Along Came A Spider (Montaine)

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 30th, 2012, 6:47 pm

"Aye," Tock said, turning back once she felt like her tears wouldn't be noticeable anymore. "Jus' like movin' 'ot metal, she is. Spill some o' 'at, an' she'll eat right through yer skin, she will." Her metalsmithing experience had taught her how to be extra careful in such situations. Carrying the liquid hot glass wouldn't be much different.

She listened carefully to his instructions and watched every step he took. She then mimicked his actions, using the same steady hands she would use when carrying an urn of liquid iron from a metalsmithing furnace. She followed along and set her ladle next to his, making sure not to spill any.

"Sometime ya gotta lemme 'as a chance fer tryin' the blowin' though, mate," she said as she adjusted the ladle to keep it from tipping. "'Is 'ere's the easy stuff. Anythin' else what ta do now, 'cept let 'er cool? Ya gotta do anythin' ta 'elp 'er out 'long the way?" The simplicity of this particular project made it a good starting point for her, but she intended to learn how to do some more advanced things in the future. So far, though, the process was a great deal like metalsmithing; the hardest part was in getting the right mold (which had been simple in this case since Monty had had something handy). Once the mold was ready, it was just a matter of carefully pouring the metal and letting it cool. Though with metalsmithing, one would stir the metal as it cooled to make sure it was even and had no voids. She didn't know if any such processes were needed for glassmaking, or if the glass could just sit there and cool on its own.

She kept her eyes down, focusing on the work, still not trusting herself to meet Monty's gaze. It wasn't often that something brought her mind back to home, and she didn't much care to let that part of her out right now. So she shoved the memories down and kept her mind on the work.

by **Montaine** on May 30th, 2012, 11:32 pm

Montaine peered into the recesses of the annealer and checked the levels of the glass, they had already hardened and if they weren’t precisely flat then they’d need to be recycled and the process begun anew. Fortunately, as it was, their makeshift moulds were working out nicely and Monty’s experienced eye judged that they would make mighty fine parts for the gadgeteer’s golem. The craftsman blithely ignored the eccentric young woman’s request for a go with the pipes. It was trying enough being what amounted to essentially Fogle’s tutor, let alone supervising the excitable redhead. Monty had no doubt in his mind that she took greatly to a great variety of schools of craft and yet there was something about her that led him to question her aptitude for glass.

He thought back on what he had seen of her work. She was exuberant and passionate and oh so very precise. So mathematical and detailed, interested in the exact measurement of each and every thing. Perhaps there lay the flaw. Glassblowing was incredibly instinctive, the spinning of the rod, the pulling of the glass, there were rarely precise measurements involved in the process, there was no time to make them as the glass cooled so fast as to make such thinking impractical. Besides, it was bad enough that he was doing this gratis, let alone wasting more glass on free lessons. She would keep requesting it though, but that was an issue for a later date.

Instead he spoke on the cooling of glass, ‘Generally speaking it cools pretty quick once it leaves the oven, an’ moulds make it cool all the quicker. If it gets too cold too fast, you risk fracturing the glass and losin’ the piece altogether, so we puts in the annealer for a few bells, half a day tops, so’s it can cool slower, proper,’ he walked over to where the second pair of slightly larger ladles lay on the marver and picked them up, handing one over to Tock, ‘You’re goin’ to have to wait for the glass to be done, won’t be ‘til tomorrow realistically speakin’, so’s after we put these in the oven you should go see if’n you can sort out the discs ‘n’ straps or whatever it is you’r egoin’ to do to attach them to the little monster,’ he smiled at her.

The second ladles, when full of their molten burden, were heavier and less stable than the first, and Monty had to use two hands to keep the tool steady. He could feel the heat travel up the handle, searing the skin on his left palm, but bit his lip and bore it. A second set of stone stands were required, slightly smaller, to keep the ladles level, but they were slotted in with little trouble save for a raw sensation in Monty’s hands.

‘We’ll have a look tomorrow morning, say nine bells? I don’ think there’ll be any problems,’

OOCRight, feel free to comment on this and then do a mega post like the first in which you go make all the other necessary bits and bobs and return to the workshop. Monty'll be up and about and waiting for you.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 31st, 2012, 12:49 am

OOCLol, read my mind. Though I doubt it'll be quite as mega as the first one. That was like a full week in character. This will just be an afternoon and night of work.

