Solo [Lab 22A] Hear No Evil Part III

[Switch]

[Lab 22A] Hear No Evil Part III

3rd of Fall, 514AV

THUMP

Switch found himself once more in the lab just beyond the threshold of his home. This time instead of finding himself searching for materials the pycon could be seen sitting on the scarred surface of one of the many workbenches thumping his heels against the wood, his face staring at the surface without expression. The Citadel has ears... Ears yet it is not living. Ears yet it doesn't. Golems that listen yet they have no voice. Or do they?

His eyes drifted in their 'sockets' towards a wall. He knew there was a witness golem somewhere amongst the interlaced mortar and brick there yet from this side he could see no change in appearance. The view from inside the walls was a whole different matter, there he would find the glorious line of wiring that connected the various golems together and yet they ran nowhere and everywhere. Golems that have no visible hearing apparatus yet can listen to our every word. The crafty nuits know how to makes work without revealing the fullness of a machine's inner workings.

THUMP

Switch's heel bounced off the wooden surface, his buttocks could feel the thump just as much as the source of the sound. His once more fell to the surface, he studied the surface and frowned, his nexus was able to interpret his heel's connection as self-inflicted as well as the resulting vibrations that his buttocks were able to feel. Shifting his body a bit so he was more in a squat then directly sitting upon the surface Switch thumped the surface this time with his hand.

The resulting sound wasn't as loud, but his feet were able to feel it all the same. Sensitivity via contact is inevitable for sounds to be transferred among a surface. Standing the Pycon's actions suddenly became more animated as it seemed he was now actively searching for something. His fingers twitched as his head swiveled on his skeletal neck.. Owls would be jealous of the miniature animator as his head went a full three-hundred and sixty degrees around before pausing momentarily and then brought his head back around the way it came until it returned to it's original location.

“Sound is relative to the contact an object has to the source of which it is traveling through it seems. Solid objects send the sound as a muffled yet vibrating force with which the end user can feel it within close proximity. As evidence when I thumped on the surface with my foot well sitting upon it my arse was able to feel the vibration, yet when squatting the same thumping done via my hand was unable to be felt by my arse by my feet felt the resulting vibrations. I wonder how sound transfers through a liquid base. What about open air? What about a thin membrane? Or a combination of a subset of those mentioned? Hmm.”

This bit of monologue and external thinking was enough for Switch to want to experiment further into this concept and in theory gain one step closer to understanding how the Nuit's Citadel was able to hear without having ears. His attention was set on the task at hand and now he had to just move, but yet he couldn't come up with a testable construct on which he could test his sound theory with. It was time to locate objects with which he could test his theory and the first was rather easy to locate.

Sitting discarded from a previous user of this lab – of which there were several as this was a Judgment Preparation Lab – sat a forgotten bowl, spiders have long abandoned it's dusty curvatures for loftier and better bug locations and thus the bowl sat. Liquid obtaining was a bit harder to handle, for there wasn't much in the way of liquids easily available. Hmm... Switch wasn't sure how long he was looking at the bowl before he realized he was hunched over close to it studying the outer curves. To his examination the pycon couldn't see any visible cracks or damage done to the bowl that would prevent him from conduct experiments using it.

“Hmm.” Pulling himself onto the edge of the surface Switch removed his pack so he wouldn't fall backwards back to the surface of the work bench. Leaning forward Switch made a guttural sound and listened at the immediate return sound of his sound echoing off the curved surfaces around him. The sound was best amplified in the area closest to his face. Amplification of sound best produced from an external source is in an open air environment is one in which the sound is closest to the source? This didn't seem to settle right with the theory and thus Switch had to test his theory more.

Sliding himself down the inner curve of the bowl Switch found himself sitting in the flattened bottom of the surface, surrounded by curved walls that he could peer over the pycon nodded and then once more made the guttural sound, this time the sound bounced off the curves of all surfaces, yet the ones in front of him returned the best quality of echo where as the sound off the back was dampened and muddled by the rebounding from in front. Yet the sound was also diminished on all cases as there was an escape 'hatch' for it being the open air above. “Sound still carried best by the curved surfaces closest to the source yet the sound is not yet effectively carried effectively to produce audible clarity.

[Switch]

Pondering the results from the two small experiments he just concluded the pycon gadgeteer didn't have enough information to continue on with any sort of construct to further continue on and therefore there was a need to keep on going with his experimentation and gather additional information. Sound returning from a curved surface produces more of an audible return than a sound transferred through a solid surface with the recipient sitting upon it. This Switch was able to conclude considering when he was sitting or squatting on the solid surface of the bench he could feel the vibration but make no noticeable note of what the sound was.

