Completed Art for Art's Sake (Aislyn)

[Kuvarakh]

11th Day of Summer, 514

The sketches "Maya" had brought him had been very well received by the Andres Towers Mansion. Kuvarakh had just been out there and it had told him so. The structure and adjoining property all imparted with sentience due to the enhancement of the magic of Architectrix. Kuvarakh was not just eager to develop his relationship with this sentience, he was eager to develop his ability to develop this relationship. It was a skill of djed craft unheard of in his Nuit lifetime.

Of course, he did not suppose that there were NO OTHER practitioners of this discipline anywhere in the world. But even the skill of hypnosis he kept hidden, was far more extensively practiced than Architectrix. And even that paled in comparison to the number of Reimancers, Aursists and...well...Alchemists out there. He was now on the lookout for any rumors of other buildings with "histories" of seeming to think for themselves, be it benevolent or otherwise. Books as well.

The mansion itself had conveyed a sense of not being alone in the world. It had impressed highly detailed illusions on the Nuit, presenting itself in the form of an avatar, Aceren, a distinguished looking, uniformed gentlemen that had been escorting an equally illusory Verlyna Devette. It had been a party, attended by the "who's Who" of Alvadas at the time. It had been a recreation of the night of Mr. Tower's assassination, and Kuvarakh had shown a willingness to sacrifice himself to save the man. The mansion had subsequently decided to extend its consciousness to him in the form of Architectrix.

Kuvarakh had been honored, and intrigued. Such a structure, existing for so long, having hosted parties attended by historical figures. For a man capable of potential immortality, such a base of historical resource was a coup beyond anything he could imagine, short of unearthing a pre-Valterian library!

And the mansion had personality! Aceren was a tad bit aristocratic. But that was fine with Kuvarakh. The avatar served as a go-between for him to understand some of the fashion and decorative preferences the mansion wanted to indulge in. This was one of the ways that Kuvarakh was able to advance his relationship with the mansion. He'd already bought drapes and rugs, and replaced broken statuary inside the building, and done some landscaping and yard work outside.

He'd done a lot of repairs at The Greenhouse when he'd first been caught up in the illusion over a year ago. It had been friendly right from the outset of his introduction to the Architectrix structure. So when Kuvarakh had shown the sketches to Aceren earlier in the day, Aceren had been delighted to see images that could be transferred to tapestries, commenting particularly on how much the Greenhouse would enjoy the tree-themed one.

The only thing missing had been the color. All the sketches were in the black-and-white of charcoal. This was understandable, though. Charcoal didn't come in any other colors. Kuvarakh was thinking it was time to remedy that situation.

[Kuvarakh]

As usual, there was figuring to do beforehand. This was to be a kit, like the art kit of his daughter's, that he still carried with him as both an beloved memento of his child, and a functional kit for the imprinting of the Nuit glyphs of transference. He would make a few of them, maybe two dozen and see if they caught any of the public's artistic attention. If so, then he would generate a few hundred of them.

But as far as cost to transmutation time ratios went, this was going to be very wasteful. The transmutations were not going to be challenged by the difficulty of maintaining the texture and structure of the hard-packed and bound charcoal, it was all about the number of color blending combinations. The alchemy ring was far, far bigger than it needed to be to alter the color of even a thousand classic-sized charcoal sticks. the trick was to chart out the series of color blends he needed to do to be as efficient as possible. One of the basic foundations of figuring the cost of an alchemy job was the number of activations required.

Clearly, the first target were the prime colors...Well, the first target was to get hold of as many charcoal sticks as he could. Once again, that problem of people living in The City of Illusions not placing as much value on artistic materials raised its head. Then, he would not really know how many different transmutations he'd have to activate until he was well into the project. He was going to need the sources of colors as well. That would actually be less trouble than finding enough charcoal sticks. Just a few founts for a color source would be sufficient to fully color those thousand sticks he'd envisioned. Once colored, the sticks themselves would be the source for future activations.

He decided to wait until he had as many charcoal sticks as he could come up with before he started doing any figuring on additional activations. It might be enough to simply create the prime colors. The technical definition eluded him as he puzzled over whether white and black were considered prime numbers. He did not know if chalk could be used in conjunction with charcoal to lighten a color. He slapped his own forehead over the realization that he did not need to make black. His self-esteem took a further drop with the painful recollection that his hand was half as hard as rock. He rubbed his bruised forehead with his forearm and chuckled at his own stupidity.

