[East Wing] Does Everybody Know What Time It Is? (Solo)

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

When she came into her Animation class with a sack full of metal poles slung over her shoulder, she got a look from Professor Claudia. "I ain't gonna build it in class!" she quickly protested, not wanting her work to be confiscated. "I jus' didn't 'ave time ta drop 'er off back 'ome 'fore class..." "Very well," Professor Claudia said, "just be sure they remain in your bag..." Tock eagerly nodded. Professor Claudia could intimidate the hell out of her sometimes. She unhooked from her crutches and took a seat. Professor Claudia stepped up to the board, and started etching a diagram. "Today class," she said, "before we return to our Animations, I'd like to discuss something I saw a few of you having trouble with yesterday. Creating the Soulcore." Tock sighed, and slumped in her seat. She'd learned all this back in her apprenticeship with Archimaneus. She knew how to make a Soulcore. She'd made almost a half dozen so far. She didn't NEED this part. But when Professor Claudia gave her another look, she sat up and paid close attention. The Professor sketched a diagram of the Animation circles, and drew in the common symbol for a soul in one, and a Soulcore in the other. "Based on my observations last class, I believe the biggest problem some of you have been having is in understanding the relationship between soul and Soulcore," she continued, turning to face the class. "Several of you struggled yesterday with creating the Soulcore. Can anyone tell me why?" Her eyes scanned the class, but everyone was silent. Finally, her gaze fell on Minerva. "Miss Zipporah?" she asked. Tock cringed. "Oy, I didn't 'ave no trouble!" she protested. Why was the teacher calling on her. Professor Claudia sighed, and stepped forward. "That is exactly the point," she said. "I'd like you to share with the class why you were able to create a Soulcore so quickly, when they could not." Tock shrugged and replied, "Cause I done it before..." Wasn't that obvious? Professor Claudia gave her a patient smile and said, "Yes, you studied Animation for a year and a half in Syliras, I know. But surely when you began you had the same trouble the rest of the class is having...?" Tock nodded and said, "Aye, 'course." Professor Claudia held Tock in her gaze. She started squirming in her seat. Finally, the Professor asked, "Could you tell the class how you overcame the setback?" Oh. She wanted Tock to help teach everyone. "Oy, why didn't ya say so?" she asked. The Professor sighed, and Tock continued, "'Ey's probably doin' 'er wrong. Tryin' ta make the Soulcore. Ain't gonna work 'at way." One of her classmates turned to her and asked, "What? But that's exactly what we're supposed to do... make it." Tock looked to the Professor, who simply folded her hands at her waist. She seemed to enjoy getting the students to discuss this amongst themselves. Tock sighed and said, "Oy, ya ain't 'makin'' nothin', aye? Iz like, does ya 'make' a baby in yer belly? Naw. Jus' grows 'ere, aye?" She got blank stares from her classmates. "It ain't nothin' ya can build. Gotta jus' let 'er grow off o' ya own soul. 'At's what a Source is fer, anywho." There were some murmurs from around the class, and the Professor walked up to the chalkboard, tapping on her diagrams. "Who can relate what Miss Zipporah said to our basic principles here?" After a moment, a girl near the front raised her hand and said, "The symbol on the right is the one for 'child'." She pointed to the symbol that represented the Soulcore. The Professor nodded. "When creating a Soulcore," she said, "you are not 'building' it, as Miss Zipporah says. Many of you spent last class focused purely on your creation, trying to make a soul within it. That is incorrect. The process starts here," she laid a hand over her own heart. "Find your own soul. Look inside yourself. That," she paused and held up a finger, her eyes scanning the students, "is the key. Find the energy within yourself, and then simply let the Djed flow to channel it into your creation. The Soulcore will be birthed from within you, or from within the Source you use." The class nodded, many of them taking notes. Then the Professor dismissed them from their seats to continue working on their Animations. Tock had nothing to Animate here today, so she just watched, and begrudgingly offered some pointers when her classmates asked her questions about the process. But really, she just wanted to get home and finish Choppy.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

