[Wright Memorial Library] The Things We Do For Love (Solo)

[Satevis]

84th Day of Spring, 512 AV The 81st night of spring had been a particularly eventful night for Satevis. What started out as an ordinary night had ended up in him getting roped into helping set up a puppet show, getting dragged halfway across town to convince a businessman to give up wood for said show, getting assaulted by an animatronic spider. getting forced to apologize for scaring said spider (that part still made him scratch his head), and getting kissed by one Minerva Agatha Zipporah, known as Tock to her friends and 'that crazy gadgeteer' to others. Unsurprisingly, it had been the last part that was still weighing heavily on Satevis's mind three days after the fact. Honestly, he still wasn't sure how he felt about her. He cared about her, and he was attracted to her, but he had only known her for about fifteen days now, far too soon for him to consider feelings that went deeper than that. Tock was a creature of impulse--he knew that part of the reason she had kissed him was because it was what felt right at that exact moment in time. She wasn't the sort of person who made a habit out of thinking in the long-term, about abstract things like emotions and feelings. There was a certain amount of whimsy to the things she created--Bitey the spider, for example--but for the most part, Tock was practical, focused on the here and now. Satevis, meanwhile, lived for the abstract, the unknown, the far-reaching consequences of present events. It was in the nature of an Ethaefal to consider the ramifications of things, to wonder how one event changed in the present would later affect the future. He didn't like not knowing things about himself. As such, his own feelings for Tock were subject to constant examination, and to internal debate. But that was not why he was at the library. He was here because when he was at Tock's house, at some point between the kissing and the spider attacks and the emotional consideration, his attention had drifted towards the animation circle that she had drawn on a large part of the floor of the workshop she called a home. And as he studied the simple circles, the chalk lines that would channel Djed into something that would give an inanimate object a soul, he had been struck by an idea. One that just wouldn't go away, and demanded that he act on it if he ever wanted to get any sleep at night. It was the reason he was sitting at a table in the library late at night, one book on animation spread out in front of him and three books on glyphing stacked in the corner of the table beside him. In a sense, he, Satevis, wanted to build something for Tock. But not in the sense that she built things. He couldn't hope to compare to the way that she crafted wood and steel and glass into things that contained life and movement, nor could he hope to build anything with a hammer and traditional tools. He was not a carpenter or a craftsman. But he was a wizard and a scholar, and there was more than one way to build. He wanted to build magic. His eyes moved furiously, determinedly over the page, skipping over the parts about specific techniques and reading in detail the parts that explained the process and mechanics behind animation. He wasn't trying to learn how to animate anything, but he would need to know as much as possible about the theory of the way the Djed flowed through the circles, because in the end, he was no animator, and he didn't intend to be. His right hand moved over paper, taking down notes in rapid Shiber--Shiber in case she found his notes, because he fully intended for this to be a surprise. He had already gone to his professor earlier in the week, asking for help with this idea. That he decided, had been a slightly awkward conversation, but interesting nonetheless. "Professor?" he asked, knocking on the door of the woman's workshop before entering. Professor Westwood looked up at him, a frown on her face. There were chalk glyphs all over the table in front of her, and it was clear that he had interrupted her in the middle of something. But she sighed, setting down her piece of chalk and turning to face him. "Yes, Satevis?" she asked. "Pardon the interruption," he said. "I'd like to ask a...theoretical question." "I'm listening..." she replied. "And I told you to drop the 'professor'." He ignored the last bit, because it had become almost routine at this point, instead thinking about how to phrase his question. "Suppose...a novice glypher wanted to enhance the animation circles of another mage--also a novice animator. Would that be possible...and how would he go about doing that?" Professor Westwood frowned, one hand on her hip as she studied him carefully. She folded her arms, meeting her eyes with a stare that told him he was fooling nobody. "This is for a girl, isn't it?" In his Benshira form, the flush on his face wasn't as noticeable, but it was there. "Maybe..." he admitted. "All hypothetical, of course." "Right," said Professor Westwood, raising one disbelieving eyebrow. "Hypothetical. Of course. Well...the novice glypher would...hypothetically have to do as much reading as possible on the process of animation, especially if he wasn't an animator himself. Then, he would have to make use of path-type runes to enhance the efficiency of the animation circles. He would have to carefully draw each rune, because the slightest mistake could end up breaking the circle...and make whatever novice animator he is...hypothetically trying to impress very angry." "It's all a question of efficiency," she said, frowning at him. "You aren't at the level where you can do much more with glyphs besides make other forms of magic more efficient. But in a circle without glyphs, especially used by a novice, a lot of the Djed gets lost in transition, transformed into other states before it can even reach its destination. Draw the right glyphs and you can minimize that. Draw the wrong glyphs and you'll be looking for a good florist...or a healer, if you and I are thinking of the same novice animator." She grinned slightly. "...Of course, if he showed his 'hypothetical' professor his plans before even attempting to implement them, she might be able to see whether or not his glyphs will help. Understand?" He nodded. "I think so," he said. "Good," she said. "Now get lost. I'm busy." The last part was said good-naturedly, so Satevis nodded, thanking her politely and leaving the workshop. That was how he had ended up in the library, reading as much as he could about the process to make sure that he didn't make any mistakes. Satevis flipped the page of the book he was reading, his eyes scanning over the next one. This was the second book on the subject that he had read in the past three days, and he was starting to get an idea of what he could possibly do. Next, he had to draw it, and then the runes to go with it. He flipped his blank book to the next page, beginning to draw.

