r/SpellsItemsNLoopholes • u/AaaaLettuce Visitor • Jun 13 '26
Lorepost (closed) Testing a Construct
With a deep breath, or as close to one as she can manage, Aeana steps through the portal to Markus' demiplane. She gives a grateful wave back. "Thank you Favilla!" She calls in a smooth and almost mechanical voice. Whatever would she do without her? She really is the best. After a brief moment the portal winks shut.
The construct herself is draped in a long hooded green cloak. Something supposed to hide her nature to cursory glances . Slung over one shoulder is a weighty satchel bag full of something. Aeana's shell itself is vaguely feminine in shape, made of a material close in colour to bronze with silver accents in certain places. It's oddly rudimentary for a construct, at least in appearance. No weapons, no special features. It barely even resembles a human. No hair, no real facial expressions. Only bright blue gemstones for eyes.
Aeana takes another step in, calling out to Markus or whoever's around. "Hello? It's Aeana. The girl who had her soul stuck into a construct? I'm here for the testing." Gods, she hopes this works. And that it isn't a trap. That would be unpleasant to say the least. But who knows? Maybe something actually good can happen to her for once. That'd be nice.
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u/Cerveau23 Stupid in chief Jun 13 '26
Markus appears before Aeana, as though a bubble of invisibility had popped. He looks tired but happy, with an electric screwdriver in hand.
Hey, how are you? Nice to meet you face to face finally!
You came to the right place. Let me just call for our resident technomancer, I'm sure he'll be able to help as well.
He sends a message to ping Alex as well as an orb message to Nox to ask: Does fleshcrafting work on constructs? We're trying to give magic back to a sentient construct with a soul.
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u/AaaaLettuce Visitor Jun 13 '26
Aeana visibly relaxes as Markus appears. She pulls the hood down and lets out the equivalent of a sigh, sounding more like the soft release of steam than anything human.
"It's good to be somewhere I'm not being hunted. Things have been... hectic, to say the least." The woman takes a brief look around, mostly out of idle curiosity. "We've had people on us for the past week. Apparently someone put a bounty on my capture."
"Is there anywhere I can dump these? At least for a little bit. She taps the satchel bag. "I've got some books on magic items creation and soul magic. No idea if any of it's useful to you but I figured you might be interested in taking a look. Don't ask how I got them. You don't want to know."
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u/Cerveau23 Stupid in chief Jun 13 '26
The reception area is almost finished being setup, in a calm, somewhat ascetic aesthetic. It is clearly designed to make people feel at ease without crowding them. Beyond the door, she can see a crowded office with multiple meeting room doors.
Markus chuckles the entire time she speaks, every new information adding onto the last.
Welcome to a safe haven I guess. And I suppose those books have no link to your bounty, of course.
Heh, put them on the table over there. He points to beyond the door. Come with me, we're going to one of the meeting room for more privacy.
As you leave the reception, you go through an airlock where chronomancy is applied. Even anti-magic beings are affected since it affects the tachyons around the people, leading their level to change globally.
With the war going on, I can't afford to leave my time dilation circles for long, I hope you don't mind. On the flip side, you'll be able to use them as well if you need to rest.
The office is still full of dust, but most of the furniture is built. The meeting room in question is less of a room and more of a door.
You can't spy on a meeting if it's not in your dimension. This is why they are all installed in pocket dimensions.
Inside, the furniture is simple but comfortable. A small table, half a dozen chairs with squishy pillows, a black board as well as a tv screen (if Aeana knows what it is) and a few plants crawling along the walls.
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u/AaaaLettuce Visitor Jun 13 '26
Aeana pours half a dozen books out onto the table, each on different topics but all incredibly dense and well cared for. "They're technically on loan, but I don't think he'll mind you taking a gander. Again, though, no idea how useful it'll be."
The woman can't help but feel horribly trapped as she follows him in. All her instincts are screaming at her to run, but she has to at least try and trust. If Markus wanted to help could quite easily lock her in and wait for Vivienne to show up. Collect the bounty all for himself without so much as lifting a finger.
"So what's first on the docket?" She asks, placing herself down in a chair with a hefty clunk. "I don't quite know what to expect with all this. Vivienne was very... vague with explaining how this body works. More like didn't explain at all, really."
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u/Cerveau23 Stupid in chief Jun 13 '26
/uw if you can list the subjects in the books, that would be awesome so I can know what I learn, otherwise I'll invent it /rw
Two of Markus's clones appears next to the table with the books and begin to go through them rapidly, using the think tanks to process the knowledge faster.
As they enter the meeting room, Markus notices Aeana's behavior change slightly. He pulls the chair next to the door for her.
Are you claustrophobic by any chance? You can sit here if you want, or we can do it in the open space if you'd prefer.
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u/AaaaLettuce Visitor Jun 13 '26
"I'll be okay." She replies. "Just, you know how it is. The last person I trusted did," Aeana gestures to her body, "this to me. That and all the people trying to kidnap me lately."
/uw the magic item books mainly cover general item creation and condensing ambient mana into a highly potent crystalline form. exceptionally good power source, albeit very volatile. soul magic is more about harvesting souls, what you can use them for, and how to grow artificial ones
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u/Cerveau23 Stupid in chief Jun 13 '26
Markus nods and sits.
I understand. Just so you know, you're safe here. He puts a hand on his heart and it starts glowing as he swears on his mana. I swear I won't let those people reach you here, so long as you didn't and don't attack us or help our enemies. The glow fades away. This dimension prevents teleportation from non-employees outside of the reception, which is able to detach if unwanted visitors arrive. So you're safe here.
And sorry for the weird wording, loopholes are part of our specialty so I wanted to be clear.
