[Bizarre] Gadgets & Gizmos [Julius]

[Hadrian]

It quickly became evident that this man was an illusionist, and Hadrian watched and listened with wide eyes as he spooned the interesting curry into his mouth. His voice was fairly high, and Hadrian wondered if that too was a function of his illusions. But he was teaching, and so Hadrian attempted to learn from him. The engineering made sense to him mathematically, and he had employed similar ideas in his magecrafting, but he was still a new gadgeteer. It was good to see how a more practiced person put them together, and he hoped he could match their intricacy soon. "That was... amazing," he said quietly once Juilus was done. He had finished his curry, and was looking from dandy to dandy-master. "Your illusion... huh. I hadn't thought of using it as a teaching tool, but I like your innovation. That was certainly illuminating. Perhaps soon I can attempt to build one myself. I suppose that's the only way I'll ever get better." Of course, once he was done, he could build a pseudo-soul for the thing and teach it to move on its own, mixing clever gadgeteering with that strange sort of projection that golems used to move themselves. "Who was your master?"

[Julius Aldoid]

"Well that's the irony isnt it," Julius spooning down his curry, "Illusion to show reality. That's the real trick of it though. The smoke and mirrors aren't here-" waving his hand over, it failing to appear once his hand was out of the way. He waved both hands to show they were empty, and then reached into his jacket, and withdrew a full-sized top hat and placed it on his head.

"They are all always up here," tapping his head, he lifted the hat to reveal the dandy sitting on the top of his head. With a flick of his wrist, the hat became his pipe, which he laced between his lips.

"If there is nothing to deceived, one can only be amazed," searching his person for his flint. Finding it, she scraped some sparks carefully into the basin, stealing a long drag after some quick puffs.

Juli sat a moment, as though a very big thought was rolling though his head, but the ground of his mind was covered in honey. He slid the pipe to the other side of his mouth.

"Mycroft Rizenhime," he started suddenly, "Used something of a clockmaker. Made big things- the kind used for towns. Could make tiny complex things too though. Ran up a huge debt on some project in Sunberth, or so he had said, and had been hiding here from his creditors. Or so he had said. Also clamed he was the reason why cats and dogs hated each other-- I am still suspect of that. But! He unfortunately passed away about a season ago, and so generously decided to donate all my study materials to the Sunken Conundrum. If your handy with a pen, it is very simple work, and you could get the early chapters transcribed fairly easy and quick. Only wish Old Rizenheim had not so generously sold off his entire mastercrafted gadgeteering set in order to pay for his own funeral expenses. Or that portable forge of his."

There was venom in Julius' voice, so great it seemed to appear that his clothing and hair were turning a shade of Red.

"Oh well, wasn't like I wasn't like I had paid him anything to teach me- kinda took pity on me for not going to Zeltiva and all."

Julius was talking to Hadrian, but his eyes seemed to be watching something somewhere off in the middle distance.

Some other time.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian nodded, and quickly finished his meal while Julius spoke and performed sleight of hand tricks with a bit of help from Ionu, it seemed. Most people had a more interesting story than he did, this Julius being one of them. "I'm rather handy with a pen," he said, "so if you were to direct me to some of his works, I could copy them out for the both of us. Or at least the highlights. Study notes. I got rather good at that while at the University of Zeltiva. You should go someday, learn a bit, teach a bit. They would love you there; they're always trying to push human progress forward again." There were some how felt such progress would lead to another Valterrian, but Hadrian was of a mind that one could learn from one's mistakes, so the sentient races could learn from previous mistakes as a whole as well. "My father is rather wealthy back in Syliras," he said, "but he never approved of my studies, so while I have a place to stay there, I don't have any monetary support for setting up a laboratory or business. So... I can sort of empathize. But I'm trying not to whine about it, just see it as a challenge to overcome on my own. Prove that I'm capable on my own. You know?"

[Julius Aldoid]

"I can dig it," he said from his haze. And then the thought came to him.

Julius' eyes perked up, shooting his gaze back to Hadrian. There were a few delicious morsels of information in Hadrian's statements, and after the right cooking could yield a smorgasbord of questions.

"What about non-human progress," Julius asked, but by the way a single giggle escaped his wide smile, it was obvious he was joking.

"So you went to Zeltiva? That is awesome! What did you study, wait- don't tell me."

Juli stroked his chin and sized Hadrian up, his eyes first going wide and then narrowing to a squint.

"You--- are a maker of candy! Am I right? Wait, no. A scribe? A Scribner? Transliteralist? Transendantal meditatory candyscribner."

He just dropped the whole line of inquiry. The silence hung dead in the air.

"But seriously, what did ya study Hadrian?"

[Hadrian]

"Well, sentient life's progress forward, I suppose..." he amended, then stared at Julius through the following zany tangent lines of inquiry. When he finally stopped, Hadrian laughed. Not a chuckle, but a laugh that loosened a bit of the mental fatigue that had plagued him since coming to Alvadas on a whim. He was still getting used to the idea of letting go and letting illusion take its course; while he understood that intellectually in principle, actually doing it was proving difficult. "I, ah... studied magic with an emphasis in magecraft, and cultural anthropology, but actually coming to Alvadas is proving that theory and practice are quite different. I'm not really a scribner, but I did study with a graphomancer of Qalaya for a while. It was rather enlightening." He glanced at Julius. "I wish I had more time to study engineering such as this. It would certainly help with the Animation."

[Julius Aldoid]

Juli's eyes were wide. And not 'wow that is neat' wide. They were 'looking upon the face of a God' wide.

"M-magic," Juli looked down, this revelation throwing him deeply into thought, "You study magic?"

