[Flashback] Body Language (Reaver)

[Rayage]

Rayage continued to examine the thing as in disbelief that magic could do that, but then again, he shook his head, those were fool thoughts. Magic could do anything, he was sure of it; you just had to figure out how. Anything was possible, and that he firmly believed, but only through magic because it is magic that makes gods, or so he thought, and to be a god you have to be powerful like one. A straight forward concept, but one that his hardly achievable; although one day, he nodded to himself, he will be a god, and with that an even greater agent of change. He watched as the thing had difficulty moving because of Reavers actions. He nodding taking a careful step closer as if the thing could bite, ”Sadly” he shook his head again and crossed his arms, right over left, drumming his fingers against the sleeve of his cloak. ”You don’t have weeks to perfect this golem. It will succumb to decay and even if you could slow the decay of the body you still have to think about the principal of half-lives.” he said, ”So, time isn’t on your side. You could work against the clock, but” he smiled a fools smile, ”Its not advisable for it would be a waste of effort when the body is gone. He made his declaration. ”Though, your ability is impressive, no doubt you have quite some talent for magic. I like that” he continued to observe the girl, ”These things are made by artificial souls,” he paused to collect his words, ”Do you think their ‘orders’, or what they are taught can be swayed by Hypnotism? Can you add onto your creation once you’ve put the soul in it, or is it more of a one time thing?” he braved the question already forming an answer in his head, but he wanted the answer, the real answer, from the expert before him. He didn’t think they would be, but there was always that small chance, and one that could factor into just how advanced you would want to make this thing. ”And,” he pointed to her, ”It will keep those movements up until it is destroyed?” If Reaver had the resources there was no telling how far he could go with animation. This nuits progress will be very interesting indeed. He would have to keep an eye on him. There was nothing with more potential than a mage learning an art. There was so much about this art of Reavers that he didn’t know about. He would have to keep his eye out for books on animation so he could get answers to the questions that Reaver didn’t know the answers to. Books were always his best friend.

[Reaver]

"I don't adjust my golems after they are created, that's silly. I would practice on other things, of course. I did not mean to imply this exact golem would receive more attention."

Reaver sighed, He likes magical talent? "Hypnotism? I haven't thought of that, it might take a lot of effort to make it capable of being affected by something like that. It might be really easy, depending on how the art worked. Sounds almost fun, it might be good practice. Do you know a hypnotist?" Reaver paused and looked to Rayage for a moment, before remembering there were other questions asked. Shifting his weight, he continued on. "I could also teach things to learn, given some time to practice. It makes the most sense to do it all in the first step. It's hard to add to or replace the artificial soul, I have not successfully done it yet." Another pause, as it appeared he was calculating some sort of plan. "Didn't I answer that last question already? No? I have yet to see something last longer then my work."

After a while, Reaver hesitantly asked another question. "So, could I try your magic circle out? I have a few questions I'd like to see answered. If the danger inherent is significant, perhaps I could wait."

[Rayage]

There would be a small fire in the nuits eyes as he listened, nodding occasionally to let the other know he was in fact listening. Questions were not his strong point, and asking the same sounding questions over again made him look like a fool, like something he didnt like. He never liked anyone he considered to be foolish in any way, shape, or form. Though yet here he was making a fool of himself. He didnt word his question correctly and after being asked if he had already asked this question he shook his head an clarified, "I meant, does it ever grow tired, slow down?" he asked trying the best to convey the question more clearly. "Though to answer your question I do know a hypnotist. Well, I did, but right now Im dabbling in that art." he explained himself, "And I was just wondering if that magic could effect the behavior or modify it after it has been created." he shrugged, "That is all." And that really was all. Now considering the last question he looked towards the alchemy circle and crossed his arms, "You want to try it out after only seeing a simple demonstration? Aren't you afraid that you will break something? Lose control of the Djed, or something even worse?" He asked all those questions to get the mage to consider the consequences of his actions if such were to be taken. Magic isnt to be taken as lightly as hey can I try out your art with barely even background knowledge? With barely any research and only a simple demonstration to guide my way? That was asking for something bad to happen. He slowly paced back and forth thinking over his options before smiling and stopping, having thought of his answer he turned to him, "My current circle is much too big for a beginner, but Ill still let you try it." he said, the catch coming up, "But Ill be activating the circle as well so if I feel something go astray I can stop it before anything too bad happens" or that was his hopes. Nothing though can be counted on as face, and therefore nothing can really counted on, not even this plan. There was still a chance that the circle could do something terrible, but with Rayage also controlling the circle the chance of that is greatly lessened. He had read about this, a master helping his student, and this was how he was taught when he had a master. This was how he was taught in the beginning, and so why not implement this training technique to give Reaver a small taste of Alchemy? It couldnt hurt. "So, how does that sound?" he asked.

