Closed [Case 2] The Rodent Catching Rug (Panda)

[Lenore]

Timestamp: Summer 514, 16th

After several snarling breaths of contention the feline had calmed into an immobile ball of hissing fur in the corner of its cage. A cage which lenore had appropriated from a more alchemy focused area of the common labs. Whatever the cage had initially held was long dead, Lenore had dusted it out and deposited the angry cat. For now the animator had taken up a rather large corner of one of less the populated common labs, where had begun drawing alchemy circles, one clearly meant for the cat and his cage the other of significant size. Leaning against the wall was a rolled up woven rug that had clearly seen better days. While Lenore had located the rug within the common labs, it had clearly been meant for floor cover and not experiment. This small fact had not at all stopped the nuit.

Like a patient hunter the animator had waited until the workstation it was situation under was vacated. The occupant had been a particularly inept alchemist as far as he could tell. The fool had managed to turn his project into a gelatinous pile of sludge before giving up for the day. Pulsers had no sense of persistence.

Unrolling the rug and laying it out in the larger circle, Lenore nodded. It was time to begin. Slicing the tip of his finger the nuit secreted ichor onto the connections between the circles, activating them. Swaddling the cut in the fabric of his cloak absent-mindedly, he began the creation of the life principle. He had taken the life of the cat, ferocious and lonely and began molding it into the rug with more mild subset of life though such a designation was mostly irrelevant at this point. It was simply the goal to bring life into the rug. Bestowing on a creature the infinite possibility of what is, what has been, and what could be was usually the forte of gods and mothers but today the undead soul in a boys fleshy frame took the power for himself.

This was the quickest and most simple portion of the creation, and Lenore drew back from the circle though the specimen and the golem structure remained of course. Withdrawing his hands from the chalk drawing he made for the rolling up parchment at his desk, it was a list of relatively common directives that Lenore had prepared, to avoid the catastrophe that the hand had proved to be.

1. Loyalty to the Nuit Lenore
2. Non-violence Towards Lenore
3. To catch rodents and other small mammalian creatures.

Three directives seemed enough to the nuit though several concepts would need to be taught to it. Non-violence had to be paired with violence, the concept of a mammal and then the subset rodent. That would come in time, for now Lenore turned back to the circle preparing to install the directives.

[Pandaemus]

The higher he climbed away from Lab 15, the more his spirits lifted. Surely this was due to his growing distance from Cid. Pan stepped through the hallways of the Citadel with an edge of something akin to happiness. The apprentice felt a certain level of thrill whenever he got away from Lab 15 for a time, and the common labs seemed far enough to raise his spirits.

As he passed a common lab he heard a noise of sheer anger. It sounded like the low menacing rumble of a feline consumed with icy hot rage. He slid inside and the first thing he noticed was the vicious ball of fur staring hatefully across the room. The subject of it’s wrath, a Nuit who seemed to be preparing an animation.

The situation fell into place in Pan’s mind. Clearly this cat was going to be the source for some sort of animation. Pan gazed about the lab, an alchemy lab? What was this apprentice doing in an alchemical common lab? Perhaps, like Pan, he was simply attempting to get away from judging eyes. The Nuit smirked at the irony there. Sorry, friend, here I am.

“Hello. Practicing some Animation today?” Pan said carefully. Curious as he was, the apprentice did not want to interrupt the other undead’s work. That would just put him on someone else’s bed side, and he had enough bad sides to worry about. He glanced down at the destination circle and was momentarily at a loss for words.

A rug?

What could this wizard possibly be trying to move from a cat into a rug? Pan pictured a rub that thought it was a feline running around the Citadel, tripping up older Nuits and lounging on windowsills. This was far more than he’d hoped for, as far as distractions from work went. What could possibly be the functionality of this particular experiment? Surely no Sahovan wizard had need of a cat-rug?

[Lenore]

Lenore knelt over the connecting chalk lines again, at this time in the process the cat was mostly irrelevant, all of the nuit’s focus lay upon the rug. Still connected by his sacrifice of ichor to the magic channels connecting the source creature and destination vessel, he began to implant instructions. Teaching the new soul the necessary lessons that will allow it actually follow the directives would come later.

First and foremost, You are loyal to me, Lenore the Nuit. No action may counteract this first directive. The mage paused, he was never sure if the feeling of acceptance was in his own mind or if truly the soul shuddered with each directive issued. Second, you will never be able to commit violence towards Lenore the Nuit. This can only be counteracted by the first directive. Finally, your primary function is to catch small warm-blooded creatures.This function can be counteracted by both the first and second directives. Mentally withdrawing from the contact as the third directive was accepted, Lenore began the checklist he would need to teach the rug so that it could competently follow the directives.

Turning the Lenore came face to face with another of his kind. Lenore’s body was matured at this point, dark circles rimmed the body’s eyes only framed by the animator’s customary bronze spectacles. His robe was old and well worn but still held together quite well and the unintentional ensemble was topped off by a dingy blonde mop of hair tugged back into a band at the nape of his neck. The stranger had greeted him, “Erm, yes Hello. I am working on animation.” Lenore turned back to his table without further comment and began muttering his list. “I will need to define Nuit, Violence and therefore non-violence, how to identify a rodent, and what warm-blooded means. That should be sufficient.”

Spinning sluggishly on his heels back towards his animation circles, Lenore realized the observer was still present. “Is there something you require?”



[Pandaemus]

“A distraction.” Pan said simply, leaning in to inspect the structure of the Nuit’s animation circles. Each animator did the process with subtle variation and one could learn a lot from obverting others make it work. A variety of points of view often made the experience better, more fulfilling, more efficiently understood.

