Alchemy!

[Onira]

It was a good day at Arcane Academy. The sun was shining, the skies were blue, and the air was thin, as expected to be a feature of a floating rock. Overall a fantastic scene, for once, even for Onira, recently appointed student teacher. That, and a birthday. Such a wonderful way to begin a birthday, too. Walking through the halls, about to teach a few select young minds, hopefully talented in science. Like reliving the first day of school! Except in a considerably less frightening or depressing way. No, this time Onira would be the demented teacher who made every child within his path cower in fear. In a good way, of course.

Onira, at the moment, was dressed in a fairly scientific way. Well, if black T-shirt, grey sweat pants, black sneakers (and black socks), and an over-sized white lab coat counted. Okay, so he was pushing it on the whole science thing, but still! One should always be an advocate! Or something like that.

Slung over Onira’s shoulder was a black strap, and on the opposing hip was a large hockey back, connected to the strap. After learning that the academy was in short supply of many alchemy books, one had decided to bring his own. Actually, it wasn’t all that hard to get copies. Onira simply gave the book to one of the head librarians, requested an amount of copies, and poof! There they were. A few extra were copied, of course, that way the library had a few copies of it’s own. Onira didn’t mind in the least, either. Any way to help the alchemist population grow!

He stopped, standing on the wooden floors and looking at the door. To open it, and he would be commencing his first class as a student teacher. Would it be good? Bad? DEFINITELY ugly. Gahh! Screw it. After all, what could be the worst that could happen? The student teacher opened the red-painted wooden door, sighing out of nervousness as he did so. Slowly he peaked in, violet eyes instantly lighting up. The door was slammed open, the teen leaping into the classroom, dropping his hockey bag and doing cartwheels.

“YAY! HOORAY! YES! YES! YE-“

Onira fell on his ass when he saw the teacher just… standing there, clipboard in hand. From what he could tell, the teacher was blind, or so one guessed from those empty eyes. He was a tall man, obviously experienced in…whatever he did. Truth be told, he kind of gave Onira the chills. He was just so… chilling. But still, he was quite an interesting one. The alchemist had yet to see someone who appeared to be African by physical appearance, and those dread lock-things. Cool!

He got up slowly, factoring somewhere in his mind that the guy meant business, but also that his blindness (provided he was in-fact blind) was not so large of a hinderance. Still, though. He was creepy!

Standing up, Onira walked back to his dropped hockey bag in uniform fashion, picking it up and placing it at the front of the class. From here, he got a closer look of the room. On the far right corner was the entrace. From here, pretty much the entire room was to the left, a long, blue workbench on the right and left of the room, taking up the entire wall on each side. As well, there were only six long desks, black in color, each able to seat three people. There were three on one side of the room, three on the other. As well, on the same side as the entrance, in-front of both rows of desks, was a large chalkboard. At the moment, it was all Onira needed. But still, he continued to walk out side of the room for a minute, fixing the apparent whole in the dry wall next to the door where the knob had crashed into. Fixed with alchemy, of course.

He walked back in, looking once again around the room, surveying his area. Truth be told, teaching wasn’t anything new to Onira. For a year or more, he had been teaching a few apprentice mages who needed help with alchemy, and his score was well. Zero losses so far! Of course, this was a bit bigger than tutoring, but to the victor!

Content with the room, Onira walked over and sat on one of the blue workbenches, waiting. 4 students. One just hoped that someone actually knew of the class. It had been advertised on the PA after all. But still, to be hopeful was to be happy!

[Brandon (Tech)]

((OOC: If this is done wrong somehow, tell me and I'll fix it. Same if I can't post here))

Brandon was walking hurriedly down the hall, Mek hovering alongside him. Brandon was a tall young man with a slim and elegant build. His striking feature, however, was the prosthetics that had replaced his hands, feet and, most noticeably, part of his right face. Instead of soft, living skin the parts now consisted of a black metal and his right eye was replaced with a camera that glowed with an eerie red light. Mek, his homemade familiar, was no less freaky to look at, a skull seemed to hover by its own power, a good bit of the left half replaced by black metal in a design similar to Brandon's own.

Brandon was wearing his lab-coat, just to show that he was, in fact, a scientist, and because it had been made and treated to resist most... unpleasantries that could result from poorly applied alchemy. Truth be told, Brandon knew very little, if any, alchemy, his main point of focus had always been technomancy. But he was here to learn, and alchemy would be an excellent addition to his repertoire.