[Reaver]

"I meant, does it ever grow tired, slow down?" Reaver held a pause there, debating if he wanted to answer at all. "The magic part doesn't."

"That is all." Reaver eyed the Nuit across from him carefully, thinking rather hard. "Then try it. I haven't seen anyone try."

Three questions, all easy answers. Reaver didn't wait to reply. "Yes, all. It won't stop me if I have the chance. I'm, a bit too fond of the unknown I suppose. Given your questions, I've already learned something more then I knew before."

"My current circle is much too big for a beginner, but Ill still let you try it. But I'll be activating the circle as well so if I feel something go astray I can stop it before anything too bad happens" Reaver fought back a rush of excitement. Such a feeling never mixed with magic. "So, how does that sound?" "Like words I will take into action. Blood, then, is used to activate this circle as well? What exactly will I be doing to prevent an issue, and what must be done to complete the process?" Reaver will remove the pages he had set on the circle, setting them aside. He looked to where Rayage had set the water for the simpler demonstration, and looked around for more.

...Kinda, blah post. Not because I'm tired this time, just... felt like something was missing.

[Rayage]

Rayage smiled at the mages eagerness to learn something. He wished he still had that fever, but now its more concentrated on Alchemy and the advancements that can be brought about with its power. Although he doesn’t have near the knowledge of Alchemy that he was sure the alchemists of the past held, but he his skill wasn’t to be laughed at either. That was for sure and that he was positive of. He would only nod as Reaver challenged him to try it. He would make a mental note to try in the future. That would be interesting, but then his mind flickered to alchemy again. ”Fondness of the unknown makes legends.” he smiled at him before considering the question he was asked. There was so much to explain, but he could do a simple explanation. Yes, he nodded to himself, just enough to give him a taste of his art. There would be a silence falling on them as Ray collected his words. Moments passed into chimes as he thought, standing there about perfectly still, until he came back a light flashing in his eyes as he had found his words. ”Blood does activate the circle as was shown in my last demonstration.” he answered that question simple enough as his eyes wandered about the room looking for something to transmute, ”You want to prevent an issue…” his voice kind of trailed off as he just allowed himself to wander mentally, ”the most important thing is to focus. Focus is the key to any good transmutation.” he nodded, another simply answered question. ”Alchemy is a simple art in theory, but anything can sound simple. In Alchemy there is a circle, this circle is called the Doorway, and though it anything can be changed. As one door closes many more will open. This concept is central in Alchemy.” he began to explain, ”Anything can be made in Alchemy with resources, but Im getting off track.” he laughed not wanting to bore him with rants, ”So, this doorway” he pointed to the Alchemy circle on the floor, ”and although the circle itself seems like whole it is made of two parts, two separate forces that interact and coexist to alter, warp the object placed in the center of the doorway.” Pointing to one of the keystones, ”And the forces are positive and negative, perhaps an allusion to good and evil and how both need to be present to make a up a whole?” he suggested before shrugging and moving on. It was evident that he had more to say on that but it was also so that he just wanted to get the explanation out of the way. ”Founts,” his hand moved to the northern part of the circle, ”Make up the positive half of the circle. Things placed in there will give their traits to the item that is being transmuted, while this other side” his hand swooped over the circle to point out the other remaining charges, ”are the Filters. The filters make up the negative side of the circle and therefore will take away from the transmutation. If objects with common traits as the fonts are placed in the filter side the common traits will be removed thus giving us control over the transmutation.” he said simply, ”Collectively founts and filters are called charges.” he nodded. ”Ive demonstrated Alchemy to you before so you know some of the things Ive already told you.” He told him giving him some sort of unsure look stepping towards the edge of the circle and looking down at it. ”Lets replicate the transmutation I did for you as an example.” He smiled going back to his desk and producing some more paper and ink before placing them at the edge of the circle, bottle of ink sitting on the paper, ”It will be easy enough” he nodded his head agreeing with himself as he disappeared into the other room and came back shortly after with a cup of water. Going back to the pile of ‘ingredients’ he set the cup right by the ink, but not atop the paper, ”So, do you remember how it went?” he challenged the nuits memory of the demonstration he had done before. Taking a step back he glanced at the supplies gathered there and then back to Reaver, ”Put the items in the correct places and then we can proceed from there.” He instructed testing the undeads observational skills. This was going to be more entertaining than he thought. Maybe he needed, or wanted an apprentice. Too bad he couldn’t see that happening. Once the elements were placed in the circle, correct or not, he would nod at Reaver, ”Now you want to activate the circle.” he would instruct, ”With just the tiniest bit of Ichor. A little is all it takes, and then I want you to feel the connection with the objects within. I want to feel the djed that lies inside each item, and I want you to will it to move, will it to start following the line, going in the circle.” he had a smile as he was saying all of this. It excited him to even talk about Alchemy, ”Then you will it to move faster and faster and keep on going. Concentration is the key here.” he reveled to him, ”Concentrate on feeling the energy move faster and faster around the circle, and then when you feel at any moment you will lose control of the energy that is when you take your hand off and will all that speeding djed to the center of the circle.” his voice would raise a little as he went on, ”And that is how you transmute an object.” he concluded as he stepped to the opposite side of the circle. ”Now that you know what to do, do you have any questions or do we want to start?” he asked kneeling down at the keystone waiting for a response. If he chose to continue then Ray would nod and prick his finger with a knife and place the wound on the keystone, not influencing the djed in any way, but monitoring it, keeping a careful eye on it and its flow so if by any chance the other would lose control of the reaction he would be there to pick it up and hopefully stop the reaction altogether or just prevent anything too bad happening.

