[Wright Memorial Library] Wanna Build A Bigger One? (Kaeson)

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 7th, 2012, 2:57 am

"Parts?" she asked, looking up from her work. "Oy... nah, mate. Not fer somethin' full-sized. I can get wee scraps, easy. But proper materials costs money..." Money SHE didn't have, that was for sure. Her boss didn't mind her salvaging the cut off end pieces and other scraps from the job site, but she doubted he would just GIVE her anything big. And a man-sized Automaton needed full sized lumber, not to mention a LOT of gears and such.

"Buildin' materials 'r in short supply since the storm, too," she said, scratching her head.

"We could steal 'em," she said with a shrug. "Or go cut a tree down. Or try ta find money what fer ta pay for 'em..." She listed all three options with the same serious tone. They were all viable options to her.

"Meanwhile, we can start wit' the small stuff," she said. "'Ands an' stuff. Cause 'ands is made up o' small pieces. Small pieces I can get..." She laid her hand down on a piece of paper and started tracing it, then took some measurements. She carefully checked the width of her fingers, the space between the knuckles, and every other dimension. Once she was done she gestured for Kaeson to offer up his hand. "Oy, gimme 'at," she said, and if he didn't put his hand on the paper, she'd just snatch it up and put it there herself. She needed multiple samples to get a good idea what dimensions to use for the Automaton. Likely enough, she wouldn't be able to get fully functional hands. Hands were hard. There were so many moving parts. But, if nothing else, she was confident that she could make a hand that would be able to grip objects. It wouldn't be able to perform complex operations, like using tools or playing a musical instrument, but it would be able to lift and move things. That was a good step up from poor little hands-less Anne.

by **Kaeson Dakano** on May 7th, 2012, 4:47 am

Kaeson almost laughed when Tock suggested stealing the parts for the automaton. Almost. Realizing she had been serious, Kaeson frowned at the idea. "No, I don't think we'd have to go that far for a basic automaton," he replied coldly. He would preferably buy the necessary parts, but Tock was right. Zeltiva was still in short supply because of the storm and Kaeson didn't doubt the parts would be expensive, maybe a little too expensive for him. Kaeson sighed thinking about their options. He could justify cutting down a tree, it wouldn't be too much effort to plant another one. "But stealing?" scowling at the thought. Not him, he wasn't that desperate.

Kaeson put the thought behind him, deciding to worry about where to get the parts when they needed to get them.

He handed Tock his fist, still slightly offended at the idea of stealing parts. But Kaeson did as he was told, stretching and flexing his fingers to allow Tock a better understanding of how she would need to build the automatons hands.

Looking over Tock's designs, Kaeson noted that the automaton was much more complex then Anne had been. More complex then he thought it would be. He leaned over to Tock and asked, "Do you think we'll need help for the designs? Do you think you could get one of your teachers to go over them?"

OOC :

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 7th, 2012, 5:14 am

Tock shrugged and nodded, agreeing with Kaeson's point. "Aye, 'e's not complex 'nough what fer ta need the really good stuff," she said. "Ain't no need ta go stealin' wood. Not like it's Metagold, or somethin'." That stuff was so rare and expensive that stealing might be the only real option.

She finished up her sketches of the hands, and started comparing numbers. She felt like she needed a bigger pool of measurements. Later, she'd have to coerce some of her classmates into lending their hands. She needed at least two dozen, she figured, in order to have a good sample size. Then she could work out some decent averages for finger width, handspan, and knuckle spacing.

"'Elp?" she asked distractedly, never looking up from her designs. "Oh, aye. I'll 'ave my professor take a look at 'em. Depends though... 'ow advanced ya want 'er ta be? I's jus' workin' on makin' sure she can grip things, now. I figure, she needs walkin', an' good 'ands, an' basic movements. Ya know, 'nough what she can 'and ya tools, carry stuff. 'At sorta thing. Take a couple a' days what fer ta carve out the limbs, if'n 'ey's gonna be up ta snuff. Might need a couple'a prototypes, too." Building an entire functioning humanoid was still beyond her. But mixing magic and construction had certain advantages. She couldn't begin to design the complex gears of a whole golem yet. But she could start with just a hand. A hand was doable. And she could build up from there.

oocNo worries! You're posting more than fast enough. I only get impatient with people who make me wait like, days and weeks for replies.

by **Kaeson Dakano** on May 9th, 2012, 3:00 am

Kaeson shook his head, looking over Tock's designs. They were complex and far too detailed for Kaeson to understood. Before Anne, Kaeson had never tried to build a shell for his own animations. Actually, If he was being completely honest with himself, Kaeson still had never built his own shell. Tock had done most of the work with Anne, if not all of it.