He reached the door that lead into the class, and the digital watch in his partially mecanized brain told him that he was in good time. He was happy, he hated being late. "Excuse me" He said as he entered the room. "Is this the alchemy class?" Chances were that it was, but it never hurt to check

[Tristan Knightrhode]

Tristan had heard the announcement, and was instantly interested. He'd been wanting to expand his alchemy past a pair of simple blades on the ends of his gauntlets, but had never had the opportunity. He strode at a good pace down the halls, Igneus resting on his shoulder. As always, Shireiutz was slung over his left shoulder, and his handguns were on his vest, inside his dragon hide coat.

Again, as always, the hunting rifle wasn't present, he never carried it in the academy. The hunter had no such precautions about alchemic blunders, though Dragonhide apparently proved slightly resiliant to transmutation due to the magic flowing through the flesh of the dragon it once belonged to. Other wise, Tristan was as much open to any thing that would happen as any day. Aside from Tristan's want in expanding his hand to hand arsenal, with enough alchemic prowess, he could make spare clips from minerals and metals in the dirt. With that in mind, an alchemy class wasn't a bad idea.

After a few minutes, Tristan finally came to the class to find a young man, surprisingly enough taller than Tristan, with a tiny skull floating near him. With a raised eyebrow, he peered over the boys shoulder to see the one who would be teaching the class, and the supervisor of the mage. "I'd assume so." Came the deep voice, directed at the cyborgs question. As soon as the path was clear, Tristan would walk in, and seat himself on the far right, middle row.

OOC: quality might be a bit lacking.

[Brandon (Tech)]

Brandon turned around and briefly looked up and down the one who had answered his question. His face was neither hostile nor welcoming but simply curious, as his artificial eye quickly scanned over the figure. "Yes, I guess so"

He stepped inside the classroom, letting the apparant other student inside as well. He was looking forward to this lesson, alchmy would be a valuable addition to his methods of science and inventing. As far he had heard, the results that could be achived with even the most basic level of alchemy would aid his research significantly. This was going to be interesting

[Mathias VonTepes]

Mathias walked into the classroom after tristan had walked through, he slid through as unintrusively as possible to take place in his seat. Lately clair has had some problems with her blade being cracked by very powerful opponents. If he could find a way to manipulate the iron in their blood to repair the damage fast, that would be fantastic. Plus he could make an entire weapon with a single opponents blood if he got good enough at it. But he wasnt counting on getting that good that fast.

Clair was in great shape seeing as how she had a few days to reccuperate. Mathias has very little alchemy knowledge, but he knew basic symbols he had read of in the Book of Solomon. He quietly took a seat in the back row, hoping not to draw too much attention to his arrival. He hated disturbing people and decided it was best if they talked to him of their own free will (people he knew often had a tendancy of dispising half vampires, and after a few times of people striking out at him he learned to mind his own). He removed from his pockets a notepad and a charcoal pencil which he sharpened to a fine point with a spurt of very small aeroblades.

[Onira]

(OOC: Sorry about lack of activity in this thread. I had at first presumed it had been lost due to lack of interest, but I'm happy to say I was wrong.)

Onira looked, seeing one person enter, and immediately getting just a little bit excited. The guy, from the looks of it, was somewhere between a machine and a human, what most would call a cyborg. Interest was sure to be had by Onira, but one had to remember that he was the teacher, and thus had to show some sort of restraint. But still, how badly he wanted to take the machine bit apart and see what made it tick.

Must... show... restraint...

The student soon asked a question, but in that short bit of Onira's otherwise misplaced mind another student answered, and it was only now that, returning to consciousness, one found that he wasn't all that tall in comparison to the other students. He sighed inwardly. As a man, he had to place just a bit of importance on his height. After all, height was... manly! It was about now that Onira remembered he was going to teach a class, and once again he snapped back.

The mage was quick to welcome the students, as well as two others arriving, one a somewhat darker person, but the other an adorable little girl! Cute!

"Well, I would like to say hello to you all on this wonderful day."

Onira quickly hopped off the blue workbench, walking to the front of the class. He picked up a piece of chalk off the top of the chalkboard, and quickly scribbled down his name on the chalkboard itself. He put the chalk back, then turned around once again to face the students, a smile on his face.

"My name is Onira, and if you would all take your seats, we can begin. You may sit wherever you like, but I would ask that you do not talk too much to whoever may sit beside you. This isn't for any particular important reason, but if you miss something that I may say, it could completely destroy your works of alchemy, and for that I would prefer no such thing occured. Do note that a lack of information in this class will not generally be harmful, but it will be quite the annoyance, and one I would prefer you not have to face."

