Scene #3898: Thaumic Intermission

Owner	Pose
Steve	Notices had gone out publically, through various channels, though mostly through bulletin board postings in the usual suspect areas. Those that might have been closeby might have noticed a teenaged-looking girl, with what can be described as bat wings on her back, as well as a smaller set on her head, having been the one to thumbtack them up. ...perhaps even on the electronic boards, they're not great with technology, okay. 'Interested in magic? Alchemy? Want to try your hand, or just attend a lecture?' The directions, for those familiar with Steve, would be familiar: They would lead to the Flat Earth's warp gate network. Of course, those he knows would have likely received their invitations more personally. Whatever the case, it isn't difficult to find the way, for those that have an interest, especially as once through the warp gate, a series of wooden signs lead through the daylit countryside, to a small field that has been cleared for the proceedings. Several rows of seats are provided (either for sake of being prepared for anything, or Steve is greatly overestimating turnout), and various apparatus have been set up. Among their number is what looks like a work station made of a rich, dark wood, as well as a weathered metal kettle embossed with a strange, but seemingly purposeful design. It is suspended over what looks to be lava, of all things, as a source of heat. Also closeby to it, a source of water, in the form of a two by two meter puddle. There are also several bookshelves, placed under a sheltered, roofed area. Their purpose will remain a mystery, for the moment. Then there is Steve, himself, sorting through a few wooden chests to make certain the materials they will need are ready. Since this is in an official capacity as a thaumaturge, he is wearing richly purple robes, over his more usual miner's garb, as well as what looks like a set of goggles rested across the crown of his head. There are still a few minutes before the official start, so he'll simply allow any visitors to file in.
Sanary Rondel	Sanary had heard the news of Steve's new project some time ago, although this is the first time in a while that she's been on Flat Earth since that demonstration with the golem. Arriving at the warp gate, the healer's Looking a little more prepared with a folded up slab in her left arm, the other arm actually gloved and almost looking a little stiff as she moves. With those directions from the signs, it doesn't take her too long to get to the designated field, and she raises her slab-arm with a slow wave at Steve as she approaches. "Evening, Steve. Getting everything set up okay? Need a hand with any of..." She looks from the water to the lava to to his garb, looking only mildly confused at the whole thing. "... This?" Magic sure is weird.
Staren	Staren steps out of the warpgate dressed for magic! Atop his head is a a dark red wide-brimmed, pointed, slightly floppy hat typical of magic-users, with holes for his ears to poke through. The front of the hat bears a golden symbol: [><] The next most striking garment is his dark red cape, matching the hat. Under that is a loosefitting white shirt with long sleeves and a matching pair of baggy white pants. On his hands and feet are dark red gloves and boots to match his hat and cape and as usual, his trusty blue messenger bag hangs at his side. Staren climbs into the golem-mech he left at the base for transport -- a bipedal construct made of some sort of striped wood. Where one might expect an upper torso and head, however, has been replaced with something like the inside of a car -- places for a few people to sit, and a control panel in front of the driver -- the shape of this 'cockpit' exposes the upper bodies of the occupants, in this case Staren. Two arms hang down from the 'body'. All in all it's maybe 9 1/2 feet tall -- and drives it to the appointed place, following the signs. Staren parks it behind the rows of chairs and walks up to Steve, waving while looking curiously at the apparatuses set up. "Hey." He rubs his hands together and smiles, "So, today we're gonna learn how magic works on your world, huh?"
Count Kord	Kord arrives with his Murkrow, Aas, perched on one of his shoulders. He's dressed up in a simple set of red and black dyed cotton clothing, with leather gloves and boots, and the helmet is replaced with a mask with a hawk-like design made to look like Yveltal's face. He follows the signs as they point him along, moving at an unhurried pace, and when he reaches the lecture area, he pauses to drink it all in. Pale blue eyes scan the environment. It was a great deal different than his homelands and the cleared area was a strange place to hold a lesson. His Murkrow focused more on the people. Suspicious stares were thrown here and there, trying to judge how big of a threat any of them are, or how valuable their shinies were. Largely the bird was just as quiet as he was. Since he's here in the capacity as a student or observer, Kord finds a seat at the front and makes sure to settle in as comfortable as he can. Once he's settled in, he distracts himself with scritching and petting at the Murkrow on his shoulder, prompting pleased crow-like murmurs.
Genya Arikado	The way to learning about the Multiverse is to get involved with these other worlds, after all. Or at least to learn about them. So Genya has chosen to attend the lecture as himself rather than send someone else. He arrives looking very atypical for someone interested in magic-- a modern charcoal gray suit, white shirt, black tie, black dress shoes, shoulder-length black hair left free. Like Kord, Genya finds his way to the rows of chairs and takes a seat, remaining quiet for the time being. He seems an unassuming presence. But there IS a sense of magic about him, though it seems oddly muted somehow. Perhaps he's a mage after all?
Kotone Yamakawa	So here they were again, Kotone did look a bit different today her hight had changed nad her face was diferent but she did sound the same as she arrive, and she was weaing the same sort of clothing she normally did. The stellath suit was on and she was carrying matter Maniplator at her hip too on top of her normal kit. She wavev as she arrived. "I'm already, but magic I'm not certain I can do anything with it, magic that is."