"I mean, we'll be putting a decent amount of time in this project, right? So, why not go all out? As far as my animation ability goes, I can get the automaton understanding and speaking basic language, taking basic orders, responding to certain stimuli in a predictable manner -- whatever. But at this level, all of that could take days. And THAT's if we're lucky. Realistically, an animation this extensive should take at least a week and a half, not including half-awakenings or accounting for a faulty animation."

"I say, let's try for a basic automatic assistant." Kaeson grabbed his original design, and began listing what he would like the automaton to be able to do, saying, "The automaton should be able to understand and respond to a various number of oral commands, it should be able to cope with a broad emotional spectrum, and respond to a variety of naturally occurring stimuli in a predictable fashion. I think it's primary directive should be to keep its workspace clean and orderly, and it should have a security initiative as its secondary directive." Kaeson smirked, adding "and it should open doors."

Looking at Tock, he asked, "What do you think?"

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 9th, 2012, 3:55 am

Tock sucked on her teeth as Kaeson started listing all the commands he wanted to program into the Automaton. That was definitely beyond her current Animation skill. She was still programming emotionless machines with basic movements, nothing more. But she could learn from this experience. She'd be better for it in the long run.

Plus, she got to build it.

"Need ta program 'im ta understand basic tools," she added to the 'to-do' list. "So's as 'e can 'and us the right ones. Probably won't be able ta make 'im super smart, 'course, but 'e should be able ta know what's what. If'n I says ta 'im, ''and me 'at wrench,' I wanna make sure 'e's gonna 'and me the right size one, aye?"

She finished the preliminary sketch of the hand, and thought that it might be a good idea to look into starting the basic construction. She needed to test a few things out with hands-on processes before she continued on to the second stage of the blueprints. If the first try at the hand didn't work out as planned, she would rather know what needed adjusting now, rather than finishing an entire set of blueprints and needing to start over.

"We need a parts list," she said, grumbling. Where they were going to get the materials for something this big, she didn't know. But she went over her blueprints, multiplying height, width, and length of the various pieces to get an idea how much wood she would need, and how many gears and such as well. She came up with a preliminary list, with estimated prices for anything she could guess for:

-24 square feet of wood planks, 2 inches thick (24 GM)
-30 feet of Aluminum rods (for the skeleton) (?? GM)
-20 lbs of gears/springs/clockwork parts (?? GM)

She frowned at the list. She could use the tools in the University Gadgeteering lab, but they could only provide students with parts for small projects. She wouldn't be able to get this much material from them.

oocBased on the complexity we're planning here, we'll probably need to plan on doing more than one thread on this Automaton. I'd say we can continue the current thread through the rest of the planning phase and some of the preliminary building, along with figuring out where to get the parts. Then a little further down the line probably start a new thread for the main construction and animation.

by **Kaeson Dakano** on May 11th, 2012, 3:09 am

Kaeson scratched his head, messing with his already unruly hair.

Kaeson made a face at the price list, sighed and looked helplessely at Tock. "Well...well, we could...y'know." Kaeson closed his eyes, slightly embarrassed by his somewhat pathetic attempt to brainstorm an idea for funds. Sighing again, Kaeson mentally recounted their ideas on how exactly they could get the items necessary for the project.

"Alright," he said, "You had a couple ideas for getting the wood, yeah? Stealing --," Kaeson paused coldly after he said stealing, trying to emphasize his distaste with the notion. Kaeson continued, "Cutting down a tree, which was the better idea. At least I thought so." Closing his eyes, Kaeson slowly debated the idea. "Of course, that would leave us without the aluminum rods and the gears...which we need. I mean, it would have to be a pretty decent sized tree too." Looking down at the list Tock had made, Kaeson confirmed,"Yeah, definitely more then a couple small ones. A bigger tree would probably be the best bet. You think we can just cut a tree down? There wouldn't be anyone to stop us, right?" Kaeson asked this with a tone of worry in his voice. Growing up in Syliras hadn't exactly left him with an admiration for authority.

