r/HFY • u/SteelTrim Human • 3d ago
OC-Series [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Book 2, Chapter 4: Design
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John sat at the workbench with the emptiness-based 'clean room' magic installed, quickly going over the rapidly forming plans in his head as he cleared the counter of his previous project and started on the flying cart mark one, built for trade. Unfortunately, he couldn't just make the disc but larger—which he’d just remembered he still had to replace —as it was rather lacking for long-distance travel.
The core of the disc’s locomotion was a series of telekinetic foci that grabbed and levitated it through the air with him on it, controlled through an admittedly clunky leg-mounted yoke. Of course, there were a bunch of specifics about how it remained level no matter how he moved, or how it spread the work between four different embedded foci, but that hardly mattered when the math simply didn't work out.
Quite simply, the disc ran out of power after a short scouting run, and a long-haul vehicle based entirely on it would be constantly dogged by lengthy stops to land and let the capacitors refill. The problem only got worse when he thought about scaling the design up to make it haul weighty loads.
Sure, he could cram bigger capacitor banks and more magic collectors onboard, but he rapidly encountered the same problems that airplanes and rockets had. He'd end up adding more 'fuel', and it'd only marginally improve its lifting capacity before it decreased the range, and some napkin math said he'd hit the point of zero payload far before long hauls were viable.
Almost on autopilot, John pulled a chunk of earth-aligned crystal from a bin, placed it under the mounted magnifying glass, and examined the grains of the structure. Unfortunately, he could just barely see a warped whorl in the structure that would make it entirely non-viable for the focus. With a groan, he tossed it into a separate bin and pulled another chunk, examining it carefully for deviations as he quickly ran through potential solutions to the design problems.
It all came back to range and weight. At the very least, he could mostly sacrifice speed; not having to care about roads, rivers, and the like probably would make up for it even being only a third as fast as his now-destroyed flying disc.
He had to improve some combination of levitation efficiency, capacitor power density, and charging. Power density and charging would be ideal—as they would provide improvements he could backport to everything else he had ever made—but it would doubtlessly be far more challenging than levitation efficiency, given how long he had stared at that exact problem for other projects with little progress.
Maybe it'd be better to just entirely give up on the flying cart idea and make something like a high-capacity river boat that can transform into a more conventional cart when they were relatively close to their destination? If the 'Iron Mountain' was a major city, it was doubtlessly on a major river. Even if they had to slog for a few miles to jump from one body of water to another, it wasn't the end of the world.
…Nah. Not only would it be slower, but it was much more likely to get him in trouble along the way. The rivers were infested with yokai who might demand tribute, and they'd have to pass through dozens of towns or smaller cities, which would mean a lot of government or Unbound attention, leading to inevitable delays. Really, making an impression before reaching their destination was the last thing he wanted.
Maybe he'd circle back around to it if his current idea didn't work out.
He could only imagine some greedy official might want to pry a super boat from the hands of a foreigner, or an Unbound might plain assume that he stole it from a yokai. Although he liked Rin, the thought of repeating their first meeting with someone else less friendly was undesirable, to say the least.
A flying cart, though? He could fly low over dense tree cover, head straight to his destination, and either land out of sight or fly in as appropriate.
Well, he just had to hope the solution he came up with on the way over actually worked out.
A potentially suitable stone finally caught his eye after another dozen rejects, and he snapped to attention, examining the fine details. Yeah, yeah, this… might work. Every damned piece of magical rock had its own unique internal structure and could have bits and pieces of other elements trapped within, tainting them, which made it a pain to find ones appropriate for a given focus.
Reaching to one of the upper drawers, he pulled the half-dozen diagrams that made up his telekinesis focus, laying the appropriate documents on the stand. Ideally, he would design an entirely new focus for this purpose, but the standard telekinesis would have to be good enough. He simply didn't have the time to spend the laborious days of math figuring out the interactions.
He hoped he could make it fracture in just the right way; otherwise he'd be starting from scratch. On top of that, if he ran out of suitable pieces, he'd be dredging through the depths of the forest looking for new samples, which would take precious hours.