He decided it would be prudent to seek out an artist for advice. And he had just the right one in mind. He would go and buy up all the charcoal sticks at the Bizarre. But first he would send his courier, Phobius, to locate Maya.

[Aislyn Leavold]

11th of Summer, 514 AV

Art. Aislyn’s favourite subject. Besides illusions, that is.
Either way, it was something quite enjoyable for the young woman.
That was why her day had been brightened so much when a message was sent to her in the form of Phobius knocking on her door that morning. Aislyn had nearly opened the door as herself before realizing that she had never really gotten a visitor before, which most likely meant the visit related to the job she had taken days before. Perhaps concerning the sketches she had made for the tapestries, or some other odd job Kuvarakh needed her help for.

Using a set of mirrors she had used to see people at her doorstep, Aislyn had seen the unexpected guest was, indeed, looking for “Maya”, not herself. The mirrors were one of her many precautions she took on any given day to prevent suspicion. Yes, it was basically paranoia, but that didn’t mean Lyn would stop. After quickly disguising herself, Aislyn had grabbed her rucksack and answered the door, only to be ushered quickly to Kuvarakh’s shop.

It had been a wonder Phobius had found her, despite the description of her home Aislyn had given to Kuvarakh. Her house wasn’t exactly notable- from the outside at least- and was usually on a street littered with identical buildings. The only defining characteristic was the surprisingly intact dead flowers stood outside the door (cared for lovingly, even though they were wilted, by Aislyn’s mother) and the sign she had placed in the window, specifically for Kuvarakh (or anyone sent by him) to find. Even with that, however, Alvadas was a big place, and it was down to luck that Phobius had found her in a timely fashion. Not that she was complaining.

Once Aislyn, or Maya, as was the name she had adapted, had gotten back to Kuvarakh, she had found quite a sight. The man had seemingly collected every shard of charcoal in Alvadas, with boxes practically overflowing with the material. That was what had peaked Lyn’s interest, as the one thing she loved more than art itself was charcoal, especially when the two went together, which was often.

Besides being her main art material for sketching, it was also, in her opinion, one of the most useful. It could be used for brush textures, fine lines, even background material. Take a thick piece and rub it over some tough parchment; Instant background.
The lump of (usually) black material was one of Aislyn's favourite artistic material, usually due to the fact that it was cheap to buy and even cheaper to use. No water, special parchment, or brushes required. Just your hands and a good place to draw.

That’s why “Maya” had expressed such delight in finding the Alchemmia Alchae, with Kuvarakh standing within it, decorated with all sorts of artistic supplies, along with what seemed to be quite a few glyphs drawn out on the floor. Aislyn wondered how he did that, with his hands in the state they were. Speaking of which, she had yet to master the glyphs required to help fix the state of Kuvarakh’s hands, even after several days straight of practice. The small bunk she had at home, when she wasn’t sleeping in it, was covered in rough sketches of the design. She had mastered one of the glyphs, though the others were proving quite difficult. Every time she got close, something went wrong. Her charcoal broke, her hand slipped, once, even, her mother had interrupted, startling Aislyn into ripping the parchment in half.
Sighing, Aislyn banished the thought for later. She would master the glyphs, one way or another, no matter how long it took. Kuvarakh was the first person who had employed her, and when he gave her a job, she intended to fulfil it to the best of her abilities. Especially when his life was on the line. Nuit transference was nothing Aislyn was taking lightly.

Turning her mind to the task at hand, Aislyn eagerly awaited orders, curiosity bubbling as she guessed at what Kuvarakh wanted her to do. Perhaps more sketches? Help drawing a glyph? It was entirely possible, though she wouldn’t know until she asked.
”I believe you called for an artist?”

[Kuvarakh]

"I did indeed, my dear." Kuvarakh said, giving a nod to Phobius that he could go on now with the schedules errands for the day. The youngster left and the Nuit turned to Maya, with an apologetic grimace. "I'm sorry if I appear to be hogging all the charcoal art supplies. I intend to return them...after a fashion, anyway."

