Waterwheels (Solo)

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on July 5th, 2012, 3:11 am

28th Day of Summer, 512 AV

Note :

Tock sat in her backyard, staring at the boat. It wasn't that big, only large enough for maybe four people, tops. But it was still big. Bigger than anything she had worked on recently. Certainly bigger than she had ever Animated. She wasn't sure if she COULD Animate something that size.

She sat with her elbow on her knee, her chin propped on her fist. Handy, her wooden hand Automaton, sat on his leg, tapping his fingers as if in deep thought. Of course, he wasn't in deep thought. His mind was simply too simple for that. But this was the way Tock usually tapped her fingers when in thought, and he was mimicking that based on the way she was sitting. He'd been programmed with her own hand motions, and thus tended to mimic her habits, even the subconscious ones.

"It's too big," she declared. Handy waved himself as if declaring defeat, and almost fell off Tock's leg, if not for the fact that he was strapped on by the leather belt that made his tail. Nearby in the yard Naily, her little hammer on wheels, stopped rolling around the grass and looked up at her. He didn't understand the words at all, but responded to her voice. Yet since he hadn't been given any specific commands, he returned to rolling around. The hammer had a dog's mind, and just as Handy would mimic Tock's habits, Naily mimicked the behavior of the puppy he'd been programmed from. Sometimes this meant rolling around in circles with no apparent purpose, as if chasing his nonexistent tail.

Tock got up and walked over to the boat, looking it over. It was over ten feet long, and wide enough that she had to stretch her arms out full length to touch both sides at once. That was too big for her to Animate. Yet she had made a promise to Nai, and she intended to see it through.

"Gonna 'as ta 'speriment," she declared, planting her fists on her hips. She'd need to figure out a way to work around the Animation limitations. That meant learning more about how the water worked, and how the boat moved through it. Figuring out what principles she needed to use in order to get the mechanics to work. That meant... taking the boat down into the water again.

Tock walked out into the street in front of her house, Handy hanging from her belt, and Naily trailing after her. She turned the corner until she could see the ocean, and looked down at how far away it was. It had taken her WAY too long, even Nai's Flux magic helping them, to get the boat up here. There was no way she was taking the boat back down there.

Tock returned home, looked at the boat, and shrugged. "Can't bring the boat ta the water, bring the water ta the boat."

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on July 5th, 2012, 3:30 am

Tock's backyard was small. Tiny. Only about twenty feet, the same size as her wee little house. But the boat was ten feet, so that would give her just enough leeway to run some mostly stationary tests. She just needed to dig out her entire backyard, and fill it with water.

She nodded, and headed off to buy a shovel.

She made her way down to the general store, and sorted through the tools until she found an adequate shovel. She checked the balance, swung it around a few times, and examined the handle to make sure it was well connected to the spade head. Nodding in satisfaction, she took it up to the counter.

"Three mizas," the shopkeeper told her.

Tock sighed, leaned her hands on the counter, and said, "Oy, we done gotta go through this every time, mate?"

The man crossed his arms and stared her down. "Three mizas, Miss."

Tock rolled her eyes and replied, "Oy, I's sorry, I didn't realize I done picked out the shovel what were made outta solid silver. Lemme go back, fetch a plain ol' iron one, an' I's pay ya a miza fer it like she's actually worth, aye?"

The shopkeeper's eyes narrowed and he said, "There's no need to get snippy. But silver or iron, it's a perfectly good shovel... two and a half."

Tock drummed her fingers on the countertop, and Handy reached up to do the same. She didn't understand why she had to go through this every time. They both knew they were going to meet in the middle, and she'd end up paying two mizas for the damn shovel. But if she offered him two now, he'd likely only come down to two and a quarter. She groaned, picked up the shovel, and turned to place it back on the rack. "Oy, ya know what? I's a right good blacksmith meself. I's go forge my own, be better'n 'is one, an' ain't cost be no two an' a 'alf mizahs, I done tells ya 'at much!"

Realizing he was about to lose a customer (and Tock wasn't bluffing either, she seriously didn't want to waste her time with this guy), the shopkeeper quickly said, "Two? Miss? That's as low as I can go. I have to make a living..."

