Stone and Garden (Nadea)

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

4th Day of Autumn, 512 AV Afternoon Tock had spent most of the morning starting construction of her new workshop. It was a slow start, and she was muddling her way through some designs that would keep her busy for the better part of the season. She was also starting on designs for a new helper: a Golem that would serve as her assistant. One less specialized and more versatile than the others she had made so far. Her head spinning from all the planning and hard work, she needed a break. A chance to relax. And the most relaxing thing she could think to do was carving. She walked down to the site of her statue, which she hadn't worked on in over a week. She had spent a good number of days through the summer working on it. But with [url=http://www.mizahar.com/forums/topic24572.html]Mikey, and the aftermath of his death, she hadn't been back down here in awhile. She had found herself in a daze or reduced to tears more than once in the past week, and just thinking about it now made her feel another bout coming on. Determined to fight off the emotions, she set to work immediately, hoping she could keep herself busy enough that she wouldn't break down again. So far, the statue was little more than a misshapen lump. A granite block about eight feet tall and wider than a man. She had roughly carved it into a humanoid form from the waist up. There was an outline of the head, shoulders, and arms, along with the basic shape of the torso. One arm was thrust forward, holding up a wide block that currently lacked definition, supported in the palm of the hand. The other arm was raised upwards, holding what could be seen as the basic shape of a trident. All of the design lacked definition for now. The basic shape needed to be completed first, and from the waist down, there was nothing but rough hewn stone. So that was where she began today. Tock stepped into the lot, following the incomplete stone pathway that led from the street, up to the statue, and then in a circle around it. Part of the pathway was currently nothing more than dirt, since she was using the pieces of stone she cut off the statue to fill it in. Beyond the pathway, sticks were stuck in the ground with string running between them, marking out several rectangular areas. These would hold benches or small garden plots, when everything was complete. Further back, around the entire lot, were the beginnings of flower beds, but those were Wart's contribution to the project. Tock didn't know a damn thing about growing flowers, so she didn't touch them. She crouched next to the statue, running her fingers along the stone below the waist. She focused her mind, channeling Djed through her eyes, and slowly expanding her awareness. She concentrated hard on the stone, watching as the grey aura slowly expanded, forming into a still, slightly opaque expanse before her eyes. She had learned how to trace flaws in stone through the use of Auristics. A crack inside the stone would cause the aura to become fragmented, like looking at a reflection in a broken mirror. After scanning the width of the block, she spotted such a fragment in the aura. A small spot where the aura shifted into two parts, slightly out of alignment with each other. Once she had the spot analyzed, she cut off the Djed flow, marking the location of the crack with a piece of charcoal. She would need to work carefully to cut around it, in order to make sure it didn't spread. She took out some rope, and looped it over the arm of the statue so that the trailing end hung down below the waist. She then took Handy, her wooden hand Automaton, and strapped him to it. "'Old 'is," she told him, taking one of her iron spikes and sticking it in his grip. He obediently held the spike in his wooden fingers, the tip pressed against the stone where she indicated. Tock then took another spike, and set it on the opposite side. She took out her rockhammer, and started tapping on one spike, then the other. Alternating between the two would allow her to cut out the unneeded section of stone evenly, without risking too much pressure on one side or another. She worked steadily, not expecting any company or interruptions. She hummed softly to herself as she worked, tapping steadily on the spike she held, then the one Handy held, slowly cutting into the stone until the small, fist-sized chunk eventually came free.

[Nadea]

