Mechanic Meets Blacksmith [PRIVATE PRIMUS AND XION]

[Primus Optimus]

Primus was walking about the city of Era. Aye, that's right. Era. Far away from his tower. His place of solitude. But, he needed these new parts and they were only available in Era. So, he went along to Era. Those parts, he really needed them. Those gears that he had, they were extremely brittle. He needed stronger ones, ones that wouldn't break.

He was asking a merchant about how much three of the gears would cost, it was a little high for his tastes but he needed those gears badly. So, he decided to barter with him, "So, I got me six iron ingots. That's right, six. Now, I'm offering you four of these ingots for three of those gears."

"No, that would be cheating me."

"Alright then, I'll give you all six of them."

"Deal, large man."

"Alright, thanks." So, Primus took the gears and he started to walk away when he noticed that his wrench was missing off of his tool belt. He looked over, and he saw a kid playing with. Now, normally he wouldn't care if a kid was playing with one of his tools. But this was his wrench. It was the last thing that his teacher had given him. So, he took it gently from the kid and gave the kid a death stare. He then started walking on his way, until the smell of food brought him towards another area. A pub. He entered the place.

[Xion]

Walking through the town centre, a bag over his shoulder filled with one of his latest inventions, he came to the usual store that he used to flog his stuff to the public. They got a cut of the profits of course, but they advertised him and sold his stuff, so it was a small price to pay. However, this day a strange (and incredibly fat) man was standing in the queue infront of him. He tapped his foot gently, as they bartered, before he finally left. Xion unslung the bag from his shoulder and opened it on the desk, showing off the automail gun that he'd invented, an automail arm that turned the middle finger into a small but effective pistol, allowing for assassinations. The man's eyes lit up as he saw it, and smiled
"Oh yes! Once again, my friend, you have hit pure genius. You would make a killing if you sold it on your own." Xion smiled and put a hand on the man's shoulder
"Nobody would come out to my workshop to buy it, and besides, this way we both win right? What's a small amount of jewels to help out a friend, eh?" The man nodded and took out his jewels pouch, throwing it to Xion who caught it and slipped into his overcoat pocket
"pleasure doing business with you, Joelhien!"
"And you, calamity."

[Primus Optimus]

Primus was about to enter the pub when he heard the clinking of metals. What's more, it was the clinking of metals that could only be produced by a machine. He turned around, and he looked at the guy selling something in the bag. Then the guy took out an automail arm.

Primus walked back on over, silently. And he looked at the guy, "Hey, did you make that automail? That's some fine craftsmanship." And he really meant it. For he enjoyed looking at other's work. "Of course, if you stole it then that's a different story. Then the guy that made it was a great craftsman. Real quality work."

[Xion]

The same guy that had been infront of him in the queue stepped forwards and was talking to him? Xion smiled slightly, although it was a little awkward seeing as he must have seemed rather impatient earlier, but then he asked if he'd made it. A small smile crept over his face.
"Yes, I make every piece of automail that I have." He said, before slipping his longcoat off and revealing his own arm
"Including this one. I'm currently the leading auto-mail expert in my field. My name's Xion, I take it you're a fellow inventor with the admiring tone in your voice." he said nicely, holding his hand out to be shaken
"Shake your colleague's hand?" he asked gently, not forcing him to but clearly giving him the choice.

[Primus Optimus]

Primus took his large, beefy hand and he took the inventors hand and he shook it. It was odd, feeling the cold metal against his skin, but still. It wasn't everyday that you shook hands with a guy that made automail. So, he didn't shiver as anyone else would have done.

He looked at him, "Why, yes. I am an inventor. Name's Primus. I live on over in Magnolia. Well, on the outskirts of Magnolia, I live in a tower where none can see what I'm creating."

He then smelled the aroma of food, "Well, it was nice meeting you. I gotta get something to eat. I haven't eaten anything in twenty minutes."

[Xion]

Xion was extremely glad that he wasn't letting the man shake his normal hand, as he could just imagine how sweaty and fatty the hand would be. It was almost repulsive, but Xion had enough manners to not mention that to his face. He forced a smile when the man introduced himself, mentioning that he lived in a tower. There was one thought, and one thought only, going through Xion's mind as he heard the man talk

"This guy is an utter nutcase." He was glad that he wasn't sharing his thoughts with this bloke, as he thought it was obviously a little bit rude. Finally, the man said that he had to go to eat, because he hadn't eaten anything in twenty minutes. God, this guy wasn't just a lardass, he was a Cibiholic! He was addicted to food! Still.... Xion had to admit he hadn't eaten since he left home, and his stomach was rumbling. He smiled awkwardly and followed Primus
"Well, tell ya what, why don't we share our inventions over lunch?" he asked sweetly, secretly hoping to steal some food from Primus.