[Satevis]

The first step was to replicate the basic animation circles. Satevis had found a diagram in one of the textbooks that matched the circles he had seen Tock use, and he began by copying that, slowly and carefully replicating the image on the blank page in front of him. While it was still a plan, he would be basing the final design off of this plan, and he needed it to be as accurate as possible. He drew the source and destination circles on the page, drawing little arrows beside the lines to show the theoretical flow of Djed from circle to circle. At this point, his readings had shown him that it was fairly straightforward. A link was formed between the source and destination circles, and behavior and actions were copied from the source and transferred to the destination, carried by Djed. At high levels, the book mentioned customizing the circles using complicated sigils with paths and switches to achieve various effects, but those things were beyond his ability. The best he could do now was implement the same principles he used when drawing glyphs on the palms of his hands for Reimancy, adding a glyph here and there to improve the connection between the two circles and speed up the animation process. First, though, he had to decide what glyphs to draw. Satevis left the animation book open to the relevant page, pushing it aside and reaching for the first of the glyphing books. He flipped it to a section on animation, studying the circles that were illustrated inside the book. They were more complicated than anything he could make at the moment, but they did give him a good enough reference to start with. He could pick out one or two runes in the illustrations that he recognized and that he had worked with in his glyphing class. It was those one or two runes that he focused on for now. He fully intended to do more in the future, but there was no point in breaking her animation circles because he tried to do more than he could reasonably do. The most obvious place for energy to be lost was in the bridge that connected the two circles. Satevis focused on that first, drawing a quick representation of the rune 'korad' at both ends of the bridge. The rune meant 'to tie together' and he was hoping that it would act as a pathway for magic between one side to the other, thus minimizing transfer time. He also sketched the rune 'daraq' on the inside of both circles, indicating the equality of the two things to be stored there. At the center of the bridge that connected the circles, he sketched the rune 'pond', hoping to balance out the power in both circles so that neither circle would contain an overflow of Djed or be lacking in it. As a final touch, he added the rune 'yaq' for 'curve' at strategic points along the diameter of each circle, hoping to encourage the Djed to curve and thus not escape the animator's circle. Finally, there was the place where an animator would place a drop of blood, and the place where the object to be animated would lie. In that space, Satevis sketched the rune 'djas' to represent the animator and the rune 'nader' to represent the automaton. The first meant 'oneself', the second meant 'shared'. He wasn't sure about the application of the last two, but he knew that his professor would tell him whether or not they were appropriate. His plans completed, he packed up his things and left the books in a neat stack. It was too late to bother Professor Westwood now. He would show his plans to her tomorrow, after their glyphing class.