Steve	Glancing up from sorting things inside the chests -- you'd almost swear they're bigger on the inside, somehow, Steve only gives a grin to Sanary. A familiar face, always nice to see! "Hey, Sanny," comes his greeting, before he places his upper body all but inside the chest to rummage around. It gives his voice that light bass modulation that one might expect. "Nah, it's fine. I'm almost set here, really." He is a stickler for organization, though, and as he pulls back, every piece of raw material is placed with others of its kind. Staren is the next to be regarded, or more specifically at first, the riding golem of his. It's a still fresh sight, though he does remember it. "That's right," he agrees! "Nothing too deep this evening. We'll stick to the safe bits." He lightly scratches his beard stubble, as he studies Staren's attire. "You came dressed in the right equipment, too. Seems you're taking this seriously." As for the cleared area, it seems to simply be a levelled off, grassy field. The reason to hold the lesson out here will become apparent soon enough. It's a nice and sunny day, though, with nary a storm cloud in the sky...if indeed they look the same in the Flat Earth. Much like the land beneath your feet, they seem to obey the same physical laws of grouping up into cubic, metric shapes. Noticing other arrivals, Steve gives a broad wave of a voluminously sleeved arm and hand. As if to say 'over here'! "Hey Kord," he calls out, not seeming to be one for titles most of the time. "Good to see you could make it. I can return your hospitality, ha ha." There will be no non-sapient golems of former people and Pokemon here, though. Steve knows better than to perform thaumic scans of others, at least while they're watching, but even from here he gets a bit of an odd sense from the other visitor, though. Genya Arikado, that is. Could just be that odd tickle in the back of the head, like something is more than they appear, but he gets that in the multiverse frequently enough to not be bothered. Plus, you know. Guys that wear suits even in casual settings? They've always got something going on. Kotone gets another familiar grin from Steve, "Hey, Kotone." He gives a light laugh, and a shrug of his shoulders. "The kind of magic I do, it doesn't draw any kind of power from me, personally. It's not for the faint of heart to dive deeply in, but I'm pretty sure it's not locked down by...biology, or the like." Once it seems everyone that will be attending is gathered, he seems to be doing a quick head count, and a mental comparison to what he'd prepared, followed by a thoughtful look of confirmation. "Alright. I think we can get right into it, as long as people are ready." He crosses his arms over his chest, while he walks over to that covered area with the bookshelves. "Okay. So, while I might be pretty smart, if I might be allowed to brag, I have to admit I didn't figure out most of this, myself. The dark art called thaumaturgy was written down by an ancient people that the records call the Eldritch. Fortunately, they left their instruction manuals around...you just have to know how to find them." He gives a meaningful glance to the bookshelves, with this, "But that's a lot of books to go through, right? And for thaumaturgy, like I mentioned to Kotone, you need something to hold your 'power'. Let's make our first tool, then." It's then that he gestures people up that are interested, to that dark wood table. From up close, the top is obviously laid out in a 3 x 3 grid, with what seems to be a few extra sockets, perhaps for other add-ons. "This is an arcane workbench. We'll worry about what's different about it sometime later. For now..." He withdraws what seems to be wooden sticks, and pre-formed caps seemingly made of iron, that look like they would fit it. "Anyone that wants to try hands-on. Just set the stick in the middle of the two caps, and it should meld into your first complete wand. ...iron-capped wands are kinda crappy, but we're keeping
Steve	It's then that he gestures people up that are interested, to that dark wood table. From up close, the top is obviously laid out in a 3 x 3 grid, with what seems to be a few extra sockets, perhaps for other add-ons. "This is an arcane workbench. We'll worry about what's different about it sometime later. For now..." He withdraws what seems to be wooden sticks, and pre-formed caps seemingly made of iron, that look like they would fit it. "Anyone that wants to try hands-on. Just set the stick in the middle of the two caps, and it should meld into your first complete wand. ...iron-capped wands are kinda crappy, but we're keeping it basic."
Sanary Rondel	Some familiar faces and not so familiar ones! Sanary gives Staren a polite, if somewhat stiff smile and nod in greeting. Is she still sore about getting shot at? Maybe a little. The ears do get a bit of a stare, though, but she manages to tear her eyes off those before turning to Kord when Steve calls out to him. He also gets a polite smile and nod, although this one's distinctly less awkward compared to the last one. "Ah! Hey, Count. Good to finally meet you. Sanary Rondel,here to... Be here." That's really what she's here for, anyway. Genya gets a brief squint at first before Sanary offers him the same gestures as well. There's definitely something familiar about him, but she can't quite put her finger on what. Letting that thought go, her attention shifts to Kotone next as she gets the same smile and nod as well. Like Staren's, however, it's also just a little more awkward than the others. Before she can vocalize that awkwardness and possibly make it worse, however, Steve begins the demonstration! The offer to take a hands on approach is more than welcome for the cleric, and she steps up to try her hand at doing just that! "A stick like this'll become a wand just from that?" She sounds a little skeptical, but definitely curious as she takes a stick and some caps, sticking the caps to the wand and... ... Apparently having trouble keeping the caps on. Each time she gets one on, the other pops right off and floats on the floor next to her until she grabs it again. By the time she does that, the other cap's come off! It's a vicious cycle.
Count Kord	When greeted, Kord raises a hand and chuckles, his baritone voice sounding loud and happy. He gets up from his seat, but slowly so he doesn't spook the Murkrow, and approaches Steve while he explains all of this. He still doesn't have anything to say in return to Steve, but he seems pretty relaxed, despite his odd attire and the apparent dark animal perched on his shoulder. And let's not forget the pervading aura of death and destruction that follows him and makes him feel wrong and dangerous at all times. Kord nods when given the prompt, and steps up to assemble a wand for himself. This is accompanied with him fighting Aas for one of the iron caps, which is a warm little moment where he laughs and has to beg the grabby bird to give it to him. Clicking his tongue, he says, "Now now... give the shiny..." Once he has everything together, he crafts the wand and holds it loosely in one of his hands, stepping aside to examine the tool. "Then the forces you control do not come from yourself, but from the world around you?" he surmises, fairly knowledgeable in the oddities of magic. "And this... acts to shape them..." He waves the wand around, expecting something to happen. Nothing happens. "... hmm." He holds the wand away from the Murkrow again, as she sneakily tries to reach over to pry off a cap. "Hey."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa has a lot of experiance with magic but she can't use it so far as she knows and she's all right with that. Still learning about how magic functions? Is always a good thing even if it just impart what to not touch, which could flat out save one's life and since she's been working in this world? It was a good idea to come and learn. "Oh really then I might be able to do something with it. That's good to know honestly." She pauses for a moment at the style of magic but she's going to listen evne jut knowing, and she looks to the table for a moment and the 3 X 3. she takes a good look at the table. She'll take a moment to get a rod and the other parts to need before she'll take her turn on that. "All right."