[Primus Optimus]

Primus looked at the man, "Sure. That sounds great." So, he went inside of the pub and he sat down waiting for a waiter to show up, "So, do you only make automail? Or do you make other stuff?"

He was curious, after all, it's not everyday that you meet someone that has the same interest as you. Especially not in this time period. "So, there's a slight issue with some of my devices that I'd like to tell you about before you see them. They all require a continuous stream of magical energy from the person using them."

He looked at the guy, "Now, the reason I say that's a problem is because it seems impractical to me. I'm trying to create something that could hold magic indefinitely. And I'm not talking about a living object, I'm talking about something inanimate. That way, you can worry about your own magic and not how much you're using for the item."

[Xion]

Xion followed the man into the pub and, for a few brief moments, quietly prayed to himself that the man wouldn't ask him to take a drink with him. He would probably be on duty within a few hours, so he didn't want to have to worry about these things. Besides, he hadn't read the code of conduct in a while, but he was pretty sure there was something against getting drunk and then coming on-shift. As they sat down, he listened to the man's questions and answered simply

"Well, my area of expertise is biomechanical augmentation, so whether that's making someone a fake heart to replace their corrupted one, making limbs for those who can't handle the pain of the magical spell that would be required to fix their limb, or for those who prefer to have it. I do, however, branch out to other things. I design my own weapons, my own armour when I need to, and I've even designed a magic generating skateboard for one of my subordinates to use. "

However, as the man continued to talk, there was something that puzzled him a little bit. The concept of storing magic in something inanimate. How would you control when it did and didn't give out magic?
"Well, the main problem I see with your idea is the fact that there would always need to be something that would allow you to turn the magic on and off, so that it didn't all get wasted immediately, some kind of action to turn on the use so that the device worked, and then some kind of alternate action to make it turn off again. With the board I designed, I made sure that the movement of the wheels would generate magic, and thus would able to be used to cause the board to hover. But to do it remotely, or without direct intervention would require great delicacy, brains and magical power to even make such an item in the first place. How would you consider doing it?"

[Primus Optimus]

"Well, magic is like air in how it behaves. You know how when you hold a glass upside down and you put it in water that air remains? It's just like that. I simply need to find a substance that can contain magic just like how glass contains air. So, I had an idea for this form of crystal. See, whenever someone uses raw magic on an item, it leaves behind a fine powdery substance. I've found that if you heat it up, it forms into a crystal. A very unique crystal."

He sighed, "Unfortunately, the amount of power required to heat the powder into the crystal can only be found on the inside of a dragon's belly. In fact, that's how I got this powder. Rather, that's how the man I got the powder from got it. He went inside of a dragon's cave and he found it. So, he took it. And he ran before the dragon returned."

"Of course, he could have just been lying to me. But there are three ways to tell this powder apart. One, it glows in the dark. Not a continuous glow, but it's faint and it flickers. Two, it cannot be felt. If you touch it, it can't be felt at all. And three, you can feel it. Not physically. But you get a funny feeling whenever it's within two inches of you."

[Xion]

Sincerely, Xion had never tried to insert water into the bottom of a glass and then see if it would push the air out, but he really didn't care. What he was paying more attention to was the fact that this man was claiming to have something from a dragon. Xion was in sheer disbelief, and it was obvious, with his raised eyebrow.

"You're telling me a random stranger sold you this powder. He said he got it from a dragon cave, and you believed him? So, somehow, he tracked down a dragon which is next to impossible nowadays, and this dragon just so happened not to have a dragon slayer with him and just so happened to have left the cave at a convenient time, and he just sold it to you? He really saw you coming, didn't he?" Xion said, before the waiter came over and was ready to take their order.

"I'll take whatever Primus here is ordering, plus something with chicken. Surprise me." The man nodded, before asking
"and how will you be paying for this?" Xion merely raised his wallet and showed off his ID
"By Councilorship, if I remember rightly you're one of the bars that allows councilors, rune knights and up to one guest to eat without paying, correct?" The man nodded, and smiled at Primus
"And you will have, sir?"