Onira gave another smile before squatting down to his hockey bag and beginning to open it, letting everyone take there seats and of course wait for further instruction. Hopefully they wouldn't have to wait too long, Onira quickly gathering out four text books and heaving them over to the workbench on the far right of the room. They were thick, each about four hundred pages long, but they would work through them together, probably only getting a few chapters done by the end of the course, but that was fair enough. After all, alchemy took time, and surely they would not have enough for anyone to master the science.

He walked back up to the front of the room, looking over his class.

"Now then, before we start I need to ask. Who here has any experience in alchemy. I need to know for under certain circumstances I may need some assistance."

[Tristan Knightrhode]

Tristan, having plopped down into his seat after adjusting Shireiutz, listened to the man. [That name sounds familiar...] He thought to himself as the teachers name was revealed to be 'Onira'. The hunter wasn't one to speak up for much of any reason, but he understood where this Onira was coming from in the terms of speaking with the others.

He looked to the side while the teacher rummaged through his bag and spotted an old opponent, Mathias. The crusnik nodded to the man with the strange sword, and turned his attentions back to the teacher. When the man asked if any one had any alchemic experience, Tristan rasied his hand non-shalontly ((sp?)) and said, "I can do some small transmutation, mainly on my gauntlets."

He then tapped his hands together and making the transmutation circles, engraved on the back of his armored hands, glow. The fourteen inch blades grew from the backs with shots of blue lightning. "This is about all I have the hang of, but I can do basic elemental reconstruction." He finished before activating his alchemy again and withdrawing the blades.

[Mathias VonTepes]

Mathias caught the glance of tristan and gave a warm smile with a nod.

He paid close attention to the teacher and at the mention of previouse experience he said (after letting tristan finish) "I know how to turn blood into solid vines, but it really serves no purpose. It's too weak to bind someone, and i can controll it afterwards, it just goes dead" His sword made a sound that seemed to imply agreement as it blinked with its wide eye.

[Brandon (Tech)]

Brandon had sat himself down by a table at the front as was his habit, Mek hovering beside him before settling down on the table, looking like an extraordinarily morbid paperweight. Brandon recieved the book with great interest but didn't start reading it like he wanted to, knowing that there was a more valuable lesson about to begin.

The two others seemed to know at least some alchemy, thing s that Brandon wouldn't himself be able to use, but some of his friends might. "I'm sorry sir, I only have experience with technomancy and... alternate chemistry. Not alchemy" He said, almost shamefully. He thirsted for knowledge and took in everything he could, but he still hated feeling below others in whatever way, especially in terms of knowledge.

[Onira]

Onira listened and watched carefully, quick to make sure he did not interupt. After all, alchemy could be a tricky thing, and if one were to accidently pull something in instead of push it uot, they could end up with quite the injuries. One dismissed that actual fact as a risk of all magics, a claim he found quite reasonable to make given his limited knowledge.

He was happy to see that the first to answer had at least some ability in the science of alchemy, transforming his gauntlet-thingys in to blades, a not overly original idea, but originality, at least in the scientific world, would commonly take second place to proven fact, and if the gauntlet blade thingys worked, then one figured he was better for it.

"Good, good."

Onira quickly turned his attention to the next one to answer, taking the answer a little bit differently, but not voicing his opinion. The idea of turning blood in to vines did seem a bit more like dark magic then alchemy, but then again, as originality took back seat to fact in the science world, so did fact take a back seat to difference in the magic world. Who knew what that guy had in his blood!

He smiled and nodded to the student, and then soon spoke up another, revealing that he did in-fact not have alchemy in his repettoire of skills, and this seemed to bother him. Onira knew the feeling: frustration. Not being able to do a task for whatever reason was quite the blow to one's nerves, and Onira nodded in agreement.

"You may not yet understand, but that is a good thing at this moment in time."

He began to walk--almost stroll-- at the front of the classroom, comfortable with the atmosphere, as one could easily tell.

"You see, for those with no experience in the subject, I guarantee you will find this lesson if not that small amount easier to absorb, for even he with little experience..."

He pointed to Tristan loosely.

"...already has their own opinions, and it is these that he must overcome when being taught from scratch. Now, I am sure this big fella over here will be able to overcome my philosophies on teaching, but still. I want you all, no matter how much you know--or don't know--about alchemy, to keep an open mind, and remember that everyone starts somewhere."

Onira would stop his strolling, once again back where he first began at the middle of the front of the room, and letting silence loom for just a few seconds before starting up again.

"Well, my speech is done, does anyone else want a turn or should we get right into it?"

Not waiting for an answer, Onira turned back to his books, walking over to them and picking up four, each with the same cover. He walked quickly around the room, placing one in-front of each student. When he was done, he walked back to the front of the room and looked over his class.