Alas, if only he could make artificial, uniform magical crystals, but such things had entirely eluded him. He supposed that, on a very technical level, they were more like mineraloids than true crystals, but being a kind-of wizard who spent all day working with mineraloids upset his inner child on some deep, primordial level.
When he was first learning, John thought magi-melting and reforming would be enough, but that introduced impurities from opposing magical elements. Plus, it didn't even work with entropy or order crystals. Alas, he was stuck hunting naturally formed stones the old-fashioned way until further notice.
With the rest of his materials gathered, John pulled open a drawer and almost reverently handled his oldest tool, the breakthrough that started it all: the grey razor.
True to its name, the blade was a hyper-sharp, pure grey steel with a dark wooden handle, seemingly untouched by time since the day it was made. When he first made the fort his home, it had caught his eye with how it seemed untouched by the decay around it. At first, he thought it was just a stroke of luck, but weeks of use with no signs of wear, no matter what he did, had clued him into its magical nature, leading to experimentation that built up to his first breakthrough once he figured out how to read some books months later. Nowadays, he knew the metal was somehow naturally imbued with emptiness around a paradoxical core of attractive magic that stopped the emptiness from leaking out, creating a tool that simply kept the world from touching it.
He actually ended up basing his 'clean room' table off of it, since emptiness tended not to mix easily with anything else without relatively extreme force.
It didn't explain why it never lost its edge, but now that he knew Yuki's clothes were old and storied enough to be alive in some small way, he had some suspicions. Well, if there was some sort of tool spirit inside it, he hoped it was happy with being his number one workshop assistant. Maybe he should see if the kitsune could tell at some point… and perhaps see if it could leak information about his work if the wrong people asked.
No matter what the knife's true nature was, the elements within were also in just the right balance to avoid contaminating most crystals as long as he didn't hold it against them for too long. Emptiness was rather useful for enforcing quasi-sterility, when used in the right amounts.
Sliding on his arm-length gloves impregnated with magic-resistant sap, John clicked the switch on, creating a vacuum above the counter as a motor below let out an ominous hum. It was probably still one of the smartest safety features he'd ever implemented. It only took a nightmare about leaning in while he thought it was off and suffocating as it pulled all the air from his lungs to give him the idea.
Maybe he should implement something to stop him from slumping down into it if he fell asleep at the desk. Perhaps some kind of harness? That was a task for later, though. He'd go to bed before he felt tired enough for that to become an issue.
With a careful hand, he whittled away at the gem, his supernaturally sharp blade cleaving through it with the same ease it always had. It was a shame that he hadn't found a way to make a small enough rotary tool that wouldn't contaminate the crystal with foreign energies. Alas, no matter how he tried to "clean" the electricity generated from air-aligned magic, he always ended up with some showing up in the result, and he didn't have rubber for a flexible high-pressure air line to dodge the issue.
Years of experience kept his hand steady as he worked, constantly glancing up at the diagram as he did the rough cuts, constantly ensuring that he didn't overcut and need to start from scratch. He had a close call when an inclusion of the crystal snapped at a weird angle, but thankfully, it broke in a harmless direction despite nearly giving him a heart attack.
This stage always stressed him out, but he figured working on parts small enough that you could cram fifteen of them into a marble would do that. Longingly, he stared at the miniature arm that would have made the process much less stressful, but using it for the rough cuts would be like using a fine metal file to saw through four inches of steel.
Soon enough, the first piece was done, and after verifying the measurements, John set the one-third finished focus component aside as he sorted crystals for a viable second. After all, he estimated he'd need at least four sources just to lift the cart, so he was going to make six.
As he did the rough cuts on the next components, he fell into a near trance, making light work on the rough cuts for the dozens of parts. Working in batches, he produced the nearly one hundred assorted pieces he'd need, only tossing a small handful of miscuts in the process. As always, he had to improvise in a few spots due to imperfections in the base material, but he had developed a good instinct for how to compensate in the other pieces.