Staren	Staren smiles as Steve recognizes his wizardly get-up as proper attire. Staren didn't go down the magic path, but he's always thought the cape-and-wizard-hat stye was pretty cool looking! He grins a bit more as Steve explains that this magic isn't locked down by biology. Eeeexcellent. He is pretty darn eager and almost rushes over to the workbench to assemble a wand. He looks at it, curiously and expectantly, flicking it in the air a few times. "...How do we use it?"
Genya Arikado	Steve is probably right about the dude in the suit having more going on than it seems. But nothing's readily apparent. And at least he's not causing trouble, so he's being polite, too! Once he comes closer to the place where everyone seems to be gathering, he nods to Sanary. "Greetings to you," he offers, in Japanese. "I hope you've recovered from the undead in the tomb?" He refers to the expedition to get the book from the necromancers. His voice is the same, too. The explanation of how to craft a wand gets a tilt of his head. That seems easy enough. Genya waits his turn at the crafting table-- smirking a bit and hiding a snicker when Kord's Murkrow tries to take off with one of the caps. And once it's his turn, he does as Steve demonstrated, and crafts a wand for himself. He does figure there's more to it than that, but the need of a focus is something he understands. He offers the crafted wand for Steve's inspection. "Is this workable?" he inquires. It seems simple enough, but he's never really done this particular brand of magic before. That said, he has a lot of experience in crafting items in his world.
Steve	Steve watches Sanary fumble around with things for a few moments. He's amused, but trying really hard to hide it. He expected it to be easy, but, he clears his throat, as politely a possible, after a few failed meldings. "Need a little bit of help there, Sanny?" He gives a laugh that's good-natured, but for the moment, not condescending. Besides, everyone still has to use the same arcane workbench, in the end. He didn't make extras. Unless she protests really strongly, he'll take hold of those troublesome components, and place them on the grid. In his more practiced hands, the wand components seem to fasten together quite easily, and the finished product is free to retrieve by the axe-healer. "There! That's all there is to it." Kord seems to be a right natural, in comparison. Though has his own troubles in the form of a corvid-like Pokemon being a little attached to shiny metal objects. This gets a light chuckle out of the miner-mage, as well. With the slight confusion, or perhaps disappointment, when the finished wand doesn't do anything, Steve confirms Count Kord's earlier educated guess. "Just like you said, it's more of a tool for shaping those natural forces. Yet, just like this, it isn't useful for much. We'll get to the more interesting things you can do with them, in a while." Kotone's work also gets an approving nod from him, with his arms crossed over his chest in a similar fashion. It shouldn't take long, especially with Kord's excellent example. Staren's question was likely answered by Steve's explanation to Kord, though just in case, he turns to him next, and extrapolates a bit more -- also confirming Arikado's suppositions: "What yer basically holding right now is basically the battery. It can do a few things on its own, but for the really interesting things, you need to attach a focus. We'll get to that." Speaking of Arikado. He finishes his wand, and giving it a glance over, Steve's eyebrows actually raise a bit. "Hmm...honestly, as good as I could do, with these kinds of materials. You sure you're new at this?" He doesn't dwell on it overmuch, though, seeming to be meaning it good-naturedly. The important thing is, now that everyone that wants one presumably has a wand, he can move to the next part. "So, after this detour, you might be wandering why I bothered with these things. That's because they seem to have a connection with the writings of the Eldritch. Extracting the right book is one of those things I mentioned they can do." With this, out of demonstration, he steps up to those book shelves he'd prepared earlier. Using his own wand, a gold-capped, greatwood one, he gestures and focuses at one section of the bookshelf. Several sparkling motes seems to be scanning the library's offerings, before they seem to settle on one particular tome, which then floats out of its own accord and offers itself to Steve. "This here's the Thauminomicon -- the instruction manual I mentioned. Go ahead and give it a try! If you run into trouble, I already have spares." Anyone that retrieves and opens the book, would find that it's quite obviously a magical book. The pages' contents seem more determined by something beyond the book itself, as though it's a terminal tapping into a magical main frame for what to display. The pages acting as the interface, more or less. The subjects available immediately are thoroughly basic.
Staren	Staren nods at Steve's explanation, and starts tapping the wand on the table subconciously. Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap... He doesn't notice he's doing it, and he's trying to be patient, he really new at this. And there's the next task go go go! Staren hurries over to the bookshelf and mimic's Steve's movement, eyes lighting up as a book floats out to him! He immediately tries to put the wand in his pocket, realizes he doesn't have one, stuffs it in his bag instead, and starts trying to open and read the book then and there. He's surprised at the way it works, but this manifests as a brief 'Oooh.' before he starts scanning the information, rapidly taking it all in.
