[Flashback] Its Alive! (Closed)

[Jaquise Emittere]

Summer of 497 A.V.

"Now I understand that today your father was going to teach you the basics of Animation. Sergane however was called away on business. Some foolish summoner accidentally let loose several glassbeaks in the city and your father is helping to track them down. So I will be taking his place." Jaq remembered this day well, it was the day his father had first missed a lesson. He had always been coming and going from the household and all times of the night, but Sergane always made time for his son. Until this day that is. Raz, short for Raztiel, was Serganes familiar. Equally as powerful as his father he was more then capable of teaching Jaquise. His alien nature made it a little difficult for him to relate to the child, but the alien being had grown as attached to him over time, at least as much as a familiar could of someone they were not bonded to. Still the relationship was on a odd one. Sometimes the familiar would forget to say anything, having been used to speaking by thought.

Jaq had never seen Raztiel as anything but a pale gaunt version of his father. He thought the dove that sometimes seemed to follow him around was Raztiel, but the familiar never admitted to anything. That day, so many years ago, Raztiel had been a bit distracted in his lesson. Probably listening to Sergane wherever he was as the powerful magi completed his work. The lesson had still taught him a great deal.

"I want you to come over here please." The gaunt figure motioned for Jaq to move over to the larger part off the room where his father had him practice magic. They were at the moment in the cellar or basement of his father's large house. The basement was very roomy to say the least. The candles that lit the room needed to be placed on both sides, or else the light from one side would not be able to light the other well enough for the occupants to see. On one side of the room was the practice area, and on the other was a large desk, and one smaller one for Jaq as well as several large bookcases. Each volume contained some part or another about magic and warfare. Probably a fortune of information few individual magi could match. It was regrettable the books had not survived the summoning that put his father's head on the chopping block. The room was made like any other room in the fortress. Simple in design and spacious only at a great cost to the buyer.

"Now I want you to draw two circles close together, each of them about two feet wide, while I explain the basics of animation. Animation works by attaching a Life Principle, or LP, onto a given object. A Life Principle is an artificial soul, though in most cases it is a highly simplified one. Being a forged soul, the LP also possesses an astral body, the intermediate substance that can control the movements of a physical body. This is how an Animated construct can move around, provided it is designed to do so. The object's physical structure must have a reasonable weight and suitable joints allowing for the desired behaviors. For example, a granite statue will not be able to move if Animated, because it lacks joints to use as pivots for movement."

Raz paced back and forth as he spoke. His voice sounded almost fake, and his speech reminded Jaq more of reading a textbook then hearing it. Still, Jaq listened closely as he drew the two circles using a bit of coal. When he finished with his circles he stood back and waited for further instruction. His father had never taught him any magic that required circles, yet still he had forced his son to draw them over and over again until he could make a perfect circle with no effort.

"That is the premise behind animating. The greatest example of golems can be found in the Nuit." Jaquise raised his head as Raziel said that.

"You mean the Nuit make the best golems?"

"Perhaps, but best is a subjective term in this case. That is not what I meant though. They are the product of Animation. Never mind that though, a lesson for another day." Jaq knew from experience that none of his questions would be answered and kept his mouth shut. The Familiar was as stubborn as his father. "Now the first thing that must be done is the creation of the item you will be animating. Your skill in such things has always been lacking so your father saw fit to provide you with the body himself. He made several for when you fail in your first attempts."

At those words the familiar moved to the nearby wall and began sifting through a cabinet that contained most of Serganes materials for his workings. After a few moments he pulled out what looked like a glass box and then went back to sifting through the contents of the cabinet. Another minute passed before the Familiar found what he wanted and pulled out a small crate. Raz picked up both boxes and carried them over to Jaquise. In the glass box the young boy could see what looked like a butterfly. It was fluttering around the box now, not liking the disturbance to its environment. Raz placed the glass box in the circle closest to Jaquise then reached his hand into the wooden crate and pulled out something, which he delicately placed int he center of the farther circle.

Jaquise noticed that the item he placed in the farther circle was a larger version of the very butterfly, only made out of wood. The frame was delicately carved and beautifully colored. The wings looked as thin as paper yet they did not break under the weight their size put on them. All in all it was a beautiful piece that must have taken hours to make. "Your goal for this lesson is to get one of these carvings here to fly as well as the butterfly in the cage. You won't get it right on the first try, or the second, and probably not the third. Maybe not even today or tomorrow."