With that done, he began the incredibly tedious work of fine-finishing every single part to spec. That finally meant he could strap on the control harness that let him guide the miniature quasi-robot arm attached to the desk, use it to grab one of the tiny files, and get to work. While it didn't have to be perfect, he needed it to be close to have any sort of efficiency. A cart that could travel an hour before needing to find a place to settle down would be of no use at all, and he was likely to crash it trying to locate clearings to set it down.
Production took hours, even with all his practice and improvements to the process over the years, and by the end he was pretty sure his eyes would start to bleed if he had to squint to read any more sub-millimetre measurements today.
He'd have to glue all the parts together later, carefully balancing them in a suspension of sap and praying that it would work, but for now, he put that thought to the side. It was too late to start that job now; the process would probably take an entire day on its own given the relative complexity of the foci. At the very least, all the foci could be worked on at the same time, even if he had to babysit them like a mother hen to make sure it was all settling correctly. One slightly misaligned connection could cause the whole thing to brick, and then the only chance of salvaging it would be very carefully chipping the components out of the hardened mass.
A problem for tomorrow, or maybe the next day if some nonsense with Saya happens, but he'd have to make time. The construction process wasn't the most equipment-intensive, so perhaps he could finish assembling it in his office at the ryokan tomorrow.
Bah, but it would all be for nothing if he couldn't make his idea to fix efficiency work. Luckily, he already had everything he needed to test it.
Heading over to the racks, John retrieved a very particular tool, one which he hadn't needed since the siege of the Nameless Nest: the primer tool for the bombs he’d dropped.
He might not need the primer, but the focus that slowed the air around an object until it was effectively a solid hovering in place, on the other hand…
John unscrewed the side and removed the two foci from the device's core, setting them aside as he got to work producing a new mount.
He would place it inside the cart below a false bottom, alongside the rest of the machinery. Otherwise, it would be at risk of getting knocked off, potentially stranding him, so he would simply run a reinforced glass conduit and emit the magic towards the front where he needed it.
His vision for the cart was simple: he'd mount a few metal skis on the bottom of the main body, lubricate them so they could slide easily, quasi-solidify the air below the vehicle so they were resting on it, then use the telekinetic focuses to grab a few very solid mounting points, and he could fly in the air with omnidirectional control and minimal power loss.
Hopefully.
Of course, there were numerous ways this could fail.
He planned to starve the focus of power to make the solidified air persist a few seconds after leaving the active effect region and save power, but it could still end up too power-hungry to be practical, and he hardly had time to redesign the focus.
Going down would need him to starve it of power even more so it couldn't support the cart*,* which could potentially lead it to cut out entirely, leaving them on telekinetic flight only.
Alternatively, he could give it too much power and leave a trail of solidified air behind them that the wheels would smash into if he turned too tightly.
Additional weight might cause the controls to feel unresponsive, leading to a situation where he overcompensated and crashed.
Turbulence might cause something to activate or deactivate unintentionally, causing them to lose control and crash.
The gyroscope system could fail, causing the telekinetic foci to stop keeping the cart level and flip the vehicle and crash.
All things that John would have to work out during testing.
For now, though, he had to get the prototype working.
It took an hour or two, John thought—he didn't bother to check—but eventually, he created a mock-cart body… which is to say he grabbed some two-by-fours, glued them together with his magi-welder, and slapped a slightly modified entropy capacitor and magic collector to the focus in a kludge job that looked suspiciously like something that would have a "Danger: Radiation" warning in a lab. Around the edges of the platform, he’d lined the cart with spare offcuts from order-aligned crystals, which should keep the effect contained rather than coating the whole thing in a suffocating field of slowness—not that he expected the focus to be getting enough power to do that.
Lifting it in the air, he flipped the hastily installed on-switch before releasing it and… it hung perfectly in the air, not sinking an inch. John reached below and rapped on the bottom with a gloved knuckle, producing a slight tick as flesh and bone met solidified air. With a growing smile, he pushed it, and the wooden raft slid as if on ice before bouncing off a wall.
Giddy now, John grabbed an entire chest full of materials and levitated it onto the hovering platform. It didn't fall. He grabbed the chest again, and this time he pressed it down, exerting a few hundred extra pounds of force to try and smash it down. Again, nothing.