Count Kord	The humor others derive out of Kord's antics with the Murkrow gets him to try to focus on the magical object he's just crafted, to thwart the embarrassment. He examines it thoroughly, his bright blue gaze scanning over the iron caps and noting how simple it seems to be. He frowns behind his hawk-like mask when he realizes it's unlikely to work for him, as precedence has taught him, but it's worth giving it a try just to see how the Multiverse responds to his nature. He nods, noting he was attentive to Steve while he explained what it does and what he wanted the group to do. The strange man lifted the object a little like a conductor, and waved the wand at the bookcase in a few neat strokes. A subtle warp in the air occurs around his hand but it seems to work as intended. He grabs the book offered to him, holding it in his off-hand and casually flipping through the contents to see what there was to see. Not a whole lot to be seen, so he closes it and looks over to Steve. Kord spares a look at Staren, his head turned in that direction for a solid ten seconds. "Youthful energy," he murmurs to himself, turning back to his book. He's just impressed with how energetic Staren seemed to be. By contrast, Kord is taking his time. He's slow and deliberate with all of his movements. "This information is limited," he notes, "So limited I would guess that it won't show you anything you have not reached in your studies." He knows how magic nonsense works, clearly. He moves through the book to find notable terms, like shards and aura, and aspects. Aspects in particular interest him, reminding him so much of the Pokemon types. "Feels more like a science than the guess work and divine tomfoolery of my world," he mentions aloud.
Sanary Rondel	That's where that familiarity was coming from! Sanary eases up quite a bit at Genya with that, a light chuckle escaping her moments later as she lets Steve handle the actual construction of that wand. "Oh, definitely. I've had worse. Like... Well." She raises her right arm briefly. Although it's covered in her coat's sleeve and that glove, the fact that she's even wearing a glove and isn't moving it much should be a decent indication of the state it's in. Right. The arm pain. "Heh... Thanks, Steve. I'll be at a hundred percent tomorrow, so." She can just blame her wand failure on that. For now, she'll take that completed wand and look it over carefully, taking note of how different it looks compared to the staves she's seen in her world. "Pretty small... Ah, there's more?" Sanary perks up a bit at that. She's looking forward to getting to the big spells, after all, especially if it involves... Well, whatever it is Steve had to do to get all of this stuff set up in the first place. She watches Staren's and the Count's follow-ups before copying their movements. It takes a while for anything to happen, but a book eventually comes out for her as well! "... Awesome. I don't get how that even works, but awesome." She comments with a relaxed laugh, eventually reaching under the book to catch it in the same hand. Sanary's being rather careful with her right hand today, doing almost everything with the left and setting the book on a table before starting to flip through it. ... What the hell is she even looking at?
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa seems pleased with wht she's done she now knows she's got a magical battery and a focus is needed? She seems to be geting the idea on this. Though the naming of things makes her concerned, after all given her experiances in Kingsmouth have left quite a few scars on her mind bu she gets to work mking use of the wand when she gets her turn. <<So you get how this might work Staren??>> Kotone meawhile also mimics Steves moments and she'll get down to business with tbe book as she will go through it once she has it. Though she's keeping these memory files sperated just to be on the safe side. "I'm not sure about this, this is my first experiance ever working anything more than a pre-enchanted item."
Genya Arikado	Genya tilts his head at Steve's question. "I've made a weapon or two," he acknowledges. "Though only with my world's properties, not with any other." So he's not going to go into this assuming he knows anything, not even the basic physical crafting of an item. Because it's already been demonstrated that even that is different. To be fair, Geyna was stifled his laughter at Kord's little predicament, precisely because he knew it would embarrass the other man to realize he was being laughed at. The mention of this magic being more science gets a nod. "So it seems," he agrees. "Alchemy in my world is similar. There's a component of belief, but it's more heavily based in science." Sanary's statement gets a tilt of his head. "You were injured?" Likely not from the undead, he knows. Given what she said, anyway. He nods. "Be careful. It would be a shame to see you injured severely." Genya does pay attention to Steve's explanation, though. And he watches. With several people duplicating Steve's actions, Genya does the same. He echoes the movements of the others, finding a book on the shelf as well. There will need to be a lot of very basic information for Genya. It's just a tiny bit frustrating to know a lot about this exact sort of thing, but in a system to completely alien to this particular world that none of what he knows really applies. But this, too, is part of learning about the Multiverse-- realizing where one's current knowledge applies and where it doesn't.
Steve	Kord's thinking aloud causes Steve to give a light shrug of his shoulders, though he does agree on one thing in particular: "My guess is the Eldritch tried to pace everything, to make sure you're ready for the next step. It's a bit of a pain in the butt, but it's probably kept my quota of lab accidents lower." Those ancient unknown, as much as he doesn't like to admit it, probably knew better than him. There was definitely an order to it, as well, as those aspects would show. It obeys certain rules, rules that by this book can be learned and eventually mastered. For those of a more scientific bend, it might be the kind of magic that would scratch their itch. His grin returns after a time, though, "In any case, you guessed right. The more you learn, the more that opens up." Steve gives a glance over at Staren, already eagerly devouring what's there. Even though it isn't much yet, it looks like he's the kind that likes to be really prepared. He can definitely appreciate that! Sanary's troubles are definitely a lot more understandable given her current condition, meanwhile, so he was even happier to help, flashing her a brief upraised thumb of support. "Oh, they get bigger than this. This is just the basic model." VERY basic. But it still does the job of revealing and offering up a book. Somehow, despite how varied the bookshelf's contents are, the cover designs still seem quite similar. "Hmmm," he next studies Arikado. Not out of suspicion, seemingly, but perhaps out of appreciation. "Another crafter, then. A man of my own heart. I think we'll get along fine." He leaves him to retrieve his own research and instruction tome, and then supervises Kotone as she attempts the same. It seems everyone eventually finds success, and gives a glance them a glance over, with varying degrees of understanding. It seems they'll be ready to move on to more interesting things, soon enough.