Jaquise looked from the carved butterfly to the one in the glass box, which had now perched itself on a stick placed inside for its benefit. Its wings fluttered once or twice, then stopped as it rested. He then looked to Raztiel. "Where do I begin?"

Raziel gave Jaquise an Alien smile and began the lesson. "The first thing you must do is connect the circles with a line and bad that center line with a little bit of your blood. Use the knife int he cardboard box to cut your thumb, and do be careful." Jaquise did as he was directed and drew the line. Then, with only a small bit of hesitation, the child cut his thumb and immediately pressed his cut up against the center line. For a moment nothing happened. Jaquise looked to his father's look alike with some confusion. The familiar frowned. "You must concentrate boy. Draw some djed from that part of you that you use to create your res. I thought that bit was self explanatory."

Jaquise nodded and focused as hard as he could. The energy came to him slowly. He had only a years worth of practice, and even the it had been pretty routine. Minutes passed before the boy finally felt a connection form between the circles. Raziel looked at them for a moment with his own alien eyes then nodded. "Good. Now the first step is the creation of the Soulcore. You can feel the butterfly yes? Its energies? I want you to gather more of your own energy, enough to envelop the carving, and I want you to imprint upon it the energy you feel from the butterfly. Use its energy as a molding to form your own. Good good, keep going." As the familiar was talking Jaq did as he was instructed. The process was slow going considering he just learned how to feel the energy of the butterfly and now he was supposed to form his own energy to match it. At first he tried doing it on his own, which took no time at all to fail. Then he tried shaping it around the energy of the butterfly itself, which was a great deal easier. When he had it formed he moved it over to the carving.

"Very good. Now you must merge the energy with the carving's latent energy." Easier said then done. It was almost as difficult forming the energy, but eventually Jaquise was able to accomplish the task. He opened his eyes once more to discover the room was much dimmer then it was when he had started. The candles that lit the basement when either he or his father was practicing down here had been almost all completely burned out. A great deal of time had passed since he had started this venture. "Good job child. Collect your thoughts with some mediation and then I will lead you to your room for the night. We will continue the lesson tomorrow."

Because of the late hour, and the fact that the basement was made with rather thick walls, Jaquise had no noise to focus on for meditation. His preferred method unavailable to him, the young boy focused on something his father had recommended to him. A summoning circle with three points, the most stable of circles. Jaquise focused on the circle to the exclusion of all else. He ignored the sweat on his brow from such a long working, he ignored the still, alien presence of his father's familiar Raziel. The flickering light of the candles near their end played off against his closed eyes and he ignored them to. His thoughts, a whirl with the days happenings began to calm. His worries, doubts and fears about his abilities faded, and slowly but surely his mind relaxed. He allowed himself some time in this state to simply be. It was an odd thing for a child his age to know how to do, and it made it all the harder for him to relate to others his age. Still he enjoyed meditating, even if he wasn't very good at it.

[Jaquise Emittere]

"Even though I am teaching you animation, we must not let you lose focus on your Reimnancy teachings, we will be doing a simple exercise today." They were in the basement once more. Raziel was teaching him again. When pressed for answers the familiar would only say that his father hadn't finished work yet. "This exercise is much like your breathing exercise's your father has been teaching you for mediation, only you'll be using res to draw air in instead of your lungs. Because you chose air as your first element you have certain advantages you must be able to use. The first and most important is the fact that air is all around you, enabling you to use less then a quarter of the djed necessary to create the element by simply drawing it in. First I want you to create a ball of res, about the size of your fist, and hold it right in front of you. Then I want you to slowly take in the air around you until you only a thing barrier of res around the element left. Finally let it out with a gentles breeze and repeat the steps."

The exercise was simple, even for Jaquise who only had about a year of practice. To focus his mind he began an incantation under his breath. He didn't know any ancient tongue and thought it pretentious to use it anyway, so he used an old nursery rhyme he liked about a drunk and a knight playing cards. First he created the res, letting it flow out of the cuts on his hands. Then, slowly, he formed it into a ball in front of him. When this was done he began drawing in air from around him. When he realized it was starting to take his breath away he moved the ball of res a little further out. After about a minute all he had left was a thing barrier of res containing the air. Because the air would act as air does once transmuted, that thin barrier was what gave Jaquise his control over the ball. Instead of simply throwing the ball of air like he normally would for a solid impact, Jaquise simply parted the barrier on the side not facing him. The air air quickly rushed out, putting out a nearby candle.

Raziel turned his unblinking gaze to the candle and after a moment of concentration it lit once more. "Gently please. Its as much about learning control as it as learning to use whats around you."