Tock carefully lifted out the second ladle full of glass and added it to the others. Her leather gloves protected her hands from the heat so she had little concern for burning herself. She was a bit disappointed to hear it would take so long for the glass to cool; most metals managed to cool back down a fair bit faster than that, but the danger of cracking was much less when working with metal.

She grinned with pride when Monty called Bitey a 'little monster'. "Innit 'e precious?" she replied with a giggle. She gathered up her things and scooped her precious baby up, carrying him back over to Monty so he could say goodbye. "Say bye-bye ta the nice Glassman, baby," she told Bitey, petting him lovingly. "We's gonna come back tomorrow, an' 'en Mommy's baby's gonna be able ta see!" Holding Bitey in one arm, she gave Monty a quick hug with the other and told him, "Thanks, mate! Yer a right find gent, ya are! I's owes ya one, aye? Name the favor, an' she's yers. Aye? Aye."

She then took Bitey back home, reluctantly leaving him there, since she doubted he'd be a welcome sight in the University labs. She stopped to buy a small bit of metal on the way, then brought the supplies and her plans to the lab to finish making the rest of Bitey's parts.

In the lab, she worked up the heat of the furnace just as she had at the glassmaker's, and set the metal pieces in the furnace to melt. Then she set about preparing the molds while the metal was slowly heating. Unlike with the glassmaking, there was nothing just lying around she could use. She had to prepare and cast the molds from scratch. She filled one of the large wooden frames with sand, and set about carefully measuring and carving the wax that would form the initial mold. Each piece had to be cut very precisely to match the designs she had made from her measurements in the glass shop. She carefully sliced out each sliver of wax and meticulously carved it until it matched her designs, lining each piece up against the drawings once it was carved and triple checking every measurement.

Then she pressed the wax pieces into the sand and set the frame next to the furnace to melt. The wax melted much faster than the metal, and both were ready at close to the same time.

Once everything was set, she retrieved the pot of metal with a pair of tongs, and ever so carefully poured it into each of the molds. Then it was just a long while of waiting, while regularly stirring the liquid metal with a small rod to make sure it cooled evenly.

Some hours later into the night, the pieces were hardened and ready. She carefully bent the short tips downward and the longer ones upward, working the metal slowly so as not to snap any of the pieces off. Then it was off to home to get Bitey ready.

"Now Mommy's sorry she 'as ta do 'is," she told Bitey as she was clamping him down to the table at home, "but it's fer yer own good. Shh, there there baby..." she petted him as he squirmed against the treatment, struggling to get out of the clamp. Unfortunately, she had to do this while he was 'awake,' since it wasn't safe to modify his body while he was shut down inside an Animation circle. Luckily he couldn't actually feel pain, since his wooden body had no actual nerves. The simple spider's mind she had implanted in him didn't know that, however.

He was, however, programmed to be soothed by the sound of her voice. So she kept talking sweetly to him the whole time, as she carefully hammered the metal into his wooden face. The downward-angled bits bit into his face like nails, holding the pieces firmly in place. She then polished up the metal until it had a nice shine.

Come morning, long before the ninth bell Monty had quoted her, Tock was sitting on the front step of the glass shop with her baby in her lap, his empty eye sockets gaping and awaiting the addition of the new eyes.

Grading NoteI haven't marked off the price of the materials used yet since I want to wait for confirmation during grading if my price estimate is accurate. But both copper and iron are 5 sm/pound and between the parts in my opening post and these parts here I would guess under 5 lbs of metal so 2.5 GM? Let me know in the grading what amount to deduct for cost of parts and I'll make the adjustments then. Seasonal wages are about to hit so I'll have it covered.

by **Montaine** on May 31st, 2012, 11:01 am

The ovens largely took care of themselves but it was standard practice for a member of the crew to watch over annealer and the charges resting within until they could satisfactorily be removed and set to one side on the long bench that stretched the length of the back workshop wall. As soon as Tock had left he had dragged the chair over to the warm glow of the furnace’s fires and settled down for the night. It was dull, unrewarding work but was more important to him tonight as he would have to retrieve the glass eyes from their resting spots before the boss or any of the crew returned and discovered them.