Steve	"Alright," Steve continues, "As a few of you have noticed, there's a few really basic things probably in front of you right now. What we're going to get to now, are aspects and nodes. I mentioned that those wands are basically like batteries, so it makes sense that you need to charge them. The source of magical power in the Flat Earth are these little floaty puffs the book calls nodes. They're normally really hard to see, so we come to..." With this, he reaches a hand into one of those chests from earlier, withdrawing what looks to be a gold, hexagonal ring, with some multi-colored gems set into it, as well as a glass viewing window in the center. "This gadget. The thaumometer. It shows what's normally invisible, and you can also see what aspects any object, or critter, has. It even works on people." With this, he steps back from that chest, to let everyone retrieve one to experiment with. Anyone that scans him -- which would give him a laugh, would find Steve contains humanus (people!), perfodio (mining), telum (weapon) and gelum (ice...weird, but they don't always make sense). Other objects are made of seemingly common sense aspects. The grass beneath their feet is terra (earth) and herba (plants), for example. The one thing the attendees may discover on their own, though, is a vortex hovering in the air, that is almost completely invisible to the naked eye, but through the thaumometer is quite obvious. It contains ordo (order), ignis (fire) and tutamen (armor). It also matches the description of nodes that would have been found in the book, for those that looked at the basic topics. Why he chose the middle of a field like this is now likely coming into focus. "To charge you wand, you just point at the node like this." While his own wand is filled already, for what will come soon enough, he nonetheless instructively goes through the motions, levelling the gold-capped length of richly-toned wood at the node. "It should attune itself and you'll see this wavy stuff flowing out, and into your wand. You can only store the six 'basic' aspects in a wand, though...but that's all you'll need." The thauminomicon would have described those basic aspects as order, chaos, fire, water, air and earth. Quite alchemical, really. "Don't overdo it, though," he warns! "Those iron-capped wands can easily damage a node if you get too greedy." Not that he expects anything bad will happen, but they have to share it among a few people here.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone pauses for a moment. "I can see that Steve." Kotone notes as she reads the book.. She's busy looking through the book at quite the inhuman speed as well. She's quite the reader really but once Steve starts speaking she halts her reading and listens. "So I think I get where your going with this? So we use this item and it basically cuts threough the stealth?" She seems to be getting the gist of things now. She'll take a moment to scan things, and should anyone scan Kotone they would get Machina as Kotone's primary element.
Sanary Rondel	"First time I've ever tried this... This." Sanary comments as she goes through the book, pausing occasionally at the stuff that makes more sense. Not a lot of it does, but she's... Sort of starting to piece it together. She glances at Genya and chuckles awkwardly, giving him a slow nod a moment later. "Yeah... Security stuff. Terrorists hiring mercenaries, that sort of thing. I've had worse, though." At least she's still managing to find some humor in that whole situation. Plus, her attention is still mostly focused on the book in front of her, although she does return the raised thumb from Steve with a grin of her own. "Better make sure I don't fall too far behind, then." She sets the book down momentarily to watch Steve go through the demonstrations with the thaumometer. Taking one for herself, she holds it in front of her while doing what any self-respecting newbie would do... Scan goddamn EVERYTHING. The ground, the books, that vortex, the others in the area, even her own foot! Not that she understands what many of those symbols or names stand for, though. Those who scan Sanary, meanwhile would find that she contains a few mundane and rather obvious things (Humanus/people, Sano/cure), but also a few oddities here and there (Vitium/taint, Invidia/insecurity). Next is the node demonstration! She listens to the warnings closely as well, taking a moment to set everything but the wand down before holding it out towards the puddle. She watches as some of that watery essence starts being drawn to the wand, waiting several seconds before pulling away. Sanary still needs to be careful even with water, after all!
Staren	Overhearing Kord and Steve's conversation, Staren's ears flick and he comments, "I guess that makes sense. Wouldn't want people messing around with dangerous stuff they don't understand." You really http://puu.sh/nDnln/147ee50c1b.png really http://puu.sh/nDnnM/65df11aa70.png don't http://imgur.com/a/j6N7c Staren nods at the comment about it being like science. He likes that. Science is good! As Steve mentions aspects and nodes, Staren frantically tries to flip to those sections in the book. He's a fast reader, but there's a lot of material and Steve is summarizing. He eagerly grabs a thaumometer, although he manages to not, like, push people out of the way or anything for it. He peers through it, gives another surprised 'Oh!' and then looks at the node, trying to juggle thaumometer and book while reading about it. "But wait, if we /all/ try to draw power from this node, won't we risk destroying it? I... this says that without the skill to draw the last power of a node safely, and with so many of us..." Then he notices Sanary running around scanning everything, and reads over the info on the thaumometer. And then Staren's running around scanning everything (and everyone) too! He can draw power from the node later, when it's had some opportunity to recharge. The book says they do that, but not how long it takes...
Count Kord	Kord is as attentive as before, closing the book and finding a place to set it aside so that he isn't distracted with it. He nods again, seeming pretty animated... mostly out of habit, it's hard to read the face of a man that wears a mask. When handed a thaumometer, he scans around the area with it in his off-hand like the book, but he moves around, not scanning people, but scanning the cauldron, the book cases, the Murkrow on his shoulder... And then he scans the floating vortex. That gets a lot of attention out of him, and he tries to see the node with his unassisted sight for a second, then holds the thaumometer again to compare... When told about what to do to charge the wand, he nods once more, and holds it up at the node. He's tentative with it, as if he expects that he might be doing this wrong, and the reason for him being careful is actually different than the accident that soon happens. Because of his nature, the aspects drawn from the node don't properly reach the wand, and the decaying aura saps the stability of the wand itself. When this happens, there's a crackle of red electricity around his hand. There's this feeling of feedback and pressure and a pulse of garbage magic and then the wand just explodes in Kord's hand with a loud 'CRACK' and he shouts in surprise and pain! He sighs in disappointment. "I expected something like this." He flexes his sore hand, a faint red glow shining around it for a few minutes after. His Murkrow has her feathers all puffed up and she keeps making little distressed crow noises, obviously startled and unhappy.
