A long table by the side of the room contains a wide sampling of fine beverages (mostly alcoholic), hors d'oeuvres, and assorted oddments (cookies, bits of carrot cake, etcetera.)
Rasanam arrives moments after Cameron acquired a drink, having headed over from a discussion with Morgana and Raven.
"Hail and well met, Cameron. I am Rasanam Wolfgrin. I guess from your garb that you are also something of an artificer?"
07.01g: The Seventh Winter (Refreshments)
Re: 07.01g: The Seventh Winter (Refreshments)
Cameron looks up having just acquired a tankard of something sweet and amber-colored. He actually takes a gulp before responding.
"Well met. I am indeed a tinkerer, though most of my skills are best suited to a realm far from here. I'm only returned to Amber this evening, and hopefully there are not too many lingering questions as to the manner and timing of my departure."
He takes another drink, then smiles. "But enough about me. Tell me, you're a craftsman as well? What are your specialties? I'm a a member of the Mechanist's Guild in... well. some variation of the Russian Empire, and I admittedly don't know much of how things are set here."
"Well met. I am indeed a tinkerer, though most of my skills are best suited to a realm far from here. I'm only returned to Amber this evening, and hopefully there are not too many lingering questions as to the manner and timing of my departure."
He takes another drink, then smiles. "But enough about me. Tell me, you're a craftsman as well? What are your specialties? I'm a a member of the Mechanist's Guild in... well. some variation of the Russian Empire, and I admittedly don't know much of how things are set here."
Re: 07.01g: The Seventh Winter (Refreshments)
"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with a 'Russian Empire'; there's no such entity in the places I've been so far. Then again, I surely haven't wandered as far afield as you have; it's only been a month since I walked the Pattern, and I've spent most of that here."
"I work mostly in magic and mechanics; things like..." Rasanam flips back a few pages in the sketchbook he's holding, "...this."
The page he's flipped to shows detailed design drawings of a clockwork wolf; it's mostly mechanical, with a bit of magic for things like senses and decision-making. "Unfortunately, I've yet to get anything of the sort working here; I could probably kludge something together with a brute-force magical approach, but at that point you might as well just be animating statues. Much less interesting."
"I work mostly in magic and mechanics; things like..." Rasanam flips back a few pages in the sketchbook he's holding, "...this."
The page he's flipped to shows detailed design drawings of a clockwork wolf; it's mostly mechanical, with a bit of magic for things like senses and decision-making. "Unfortunately, I've yet to get anything of the sort working here; I could probably kludge something together with a brute-force magical approach, but at that point you might as well just be animating statues. Much less interesting."
Re: 07.01g: The Seventh Winter (Refreshments)
Alystrakos nods politely to Cameron and Rasanam as she approaches*, but it's clear her first focus is on finding a suitable glass of wine.
_____
* From You Only Want Luck.
_____
* From You Only Want Luck.
Re: 07.01g: The Seventh Winter (Refreshments)
"For me, it's been a hair over a year here, but... time flows strangely out there, I've noticed. It's where I used to call 'home', one place of many."
He takes another swallow, emptying his mug, then leans in to look at the sketchbook, looking over the designs curiously.
"This is quite interesting. I understand the concern with intelligence and senses - those are things we'd use crystals for back home, but that only works in a few worlds, I've found, and definitely seems like it would fail here. In my wanderings, I've focused on the purely mechanical, which I can count on working almost everywhere - springs and gears and so on work properly almost everywhere. Like this watch..."
He lifts his watch, slowly disentanglign it from the bracer that is wrapped around his wrist. "slicing the crystal for the face was the most difficult bit, but... this is probably my masterwork. I'm hoping to figure out a way to make it show time passing here, no matter where I am out there. Since it seems I'm going to get drawn back here eventually anyway..."
Cameron nods in acknowledgement to Alystrakos, though is a ltitle too drawn into the discussion to remember to be shy.
He takes another swallow, emptying his mug, then leans in to look at the sketchbook, looking over the designs curiously.
"This is quite interesting. I understand the concern with intelligence and senses - those are things we'd use crystals for back home, but that only works in a few worlds, I've found, and definitely seems like it would fail here. In my wanderings, I've focused on the purely mechanical, which I can count on working almost everywhere - springs and gears and so on work properly almost everywhere. Like this watch..."
He lifts his watch, slowly disentanglign it from the bracer that is wrapped around his wrist. "slicing the crystal for the face was the most difficult bit, but... this is probably my masterwork. I'm hoping to figure out a way to make it show time passing here, no matter where I am out there. Since it seems I'm going to get drawn back here eventually anyway..."