Observation, a common tool that living beings use to collect information. Either by senses or tools; one can gain a knowledge phenomena and make it into fact.It is a natural and automatic way of learning; living creatures have picked up certain motor skills, speech and body language through observation since birth. Nadea found such a common exercise as one of her favorite pastimes. It was the easiest way to answer questions, sate curiosity and most of all amuse herself. Depending on the specimen she either got data or amusement. Sometimes she would get lucky and obtain both, simply by watching quietly from afar. On an afternoon like this, people would be crowding in to the Kelp Bar, or enjoying the comforts of home. Nadea rather roamed the streets in eager to find some new exhibit to ogle at. Her eyes scanning the streets, the mountains, the port and the University but to no avail.It seemed that these days people were rather average and unextroardinary. Nadea knew this already, it was impractical for all life forms to achieve greatest potential, after all most humans didn't live too long. Since that was most of the population of Mizahar, Nadea began to get this dwindling feeling that her research might be rather bland and uneventful. That didn't bother her though, if observation didn't prove entertaining or useful today she'd just find some poor bloke to test her poisons on. A giggle escaped Nadea's lips at the thought of it. However her attention was stolen away from her plotting to a soft tapping sound. Nadea wasn't sure if she had just imagined it or if it was substantial sound. She held her breath, head cocked sideways in familiar curious fashion... There it was again, Nadea hadn't been imagining it. This pattering noise intrigued her because not many worked into the afternoon, most sailors scholars and shipbuilders were getting sloshed at The Kelp. 'Interesting...'Nadea thought to herself turning in direction of the pattering.Maybe she'd find a specimen worth observing after all. Nadea followed the tapping, it lead her down an alley, up a street and to a dirt road. The dirt road had transcended to stone, then figure hunched before what looked like a misshapen column.The source of the tapping came from the column. This person was carving something, what looked like the beginnings of a man. This person was an artist maybe? That made sense if anyone was to obsess over their work throughout the day and into night, it was a whimsical artist. Curiosity pulled her in and Nadea found herself quietly creeping behind the artist. Due to closer look of form and gentle hum, Nadea could gather the artist was a woman. Nadea's eyes traced the statue and then the lady's back for a moment.Although the statue was interesting, the lady held her attention. She was close enough to reach out and touch her shoulder to gather her attention. However Nadea ignored such social cues and rather observed quietly."What's he supposed to be?" Nadea asked out of blue and breaking the silence.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

When the block came free, Tock planted it in the circular path like a cobblestone. Later, when the important part of the carving was done, she might go back and smooth out the stone to make a better pathway. For now, though, her attention was on the statue. She was so focused on her carving that she was barely conscious of the stranger's question. Speaking distractedly, almost more to herself than to the woman, she said, "'E's Zeltiva." She looked up at the statue with a small smile and a soft gaze, running her gloved fingers over the stone. She scanned it again, pushing Djed forth to bring the statue's aura back out. As it slowly grew in her vision, she saw no more fragmented parts in the section she was working on. Just a smooth expanse of semi-transparent grey. She released the Djed flow and set back to work, momentarily forgetting that there was still someone else there. She switched out her iron spikes for one of her heavy-bladed stonecarving chisels, and started moving down the base, slowly cutting vertical gashes into the stone at several points. She spaced each cut with care, before pounding her stonehammer onto the back of the chisel to drive it in. She made a series of cuts like this down a line, each going a bit deeper than the one before it. Once those cuts were in place, she adjusted her angle to cut in from the side. She chiseled through the underside of the segments she'd cut, slicing through them until each small block cut free. These cuts continued at a downward angle, from about waist-height near the front of the statue, to around knee-height as she worked around the side. While the form wouldn't seem too clear yet, this sweeping angle was meant to be the shape of the chariot the stone figure would be depicting as riding. As she completed the outline of the first side of the chariot, Tock took out a marked strip of leather for measuring and laid it along the area she had just cut. She put one end in Handy's hand, holding it against the left side of the statue. Then she grabbed for the stranger's hand and said, "'Old 'is..." She indicated a spot at the front peak of the chariot where the center of the measuring strip needed to be held. Then she stepped along the right side of the statue and held the other end of the strip there, adjusting it and using a piece of charcoal to mark the measurements. She needed to make sure the curved shape of the chariot's upper rim was symmetrical and balanced. She continued humming as she worked, still barely aware of the presence of the stranger she had just forcibly recruited to be her temporary assistant.

