When he mentioned that there might be danger just by being in possession of the box, Tock shrugged and replied, "Meh..." She was from Sunberth... she was
pretty sure she could handle anything Zeltiva threw at her. Though of course, that very confidence could turn out to be her undoing.
When he asked about making a copy of the box, however, she smirked and sat back, considering it. When she took her hands off the box, it grew still, though she could tell it was just waiting for its chance to make a break for it. "I'd need some silver," she said. "An' if'n ya want 'er ta be
really convincin', I'd 'ave ta animate the copy too. Otherwise anyone what 'as magic ta sense it could tell the difference..." She paused and thought about that for a moment. It would take her a couple of days to make an animated copy, which seemed pointless. She could probably have this one figured out faster than she could animate a convincing replica.
"But if'n ya jus' want somethin' what would pass at a glance, I could do 'er in wood," she said. "Take a couple 'ours, tops. Would just need a paint job, or somethin'. I got some paints 'round 'ere. I'll get 'er done..."
"An' don't worry 'bout my 'ouse," she said, letting out a small cackle. "I done got...
security measures, I do." As she said this, a slight scurrying sound was heard, though the source wasn't apparent.
She grabbed some scrap wood and started taking some measurements to make the replica. While she was working, he mentioned he was a Nuit. This drew a glance and an arched eyebrow from her. "Aye?" she asked. She had studied a little bit about the Nuit in her Animation classes. "Oy, ya ever need patchin' up, jus' lemme know. I wouldn't mind gettin' my 'ands on one o' y'all. I's gonna learn ta
make y'all soon 'nough." She grinned. While most people would be most uncomfortable around a Nuit, she just thought of it as a learning experience.
Once he left, she quickly assembled the facsimile box. The basic body was just a couple of wooden blocks nailed together. Then, to make the silver coating the most believable, she pulled some silver mizas out of her purse. Laying them out on the table, she used her mallet to flatten them out with a series of hard, rapid strikes. Smooshing the metal gave her a set of very thin silver discs. She then screwed these onto the box, piercing the thin metal with the screws to hold them in place. She made sure to align the screws in the same places on the box as the original. After that, she added a few little gears and parts from the
broken clock she had salvaged. Then finally, she took out the black and white paints she had bought when she
made her own homemade chess set. She mixed some together to make a grey paint, experimenting with the mixture a bit until it was reasonably close to the shade of the silver box. It lacked the metallic shine, but it would pass a cursory glance.
She used the paint to touch up the edges of wood that weren't quite covered by the metal. When she finally finished, she had a box that more or less matched the animated one. From ten feet away, a quick glance would easily mistake the fake one for the real one. Any closer than that, and a careful inspection would easily tell the fake.
To add one final touch, she decided to add a bit of magic to the box. She set up a pair of Animation circles on the floor, and added a drop of blood. Using herself as the source, she began the brief ritual to create the Soulcore, binding it into the box. She didn't add any directives, any persona, or any muscle memory. She merely forged a primitive soul, and bound it in place. Once she was done, she tied off the weaves of spiritual energy for a partial awakening. Normally, a partial awakening would only be done if an Animator needed to test the construct; for example, a golem could be awakened in order to check its intelligence, or let it try out its programmed skills. If they proved inadequate, or the golem turned out not to be smart enough, it could be returned to the circle for another round of programming.
In this case, the awakening served the purpose of binding the Soulcore to the box, so she could remove it from the circle safely. Without any persona or muscle memory, the Life Principle in the fake box was basically nothing more than the life found in a plant. It couldn't think, couldn't move, and had no programming. But it was technically alive. That way, if an Aurist or someone with the ability to sense life in some way came for the fake box, it would still detect as an Automaton with a simple soul.
She sat the fake box next to the real one. "Whatcha think?" she asked the box. It flexed one of its hinges at her, making a disapproving squeak of metal. "Aww, be nice!" she told it. It squeaked at her again, stubbornly.
oocI've marked off ten silver mizas for the shell of the fake box.