Cameron nods in acknowledgement to Alystrakos, though is a ltitle too drawn into the discussion to remember to be shy.
Re: 07.01g: The Seventh Winter (Refreshments)
"Quite impressive. I've had trouble getting even that much to work, to be honest; none of the metals I've tried for springs are quite consistent from one plane to the next; I can compensate a bit with escapements and flywheels and fancy bimetallic components, but each different place seems to require different settings... Magic isn't much better, though I've found a well-crafted enchantment can survive a fair number of transitions before it fails. Which is part of why I've started studying something Dworkin calls 'Trump' - it's an art of connecting an image to a particular place, person, or thing, and it works... at least everywhere I've tested. If you can get him to teach you, I'd imagine it could be used to make your watch work the way you've described."
Rasanam doesn't seem to register Alys' presence; like Cameron, he's more interested in the technical discussion than in the proximity of what appears to be a dangerous pyromaniac.
Rasanam doesn't seem to register Alys' presence; like Cameron, he's more interested in the technical discussion than in the proximity of what appears to be a dangerous pyromaniac.
Re: 07.01g: The Seventh Winter (Refreshments)
"I've found iron works well, but one trick is to use multiple winders of different metals - sometimes it feels like the properties all sum to one in some way I don't quite understand.." he shrugs and smiles.
"Trumps? The card things? That could be itneresting. I studied one of a landscape and it seemed to change, so one could cheat with a sundial of a location, if you were so inclined... or a picture of a specific clock somewhere. That still feels odd, but it would be an.. interesting approach. It bears thinking..." He reaches over to take another glass of whatever's in reach.
"Honestly, it's just a puzzle I'd like to try and solve. I get this urge sometime, it's nearly obsessive. But you've accomplished a lot with these designs, truly a master craftsman."
"Trumps? The card things? That could be itneresting. I studied one of a landscape and it seemed to change, so one could cheat with a sundial of a location, if you were so inclined... or a picture of a specific clock somewhere. That still feels odd, but it would be an.. interesting approach. It bears thinking..." He reaches over to take another glass of whatever's in reach.
"Honestly, it's just a puzzle I'd like to try and solve. I get this urge sometime, it's nearly obsessive. But you've accomplished a lot with these designs, truly a master craftsman."
Re: 07.01g: The Seventh Winter (Refreshments)
"Thank you... though I'm not sure I'd grant such a title on the basis of designs alone. Still, this one," he gestures at the wolf, "I've actually built, and it functions quite nicely as a guardian for my wife's shop back home. The rest of the mechanical designs..." He flips through several pages, "Are still more theoretical than practical."
About one page out of four actually has clockwork mechanisms; most of the rest are filled with sketches and motion studies of living creatures, drawn and annotated with the same precision as the mechanicals. There are several pages of wolves, a collection of cats of various sizes, a sea serpent, twelve different kinds of dragons, an inordinate number of ravens, a motley collection of assorted other monsters (occasionally with notes like "Riol hacked this one up too much to get good measurements"), and a few sketches of Lyra tucked into odd corners - these last are more artwork than technical diagram, the equivalent of doodles in the margins.
About one page out of four actually has clockwork mechanisms; most of the rest are filled with sketches and motion studies of living creatures, drawn and annotated with the same precision as the mechanicals. There are several pages of wolves, a collection of cats of various sizes, a sea serpent, twelve different kinds of dragons, an inordinate number of ravens, a motley collection of assorted other monsters (occasionally with notes like "Riol hacked this one up too much to get good measurements"), and a few sketches of Lyra tucked into odd corners - these last are more artwork than technical diagram, the equivalent of doodles in the margins.
Re: 07.01g: The Seventh Winter (Refreshments)
"You are quite the artist as well. It's a skill I never quite mastered, quill and paint and pigment. And mastery... mastery is not just about what you have done, but also about what you intend to do."
He hefts the glass and finds it empty, shrugging and fetching another.
"How long have you been working on these studies, if I may be so bold?
He hefts the glass and finds it empty, shrugging and fetching another.
"How long have you been working on these studies, if I may be so bold?
Re: 07.01g: The Seventh Winter (Refreshments)
Alystrakos surreptitiously listens for a few moments, but eventually departs, wine glass in hand, heading towards Morgana.
And, for the second time this evening, is intercepted before she can get there.
And, for the second time this evening, is intercepted before she can get there.