Zeltiva Puppet Theatre Part III (Satevis)

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

87th Day of Spring, 512 AV (Initial events span 83rd to 86th days) After the stage was complete, Minerva spent the next few days getting the puppets ready. She had already sketched up her plans the first day she got the mad idea to put on a puppet show, and now it was time to get to work. She had five puppets to make, which meant a total of ten legs, ten arms, and a whole mess of flexible joints. She started off at home one day working on the main carvings for the bodies. The puppets didn't need fine details, but their bodies needed to be smooth and uniform, and they needed to be able to move cleanly. That meant careful measurements and precise carving. She started with a few dozen wooden blocks, carefully etching the outlines of each limb and body part with her gouges. Once the parts were outlined on the wooden blocks, she used her saw to cut away the excess wood. The thin slivers she cut off were tucked away in a box for later; she never knew what she would need for parts, and NEVER threw anything out. Then one after another, she began chiseling down the blocks to more finely- shape the wood. It was therapeutic work, and always made her feel better. Her life had been quite busy lately, between work, school, her personal projects, and the recent thing with Satevis. Not that she gave much thought to what was going on between them... but she still found herself thinking about him. Not about what was going on between them, or where this was going, or what it all meant, but just about him. His pretty eyes, the way his skin and hair changed color at night (which was damn sexy), the horns he grew (ditto), and his all around mysteriousness (which was the biggest turn on of all). Her thoughts kept drifting to him throughout the day, and made it just a little hard for her to focus. So she distracted herself by humming as she worked, making up a little tune with no words. It helped her focus, clearing away the excess thoughts, and keeping her mind on her task. She cut away bits of wood carefully, until each block was more or less the right shape. Then to get from 'more or less' to 'exactly', she took out the files and gouges, working the wood down to a smooth finish. She brought the parts to work with her, and worked on them more during her lunch break, or during a few times of the day when she was caught up on her own tasks and was simply organizing the workers and directing them what to do. She brought them to class (though NOT to Professor Claudia's class; she didn't want them to be confiscated!), and continued to work on them there. When each of the limbs and body parts were smoothed, shaped, and sanded, she started asssembly. She brought the bagful of itty bitty body parts down to the University Gadgeteering lab, working to affix joints to them. Small metal joints were carefully screwed in place, and she tested and flexed each one as she worked to make sure it moved smoothly. She affixed ankles, knees, hips, elbows, waists, and necks all with moveable parts, to give the puppets complete mobility. Their motions would be somewhat limited, compared to real human joints, but they'd be capable of performing all the poses she needed them to use. With the joints in place, she carefully checked them over, tightening screws with care, being sure not to tighten them enough to crack the wood. Then, for the final step, she affixed little glass lenses to the tops of their heads. These were crucial for the upcoming Animation work. She would paint them later, since the decorative touch didn't need to be added before the Animation process began. She brought the puppets to her Animation class, earning her a curious look from Professor Claudia. "What are we working on today?" she asked. "Puppets!" Tock said with a grin, holding the family of puppets in her arms. Professor Claudia clasped her hands before her and arched an eyebrow. "Indeed..." she