Solo A Scarlet Wrap

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

8th of Spring, 515AV

It had been quite a while since Kamilla had practised her animation and considering that it was the magic she intended to use for her judgment, she thought it best that she refresh her memory. The Judgement required that she offer the best of her abilities and while she wasn't quite sure of what that would be yet, her mind drawing a complete blank when it came to golem concepts that weren't vaguely impressive, she had several of the unimpressive ideas swimming through her thoughts and figured that they would make for good practice. If she was being honest, the judgement wasn't the only reason she wanted to create something impressive, she had been brutally beaten in a challenge of reimancy skill the day before, by the odd Keene, who was a Warden Initiate of magnificent skill in her opinion. The young mage had claimed a favour as his final prize and asked that Kamilla allow him to observe her animation process, and after being humiliated by her loss she was not willing to slip up during the 'favour' and so she needed practice.

Currently, Kamilla stood in the generic room that she had claimed as her own, it would serve as her secluded lab for the experiment because it would involve a level of nudity that while she doubted most of the island's inhabitants would care, had decided that she felt wholly uncomfortable with the idea of the undead gazing upon her exposed skin. Having already cleared as much of the ground as possible to maximise the amount of available floor space, Kamilla knelt down, reaching into her bag to retrieve a piece of charcoal. What she would have really liked to be doing at that moment was attempting to replicate the reimancy technique she'd seen the Warden Initiate use the day before, a rotating ring of res that, with the use of air attraction, had sliced through solid ice with ease. But, as eager as she was to improve her clearly lacking reimancy skill, her arms still felt heavy, a result of the previous day's overgiving, and she didn't feel comfortable pushing herself again so soon, not if she could help it.

Having retrieved the stick of charcoal, Kamilla got to her knees on the dusty floor, the chill of the cold ground and room seeping in to the bare skin of her upper body and legs as she began to draw the animation circles, two simple circles connected to each other by a line. Completing the circles in less than a chime, given their simplicity, she got to her feet inspecting the circles from a higher distance for a moment before kneeling down with charcoal in hand once more as she began to draw a focus glyph inside the destination circle. Kamilla was not talented at the art of glyphing yet, but she knew that it was a world magic that bolstered other magics and had been curious as to whether it could work with animation.

The focus glyph which she'd drawn inside the smaller circle that was to be the destination was much larger than the ones that she usually drew on her palms, it was also a bit more intricate and therefore had taken far longer to draw onto the stone floor, but when it was finally complete she felt satisfied with the end result, though only time would tell if it would work. This larger rune was both made up of the simpler focus glyphs that she usually drew on her palms and resembled them. Where her usual focus appeared as three spirals connected to a central ring with a larger ring intersecting their centers, this one was made up of three of these smaller glyphs connected by a giant spiral that originated from the center of the animation circle and eventually intersected all three smaller focus glyphs. Kamilla hoped that the more complicated design would allow for a more powerful effect and although it had taken far longer to create, spanning several chimes, she was quite impressed by it's appearance. "If only I could fit all that onto my palm." she said to herself as she sat backwards and onto the uncomfortable sleeping mat, stretching her legs out in front of her and staring at the hideous burn scar that ran halfway up her left leg. Even now, years after the inferno that had caused it, the large scar seemed to burn, slightly warmer to the touch than her actual skin, though she didn't like to touch or even look at the giant imperfection, it brought back far too many emotions that she had long since locked away.

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

A chime or two of nostalgic silence passed as Kamilla sat staring at the ruined skin of her left leg before she finally returned to reality, her eyes immediately falling on the animation circles that waited patiently to be put to use. Groaning slightly with the effort it took to use her unusually heavy arms to push her upwards and onto her feet, mentally cursing herself for being stupid enough to overgive for such a ridiculous reason as she did, Kamilla moved over to her bag once again and retrieved her grimoire. She paged slowly through the large book, glancing at each bit of information that she'd written or drawn in it until she reached the page that listed the steps of the animation process which she'd long since memorised but still preferred to have nearby in case her memory faltered.