oocYeah, I know what you mean. Even mine feels a little off as well :/

[Reaver]

OOC 1The darker blue is his thoughts. It didn't feel right to leave it white.

”Fondness of the unknown makes legends.” Reaver couldn't hide his sudden enthusiasm. "And corpses, but I suppose I've already become one of those." He ran over the things told to him in his mind. Once done, he mentally recapped what he felt was important. Blood to activate, like any circle. Focus, like Animation. You use a doorway, with positive and negative sides. You set Charges on the positive and negative sides. Positive is added, negative is removed. ”So, do you remember how it went?” He looked to the ingredients, with no idea as to what went where. He could look to his notes, but he instead put them down. He was determined to think it through. That's right, he used paper, ink, and water. The paper was in the middle, and turned black. The paper turned black, but was not wet. So, he had the ink on the positive, making it black, and removed the water, making it dry. Reaver picked up the ink, and moved it over to the positive side. Taking the water next, the negative side. "Observation is moot, after such a nice lesson." He got another quick lesson on how it worked, but this time the process itself. Blood again, and focus. Feeling the Djed of the items involved. That much, he knew. He recapped the lesson given to him, for it was very different from his magic after all. ”Now that you know what to do, do you have any questions or do we want to start?” "So, I will the Djed to spin as fast as I can without losing it, then force it into the center? Sounds... not simple, forthright? Challenging, depending on the speed of the energy required. I suppose the damage around the room explains what happens if I lose focus, and the reaction with the girl explains what happens if I need more energy. I have many questions, now, but not about this test. I suspect I am ready for this reaction."

OOC 2Reply section done, now to try SCIEN, err, -ALCHEMY! *Reads description.* Ring is too large, which means no 'meaningful' results. I can do that.

Reaver noted Rayage had connected to the circle on the other side. He mused if such a thing could work with Animation, given some applications from this art. He removed his glove, and set it down near where he would be sitting. He took his needle, and drew his own blood. He moved to the other side as he did this, and found the key point he was supposed to place it on. He set his finger right where Rayage had before, and instantly felt the connection to the Djed. He felt the Djed of the founts, but not the filters? Strange, he did not understand the process after all. He traced the lines, feeling all the Djed available for the transaction. He ran his own Djed through one, two, three times. With a feel for how it worked, he started slow. He willed the ring to move. Nothing? No, a small movement. A very slow process. This is also the same. Reaver visibly relaxed, as if having found the final piece to a puzzle. He slowly worked with the Djed, getting a familiar feel to the process. He focused, not only on the flow, but what the process was doing TO the flow. He could feel it, some of the Djed was being, torn away... at the filters no less. So, the Djed at the filters are subtracted from the Djed from the Founts. Now I know how this works, on the outside. The Djed being forced in the middle adds all that Djed to the target? Now I suspect I really know why his reaction failed. Does the Djed around the outside simply add all its remaining effects to the host? Is there an override? It must be daunting to have so many variables in the equation. Reaver noticed his monologue had taken from his focus, and some of the Djed was now outside the ring. Regaining his focus, he took what he had left, and added a touch of his own to even out the reaction. With his own Djed placed within the reaction, his control increased. He knew it was time to work on the reaction itself, so that the teacher wouldn't see the effort wasted. He focused, and spun the energy around and around. As the speed slowly increased, he found it increasingly harder to focus on the entire circle at once. He cut out other thoughts, his body stopped moving, breathing even. His eyes weren't even attempting to focus anymore. He was now completely absorbed by the process before him. Even with this great focus, he couldn't build the speed up much beyond where it was at. Two, three times faster. As he could feel the Djed trying to tear away from him, he focused it inward, all at once, and removed his hand as instructed almost instinctively. His eyes refocused, now on his hand laying upon the circle. He began breathing once again. He found, though, that last step took some effort. He moved his body, stretching it a limb at a time. How long was that reaction? His body seamed quite stiff. He looked up, first to Rayage. He hadn't really moved, so perhaps he had managed to do something right. He looked around the room, minor damage close to the circle, some of the ink he had drawn there was rather burnt. Finally, he looked to the middle. There was indeed a square there, and it was black! ...Mostly. It wasn't as dark as the reaction was before, perhaps from the lost Djed. He leaned forward, and grabbed the paper before him, only to have it fall in half. He stared at the piece still in his hand, it was very aged, and almost... decomposed. He realized what happened, his own Djed from his damaged body had transferred that damage and age to the page. A very complicated art, but the complexities could be avoided or learned outside of the reaction, unlike my art. You could almost predict them... or not. He thought suddenly of the girl he had worked on earlier. "The first question, then, is what were you trying to remove from the lizards?"