Tock groaned. She seriously wanted to go forge her own shovel. But that would take hours, and she had this one in her hand, and a hole to dig, and a boat to upgrade for Nai. "Fine," she said reluctantly, tossing the man the money. "Yer dang lucky I's a busy girl..."

Ledger-2 GM for a shovel.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on July 5th, 2012, 4:21 am

Of course, Tock wasn't about to waste her time digging the hole herself. It could take days to dig out that much dirt down to a good enough depth, and she didn't have that kind of time to waste. It would take less time for her to modify and Animate the shovel than it would to dig the hole herself, so that's what she decided to do.

First she would need some wheels. Conveniently, the size she needed for the shovel could work out to be the same as she was using for the boat. So she decided to coordinate her efforts by getting all the wood cut for all the pieces at once.

Identical pieces was ideal when she was using Cutty, her Animated saw. She carried him outside, still not trusting him to walk on his own until his malfunction was repaired (something she was still stumped on how to accomplish). She had scars from the last time she'd let him walk on his own, and his metal feet had sliced her skin up pretty badly. It was better to limit how many tasks she gave him, in order to keep the danger as low as possible.

She made some measurements and stacked up multiple pieces of wood all on top of each other. She was going to make all the wheels the size of wagon wheels, something she had prior experience in making. Each wheel rim came from four pieces, and she needed ten wheels (two for her shovel, and four matched pairs for the boat). So she stacked up forty pieces of wood in two piles of twenty, each stack about waist height, which was the highest Cutty could go. She aligned him carefully, made sure the wood was all clamped down so it would remain aligned, and set him cutting. She had to shout the command four times before he finally listened, and each time the command came from her lips broke her heart.

Cutty would need to make four cuts a piece on each of the stacks. Cutting that much wood by hand, forty pieces times four cuts, would have easily taken Tock all day, and left her arms aching and sore. Having her baby do it not only cut down the time and effort needed, but left Tock's hands (all three of them counting Handy) free to do other things.

So while Cutty rocked back and forth on his metal legs, slicing through the stacked wood, Tock used a smaller hand saw to begin cutting the piece that would form the Animated shovel's wheel axle. She then sat close to Cutty so she could watch him carefully and be ready when his task was done to shout at him until he stopped. She used her chisels to cut out the axle into a rounded shape, with a broad slot in the middle for the shovel handle to fit through. She also carved out a few smaller pieces that would be used to reinforce the structure and ensure it had enough strength.

She hummed quietly as she worked, wishing that Handy was advanced enough to be able to do carving independently. He could tap a mallet, but he didn't have the precision or coordination for her to trust him with a chisel in his grip. He was still able to help her, though, holding the wood in place as she chipped away at it with a chisel in one hand and a mallet in the other. Then, when she needed to flip the wood over and reach the other side, instead of undoing a clamp, all she had to do was tell him, "Flip 'er over." He would then adjust the wood and hold it in place for her, allowing her to continue carving without missing a beat.

After Cutty was finished with the wood (and thankfully for the sake of her poor heart, she managed to get him to stop cutting on only the second shout a few times today), she set him to start on the wood for the spokes. There would be quite a few of those as well, but it was a huge time saver to have her baby helping out. It was like working with a crew of people instead of just by herself. Tears rimming her eyes, she leaned in to whisper in his leather ear, "Yer doin' a good job, baby. Jus' cut fer Mommy, aye?" She hated shouting at him, but she ended up having to in the end.

She then got to work on carving up the rest of the wood. With Handy helping her adjust the pieces, she worked on carving up the parts she needed for the first two wheels. She shaved down the wood from the angular pieces Cutty had sliced for her into curved sections, which she then filed and sanded down until she was able to assemble them into a perfect circle.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on July 5th, 2012, 5:27 am

Once the parts were cut and carved, she started assembly. It was a straightforward job, not much different from anything she had done dozens of times before. The fancy part would come during the Animation. She drilled holes for the spokes, inserted everything in place with careful taps of her mallet to fit the parts together, and connected the wheel rims with practiced precision. Once both wheels were assembled, she connected them to the specially modified axle, and inserted the shovel into the slot in the center. The extra reinforcing pieces were attached around the handle, and everything nailed into place to secure it. Once all the final adjustments were made, the two-wheeled construct stood at waist-height. When at rest, the shovel head laid against the ground, but she was able to swing the shovel back by turning it on the axle, raising the handle in a similar motion to someone throwing dirt over their shoulder.