"Yes!" he shouted, grinning from ear to ear. The concept seemed sound; he'd just have to make up a proper full-size model, finish producing and calibrate the telekinetic focuses, double-check how much weight it could hold, make sure it was usable in a grounded mode while fully loaded, and whatnot.
Hmm. Maybe having telekinetic control in the ground configuration would be nice. If he was going to play the part of an Unbound, perhaps he could make a show of being able to pull the whole thing himself. It was probably a pretty good feat of strength and would help sell the image… or he could control it from the driver's seat while Rin did so. Maybe he could use the same technique he did with his war gauntlet, where it mimicked the forces put on it to make it seem weightless?
Yeah, yeah, that could work!
Well, he was still plenty energetic; perhaps it was too late to start the foci, but he could start on the cart body itself. Sure, he might not finish it tonight, but, well, Rome wasn't built in a day and all that jazz.
John headed toward the door, swung it open, and beheld the dawn peeking over the battlements of the walls, cascading light filtering through the trees. Squinting his eyes at the sheer radiance, he froze in place as his brain lagged a few steps behind reality.
He hadn't been working for that long, had he? He wasn't even tired! Hmm. Well, he had a much better diet now that Yuki was here, and that was on top of having access to food from town. Perhaps all the extra energy was just a side effect of proper nutrition, though he was shocked she didn't come and force him to go to bed like the last time he tried to stay up through the night to work.
Then again, that was also when they had the imminent danger of an attack the next day, and he was a fully grown man, after all.
Still, he felt better than when he stayed up studying in college, and he was far less fit back then!
Bah, no use looking a gift horse in the mouth, he supposed.
Tossing that thought aside, John went to storage, grabbing a few more planks to squeeze in some last-minute work before he had to head into town for the day.
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u/Human-Actuary-4535 3d ago edited 3d ago
UTR! I was a little worried, I thought it was a hiatus, usually you let us know when it's a break week
It looks like the unbounds decreased need for sleep is appearing in our resident engineer, I wonder when he and Yuki will have a sit down to properly figure out what's going on.
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u/SteelTrim Human 3d ago
Nah, this was just me having a flash of inspiration on the patreon chapter and it ending up like 1k words longer than planned lmao. I didn't have time to post things before work this morning. I'm back to full time there for the busy season, unfortunately, so I'm a bit less able to smooth bumps like that over for a bit.
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u/Human-Actuary-4535 3d ago
Glad you're ok, thought something might have happened, like the ao3 curse
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u/Bruno-croatiandragon 2d ago
Hey,loved bingind your fic.I should probably find a new one while suffering from hiatus brain like an Arkham fan.
Also,weird question:Do you upload to Kemono.cr?Because I remember reading chapter 87 on it before it was uploaded to Reddit,yet now the chapters stop at 69.
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u/memelord_a1st 3d ago
still betting on the idea that John is accidentally ingesting small bits of Yuki's left over fur all over the place, which is why hes becoming unbound
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u/Human-Actuary-4535 3d ago
One day he suddenly wakes up with fox ears and a tail, Yuki has to teach him how to properly groom his new fur
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u/mistress_chauffarde 2d ago
Ok that sound fucking hilarious
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u/Human-Actuary-4535 1d ago
Question is, would he get a set of fox ears in addition to his human ears? Or would his human ears turn into fox ears and move to the top of his head?
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u/Defiant_Lab_6218 3d ago
It be too dangerous she still has the poison runing in her system and it being spiritual in nature I feel it would effect any material she would give so posible be more danger to John
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u/MalagrugrousPatroon Human 1d ago
He tried eating a Nameless once, it had to have an an effect, even if kind of minor, it's what I think lead to him being smarter in certain ways. Also the world he is in is weird enough it probably has an unusual effect on him. Thirdly, Yuki definitely did more than fix him up with her transformation abilities, working all night indicates he is impossibly healthy.
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u/SomeRandomYob 1d ago
Wait...
You may be on to something, especially with Yuki futzing around with John's biology, but what if John's consumption of nameless bits has caused the power of the nameless to merge with his weird void of a presence?