OOC 3I can only imagine how hard that reaction was on Rayage. The sudden drop in Reaver's focus, twice no less, would be a lot of effort to try and control at once. Good thing he kept it at really slow speeds until he was ready to focus completely. After that, it would probably be simple to keep it together. Reaver's limited skills in Projection and Voiding both have some application to control and feeding Djed, which I took the liberty of granting him as an aid to his first attempt. OOC 4On the plus side, I have full confidence that my 'meh' from earlier was dispelled.

[Rayage]

Readying himself for when the nuit would try to activate the circle based on the instructions that he gave to him he found himself tensing up a bit, well at least mentally. He couldn’t believe he was letting himself do this, letting the other use his alchemy circle like it was some kind of toy, but it was too late to turn back now. He just had to hope that the other had good concentration because Ray knew firsthand how dangerous alchemy can be. He knew firsthand the power that was swirling around in the circle, the power to change the very thing in the doorway, the power to open new possibilities and the power to even create life itself. That was proven long ago with Pycons pioneering research and creations. He watched the other remove the glove that was on his hand and set it down. This was it; the circle was going to be active any moment from now. Watching the needle strike the nuits skin drawing precious ichor, the nuits connection to the rest of the world, he calmly smiled as the others hand came down on the keystone. Moments passes as the nuit kneeled there waiting for something to happen when finally he felt a slight trickle of energy. Reaver was getting it to move. Impressive. Feeling the energy trace the lines of the circle teasingly, well at least to the Alchemist present, he was half tempted to speed it up, but restrained himself letting Reaver have full control over the motion of Djed unless something seems out of place. Well so far so good, the nuit made the mistake of giving up vigilance for a second before noticing that the other didn’t have as much control over the reaction as he thought he did. Stepping in he focused himself to try to control the reaction himself. Pressing the wounded limb down harder he concentrated on controlling the swirling djed. To prevent anything ‘bad’ from happening he tried to slow the energy down himself before noticing that Reaver had regained his concentration on the circle. He wouldn’t be more lax in the future. Now watching the flow of Djed more carefully than ever he was once again an observer, a watchman for danger, he wasn’t going to have his lab destroyed by some newcomer who he was stupid enough to let use his circle. Silently cursing himself dumb, he continued to observe as the student seemed to grasp further control of the circle and of the energy spinning on the borderline. Not letting his guard down again he continued to watch, monitoring the flow, observing that with each passing second it seemed to spin a little bit faster. Very good. He was getting the hang of it. Little by little the speed increased and he just watched, sometimes putting in a little effort here and there for a time or two when the speed or ‘form’ of the circle was wavering, but so far he was impressed. Seeing the nuit so into the art made him happy as he looked over past the lines of the djed to him. Across the circle was a promising wizard, and to pick up something this fast and do so well at it was amazing to him. Or maybe he was giving him too much credit. Yes, that was probably the case. Looking at him he noticed the look in the eyes, the one that knew when something was done. Predicting his movements he let his hand slowly rise off the circle and stepped back waiting for what he thought was going to happen. Placing a hand behind his back he brought the other one around to clasp around the wrist. His cold eyes watched as he had guessed right and the mage finished the transmutation. After the energy dissipated he looked at Reaver and then to the black paper in the middle, well more like a dark grey color, but it was close enough for him. Although not perfect it was still very impressive considering that it was the mans first try at this, or so he assumed. When the paper would fall in half at the guys touch there would be an amused smile on the nuits face, he couldn’t help that he felt this was humorous. Though nevertheless he clapped, not once, not twice, but three times each time the tone broke the air with a sense of authority and belonging, almost begging to be looked at, ”I must say you did better than I expected.” he looked around his lab, ”There are no gashes in the walls or giant holes in the ceiling and the circle took minimal damage. I must say you are a very promising wizard.” he shook his head, ”But the transmutation cannot be overlooked.” he frowned at the crumbled mess on the floor, ”It was good, but as you see there are differences from my transmutation towards your own. No doubt skill plays a part in this, but it did acquire properties that were not in the equation. Do you know why this is?” He questioned him. Shaking his head as if dismissing some thoughts that he didn’t want to deal with he began to pace back and forth, three steps forward, turn, and three backwards. “What was I trying to remove from the lizards?” he asked suddenly returning to the topic that was brought up at the end of the transmutation. Ray wasn’t exactly the kind of guy to stay on one topic for too long, unless that topic be Alchemy. ”Well that has an easy answer, an obvious answer.”[/b[ he said, [b]”The lizard part of course. I was only interested in the scales.” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. ”Could you not see that?” he asked another question as if the other had offended him in some way, but the truth is he just really didn’t like explaining what he thought was obvious in an experiment.