He picked up one of Maya's sketches and admired it. "I was quite taken by the versatility of charcoal as an artistic medium. I have my daughter's art kit. Had it for some time actually. It's somewhat of an heirloom for me now. It's all I have to remember her by, when I'm not in my transmutation trance, that is. But anyway, her kit is inks and paints, not charcoal. The fact is, I have used the new ink sticks at times, for my glyphs. But the range of textures I see in these sketches astounds me. Just a single color, yet it evokes a more lifelike depth and shading than most works I have seen in colors."

He had lifted a jar of paint and a vial of ink as he spoke. "These are often too heavy handed for the subtlety that can be achieved with charcoal. And as I looked at the sketches, I thought, 'how marvelous would it be for charcoal to have the variety of colors that we have with inks and paint'. And it struck me that this is precisely the sort of application that alchemy is best suited for. I want to make a charcoal art kit with colors! And I was wondering if I could get some advice on what would be the best colors to craft for such an effort."

He picked up one of the few dozen full kits he'd purchased. It was a fairly wide and shallow wood case, full of slots containing charcoal sticks of many lengths, widths and densities. There were accessories of course, sharpeners, brushes, cloths and various texturing amenities. "I have also purchased a considerable stock of chalk, for lightening a color. Red to pink, purple to lilac, things like that." He'd held up a stick of chalk as he spoke, replacing it when he'd finished.

"Now, I'm not talking about taking three different base colors to make a pastel in one spot on a sketch. I mean to make chalk sticks of all those pastels to begin with. So when you want violet or brown or peach, you don't have to do a bunch of calculations to figure what blends will give you that result. I want to do that work NOW. I'm just not sure where to begin. I mean, I can't truly have EVERY possible shade of EVERY color in here. I was hoping you could give me advise on how many shades I should try for. You know, what would be practical."

He gestured with a flourish that Maya should accompany him to the activation room. There were several shelves of books, scrolls and notepads, as well as items of various textures and colors. There was desk, cluttered with unfinished paperwork. There were several cabinets, one of them like a large wardrobe, and an open door, through which was a stairway down to what was probably a storeroom. There were chains on rolling tracks heavily reinforced into the ceiling, for hoisting and moving heavy items around the room. There were several formations of waist-high, lead-bound stone and a large basin of water. Also a couple of full-sized lead bound partitions on wheeled bases. But the main feature was the ring itself, twenty feet in diameter, wound in wire that was formed into strange coils at eight points spaced in equal gaps around its circumference.

"In addition to paying you for your advice, and providing you with a complimentary set of the finished product, I offer you chance to see the marvels of Alchemy at work...uhh...here...You ought to wear this." he handed her a hooded robe that was, itself, the end result of a massive endeavor from a season or two before. It was supple as cloth, or very nearly so, and comparatively light as well. But the first time you held it, you could perceive an innate density that was as intriguing as it was inexplicable.

"That is a Lead-cloth Robe. I made it to protect Wanda. This scarf is the same. They will protect you from residual loose djed that occurs during activations." he held up his pink, stiffening hands as an object example. "Normally, I don't worry about it, since I change bodies every so often. But sometimes accidents happen, and you end up with...surprises."

He paused as she looked around, "So what do you say? Would you like to help me craft the first in a line of multi-colored charcoal art kits?"

[Aislyn Leavold]

This was perfect.
Aislyn had contemplated the idea of coloured charcoals before, but, unlike Kuvarakh, she had no way to enact her ideas, so her sketches had always stayed plain. Now, though, with Kuv making coloured sets, there were more possibilities than Aislyn had ever dreamed of.

She was half tempted to ask the man to make a kit with every colour imaginable, but the thought was quickly washed away by common sense. He had already told her; There was no way to make so many colours, nor would it be practical. She had to think of something else.
Luckily, she seemed to have plenty of time to think. Kuvarakh didn’t seem to be in any rush, though Aislyn wanted to produce something as quickly as possible.