But, he had a good few bells to listen for before they would be ready so he jimmied open the old shutters on Calbert’s office window and retrieved one of the old man’s weighty ledgers from the shelf just below. It was a big, brown, bound book of papers and sheathes of receipts, all immaculately copied out in either Calbert’s practiced hand or occasionally the smaller, more curled lettering of Fogle’s. The both of them had grown up amongst wealthier households where an education in basic literacy was expected.

Monty opened up the first page and read out loud, ‘Glah-Swore-ks, glassworks, ack-oh-unts, oh!’ of course, the letters ou sometimes made an ooh sound and sometimes made an ow sound, these were the accounts, the glassworks accounts. He looked to the next piece of writing, it was a series of dates, numbers, ‘Spring 1 510 to Winter 92 511,’ numbers he could do.

Much of the next few bells were spent poring over the old ledger, its lack of interesting contents more than made up for by the challenge of reading. When finally he came to check on the glass he found it acceptable cool for removal, taking the stone support bricks and tossing them to one side. He took the two smallest ladles over to the marver and turned them upside down on the stone surface. The glass had hardened to fit snugly into its moulds and required a bit of tapping before the two glass eyes finally slipped out. He hung the ladles back up on the tool rack and went to inspect their work.

The domes weren’t quite as smooth as he would have liked, the ladles having been worn and warped ever so slightly by age and use, but the flat bases were perfectly level and that was what was important. He could have sanded them down if necessary, but so long as they would sit tightly against the metal plates he could count it as a job well done. He removed the second set and took all four glimmering hemispheres up to his apartment across the road.

The next morning he awoke bright and early, the hangover of yesterday happily a distant memory. He pulled on his shirt and trousers and opened up his shutters to the early sun, stretching out and pandiculating in the open air. He blinked the sleep from his eyes and looked across at the workshop.

She was already there, the eager petcher.

‘Tock! Come on up! I’ll open the door,’ he shouted to her, and moved to unlock the entrance to his home.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 31st, 2012, 2:44 pm

Tock looked up and saw Monty across the street. He was only just waking up!? She didn't know how he could be sleeping in on a day like this! She had barely been able to sleep, she had been so excited. Today, her baby got to see!

She hopped up from her seat, and rushed over to Monty's apartment. "Is 'ey ready?" she asked, bouncing on her toes and clutching her squirming baby to her chest. She was holding him carefully to make sure the eye sockets didn't get bent before she had the chance to install the eyes.

She held Bitey up to look right in Monty's face when he opened the door. "Say thank ya ta Uncle Monty," she told the spider. She was grinning wide, and lifted one of the spider's legs and made it wave, then in a squeaky little voice out of the corner of her mouth she said, "Thank ya Uncle Monty!" As far as she was concerned, since Monty was taking such a big part in helping bring Bitey to life, he was now family. She had never had a brother, and thus didn't have a frame of reference, but that was how she felt.

"Did everythin' work all good?" she asked hopefully, peering past Monty into the house.

by **Montaine** on May 31st, 2012, 3:41 pm

Monty leaned back as the spider was once more proffered towards his face, but it wasn’t an instinctive flinch anymore. The walking, wooden construct was still unnervingly unreal, a creation of carving and magic, but for all his better judgement he was growing attached to the thing. Perhaps it was its blindness that had so thoroughly disturbed him when he had first encountered it. Now, with its gleaming, metal discs in place it at least appeared to have some ocular variant adorning its face. Once the transparent, glass eyes were affixed, then maybe Bitey would appear slightly more amenable as an infrequent companion.