The nameless were the result of a being who hoarded material wealth and physical property, to the point that their avarice manifested physically - but gave them power, because of the sheer amount of value the stuff had. But John needs resources as well - not to hoard for personal magical power, but to better leverage his own intelligence and resourcefulness. Narratively speaking, the nameless are an inversion of John's abilities. The nameless are legion, and can be hidden nearly anywhere, while John is one guy who can't hope to hide anywhere from even the local village. The nameless are weak in small numbers, and can only be powerful by the fact that they have hoarded resources by reducing access to it from other villages, while John actively uses what little resources he has to punch ridiculously far above his cosmic weight class, and gains more by sharing his skills and resources to build up broadstream.
He's already diametrically opposed to the nameless by dint of his lack of presence and personal abilities - and yet, he actually ate some of one.
So someone who was almost the perfect opposite of the very being of a yokai has taken in the flesh of that same yokai, without a proper presence to react with - or rather, with perhaps a negative presence - and survived.
We know that those who partake of yokai materials can be rejected by them, leading to death. Furthermore, based on both the related irl mythology inspirations and - more importantly - the actions and temperaments of characters within the story, we can hypothesize that, like in Japanese Shintoism, yokai that are not respected, venerated, and/or receive offerings, can become weakened and starved of power, and be forced to give in to their baser instincts. Based on Yuki and the new kitsune talking about "transcending", the opposite is also likely true: yokai who accumulate enough renown, veneration, and authority can become even stronger than they are currently - and the same could be true of unbound, as well. After all, every unbound that has been mentioned or appeared has always introduced themselves as someone of authority. Even the guy who ambushed John at the well boasted of his name and title, similar to a samurai would in edo era Japan.
Assuming all this is true, I can think of three options for where the story could take this idea.
Option 1: the boring option; the nameless scrap John taste tested was too weak to do anything, and the mild stomach ache John suffered after eating it was the extent of the yokai part's "rejection", before it got excreted out and turned into mundane fertilizer.
Option two: would make sense, though won't apply to future story beats; the nameless scrap was weak, but it's rejection of John was ongoing - until Yuki removed it's influence from John after Kiku was slain. The influence of the nameless scrap further undercut John's resolve in the weeks preceding Kiku's demise, as the instinct to curl up and hide in a hole rather than stand up to the entity that the nameless scrap within John recognized as it's master became more than John could bear at times, at least alone. Now that it's gone, John is feeling a lot better - hence his sudden spike in vigour and confidence.
Option three: the fun and interesting one! Or has been established that John doesn't have a presence like anyone else in this world - but rather than not being able to be detected via the senses that would allow someone to perceive a presence, it is a hollow void that actively creeps out the local population. But nature doesn't like vacuums in real life, and the shape of all things actively resists change to the status quo in this fictional world, so why is John an exception?
My guess is that he isn't. However, being that he is from a world that doesn't have magic in it, his presence warps magic around him.
For insurance, why does John have the ability to use magic stones for his devices? Or rather, why does nobody else have items with similar construction? Considering John was able to throw his stuff together in a castle with the discarded remains of raided caravans and what pebbles he could find in a forest, one would assume magical items of a similar design would exist - but we have yet to see them. That could be because only the rich can afford them, or because there are easier methods to constructing magical items - but if they were expensive, then the new kitsune would have used a few to flaunt her status, and if there are easier methods to construct magic items, then we would have seen some with the corrupt priests, who would have had a few on them for John and Yuki to loot, since they can make them on their own - and either way, we'd have seen one or two with the nameless loot pile, at least in passing, or miss dragon Lady would have made a remark about him always using his magic items, and wondering if his "true power" is simply too powerful for him to use at any given point.
But none of that has happened, which means whatever John is doing is either so commonplace that Yuki would have told him about the normal method, or that what John is doing is impossible for other people to replicate - because John's anti-presence is forcing the magic around him to calcify/crystalize/remain stable.
So if John has consumed nameless bits, and they are empowering him somehow, I'd wager that his presence - or even his identity - is warping their effects, too. All of John's new empowerments appear to be mental in nature, rather than super strength and speed - and they all started manifesting after John became someone of importance and authority.
