Drakey — Roleplayer Guild

Name: Father Rodion Kuznetsov
Age: 20

Height/Weight: 6'2" 156 lbs.

Race: Varyan, though he has T'sarean blood.

Appearance: 

For clarification, that first picture is his face and hair. The second depicts how he wears his inquisitors clothes. Also, he has blue eyes.

Rodion's form is well-muscled with numerous scars. The scars adorning his back look like those of whips, remnants of his street rat days. The scars on his arms are from burns. Dealing with raw ether can be dangerous, as Rodion knows from experience. He typically lets his hair fall in a haphazard way as he hates putting anything in it. However, Rodion loves his showers. He also looks damn sexy in his inquisitors clothes.

When not wearing the inquisitor uniform, Rodion is typically seen in a black, form-fitting v-neck with slightly baggy jeans and black combat boots. The black belt that holds his pants up rides along his hips. He is always wearing black, fingerless mechanics gloves and always has a pair of black welding goggles around his neck. 

Personality: 
Rodion is quiet, preferring the whirring of machines to the mindless chatter of people. He excels in fixing and manipulating machinery, as his own personalized usage of ether shows. He comes across to others as cold, colder than the sea itself, and heartless. However, Rodion just has a hard time expressing that he might actually care about someone, another remnant of his past. The only person that anyone can truly say he cares about would be his benefactor, Lieutenant Stanislav Vasaliev. 

Rodion has a hard time with his faith, having never truly grown up in a faith-oriented home. Even his benefactor put faith second, making sure that Rodion honed his natural talents first. As such, Rodion has always taken the words of gods and priest with a grain of salt. Which begs the question, how the hell did he get through the Red Seminary?

Easy: He's good at what he does. Simple as that.

Background: 
Rodion was born to a Varyan father and a T'sarean mother. However, they died shortly after from his mother's experiments going wrong. Left in the cold, the young child, having an unnaturally strong affinity for the ether, survived. His gifts were expansive, but only in one thing: machines. THe steam and ether powered machines of Varya called out to the young boy, and he used them in kind. Tinkering, fixing, repurposing were all skills born to the young man. 

However, pickpocketing was not one of his intrinsic skills, which brought him to the attention of Lieutenant Vasaliev. The lieutenant had been hearing rumours of machines going haywire, following someone, or something's, commands. Vasaliev had placed a small, broken machine in front of the boy, and within thirty minutes it was fixed. The first thing that Rodion said to the man afterwards was: "If I had the proper tools, I would have been done in five."

From that point on, Vasaliev became Rodion's benefactor, pushing him through the Red Seminary during the day and a mechanic's school during the night. 12 years have passed since then, and Rodion, while not the first among the warpriests, Rodion is exceptionally talented as a Mechanist.

(For more info, check out Shylara's post for her character, Ziotea)

Talents/Ethereal Abilities:
Ether manipulation: Unlike his fellow Warpriests, Rodion favors using his ether through machines instead of using it raw. 

Machines: Rodion is a complete genius when it comes to machinery, even better than most T'sarea. He can change them in any way to fit his needs, and, for whatever reason, machines favor his commands over anyone else's. 

WIP <- I don't know if I should give him anything else as I feel that he is slightly OP as is.

Character Relationships: Once the cast is chosen, we're going to collaborate on creating the shared histories between the different people of our group. Your characters can be anything from friends, enemies, lovers, ect. Remember, you've all spent your time years training in the Red Seminary together and have suffered and bled throughout your time there, so your relationships must be forged of your experiences during that time together. <- WIP

@Sisyphus Father Hassan Qureshi

Rodion never payed much attention to Hassan, at least, not till he messed with some of Rodion's creations. Sadly, Rodion didn't understand that Hassan is merely a jester. As such, their relationship has been strained through the years. Often times, during sparring matches, Rodion would send his machines after the man, pinning him and trying to hurt him. Secretly, Rodion hopes that Hassan has a fear of machines, and a fear of Rodion himself.