"Now then, the book you all see in-front of yourselves is what one may call the alchemist's text book. In-fact, as you can see, it is called THE ALCHEMIST REFRENCE, and it is just that. In this class, we will be doing several transmutations. However, for a good 40 minutes before each transmutation, I want you to study up on whatever product you are transmuting. Now, I'm a nice guy, so I will only generally give you base metals and the like to transmute, and to save you some time, I'll probably even tell you where to look in the text. However, this is tricky stuff. If you ever feel uncomfortable about transmuting, then tell me, and you will be given another task. I may also have to decide for myself if you are ready, but I can't tell half the time, so this really all depends on yourselves.

"Now then, back on to the book. Already placed in each of your books are five hand-drawn solomn seals, each on a nice white piece of paper. These are to be used in class only, and unless I otherwise permit it, I do not want you practicing outside of class. There are several excercises we will do over the course of this class that will help you get the feel of alchemy without actually performing such, and these I have no problem having you practice all by your lonesome. Do note that I will be checking the amounts of your papers at the end of each class, and if even one is missing, for whatever reason, you will be booted from my class, and you will do essays for every one of my classes, all on scientific theorum. I know this seems harsh, but it is for your own safety.

"Man, I'm going off topic a lot, huh? Well, once again back to the book. I have no problem if you read through this book. In-fact I encourage it. Included on the back of the front cover is an envelope as well. inside this is a folded up periodic table, and over time, you may come to have this copied to memory. In the rest of your text is whole chapters , most of which can be anywhere from one to fifteen pages long, each one being on one particular element. Properties, information, and theorum is provided, and in some cases, tips on how to alchemize the element. There is nothing more in this book than these descriptions, however, for this is only volume 1 of ten in a whole series, each book about four hundred pages, and each focusing on a different aspect of alchemy. Now then. any questions?"

[Tristan Knightrhode]

Tristan nodded absently as this Onira spoke, taking in what he said. Though seemingly a brute, Tristan was fairly intelligent, and so was his partner who was sitting on his shoulder. When the younger man passed out the books, the hunter began flipping through it, scanning over some of the bits of information.

The mage at the front of the room described the information ans Tristan removed the four solomon seal sheets from the book, and laid them to the side. One resembled the ones engraved on Tristan's gauntlets. When Onira spoke of memorizing the periodic table of elements, a shot of pain ricoched through the man's head. Such an act would be extrodinarily tedious and mind numbing, but if Tristan was to have any skill in alchemy he would need it.

Tristan sat up higher in his chair, removed his blade, placed it to the side, and focused in. The boy who'd taught Tristan to use that tiny bit of alchemy had never been so serious about fully learning the art, but this Onira was a teacher at the academy and he'd be going full steam ahead at this point, or so it seemed. "When do we begin?" He said in a light tone, in responce to the bit about whether the group had any more questions.

Tristan was usually not serious about much of any thing but his job. That changed this moment as he leaned in on the desk, giving his full attention to the lesson at hand.

[Mathias VonTepes]

mathias, upon receiving his book immediately went to the table of contents to reserch the properties of the element Fe (Ferrous or Iron) in order to find out how to manipulate it. He placed the complex symbols to the side of his book. He allready had his own solomon seal memorized that worked perfectly for bindings, but for this class he would do as told and use those seals only, but he had no reason or desire to steal them.

At his words he sensed the teacher was... uneasy with his abilities to manipulate and solidify blood. He learned it through alchemy byu taking the blood, using dark magick to give it its form, then he made it semi-clot through alchemy and continued to use his vampire magick to manipulate it. But he could see he had allready made a bad impression on the teacher.

"why couldnt i just keep my mouth shut" he muttered to himself

[Brandon (Tech)]

Brandon couldn't help but to lighten up a little at what the teacher had said, he had always been a sucker for approval.

He listened intently to what the teacher said, taking in all in along with Mek, now quietly recording the entire event. Brandon came from a social enviorment of undisciplined magic users, and among them he had only heard of alchemy, althouhg it was probably better that way. Not only beacuse of what the teacher said, but those people with whom Brandon had been working and living among, such knowledge could have proven dangerous to the maintaining of the 'veil' as they had called it, keeping the mundane public unaware of the presence of magic.

So the book was only an instrument of reference? Still, it wouldn't hurt to read through it a few times and outline the important parts. Brandon had started his stay at AA by copying every book he recieved, lent or otherwise studied, keeping a full file of its content in his memory. This, however, had proven to take up almost every availible bit of memory, and he had returned to a simpler form of study.