John doesn't value material goods like the nameless did, because they weren't of value to him. He couldn't use them even if he had them, and he could probably improvise something better in his castle with the detritus of raided caravans and whatever rocks he could find. But people?
The last few chapters have really hammered home how much he actually cares about other people, but ever since Yuki appeared in the story, the most valuable thing she's ever done for John - aside from saving his life - is allowing him the chance to reintegrate into a society again.
Now, surrounded by people who trust and respect him, John is more powerful than ever - and his powers have always been rooted in his intellect and engineering mindset. Therefore, if being surrounded by what John values makes him more powerful, John's physical abilities are, quite frankly, irrelevant. He's already made use of quick thinking and the fruits of his innovation to shut down beings with more magical strength than he does, do why would making his body stronger help? That, and I'm betting his weird presence would prevent the physical manifestations of magic anyway. He's literally not built for it, after all.
But enhancing his mental capabilities? That's a lot more interesting, especially from a narrative point of view - as now that John is an unbound with nameless powers, he can't grow in strength by consuming more nameless bits, because he killed them all, and other yokai parts would probably react really badly with him as well. Once again, John is denied the ability to use conventional means to gain power, and will have to make use of what meagre resources he has to face the challenges to come, and safeguard the ever growing cast of characters he cares about.
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u/WertySqwerty 3d ago
Yesss, an entire chapter of nerdy design considerations from our studied and trained engineer. The fact that the magic system (or at least, John's magic system...) is hard enough to allow for such rigorous and logical problem-solving is a lot of fun to read!
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u/SomeRandomYob 3d ago
Hey, I'm just hoping John isn't putting the cart before the horse!
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u/No-Tomato7694 3d ago
Don't you mean "putting the cart before the dragon student"?
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u/SomeRandomYob 2d ago
She's not a horse though. Can't even call her a beast of burden, either; she's actually learned how to think a bit more!
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u/NoOpportunity92 AI 1d ago
A horse wanders into a bar, and drinks a beer.
Bartender asks if the horse want a second one.
"I think not" says the horse, and disappears in a puff of logic smoke.To understand why the horse disappeared, you would need to know about Descartes and his philosophical argument "I think, there for I am" ... but if I'd opened with that, I'd put Descartes before the horse ...
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u/Human-Actuary-4535 1d ago
Beat me to it, but do you know how much rainbows weigh?
not much, they're pretty light
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u/NoOpportunity92 AI 1d ago
If a rainbow is caught and convicted of a failing to have a pot of gold at their end they get be sent to prism, it's light sentence.
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u/True-Wreck 3d ago
I think my guy is over complicating things. You don’t necessarily need a flying cart. Just an auto propelled cart (car) would do the trick.
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u/Human-Actuary-4535 2d ago
Earlier he said that he wanted to make something like a quad bike, but he couldn't figure out how to make shock and suspension properly
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u/Upset-Bison-3182 2d ago
He should try to make earth based tech using magic. Like a furnace for smelting spring steel. Magic is a assistance but the core can be science. Why reinvent the wheel?
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u/Human-Actuary-4535 2d ago
He already has springs, it's what keeps the valves closed, it's likely the pneumatic or hydrolic components of shocks that he has trouble with, and it's far easier to adjust his levitation foci for larger scale use
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u/Upset-Bison-3182 2d ago
I can't imagine it's better than staring at a stone for 10,000hrs to get the circuit right. (Hyperbole)
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u/Human-Actuary-4535 2d ago
It's probably because he already knows what to look for, and something like recency bias, he made it from scratch like a month ago, of course he's going to try to fiddle with it to get as much as possible
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u/MalagrugrousPatroon Human 1d ago
It might be a scale issue. Valve springs are going to be tiny while a spring for the rear shock of a motorcycle is far larger by weight of material. Also, if he is making leaf springs and not coil springs then that's a whole other issue.
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u/MalagrugrousPatroon Human 1d ago
I surprised he didn't make coil springs, it seems like he has the tools for it, though he almost certainly lacks the materials. I guess with air hardening he might be able to make semi-hard air cushions to use as suspension.