When he stuck his head inside of the curves of the bowl and uttered a sound he could hear the sound closest to his face but the sound was other wise dismal coming from elsewhere, this he could result in the sound returning to a recipient from a curved surface closest to them would produce the closest audible results to the sound originally given. This showed that a curved surface close to the recipient was effective yet it didn't result in enough information to go on. Once he put himself in the middle of the bowl he was able to provide a far more definitive partial answer which allowed him to prove that sound sent outwards returns clearest to a recipient when the sound is returned directly in front of him. Yet the sound was still noticeable from behind and to the sides this provided evidence that a curved surface was necessary to continue on with.

Dragging himself out of the bowl the pycon paused and looked around, If sound echos off of a curved surface and produces audible clarity when returned from in front of the listener but the sound is behind the listener the open air diminishes the sound... the next step was to figure out how a curved surface could effectively be used to allow for the whole surface of something like the bowl could be utilize to echo back the original sound to a recipient. There wasn't much he could see in his line of sight that would be useful to gain a foothold into his next step of his experiment and found himself once more sitting on the workbench top and thumping his heel against it. Well what would happen if the sound can't escape and was trapped within and the recipient was trapped within? His eyes found themselves falling back onto the bowl with it's curved surfaces. Hmm...
Standing and crawling into the bowl once again Switch found himself staring at the surfaces, tipping the round object was simple enough, the pycon knew if he could just placed his weight to one side of the bowl, he would tip it over and effectively trap himself underneath it – and that is exactly what he did.

Immediately he was trapped inside the darkness that enveloped him. No light was to be had and the pycon felt a momentary bout of claustrophobia before he reassured that this was no trap but an experimentation of his own doing. Besides... There are edges that I can pull the bowl up with if the situation required... Once he was able to relax the pycon sat down in what he thought was the center of the bowl and yet he wasn't sure, so instead was able to rest assure that he wasn't near a curve of the bowl and effectively tamper with the evidence of this experimental step.

“Hello?” He called out. The resulting sound was an immediate and rather louder return that he expected. The word echoed repeatedly from several directions in uniform levels of loudness yet the pycon could make out the word he had spoken a few times. Nearly losing himself in the sound Switch had to force himself to remain calm and not panic before it faded to a vibration and then silence. Hmm, darkness seems to amplify the return sound, yet the curved surfaces amplify and return the audible word clearer than when there is was an opening, yet the sound was also more garbled. It also lasted longer and the longer it lasted the more garbled it became until finally the sound turned to mere vibrations and then utter silence. Darkness effects the audible noises one makes? Hmm interesting. The idea of this dark bowl was beginning to unnerve him and the pycon had to find the edge and pry himself out from underneath it.
It took several ticks before he found the edge and then nearly a chime to lift it up enough to push his pack and then roll himself out from underneath. Once out Switch turned his attention to the bowl, with it being upside the pycon pondered the whole shape. “Sound in darkness echos off the rounded edges and when trapped in a dome shape sound is louder and lasts longer then it does when it can escape into the open air.” So now Switch could see something possibly formulating deep within his nexus of how sound amplified and echoed with some sort of curved and air based setup but he was curious as to how sound transferred on the inside could be heard from the outside.

Climbing onto the overturned bowl the pycon found himself kneeling on it with ear to bowl and he smacked the bowl rather hard. The vibration that results forced the gadgeteer to pull his head back and yelp in sudden pain. There wasn't much in the way of sound, he could hear the dull thud of his hand smacking the surface of the bowl, but the vibrations echoed sharply against his clay head and sent tremors through his nexus.

“Holy shyke.” Switch sat there, stunned further for words. It took him several ticks to regain a sense of clarity before he analyzed what had just occurred.

“Sound sent through curved, hollowed, and sealed object return intensified vibrations but just like the flat wooden surface they lack the audible return.”

[Switch]

Switch sat on the upturned bowl, tapping his chin as he thought, this was no ordinary puzzle that he could just ponder through and understand, no this was something else entirely. He didn't want to damage the experiment by adding a hole to the bowl as that just wouldn't do, adding a hole to the bowl added darkness, darkness is what amplified the sound from inside the dome. Plus by punching a hole into the bowl he would thus defeat the dome shape and lose amplification and the curved surface he had been using the whole time. The dome he sat upon had a lip that could be lifted, which didn't involve punching a hole in it, which meant...