When she got home that night, she had renewed determination to finish building Choppy. She'd spent some of the night in the library, and had bumped into Kaeson. They had a new project planned, and there would, as it turned out, be chopping involved. She would need a few more days to finish things up, and had to push Cutty up on the "to do" list as well. Sweepy would just have to wait. Throughout the rest of the night, and then again the following day, she worked on assembly. She ended up bringing home more parts from the lab, enough to build a total of three pairs of legs. She did as much of the assembly in the lab as possible, but left a few key connections undone until she got home. She finished assembling Choppy first. She hooked the handle into the clasp she had assembled earlier, screwing it securely in place. She then clamped the axle down to her table and stuck a slab of wood at the other end to test it out. "Watch out, yous..." she said to Naily and Bitey, shooing them away. She grabbed the axe, gripping it just under the head, and hauled it back. The springs tightened, and she released it, and is slammed forward, chopping hard into the wood. Tock cackled with glee, bouncing up and down in her crutches and clapping her hands. She tested it a few more times just for fun. "Bwa ha ha, yer gonna be a 'beaut, ya are!" she told the axe, petting it lovingly. Naily rolled up to her foot and tugged on her pant leg with his claw, his wheels squeaking like a whimper. She sighed and crouched down to lift him up, nuzzling him lovingly. "Oy, don'tcha get jealous now, aye? I still loves ya, too!" The hammer rubbed against her face happily, then she set him down and got back to work.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

With the axe attached to the axle, she hooked on the legs, using simple joints in the shape of orbs. Ball joints were a good way to get decent mobility in a simple construction. She also attached leather strips to the handle and a few small glass lenses that would let the creation hear and see. Then came the complicated part: the feet. To get the effect she wanted, the feet needed to be able to grip. She based the design somewhat on a bird's claws, with three metal strips pointed in different directions. She attacked basic joints on the tips that would allow them to be bent, with another set of metal strips, followed by another joint and another strip. The end strips were sharp and pointed, almost like blades or gouges. The result was a three-segmented "toe" that could bend far enough in for a clenching motion. It wouldn't be able to properly grip things like a REAL hand, of course, but she didn't need it to. As long as it could bend the claw and dig it in to grip on something, without needing to perform fine manipulations. She continued until she had six identical legs in this design. Two of them were connected to the axe. The result was that the axe could stand, looking somewhat like a stork with its long, thin metal legs. The ball joints on the "waist" and "knees" could flex in multiple directions, which was the advantage of using a ball joint over a hinge joint. This would allow the legs to spread out and brace themselves, with the feet bending inwards to grip the ground. This would give the creation more balance and stability when it was chopping. The other pairs of legs were attached to the handles of her woodcutting saw. Once animated, it would be able to walk on four legs, with the saw blade stretched across between them like a spine, the cutting teeth on the bottom like its belly. When the saw needed to cut, it would do so by "crouching" over a piece of wood to lower the saw belly onto the wood. Then, the legs would yank one way or the other to drag the blade across the wood, rocking back and forth until it cut all the way through. The clawed feet would let it grip the ground for better leverage during the cutting. Tock spent the night and into the next morning getting the legs assembled, and testing the joints to make sure everything moved smoothly. After a little more tinkering here, and some adjustments there, she felt that they were ready. She crawled into bed, with Bitey curling up on her stomach, and Naily nestling under the covers at her side, dreaming of bringing two new members of the family to life tomorrow.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

