Closed The Construct [Clyde]

[Shimoje]

81st of Spring 516 A.V.

Shimoje left his apartments the same day from completing the constructhe had crafted. He was ready to learn more of animation and had hoped that this construct would suit well. After all, it took many painstakingly days cut off from the rest of Syliras to make. There was no telling of how the mage would react though, it was a fairly simply device, and almost nothing seemed to appease Clyde Sullins.

Shimoje walked towards the lab mostly keeping to himself. His mind jumped back at the topics they had discussed within the mysterious place riddled with strange markings known as glyphs. He was particularly weary and with bags under his eyes seemed to slouch his way to the lab. Along the way he took sips from his waterskin to help keep him hydrated and perhaps bring forth an extra bit of energy.

Reaching the door to the lab Shimoje knocked rather loudly as to of aware Clyde of his presence knowing he was probably doing some sort of craft within. He was mostly curious if Clyde had procured a template for the animation, and the worry almost befell him the instant he remembered that in order for animation to work there had to be a soul to use as a template, which he had surely not procured.

The bald headed Zeltivian would wait patiently at the door to the lab and upon answer would greet the mage accordingly and tell of his construct once inside. Only then would he pull it out to show to Clyde describing briefly and showing how it would be able to move. The construct was of wood and aluminum wire design which was laced over itself for rigidity and allowed for motion. It could stand up on it’s own and be placed in various designs. If one was to move the finger of the construct it would be able to grab something very small, but only of light weight.

Despite it’s face and added humanity to the construct Shimoje would only describe it with the word “it.” Upon showing the construct to Clyde he would await the sure to come critiques and lessons patiently. He didn’t have much energy to throw around too many questions, but should Clyde start the lesson he would be revitalized.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde didn't often sleep in. He was usually too busy, and tended to wake early to work on whatever project he had to do.

But on this day, he had nothing. No work, no reason to rise early. He was still in a half dazed state, not quite asleep but not quite awake, when he heard a knocking.

Letting out a groan at the noise, Clyde pondered ignoring it in hopes it would go away. But he knew better, and after half a chime of consideration, rose from bed.

Within another chime he had pulled on some clothes, some leather to cover his feet, and some robes to go over that. Through all the dressing Cha never left his side, the staff was always with him.

Once he was dressed he took a few chimes to stop by the bathroom attached between the pair of bedrooms at the back of his lab, before finally exiting his bedroom and entering directly into the lab.

Rye came out of the bedroom with him, walking along at sedate pace as usual. He reminded himself he'd need to take the dog out at some point. Animals had to pee also.

After a good five chimes or so from when the knock had first sounded, Clyde unlocked and opened the door. He let out a sigh seeing it was the youth from the other day, the one he'd oathed. Shim something or other.

Once he came in he closed and locked the door behind him, and then turned to see what he wanted.

When he took out a odd little gadget, a small man shaped object that apparently had flexible metal bits inside that let it bend somewhat and then retain shape.

“How does it see? Petch, how does it sense anything at all?”

Clyde shook his head, a bit annoyed but not going to make a point of it.

“Maybe next time you won't go rudely storming off to make some contraption in the middle of my lesson, and actually let my finish what I was teaching. For instance I was going to explain next how one gave a golem the ability to sense. Since you made it without that knowledge, this thing is doomed to forever be senseless. Its already made, and it's not wise to go tacking on such things as an afterthought.”

“If you want something to see, you need a reflective surface to catch the light. Gemstones are common for that, though I suppose other things would also work. Reflective surfaces, mirrors, maybe glass if done right. Hearing has something to do with thin leather membranes, not totally sure how that works. I assume if its too thick or too thin it won't work, maybe a leatherworker would know. Not that many if any of them in Syliras would know of golem related things.”

“Pressure and touch I suppose are a bit simpler, since well... I'm not sure, but I suppose a golem is aware of its body and position, and so can be taught that pressure and motion from an outside source means something. Maybe... ”

Clyde shrugged, not really caring, since trying to add additional sensory mechanism and making them work would likely add to the animations complexity.

As it was he could only attempt something simple, and wasn't sure what exactly he'd be able to manage.

“Maybe next time you should ask if I'm done teaching, or just wait for me to finish.”

[Shimoje]

Title:

Shimoje waited patiently, and already expected a scolding from Clyde, it seemed to be the usual thing from him. As Shimoje grew closer to know Clyde he further thought of his ramblings and attitude as more of his personality than anything else. That still didn’t make it any easier to get used to. Shimoje often would not get a lot of sleep, and it was clear he was often plagued by what was on his mind.

