Tinkering In The Tomb

[Mithradites 1168]

Were you within the Mali'aheral facility late at night, you would be struck by the strange and peaceful quiet that seemed prevalent throughout. The pale scholars were all asleep in their warm beds, or "resting their eyes" on top of particularly comfortable tomes in the library. Not even the slightest warbling whistle of a breeze could make it down from the entrance. All was dead silent in the Tomb*. However, were you to walk over to the laboratory, you might hear soft metallic clicks and clangs from its depths. 

 

A very, very tired-looking Lucion Sullas would be fiddling with small iron cogs, rods, and wheels--fitting innumerable pieces together carefully, and methodically. He might sigh deeply and rub his weary, sunken eyes before once again tilting his head towards an arcane schematic. He had been working on this particular mechanical implement for a number of weeks--his expansive biological works in Asulon having finally come into real, practical use outside of medicine. He had almost considered the majority of his dissections and studies half-useless. 

 

He picked up a pair of tweezers, and carefully directed a slender rod into its appropriate slot. with a small twist and a click, it fastened into place, and he slowly leaned back on his chair. Unfortunately Lucion had forgotten he was sitting on a stool and he fell backwards upon the floor--dashing his head into a peaceful unconsciousness. The creation, though, remained intact.

 

 

Lucion had always lamented that his studies never seemed to amount to anything--his experiments often failed in their intentions, or results were effectively useless. Often he was humiliated by Kalenz' insults over this fact. This time however, he would -not- fail. His machine -would- work. The theory was sound. He just needed more money...

[Z3r05t4r 855]

Silus feels his engineering senses tingle, as he looks up from his worktable, which is scattered with gears, bolts, metal parts, pipes and a wide assortment of fine tools. "Hm."

[Samler 1565]

Seth Calith makes his way down the stairs to the labs where Lucion now rested, his steps echoes through the hallways, slowly opening the door to Lulu's place before sighing as he is seemingly not awake.

"I will just speak with him later." He rolls his eyes before closing the door once more to rest his own eyes in his bed.

[Raxxtus 24]

Rolen stands in the library, placing a tome back on it's respective shelf when he hears a soft "Thump" from somewhere far off. He shrugs it off, retiring to his own room.

[Mithradites 1168]

After a painful few days recovering from his concussion, Lucion sits back down in his new chair (this one not being a stool) within his laboratory, and heaves up a large, thick tome upon his worktable. With careful hands he opens the cover, and delicately flicks through the wafer-thin pages until he lands on one covered in figures and diagrams. With a scratch on his chin, he picks up one of a few silvery cogs. These ones appeared to have a few gold rings encrusted around its center--magegold, perfect for enchantments.

 

With a furrowed brow, Lucion begins to weave the magic through the metal. His iron hand would need to move, afterall.

[Supremacy 3361]

Far away to the south, while on his trip to collect further viridescent fluid samples, Kalenz grunts... Something was amiss.

[Mithradites 1168]

An Elven week did Lucion sit, tinkering away at his mechanical hand. Parts were replaced, whole digits were reworked, and the design slowly changed from its original form. He learned more as he worked than he did in the initial designs--more than when he studied the great Orrery of the Mages Guild. The old star-plotter's device seemed so mundane, now. This machine would outstrip the Magician's greatest achievements, and perhaps, even his own to date.

 

The gem was placed in the center of the hand, accompanied by a larger (comparitively), specially enchanted silvery cog. Further enchantments were placed on three mundane-looking cogs surrounding it. These would be the "circumambients," from which all movement within the complex would be derived. The great silver cog would move the mundane, and they in turn would shift to the necessary gears to give the fingers, palm and thumb proper dextrous movement. He sealed the bronze panel at the back of the hand for the last time, and peered over its completed form.

 

Taking hold of his great tome, Lucion scoured through the pages to one of his most complex enchantments--one based off the "life-roots" (nerves) that he studied so closely during Asulon. He transmuted from a sliver of metal a small iron pin, and weaved his magic through it. He took hold of it, and touched it carefully against one of many jutting rods protruding from the wrist's stump.

 

And with that, the hand twitched.

[Mithradites 1168]

With the finalisation of the hand's design, Lucion looked towards the next stage of his machine's construction. After short consideration, he gathered together more pieces of his cheaply-aquired bronze, and with his magic, molded them carefully into what appeared to be a large shell. This would be the sternum and abdomen of his machine, and the primary source of its movement. Within would contain the most complex of all the enchanted objects he would create. 

 

After he finalised the outer-shell, he began the long, strenuous task of organising the gears, cogs, and other assorted pieces to give it the movement that he desired. Though there were multiple other circumambients and mechanics that would allow relatively smooth movement, this central section would organise and distribute directives to these outer-circumambients. 

 

The task of merely piecing this section together was gargantuan. More sleepless nights to come, it seemed.

[Stag 3230]

~Enter creepy ghosty narrator voice that seems to echoe and disembodied~

 

*In a city far far away (Lin'evaral) a long time ago (Like summertime or so) a spriteful elf (Iatrilemar) would have made a wooden hand for Silvos made of twigs and spider web.*

 

 

((SO COOL~)

[Mithradites 1168]

To the infinite ire of Lucion, he had encountered a severe, and possibly insurmountable problem. The mechanics within the sternum of his machine simply were not acting as desired. They seemed to jam at inopportune times, and simply did not act as desired, and with the emotional strain he was under, his work was much, much slower. Having to go through the entire construct piece-by-piece to find the offending flaw, Lucion began with little vigor.

[Mephistophelian 977]

((Mithradites, what have you done? I cannot take anything you post seriously because of that hilarious gif you have as profile pic... hahaha XD))

A tall man wonders if a mechanical eye would ever have the possibility of being constructed, but then dismisses the idea.

[Mephistophelian 977]

((damn double post. Sorry :P))

[Mithradites 1168]

One of the smaller gears was scraping against a piston within the right-most section of the sternum. This in turn slowed the movement of a cog, which put it out of sync with two others that drove the shoulder-movements. As the one cog slowed, the other two continued at the same pace--driving their part of the shoulder around, until the section completely separated from the line of the slowed cog. This cog now uselessly turned, and the shoulder could not re-adjust properly, jamming the entire flow of the sternum's machinery. Very irritating.

 

Lucion managed to separate the gear from the offending piston, but this required him to move several other gears to compensate for it. Suddenly, more room was needed, and the sternum had to be expanded to compensate for the new section. As the headaches piled up further, he had still to finalise the design for the "Analytical Core," which would serve as the machine's "mind" of sorts. Not that it would have any capability of thought, of course, but it would merely serve as a receiver and distributor of commands from himself to the various controlling elements of the entire mechanism.

 

As he finalised the design, and placed a last bronze plate upon the construct's "back," he began to shape the next section of the torso--the abdomen. Thankfully, this only required simple bending and lifting mechanics, with an added mechanism for balance. Unlike the sternum, aside from the changes to compensate for the previous redesign, the abdominal mechanics seemed to act as desired. 

 

With a soft grunt of relief, Lucion walked off to have himself a strong cup of tea. Things were beginning to look promising.

 

[Mithradites 1168]

The move to the Fringe had suddenly stopped his work. No-one, of course, had informed Lucion that there was not a single functional laboratory in the entirely of the settlement! Lucion angrily placed his experiments, notes, and machines into storage. He would not have a chance to use them for a long time yet.

[Birdwhisperer 1174]

Moved to the Great Library. It shall be sorted into appropriate category shortly.