[Nadea]

Nadea sighed irritably at the artist lady. She hated when people talked in riddles, she was a very black and white person. "What's that supposed to mean? Is the statue named after Zeltiva or something?" Nadea didn't know what to say after that. Rather watching the red head practically worship the statue. Nadea continued to watch the woman work. How odd, usually people weren't so infatuated with something inanimate as stone. However the artist caught her attention again. Handing her leather to hold in place. Strange Nadea hadn't been told what to do in long time, she wasn't necessarily insulted rather bemused. When Nadea was bemused, she asked questions. Which was probably rather rude of her because the woman was so delved into her work. "That hand thing alive? How'd you get it to do that? Magic? What's your name? What do you do? What is all this?" She fired off questions, like they were fired off from a bow. The arrow like question's crisp and cool. There was hardly questioning inflection at the end of each. Not that she could help it really, it was her questioning rational nature.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock huffed when the woman didn't understand. It should have been obvious that the statue was meant to be an embodiment of Zeltivan culture, politics, religion, and values being represented by a symbolic figure of protection and nurturing based on months of planning and study! But since Tock didn't have the patience to explain all of that, she just said, "'E's a bloke what stands fer Zeltiva, aye?" She figured that the woman could fill in the rest of the pieces by herself from there. She traced out the second side of the chariot as the woman continued pestering her with questions. "Course 'e's alive," she said when the woman asked about Handy. "'E's my baby, an' I built 'im!" Hearing that they were talking about him, the wooden hand dropped the measuring strip in order to wave at the stranger, his wooden fingers flicking up and down in mimicry of the human motion. "Tch, baby!" Tock scolded him. "Ya done dropped the thing Mommy asked ya ta 'old!" Handy's fingers splayed wide, and he scrambled to reach for the leather strip again. But it had fallen out of his reach, and with the way he was strapped to the rope hanging from the statue, he couldn't easily climb down. After a few moments of frantic scrambling, his fingers drooped in defeat. Tock sighed and stepped over, handing the strip back to him and leaning over to kiss the back of his hand. "S'okay, sweetie," she told him. "Mommy still loves you..." She ended up missing the rest of the woman's questions, since they had been rattled off faster than she could keep up with, and she had been distracted by her baby's antics. Rather than asking her to repeat them, however, she gathered up the measuring strip and tucked it away. She started making cuts similar to how she had on the other side, carefully tapping her chisel into the stone with her mallet. Each cut took awhile of repeated tapping, with Tock humming all the while, having forgotten once more that she had company. As she made her way down the length of stone, cutting small sections that would be safer and easier to remove than large blocks, she finally glanced up and saw the woman as if for the very first time. Having completely forgotten that they had been starting a conversation a few minutes ago, and without a clue who this stranger was, she asked, "Wotcher, Sook?"

[Nadea]

"'E's a bloke what stands fer Zeltiva, aye?" Ahhh symbolism...that was . Nadea felt quite foolish for thinking otherwise, but then again she was never a poetic gal. Her heart belonged to fact and reason. She nodded thoughtfully eyes tracing the statue then the lady's back again. Who was this person anyway? "'E's a bloke what stands fer Zeltiva, aye?""'E's my baby, an' I built 'im!" Alright so she's an engineer, a mage, and an artist. Ever heard of the term jack of all trades? Although Nadea was sure this mysterious woman could master all, at proof of her dedication. Nadea never understood such passion for anything. That motherly doting on things and people, was so...foreign. So Nadea watched the two as though they were a specimen of some kind. The moment was touching and it made Nadea sick. So she looked away, suddenly fascinated in the floor.She studied it silently about ready to leave until the jack of trades spoke to her .However Nadea did not understand, she hated when she could not understand. So she blinked irratibly before frowning. "Pardon?"

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

"Pardon nothin," Tock replied. "Yer in my light..." With the sun starting its slow descent in the western sky, the shadows across the city were growing long. The stranger's shadow was blocking the spot Tock was working on. But being a rather impatient person, Tock didn't wait for her to move out of the way. Instead she pulled Grippy, her reaching tool, off her belt. With a touch of her finger to the Automaton's metal handle, the arm extended outwards, and she closed the metal claw on the end to snag the woman's clothes. Then with another touch of her finger, she started retracting the arm, tugging on the stranger to pull her until she was no longer blocking the light. She then released her, retracted Grippy until he was folded back down to his normal size, and stuck him back in the leather holster. With her light restored, she set her chisel against the side of the stone, tapping it inwards with her mallet until she cut free a small fist-sized block. "Make yerself useful," she told the stranger, tossing the stone to the woman's feet, then gesturing to the incomplete circular pathway. "Ain't need no dodgers standin' 'round not workin', aye?" Tock didn't tolerate laziness, and she hated gawkers. If someone was going to stand there and stare, they were going to get put to work. She adjusted her chisel to the next spot and continued pounding, chipping her way through the stone little by little. After long minutes of work she managed to cut another chunk free, and tossed it towards the stranger along with the first one.