Pan could hear the wizard muttering to himself, intent on his work. The disheveled Nuit reminded Pan of himself in an uncanny way. Sure he was brunette where the other was blonde, and Pan did not have spectacles. But the general lack of attention for anything but his work, and the high stress that seemed to emanate from the Nuit was certainly familiar. Pan almost laughed when he finally realized what it was. This was no apprentice! A stressed Nuit operating animation rituals out of a common lab? This is an initiate, prepping for the infamous Judgement. Now he really did crack a rare smile.

“Forgive me for interrupting, but are you preparing for Judgement?” Pan asked hesitantly. If the wizard was, it was all the more important that Pan really did let him work. If he wasn’t, then it would be more acceptable, but still rude. The apprentice did feel some remote empathy for the Nuit though, and would offer help if the need arose.

Uldr knows he could have used the help on his judgement. Pan recalled countless hours tinkering with the faulty golem he had somehow crafted together. The thing was nearly a year old now and needed heavy maintenance. Pan had never been a good tinker, having always animated corpses of some kind with his previous master. But here, on the island of Nuits, animating corpses in that way was frowned upon and he had been forced to make due with bits of wood and nails.

[Lenore]

“I need precisely the opposite.” Lenore noted Pandaemus’s ring, he had since first meeting a wizard quickly learned their meaning. “I am indeed in the midst of performing an animation for my judgment. I am currently preparing to teach it the concepts required to perform its directives.” Lenore looked down at its hands, counting off the concepts again. The researcher reached for parchment and dripping quill to begin to defining.

Nuit: A manifestation of undeath in by which is a living being is transformed using the Daek-Nuit ritual or by ingesting copious amounts of ichors. They possess no blood and all natural bodily functions have ceased except for use of the brain.

Violence: The act of physically abusing another sentient being with intent to hinder or cease its current state of living.

Non-violence: Always making the choices to not bring harm to another sentient being.

Sentient: The innate ability to feel pain, emotions, and process non-instinctual thoughts.

Rodient: A small furred animal, such as taken from the memories of the feline, which bleeds red.

Warm-blooded: A vital sap which continues to pulse through a beings body and does so at a warm temperature.

Lenore looked back to the other nuit, “If it is a distraction you require, tell me; do these definitions seem adequate to you...?” The animator turned back towards it circle, not actually interfacing with it but ruminating on further necessities of the project. “Oh and I am Lenore.” He added as an afterthought. This project was particularly strange for the animator who so often worked with joints, it would have the memory of feline limbs but would in theory be able to twist in any conceivable way. There might be serious flaws in the design down the road, especially in regards to repairs. Lenore had experience repairing metal joints but only a bit, and none at all with fabric. At least this creature should be more easily disposed of it something went wrong, though he did not plan for any such repeated failure.

For a moment Lenore ponder on companionship, should he teach it this aspect? The cat would not last long on Sahova; food was scarce and the creature was all but wild. No the cat would become a skeletal specimen, but the rug was another matter. In hindsight perhaps he should have picked a softer rug or a small blanket. Mentally he shrugged, the rug was first and foremost to catch rodents the rest would be residual not primary.

[Pandaemus]

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The prospect seemed none too pleased to see Pan was perfectly content with sitting and watching his work. But after a dismissive bit of scrawling on parchment, which Pan took as a signal to leave, the Nuit introduced himself as Lenore and asked for Pan’s opinion on his notes. The Nuit was surprised that Lenore would trust him with his notes or ask his opinion. He must be either naive, which Pan doubted, or desperate, which Pan could sympathize with.

The apprentice moved forward and carefully took the parchment from Lenore. The undead’s scrawl was neat and easy to read.

Nuit: A manifestation of undeath in by which is a living being is transformed using the Daek-Nuit ritual or by ingesting copious amounts of ichors. They possess no blood and all natural bodily functions have ceased except for use of the brain.

Violence: The act of physically abusing another sentient being with intent to hinder or cease its current state of living.

Non-violence: Always making the choices to not bring harm to another sentient being.

Sentient: The innate ability to feel pain, emotions, and process non-instinctual thoughts.

Rodient: A small furred animal, such as taken from the memories of the feline, which bleeds red.

Warm-blooded: A vital sap which continues to pulse through a beings body and does so at a warm temperature.

Pan gazed down at the definitions for a few moments after reading them. He was weighing the prospects of helping Lenore rather than thinking about the parchment in hand. Would it be beneficial for Pandaemus if Lenore were to gain apprenticeship? Competition was always bad. But perhaps an ally in Lab 15 would be a worthwhile motivator for aiding this newcomer. After all, Pan had been here a full year now and hadn’t exactly made any alliances that had survived. He decided that perhaps the best course was to build a little good faith betwixt the two cadaver animators.

“Honestly the problem I see is not in your definitions, but your choice of terms.” Pan said, recognizing the misstep he had made him a few times. “Using an intangible like sentience to identify personages to a construct is not a good idea. Though it may know what sentience is, how is a rug with a feline soulcore going to identify it in another?” Pan asked slowly.

Pan handed the notes back to the Nuit and stepped around his animation circles carefully. The apprentice bent slightly to examine the other’s work. After a brief examination Pan shrugged and his dark tongue shot out and touched his lips fleetingly. “Personally I would make the identifier something physical that a cat’s mind could understand and react to.”

Pan hoped his words made sense to the Nuit. Other than a way to identify wizards and apprentices, he did not know why the concept of sentience would be factored into the construct. It was a notoriously challenging idea to get across amongst animators. Although he suspected that Lenore was not attempting to animate a sentient construct on his Judgement. That would be very risky.

“All in all thought, I think it looks sound.” He finished, not wanting the other to think he was belittling him in any way.
 

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