[Primus Optimus]

Primus looked at him, "I'll have two of everything. And a double on any form of meat that you have." He told the waiter, he pulled out a small phial. "Here it is. This is what it is. And trust me, I've felt the stuff before. It's the real deal. I know because the guy that got this for me is a dragon slayer. The dragon that raised him doesn't like him running off. That's why he had to sneak in and sneak out. All I gave him was a book and he got me something that could change the way that we look at magic, forever."

He looked at Xion, "I've got one other phial at home. I'm going to take very little out so that you can see the properties that I told you about." With that, he took out the phial and he poured a quarter of it onto the table, "Now, put your finger into it. And then you won't feel it. But you'll feel it. Then hold it up to your eye, you'll be able to see the glow that I was talking about."

[Xion]

Xion had to force himself not to facepalm infront of Primus, but god it was hard not to. He was such an idiot, there was no way that this was dragon-related. Then he claimed that his supplier was a dragon slayer. Now, that was interesting. What was even more interesting was that he'd felt the stuff before. Did that mean he had bought more then one vial of it? Finally, Xion couldn't hold it in, his hand slammed against his face, facepalming so hard that it actually hurt.

"Do you have any proof that he was a dragon slayer, or that this is the equivalent of dragon bogies? It could be ectoplasm, or even normal powder just magically augmented.... and who sells dragon bogies for a book anyway? What did the book contain?" He sighed and willingly took a small amount of it between his finger and thumb.

"Well, I can't feel it, true, but I had this effect with ectoplasm when I worked as a ghost buster. It's nothing new." He was extremely sceptical and looked Primus in the eyes
"IS there ANY proof that this is what you think it is, or would you have me believe without any proof, a sin of any good scientist, that this is what it's like just because some random conman told you it was like that?"

[Primus Optimus]

Primus looked at him and smiled, "So, you want proof? Here is your proof." With that he pulled out a metal wrench with a clearly distinct bite mark on it. Primus looked smug, "Tell me, is this not proof enough for you? And here is why he gave me this powder. He loves books. He can never get enough of them, the dragon that raised him doesn't really let him leave the place. So, we meet in the middle. I give him books, and he gives me something of value. This powder forms hen a dragon uses magic. It collects between the scales and the skin of the dragon, when the dragon sheds it's scales, the powder comes out."

He looked at him, "See, here's what the powder does. It holds pure magic. Yes, pure, unrefined magical energy. Ready to power something. But, it can't power anything. That's because of two things. One, the magic's wavelength transfluxes too much. It's too erratic, we can't count on it to remain stable enough to do anything. And Two, it can only be brought out if it has a place to go. Most of the things that we create feed off of magic purely from ourselves by pricking out skin and putting needles into us. We could do the same to this if it was crystallized."

He put the vial back into his pocket from whence it came, "So, that's the tricky part. Getting this crystallized. It could be done, theoretically. But it would take so much magical power that it would be foolhardy to even try it. Unless of course someone makes one, then uses that one to power a machine that would make more. Then it would be worth it. But just making the one? Not a chance. There isn't a person willing enough to put in the time or the effort into making something like this." He looked at him, and he sighed, "This idea, if it works, will give magical power to all people. It will make mages and those without magic power equal. But, it is a fool's dream. Which is why this fool is going to go for it."

[Xion]

An eyebrow cocked, legs crossed, and a small smile fell over Xion's face. The proof was supposedly that there was a bite mark in the wrench. What, had the fatass tried to eat it? He sighed and put his hand across the table, his hand resting on Primus's forehead before a surge of magical energy shot through his arm, entering his head. It would feel like a small warm tingle, not pleasant but not normal, before he removed his hand thirty seconds later. It was the real deal alright, and he WAS as much of a fatass as he had thought. Thank god his spells only worked one way.

He smiled slightly and put his hand out, gesturing to be handed the vial
"I think I know where I could get it crystallized. There's a training area that a friend of mine designed to make sure of getting someone more accustomed to magical energy releases. The entire area is soaked in magical power, so perhaps we can get it to absorb some of the power and start to crystallize? If not, we might need to get someone strong enough to do the same effect themselves." He smiled as he continued to talk, especially the fool's dream part

"Primus, dreams are stupid to begin with. Dreams are so beautiful because they can't come true, so this is not a dream. this is a chance, you get me?"

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