[Reaver]

Do you know why this is?” "Of course, my own Djed had decided to make an appearance. This body of mine is reason enough for a page to fade and crumble. I have learned everything I needed, thank you. However, this nor that, I feel there is a more important topic. The first question, then, is what were you trying to remove from the lizards?"

OOCA real repeat there, he didn't repeat the line, that's just when he said it.

Reaver thought about the other's answer. ”The lizard part of course." "I suspect, a lizard with its scales on the plus side, and one minus its scales on the other." He thought on that comment a moment, taking the effect of the raw Djed into question. "Logic in sound, but after observing, I think I see why my first assumption would not work. The reaction would then have no way of knowing the scales were meant for the outside of the creature. Could be an interesting result, but not what I suspect you were aiming for." He thought on his topic a moment, then asked the question 'properly' the second time. "What did you use on the filter? I didn't ask the right question before. Having not seen the experiment itself, but the results, I can only speculate. Though, I suppose that's half the art."

[Rayage]

The nuit would only politely listen as the other talked and when he ended with a question he sighed. He knew that he was only trying to help, but explaining things was just so troublesome. Shaking his head his eyes drifting over the room as if he was at a loss of something to say, although those who know him, which are quite dead by now, would know he is never at a loss of words but simply debating silently the worth of the information verses the worth of person. The deciding factor, of course being if the nuit liked you or not, ”You are correct in your assumption that I used lizards without scales on the filter side.” the words seemed to pain him as they came out. Though why would be left a mystery, or at least up to inquiring. ”Observing, recording, and questioning results are the keys to moving forward.” He told him, ”The lizards were just that, an experiment. I’ve got my data, and perhaps it didn’t turn out quite the way I wanted it but it is something. I believe, as you told me that one day,” referring to the day they met, “everything has value.” It seemed the nuit was finally coming around to see the value in this after all. After much thought he would seem only slightly changed. ”Though, one of these days” he grinned, ”I will no longer be needing the value in everything and be able to dispose of what I will.” He left it with that. That final thought, that superiority to the world, that arrogant thought.

[Reaver]

Reaver thought about the words, and less about how they came out. It seamed Reaver had understood the procedure well, and had managed to even guess the answer from the results. He was proud of his guess, but careful not to let it show.

Reaver will grin, hidden behind his mask. This Nuit seamed to know his path in life, but that path was not next to his at this point in time. "Then, I shall leave you to your time. Its value grows as we spend time apart, I suspect. If you have more you would like to request of me, even if just another pair of eyes, I should always be capable of finding the time. I look forward to sharing more time with you." With his last line, he threw out another bow. This time it was simple, like a butler would do. He simply waved as he passed out of Rayage's sight. He made his way to the door, and paused a moment before leaving. Maybe he'll use the lock. It would be a nice change to know how to enter the place.

He spent the rest of the day writing carefully on his own mock formula, though with many sighs. He knew the odds of him earning the money for a miniature magic lab was slim.