She ran the device through a few test tries before she got ready to Animate it, laying the spade against the ground, and pushing forward on the axle to dig the blade into the dirt. The angle she'd attached the handle at was perfect for driving the spade through the soil, and then by flipping back on it, she raised the handle in a swift motion that sent an arc of dirt flying through the air. She did a second test after, scooping up a shovel full of dirt, and rolling the device across the ground with the spade held horizontal to carry the dirt.

She frowned, wheeling it back and forth a few times. The balance seemed off. Most of the length of the handle was aimed forward, with only a small bit of it jutting out the back. That was necessary to make sure the shovel could reach the dirt, but it created balance issues.

She decided to tackle those by adding some weight onto the back of the handle. She measured and cut a few more blocks of wood that she then attached to the back end as a counterbalance. The end result was a thick cube of wood that had enough weight to keep the far end of the shovel balanced. She adjusted the weight of it until the handle was able to stay perfectly horizontal with a load of dirt on the spade, without her needing to touch it to keep the balance. Then once she was confident in the balance she nailed the thick block in place, securing it firmly.

The balance ended up aiding the tossing motion as well. With the balancing force to aid the leverage of the throw, it was almost like having a miniature catapult, though far more simplified. Without Animation magic to make it work, the design lacked sufficient mechanics to be on par with a true siege weapon. But the mechanical principles were of the same school.

Grinning, Tock wheeled the device around to the front of her house and through the front door, which took a bit of creative angling. This was the largest Animation she'd made to date, though it was still light enough that she could lift it and carry it with just a bit of strain.

She cleaned the dirt off, wheel her soon to be new baby into the Animation circles, and rubbed her hands together eagerly. This was going to be one of her best creations yet.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on July 7th, 2012, 8:45 pm

It had been a long day of work, and Tock decided she only had enough time left in the day to Glyph her circles, and then work on the Animation in the morning.

She still went off her notes, using the Glyphs Satevis had taught her. She didn't have them fully memorized yet, and took her time laying them out, going off her sketches to get them right. When she had made Handy, she had marked the geometric lines where she needed to place the runes, so it was a bit faster this time.

Three barrier runes, carefully etched on each circle, forming equilateral triangles, each one aligned to be a mirror image of the one on the other circle. The symmetry and mirror image precision would help keep the Djed flows balanced within the circles.

Two guiding runes, on the connecting line between the circles, would aid and accelerate the transfer flow. They were laid perfectly in line with the tips of the triangles to ensure everything remained in careful balance with each other. The tip of one triangle at Tock's back would push the Djed forward, through her, then it would be aimed and guided through the connection between the circles, but prevented from going too far by the mirrored tip of the other triangle behind the Automaton.

Then finally to give the aid of balance, a rune in the center of each circle, also in line with the others and framed by the bottom edges of the triangles. These created balance between Source and Creation, making the energy flow more natural, like water seeking level ground.

Once the Glyphs were in place, Tock slept for a time, not wanting a repeat of what happened with Cutty. Then, well rested from having gone to bed so much earlier than normal, she rose in the early hours of the morning to begin the Animation process before work today.

Fueled by her blood, the process began. Guided by the balancing runes, the Soulcore was easy to form, the energy flowing from Tock's body and into her creation as if it were flowing downhill, guided like a fish in a river to follow the flow and settle into the kind at the bottom.

She then programmed the shovel with Directives of love for and obedience to her. As with all of her creations, it would be drawn to her side, and forced to obey her commands no matter what. Then, since the shovel would be working more independently than her other creations, she added a Directive of self-preservation, commanding it to cease its work and come to her side if it encountered any strain or resistance. This way if it encountered any rocks, roots, patches of clay, or anything else either too heavy to lift or too hard to dig through, it wouldn't damage itself trying. The reinforcements on the handle would allow it to tackle tough jobs, but anything it couldn't do on its own, it would automatically stop and come get her. This would allow the shovel to dig on its own without needing her supervision (which was a substantial upgrade from her other tools), but also ensure it would get her to help, if she needed to clear away rocks, cut off roots, or loosen any hard patches of dirt.

