Solo Moving On

[Alric Wilmot]

66th of Fall 513 AV Alric had awoken early yet again, eager to begin today's Animation lesson. He had requested Miro leave him be for the time. Though he had initially wanted to teach Alric what he knew. But Alric felt that Miro had only asked to assert himself in a role of authority. He had a tendency to do that lately, and Alric felt no need to humor him. Alric might accept his help in his reimancy, whenever he got around to learning it, but not for this. Animation was something Alric was genuinely excited about, and was eager to learn as much as possible. He hadn't felt to connected to a magic since Wrenmae had stolen that book on hypnosis when they were children. That brought back memories, though none that Alric wished to entertain at this time. He needed to move on, get to the next step. Yesterday he had infused his doll with a Soulcore. Which according to his book was but the first step of many. Alric went to the corner of the room and pulled the doll, chalk, and book out to move to the middle of the floor. He turned around and walked to the enter of the room before remembering to get his knife as well. Blood was required to make the connection. He walked back and drew the circles on the wooden floor, a larger one for him to sit in and a smaller one for the doll. It was a tiny thing, easily fitting in his hand. It was made of burlap and stuffed with straw, a pair of reflective buttons for eyes. After setting things in place, Alric took the knife and repeated the process from yesterday, pricking his finger slightly until a small bead of blood dropped onto the chalk below. As soon as the drop touched, Alric felt the familiar tingle of djed tethering itself to his mind. He gave a slight shudder, finding the sensation rather pleasing. With a quick look to the window to gauge how much longer the sun would remain in the sky. He laughed at himself when he realized that he gone through the process rather quickly, the early morn still in place. It was not even midday. With a shake of his head he opened the book to read about the next step. He leafed past the first few pages, having already read them the day prior. Finally he came to where he left off. When you feel that there is a working Soulcore - one with the potential to live, albeit devoid of any information - the first step is complete. The next phase involves creating a Persona. In a living soul, Persona defines a majority of memories and personality. You will be attempting to do the same, though most likely at a much lower level. First, it is necessary that you transmit some necessary memories and concepts to establish directives. A directive is an absolute law - the Animated object will do everything in its power to abide by it, except when overruled by a higher directive. For this reason, directives should be considered very carefully; even more so as they cannot be changed later on. As an example, I have provided a short list of the most common directives. Loyalty (obedience to one or more masters) Authentication (how one can prove their trustworthiness to this creature) Self-preservation (actions taken to ensure survival) Non-violence (refraining from using weapons except under certain circumstances) Kill-phrases (trigger temporary or final shutdown when spoken)

[Alric Wilmot]

Again, I implore you, create nothing without a Kill-phrase! Kill-phrases are extremely important. To novices especially. Besides that, directives are best kept short, simple and to a minimum, and need to come with definitions of the required concepts. For example, in order for an Animation to understand "non-violence", the Animator must transfer the concept of "violence" first. In general, complex instructions should be given later. Alric pulled away from the book and closed it, putting it beside him outside of the circle. Today seemed much easier than yesterday, if only because the book seemed to neglect the process of actually imparting directives and Soulcores. Luckily, Alric had found a way to impart the Soulcore, and as a hypnotist, had a rather good idea of how to implant directives. Indeed, Alric believed that actually proceeding with today's step would prove relatively straight forward. However, the true obstacle here was in choosing his directives. Obviously a Kill-phrase was urged by the author, so Alric decided to think of that first. Though He thought it strange, considering he had no real purpose behind animating the little doll other than to do it. Honestly, how much trouble could a little doll do anyway? Still, Alric wanted to be cautious, and thought about a phrase that would not be uttered in everyday conversation. Alric pondered for a bit, before deciding that a string of numbers would probably be more prudent. Not easily guessed, and definitely not something that would be said unless one were trying to shut off the life of his doll. He stared at the doll for a bit before deciding on a sequence. 10037211349, that would be the number. It was completely random and was unlikely to be guessed. It had no attachment to his year of birth, or any other sequence of numbers that might be important to him. Deciding to go ahead and put in the kill-phrase, Alric closed his eyes and concentrated.

[Alric Wilmot]

First, Alric remembered that the thing he was animating needed to be told all concepts as though it were a child. He could not say, "Do not move" unless the doll knew what movement was. So, Alric thought of running, dancing, playing, jumping, swimming, and every other kind of movement that popped into his head, and grabbed hold of his metaphorical tether. He, for lack of better words to describe it, stuffed the concepts along the line, and attached the concept of "Move" to it. Though all of this was but in Alric's head, he imagined that the Soulcore of the doll was a tiny flame, and he had just added some kindling to the fire, allowing it to grow. Next he moved onto the concept of not moving. Of a person ceasing these activities while doing them. This was harder for him, as he didn't know if he wanted the doll to just fall to the ground when the phrase was uttered or if he wanted the doll to return, and then fall limp. He decided, since he was but a novice, to go with the first choice. Once again, the imaginary kindling was thrown and the soul of the doll grew just slightly bigger. Alric smiled, smug with himself. Everything was going smoothly. For once! Next he decided to implant the Kill-phrase. He thought on his hypnosis, and how he often sent more than images and whispers. Would such help here? Perhaps he could get better results if he spoke to the doll, as a parent to his child? But no, that would not work. Not yet, with his current level of skill. He did not know how to make the doll understand something as complex as language. Such a thing was beyond him at the moment. So, instead, he simply repeated the numbers, with the concept of "not moving" attached to it as a series of pictures. This was more difficult, and Alric had to squeeze his eyes hard to keep concentrated. He had never been so dedicated to just...imagining things before. Once more he sent the images and sequences into the tether, and on to the flame. This time Alric felt a great deal of relief. Things were going quickly, he thought. Even if he hadn't yet made the doll move, he knew it was but a matter of time. Smiling, he cleaned the chalk and blood from the floor with the basin that was normally meant for his own washing and once more packed his things neatly in the corner. He had learned from his Hypnotism to take things slow. And one piece at a time was the best thing to bring himself into such a new and dangerous discipline. At least, it was dangerous according to the author. Though, Alric was inclined to believe him, if only because all magic held inherent danger.

[Abstract]

Hey Alric!

There's nothing wrong with your thread to cause this (that I can see), but... Technically, I can't grade threads while you have an intervention in place. I know you're working it out, and I'm sure it will be resolved soon, but until then... I can't put up your grade. Once you and Gillar work stuff out, just PM me and I'll remove this, and get to grading this... I just don't want it holding up the grading line while we wait for things to work out.

I hope you understand! Thanks!

~ Abstract