said. "I've heard about the stage down by the Infirmary wing... I had not heard that the puppets were to be living." "Yup!" Tock said proudly. "Gonna be the best puppet show ever, 'is is!" She settled into one of the Animation circles and set to work. This was a simple Animation, with the most complex part coming during the muscle movement programming. She first added a drop of blood, and reached down inside to find her soul. The pride she felt in her work on the puppet show made it especially easy for her to find that place. Smiling, she drew forth the spiritual energy, and it enveloped her in a warm blue glow. She exhaled, relaxing, and letting the energy flow forth, a single drop of power falling from her and landing in the puppet. The programming was very basic. She gave the puppet simple directives of obedience, love for her, and gentleness with the children. Then she programmed its required responses. These were mere mimicry of human motions, without any sentience to dictate the movements on its own. Instead of the puppets being able to walk and move on their own will, they would respond to Tock's hand movements. Without any direction, they would simply sit and exist, but when she held her hands above them, they would stand and follow the directed poses. Certain arrangements of her fingers would indicate when they were to raise or lower their arms, turn to one side or the other, walk, sit, or perform any of the other required poses. It took her some time to program all of the required poses and ensure the newly formed soul would understand each hand signal she planned to use. She was forced to pause when the night wore on, and return after work the next day to continue teaching the puppet how to move. Once it knew the commands she would give, it had to be able to move its body. She worked through motions, linked to the puppet in the circles, taking her own body through the moves it would need to perform. Its body bearing a matching blue glow, it mirrored her movements as she raised and lowered her arms, and worked through the careful motions it needed to know. Once the process was complete and the puppet was awoken with the final lifespark, she moved on to the next, repeating the same steps. She spent the rest of the night starting the process over from the beginning, forming the second puppet's Soulcore, programming its directives, and teaching it how to move. "You can finish tomorrow," Professor Claudia told her late into the night on the 87th Day of Spring. She had been working all week on carving, assembling, and animating the puppets, and still had a third one to finish. She was getting a bit frustrated with how slow the process was. "I can stay a bit later," she said, eager to get to work on the third puppet. "Please?" The Professor shook her head. "So much work is going to tire your mind," she said in a firm and demanding tone. "Tomorrow." Tock sighed, gathering up her puppets and preparing to head home for the night. She was tired, and still hadn't had a chance to see Satevis today. In between all her work, she'd squeezed in some time to see him during the last week, getting her foot healed, going over the script with him, and of course, plenty of kissing. She belatedly realized that she was running late to meet up with him. She'd stayed in the Animation lab as long as possible tonight, wanting to finish. They had tentatively scheduled the actual puppet show for the 89th... which meant she would need to do the last puppet tomorrow. Which was going to be tight. Tock had work in the morning, her Magecraft lessons at night, and she didn't know if she'd have enough time to Animate the third puppet. Thankfully, Satevis had told her two of them could just be normal ones with strings. She ended up slumped in her seat in the back of the Animation lab, puppets laid out on the table before her, nodding off a bit. How was she going to get the last puppet done in just one day, when the rest had taken two days each?

