Stalking is Hard Work [Tock]

by **Matthaus** on September 17th, 2012, 10:09 pm

14 of Autumn, 512AV

A good coin, a good bit of gossip, a good bit of information or blackmail, generally Matthaus found these were the most common uses of trade when finding out anything about anyone. It was what he learnt in Ravok, what he learnt all his life. You don’t get something for nothing. However, there is an exception to every rule and Zeltiva seemed to be that exception, at least in the case of one red-head named ‘Tock’.

His first inquires had been stealthy but the blatant giving away of information had surprised him, so he had tried elsewhere and found that the saying ‘ask and ye shall receive’ held true. He asked for her normal whereabouts and received them post haste. It was astounding, did no one have any sense of self-preservation? After all, if people could go missing in a city without any trace left behind then people could make enemies and enemies always needed false leads or none at all.

Of course, having directions didn’t mean he could use them properly for it seemed every location she had been too she had ‘just left’ much to his chagrin. He was entirely fed up with searching for her. At one point he had even dug up some djed and tried to sense her aura and then quickly remembered he could not sense what he hadn’t sought out before. It annoyed him he had been so careless with her, gave her information and not really gained any on her.

Rather than truly forget his search he dragged his sack with his essentials and had decided his best course of action was to camp out at her land plot. It was common knowledge she was building there but whenever he tried to catch her she was never there. How in the Gods name was she going to build something gif he could never find her there? It didn’t matter much though and he leaned back, his sack used as a pillow and his cloak as a sturdy blanket and watch the faint clouds overhead. He would just wait her out, after all she couldn’t very well build if there was a child sitting on the edge of her plot.

While he waited he amused himself by pulling aimlessly at his djed and scanning the sky. He could see nothing, just feel the cool thread of djed wind in his veins without any real use for there was nothing for him to truly pinpoint. Save for the odd bird and even then all he glimpsed was the shape of hunger or happiness.

by **Minerva Agatha Zipporah** on September 18th, 2012, 2:49 am

OOCThe activities described in the first paragraph here (studying the wolf and building the Golem) will be played out in some planned threads soon. So I'm referencing them here as a general summary to keep continuity straight.

Tock had been having a busy couple of weeks. Each morning, she had been studying her live wolf. She was nearing the point where she'd be ready to kill the thing and slice it open, but until then, she was trying to learn as much as possible about its behavior, its personality, and its physical and mental capabilities. She spent a few hours with it each morning from sunrise until it was time to head to work.

During the day she was either at work, or working on carving her statue. Her job and her carving took up most of her daylight hours, leaving her little free time.

The time she did have at night, she was mostly working on her new assistant Golem. While it wouldn't be the masterpiece that her wolf was going to be, it would be helping her to build that wolf. And her workshop. And every other project she had planned. It was going to be fully automated, intelligent, and versatile. Unlike her other babies, this one wouldn't be restricted to a single task. Instead, she was working on a full-fledged assistant that would be capable of any human tasks, within certain limitations.

This morning she finally had a day off work, and was planning on using some of the daylight hours instead working on her workshop, before returning to working on her Golem at night. After tending to the wolf in the early morning, she had gone out to run some errands, and now returned with the intent of erecting the first door to the workshop. So far, the building was little more than piles of wood and brick scattered about, waiting to be assembled. There were some wooden frames for the walls, which her babies had helped her assembled during the last week. Not a single one of the walls was yet raised, and the foundations were dug out, but not bricked yet. Thus the workshop looked more like a mess of building supplies than anything, without much clear idea what would be built there.

She walked across the yard, stepping around piles of wood, brick, and stone, without realizing at first that there was a child napping nearby. Unless a person got directly in her way, Tock tended to ignore their presence entirely. When they did get in her way, they were either thrown off the property, or put to work.

She started off laying out the wood she needed for the main door. Her babies would do the actual construction; she had Cutty available to cut the boards to the lengths she needed (though he was still malfunctioning and unable to work with real independence, something she intended to fix very very soon). And while she had to line up and clamp the boards together herself, once she did so, Handy and Naily could do the actual work of nailing them together. She left a pile of nails on the ground, and used a piece of charcoal to mark for Handy where they needed to be placed. Then the wooden hand held the nails up for Naily, and the little wheeled hammer pounded them into place.

Once her babies were set up for that work, Tock started laying out part of the foundation near where the door would go. She was waiting to build the bulk of the foundation until after her assistant was built, but for the time being, she could lay out one side of the foundation wall so she could start on the door. The door was going to be special. Designed to repel intruders. Animated.

But first she needed a solid brick foundation for the wall here. Kneeling on the ground in the shallow hole Diggy, her Animated shovel, had dug out, she started laying bricks out along the edge of the hole. She hummed softly as she worked, a bucket of mortar by her side, and a stack of bricks nearby. She laid the bricks out carefully one at a time, making sure the first row was carefully leveled in the dirt before applying a layer of mortar. The foundation required a bit of care, to make sure she didn't get any dirt mixed into the mortar. But she had done this sort of thing on the job site a few times, and had a decent idea how it went. Still, she was considering getting her friend James to come down and help her when it was time for the serious bricklaying.

She worked slowly, spreading a thin layer of mortar across the first layer of bricks, and aligning the bricks for the next layer as straight and level as possible. Then with each one she tapped the brick gently in place with the handle of the trowel, then brushed away any dirt that came free from the foundation wall before moving on to the next one.

Note :

by **Matthaus** on October 2nd, 2012, 5:06 am

He didn’t know how long he slept or how long he had actually stayed there but somehow he had managed to miss the redhead again. His entire body felt numb, his back sore and his cheek felt like it had melted to the brick he had slept on. Sitting up quickly he felt his sack tumble onto his legs and looked around at the fading light. Behind him what was obviously a worked on construct only served to irk him more. The boy had slept through her entire work day and his. Pursing his lips he sighed and stood, wincing at the slight pain the seeped into the movement and shouldering his sack.

Rather than stew in his own failure he headed back the way he came, making detours here and there until he reached the docks. The sun still declining but he still had some hours of daylight left, might as well get what he came to get.

“Sir, excuse me I—“

“In a minute, son.”

Next person.

“Excuse, if you—“

“Go ask, John, yea?”

The more he tried to stop the flow of people the more the dispersed. They weren’t rude, just busy. But this didn’t make his growing frustration any better. Pursing his lips he steadfastly hung onto the nearest persons sleeve. “Excuse me, I was looking for…Tock? She said to meet her here.”

A quizzical glance, “Redhead? Ain’t seen her for awhile. Might try the Uni, aye?”

“…Yes, thank you.” There was a disturbing amount of disappointment in his reply that startled him into letting go of the shirt and continuing on his way and with his questioning. He would find something out. Eventually. Instead he found nothing. As if she had vanished into thin air. That was fine by him. He could always search again but for today he was done and he had other matters to think of.

by **Echelon** on October 22nd, 2012, 7:46 pm

Adventurer's Loot

A Gift
Experience is its own reward.

Matthaus' Loot :

(Awww sad he will never find her. Well keep threading, I look forward to seeing out little scamp in future threads.) - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, please PM me.