Steve	"Eh," Steve's tone is drawn out and just slightly dismissive, of Staren's concern. While he himself had given a warning, he pulls down the goggles over his eyes and seems to be glancing in the direction of the node. Seems like it has the same properties as the thaumometer, to some extent, but is more convenient. "That's another reason I chose one in the middle of nowhere. If you look closely at it through the thaumometer, you can see not only what aspects a node has, but also how much they have left. They recharge over time, too...so if you don't pull too much out, it'll come back. Since this is just for the sake of example, you really don't have to worry." He also gestures vaguely at it, "Besides -- it has one aspect you can't touch. You won't be able to damage it to where it'd be actually dangerous." Truly, this was all by design. It's practically fool proof! Or as much as magic can be. With this, if Staren doesn't evade the motion, Steve swings out an arm that remains meaty under that silk-robed sleeve, and nudges the youth forward. "Besides, it's my world that's at stake, isn't it?" He gives a laugh. Kotone's words get some consideration, as well. The miner scratches his beard stubble, as a matter of habit. "Yeah, something like that. My personal theory is that it...re-renders things, so they're easier for our kind of senses to understand and experience. Really, a lot of things in thaumaturgy are like that. Trying to put things that are normally out of your reach, into your grasp. Just like the wand letting you store and use the energy of these nodes -- the Eldritch called it vis." It seems Sanary is the first one brave enough to actually step up and attempt the feat. The energy flows in quite visibly, even to those not currently aiming a thaumometer at her and the node, as a wispy tendril that briefly connects the end of the wand and the floating mote of magical energy. Those watching through a thaumometer would see an abstracted, but numeric, representation drop as she does so -- first in ignis, then in ordo. True to Steve's earlier words, the tutamen doesn't get touched. It's not a primal aspect. Kord would notice that the node is very faintly visible, even to an unassisted eye. But it is extremely hard to see, especially with the sunlit fields effectively swamping it out. The process seems to be moving along much as it did for Sanary, and Steve watches expectantly. What he didn't anticipate, and makes him glad he's wearing those goggles, is a bit of feedback. "Hmmm? That's weird," he puzzles, wiping some wood splinters from his hair. "Never seen that happen before." As the Count discloses that he wasn't nearly as surprised, he can't help but wonder, "You run into this kind of problem before, then? ...ah, yeah, sorry. Sanny, you think you can take some of the sting out for him? If you want to try again, there's still plenty of wand caps and sticks, but I'll understand if you want to just watch the rest of this." Still, that kind of reaction is in itself quite interesting. Hmmm... --
Steve	No matter the case, once those interested have a charge on their wand, Steve seems to be moving on to the next topic. "Okay. So, back to the thauminomicon. Now that you've got a charged wand, let's play with some wand focii. These are baubles you can craft and attach to your wand to do a certain job for you. If you check your book, you should see this has opened to you, now that you've messed with your wand and thaumometer a bit." Indeed, anyone that looks will find their very first wand focus research becomes available -- Wand Focus: Fire. "For these kinds of creations, it takes not only materials, but some vis to magically bind the stuff together. Luckily, I've brought both!" Aside from the chest filled with the right ingredients, he places that gold-capped wand onto the arcane workbench. There, it rests, hovering over the crafting grid, and seeming to attach an energy flow between itself and the bench's surface. "After that, I've got a special treat, for you to test it out!" By way of demonstration, Steve uses a small amount of the vis and materials necessary, to craft his own focus. ...he didn't actually need one, since he already had this focus, but it should make it clear how the process works. Immediately after that, he wanders over to a patch of grass that he'd hid a pressure plate on, and steps on it. A hydraulic sound issues, seemingly from just under the ground, and a hatch opens on a ladder leading downward. Anyone following Steve down would find themselves hearing a loud groaning, growing louder until they hit the bottom. Here, what he mentioned would become apparent. Thanks to a conveniently located monster spawner, he has assembled a test range of zombies, directly behind a narrow opening that they can't reach or move through. "Fire works great on these guys." Sure hope noone has any ethical concerns about zombies!
Sanary Rondel	Sanary jumps just a bit when she hears that crackle, then explosion coming from Kord's direction. "Eh? You alright, Count?" The healer hurries over to him, keeping that wand of hers pointed down and giving Steve a brief nod before starting to channel her energy. "I'm on it. Easy now. This shouldn't hurt even if...." She pauses to look him over while letting that green healing magic work its way towards Kord's hand. "You don't look undead or anything... Not that that should amtter, anyway." She certainly sounds confident enough about that, at least. Has she actually managed to make her magic work even with the undead before? Apparently so, since the energy works less like traditional 'white' magic and more by just augmenting natural regeneration. After (hopefully) handling the Count's explosive wand issue, Sanary turns her attention back to Steve's demonstration with the extra types of focii. She checks her book as directed, noticing the new section before turning back to the demonstration. "So we take the... Vis, and we make the focus to shoot fire with this tihng?" Sanary sounds just a little too pleased about that part. Unlike the initial wand crafting exercise, she actually manages to do this on the third try! She has to rein in her excitement, however, since... Well, it's not like she's just going to start setting everything on fire! That can wait until everyone's downstairs. Even when she gets down there, she waits for the others to get into position (and scans those zombies with the Thaumometer) before taking a test shot at one of the zombies! And then two more shots at the same one for good measure.