Placing the book neatly beside the circle where she'd be sitting, Kamilla retrieved the long scarlet silk scarf that was to be animated, she'd bought the accessory from Yvette's Dresses For All Occasions a season ago and had brought it to Sahova along with all her other clothes. The scarf, when draped loosely over her neck, reached near to the knees on both sides, the length allowing her to wear it as a scarf and several different upper and lower body wraps depending on how she tied it. That was her idea, to animate the scarf with the knowledge of how to tie itself, it may have seemed pointless considering that she was perfectly capable of doing it without magic but it was practice none the less.

With the scarlet scarf placed neatly in the center of the glyphed destination circle, making sure that it didn't cross or even touch the lines anywhere, Kamilla retrieved a black scarf that was identical to the red one in all aspects but colour and placed it neatly on her lap as she took a seat inside of the source circle. Finally, she reached for her dagger and with a tiny prick, resulting in a soft gasp and wince, allowed a drop crimson liquid to fall from her index finger and onto the circle below, linking her mind and soul to the circle and beginning the animation process.

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

The moment the drop of blood met with the circle it roared to life, singing energetically as it's djed was awakened by the offering of her own. The effect of the crimson liquid on the drawn lines may not have been visual or audible or detectable by any of the other five senses but it was still there, instead being perceived by her soul itself, djed sensing djed. Several moments passed as Kamilla sat there silently, surrounded by the energy that resonated through her as she cleared her thoughts, breathing steadily as she tried to visualise the circles and their contents in the darkness of her mind until, finally, they appeared.

In her mind, the scene had finally been set, she could see the circles, lines glowing with lavender energy that seemed to flow throughout the circles and, thankfully, the glyph in the circle opposite her. Along with the awakened circles, Kamilla could see the limp, lifeless colourless frame of what was, in reality, the scarlet scarf in the destination circle and in the source circle was the bright lavender featureless form of herself, sitting just as she was in the real world. Here, inside her mind, was her workspace, the visualisation of the circles and their contents were where she would imbue the scarf with life and knowledge that would then be born anew in the real world.

Once Kamilla was comfortable with thr clarity of the workspace within her mind as well as calm and collected, she began recalling the steps required for the process and beginning with the first, Creating The Soulcore. This was probably the easiest of all the steps, she would use the soul of whatever was in the source circle, which was currently herself, to create a glimmer of life in whatever object waited in the destination, therefore creating a soulcore. Kamilla accomplished this by plucking a piece of her own, perceived, soul from the source circle and leading it to the edge of the ring and towards the destination.

Already Kamilla could feel the effect the focus glyph, which she had drawn in the destination circle, was having on the animation process. Where she usually had to drag the image of the soulcore from the source to the destination and nurture it until it finally settled into the golem, this time she simply slid it over the pathway between the circles and the focus glyph pulled the soulcore into the lifeless image of the scarf, a short moment passing before the tiny lavender grain of Kamilla's soul grew brighter as it sparked life within the new golem.

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

The subtle ring of life that echoed from the scarlet scarf's newly created soulcore indicated that step one had been successfully completed, the golem had it's spark of life and it was time to move on to the next step, which was gifting it with a persona. Eager to continue and seeing no good reason to end the sitting just yet, Kamilla began step two, creating the persona, which was the part of the process where she gifted the golem with directives, or absolute laws, and the knowledge needed to abide by them. It was a step that required far more focus and time than the first had and was probably also the most crucial step of all.

Taking a moment to mentally organise the directives, and their requirements, that she'd rehearsed in her mind earlier that day, Kamilla listed them once more, visualising her plan of action for each before beginning. "First Directive: Loyalty. " Before anything else, Kamilla needed that the golem understand that it was only to respond to her, she couldn't even bare to imagine what would happen if she were wearing it as a top and it accidentally accepted the command of someone else, let alone if someone were to discover the commands and use them purposefully, she'd be wearing an item that could spring off of her body at any moment.