[Satevis]

85th Day of Spring, 512 AV He managed to catch Professor Westwood outside of their glyphing classroom, making her way back to her workshop. Satevis jogged a bit to catch up with her, falling in step beside her. "Professor, do you have a minute?" he asked. His professor turned her head towards him, a slightly impatient frown on her face. "Only if it's actually a minute," she said. "The glyphs in one of the alchemy labs have started to wear out, and I'm needed." "Of course," said Satevis, drawing his book out of his bag and flipping it to the page where he had drawn the plans. "I was just hoping you could look over these for me." She gave him a knowing smirk. "Your hypothetical plans, you mean?" she asked. "Those," he replied, nodding. Professor Westwood gave a long sigh, holding her hand out. "Give them here," she said. "Let's see what you've gotten yourself into." He handed over his plans obediently, and she frowned, studying them carefully. Satevis watched her face, trying to gauge her reaction, but her expression didn't change as her eyes trailed from one rune to the next. "I hope these aren't the actual glyphs you're going to draw," she said. "Because I feel it's my responsibility to tell you that this quality is atrocious." He shook his head. "They were just quick sketches," he said. "I didn't want to waste time drawing something that might not make it to the final product." She nodded, continuing to study the sketches. "Good call on the 'daraq' runes. Bridge looks stable enough, maybe a little redundant, but at your level some redundancy is probably for the best. 'Djas' and 'nader' are good ideas, but you'd need to work them into a sigil with the 'daraq' runes, and you're not at that level yet. I'd say scrap them, unless you just want a fancy placeholder that tells the animator where to put things. The 'yaq' runes are good, but you'll need to make sure they're completely evenly spaced on the final circle, or you'll just be messing with the Djed flow. Overall, I'm happy that you didn't try to put beginning and end runes on a circle. You have no idea how many of my students have tried that before." "I thought about it," Satevis admitted. "But I couldn't find the beginning." "A circle has none," said Professor Westwood, handing him back his plans. "It has no end either. That's why it's such a useful magical shape. Anyway, these look good, assuming you can draw them." "That's what I'll be working on later," he said with a nod, tucking his blank book back into his bag. "Thank you for your time, professor." She nodded in response, and he left her alone, watching as she made her way over to the alchemy labs. The problems with the glyphs there must have been severe, he noted. She didn't scold him for calling her 'professor'. He walked off towards the astronomy tower for his meeting with Professor Cyril, his thoughts turning back towards his circles. Overall, he was pleased. Besides the two runes he hadn't been sure of in the first place, she approved of his design. So now all that was left to do was to make sure he could draw them.

[Satevis]

It was nighttime again when he found himself sitting at the library, his plans and a book on glyphing spread out in front of him, along with several loose sheets of paper. He'd crossed out the 'djas' and 'nader' runes that Professor Westwood had informed him about. At his level, proper runes took a while to draw, and he wasn't going to waste time drawing something that was useless. Tock wouldn't appreciate it either. She would probably see it as something taking up space in her circles. No, for this particular glyphing project, each rune had to have a purpose, and one that he could easily explain if he was asked about it. That left him with a total of nine runes to draw, of four different types. Now came the boring part. He had to practice drawing them. Satevis considered himself fairly adept at picking up new concepts and ideas. He could process theories and understand how one thing went with another to create a whole. So reading up on animation, designing the enhanced circles, and explaining the purpose of each rune had been familiar territory for him. Unfortunately, this would all be moot if he couldn't draw the runes correctly, and that fell into a completely different category. That was applied magic, the type learned only through experience. If he wanted to explain to Tock how glyphs could enhance her animation circles and make the process easier, he could do that right now. But if he actually wanted to implement it, he would have to gain that experience. So he got to work. He started with yaq, copying the rune from reference onto the page. It was slow going--each line needed to be transferred as carefully and as accurately as possible, or the glyph would fail. The glyphs looked different for each glypher, but they needed to be the same in essence, which was a complicated thing to grasp. A competent glypher could draw runes and sigils with relative ease, but for Satevis, who was still new at the art, each rune took some time to draw right. He drew the rune again and again, smoothing out lines, taking note of common mistakes, and generally familiarizing himself with the process of drawing it. His actual runes would need to be bigger than the little runes on the plan, so he drew them to the size he would draw them on Tock's circles, except with ink instead of chalk. Once he thought the yaq rune was satisfactory, he drained the cup of tea at his side. Since it was nighttime, he didn't actually need anything to drink, but the tea helped him stay awake, and he needed the cup. He set the empty cup down to his left. Satevis dipped his quill in ink and lightly drew the rune on the tip of his index finger. This would be the final test for each rune, to see if they could carry magic. He drew the yaq rune carefully, and when he was finished, he put his quill down and pointed off into space. Satevis concentrated, expelling a small amount of gaseous Res from his fingertip. The Res struck the rune, curving off to the side in a wide arc instead of going in the straight line that he had commanded it to. Satevis grinned in triumph, manipulating the Res into the cup and transmuting it into water. One rune down, three to go.