Staren	Staren jumps at the sudden explosion in Kord's hand. The fur on his tail has gone all bushy. "You... expected your wand to explode? Why?" Even though he has /no/ reason to expect it, Staren puts the thaumonomicon and thaumometer in his bag, then double-checks his gloves and puts on a pair of magipunk-looking goggles before charging his wand, without incident. He imitates Steve, using his wand's energy on another workbench and fresh materials from the chest to craft a fire focus and then following Steve down. He sprays zombies with fire. "Nifty! I mean... I have more powerful weapons already, but this is a convenient way to make fire... What other kinds of foci are there..." he pulls out his Thaumanomicon and stars poring through it. "Hmmm..."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa says "I think I get the concept translating things over so one can understand from what you said these beings were quite alien to most of us in the multiverse." She notes as she contiunes working away her own bit and now is moving to check out the node as well but she seems to be taking it slow. She's also snickering that she got the element of machina still. She pause at the zombies and Staten and keeps back to let him do his thing given Staren has more experiance with magic than she does.
Count Kord	Kord holds his hand out for Sanary. Thankfully, he is definitely not undead! He laughs at the question, though. "I'm still alive," he assures her, "That feeling you get is from my connection to a god of Death." You can almost hear him smile at her, happy to explain this, like he's proud of the distinction. "Thank you," he murmurs, pulling his hand away after it gets checked and flexing it a couple times. It's a familiar sensation, and after Sanary helps him, his Murkrow actually settles down. Then she goes 'KRRRRAH' at Sanary, seeming to actually be happy. Holding her wings out and making a cheerful face. So they're animal-like but have some basic intelligence, clearly. Kord steps aside to observe the rest of the teaching. He'll stick around for a while, though.
Steve	The zombies are basically helpless. Thankfully, they are also unmistakeably non-sentient and just shambling, undead corpses. Considering that a metallic-looking cage in the back of the chamber they're contained within seems to be what is producing them, makes it even more obvious that they aren't likely even former people. As Steve promised, those that test fire on them, from any source, find it not only to directly damage them, but also set them aflame. From the distance provided through the opening, it isn't enough to be a danger to any of the living occupants, though it might feel a bit warm. Eventually, they burn down completely, slumping over, as they shed some of their ROTTEN FLESH. Steve, never one to miss an opportunity, swings down a lever placed on a wall, prompting more of those hydraulic sounds, as water floods the floor of the chamber, sweeping the drops into a hopper, and into a chest to be retrieved. "Good work. Vis is a lot handier to keep a store of than a bunch of arrows. You'll eventually run out, though, so be mindful of that." He pauses a beat, then gives that thoughtful look again, "...well, unless you've got a fire focus on a wand with a blaze rod core, but that's an advanced topic. And it won't help you if your focus needs something other than ignis, as I'm certain Staren is seeing some of them now!" Such an eager reader, it reminds him of when he first discovered the thauminomicon...and immediately made a ton of trouble. If he were a sappier sort, it would be enough to bring a tear to his eye. Resetting the lever, Steve instead draws down another one, causing some previously unseen redstone lamps to flicker on, and effectively disable the spawner. "I think that's enough of that, for now. I've got one last thing to show everyone, if you'll follow me!" He climbs back up the ladder to the demonstration area from earlier, and is already checking his own thauminomicon. ...don't think of trying to sneak a peek, the unknown pages likely look like gibberish to anyone that hasn't advanced to that stage. "Another aspect of thaumaturgy is alchemy. Now, I've heard a lot of different things in the multiverse referred to by that name, and some are similar. But in this case...you basically are boiling things down into their aspects, in a device like this crucible here." A vague gesture is given to that cauldron of already-boiling water. "Then you add a catalyst, and it transforms into something new. Or, in the case of what we're going to do, alchemically duplicates it." He thumbs over a page on his book, and gestures down, "On the side you'll find a tab labelled 'alchemy'. Head to that, then check out metal transmutation. It should show you how to do it, now, but just for sake of demonstration, I'll go first." Heading over to the crucible, after gathering some more objects out of a second chest from earlier, he once again settles the goggles on his face. "Now...I'm using my Goggles of Revealing for this, but you can use Thaumometers for checking. You want to put just the right amount of things in, boil it down, then drop in the catalyst. In our case, we want to provide metallum, and drop in an iron nugget." He, accordingly, holds up two gold nuggets, and dunks them into the boiling pot. "Now, I know what some might be thinking. 'Who wants to trade gold in for iron?' Believe me, this kind of crap happens." Eventually, the material seems to rise to a boil, and multicolored bubbles begin to pop on the surface of the broth. "Ah, it's ready. 2 metallum, just the right amount." With this, he drops in an iron nugget, and from out of the cauldron, two iron nuggets rise, ready for retrieval. "And that's basically how it works. ...now, be warned, a lot of aspects aren't that easy to acquire in a pure form. Any unused stuff left in the crucible eventually cooks off as this nasty stuff called flux gas. Thankfully, that won't be a problem with this recipe. ..unless you drop in too many nuggets. Don't do that." Or do. He's not your mom. "And after
Steve	"And that's basically how it works. ...now, be warned, a lot of aspects aren't that easy to acquire in a pure form. Any unused stuff left in the crucible eventually cooks off as this nasty stuff called flux gas. Thankfully, that won't be a problem with this recipe. ..unless you drop in too many nuggets. Don't do that." Or do. He's not your mom. "And after this, I think that's a good point to stop the first lessons. I hope you all have been enjoying it! It's been a blast for me, ha ha."