Letting her mind wander as the Nuit led her into a separate room, Aislyn returned from her thoughts when she got a look at just what Kuvarakh was showing her. The room was filled with curious things of all types; Anything from a mundane desk, piled high with papers containing who-knows-what, to a giant ring in the center of the room, drawn on the floor. That was what caught her attention. She had never seen such a thing before, nevermind seen it in action. From what she gathered, it was what Kuvarakh used to do whatever it was he did in his work. Alchemy, apparently. An interesting trade, she presumed, especially if it involved adding colour to what hadn’t had colour before.
Turning lead into gold, as it were.

Taking the curious piece of cloth Kuvarakh handed her, she listened carefully to his words. Turning the clothing over, Aislyn found interest in how it was supposedly lined with lead, yet also surprisingly light. Probably another product of Alchemy, with a scarf to match.
Slipping on the garment, if what he was showing her now was what turned his hands to stone, she didn’t want any part of it. Unlike him, Aislyn didn’t have the option to change bodies at will.

”Thank you for the… Protection, and of course, yes, I’d love to help you. Not only do coloured charcoals seem like a great idea, but the way you do things…” After pausing to gesture towards the many interesting instruments of Alchemy lying about the room, Aislyn continued. ”Is so unique… Exciting.”

Shrugging off her backpack, Aislyn drew out notebook, flipping through the pages of sketches and entries dictating her everyday life. Landing on the very back page, Aislyn drew out a piece of charcoal and sketched out a messy triangle, leaving space on the outside of the page for various notes. At each end point, Aislyn added a small circle, with a colour written in small lettering inside the shape. Red, blue, yellow.

”Well, for starters, I’d say you’re going to have to have primary colours. That’s a must.”

Adding on to the chart, with three more, smaller circles. Orange, green, violet. ”...Secondary…” Now the circles were practically dots. Red-orange, red-violet, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet. ”...Tertiary.”

Sitting back from the quick drawing, Aislyn shrugged. ”I mean, that would be how I’d do it. Add in a few earth colours to each kit, along with some essentials, and that’s a pretty fleshed-out color scheme.” Below the drawing, Aislyn drew in several separate circles, labeling them ‘Earth Tones’, with grey, peach, and a few shades of brown scribbled in the circle.

As she wrote in the names (Rust, Copper, chocolate, maroon, tan, wheat.), Aislyn spoke idly to Kuvarakh. ”This is just how I’d sort out the colours. Make sure I didn’t forget any. There are plenty others, don’t get me wrong, it’s just a lot of them are only good for one sort of drawing, like this one colour…” Finishing up the names of the colours, Aislyn racked her brain for the name of the shade. ”Zinnwaldite. That’s it. The fancy-named one. It’s a common shade of brown, just barely ever used, and not because it’s name is… Interesting. Named after the gem. It has a wide range of interpretations, anything from a peach to a deep, dark brown. That’s what makes it hard to use, you never know what colour you’re really going to get.

”Take rust for example. Rust is rust. It’s one colour, or within a small degree of shades. So if someone buys the kit for the rust colour, because they’re doing a… I don’t know, a charcoal drawing of a metal sheet in the rain, they’ll get the colour they want.”

Aislyn hoped she was being helpful. For all she knew, Kuvarakh already knew all of this. ”So that would be… Twenty colours. Three primary, three secondary, six tertiary, and eight earth tones.” Even as she was counting up the colours, Aislyn wondered if there were enough. Other than the browns, she had only included hues. The purest and brightest colours. From experience, Aislyn knew that not everything was pure and bright, especially in art. On top of that, Kuvarkh had mentioned lighter tints, like pink and lilac. If she tinted the main colours, though, that would be twelve more charcoal pieces to change. Was that too much? Too little?
Really, Aislyn had no idea. Maybe she wasn’t the best person for this job.

”Do you have any preference on a max number of pieces per kit? It would help with deciding what colours to keep and what colours to replace with more important ones.”

[Kuvarakh]

"Zinnwaldite?" Kuvarakh ventured skeptically. "I've never heard of that one. But if it has variable shades, that would be one I'm afraid we'd have to let the artist achieve through blending. I guess what I mean is that we would certainly start with the prime colors. But what I'm looking for is an estimate of how many I should make of each."