Having spoken the words out loud, more for herself than the process, Kamilla began to transfer thoughts of the concept of loyalty, it meant 'to be obedient to one person and one person alone', with the concept successfully sent over to the destination she moved onto teaching it who to be obedient to and how to recognise her, "Scarlet." she began saying in several different ranges, from high to unusually low so that the scarf, being sightless, would recognise the sound of her voice no matter how it was spoken. She'd already decided that the item would simply be named Scarlet and thanks to the Loyalty directive, she would not have to worry about anyone else that knew its name, being in control.

With the loyalty directive successfully created, Kamilla moved on to teaching the golem several other directives, all of them very simple. All commands would begin by calling the scarf by name, Scarlet, it was the second directive which was known as authentication. Next came a few different phrases that would initiate the scarf's different positions, she hadn't decided on any fancy complicated commands, settling for very simple and easy ones to remember now that the authentication directive was in place.

Having already decided on the commands that the scarf was to follow, Kamilla went on to saying each of them out loud and using the fresh memory of the words to send them over to the golem's soulcore, "Scarlet: Neck... Scarlet: Bust... Scarlet: Wrap... Scarlet: Release.". The golem only needed to be able to recognise and understand that each command was a separate directive, the teaching would take place once she had formed it's astral body and was teaching it how to use it. Seeing nothing else that needed to be taught, she had completed the creation of the golem's persona.

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

Deciding that since she'd made good progress so far, Kamilla allowed herself to end the sitting, the teaching process had taken far more time and effort than she'd thought as it was always 'easier said than done' but she had completed the golem's Soulcore and it's Persona, all that was left was it's Astral Body and to awaken it. Getting up from the uncomfortably cold stone floor where she'd been seated for what had probably been over a bell, Kamilla stretched out her long legs and took a swig from her waterskin, enjoying the soothing cool of the clear liquid as it slid down her throat.

She took a seat on the unwelcoming sleeping mat, which was only slightly more bearable than the icy ground, and rested her head against the wall, allowing her eyes to close as she enjoyed the lack of strain on her body and mind, her thoughts wandering where they may. Her thoughts, it seemed, were happy to wonder to no place in particular, incoherent images and thoughts floating through her consciousness in no particular order. There were flowers, several different types, most notably blue bonnets and lavender which were of her favourites, followed by images of Zeltiva, Sahova, the ocean, The Citadel and, for a moment, even the Warden Initiate Keene.

The odd young man was certainly a point of intrigue for her, on one hand he had completely shattered her confidence in her reimancy abilities with his own, far superior, display and yet on the other she couldn't help but wonder what kind of situations or circumstances could create such an unemotive and socially awkward human being. It was not that he didn't function properly or anything of the sort, just that he didn't seem to understand the subtleties of conversation or other things that most people would consider basic knowledge, or perhaps it was just that he seemed to be disconnected from the world when he was actually just hiding behind a blank facade, though she highly doubted the latter.

A few more questions now added to the growing list regarding the handsome Keene, Kamilla saw no reason for her thoughts to linger on him any longer and they carried on to several more unrelated memories and images that were of little importance at the moment. With each passing moment she could feel her mind growing hazier as sleep began to settle over her until she'd finally drifted off into it's embrace, her bare chest rising and falling slightly with each calm breath.

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

When she'd finally awoken from her afternoon nap, several bells later, the cramped room was almost completely covered in darkness, only the light of the moon shining through the barred window providing a dim glow. Pushing herself up from the sleeping mat with another groan because of her heavy arms, Kamilla got to her feet, holding her black scarf to her chest as she took the unlit candle and opened the door to the hallway, poking her head out as she quickly looked to see if the corridor was occupied.

