Woodworking, dreams of

[Abra]

46 Vhalar, 719 night


Dragons soared up high and scorched the earth with their powerful breath weapons. Townspeople shrieked with terror and spirits of immense power rose to combat the dragons who wished to terrorize what was their domain. Among all this wonderous battle of the ages, Abra stood lucidly outside a home utterly bored. There were only so many grand fantasy dreams he could sit through before it became as stale as a play that you’d seen a hundred times.

“That’s enough of that.” He did his classic wave of his hand and the world around him started to crumple. The battle raged on but the corners of everything Abra could see turned to ash. The ash was subtle but quick to spread, eventually consuming everything except Abra and his immediate surroundings. The only thing to survive his Governance was one of the dragons that he took a liking to. He pinched his fingers together with the dragon in his gaze and it shrunk to the size of a fairy.

Abra beckoned with his finger and the dragon was pulled towards him. It was just as fierce as it had just been but its flames were match sized and its teeth no more dangerous than a kitten’s. By rubbing his fingers together Abra was able to sand down the dragon’s teeth so that they didn’t hurt at all. “I like you,” Abra said while the dragon chomped down on him.

The dragon flew around Abra’s head and tried to cause some mischief but it was essentially harmless. After it realized that it was fruitless the dragon flew off into the distance never to be seen again. “A dragon huh, it would be nice to have one of those as a pet, but I don’t know how I’d keep it fed.”

“Now, we work.” He pictured an assortment of saws, chisels, and carving knives and they flourished into existence around him. Then, he created a large block of wood that was taller than himself to work off of. “How do I make a thrall out of you?” he interrogated the inanimate block of wood. He wasn’t going to dare use Necromancy in Emea, but that wasn’t the purpose of this anyway. He wanted to practice creating a wooden person, not animate it.

In Idalos Abra had created little more than a novice’s rendition of a wooden puppet and a couple cats. They weren’t impressive and were highly limited by their ability to move. That’s why he wanted to use Emea. Here he could work with whatever tools he needed, try however many times he wanted, and use his power of Governing to shape the wood just how he liked it.

Abra snapped his fingers and a hundred identical blocks of wood formed around him. He then twisted his hands to shape the original block to resemble a wooden man. “This is what I am for, and I will replicate it.” He grabbed his tools and got to work trying to replicate his Governed example with his own hands.

Abra recalled the time when he had carved out his first cat. He hadn’t had enough room to put in a tail which was why the wood he generated was more than enough to encompass a human form. Having more than he needed facilitated any modifications and mistakes he made along the way. “Mistakes are what build a man,” he said while sawing away at the top of the block.

It didn’t take long for him to realize that a hundred extra blocks was far too many. He doubted he could complete even the head and shoulders by the time he got pulled back to Idalos. Sawing was just so difficult for his weak body. He hated to do it, but he put extra force into his motions using Governing just to speed things up. “At least this way I can focus on the details and not the grunt work,” he reasoned. In Idalos however there was not going to be an escape from the manual labor. Not if he wanted to keep his thralls a secret from those outside of the Syns.

Before long Abra had sawed off enough wood and scraped away with his chisel to make an oval like head shape. He was genuinely impressed with how well it had turned out given that he half expected the head to come off the block with how hard he was pushing against it. He then turned his attention to the features of the face itself. He worked to carve out a nose but one misslip of his hand sent the nose falling to the ground and landing on his toe to add insult to injury.

“Just great!” he shouted. He pushed the wooden block with all his angry might but it didn’t budge. The chunk of wood was undeniably heavier than he was so it was no surprise. He fumed for several minutes while pacing back and forth. Left unchecked by his spark his emotions could get out of hand. He held out a hand and obliterated the block of wood by crumpling it into an impossibly complex shape.

Once he calmed down, he realized just how stupid he was being. If he were an employee in a business this act of rage would be considered a huge time waste. “If you calmed down and reacted appropriately, this would have never happened,” he scolded. He knew he was nitpicking but he wanted this to be an efficient process. If there were time wastes he wanted to minimize them so that he could finally get better at woodworking.

“Let’s pick up where I left off.” He concentrated on the exact horrible rendition of a human head and one of the many blocks around him drew closer and shifted into the shape the dreamer imagined. He once again tried to shape a nose but again he couldn’t make the fine tuned movements with his hand without causing chunks of the nose to come out. He couldn’t figure out how he could possibly make such a contoured surface without using some kind of specialized tool. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have a clue in the world what tool he needed.

If he couldn’t make this wooden man with his own two hands then he was going to govern into existence a perfect example. He pictured a wooden man in his head and Goverened one into existence. It stood for a few seconds then crumpled to the ground. This whole process was getting on Abra’s nerves. “Why can’t anything go my way today?” he groaned.

Things were looking bad for Abra’s plans. It showed him just how far he had to go if he was ever going to be the woodwork master necessary to create wooden thralls. Being a staunch anti skeleton necromancer was turning out to be a lot harder than it seemed.

The wooden man he had created looked like a normal person but it lacked a concious to stand on its own. Abra lifted it with Governing and set it on its feet only for it to topple over again. A scream of frustration escaped Abra’s dry lips. He enlarged the wooden man’s legs and tried again. The legs were more like tree trunks than legs now but at least it didn’t topple over anymore. “Give the thralls a sturdy base, lesson learned. Making it so heavy on top can’t be helping either.”

Pained by the headache of frustration and failure Abra decided to call it quits a little earlier than he had planned. He pointed at the wooden man and made him walk and tried to get a good idea of how it could move if he used his necromancy magic. There was no point in taking this monstrosity back to Idalos with him if it couldn’t even move.

The wooden figure creaked with the stress that Abra was putting on it and snapped at the legs. “That’s not surprising.” Unlike Necromancy, physically forcing the limbs to move just caused them to snap. He had to alter the property of the wood so that it could bend and move like a mortal limb. What he ended up with was a man with noodle arms that flopped around on command. It wasn’t satisfying in the slightest to have yet another failure occur. “I just wasn’t built out for woodworking...”

“Out with you then.” He opened up a passage to the spot where he slept and placed the wooden man next to his sleeping body. All there was left to do was to sit and wait for himself to wake up. Then he could try using Necromancy to see if his work had been for nothing. If he could animate the wooden man, then he could actually justify getting some lessons in woodworking so he wouldn’t be working with horrible quality thralls down the road.

[Doran]

Abra:

Knowledge:
Construction: A structure needs a sturdy base
Construction: A top heavy structure can tip easily
Woodworking: Start with more wood than you need
Woodworking: Contoured surfaces are best made using tools
Business Management: Identify time wasters
Meditation: Recall your mistakes and learn from them

Loot: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Points: 10

- - -

Comments: Haha! I love how this thread started. Most people would have been completely in awe of the dragons, but Abra was simply bored! The amount of control that he has over his dreamscape is quite impressive. A dragon would indeed be a great pet!

Practicing his woodworking in Emea was quite ingenious. I like that you allowed Abra to make mistakes. Great job, and enjoy your rewards!