[Nadea]

Nadea was jerked aside quite quickly. It was not roughly nor did it truly inconvenience her. It was just surprising and all together amusing. Nadea chuckled tritely, fine brow quirked charmed by the ladies gadgets. "Well excuse me...I presume that is one of your babies, as you call them?" With that the women went back to work. Paying no attention to Nadea, she wasn't too sure if she should leave or not. She was contemplating her exit until the red head tossed her rubble. She wanted her to work? Well why didn't she say so sooner? Without complaint Nadea picked up the stone and started piecing together the pathway. The work was therapeutic, although Nadea wasn't much for puzzles nor work. The spiral brought her into deep thought. While she placed stones in the earth she found herself musing over collected data, herbs, people and victims. "So...You gonna tell me your name?" Nadea was quite interested in the red head, not as victim but colleague rather. There was chance there was someone worthwhile in this port town!

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

"Course 'e's my baby," Tock replied irritably, as if it should have been obvious. People didn't go around questioning women who had flesh and blood babies about their childrens' parentage, so why should people question hers? Though she did have one adopted baby. Then the woman asked her her name. "Ya didn't ask," Tock replied, having completely forgotten that yes, the woman did indeed ask her name a few minutes ago. She was so focused on her work that she wasn't paying much attention to the fact that there was another human being around. "S'Tock," she said simply, not bothering to ask the woman for her name in return. She often forgot people's names anyway, and names just weren't that important to her. Who a person was was much more than the label they used to identify themselves. She continued chipping away at the stone, one small block at a time, humming softly to herself all the while. Once the basic shape of the chariot's upper rim was formed, she ran her fingers along it, studying it with an expert eye. She took out a chisel with a thinner blade, picking out a few spots that weren't quite smooth enough, and chipping off thin flakes of stone with quick, steady strikes of mallet to chisel. After each cut she glided her fingers along the stone again, searching out any rough or unlevel spots, before aligning her chisel to chip away the thin patches of stone. Pebbles and dust floated down to the ground around her, some of the chips so thin they could be snapped between one's fingers. After a bit of work on that section, she was satisfied with the progress for the time being. There would be careful filing and decorative carving later, but for now the basic shape was the way she wanted it. She stood up and stepped around to the back of the statue, examining the rough, irregular shape of the back side. It was far too large; in order to bring the back end down to the right height for the shape of the chariot, she would need to take out a good two foot tall by three foot wide section of stone from the back. "Might not wanna stand 'ere, Sook," she told her helper, pulling the long-handled ten pound sledge hammer from her tools. "Ain't blame me what if'n ya lose an eye, aye?" Without bothering to wait and see if the woman actually moved out of the way, she raised the sledge and started pounding at the back of the stone, working with heavy swings to break away sections that were far too thick for chisel work.

[Nadea]

The artist was getting irritated with her. A smile spread across her face, that sort of evil twinkle glinted in Nadea's eye. Nadea made an educated guess that this woman, didn't take to kind to questions. After all they wasted time... "Ya didn't ask," "S'Tock," Nadea blinked her mouth downturned in a grimace."Well actually I did..but you know I might as well talk to your statue" she quipped .Nadea then continued to gather rocks, putting them in place. Until Tock interrupted her, by nearly hacking her head off. Nadea sighed gently and stepped far out off hammer's reach. "Well as I always say...an eye for an eye..." Her own blue watching the stone fall to the ground. "And my name's Nadea by the way, thanks for asking..." she simpered with a smirk on her face. "So how do you get Ol' Rocky here ta' rouse?". She said as she dodged the hammer steady cadence. She heaved and tossed the jagged rocks, a bit too bulky to lift. Nadea had to drag them to the missing spaces.