She started by Animating Choppy. Before work that day she settled in to begin creating the Soulcore. Just as with Naily, it was a simple and well-practiced process for her now. She set the axe in her Animating circle, which dominated the floor of her small home. With the drop of blood added to power the circle, the process began. Her joy over her recent creations made finding that part of her soul all the easier. She used herself as the Source this time, channeling a drop of her soul through the circles, carried on flows of Djed until it splashed into the axe. She once again kept the directives simple: obedience to her, so the axe would obey her commands. Love and affection for her. Simple Joy at the work it would perform. It would lack true intelligence, just like Naily, but be smart enough to obey simple commands. Things like "chop" and "stop" and "come here". She closed off the channel when she realized it was time for work. The axe remained where it was until the end of the day. She scooped up Naily to bring him to work, piloting her crutches out the door and heading down for a long day of construction. When she got home later that afternoon, she was eager to get back to work. Her boss had been... hesitant about the animated hammer, but she had quickly alleviated his concerns by demonstrating how fast Naily could work. The little tyke had rolled around the house they were assembling all morning, seeking out nails to drive in like it was a game. The only flaw in the little guy was that he couldn't reach very high. When they were assembling the wall frames on the ground, before they were lifted into place, he had tons of work to do. But once the frames were raised and the workers were up on their ladders nailing boards in place, he had been forced to watch, rolling from one end of the house to the next, craning his head up to peer at the nailing being done far above his reach. Tock had felt so sorry for her baby that she had set up a little ramp with some wooden planks, so he could roll up it and reach some of the higher places. Back at home now, Tock set Naily down and let him chase Bitey around the room while she continued her work on Choppy. She programmed the axe with basic commands, and the principles of the chopping motion, then worked on the harder task of teaching him to walk. This took a few hours of work, transferring her memories of walking, standing, crouching, and stepping up and down stairs and over obstacles. Then she was due for class again, and had to pause once more.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Animation class today was another in depth discussion of Philosophy. Professor Claudia seemed obsessed with Philosophy. She constantly reminded the students that it was crucial to sculpting a proper soul. "Today class," she said, writing in large letters across the chalk board, "we will be discussing art." There were some confused mutters from around the room, and one student raised his hand to ask, "Umm, art? What does art have to do with golems?" Professor Claudia turned to face the class and gave them her expectant look. The one that made them all know one of them would have to answer the question. A girl at the back bravely raised her hand and said, "We could make golems that paint pictures?" There were some giggles from around the room, but Professor Claudia didn't look impressed. "Anyone else?" she asked, looking around. Tock tried to sink down in her seat, hoping not to be noticed. It seemed like that just drew the teacher's attention to her. The Professor's eyes fell on her expectantly. "Ahhh..." she scratched her head, looking around uncertainly. "Well, if'n ya make yer Golems creative, they can think fer themselves better." The Professor folded her hands at her waist, and asked, "And how will a knowledge of art improve a Golem's thinking?" "Umm, well," she paused, thinking out her answer. "'Stead o' jus', like, doin' what ya tells 'em an' nothin' out, if'n 'ey's creative, 'ey can come up wit' 'eir own ideas, n'stuff. O' 'ey can like, know 'ows as somethin' is s'posed ta be pretty. So like, if'n ya made a golem what fer ta be a gardener an' grow food, if'n 'e knows art, 'e could grow pretty flowers an' stuff too?" She shrugged. Growing flowers seemed pointless, but she figured that could be the sort of answer the Professor wanted. The girl who mentioned painting raised her hand again and asked, "But... doesn't that give them too much freedom? Doesn't that make you lose control?" The Professor looked at her and asked, "What is freedom? Or better yet, what is control?" No one had an answer. The Professor returned to the board and started listing a series of emotions: pride, joy, sadness, hope, fear. "Complex emotions are often beyond the understanding of even the greatest philosophers," she explained. "So how are you supposed to fully transmit them to your creations? You must come to understand them, first. One of the most pure ways to understand emotions is through the expression of art." "How does that help?" the one girl asked. "I mean, if we can't understand emotions, how can we understand art?" The Professor scanned the class again, awaiting an answer. Tock looked around, and saw no one was offering anything, so she slowly raised her hand. "Well," she said, "maybe it's like... ya don't ever know 'ow ta explain 'at yer sad, but ya can look at a paintin' o' somethin', an' be like, 'Oy, 'at's a sad paintin'.' So's as it's like, ya can see 'sad' right in front o' ya...?" The Professor turned to the class and said, "And what core principle does that reflect?" After some uncertain murmurs, the talkative girl said, "Simplicity in design?" The Professor offered her a rare smile. "Correct," she said. "When something is too complex to transmit to an Automaton, you can simplify it by giving the creation a good basis for comparison. Explaining 'sadness' to a Golem might be rather difficult. But showing it a painting of people suffering, sad faces, dark colors, and gloominess will express things that go beyond words."