[Satevis]

Satevis had headed towards his meeting with Tock in good humor today, despite yesterday's rough start. Today would be the day that all the work he'd done in the past week would pay off, and he was a little excited to see whether or not his glyphs performed the way they were supposed to. He had done every possible thing to make sure that they worked, but magic was by nature unpredictable. Unfortunately, it seemed like this also happened to be the one day that Tock just didn't show up. Satevis frowned, folding his arms and leaning against the wall as he waited for her. He knew better than to think she would forget, or that she would just skip their meeting. The puppet show had been her idea, and when Tock had an idea, she tended to see it through. Besides, she would have come to see him to have her foot healed if nothing else. But with that said, where was she...? He was struck with the sudden worrying thought that she might have gotten hurt again, or that something might have happened to her. He knew Tock could take care of herself, but it was night, and she was injured. Anything could have happened. Of course, he knew he shouldn't jump to conclusions. There had to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for why she was late. She might have been delayed working on something, or could have simply lost track of time. He waited for about half an hour, and then decided to go looking for her. He started in the East Wing, deciding that if Tock was still working on project of a magical nature, she would either be there or at her house, and he certainly wasn't going to walk halfway across the city without checking to make sure she wasn't on campus first. But the East Wing was large, and he had no idea where the animation labs might be. He finally found them by asking for directions from a few wandering University students, ignoring the looks that his Ethaefal form drew. Tock wasn't in the first two labs he looked in, and he was just about ready to head back and wait to hear from her when he looked into the third lab and saw her there, sitting in the back of the room with the puppets laid out in front of her. Satevis frowned, entering the animation lab. "Tock...?" he asked, approaching her. He paused, studying her. She looked...tired. Satevis felt a sudden pang of guilt as he looked at the puppets in front of her, suddenly realizing that this was what she had been working on. The puppets had been her idea, but he couldn't help but feel slightly responsible for all of this. He had been the one that had told her what to build in the first place. And it was a stressful time of the term, with projects and finals piling up left and right. "Tock, are you alright?" he asked gently, walking up to the table. Tock might notice that his Ethaefal form looked slightly different tonight. For all the other nights she had seen him, his hair had been a pale lavender gray color. But now, with summer's rapid approach, the color had begun to darken. For now, his hair was just a shade darker than usual, but he knew from experience that over the next two weeks, the colors would darken until his hair was a solid black. Thin lines of emerald green had begun to form on his horns, slightly breaking the pure white color that they had been.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock had just about drifted off to sleep when she heard the voice. She snorted and woke with a start, sitting up straight in her chair. "Huh?" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes and looking around. "Satey?" she smiled when she saw him, waving him over. Then she looked at the clock on the teacher's desk and realized what time it was. "Oy! Ahh, Satey, sorry! Didn't mean ta stand ya up, love!" She struggled to her feet, err, foot, and hopped over to him, slipping her arms around his neck and greeting him with a kiss. Then she clung to him, and closed her eyes again for a moment. Then snapped them open again and leaned back to look at him. "Oy, Satey love, ya awright?" she asked. "Ya ain't sick o' somethin', is ya?" She peered at the change in his hair color, and the green veins in his horns. That didn't seem... healthy. Not that she knew the first thing about medicine, whether it be for humans or Ethaefal. "C'mere, sit down," she insisted, pulling him over to a seat. She slumped into her own chair, pressing her hands against his face and cheeks to see if he had a fever. She looked into his eyes with a concerned frown on her face, wondering if any of the doctors in the Infirmary were still up this late. She could wake them, if it were an emergency. But maybe if she just dragged Satey down there and got her hands on some... some... Some medicine or something, she didn't know what. Or maybe... "Ya been gettin' 'nough moonlight, love?" she asked. She had no idea how that really worked, but it made sense that maybe if he hadn't spent enough time outdoors really soaking it up, he might not be feeling well.

[Satevis]

Satevis put his arms around her as she hopped over to kiss him, both to pull her closer and to steady her so that she didn't need to put her weight on her injured foot. "It's alright," he said in response to her apology. "Don't worry about it." He might have been a little annoyed if she had just forgotten to meet him, but he could accept falling asleep as an excuse, especially considering how tired she looked. Satevis frowned in confusion as she asked him if he was sick, leading him over to a chair. He didn't feel sick. Did he...look unwell? ...No, even when he was actually sick, it didn't show too much in his Ethaefal form, at least appearance-wise. And he was sure that he wasn't sick, although he had been spending part of his time at the infirmary these past few nights. So then what was she reacting to? The answer suddenly hit him, and he nearly laughed, but he managed to hold it in. He hadn't looked at himself in a mirror since transforming, so he didn't know if the colors had started to change, but it would be about the right time now, wouldn't it? He looked up at her. "The color change has started?" he asked. "Don't worry about it. My hair and horn colors change with the seasons. It's just a sign that summer is fast approaching. I'd say my hair should be fully black in...two weeks at most." There was never really a fixed time when his colors started to change. Usually, it was during the last seven days of a season, but the seasons didn't always change when the Watchtowers did. Two years ago, there had been a hard winter and his winter colors hadn't started changing until the first day of spring. That had worried him somewhat, for fear that he had become Forsaken. He knew that forsaking the gods was a choice that he didn't remember making, but he still awaited the color changes just in case. "The horns should be fully green by then as well," he added. He gave her a concerned frown, looking up at her. "But while we're on the subject, are you feeling well?" he asked. "You look tired."