Julius looked about quickly.

"Really, you don't say," his words were distant, some manner of mental calculations taking the vast majority of his thinking power. He scanned the alleyway and looked both left and right. With not even a gesture, a whole wall of brick seemed to phase into being, blocking the alleyway closed.

"Don't repeat that too much around these parts," he whispered to Hadrian, "if Alvadas has any import, it is people seeking to learn things. Most are looking for the mark of Ionu, but others occasionally come by, look for old texts in our library. We have theory, but there aren't many honest-to-goodness mages, and the ones that are keep it a secret. Alvadas isn't like other places. My cousin tells me that most other places, you get weird looks for saying you know magic. In these parts- everyone is looking to learn a little something."

"That being said," He set down his dandies neatly in a row, "I ask you Hadrian, from one student to another, one who had the chance to go to Zeltiva taken from him, can you please teach me some magic. You may take all my dandies free of charge, tear into them and cannibalize their gears and springs, and in return I beg you to show me to do magic. I am not asking an apprenticeship, but just something small. Please, will you do that for me?"

[Hadrian]

Hadrian was certainly sensitive to looks like that, if not the content, then the suddenness and intensity. On his guard, he nodded slowly before his eyes flicked to the sudden display of illusion. He wondered if he was in danger now after surviving so much already. Now he hadn't exactly been regaling strangers and passers-by with the nature of his studies; his normal personality was rather aloof. But he wasn't exactly hiding it either. Again he nodded slowly, at least to the warning. He had come in search of knowledge and wisdom, whether that came with a mark of gnosis or not. The library had shared some of its secrets with him, but Julius was already possessed of a magic that Hadrian did not have. "What magic do you wish to learn that you don't already know?" he asked. Most took too long to teach in a day or two, though he supposed he could initiate Julius in reimancy. The initiation wasn't all that long, and he could bounce back quickly if he took care of himself. And he could teach him enough not to make stupid mistakes. Hopefully. But he had no idea what exactly Julius wanted. Laser sharp eyes turned on the man, waiting.

[Julius Aldoid]

"That I don't already know," Julius inquired, "Whatever do you mean?"

The gadgeteer had not put it together that is art of illusions might count within the realm of the supernatural. After all, his everyday world was filled with them, and it wasn't so uncommon. His priest was an illusionist, his librarian was an illusionist, and even his tailor was an illusionist. He had never lived in a world outside of such pervasive illusions, and so deep was he in, that they even pervaded his common sense.

"I don't strictly know any sort of magic. I mean, we have some books, and a lot of them are very complex, but we don't have any formal mages, and many of them seem to be written in strange code that I cant decipher. I mean- I can understand when someone says 'And within the river, there sits as many wells as shadows and dust. One can drink of the well, but should ration, lest they not'of enough water to piss with.' I can understand what those words mean, but they seem to be talking about something more then wells and piss,"

But, as when anyone realizes they are talking of piss in polite conversation, Julius reevaluated how he was trying to get his point across, mainly by pausing, gazing up at his brow, and starting again.

"I have heard of those that can draw fire or wind from their hands, who have new faces by the day, and can jump over tankards of mead like a frog on a pad-lilly. And then I hear of people making statues dance or turning milk into apple juice. Can any of those things be learned easy? Can just anyone do it if they try? Because I have found that staring at a rock and wishing it were an apple is a fast way to make the head ache and hasten madness."

[Hadrian]

"You should know that all the illusion that surrounds you, well, that is magic. It has a divine origin, but it remains magical in nature. Outside Alvadas, it is not nearly so concentrated and common. But..." He considered his options, knowing that nothing could be taught overnight, but not wanting to dampen the enthusiasm of a seeker. If people had not put out a hand to him in his past, he might not have gotten to where he was, which was confused just at the present moment, but that was not uncommon here in Alvadas. "I could initiate you," he said slowly, "in reimancy, but what element chooses you is beyond my control. However, it is painful and I would only be able to teach you the basics before I return to Syliras. The rest would be up to you."

[Julius Aldoid]

"Magic you say," Julius intoned, his voice somber with reverence, staring down at his hand. Somehow, with his everyday world so saturated with the projected whims and whimzies of his fellow Alvadites (he preferred the term to Alvadians, which flowed just a little too well for him) that it seemed so common place. He could hardly imagine a place without them.

A deep suspicion rose within him, and such was somewhat of a curse among the people of Alvadas; like a virus, a single idea could seep into one's head at any moment, and in it, a suggestion, the very impetus of change.

'How much of my world is composed of illusions? What does it mean to be real?'

The words rang though his mind as though he sat within a clock-tower bell.

"Intiate? Reimancy, you say," his own studies of magical theory had lead him to avoid practicum, most notably when he realize that perhaps some of the forms of magic in the old Codex no longer existed. 'How heartbreaking it would be,' he had said at the time, 'to fall in love with someone I could never meet.'

His eyes narrowed again, and that bright, cheshire smile returned to his face.

"And in return, my dandies. You'll need the gears to make your own works if you are to get your own start in gadgetry. Unless you are a smithy yourself. Else, you'll have to go to one to get them cast for you."

He brought his hand forward, and as he did, he dropped the rouse of the wall. And so too the rouse of color in his hair, his locks showing as the ashen blond they really were. His eyes though were still just as azure as they always were. There was a change to his manner though. Something in the whimsical madcap had calmed, and he seemed to carry himself with a careful grace, even the blink of his eyes very carefully selected.

Julius was silly when it came to many thing-- but not with this.

"And thus an accord? Sealed like gentlemen?"

He smiled again. Some of the lighthearted imp could still show through.