions, b) anything that violates the 'personality' of the Automaton or goes against its programming, or c) causing damage to them. So like with Bitey it's important to remember that he fully has the mind of a spider and is limited to fight or flight instincts. The only possible difference in his actions might be having him 'scurry away as if in fear,' instead of 'just wandering off,' since that would be the animal response. But it works fine as is ^.^

Tock looked up at the sound that sent Bitey scurrying away. The Automaton's response wasn't true fear; Bitey was too simplistic to feel any actual emotions. But the spider's instincts programmed into him still gave him a similar response. Tock immediately called out to him, "C'mere, Bitey, come ta Mommy..." Upon hearing the sound of her voice, he scurried over to her, and she scooped him up in her arms. While it would seem as if he obeyed her command, the truth was far simpler than that. Bitey couldn't understand any language at all, but he was programmed to be drawn to Tock's voice.

Cradling him in her arms like a baby, Tock headed over to where the spider had just fled from. When she spotted the panther, she stopped and focused her vision on him. She was wearing another of her Automatons: Eyes, the Multi-magnifying Vision Enhancing Apparatus. He was strapped around her head on a leather belt, with a pair of spectacles in a thick wooden frame attached to the belt and lowered in front of her eyes. From other parts of the belt, spaced around Tock's forehead, were six spider-like multi-segmented wooden arms. Two of these held large lenses in front of Tock's right eye, the arms shifting on their own to adjust the focus as Tock gazed upon the panther. She studied him through the spectacles and the extra pair of magnifying lenses, while petting her baby spider in her arms.

There was a panther in her yard. There had only been a panther in her yard once before. Considering how rare panthers surely were in a city like Zeltiva, she assumed it to be the same one. After all, what were the odds of meeting two panthers, both wandering into her yard, both within less than a season's time?

Not feeling the least bit threatened (both because he'd been civil with her last time, and because she had half a dozen Automatons with combat programming to defend her if needed), she simply turned back to her blueprints and asked him, "Wotcher, Guv?"

by **Zerren Verre** on September 22nd, 2012, 3:37 pm

Zerren tensed as the girl called the spider over to her and then stood up and walked towards him. Zerren quickly considered his situation. Shovel is probably the biggest threat, followed by the hand, followed by the spider, followed by the hammers. Okay, escape routes. If I sprint back the way I came from, I'll be heading directly away from the shovel and should be able to out run anything she sends after me. I hope. I'll have to come back later for my clothes I guess. I can be gone in the instant she gives a single command to her army...

But, to Zerren's surprise, she didn't give any orders. She simply observed him for a few moments, the strange creature on her head moving of its own accord. After a few moments of staring at him and petting her strange little spider, she simply turned and walked back to her desk, only saying two words. Did she say watch it? Well, that's not exactly a threat... More like a polite warning... What do I do now?

Zerren had been so prepared for nearly naked girl to order her creations to attack him, he wasn't sure how to react to this apparent lack of interest in his existence. I guess I should go get dressed now? Slowly, Zerren stood up and walked across the street to where his clothes were, drawing a few confused glances as he did so. When he got into the alley, he shifted back to his human form and got dressed. He still didn't have any boots, but that would only make people curious, if they didn't just ignore it completely. I still don't understand why people complain so much about a little bit of skin. They never complain that much if I wander around in my panther form... Or at least not because of THAT.

Having gotten himself dressed in his black shirt and pants, Zerren calmly walked back across the road into the girl's yard and over to her table where she was still drawing. There were a lot of drawings on the desk actually, with numbers and notes, which Zerren couldn't make heads or tails of. I really should get around to learning how to read some time... As it was, Zerren was just staring at scribbles of ink on a page and some rather well drawn pictures of arms, legs, and hands. "What are you working on? Planning on building an entire person now or something like that?"