Satisfied with the results of her little scouting mission, Kamilla stepped out of the room in nothing but her white lower undergarments and the black scarf that she held to her chest, crossing the hallway in order to light her candle on one of the many torches that lined the opposite wall of the corridor. It was then that she heard what could only have been footsteps echoing up the stairs and down the hall, her brown eyes instantly widening in a panic as her head shot in the direction the sound was coming from.

There was no doubt that someone was approaching and very close, but Kamilla was already there and was not about to retreat to her room without light. Lifting the candle to the torch with the speed of urgency, her eyes still locked on the stairs where the person would pass or appear, she couldn't stop herself from urging the candle on, "Come on. Come on. Come on." she said rushing it, though for some reason the stubborn wick refused to catch light quick enough. It took only a few more ticks but by the time it finally had taken to flame, Kamilla practically dashed back into her room, almost snuffing the candle she'd just lit in the process and shutting the door behind her with a loud sigh.

It had been a close call but she'd made it without being spotted, a girlish laugh escaping her lips as she realised that she'd just near-naked dashed away from what was probably a nuit who couldn't have cared less about the sight of her body, but either way the humour of how mundane the situation had been was not lost on her and she enjoyed her little laugh as she placed the candle down nearby the animation circles that patiently waited for her return. Feeling the chill of the night settle upon her bare skin, giving her goose bumps as it did, Kamilla returned to her place inside the source circle and contributed a drop of blood once more, eager to complete her creation so that she could get dressed.

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

As the animation circles roared back to life, rejuvenated by her offering once more, Kamilla took a deep breath in order to calm her mind and re-establish the mental link until she could clearly 'see' her workplace. There, in the circle across from her, the red scarf, with it's healthy glowing soulcore waited patiently for her to give it her attention yet again and she happily obliged. It was time for the second last step, which was the creation of the Astral Body which would enable the golem to move it's physical body and perform the actions it needed to.

The creation of the Astral Body was simple enough, by pouring energy and focus across the circles Kamilla reached over into the destination circle and began using the influence of her mind to gently knead and spread the tiny soulcore, stretching it slowly out within it's new shell. It took quite a while of slow coaxing before the scarf's perceived form was completely filled with the healthy lavender glow of it's Astral Body, up to the very ends of it's corners. With the link between the golem's Soulcore and it's physical body complete, Kamilla was ready to teach it what it needed to know, beginning with how to perceive the world.

Since the golem didn't have any reflective surfaces that it could use for sight, Kamilla had settled on making it rely entirely on vocal commands, assuming that the material itself would be able to hear the vibrations of her words. She had done this part to golems before and it didn't take her too long since she had already given the scarf the knowledge of what her voice and each command sounded like. All she had to do now was teach it how to hear, which she did by speaking those same words over once more and focusing on the subtle vibrations her words caused against it's physical body, so that it knew what sound was. Once that was complete, Kamilla readied the black scarf which lay on her lap inside the source circle so that she could teach her golem the final lesson, how to perform the movements that came with each command.

There were four overall, the first being the basic scarf state, "Scarlet: Neck." she said, transferring the sound of the command as she put the black scarf over her neck, before taking the left length and flinging it over her right shoulder so that the scarf would know exactly how to follow the command. Once that was done she moved onto the second, Scarlet: Bust." and with that, she placed the end of the scarf at the edge of her back and wrapped the rest around her chest tightly until she could tuck the other end neatly in to complete the step, sending that information over as well.

The third state was the wrap, which it would perform when it heard the command, "Scarlet: Wrap.", holding the scarf length wise against her back, Kamilla pulled each end neatly and tightly upwards over one of her breasts and then around her neck where she tied each end firmly. Fourth and finally was the phrase Scarlett: Release. which she did not have to illustrate, instead just transferring the idea of limp lifelessness to the destination circle.