‘They came out fine enough, not perfect, but tha’s what we get for usin’ makeshift moulds. They’ll suit your purpose jus’ fine though,’ Montaine ushered in his guests and walked over to the table, upon which sat the four golem eyes, ‘Now, you’ll have to make sure they’re cleaned regular like, an’ make sure there’s no little hairs or specks o’ dirt an’ things on the metal afore you attach them, else you’ll have to start the fittin’ all over again, that means no specks on the metal nor the glass,’

The glassworker was eager to see the pieces attached. He’d never constructed a mirror before, and this was not your every day sort of mirror. Specific pieces with specific requirements were frequently requested of the glassworks, not least because they were located so close to the university, but this was the first request of such peculiarity that Montaine had been solely responsible for. He prayed to Lhex it worked.

‘Now if’n they ever get chipped or scratched, you come see me an’ we’ll make up a replacement right quick. Fortunately, ‘cause he’s got so many of ‘em he’ll still be able to see fair well if’n one gets knocked bad,’ he watched Tock’s face, ‘S’ppose you’ll have to go do your magic thing, though, ‘fore he can see,’

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on May 31st, 2012, 5:43 pm

Minerva came in and set Bitey right on Monty's table, pulling a clamp out of her backpack to clamp him down once more and set to work. She once more carefully cleaned and polished each piece, along with the glass, to make sure everything was as close to perfect as she could get it. She then set the sockets, carefully shaping the metal to the shapes of the eyes. She took her time, arranging the metal with great care to ensure a good fit. Humming softly as she worked, she eventually had all the eyes fixed in place, and Bitey's face finally had a proper personality to it.

Once everything was set, she held Bitey up to the light streaming in through the window, watching as the light shone through the glass and reflected off the metal backings. She grinned wide and said, "Ain't 'e a beaut? 'At's my baby..." She hugged the spider to her chest, then asked Monty, "Ya wanna come watch the magic? C'mon, ya should see all yer 'ard work come ta life!"

She led Monty back through the city towards her own home, stopping in the stand of bushes where she'd released Goldie the day before. She dug around for awhile until she found where the real spider had started up a new web, and scooped it back up in a jar. "C'mon, sweetie," she told the spider. "Ya gotta come 'ome jus' one more time, ta 'elp yer nephew learn 'ow ta see. Don't worry though, I'll bring ya right on 'ome..."

Back home, she set the trapped spider in one of the Animation circles, and restrained Bitey in the other. She offered Monty the only chair so he could sit and watch the final steps of the process. Then she cut her palm and added the required blood to fuel up the Animation process once more. She sat cross-legged next to the circles and began to focus, seeking out the souls of the two beings in the circles.

A soft glow surrounded both the real and artificial spiders, connecting their souls through the linked circles. Tock held her hands out to each, focusing the flow of Djed from one circle to the other and channeling information from Goldie's spirit into Bitey. She focused on the sensory data being read through the spider's eyes, teaching Bitey to see in the same way. She added stimuli to give the spiders something to focus on, starting with simple hand motions waved in front of them, giving them something to track with their gaze. Then she lit a splinter of wood with a small spark of flame, tracing the ember through the air above each circle. The spiders' eyes tracked the light as it moved, allowing her to transfer the instinctive understanding of movement and focus from the living creature to the artificial one.

Some hours later, once she had gone through multiple exercises to train Bitey's vision, she gave him a new awakening, tying off the spiritual energies once more. With the life spark complete and the energy transfer closed off, she pulled him out of the circle and into her lap. "'Ow's 'at, baby?" she asked him, waving her hands in front of his eyes. He reacted to the movement now, though still with no understanding of it beyond instinctive perception of threat, and the programmed understanding that Tock was his Mommy. She had imbued her image into him firmly so he would recognize her and respond to her, just as he had already been responding to her voice.

More than satisfied, she set him down to let him wander the house now. He no longer bumped into the walls, and he flinched and cringed back from movement, scurrying under the bed to hide. She clapped, proud beyond words of her finally complete baby, as Monty laughed at his movements, congratulating her on her achievements.

OOCDictation of Monty's actions in the final post was done with permission to wrap up the closing.

by **Cascade** on June 7th, 2012, 9:13 am

Adventurer's Loot

Minerva's Loot :

Montaine's Loot :

Okay, so that song, along with Tock's reaction, was brilliant. I have no idea what a good title for it would be so feel free to rename the lore that I gave about it. Good thread, guys. Enjoy your XP... this thread seemed to have a lot of things going on in the skill department.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me!