“You wanted something simple. You said, and if I remember right…” Shimoje went through the back of his mind to try and remember what Clyde had said. “It should be something simple, and that you barely know the basic theory yourself.” Shimoje squinted at the mage trying to think of something else to say, and went back at him with some of his own words. “If I couldn’t understand how to add senses to it by myself, how could you be able to teach me to animate something with senses? I need to be able to discover some things for myself as well. ” Shimoje perhaps was running a thin line with the mage, but he was far too tired to deal with an assault of maybe’s, and pointing blame at him leaving before expressing the needed senses.

“I think I know of a way to apply senses in the future though, now that you mention it. It would be tough to figure it out. There is a specific science in composition of motion and percussion that might allow sensory of sound much like a musical instrument would be utilized. For sight, reflection might work with a cylinder, and refraction of light.” Shimoje mumbled a bit as he tried to put together tidbits of knowledge he learned with the basics of gadgeteering. “This specific construct has aspects of centrobaryc force which utilizes both oscillation of the lighter aluminum metal it constructed with, and wood. It has a center of gravity which was determined by measurements of my own human anatomy, and then scaled down. It was tough, and probably at the limits to what I could do at this moment… and then there is the matter of resources.” Shimoje slightly frowned. “Getting all the necessary tools and supplies to craft these pieces and the grand oath itself cost me a hefty amount. It takes a very stead hand and the proper tools to lace an aluminum, which mind you is a hard metal to find, in a hole that is only larger than your respect towards me. ” Shimoje was being realistic with the mage.

“Besides, converting force into a useful element is hard enough. Mechanical energy is far different than the realms of your magic, dare I assume.” Shimoje spoke of force and element as aspects he had observed from the world around him.

"My Speech." "Other Speech."

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde let out a grumbled “Bah!” in response to Shimoje's comment about him requesting simple device.

He was after all more focused on other things, and he did have a task before him to do.

However when he got to the bit about explaining gadgeteering, Clyde stared at him with a complete lack of understanding. He could understand the words, knew they were in the same language, but they made no sense to him.

“I have no idea what you are talking about. Perhaps if you explained the basics of your thing building, or tool making, or whatever its called, I might understand, but clearly I lack the basic knowledge required to make sense of what you are saying.”

“Motion is the easy bit when it comes to animation, at least at a low level. From my understanding it can be one of the trickiest bits with a more complex golem. But then those have hundreds of intricate moving parts, and requires a good bit more information than this simple thing.”

“However, perhaps you could make something simple for me, so I can explain it some other time. I was thinking something of wood, a little cart or wagon or what not. Basically four wheels stuck onto a centerpiece. That'd be simpler to make right? And probably simple to animate.”

Letting out a sigh, Clyde looked down at the small figure Shimoje had made, trying to think through how he'd give it motion, what it would need to know. Perhaps just enough motion to retain its shape, and to thus right itself or unbend when it was bent?

“There are a few key steps to animating a golem. First one makes a soulcore. This is what the template is used for, to make the inner bit of the life principle placed within the golem's body.”

“After that you add the persona. You transfer over memories and information, ones the golem will need to function. Directives are rules the golem must follow, they are added first, and then the other knowledge is added later.”

“Lastly is the golem's astral body, which is what allows the golem to move itself.”

“That is the basic steps of the process of making a golem, and Animating it. Everything else in Animation is derived from this.”

[Shimoje]

Shimoje was greeted by a flurry of conversation once again from Clyde. The mage wasn’t the happiest, but this time he seemed more open to the aspects of what Shimoje was explaining. Shimoje set down his pack on the floor in his lab and tried to relax a bit. “Forgive me, sometimes I get into my own ramblings a bit much.” He smiled knowing that Clyde might have something smart to say in reply, but regardless continued on “Well, the idea for this motion is vibration. Here, I will show you what I mean, and maybe it could be used as some sort of sense as well?” Shimoje grabbed his construct once again and then plucked at some of the aluminum wire in between the wooden pieces. It resulted in a slight vibration that moved the construct, both from force and the vibration itself. The wooden piece reflected in vibration as it was light enough to move with the vibration.

“When the aluminum wire vibrates, so does the wooden pieces, see?” He said as looking at the construct and then back to Clyde. “If vibration for hearing and sound works something similar it might be able to sense, so not all hope is lost. Consider it an experiment.” Shimoje enjoyed figuring things out from experimentation and looked forward to see how all of this worked.

“So a soulcore is made as a template.” Shimoje repeated his description. “Then persona for memories and information as well as directives.” He was trying to piece all of the information Clyde gave him together. “Then the astral body. I don’t quite understand the aspects of that, but I am sure you will get to it when the time comes.”

Shimoje remembered back to what Clyde was rambling about and went off topic from animation. “Were you looking to make yourself a cart that would follow you around? That would be very useful!” Shimoje remarked and then suddenly spit out a word in excitement “Innovative!”