Sanary Rondel	Setting zombies doesn't seem to be getting old for Sanary any time soon, although she does bring up the Thaumometer from time to time just to see if there's any difference before or after igniting the zombies. She also scans the ROTTEN FLESH for good measure, too, and then she's back to... Well, she won't waste /all/ of that energy just on burning zombies. Steve might need it later for stuff! "That was fun~ Still kinda... Way over my head, but it's interesting stuff." She makes a mental note to look into this again sometime as she follow Steve upwards, paying particular attention to that spawning device before heading back out. And the it's time for the alchemy demonstration! Sanary's heard the name a few times before, but seeing it in practice is a whole new beast entirely. "If you can turn gold into iron, does that mean you can turn iron into gold the same way?" Thankfully, the healer's not crazy enough to actually try that right now, but the thought is definitely there. For now, however, she sticks to following Steve's instructions and scanning goddamn everything, including the contents of the chest and the chest itself. "Two nuggets, metallum, scan the metallum..." She mutters to herself as she works, trying to keep it all sorted out in her head even while adding on the task of scanning everything. "Say... Steve. How'd you even learn all this? Did you.. Uh. Blow up a lot of these things while you were still learning?" Sanary sounds as if she knows the answer already, but she's still digging around for confirmation. It'll help her figure out whether to come by and help again next time!
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa did hang back from dealing with the Zombies as well she's only feeling her way into this system of magic after all. She does take notes of how it worke dna will keep in mind for late,r for now they are settling in to do some alchemy which gets an eyebrow raise. After all, she checks the tab and the conents of the book while listening. as she goes she now starts to fiddle she pauses for a moment. "The attempt to turn things into gold consumed many lifetimes of poential sadly on my world it doesn't really work." She however is going to give this a try with the buggets and gwill get to work if she'll get to work with this mad magic? As it's not really science right?
Staren	Staren smiles a bit. He had started glancing ahead. He's trying to think of more esoteric uses for these wand focii though -- basic ranged attacks are a thing he has in spades already. He activates his wings to fly out of the hole after Steve. It does occur to him to glance over Steve's shoulder... ah. The Eldritch were competent at security, it seems! He flips to the alchemy pages in his own thaumonomicon after landing. So many objects to juggle -- he's going to need to make adjustments to this outfit. Magic fire and magic metal? Ah, there it is... "Oooh, I see! Basically, by using the core aspects of certain metals, we can turn any of these metals into any other! Iron, copper, silver, gold, 'thaumium'... I'm guessing these metals play key roles in this system of magic, since I see copper and gold wandcaps on another tab..." Staren watches as Steve transmutes the metal. Trying to think of how to break this system. Also... "Excuse me, but if you're trading gold for iron, aren't you leaving extra greed-aspect in the pot? Since we're just using metallum..." Someone didn't scan the gold nuggets yet! While others practice turning gold into iron, Staren works at the crafting bench. What could he possibly need four extra wands for? With some effort, he removes an iron ingot from one of the supply chests and grunts as he brings it over to the crucible. He tosses the extra wands in with one hand, followed by dropping the ingot in with a splash. An ingot of soft purplish metal rises from the water, and Staren shouts "Ha!" in triumph, and quickly snatches it and holds it up high triumphantly! Only Steve, with his goggles, can see that there are now 16 metallum left in the pot. Sigh. Staren steps away from the cauldron, examining his prize. "So the book said this stuff makes good weapons, tools, and armor, but I wonder what properties it has..." He smiles at Steve, "Thank you for showing us all this! I look forward to future lessons... is there anything you want in trade?"
Steve	"In fact, you can," Steve grins, in response to Sanary! Even though she says it's going over her head, she's making some correct guesses. "Though...a lot of other metals, like gold, you need something extra, besides just the metallum. It's honestly a little bit wasteful and tedious, but, if you have a huge surplus of one, and need another, it can be real handy." The next correct guess hits a bit closer to the heart, and his facial expression lapses a bit, before he belts out another good-natured laugh. "You know me too well, Sanny. But explosions and other accidents are just part of the learning process." What doesn't kill you only makes you smarter! As long as Sanary and Kotone sticks to the formul, they will likely have positive results. The reason Steve chose this recipe is that it's really hard to get wrong, and even if you drop in too much, you can just...drop in more nuggets quickly. Plus, nuggets are a lot cheaper on his resource load than whole ingots. "Well, I can't take all the credit, after all, Kotone," he admits, crossing his arms over his chest as the pupils practice. "I'd have never gotten started if the Eldritch hadn't left behind the Thauminomicon." It's the real MVP here. Sniff. "Gold seems valuable a lot of places, and it has gotten a bit more interesting in Flat Earth lately, but for me it's just a soft metal. Makes really crappy swords and tools, at that." To Staren's question, Steve gives a shake of his head. "Gold only has that aspect in it when it's the ingots, or a whole block of it. When you make nuggets out of it, or most any metal, it seems to reduce it enough that it...hmm, rounds off? In any case, the trace amounts don't even seem to register." He holds up another gold nugget for Staren to scan, if he wishes. Sure enough, only metallum. ...then Staren seemed to find some new research that he wants to pursue, right now. There is a thought to stop him from the inevitable, but instead Steve only stands by and watches, with an expression a curious blend of exasperation and amusement. "Congratulations," he laughs, a bit more dryly. "But..." The metallum that remains in the pot continues bubbling in that multi-colored mess. Metallum isn't very high grade on the compound aspect ladder, but it has enough that, after a few long moments, it finally begins to degrade into its components. In the process, the crucible begins belching flux gas -- which since Steve thought ahead, floats relatively harmlessly away into the air. More annoying is the puddle of flux goo, which spills out onto the ground immediately adjacent to it. Steve, apparently used to this kind of thing happening, immediately begins the curious clean-up process: Placing some dirt blocks in the spaces occupied by the flux, and then digging them back up by hand. There, clean and fresh again, though that seems to have reduced the water level noticably. "It's about as hard and workable as iron," he notes, being well familiar with thaumium. "But it holds enchantments a lot easier, and is an excellent conductor of vis. A project I've been working on is making wand caps out of it, but it's...tricky." He shrugs a bit, "Anyway, keep it to study, if you want, as a souvenir! No need for repayment or anything. It was enough to get to hang out with some folks, and share some of my little hobby."