[Satevis]

He worked on pond next. This would be the balancing rune, the rune that made sure that Djed flowed between the two circles at a steady rate. Because of its nature and because of how pivotal it was to the piece, Satevis spent extra time getting it right. Thankfully, he would only need to draw one of these runes, so he could afford to take a few more minutes to smooth out unbalanced lines and rough portions in the drawing. When it was time to test the rune, Satevis drew a pond rune in ink on the webbing between the forefinger and thumb of his left hand. He rubbed out the remnants of the first rune, then held his hand out, expelling Res through both his forefinger and his thumb. He could feel the flow of Djed inside him shift to account for the pond rune, a balanced amount of Res flowing from each digit. All the Res went into the cup, where it was then transmuted into water. Another success. It seemed as if his careful planning was not in vain. Next, the daraq runes, the runes for equality. He would need two of these, one inside the source circle and the other inside the destination circle, to represent the equality between the mind of the animator and what was being transferred to the automaton. While the pond rune existed to maintain stability of the circle overall and the yaq runes were there to create a stable Djed flow, the daraq runes were the only runes in his design that specifically assisted with the programming of the automaton. They would hopefully make the information flow smoother and faster, and create a stronger connection between animator and automaton. They were also complicated little runes because although slight differences in glyphs could be allowed, these specific daraq runes needed to be exactly equal to one another. They were the hardest runes he had drawn into this design, and it had surprised him that Professor Westwood had allowed him to attempt it. But he was willing to take on the challenge. He focused on drawing each daraq rune the same, drawing them in pairs and comparing the two. He filled two pages with daraq runes before he was satisfied, then decided to test them. For these, he drew one on the tips of the index finger and thumb of his left hand. He held his hand out, focusing only on sending Res through the index finger. Two streams of silvery Res appeared and flickered in the air in front of him. One came from his own will, a silvery stream appearing in the air above his index finger. The second, though, poured through the daraq rune on his thumb, mirroring the first. He picked up the damp cloth beside his cup, wiping off the still wet ink. Satevis picked up his quill, beginning to write again. One more rune. Korad. This was the bridging rune, the rune that would create an affinity between the two circles. It would act as a magnet of sorts--as the Djed passed through one rune, it would be immediately attracted to the other. Or at least, that was how he hoped it would work. He practiced drawing the korad runes. Unlike daraq they didn't need to be exactly equal, but draw them too different and each rune might not recognize the other as its pair. So he drew them in pairs, taking only slightly less care than he had for daraq. When he was ready, he drew a single korad rune on the corner of his sheet of paper. Satevis tore the piece out, blowing on the rune to dry it. He set the piece on the table, then drew another korad rune on his index finger. Satevis expelled Res through his index finger, watching the movement of the silver stream. It curved through the air, striking the other korad rune and dissipating across the table. Satevis drove the Res into the cup, transmuting it into water and shaking out his writing hand. He grinned, looking down at the results of his handiwork. Seven sheets of paper filled with runes of varying sizes and quality, and a cup filled with Res-generated water. Each of his final runes had worked. He was done. Well, almost. There was one last thing he would have to do before he would show his work to Tock. But that, he could handle tomorrow. It was close to midnight by the time Satevis packed up his things, leaving the library.