Jaq nodded and repeated the process again, this time parting the res a great deal more slowly, creating the affect of a gentle breeze as the air was let out. The nearby candle flame fluttered back and forth but did not go out. Without promoting Jaquise repeated the process several more times, finding each time it grew a little easier to do. When he had reached perhaps the seventh time Raziel step in front of Jaquise and said, "Good that's enough practice for today. Now just like all your other exercises this is not to be done without supervision. Its still magic, no matter the simplicity, and magic is dangerous." For a moment Jaquise thought he could actually here worry twinge the familiar's voice, but before he could put any more thought too it he was being led to the circles he had drawn before.

The carving had not been moved, all though there was some greenery place in the glass box. Possibly t feed the butterfly. "Yesterday you created the soulcore, rather well I might add, and merged it with the carvings natural energy. Lets reestablish the link with the circle, once again by cutting your finger and putting blood on the line in between the two. Now tell me if you still feel your soulcore on the carving."

After once more dabbing his cut finger against the center line Jaq could feel the connection. Unlike the last time it was a little more solid and easier to understand. where yesterday it had felt like every other working he had very done, fluid and hard to control, this had a stable feeling to it that was oddly comforting. The butterfly's energy was still there. The carvings energy felt different now. As opposed to the inanimate object it was yesterday, it now felt a live with an energy almost like that of the butterfly's. "Hmm, very good. It looks like you have a knack for this Jaquise. The soulcore is not only still merged with the carvings energy, it seems to be suitable for the next step. Well done." Thought it was his father's voice and his fathers body, almost, saying those things Jaquise still wished ti was truly his father standing there giving those compliments rather then Raziel. Raziel was a good friend and able teacher but his father was well his father. Even at his young age Jaquise understood had tenuous a relationship he shared with his father. It was when Sergane was teaching him magic that Jaquise felt closest to the man. At times like that it was almost like Sergane was his father, a man who cared and loved him, as opposed to a teacher who felt obligated to raise him because of his feelings for his long dead wife.

With a sigh, Jaquise turned from the familiar back to the circles in front of him.

[Jaquise Emittere]

"What you must do know is imprint on the carving the basic principles of what it will live by. These basic principles are called Directives and must include Loyalty to you the creator. Quite important in order to avoid creations that disobey orders. Authentication, a way for another, a friend of yours perhaps, to prove that they are trustworthy to the creature. Self preservation, self explanatory. Non-violence. And finally killphrases. Directives are best kept short, simple and to a minimum, and need to come with definitions of the required concepts. For example, in order for an creation to understand the idea non-violence, you must transfer the concept of violence first. Understand? Good. Some Animators will tell you that it is unnecessary to give simple creations all of the basic creatures, but I will tell you it is a good habit to get into, if nothing else then for safety reasons."

Jaquise sat down in front of the circle with the carving and closed his eyes. He focused his mind of the energies of the carving, specifically on the soulcore. "If you think it will help, try and recall specific times in your life where you felt some loyalty towards someone. For more advanced creations directive can be made clear through speaking, but we are using a creature that does not have the potential for language. The emotions you are making it feel are probably to much as well. They are the closest thing we can get to this creatures thought process though. The voice sounded far away but Jaquise understood enough of what was being said. He pictured the day his father gave him the choice of becoming a reimancer. It was one of the happiest days of his life. He felt such a connection with his father, being allowed to follow in his footsteps. Slowly but surely he imprinted that feeling of wanting, no needing to what was asked of it into the energies. He could feel the soulcore, at the center of the carvings energy, absorbing each bit of info. "Ahh very good. I'm not sure what memory you chose but you did well. Now on to authentication."

The lesson continued like that for a while. Some of the Directives Jaquise had trouble with. Authentication was simple enough. He used a memory of a group of kids he used to play with in the city and a secret group they made. A password served to let them in to the backyard of the hosts home. The password was 'Honor'. Self preservation was harder. Raziel suggested using a memory where he was afraid he was going to die. The only time he could think of was the day his father made him a reimancer and the pain he felt with the res in his very blood, though he was careful not to link the emotion with that of loyalty when Raziel warned him of such dangers. Something about making it afraid of showing loyalty or some other issues that might come of making such connections. Non-violence was difficult, but Jaquise eventually thought of a few situations where a larger child had stolen money his father had given him to buy something at the bazaar and beaten him. Sergane had quickly found the child and gotten Jaquise's money back, though he never told Jaquise how he did it or what happened after that. Finally came the killphrase. Jaq decided to go simply and use 'Halt' to direct the carving to stop its actions, and 'Stop' to shut it down. Whatever that meant.