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

After class, Tock finished up her work on Choppy, teaching him how to walk and all the movements he would need. Part of the time was spent mimicking the chopping motions with her arms while she sat in the circle, and watching as the Automaton, linked to her soul, mimicking the movement. It swung the axe in a wide arc, working through the movements, and memorizing the motion. Once the muscle memory was complete, she gave him his True Name, "Choppy!" and snapped her fingers, sending the last spark of Djed to wake him up. The axe shuddered, then lurched to his feet, wobbling back and forth a bit. Tock clapped, pushing herself up. She hopped on one foot over to the axe and hugged it, losing a few stray hairs as the axe head came quite close to clipping her face. "Oy! Welcome ta the family!" she said, squeezing him tight and cackling. She waved to the others and introduced them. "Choppy, 'ese is yer brothers, Bitey and Naily!" The axe hobbled over towards them, moving a bit lopsided as it felt out the balance in its weight. Eventually he settled on leaning his head towards the ground, hanging between his legs. He had an easier time moving that way, and when he stopped and stood in one place, the axe head was lowered to rest on the floor in a relaxed stance. Naily rolled around Choppy, 'sniffing' at him, his wheels squeaking like a curious bark. Choppy turned towards him, prodding him with the back of the axe head (since he was programmed not to "chop" without direct commands). The hammer rolled away from the axe head, lowering his head to stare at it. Choppy lowered his head back to the ground, and Naily rolled forward again, an inch at a time. Choppy swung up towards him again, and Naily rolled back, whimpering. "Play nice!" Mommy Tock told them, then hopped over to grab Cutty, and drag him into the circle. The Automatons wandered the room while she returned to work, drawn only by their animal-like instincts and crude intelligence.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

The process was much the same animating Cutty. Tock implanted a Soulcore, and programmed it with the same basic commands to obey her, love her, and enjoy its work. She imbued into it the simple concept of the sawing process, the back and forth motion requiring little else in terms of understanding. Unable to understand true language, she would simply direct it to follow basic commands. The longest part with Cutty was teaching him how to walk. She ended up needing extra time to get it to coordinate four legs, even though it was easier for this construct to maintain its balance. She ended up spending twice as long teaching it to coordinate its movements as she had on the others, continuing long into the night. Finally, yawning and rubbing at her eyes, she named him, "Cutty, wake up!" and sent the life spark of Djed into him. The saw shuddered, and rose to its feet. Tock cackled, and waved him over to her. "C'mere, Cutty, come to Mommy!" she said. Drawn to her voice, the saw trotted over to her and nuzzled her, and she leaned back, laughing. "Oy, watch ya teeth, 'ere, baby!" She kissed her creation on its handle, patting the side of the metal blade lovingly. Then she called her other creations over, pulling Bitey into her lap, petting Naily as he nuzzled her leg, and slipping an arm around Choppy, and cackled into the night.

[Arcane]

Despite her efforts, Minerva would soon realize that Cutty was a malfunction. It sometimes listened to her commands, but would sometimes ignore her completely, continuing to do what it was doing or simply remain inert. As time passed by, she would soon realize that her other 'babies' - Choppy and Bitey, for example - would begin to avoid Cutty, treating it as if it was something dangerous. A malfunction in an animated saw. If she did not seek to address this issue, or worse yet, fail to diagnose and understand such a problem, greater tragedies may occur.

[Arcane]

Rewards and Treasure! Experience Points +2 Observation +2 Philosophy +3 Animation +1 Subterfuge +3 Gadgeteering +1 Teaching +1 Mathematics Lores Animation: Necessity of Intentional Limitations Animation: Importance of Accentuating Certain Principles Animation: Source Priority Dominance Animation: Process of Soul Core Creation Animation: Simplicity of Design Animation: Expression of Emotions through Art Miscellaneous Naily, Animated Golem Choppy, Animated Golem Cutty, Animated Golem Comments Aha sneaky Tock! Let me know if you really do smash some toes xD Still, I find myself fascinated by your interpretation of Animation Excellent writing, as usual. Highly amusing and entertaining Regarding the items you've made, be sure to describe them as you had with Grippy and your crutches in your CS. However, a few things to take note: 1) Even super simple animations would take up to an afternoon's work, and especially at novice level Naily would have taken more than the time you implied. I won't penalize this since it's your first mistake, but please be aware of it in future threads. The Animation Lore described a much simpler construct than Naily that required an afternoon's work, surely Naily would take even longer. Of course, when you get better at Animation, you can reduce the amount of time needed due to experience. 2) Note that materials all cost money. I am giving you the benefit of the doubt when I assume (in this thread) that they were made for class. In future threads, please specify if you are making things as personal projects or for class projects/homework/assignments. The former would cost money, while the latter would generally have to be submitted for grading by the professor. This must be reflected in your writing, though I'll be happy to play the part of the professor at the end of your thread if need be.