Continuing, Kaeson added," and of course, the most obvious idea would be to just buy the stuff we need, but that would also be the most expensive plan of action too." Kaeson sighed, thinking about their options. "Maybe...maybe instead of actually buying the parts, we could barter?" He suggested, frowning. Kaeson couldn't speak for Tock, but there was little to nothing he could offer Zeltiva aside from the odd animation. Jokingly, he added,"I could start selling seaweed cures of the side."

Staring at the intricate designs on the libraries ceiling, Kaeson started, "Well...we COULD loan the parts." It wasn't something he would preferably do, considering loaning the parts generally ment in returning the finished project. Of course, if Kaeson didn't use his own soul then he might not be so unwillingly to part with an animation.

Returning his color changing gaze to Tock, he asked,"So, what do you think?"

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 11th, 2012, 11:09 pm

OOCYou should get an avatar picture

Sometimes I have trouble picturing Kaeson's face without one.

Minerva didn't even notice Kaeson's distaste for stealing. Where she came from, law and order didn't exactly reign supreme. Sure, there were people to try and stop you from committing a theft, but a lot of Sunberthians didn't think too hard on it, unless you stole from them or theirs.

But then she hit on the prime solution. "Oy, 'ere's what we do," she said. "We take a wagon outside the city. I can get my Bossman ta loan me one, easy 'nough, long as she's jus' fer a day. We 'ead up the 'ills, and ain't nobody what's gonna care if'n we cut a couple o' trees down out 'ere. 'EN we's gonna take 'alf what we got, an' keep 'er fer ourselves. 'En the other 'alf, we sells fer a right fine price o' barter wit'. One good ol' oak tree's got 'bout three, four 'ousand pounds o' wood, she does. Be a lot o' work 'at will, but if'n we 'aul one o' 'ose suckers back 'ere, the 'alf we sell done gonna fetch us a good thirty mizahs, easy peasy!" She grinned wide. "An' we don't 'ardly need no metal, so 'at'll cover 'er, fine!"

"I'll get a couple o' me mates ta 'elp out," she added. "Give 'em a few mizahs what fer lendin' a 'and. Whatcha say, mate?"

OOCLumber price estimated as follows: Best Google powered estimate I could get on the weight of a full grown oak puts the low end of the weight range at around 3000 lbs. Assuming half of that is kept for this and future projects, we can sell 1500 lbs. of wood. Price list is 1-10 GM per 50 lbs. I would assume that we only get the 1 GM based on using Novice skills the wood won't be fine enough quality for a better price. 1500/50 lbs = 30 GM.

by **Kaeson Dakano** on May 11th, 2012, 11:56 pm

OOC :

"Sounds easy enough," Kaeson said, glad to finally have an answer to their problem. While Kaeson wasn't entirely sure how he felt about leaving the city, knowing he could get some money out their excursion was more then enough of an intiative to silence any worries Kaeson would have had otherwise.

Looking back over their designs, Kaeson asked,"So that about covers it, yeah? Once we have the wood, we just need to buy the metals needed and we can start building?"

[spoiler=OOC] ahhh! This one is so short, sorry

. I'm still a little brain dead after finals haha. Anyway, do you just want to assume they both said goodbye and then start of your thread heading off to the woods to get the wood?
Also, just a question but what are storyteller secrets? I've noticed a lot of people have those and I don't really know what they are...[/OOC]

by **Echelon** on May 13th, 2012, 4:37 pm

Adventurer's Loot

A Gift
Experience is its own reward.

Kaeson's Loot :

Tock's Loot :

(I'm surprised malediction wasn't mentioned during the book at some point.
If you two made the gadget to help the city in some way, say perhaps help build buildings. Or to help your boss' crew then your boss might give you a discount on materials. Make sure you bring a forester with you, could get dangerous. Don't forget to add in the prize of tool maintenance. STr Secret thread is where DS RS and Founders can leave notes about you and your character. If you want one ask a DS, RS, or Founder to get one started for you. But, if one is needed they should let you know.) - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, please PM me.