He walked over to the crates of charcoal sticks he'd purchased. "If I divide these evenly between red, blue and yellow, then we can assume that we'll generate an equally divided percentage of greens, purples and oranges. And from there, browns, magentas, teals and the like. Now, with the additions of white and black, as well as adjustments of yellows and greens and what have you, we can make an infinite number of subtle pastels. What I want to know is, as an artist, which BASIC groups do you find more need for greater breakdown among? Do you find yourself running out of red before you run out of blue, because you find more frequent need for reds of numerous shades than blues? Or is it pretty evenly balanced?"

Maya was clearly pondering this question. It didn't really occur to Kuvarakh until right then that, being primarily an advocate of charcoal sketches, she may not have that much more certainty of what colors needed greater varieties to represent the colors of Mizahar than he did. However, what she DID have was, he assumed, was years of wishing for this or that color. It was a matter of recalling if she more often wished she'd had, say, greens and blues than reds and browns. If that was the case, then they needed to START right off making more blues and yellows than reds, so they'd have more material to make greens from, while still retaining an adequate number of blues.

For himself, Kuvarakh had plenty of experience with the blending of colors. It was perhaps the most frequently sought alchemical alteration of all. What he didn't have was an artist's perspective on which the most often needed to create artistic imagery. His experiences were all along the line of someone wanting the color of some metal changed to a copper color to make a uniform field as a background on their shields for their heraldric charges, chiefs and fesses to overlay.

He chuckled as the common complaint crosses his mind that he 'wished he had a miza for every chausse, gyron, fusil, roundel, canton and inverted chevronel he'd imbued, above and below, every dancette, embattled, invected, nebuly or rayonne line he'd ever overlaid with subordinaire, object or charge, affronte or reguardant, salient or trippant'. But the fact of the matter was, he DID have a miza for every one...several mizas, in fact. Nonetheless, these endeavors gave him no true representation of the average breakdown of colors in nature, only a firm grasp of heraldric terms.

"Then of course, there is the whole issue of providing various degrees of hardness. I think I ought to do one activation right now to soften half the chalk to a more charcoal-like texture. As well as the reverse to 'harden' some of the charcoal. I can be doing this while you decide if there needs to be more, or less, of any one prime color than the others. And when we begin, we need to take strict notes of the exact combinations we use every step of the way. if this set is well received, we need to be able to reproduce it exactly."

[Aislyn Leavold]

It seemed Aislyn had given all the right help in all the wrong places.
An estimate, not of the colours as a whole, but of how many different shades. Shades of colour, that is.
Now that… That was a different playing field entirely.

Though she had limited use with colours, Aislyn often imagined the brightness in her black and white pictures, adding splashes of colour where in reality, the paper was simply grey. Thinking back to the hundreds of drawings she had done over the years, Aislyn swapped between preferences. Green shouldn’t have many shades… But what if one wanted to draw a meadow? The same with blue. Many blues wouldn’t help, unless you drew an ocean. Then you would need all the blue you could get.

One would need plenty of reds if they had no brown, but with the addition of plenty of earth tones, the need for red diminishes.
The same with orange, and yellow.

Really, it was all a matter of circumstance. Depending on what one wanted to draw, the needs for the art kit would change. A sunset? Red, purple, pink, yellow. A lake? Blue, and green. A tree? Green, brown, maybe some blue for the sky. It all depended. Thinking of all the ideas Aislyn had given thought to in recent years, she imagined all the things that could be achieved with colour. Perhaps she would draw the sky; Show the world how she saw it. Paint her mother’s madness… A new outlook on the world. The possibilities were endless.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Aislyn decided on an order. It was pretty close, but some decisions were clear. That would be what she told Kuvarakh.

”Well… Though it all depends on what the artist draws, I think when I use paints I usually run out of yellow last, then blue first. Often, though, red and blue tie. Besides, yellow doesn’t have as many shades. At least, I don’t think it does."
Where was she going with this? Aislyn was practically rambling at this point. She was both excited for the opportunity to demonstrate her skill, yet nervous of messing up.
"Yeah... Yeah I think that would work. From my short, short experience with paints and inks, I think that's the order I used. Yellow was mostly used for mixing into other colours, blue was used on it's own with the exception of making greens and purples, then red was somewhere in between."