@deathbringer Mother Astreae

To put it plainly, Rodion tries to avoid the woman. A few overhead throws too many has ended up making him extremely cautious around the Lanostraen. However, he often find himself in her company after being roused from his work. A small smile sometimes decorating her face, other times a scowl, pained and fearing. Rodion, through the years, has experienced her natural ether, something that intrigues him heavily. He has found that many times he feels more calm and at peace with the woman around, as such, he likes to work around her.

@The Angry Goat Father Yerokhin Zlatek Stamenkovikj (Stina)

The man who has nearly died twice. Something that most would not believe was that Rodion was the cause of one of those times. Having a hard time controlling his emotions, Rodion's 'little box' broke one day and Stina happened to be with him, in his workshop. They had been working on the clockwork mechanisms of Stina's shield, and Rodion's prototype of Madrys began to react to his rising emotions. As such, Madrys recognized Stina as an enemy and attacked him. The unsuspecting man nearly had his head taken off. In fact, Madrys left a scar above Stina's eye. 

While Stina doesn't approve of Rodion's fathlessness, Rodion has always been appreciative of the man's protection, especially after Rodion made his shield for him.

(BTW, I hope that this is alright with you, I can change it if you wish)

@Lovejoy Father Ragnar Hjálmgrímr

Rodion has uneven feelings about the younger priest. He enjoys the young man's presence because he is always happy, or so he seems. However, he peaks Rodion's interest as a possible test subject. Rodion, for reasons he is unsure of, thinks that the boy would have a close affinity with fire. Not the thought, or the feeling of warmth, but pure, primal fire. As one of the many projects that Rodion has been working on, he one day wishes to gift the young man with said fire. To give him a flame to light his way. Something that he would have as to no longer fear the night.

@Shylarah

WIP -> Rodion has a crush on his childhood friend. However, he doesn't realize this, nor does he wish to realize this. He finds himself to be uncomfortable without her near and often seeks out her companionship. When he is around, others are mystified, for it is one of the only times when the man smiles. And he has one hell of an attractive smile.

Sigil:

Additional Info (from the GM):
So all in all, I think he fits pretty well with the world of the RP. There are some things that I think need a bit changing though.

The part about him taking the words of Gods and priests with a grain of salt wouldn't make sense in the context of this world, as it isn't like our world where people can be atheists  and not hold some form of religious belief. In this  world, the gods exist among humankind and the proof of their power is all around for everyone to see. Due to the fact that the gods are said to be omnipotent, people either love, respect, or fear them and those who outright speak out against them are not heard from again. This society is theocratic on all fronts, and religious doctrine is all important. This is especially the case for young children who've been trained by rod and steel in a brutal religious academy/war school. The Red Seminary is a place where children with potential are brought in order to be molded and shaped into Lord Varya's most powerful soldiers, and the people in charge of their training do not mess around when it comes to stomping out any inkling of faithlessness they see in their pupils. 

Now, just because people have to *believe* in the gods doesn't mean that they have to *love* them. There are countless people, many among the Varyan Priesthood itself, who believe Varya a tyrant who's methods are too cruel, and live in silent conflict  with their faith. It's an interesting and kind of terrible moral crisis to have. Remember, Lord Varya gave his flock life, so being against this deity who you owe your existence to is definitely a complicated issue that people would have a hard time dealing with.

Also, him not caring about anyone at all besides his benefactor is honestly kind of boring for a character and doesn't go with his background as a child who, along with several other pupils, survived the Red Seminary. He must be truly, truly dead inside and completely inhuman to have not made at least one other connection with some other pupil while he bled and suffered within those walls. He can be cold and detached and distant, but please have him have some connection  with at least one of the other characters. I used the word "boring" to describe this aspect because honestly, as a GM, it's just kind of annoying having a character who doesn't interact with anyone else, and since this story is about a class of pupils who suffered through hellish obstacles together to survive a brutal military academy, I would prefer if our characters at least cared a *bit* about each other. So yeah, I'd like if you added a bit to this section. We're also going to be hashing out our character relationships once a final cast is chosen, so you can use that to inform his personality if you want. 