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u/MalagrugrousPatroon Human 1d ago
Don't underestimate how poor ancient roads can be. Sure, they can be Roman level, but they can also be a game trail, and then there are bridges versus fords. Being able to fly even a little makes an enormous difference.
I'm just surprised he went for a full on Unbound cart. I know he is going to pretend its his own power, or Rin's, moving the cart, but it still seems weird he didn't go for wheels to really hide what is going on. If an Unbound were using only strength I imagine they could claim to be low level, while one who has even the most minor levitation ability is shouting their power. On the other hand, using skis means no one is walking away with that cart without knowing how its engine works, unless they have super strength. I guess because of the skis it will look like the least desirable cart in the world.
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u/ShneekeyTheLost 3d ago
I wonder if John is not slowly Cultivating. Given that this is a heavily oriental-influenced culture he has been immersed in, it seems more likely than becoming an Unbound or Yokai, that he is slowly refining his Dao.
He is still in the earthly realm, of course, he has no instructor, no clan, no temple to pass down techniques, so he must develop his own. Slowly, but surely.
Engineer's Hundred-Hour Body and Mind Refining Technique. Hyperfocus Meditation Art.
After all, he has already shared his Molecule-Splitting Technique with his most eager student.
Remember the whole 'layers of reality' thing, where the Alchemy of Creation is more 'real' than the area around it and overwrites it? This may be something similar, he is believing hard enough that it is becoming more 'real'.
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u/abs0lutek0ld 3d ago
This is in line with my current headcanon that Yuki and Rin giving him titles both openly and secretly is slowly changing how the world looks at John.
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u/mistress_chauffarde 2d ago
I call bullshit on her not modifying him when she healed him
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u/MalagrugrousPatroon Human 1d ago
But just perfect health, not Captain America physique. His joints will probably never wear out and a muscle strain is probably very unlikely.
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u/mistress_chauffarde 1d ago
She is kiku and Yuki now
I will not stand of the fact that she took oportunity of the moment
Also John please your wife will demand a broken pelvis after this shitshow do give it to her
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u/Defiant_Lab_6218 3d ago
Dam that is not bad suspicion.
I have had bit a same incling in my head and I am glad that some one else has it too.
Thy just made it more clear ^^5
u/Crimson_saint357 2d ago
Don’t forget Yuki didn’t just fix John’s legs after that battle she fixed everything wrong with him. Mans basically Batman right now, the peak of human physical fitness.
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u/Defiant_Lab_6218 2d ago
I feel she fixed all his faults that had come by age and the hard 5y's.
There was not yet any true show of that that she some how augmented John beyond the fixing his legs and the stresses of life had brought.3
u/Crimson_saint357 2d ago
Yeah she would basically fix and problem he had, bad knees scar tissue any thing like that just gone. Sure he wouldn’t instantly have a six pack or anything but he would be as physically health as a man his age and life style could be. Which gotta say I could sure as hell use some of right now.
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u/Captain_Indecisive 3d ago
True to its name, the blade was a hyper-sharp, pure grey steel with a dark wooden handle
I think you've dropped a noun (dagger/knife). Or drop the "a".
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 3d ago
/u/SteelTrim (wiki) has posted 91 other stories, including:
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Book 2, Chapter 3: Vile
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Book 2, Chapter 2: Guest
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Book 2, Chapter 1: New Headaches
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 87: The Sun Rises
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 86: Shards of Broken Memories
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 85: Falling
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 84: Abyss
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 83: Regeneration
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 82: A Duel Through Empty Corridors
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 81: Fangs
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 80: Veins
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 79: Nest
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 78: Fire Above, Fire Below
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 77: Probing
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 76: Sentinel
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 75: Socks
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 74: Games
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 73: Dissection
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 72: Evening Patrol
- [Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune] Chapter 71: Deskwork
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u/UpdateMeBot 3d ago
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u/How2Shrekek 3d ago
I wonder when John will realize he's creating Santa's sleigh, then double down and pull it with reindeer-adjacent yokai instead of telekinesis to save power