Would that work? Aislyn was constantly remembering various art projects she had done in her time, with each memory bringing up different views on the idea. The frustration of a missing colour. The amazing feeling of finding just the right one. If the kit was going to sell, it had to have the right colours.
"For sake of balance, I'd say you should have the same amount of shades for each colour, give or take a few pieces. That won't go for everything, but, in my opinion, which may be wrong, that would be the way to do things."

[Kuvarakh]

Kuvarakh smiled, "Well, that is exactly the sort of perspective I'm looking for. I agree that yellow is not a color that is going to be broken down into a multitude of shades itself. IT is what is used to create some of the shades of other colors."

He went to the window and looked out. "It seems to me that we find more blues, greens and browns in nature than reds and yellows. As you say, it depends on what you are drawing. A city scene may have more need of red for brick work of buildings and tiles for roofs, But there is still the sky overhead. And a forest scene still needs blues to make all the greens."

He nodded his head in decision, "Yes, I think we will need more blues right from the start. And I think it's not so much that I'm going to make a greater number of different shades, as it is that there will be more than one of some of them. Just the basics, though. I have no intention of trying to provide every shade an artist might need. I think it is upon them to use their own insight to blend for fine adjustments of color."

He looked back to his adviser, "AND, it stands to reason that we can make adjustments to what we provide in this kit, based on feedback from the public. If there is suddenly a broad artistic movement toward Valterian scenes of fires and volcanoes, then we can always start putting out kits with more red in them. But for now, step one, we are going to make a full half of this charcoal blue. Part of that reason is that much of it is going to be turned to make greens, of which we will want a good supply."

Kuvarakh knew it would take several activations to alter the color of all the charcoal he was going to designate for blue. But it was still a relatively simple formula. He explained what he was providing as 'founts', the items you used to designate the properties you wanted; and 'filters', the items you used to designate properties you wanted blocked. The polarity of the alchemy ring was such that the enclosures for the founts were on one half and the filters on the other.

In this case, after putting a large stack of charcoal in the center, where it would be altered, according to what properties were borrowed or blocked, Kuvarakh set out designating his 'chargers', the term for both founts and filters. This term related to the fact that the djed stream, formed by the concentration and control of the alchemist, through the contact of his blood on the keystone of the ring, "charged" the stream with the pertinent properties of the items placed there.

In this case, there needed to be the quality of the color blue, as well as the quality of the color black, already present in the target charcoal in the middle of the ring. Even though this black color was to be removed, it still needed a designation as a quality to be in flux during the activation. Kuvarakh was experienced enough to know that not having the back filtered out, would result in the previously black charcoal, simply having blue added to it, rendering a final, much darker blue, as a result. But that was one of the goals he sought as well. It was always a boon to have a LESS complicated activation be a desired follow-up. It made for a greater number of completed transmutations before exhaustion set in.

in addition, the texture needed to be accounted for. He was using blue paint to provide the color. But, as he explained to "Maya", if he did not be sure to block the fluid nature of the paint, the charcoal would gain this unfortunate quality. Depending on how fully it ended up being integrated, this charcoal could end up as a big blue puddle in the middle of the ring. For this reason, one of the filters was a simple bucket of water. Since the wood, glue and wax of the bucket were undesired qualities for a charcoal set, it did not matter that they would be filtered out.

[Kuvarakh]

With all the chargers set, Kuvarakh began the activation. He directed Maya to a spot behind one of the low, lead-lined partitions intended as djed shields, and pricked his finger to allow a bead of Nuit ichor to form. He pressed his finger against the ring, forcing a small strek of ichor to leak out, as he slid his finger into the keystone receptacle. This was his standard way of mentally initiating the sensation of movement beneath his fingertip. The djed stream responded to the mental command, empowered by the link of Kuvarakh's ichor, and started to make its way around the circumference of the ring.

As it accelerated, an image formed in the Nuit's mind, corresponding to the spinning djed stream. It took the form of a whirlpool. This was Kuvarakh's best way of focusing on the presence of the properties to be maintained or rejected. It could be represented by complexities in the surface texture of the water itself, or it could be items floating in it. it could even be birds circling overhead, though they would most likely be birds of unusual design of material. He'd had rain squalls represent moisture, which was not to be simply assumed just because the basic backdrop image was formed of water.