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

She just stared at him for a long moment, then her face scrunched up in a mixture of confusion and amusement. "Ya change color?" she asked, touching the horns. "Really?" She ran her hands down the horns, studying the green streaks. He changed color. She had a color changing boyfriend. That thought gave her a moment's pause, but she brushed it right off. A week of fun and kissing didn't necessarily mean he was her boyfriend, and besides which she was so focused on the color change that a moment later she forgot the thought had even crossed her mind. She also forgot for a moment that he had asked about her, and instead of answering, she asked, "What parts o' ya change colors? Jus' 'air an 'orns? O' is ya glowy skin gonna change, too? What about yer fingernails?" She lifted his hands to look them over, intently curious to see just how much change he would undergo. Spending so much time around an Ethaefal was certainly proving to be an educational experience. Then she distractedly remembered his question and shook her head. "I's fine," she said. "Jus' workin' a lot. Done gots exams on the ninetieth, so's as I's gotta finish up the last puppet tomorrow. Can't push the show back after all, aye? 'Em kids's lookin' forward ta 'er too much..." she shrugged. "Wanna see 'em dance, though?" she asked. She held her hand above the two puppets on the table, the other arm wrapped around Satevis' waist for support. She had to adjust her hand for a moment to make sure the glass lens atop the puppets caught the movement, then they started to move. She raised her palm, and they both stood up, their movements slow and jerky, just as if they were being lifted on strings. Then she bobbed her hand back and forth over them and made them do a little hopping dance to one side, then the other. It was far from the fluid human-like movement she would have hoped for, but it was still the best she could do. Soon, though, she'd be able to Animate something that could move more properly.

[Satevis]

"Yes, with the seasons," he answered as Tock began to question him, picking up his hand and examining it as well. "And yes, only the hair and horns. It's an odd quirk, but I'd rather have it happen than the alternative." Satevis didn't elaborate on that point, and wouldn't unless she asked. The risk of becoming too angry, too focused on the pain of being cast out from Ukalas and becoming Forsaken was his own burden to bear. He put the thoughts out of his mind, focusing instead on Tock. He frowned in concern as she described her workload, then leaned back against the desk slightly to watch the puppets. He kept an arm wrapped around her to help support her, watching as they danced. They looked...well, they looked rather like puppets, except they didn't have any visible strings. Their movements were slightly jerky, but it didn't matter. They moved. And they moved on their own. He couldn't imagine the amount of care that went into designing each one. He didn't have the patience or the skill to do it. He could come up with ideas for the puppet show, but the fact that everything was beginning to fall into place was happening solely because of her. No wonder she was tired. "They look great," he said. "I'm sure the children will love them." He tightened his hold on her slightly, turning around so that he was facing her. Satevis leaned closer, kissing her lightly on the forehead. He pulled away, a small grin on his face. "I have a surprise for you," he said. "It may help you with the last puppet." This time even if she did ask, he wouldn't elaborate. Instead, he pulled away from her, keeping one arm around her for support. "Let me walk you home?" he asked.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

She beamed at the compliment on her puppets. She always craved praise, though she would never actually admit it, not even to herself. "'Ey needs a paint job still," she said, "but I can does 'at tomorrow." She smiled up at him, and then he did something surprising and tender. He kissed her forehead, and her breath caught. When he pulled back and looked down at her, she felt a flutter in her chest. There was something so... pure about that. It put a smile on her lips. Her smile only widened when he said he had a surprise for her. "A surprise?" she asked, starting to feel giddy. "Oy, what is it? Gimme!" she bounced up and down on her good foot, looking Satevis over, trying to figure out where he had hidden whatever it was. "Is it like, a present? I ain't done never got a present 'fore... not from nobody by my Granddad... What is it? Oy, come on what is it!?" She started sticking her hands in his pockets, trying to find what he was hiding. A present? Her boyfriend (or whatever he was) had gotten her a present!? She was so giddy she started laughing, sticking her hands everyplace she thought he might have stashed it, eager for her surprise. Only if he refused, resisted, and managed to pull her hands off him would she quite begrudgingly, with a great deal of pouty lip and wide eyes, agree to go home before she got it.