To ensure it would understand how to obey this Directive, she spent the morning instilling it with knowledge of weight, using the balancing weight on the back of the handle as a guide. The balance had been built to even out the weight of a shovelful of dirt. Anything substantially heavier than that would make the load front-heavy, and the Automaton would be able to judge what was too much weight accordingly. It wouldn't be so precise as to understand the difference between five pounds or twenty, but she could teach it 'heavy' versus 'light' easily enough.

She also taught it to identify things like rocks and foreign matter that didn't belong in the dirt. She had installed glass eyes into the axle and handle, aiming in multiple directions. Once she taught it to see, knowing what a rock looked like would ensure it knew what to go and fetch Mommy for. She did the same for roots, and anything else she could ever remember seeing when digging on the job.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on July 7th, 2012, 9:33 pm

By the time she finished installing these basic concepts, the sun had risen, and it was nearing time for work. She closed off the Djed flow for now, and went off to earn her day's pay. But after her woodcarving projects were done for the day, she volunteered to help the crew out with digging the foundation of a house. Normally Tock's job was the detailed work, not the grunt labor. The unskilled, untrained laborers did this stuff. But Tock wanted to freshen her memories of digging.

She got strange looks all afternoon as she used the shovel in strange ways, holding it by the same point she'd balanced her Automaton on, which wasn't an ideal grip point for human hands. She was also flinging dirt through the air overhead, instead of turning and pitching it over her shoulder like the men did. She wanted to get the moves down the same way her baby would be doing it.

Her coworkers were used to her eccentricities, but even then there were whispers about her mental state when she started balancing piles of dirt on the end of the shovel and walking around, trying to keep the load balanced by the pivot point instead of gripping near the head like most would. Eventually her boss Jacques stepped up to ask her if she was feeling all right.

"Never better, Bossman!" she declared, as she studiously watched the shovel, balanced on her stretched out arm, trying not to let the load tip over.

Having witnessed the abilities of her other creations firsthand, he rubbed his face and asked, "You're making another one of those..." he waved his hand in circles for a moment, searching for a word other than 'things,' "...inventions, aren't you?" Jacques was iffy about Tock's inventions. On the one hand, they were creepy and unusual to have around.

On the other hand, when she brought them to work it was like having half a dozen more workers on the site for free, since he only had to pay Tock, not her creations.

His improved profit margins helped him overcome his hesitation about the magic.

"Aye!" Tock said with a proud grin, going back to digging and testing the balance on each thrust and swing of the shovel. "Magic shovel what can dig out a foundation by 'isself in a day..." Jacques's eyes went wide at that, looking at the six men he had doing the same job. Of course, an Automaton didn't get tired, take breaks, or goof off on the job... Even with all her antics with the shovel, Tock was still working harder than the other workers, who periodically paused, leaning on their shovels, to tell a dirty joke or share a tale of their romantic exploits.

Tock noticed them doing just that and shouted, "Oy, is yer 'ands an' yer mouths what can't work at the same time? If'n ya can't dig an' yap at the same time, then quitcher yappin'!" Even if the big boss hadn't been standing there, they tended to listen to Tock. But then, most everyone seemed to give her her way.

Having determined that Tock wasn't ill (at least, no more so than her standard operating level), and seeing she was still making steady progress on the hole in spite of her unusual digging methods and strange obsession with the weight if the dirt in her shovel, Jacques nodded and said, "Very well. Carry on then. And..." he hesitated, then said, "if its well behaved, you can bring it with you next week. We have that warehouse project." The warehouse was a bigger than average job, one that would normally require him to spend another thirty gm or so in hiring one-day laborers to help dig out the rather large foundation. Having Tock's creation there would save Jacques all that money.

"Sure thing, Bossman," Tock replied, unaware of her boss's profit margins, nor caring the impact she had on them. She just wanted to bring her babies to work. She went back to her digging, never taking her eyes off the shovel, and taking a few overhead swings with it, as if smacking someone in the face with the spade.