[Satevis]

86th Day of Spring, 512 AV By the time late afternoon rolled around on the 86th, Satevis was sick of glyphs. He had spent most of the day redoing the glyphing homework that Yvera had destroyed when she and Tock were taking turns trashing his dormitory room. He had had Yvera do most of the room cleaning, so he would at least have a place to sleep that night, but unfortunately, no one could redo his glyphing homework but himself. The runes he had written had at least been legible so Satevis had been able to copy them onto a clean sheet of paper, but that had taken more time than he would have liked. He'd decided that he was going to finish the glyphs for Tock today, though, and he meant to do that. If he waited any longer, she would be finished animating the puppets, and he would be too late. So, his design in hand, he made his way to one of the empty workshops on Professor Westwood's floor. He had made arrangements with his professor the day before, explaining that he wanted to draw the circles himself first before attempting to enhance someone else's circles. She had agreed and told him that she would be willing to look over his work when it was done. Satevis set his bag down by the door and moved the table out of the way so that he had floor space. Then, he reached into his bag and drew out a piece of the chalk he had bought at the marketplace earlier that day. The Ethaefal stared down at the small piece of white chalk, frowning. This had been the reason he had walked in on what appeared to be the aftermath of a tornado this morning. Well...in fairness, it was this piece of chalk and the fact that the women in his life were apparently all insane. A wry voice in the back of his mind reminded him that that spoke volumes about his own sanity. He ignored it, laying his notebook open on the floor. He got down on his hands and knees, beginning to carefully draw the circles. It was a little more difficult drawing in chalk than it had been in ink, but he managed to get the basic circles down. An actual animator would probably be able to point out the mistakes that he had made in his drawing, but the quality of the animation circles themselves was not important. It was Tock who had drawn the base circles for this. He was only adding the glyphs. They took a little longer than they had last night, mainly because chalk as a medium of writing was a lot more unwieldy than a quill and ink. Many times, he found himself frustratingly scrubbing out his runes and trying again, attempting to replicate the delicate lines and thin strokes that he had spent most of last night drawing. At length, though, he finished, standing up and looking down at his handiwork. His hands were covered in chalk, and patches of white stood out against his dark clothing. He wiped some of the sweat off of his brow as he surveyed his glyphs, a slightly proud smile on his face. He didn't let himself celebrate yet, though. Professor Westwood still had to see them. Satevis left the workshop, going across the hall to fetch her. She was working on something as he entered her workshop, and judging from the way she immediately covered it up with something else as he entered, he had the feeling it was related to their grades. Professor Westwood frowned, looking him over. "Well," she said. "You look like you got into a fight with a piece of chalk and lost." "That might be more or less what happened," he said, smiling slightly. "But I finished." "Did you?" she asked, getting up. "Alright, let's see it." She followed him back across the hall, into the workshop where he had left his finished glyphs. Satevis stood aside as she walked around the design, trying not to fidget. He was fairly confident in his design, but he had always felt uncomfortable being present when his professors looked over his work. He forced himself to stand still, though, folding his arms and waiting for her verdict. At length, she nodded. "Looks good," she said. "Simple, but good. If you can draw this exactly the way you did here, it should work." He let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you, professor," he said. "Don't forget to clean up and lock the door on your way out," she said, making her way out of the workshop. He nodded. "I won't," he said. She paused at the door, turning her head to face him. "Oh, and Satevis?" He frowned, looking up at her. "Yes, professor?" he asked. "Good luck," she said, as she closed the door. "You'll need it." As he thought about his situation with Tock, Satevis realized that he really couldn't argue with that.

[Arcane]

Rewards and Treasure! Experience Points +1 Writing +1 Subterfuge +4 Glyphing +3 Drawing +1 Mathematics +1 Reimancy +2 Copying Lores Glyphing: Enhancing Animation - Improving Efficiency of Djed Transmissions Useful Magical Shape: A circle has neither beginning nor end Glyph of Restriction: Yaq Rune Glyph of Balance: Pond Rune Glyph of Equality: Daraq Rune Glyph of Bridging: Korad Rune Miscellaneous None Comments Haha love the 'hypothetical' part. Your NPC characterizations are excellent! Good job on your portrayal of glyphing, it's interesting and creative If you're curious as to where the mathematics come from, it's for the little nugget of knowledge of the circle Despite multiple usage of Reimancy, they are all considered too easy for a Competent Reimancer, and so I cannot award more XP in that area I hope my Lores are correct, if I understood your writing properly. If there are any mistakes, or you wish for any clarifications or revisions in this grading, please feel free to PM me Finally, my favourite sentence: "You look like you got into a fight with a piece of chalk and lost".