Rodion's benefactor, Vasaliev, would be a member of the Secular Army, not the priesthood, so after bringing the young boy to the Red Seminary he wouldn't really have any responsibilty in being a part of Rodion's training. If he had brought Rodion to a military barracks then that'd be a different story. But yeah, the SA and the Priesthood are different entities (and are sort of at odds with each other), so Vasaliev wouldn't even be allowed entry into the training halls. He'd just bring the boy to the gates and try to convince the faculty "Here's a boy with untold potential, you would be fools not to take him," and hope the instructors see said potential in him and allow him a place amongst the fresh meat. So yeah, there is no such things as "benefactors" in the Red Seminary. Everyone is treated the same. Either the young children who are accepted into its halls die within it or succeed through their own force of will. 

This brings me to another thing. While a pupil is training in the Red Seminary, they are not allowed outside the walls or to attend other training facilities. So there wouldn't be a separate "mechanic's school " for him to attend. All of his training in his ether ability to control machines would take place in the Red Seminary itself. Also, as such an ability would fall outside of what is typically an Inquisitor's skillset, he'd had have a very difficult time learning how to control this ability, leading to him to focus all his attention on it, which means his other abilities would suffer. I think maybe this would be the only thing he would excel at.

In reference to his past where machines came to life around him when he was a boy, and them following his commands, this is kinda weird. It really wouldnt make sense for lifeless machines to just come to life when they're around him. Yes, they are infused with ether, but ether is basically magical fuel. It'd be like a car engine coming to life when he pointed his finger at it, which is kind of odd. As I mentioned in the Interest Check, the machines would have to be built specifically to move around themselves-- as in have moveable joints and the like (something he'd have to acquire or build himself, i.e golem or automaton) for them to be able to "come to life". 

So, what if instead of him being able to psychically control machines (apologies if this isnt want you meant), his real ability is just that he's incredibly fucking smart? Like his brain is different than most people's, and it functions in a way that allows him to easily see the incredibly complex building blocks of machinery and how ether interacts with said machinery. He'd basically be like a Nikola Tesla type,a mechanist with an understanding of the symbiosis between ether and machinery that would put him squarely in genius territory. Maybe this makes him kind of socially awkward and that's why he had a tough time connecting to his fellow pupils in the RS. Just an idea!

Now, how this manifests in a tangible skill that an Inquisitor could take into battle is kind of tricky. I have an idea about him constructing this small personal ether core, basically like a floating spherical device, that can draw bits of machinery to it and thus take different forms. Maybe he imbued it with a soul of a demon or something and that's what gives it strength, and he can use his own ether to control its movements. I'm thinking that the strength of the form the ether core takes  can improve as Rodion becomes stronger. So, at the onset, maybe it'd take the form of a machine wolf, and eventually when he's much stronger and skilled it'd be able to turn into a dragon or some other crazy thing. We do need to keep power levels in mind, after all.

On top of this, he'd also be talented in matters of machine upkeep and the like, so he'd be very useful aboard the steam arks.

Other misc things:

- Him being more talented/smarter than "most T'saerens" is kind of pushing it. Most pureblooded T'saerens, of who there aren't many  keft , are incredibly smart and should be leagues above him when it comes to scientific acumen. Remember, pure-blooded T'saeren were born from the Ice Titan's brain, and thus they are born scientists and thinkers. These people were the ones who planned and designed Magnagrad, as well as the fell machines that keep the defeated gods imprisoned. Rodion is a genius among his field of Inquisitors, but there are many people out there who are easily smarter than he is. So yeah, dial this back a bit.