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

Finally, with all other steps complete, all that was left for Kamilla to do was awaken the sleeping golem so that it could begin it's life in the real world. This process, like the creation of the soulcore, was simple, through her link to the circles she need only will the creation into existence, breathing life into it with the power of her soul before finally severing her link to the circles which ceased to hum with magic energy until the room was left in silence and Kamilla's eyes opened, wide with excitement, as she reached over to lift her new creation.

The young sorceress was eager to test her golem out and wasted no time in placing it over her neck for the first position, "Scarlet: Neck!" she said loudly before patiently waiting for the scarf to tie itself, but it remained still. Sighing slightly, Kamilla spoke once more, a bit louder this time, "Scarlet: Neck!" but once again, to her confusion, the golem didn't respond. She tried the command out again, several times with the same result before she began to get nervous, had she completely failed? No. She'd seen it's soulcore, knew it was alive, so why? Couldn't it hear her.

"Scarlet: Neck!" she tried again, though this time in an unnaturally low voice that sounded like she was trying to imitate a man and finally, the red scarf jumped to life, it's left end rising and flinging itself over her left shoulder, drawing a confused but satisfied smile from her. Why had it worked now but not during her previous attempts? Had it responded to the lower voice? Deciding to first test its ability to maintain a position before it's responsiveness, she pulled the end from her shoulder only for it to fling itself back into position to her great satisfaction.

Moving on to the next issue, Kamilla tried the next command in her regular voice, "Scarlet: Release!" but yet again the scarf didn't respond, continuing to wrap itself each time she tried to pull it from her neck, letting out a soft sigh she tried the command in the lower manly voice and it responded, releasing it's soft hold on her neck and allowing itself to be removed. Kamilla went on to try the rest of it's positions which it performed well-enough except it seemed that it only responded to her faux manly voice, which she found extremely odd.

The issue was not with the commands or recognising her voice, she was sure of that, so it could only have been with it's ability to hear, which... now that she thought about it, made a lot of sense. Usually, sound was perceived through a leather membrane which was pulled taught somewhere on the golem, but her scarf was made of a much lighter and thinner silk, which apparently wasn't able to feel, or hear, the lighter vibrations of her regular voice therefore explaining the need for a heavier lower voice. The golem was still functional, but it certainly was a disappointing result, considering that she'd have to pretend to be a man everytime she wanted it to follow an order.

All in all, the experiment had been a success, with it's own unique pro's and con's, which she'd learn from. The scarf, Scarlet, was capable of tying itself as long as the command was spoken in her lowest voice and the glyphing enhancement to the animation circle had been successful. Kamilla had also noticed an inexplicable attachment to the object the moment she'd created the soulcore, it was faint but notable, perhaps a result of using her own soul as a template? She could only hope that the loyalty and authentication directives functioned properly since she was unable to test them at the moment, but at least she'd accomplished what she'd set out to do and could finally get dressed and turn in for the night. She was freezing.

Secret :

Name: Scarlet
Item: Red Scarf
Commands: Scarlet - Neck/Bust/Wrap
Description: The scarf is loyal to Kamilla alone and is able to tie itself and maintain one of three different positions on command, as long as it is spoken in a very low manly voice.

[Orin Fenix]

Kamilla

Skills

Planning 3
Organization2
Observation 3
Glyphing 2
Animation 5
Intelligence 3
Drawing 1
Meditation 1
Teaching 2

Lores

Not Okay with Nudity
Glyphing: Focusing Animation Circles
Animation: Creating a Soulcore
Animation: Creating a Persona
Animation: Instilling Directives
Animation: Loyalty Directive
Animation: Authentication Directive
Animation: Using a Prop to Shape Demands
Animation: How Creations might Hear

Rewards/Consequences

I'm going to PM Ink to add the magic scarf to your SS thread.

Notes :

A really great Animation thread and I absolutely loved the fact that Scarlet only responds to Kamilla's 'man' voice. Can't wait to see what she comes up with next.