The pycon sat up straighter his eyes, if they had eyes in them and not just sockets, grew comically larger as an idea struck his nexus with full force. “If I raise the bowl up on one side enough to allow sound to escape and just on that one side I might be able to continue on with this experiment and determine the next step in figuring out how this petching citadel has ears... Cause the citadel indeed has ears... Yes yes... The citadel has ears...”

Mumbling and rumbling the gadgeteer slide down a side of the bowl and upon his feet making contact with the workbench did he look around for his pack. Inside was a few objects he had in mind that might of use for this experimental step, even if they didn't do him much good as a pycon. Locating the bag wasn't too difficult it was resting not far from where he had slide down at and the flap just so happened to be conveniently located facing him for easy opening and access. Reaching in the pycon had an inklng of the tools he was going to require for this step and so his hands searched, in a random spasm of gropes, hand swishings, and grumblings until he came out with two objects in his hands: his eating knife which was coated in a slightly yellowish-white film from a previous season's use of soap cutting, and a worn out brush that had absolutely never seen in use from Switch.


Turning to face the bowl, no ignoring his pack, the pycon dropped the brush beside the bowl and using the soap film on the knife blade Switch was able to easily slide the blade between bench surface and bowl lip. With tip in place Switch applied levering counterweight which at first bent the knife's blade as it flexed before he applied more force and the bowl lifted off the tabletop, it wavered and wobbled on the thin blade of metal And Switch just couldn't let it slip and fall, else he would have to repeat the process.

So with timid kicks against the brush the pycon was forced to play maneuvering games to keep the bowl on the knife blade, while applying pressure to the knife as a whole to keep the bowl up in the air, and still manage to keep knocking the brush so it slide towards the lip of the bowl.

“Just. A. Little.... ARRGH!!” He roared as he realized the brush's handle was too big to squeeze into the gap he had formed with the knife and he had to lift hard with all his might using the knife. The bowl wobbled as the pycon strained with all his little might and once he could see that the brush was gonna slide into place the pycon gave the brush a hard nudge.

It was just in time too as the nudging forced Switch to loss his concentration and his grip slipped, the bowl came down hard onto the brush, this force pushed the knife and pycon away. Landing on his rump Switch blinked, amazed that he had just managed to shift bowl onto brush by himself and a knife.

Wiping his forehead, even though he didn't release in liquid substances, the pycon allowed a sigh to come out as he stood. The experiment's next step was in position to be tested, which was good and Switch had just the way to test it.

“I can stand by the opening I just produced and using my knife I can strike the flat top of the bowl, with the knife's length and rigidity I should be able to produce a pretty decent sound within the bowl.”

Taking hold of his knife once more the Pycon positioned himself near the opening, standing far enough away so he could reach up with the 'weapon' and strike the bowl.

-- THWHACK! --

The knife struck as close to the top as Switch could manage and the sound was indeed a loud and rumbling noise that rushed out of the gap he stood by. Dropping the knife as a results Switch only managed to create even more echoing sounds bouncing around the bowl before escaping in a rush, battering the poor pycon's nexus with a cacophony of noise.

[Switch]

It took nearly half a chime for Switch's nexus to stop rattling, which was long after the echoing sounds buffered about him and left him disoriented and unsteady. Having been forced to sit down sometime during the ungodly nexus rattling the pycon finally was able to think, and out loud as it seemed to hurt his nexus more if he thought inwardly.

“Sound if allowed to escape from a dark and curved surface will produce a rather loud sound, enough to leave me shaken and confused. Yet it proved far more successful than when I was standing atop a sealed dome and the sound was forced to stay within... It was infinitely better than when I was in the upturned bowl with the open air and light around, yet it seems to have the same effect of when I was inside the bowl, just less frightening as I was outside of the darkness...”

Nodding the pycon looked at the bowl and the darkness he could see remaining under the dome, even though light was able to find its way within. “So light doesn't effect the total sound decay because if darkness is there more than the light it still produces are amounts of sound and echos. The curved surfaces of the bowl allowed for the echoing to make it louder yet the opening I created by allowing the bowl to rest upon the brush's handle was more effective with me outside of it then me being outside and on top with the bowl resting on the table. So for sound to be effectively heard it must have a way to escape the darkness and enclosed area.

Another nod and Switch looked at the table between his legs, “Sounds echoing makes it louder, louder is an amplification, an increase... Yet I know of drums, I recall the boats I left home upon had drummers that kept the beat for the rowers. They weren't solid yet the sound was loud...” Hmm...