When he was done Raziel studied the carving for a good ten minutes before deeming the carving worthy of moving onto the next step. Jaquise didn't understand what Raziel was looking at. The carving didn't look any different now then it had in the beginning. He himself could feel the energies at play within the item, but he didn't feel any connection with Raziel. How was he seeing the magic without connecting himself to the circle Jaquise wondered. He would have to ask the familiar when the lesson was over.

"Now you must teach it a few words. With more complicated creations you might want it to know more words, but we only need to teach one thing to this. Imprint upon it memories of every flying creature you have seen when it is flying, and the word 'Fly' to associate with those images. Now don't put as much energy into this as you do the directives. It is merely knowledge for which i can use, not a law it must abide by." Jaq did this in a manner similar to the way he had done the directives, though he was careful to only put a little energy into the working. He thought of all the birds he saw the last time he went outside, and while he was thinkign of these things he was thinking of the word ''Fly'

"You have only two more steps to go. The next one is rather simple, though it can take a great deal of time depending on what you are animating. We must create an astral body for the creature that can do everything the butterfly can." The look of puzzlement that crossed Jaquise's face was not lost on Raziel. The question of how was plainly written across his face. "Normally we would have trouble doing this. We understand that butterfly's fly, but we do not know how and thus would be inadequate to explain it. What you must do is observe the butterfly's energy and record any changes in it you feel. These changes will arise every time it moves, every time it flaps its wing. And you must do it more then once for each action. Now begin observing the butterfly and record its movements. Later I will shake the container so that it might fly and you can record that as well. While we are doing this you must slowly stretch out the djed of the carving so that it overlaps the physical body we have given it. "

Jaquise sat there for hours completing this next step. When the butterfly walked up the stick in the glass box he recorded it, when it moved to the greenery at the bottom of the box he recorded it. When Raziel finally shook the box and sent it flying around the box, he recorded it. The soulcore, as it did with directives, seemed to absorb the information. As all this was going on Jaquise pulled the energy around each wing and each leg, often having to start over when he lost his focus and the energy snapped back to its normal form.

"It is done Jaquise. Now it is time to wake your creation up and see how well you did." The boy stretched his arms and legs and stood up with a yawn. He felt drained and weary. His arm's and legs felt heavy, like he had just run ten miles without rest. That was a sure sign for to stop doing any more magic. If he pushed any farther he could start hurting himself. Over giving was something his father always warned against. Raziel knew of it as well, but he probably had a different estimation of people's limits. Where his father would have stopped him halfway through, Raziel let him get close to his limit. Probably another lesson. "I want you to break the circle with your foot and tell your creation to fly." Jaq nodded his head a dragged his foot across the charcoal line. immediately he could feel the connection fade, and suddenly Jaquise felt a little lighter. Not any less tired, but lighter. He moved to stand in front of the carving and looked down at it.

"Fly."

For a moment nothing happened. Jaquise was about to repeat himself when the wings began to move. Haltingly at first but with growing surety the wings moved up and down. Even weary Jaquise felt proud at what he had accomplished. He looked up to Raziel expecting to see a bit of his happiness reflected on the familiars face. Raziel however was frowning, scrutinizing the carving the way he had done earlier. "It seems we will have to try again. Not today however. Nor tomorrow. In fact I would say you shouldn't do any magic tomorrow. Take a break and the day after we will start again."

"Raziel, what is wrong with this golem?" The disappointment in his voice was evident but Raziel did not seem to hear it.

"When I said you were going to make something that can fly, I meant actually take to the air. This is merely imitating the actions necessary to do so, and poorly at that. Your father went to great lengths to ensure theses carvings were light enough, and the fabric for the wings were strong enough that it could actually fly. Do not worry though. You will learn soon enough."

Sergane returned the next day and was able to finish the instruction. With in a weeks time Jaquise was able to make a golem that could fly as well as land, though further instructions such as follow and hover he could not manage for another 3 days. All in all it took Jaquise 12 days to learn the basics of making a golem.

Secret :

The first and last post are for animation, and in the center is a small exercise for reimnancy.

[Dusk]

XP Award! Jaquise XP Award Drawing: 1 XP Animation: 3 XP Meditation: 1 XP Reimancy: 1 XP Lore Award Principles of Animation Nuit (poor) Animation - Directives Additional Notes: This is a great training thread! It's actually the first time I've ever seen someone use Animation in a thread, and the details here were definitely well done.