Brandon shrugged at the warning, he knew that no matter how much he wanted to he could never make himself practice it in his laboratory until he knew what he was dealing with and how to control it. as far as he understood it vould mean the destruction or ruination of everything in there, and he wouldn't let that happen for his life.

Questions? Brandon's arm shot up, but the other guy, the one with the gauntlets, beat him to it. Waiting until noone else where speaking before he presented his own question. "Sir?" He lifted one of his metallic arms, bringing it into view of those who were looking at him. "Will there be any risk of my prosthetics being transformed into different metals or materials by accident?" His prosthetics were made of a metal that he only knew one place had, and he did not feel like going to an SoG facility and knocking on their door. He could craft mediocre replacements for his arms nd legs, but the implants of his head would be irreplaceable if lost or damaged. He didn't have the equipment, the materials and nor the assistants required to perform that kind of surgery. "That was all, Sir"

[Onira]

Onira smiled, glad to see the enthusiasm of his students. It was quite interesting to see anyone enthusiastic about science, but of course, it was more likely they were so enthusiastic about the magic. Well, fair enough. Enthusiasm in any form was good, as long as one didn't get a little too headstrong.

No. No negative. All positive, no negative.

"Well there, big fella, we'll get into the big stuff soon enough. After all, haven't we already started? But... naah! I won't split hairs with you all."

He shifted his attention soon to another student: the cyborgy one, who would now be called such for the rest of the course. It seemed by how quickly one asked he was already very in to the lesson, but his question was a good one.

"You know what, let's start our first lesson on that question. As we can all see, you're extra limbs our made out of some sort of metal, which I will presume has a name...?"

He wouldn't wait long enough to let him answer, quickly turning to the board as he picked up a piece of chalk yet again. He drew a large box on one side of the chalkboard, and a detail-lacking chubby-fingered hand on the other side. Inside the hand he wrote "Super Metal", and after pausing a moment, he decided on just writing "Steel" in the box. Between the box and the hand he drew a straight line with one point towards the box, and one towards the hand. On top of this line he wrote "Empty Space".

Onira, chalk still in hand, turned around to look at his students, and he began to speak again.

"Cyborgy dude, because I am impatient and unoriginal, you're prosthetics will be named 'Super Metal', and 'Steel' is just steel. I picked steel for the simple fact that it is not commonly used in robotics because it's strong, but also pretty heavy and for that reason impractical. Now say you were to place your hand..."

He pointed towards the picture of the hand with the chalk in hand.

"...on a solomn seal, which was also in contact with steel."

He pointed to the steel in the same fashion.

"At this point, you have a choice to make, as you do in any alchemy, and as any alchemist, no matter what skill level, will have to make. Is it you that will change, or what stands before you? As you have a seal touching your hand, but also touching the steel, will you change the steel, or yourself? In essence, you choose what is touching the seal that you wish to change. It could be the steel, it could be yourself, or it could even be any air or water touching it, though that is much more skilled alchemy that I will not yet get in to.

"But let's say the goal is to change the steel. Whether your hand is another metal or not does not matter in this or any stage of alchemy. If it is the same metal then there is some worry to be had, but that can be made with another choice an alchemist will make while performign alchemy. To sum it up, you shouldn't have any problems unless you specifically decide to transmute your prothetics, at which point it's no different for one with regular or prosthetic limbs.

"That answer your question."

He smiled, if not a little knowingly that he might have confused the class. Well, it was going to be said one day or another.

"You know, I've got a pretty good lesson planned, so are there any mroe questions before we get into it?"

[Tristan Knightrhode]

Tristan listened to this Onira answer the cyborgs question. It made perfect sense though he danced around the direct answer: Alchemy was about focus, will, unless you inadvertently willed to transmute your own body, you wouldn't. If you lost focus, the worst that could happen was that you began to transmute your own body, and your natural reaction would be to cut off your mana as reflex and stop the transmutation. Granted it doesn't always work like that.

The hunter shook his head to '...so are there any more questions before we get into it?' as he was ready and willing to expand his hand to hand arsenal. The number one idea that he'd had, but couldn't use that much precision as yet, was to make titanium claws on the ends of his gauntlets with small holes that contained the venom of the Crusnik. That would provide an insanely powerful weapon against vampires as the venom from a Crusnik tore, or at least attempted to tear apart the vampiric DNA.

In vampires that had been so for less than a year, the process would cause them to revert to a human being, for those of the 'cursed blood' that had been so for more than a years time, it would cause excruciating pain, or death in the especially weak. Only the precision that such a transmutation required was beyond Tristan's alchemic capability. His alchemy was crude and basic.