Shimoje turned attentively to Clyde and simply said “I believe I could make such a thing before I depart. What size would you want it? Any other neat features you might think of?” Shimoje had a flurry of different thoughts in his head of how such a thing would operate if animated, though it could be just that Clyde needed a simple wooden cart, maybe for a horse or something.

Turning back to the aspect of the construct Shimoje thought of the directives that could be applied to this construct or golem as Clyde put it. “This little guy here could possibly float, carry small things, go into tight spaces, carry or hand over tools… hmm have any other ideas that could be of assistance?” Shimoje was still trying to grasp what all uses an animated thing could have, and isn’t as familiar with golems as Clyde was, so he figured asking would be a wise choice.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde listened as Shimoje explained his work, but wasn't sure if he truly followed. Something about vibration, and that being how sound worked, so possibly the entire golem working as an ear... That seemed odd, perhaps overwhelmingly so. If it heard from everywhere, would it even be able to sense and hear in the way that a human would understand? If nothing else it'd be tricky if not impossible to convey the sensing over to the golem properly so as to function.

“Basically they are the layers of a soul. We are making a artificial soul. Each layer has its own purpose, mirrored in our own. The persona is the core of the soul, the bit that defines and differentiates it from others. Your persona is everything you know, every memory and bit of knowledge is held in ones persona.”

“The astral body however is for interaction, its what allows us to move. Without one, we would be but dolls unable to move or make motion. Our connection of our soul's astral body to our physical body is what allows for us to will our bodies to move, and for them to physically be able to do so. Its also why ghosts can still move things in a way once they lose their body. Their astral layer changes, and as they no longer house a flesh body they use it more directly.”

“The soulcore isn't a template, we are the template, our soul. Another living thing. We use the existing soul as a template, and copy its soulcore so as to make the artificial soul for the golem.”

Clyde puzzled for a moment over Shimoje's comment on the cart, trying to get what he meant. Useful... Follow around?

“I don't mean a full sized cart Shim, I couldn't animate that. I just mean a small one, toy sized perhaps. Hand sized. But yes, if the smaller version could be made to work, then it should be possible to scale it up to a full sized one. Although I'm not sure how people in Syliras would feel about having a magical cart follow you around without anything pulling it... Syliras isn't the most open with such things. Plus if it was to follow one around, it'd need a way of sensing to do so... Probably sight.”

When Shimoje went into his ideas of what the golem might do, Clyde simply shook his head.

“Did you just say float... Shim... What part of Animation I've discussed so far made you think something could float by being animated? We can give it motion, let it move its body, not do things beyond the normal limits of the object. And the other things... As I said, I am limited in my skill of golem making. We'll be lucky if I can get it to sit up and straighten itself. And I doubt its body could handle the weight of carrying much more than a quill.”

Heading over to his writing desk, Clyde picked through until he pulled out a piece of chalk.

While giving Shimoje a chance to respond, Clyde headed over to an open space of the lab floor, one without any glyphing drawn on it, and began to draw a small circle. Large enough to easily hold within the golem body.

Stepping a pace away, Clyde began drawing out a second larger circle, one big enough for a human to stand within. Once both were drawn out with a few feet of space between, Clyde drew a single line connecting the two.

“So, place the golem when you are ready in the small circle, and then you stand in the larger one.”

[Shimoje]

Shimoje intently listened to Clyde and let him explain more about animation. It was particularly breath taking. Grading these new concepts were fairly different from the sciences that he had learned to study. They were by far completely different. Though looking back a lot of that information could have been useful before he started making the construct. Looking at the almost doll like form of its body, it would be able to stand, but he wasn’t too sure about everything else. The animation would serve as experimentation.

For a moment a glowing light from Shimojes backside of his palm lit up briefly before subsiding once again. The light would be faint and particularly hard to figure out the source, but Shimoje knew exactly what it was and took the moment to try and act like nothing happened.

Smiling Shimoje once again was misunderstood. He was a sailor and knew that wood could float. That it had buoyancy in water. He assumed that Clyde meant actually float. “I meant float in water Clyde. The wood and metal made to make this… thing… is particularly light. And it probably wouldn’t be able to carry much at all. We all have to start somewhere, I guess.”

Shimoje wondered what it was like when Clyde first started his magic and whether or not he made such errors. Despite never seeing an actual golem before Shimoje was at a disadvantage. Though he was if anything very determined.

Walking over to the construct he stood it up in the center of the smaller circle. He was nervous but only when things started to make sense did he grasp what was going on. He was about to create a soul with in the construct. Using his own as a template. Using his experiences and knowledge.

Giving a look of approval to Clyde that he was ready he went and stood in the center of the larger circle.