[Satevis]

Satevis grabbed her wrists as she started looking through his pockets, gently but firmly prying her hands away from him. He was surprised, and a little amused by her enthusiastic reaction. After all of this, though, the glyphs better actually work. He put the thought out of his mind. The glyphs would work...or he would just end up looking stupid again. He shook his head, the smile on his face slightly playful. "I'll tell you when we get there. I promise," he said, then added. "It's not something you can find in my pockets. But...I suppose you could say I made it myself." The plans were actually in his bag, but since he had slipped them between his glyphing notes, she would have to look really hard to find them. And even if she did find them, she might not know what she was looking at until he revealed it to her.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock pouted when he said she wouldn't find the surprise, and leaned forward one last time, peering down into his pockets in the vain hope of seeing whatever it was. She sighed, whining and whimpering a bit, clinging to him. "Fiiiiiine," she said. "But it dang well better be somethin' good, if'n yer makin' me wait like 'is, Satey!" She climbed into her crutches, wishing they had a slightly faster speed. "Come on, boys," she said to her puppets, raising her hand over them again. She held her bag down for them, and wiggled her fingers to make them walk over and hop in. Once they were tucked away, she slung her pack onto her back and kicked the crutches into gear. On the way to her house she asked him repeatedly what it was, whimpering when she got turned down. No one ever gave her presents. She hadn't gotten one since... since... She had to think hard on it. She'd slept through her seventeenth birthday in a coma, and after leaving Sunberth not a single person had ever given her a gift. That meant the last gift she'd received in her life was more than five years ago, on her sixteenth birthday. Her Granddad had gotten her a matching hammer and woodcarver's hatchet. And her Dad had given her a black eye. When they got to the house, she hopped out of her crutches, batting her babies away as they plagued her as soon as she walked in the door. "Oy, settle down boy, sit!" she said to Naily, her little hammer on wheels. He rolled back with a squeaky whimper. "Stay!" she told him. Bitey was crawling across the bed, and the two newest members of her family, Choppy the axe and Cutty the saw, were chasing each other around the table. They both had tall, thin, stork-like metal legs. The axe ran around on two legs, looking a great deal like a bird. The saw had four legs, one pair attached to each handle, and moved almost like a pony. "All o' ya, settle down, aye!" Tock called out. They froze obediently, compelled to obey her voice. She then turned to Satevis, hopping up and down on her one good foot. "Oy, love, what is it what is it! Don't tease a girl, aye?" she looked up at him eagerly, her eyes wide and fragile, biting her lower lip.

[Satevis]

The whole walk over, Satevis stubbornly refused to give Tock any details, turning away any of her questions with the same few responses. Yes, it was good (he hoped). Yes, he would tell her as soon as they got there. Yes, he was sure. No, he wouldn't tell her anything now. No, it could wait. He really did hope it worked, though. Besides the fact that he had spent quite a lot of time writing those glyphs and testing them and trying to integrate them with animation in a reasonable fashion, he also got the feeling that Tock didn't have people do things for her very often. She was strong and capable enough to do things herself, and he guessed that that was just how she was used to things going. She didn't really need a lot of help. But that didn't mean that she shouldn't have it. He followed her into her house, swinging his backpack over one shoulder and going through it as he searched for his notebook. He noticed that Tock had added a few more automatons to her collection. He gave Bitey the spider a quick glance, taking note of its position in the room. He did not want a repeat of what had happened a few nights ago...not that it had ended badly. "Alright, alright," he said to her as she asked him again. "I'll tell you." He drew his notebook from his bag. He would have liked to show her the circle once it was complete, but it didn't look like Tock would wait any longer. Besides, he couldn't just walk over and draw on her animation circles without her permission. He flipped the notebook to the relevant page, talking as he did. "The last time I was here, I noticed your animation circles," he said. "And...I had an idea. Glyphing is a form of magic that can affect or enhance other forms of magic with runes...you might have seen some drawn in the University's labs. I'm not too experienced with it yet, but I thought I might be able to enhance your circles...a little bit." He trailed off, stopping at the relevant page of his notes and showing it to her. The page contained a diagram of her animation circles, along with his runic modifications added to it. "...I know it's not really a present..." he said, "But..." He trailed off, looking up at her to see her reaction.