Then she went home at the end of the work day, tired and achey from a long day of digging. She slept through the rest of the afternoon to refresh herself, and went back to her Animation that night with a clear mind, imbuing her creation with all the knowledge she'd acquired that day about digging.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on July 7th, 2012, 10:31 pm

The next day, the 30th of Summer, Tock did some more digging at work, once she was caught up on the door handles and decorative window frames she had to carve. Then it was home for another nap, and more time teaching her shovel how to dig.

She taught it about flinging dirt overhead, and the amount of force needed to make sure you didn't just spill the dirt all over yourself. She taught it about holding its handle level to carry loads, and how to use its leverage to lift a big clump out of the ground. She taught it what a face was, in case she ever needed to order it to smack someone there.

Guided by the aid of the Glyphs, all her knowledge of dirt, digging, flinging soil, and the difference between loose dirt and hard rocks flowed into the creation.

Then she started teaching it some more complex things, like numbers and depth. At this level, her Automatons couldn't process complex math. It would have only a basic, child-like intelligence. But she could teach it things like how long a foot was, how long two feet was, how long three feet was. It likely wouldn't even grasp that two feet was the same thing as one foot twice, but she could teach it to associate the words 'two feet' with the certain depth she imbued into its mind as the correct definition.

Once it understood basic depth, through the night she started teaching it shapes. Like teaching a child playing with blocks, she taught it to understand squares, circles, and triangles. It had to grasp these basic concepts, if she wanted to be able to draw a square in the dirt and tell it, "Dig inside the square."

The next day she was off work, and after a good night's rest continued teaching the shovel how to use its shapes. Like showing a child how to roll a toy wagon up a triangular block, she taught it to understand ramps, so it would know how to roll itself out of a hole. She imbued it with the importance of making such ramps as it dug, so it wouldn't be trapped. It would be a minor challenge, but Automatons at this level could overcome such basic challenges, as long as they were taught how. Thus without her needing to guide it every step of the way, it would be able to build itself little paths to roll out of its holes.

Finally came words and basic language. For this she simply talked to it, letting it hear her voice through the small strips of leather she had attached through the axle. Thus she began both teaching how to hear and how to understand at once, her mind transferring the meaning of the words as it learned how to interpret their sound through the vibrations on the leather eardrums. Through that day and into the next she taught it as much language as she thought it would need. Unlike Choppy and Cutty who only obeyed rudimentary commands like 'cut,' 'stop,' and 'here,' this creation would understand a wider variety of language. It would make it easier to explain a task to it, telling it not just to dig, but where, how deep, and where to put the dirt.

Finally on the last day, after teaching it how to see, she taught it to move. This was the simplest stage, thanks to how simple the Automaton's body was. It only had to know rolling its wheels and working the shovel. Though she made sure to work it through digging motions at a variety of forces. Choppy could only chop at one strength and speed, but with the aid of the balancing runes to link her body more fully to the shovel's, she was able to work it through more delicate motions. Using her arms to mimic the motions, she taught it to swing harder or softer, how to lift a clump of dirt gently or fling it hard overhead. She taught it to roll at different speeds, and how to hold the shovel against her in a gentle embrace.

And of course, she named him, "Diggy," when she gave him the final spark to awaken him.

Then after nearly a week's work, she was finally able to get back to Nai's boat.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on July 8th, 2012, 5:07 pm

The next few days were a steady stream of work, both for her and her babies. First she dragged a stick through the dirt in her yard, marking out a large circle with a thick line. Then, with her newest baby Diggy standing in the circle she pointed.

"Diggy, look, see the circle?" she asked. His wheels shifted to rotate him in place as the glass eyes on his axle and handle watched her finger tracing out the circle on the ground. Then he rolled around in a complete 360, watching the outline of the circle. His simple mind could only understand very basic things, but she had taught him shapes, so he understood this.

"Dig inside the circle, five feet deep," she told him. That should be deep enough for the shallow rowboat to move around in, and the twenty foot wide pond would be just big enough to take the ten foot long boat around for some very basic movement trials.