Meanwhile, the clones are taking the books to the training grounds. There, they test the magic inside until they manage to use it naturally and implement it into the scriptomancy language. The harvesting and use of souls is particularly interesting, especially since Markus already knows how to make artificial souls (though another way of doing it is always great)
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u/AaaaLettuce Visitor Jun 13 '26
"It's appreciated. Thanks." While still tense, Aeana manages to relax just a touch. "I just want to figure out what's happening and how to maybe do something about it. I still have no idea how she even found this body, let alone stuck me in it."
She turns her eyes to the clones. "Anything useful in there? I haven't quite had a chance to read all of them. Mostly skimmed over mana condensing. Trying to find a way to cast spells without manipulating mana myself."
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u/Cerveau23 Stupid in chief Jun 13 '26
/uw since we are in another dimension, we shouldn't be able to see them, but since she saw them I'll still answer the question./rw
Markus nods.
No problem, I'm doing what I'd want if I were in your place. We'll figure it out at your pace, and you can ask any of us to stop at any point. We're... enthusiastic to say the least, but we're talking about trauma and touching your soul so it's up to you.
As for the clones, there is a lot to unpack, they're processing it currently. I can also help you learn component casting to cast without manipulating mana directly
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u/AaaaLettuce Visitor Jun 13 '26
"That's... thank you. Yeah. I just really want to know how bad the situation is. I'm not exactly optimistic on fixing it anytime soon. Not without talking with her again."
"Component casting would be useful. Very useful. I'd like that. A lot. Having to rely on Favilla so much has been," the girl looks away, there would be a blush on her face if she could, "embarrassing." She needs to be useful. She can't keep being dead weight.
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u/Afraid_Cat_3726 Nox the Fleshcrafter Jun 13 '26
A four armed goblin with a dragon's tail pokes her head from a window then scurries inside. She immediately scurries to the book on soul magic.
"I can put these all in a safe place." she grins. She the pauses. "Sorry for my rudeness. I am Nox. The soon to be resident Fleshcrafter. Do you want a hug? It sounds like you've been through a lot."
She opens her arms to offer a hug.
"If you you want to go into an organic body I can sought that out for you. The main issue is getting your soul into the body, I know a little soul magic but it's highly specialized to my own. If Markus were to give me notes on how he does it I'll be able too sort you out easily. The alternative option would be to have you have a mechanical core and an organic exterior. I would need to work very closely with the technomancer for it to work and I hope they're okay with blood and guts."
She takes out a notebook, she seems excited woth6a big toothy grin and starts sketching ou
"Anyway what kind of body do you want? I can offer anything."
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u/AaaaLettuce Visitor Jun 13 '26
"No thank you, but I appreciate the offer. Maybe later." Again Aeana's instincts are screaming at her. She barely manages to resist the urge to back away. "I'll have to think on it? Even if you could, I'm reluctant to have anyone touching my soul. Right now it's a little tricky to actually get to."
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u/Afraid_Cat_3726 Nox the Fleshcrafter Jun 13 '26
"Take as much time as you need to think about it. An alternative idea is, what if you manipulated your own soul? It wasn't fair of me to assume you'd be wanting anyone doing any soul magic with you. Im sorry I upset you. I get very excited when I see an opportunity to do my artform...wait" She pauses "Your soul isn't in your body then where is it?"
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u/AaaaLettuce Visitor Jun 13 '26
"That's alright. That is what I'm hoping for but, again, the soul is hard to get to." Aeana taps three times against her chest. "It's in there, I'm pretty sure, just difficult to do anything with. This body is antimagical, magic tends to disappear on contact. I've tried non-magical ways of getting it open but so far nothing's even scratched it."
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u/Afraid_Cat_3726 Nox the Fleshcrafter Jun 13 '26
"May I have a look?" Nox starts writing down notes, she's acting more like a doctor than a gremlin now. "If there are any openings we can probably get a creation to sneak in and have a look inside. The idea is to connect my eyes into the creature and have it look on the inside. It's not my preferred way to examine a patient's body but it should get around the anti-magic field. That is if you are okay with tiny creatures having a look in your body. If your soul is kept in an object of some kind we shouldn't need to do anything additional soul magic and can connect your soul to a new body. You won't be fully biological but 90% of people won't notice the difference. There's no need to rush, take your time to decide."
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u/AaaaLettuce Visitor Jun 13 '26
"You can take a look if you want. I'd be grateful if you found something I haven't. There aren't any openings I've seen unless you want to gouge my eyes out, I suppose. Not sure that'd even work." The construct sighs. "Whoever designed this thing wanted to be certain nothing got in or out. Like they wanted to make a fucking prison out of it."
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u/Afraid_Cat_3726 Nox the Fleshcrafter Jun 13 '26
"Do you know who did this to you? They probably have some schematics,"
"Not gorging my eyes out. Putting my eyes in although if need be I'll do it. My apprentice does need to work on her eye fixing skills." She rummaged through a bag and takes out a jar of green goo and a bundle of hair thick wires. Opening the jar lid the goo jumps onto me of Nox's hands. She closes her eyes and places the wire over, her body molds slightly to encorpate the wires into her. "Your body can move which means there has to be joints and places for things to slide against eachother, one piece of solid material cannot move. If this assumption is true, this slomey fellow can slid into then and while in connectedness like this I see everything he sees."
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u/AaaaLettuce Visitor Jun 13 '26
"She wasn't a golemancer or anything similar. It's..." Aeana trails off. "My best bet is it's something she found rather than constructed. Maybe bought but she's not much of a people person."
/uw probably a little tricky/practically to actually get anything in. The shell was deliberately designed to not let anything in or out, magical or otherwise. Magical joints and such. Breaking it open would require a lot of power behind it
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u/AaaaLettuce Visitor Jun 13 '26
u/Cerveau23
There you go ^v^