Of equal variety were the manners in which rejected properties were removed. In his maelstrom image, these qualities could simply sink into non-existence. Or they could be devoured by vague sea creatures, or lifted free to fly over the crest of the circling wave to be lost in the misty distance. At times, Kuvarakh had let images of giant boulders rise to be impacted by items to be removed, the objects splintering into insignificance.

But none of these particulars were visible to Maya, or anyone else observing from outside the djed link. All they would see was an odd amalgam of textures and shapes, based on the properties possessed by the founts and filters, spinning faster and faster until their differences were lost in a humming, towering cylinder of spinning essence.

When the alchemist no longer felt that further acceleration was possible, or maybe only necessary, he would remove his finger to break the link of control. Kuvarakh did this now, having achieved an optimum blend of the properties he wished to keep. Since it was only a matter of colors, it had been simple to accomplish, the colors being nothing more than the color of the water in his image. There had been the initial need to remove the "bucket" items, but they had stood out to begin with and were cast aside shortly after beginning. The acceleration he'd achieved had really only been to ensure there was no "streakiness" in the colors upon completion of the process.

When the link was broken, there was a bright flash, and the column of spinning djed collapsed into the center, where the receivers awaited, in this case, the charcoal. He and maya had committed quite a few of the sticks to this first process, because so many were going to be adjusted for blue shades as finished products, and items to blend for pastels.

In the meantime, Wanda had had commissioned a number of wood art kit boxes to house the collection of colors, which included black and white as well. After more than a day, and a couple dozen transmutations, each seeming to produce a smaller and smaller number of finished items, they had the makings for their kit. Kuvarakh had never intended to add brushes or sponges or scrapers any other texture-generating items in the kit. It was only for colors., and it had no less than twenty-four different shades.

As promised, he gave one to Maya for her help, which had been invaluable, though it had largely consisted only of advice. there had been SOME backtracking on choices of colors as they had progressed, causing a few more activations that first projected. But all in all, it had been a successful venture.

[Zhol]

GRADE AWARDED!

Kuvarakh

 

Rewards

Experience

• +2 Alchemy
• +1 Observation
• +1 Persuasion
• +3 Planning
• +2 Socialization
• +2 Teaching

Lores

• Architectrix: A rare skill
• Aceren: Aristocratic maitre d'
• Andres Towers: Historical resource with a personality
• Charcoal - you can have it in any colour you want, as long as it's black
• Alchemy: Mixing colours
• Zinnwaldite - A useless shade of brown
• Maya: Art advisor

Other Rewards

• Colourful charcoal!

 

Consequences

Injuries

• None (phew!)

Expenses

• I'm not sure how many boxes of charcoal and chalk you "acquired" - but I certainly hope you paid for them!

 

Comments

Feedback
I love reading your alchemy posts, and the way you describe the visuals. It's fantastic to see that even all the way up at Master level, you're still finding innovative, out-of-the-box uses for that talent. Some well-deserved XP, in my opinion!

Please delete/edit your grade request, and don't hesitate to PM me if you have any questions about your grade!

Aislyn

 

Rewards

Experience

• +1 Alchemy
• +2 Drawing
• +2 Observation
• +2 Planning
• +3 Socialization
• +1 Subterfuge
• +2 Teaching

Lores

• Observation: Seeing without being seen, using mirrors
• Kuvarakh: Making your contemplations a reality
• Kuvarakh: Master Alchemist
• Drawing: Different colours for different needs
• Alchemy: Watching for the first time
• Alchemy: Unique and exciting
• Alchemy: Lead cloth robes for protection

Other Rewards

• Colourful charcoal!

 

Consequences

Injuries

• None (phew!)

Expenses

• None

 

Comments

Feedback
I have no artistic talent whatsoever, but I am fascinated by people who do; I really enjoyed the insights you had to offer in this. The use of mirrors to see who was at the door is a brilliant touch, and I loved the way the two of you shared knowledge and educated each other, hence some well-deserved Teaching points.

You even taught me something - Zinnwaldite is my new word of the day!

Please delete/edit your grade request, and don't hesitate to PM me if you have any questions about your grade!