Bored

[Midnight]

Joseph let out a sigh as he strode through the halls of the dormitories, hands in his pockets. It was saturday and he'd wanted all week to do something entertaining today. He'd trained each day of the week harder than normal, as the hurtful incident with Talbot's curse fresh in his memory. Still when he'd gone to find her, she wasn't in her room. The girl hadn't emntioned going anywhere, but she hand't even left the mice behind to let him know where she'd gone. He couldn't find Ziare or Priest. The Paladin living next the next room over said he was too tired to do something, while the Harlequin on the other side wasn't really a friend, just a vendor to him. Still, the gunmage had been bored enough to try, but the magical clown said no.

So, Joseph walked. His revolver didn't seem to mind. Then again, machine spirits wouldn't mind mundanity like a human. He sighed as he continued to stroll along slowly. Some people had their doors open so he could peek inside as he passed, most didn't. Still, from each new room he saw such widely varying styles that he was actually amazed at some. There certainly were all types of magic users at the academy...

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

Torm snapped the last piece of yet another beetle onto its back and placed it gently on the pile of about two dozen others. He had been working for quite some time, and had broken two of his smallest screwdrivers in the process, but that was no surprise, as they were no thicker than hairs. At least they weren't part of his best set... Time to test this batch. I'll need to find a courtyard. Standing up, he shoves the beetles into his pockets and snatches up his ladder.

As he moves to the door, he grabs three Clockwork Pidgeons from a shelf he had installed earlier and pulsed mana through them briefly to awaken them. "Raine and Genis, come along. Zelos, sentry mode," he says. Two of the birds, cheerfully chirping, flit out the door ahead of him, and the other cheeps thoughtfully at him and returns to its spot on the shelf, becoming motionless once again, but secretly on guard and carefully observing the room. Bless their little metal hearts...Well, I guess machine spirits dont mind mundanity like humans. He steps into the hall and locks his door behind him.

Sounds come from the adjacent rooms: laughter, conversation. I still don't know many people here. This evening, I'll go around and meet some other neighbors. Down the hallway, he noticed another person. Sriding nonchalantly with his hands in his pockets, the guy looked as if he had no worries. The revolver at his side, a Colt .45 by the looks of it, was definitely an all-business weapon; his father had owned one and allowed him to fire it a few times, and it had been a favorite model of many of the other local Texans, as the Colt make had gained legendary status from its role in the tales of the Western gunslingers of old. "Maybe the testing can wait," he murmurs while shifting his grip on the ladder as the two metal birds perch on it, still warbling away. Smiling broadly, he calls out, "Heyo, gunslinger! How's the day treating you?"

[Midnight]

Joseph had just been strolling up a hallway where laughter could be heard eminating from an open room when he saw another student leave his room carrying a later supporting a pair or...mechanical birds. The gunmage chuckled as he addressed him, "Rather boredly actually. Heh, it's been a long time since someone called me a gunslinger." he replied stepping up to the fellow.

Looking the man over he saw assorted tools and pouches. What sort of magic user was he? He pulled his hand from his pocket and offered it to the man, "Joseph Midnight, Gunmage, and you are?" he asked freindily with a smile. Somehow he had a feeling there might be a kindred spirit in this student. Maybe it was all the mechanicly oriented objects he adorned.

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

Encouraged by the man's civil response, he grasps the proferred hand firmly. "Midnight the Gunmage, eh? It's great to meet you. Did I say gunslinger? Heck, if I didn't know any better, I would've said you were the Roland of Gilead! That's an old story though..." Realizing that he had been rambling on about nonsense, he jolts from his reverie and says brightly "The name's Tormaigh, or Torm for short. I'm an Artificer; what you might call a magic mechanic of sorts." A metallic cheeping next to him reminds him of the birds, and he chuckles, saying, "Oh, and of course, these are Raine and Genis, two to of my...well...two friends of mine."

[Midnight]

"It's a pleasure to meet you Torm...Raine and Genis, eh?" Joseph mused leaning forward to look at the bird. It was strange. They seemed to eb entirely mechanical. At least it didn't appear that they had electronic in them. Yet, if his art aloud him to give them movement...thought. "My lords," the gunmage said in realization, "...you heightened the tech spirits' conciousnesses didn't you? Beyond the realm of probability?" It was amazing if he had. They would truely be 'living machines' then. If this artificer could heighten a machine's consciousness...He could barely imagine the implications of awakening his revolver in such a way.

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

This man...he knows of the tech spirits! That's incredible! I had to discover them on my own, but it never crossed my mind that I would meet people here who also know of their existence... Torm thinks.

Smiling broadly, he responds. "In a way. What I truly do is create a sort of mind in the machine made of a complex weave of elements. The mind is, of course, empty, but if made comfortable and made correctly, the machine spirits are able to permeate it and gain consciousness and the ability to observe, respond to stimuli, and even carry out thought, after a fashion. My animal creations behave a bit like the animals they resemble because the 'minds' I weave for them are fashioned after the minds of the real creatures they resemble." He holds his free hand out in front of one of the birds, who pecks at it a little.

"Of course, sometimes they are unable to do this, but that usually means the weave isn't quite right, so you just try again."
Glancing down at Midnight's gun, he suddenly realizes that gunmagery is one field of magic he knows very little about.
Maybe this guy and that gun...

"Well, let me tell you, it's great to meet someone else with some knowledge of the tech spirits. Machines are just another type of dead thing, to most."

[Midnight]

The gunmage chuckled at his statements. "That's certainly true. We learn all about them in the Gunmage Schools in Nevada. Hell, part of becoming a gunmage is binding our souls to that of our weapons tech spirit." he said tapping his revolver lightly, the engraved emblem of their binding glistening slightly from polish on the handle. Joseph nodded adding, "It is rather refreshing to find someone else who knows about them. Heh, hell I'm bonded to one and the professors here tell me tech spirits are just a myth. For a school full of the most open minded in the world, they sure know how to shut their eyes."

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

Now it was Torm's turn to be amazed. "Bonded to a machine spirit? That's amazing! I never really thought about that...I knew that people bond to familiars and stuff like that, but it never occured to me that the same could hold true for machine spirits." Torm glances at the revolver again, and then at his birds, still hopping about and chirping. The possibilities are fathomless...there has to be a catch though.

Thoroughly intrigued now, Torm asks, "So whats's that like? I mean, what's the nature of the bond?" After asking this, he realizes that the subject might be a sensitive one, depending on the answer's nature, and adds more seriously, "I mean, if it's not anything personal or secret. I wouldn't want to pry into what isn't my business."