Diggy immediately dug his blade into the ground, scooping up his first ever shovelful of dirt. Like a mother watching her baby take his first steps, Tock couldn't be more proud, tears of joy swelling in her eyes. The shovel rotated back and forth for a moment, uncertain where to put the dirt. "Pile it all along 'ere, baby," she told him, gesturing to the side of the house. She'd probably need to find someplace else to dispose of some of it later, but she didn't have time to build an automated wheelbarrow right now. Diggy obediently carried the dirt over and dumped it by the wall, and Tock hopped up and down, clapping her hands and giggling in joy. Diggy then went right back to work, needing no further direction for the moment.

As the work proceeded, Tock set herself up past the edge of the digging area, working on assembling the boat wheels. Their initial design followed the same principles as Diggy's wagon-like wheels, so it wasn't very challenging work. Every once in awhile, Diggy stopped and came over to her, following his Directive to fetch her if he encountered a problem. When this happened, she would ask him, "What is it baby? Show Mommy." He would then roll over and tap his shovel against a rock or root that was in his way. The rocks she dug out by hand and saved; she could use them to carve molds for gears. The roots she directed Choppy over to cut through, though unlike his big brother, he couldn't work independently. She had to give him verbal commands for each step, though it was still more efficient than doing the work by hand.

Between guiding her family on their tasks, she worked on assembling the wheels, with help from Handy, who held parts in place, handed her tools, and fetched things she needed so she didn't need to pause in her work. Since her babies all followed verbal commands, she could direct them from her seat on their tasks so she never had to stop working. Even when she needed something Handy couldn't reach, that's what she had Grippy for.

As the hole deepened, and the assembly of the wheels continued, however, Tock realized two problems. One, she needed to get water in the hole.

And two, while her technical skills were well up to the challenge, she had never actually built something to manipulate water before.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on July 13th, 2012, 4:42 pm

When she reached a point where her level of technical know-how was hitting a wall, Tock did two things. First, she stopped at the library to get as many books as she could on hydraulic manipulation. They gave her some useful numbers on water flow rates, volume, and other technical information that was used in the creation of aqueducts, water-powered mills, and ship design. Of course, what she was doing was far more small-scale. A mill's waterwheel was two stories tall, whereas what she was building was only a few feet across.

The second thing she did, begrudgingly, hating that she had to do it, and certain she was going to regret it later, was to go and see an old rival.

Tock hated Marcus. Couldn't stand him. He thought he was better than her. There probably wasn't much of anything in the world that pissed her off more than someone who acted like they were better than her. She had almost beaten the snot out of him more than once last semester. And she well remembered what she had said when she exploded at him for trying to force his smug 'help' on her.

"I said GET LOST!" Minerva growled, clenching her fist. "When I want ya damn 'elp, I'll bloody well ask fer it, ya blimey bludger!"

She grumbled the whole way to his room at the dorms. She didn't WANT to ask for his help. But... this sort of thing was his specialty. She would have just as soon spent more time figuring it out on her own, but she had made a promise to Nai, and that included a deadline. The girl had a trip planned soon, and she needed to get the boat operational and tested before it was too late for Nai's journey.

She knocked on the door, gritting her teeth. She really, really didn't want to do this. Marcus opened the door, looking surprised to see her for a moment. Then he put on a smug grin, leaned against the door frame with a cocky stance, and said, "Well, well, well. Minerva. What a pleasant surprise..."

Tock had to restrain herself from punching him right there. She HATED that he knew her real make. Damn Professor Beadle for using it in class!

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on July 13th, 2012, 5:13 pm

"My name's Tock," she told him, clenching her fists at her side. Handy, on her belt, did the same, which drew a curious frown from Marcus. "An'... I need yer 'elp..." she hissed through her teeth.

He stared at her blankly for a moment, then grinned wide, his eyes filled with amusement. "Is that so?" he asked, crossing his arms and staring her down. "What's wrong, sweetheart, finally tired of being such a tight ass that you need someone to--"

Tock already had enough, and swung a fist right for his face.

Then she didn't know what happened. One moment, her fist was flying forward to smash in his smug nose, the next he had grabbed her wrist, swung her around, and tossed her into the room. By the time she regained her balance and turned around, fists raised, he was leaning against the now closed door, arms crossed, looking completely casual.

Apparently there was more to Marcus than meets the eye.