Turning his attention back at the bowl and the current situation Switch could almost see a drum sitting before him: the cylinder shaped body with the animal skin pulled over the one opening... “Animal skins... Animal skins... What else would I be able to use in place of animal skins for the same concept as the drum?” Looking at his pack he puzzled, there was the pack itself but if he did that he would lose his beloved carrying sack, which has served the little pycon well thus far.

“I know there are some rumbled articles of clothing within that could be of use. I mean I have no use for a pair of pants, or shirt, or undergarments... Or...” Standing the Pycon reached into the pack tugging at the articles of clothing previously mentioned before he pulled out the last item.

It was a coat. A coat made of a faded raw leather, brown in color and not n entirely bad shape, just a bit musky from lack of cleaning and use. The clean aspect didn't bother the pycon as much as the need to keep working, he was on a roll and that was enough to keep the little guy working. Throwing pack aside and tossing coat by the bowl Switch had a good idea of what he needed to locate now. It needed to have the same basic cylinder shape of the drums, this was an unused judgment laboratory, things were left here that would otherwise be considered trash, the nuits weren't all that big on cleaning up these specific labs it appeared, which was a good thing for Switch.

Scattered around were all sorts of junk that were the remains of the things the apprentices and newcomers to the isle used for their tests to become a full-fledged wizard and it was this junk that Switch was able to utilize for his experiments. Sure it probably didn't produce the greatest of devices or equipment, but it was stuff he had access to and it was stuff he could use... And that's what the pycon enjoyed best about all the junk.

Switch has already located discarded bowls, vials, straight pins, sewing needles, pin cushions, wood shards from drawing utensils, dried out inkwells, empty thread spools... That was what he needed! An empty spool, there were a few he saw recently that might work well for what he had in mind, a drum needed a sturdy yet follow body after all. So a drop off the bench onto the stool and then a slide down a spindle leg and Switch found himself becoming a scavenger. His eyes looking for just the perfect spool to use.

It didn't take long for Switch to find three or four spools, all of them were hollow in the middle, but only one was what Switch had in mind of, it had no spokes inside for keep the shape. This shape was sturdy enough and Switch hefted it onto his shoulder and then scampered back up the stool's leg, a toss of the spool onto the bench and then leaping after it and Switch found himself standing back once more where he began.

Standing the spool up so it was hollow going down towards the table top the pycon grabbed his coat and tossed it over the opening, a frown emerged when he realized he had no way to keep the thing tight against the spool. “Wait!” He grabbed his back and pulled objects one after another. Looking for string, twine, even a rope would be wonderful.

Nothing.

“Shyke.” Switch muttered before once again looking around for an answer to his current situation. There was no string, no rope, nothing to tie with... Yet, he had a pile of discarded clothing beside the bowl and in there was a pair of undergarments he had no use for. “Hmmm...” He dropped his back and went to the clothes.

There the garments were, worn and easy to tear, they would provide enough fabric when torn into straight pieces and then tied together to tie around coat and spool to keep the coat in place.

So that it what Switch did, destroying his clothing for the sake of science and it was wonderful!

A few chimes later Switch and torn and tied the garments into a long strand of knotted fabric, this he wrapped around the spool and coat, effectively creating a leather membrane over the spool. A quick check to ensure the fabric strip was going to hold and Switch took hold of his makeshift drum and tilted it.

Sitting on the ground Switch was able to rest the whole 'instrument' on one leg so he could steady it with a hand and then smack the coat with the other hand. That is just what he did. The results was a successful thumping sound that was duller than the ship drums, but the concept was there.

“A membrane over a round object, like a drum, could produce the same results as the upturned bowl in a smaller and lighter system. Now, how is that going to help me?” Switch fell silent, thinking and mulling over what he currently knew.

“I think research is required to continue, a trip to the Great Library, I am sure I can find away through those god awful doors without a ring... If not the library, then maybe the morgue were these petching bags of dead flesh keep their bodies. I mean, they do hear in those bodies... Those crazy things called ears...”

And soon the citadel won't be the only earthen thing with ears...

[Ink]

Fate has dictated the conclusion to your journey...

...And now, only Fortune awaits you.

I am Ink, Mistress of Sahova; and it is my pleasure to award you with this bounty of XP and Lore. If you have any questions regarding this Grade, please do not hesitate to send me a PM. Fret not, I tend not to smite...often.

 

Switch

XP

• logic 2
• Climbing 1
• Observation 3
• Leatherworking 1

LORES

• Animation: The Sensory Quandary
• Sound is Vibrating Force
• Curves Carry Sound
• Darkness Effects Sounds?
• Sound Amplification: Dark, Round, Hollow.

MISCELLANEOUS

• Loot: One Poorly Made Drum

With Regards,
Ink