- So, just to be clear, his martial abilities (i.e hand to hand combat, marksmanship, stamina, ect) would be well above the skill level of an ordinary SA grunt, but I think compared to other Inquisitors he'd be weaker in those areas. Of course, he compensates with his incredible mechanist skillset.

- I feel like golems and automatons are a bit too advanced for this time period, and should be pretty much unheard of. So, what if Rodion is the first person to construct his own? Maybe his war golems are what impressed the instructors enough to allow him to graduate, given his comparative lack of martial abilities.

- One last thing I didn't include in the CS I sent you, but every Inquisitor has their own personal sigil that they use as unique identifier. They use this sigil for different occasions-- personal correspondence, branded on their battle standards, ect. The sigil can be anything, it just needs to be a symbol that's unique to your character. For example, my character's sigil is a frozen butterfly.

That's about it! I know it's a lot, but if you have any questions or concerns, let me know!

Rodion's Weapon, The Madrys:
The Madrys is the first of her kind. She is a War Golem created by Rodion himself. However, due to focusing all of his spare time on her, he is lacking in all other respects. Her true form as an ether powered orb that floats in the air. She is about 1 foot in diameter like this.

However, this form is unstable and needs something to house it. Using other pieces of machinery, Rodion has been able to create two forms for her. The first is a large metal wolf, which is what he uses for battle. The second is something of a motorcycle.

The wolf is able to use Omestrian ether to power its own attacks and always has a large store of it within her back. The spaces between the plates and joints glow with a blue/gold light that comes from her core. Using ether, blue flames can appear along the wolf's claws and teeth. These cause a searing pain that feels like a burn, but is actually freezing the flesh of its victims to a point below that of liquid nitrogen. Other than this, the wolf has no further attacks for the time being.

As with the wolf, a blue/gold glow can be seen coming from the plates and mechanics of the motorcycle. Madrys is held within the area that gas would normally be contained, however, it is Omestrian ether that powers the vehicle.

Keep in mind that Rodion uses his own ether to direct Madrys, while Madrys use Omestrian ether to power herself.

Rodion's Weapon, The Sniper Rifle:
Ella, as Rodion likes to call her, is the mechanist's sniper rifle. She can fire accurately up to five miles away, but takes nearly thirty minutes to condense enough ether into the firing chamber to reach that far. Rodion can only target one enemy at a time with this weapon though.

The weapon has a more Black, Grey, Silver color combo.

Is powered with Omestrian ether while directed by Rodion's ether.

This hider contains background stories, and miscellanious info that involve Rodion.

Setting: Rodion's Workshop

Dull thuds could be heard, interspersed between quick metallic clangs. A thick, heavy smog obscured the room's ceiling. Tables, black and charred, Were placed randomly throughout the room. Random bits and pieces of machinery adorned the tables as elaborate schematics hung from the far wall. In the corner stood a large forge, white ether flowing through hot coals. To its right was a pile of coils, coils that circulated and heated the ether within. On the other side of the furnace stood an anvil, a variety of tools hanging on the wall behind it. Within the coals of the forge laid several bars of steel, all of which were cherry hot. Tongs in hand, a man, 6'2", stood at the anvil hammering out a piece of steel. Black goggles covered his eyes, blue swirls of ether faintly dancing at the corners. His hair, long, wavy and black, was tied back in a tail, letting sweat freely drip down the back of his neck. A close-fitting, black t-shirt sporting large, drenched areas covered his broad shoulders and muscular frame. Heavy black gloves covered his hands as they worked with the cherry hot steel. A black leather belt held deep blue jeans up at his hips, which moved with every sing of the hammer he took. Black boots, reaching just below the middle of his shins, were worn snugly on his feet. The man's lips were parted in severe concentration as sweat dripped down his forehead and face. No emotion, not a single one, could be seen on his face as he worked.

On the center table laid hundreds of pieces of steel, most of which were small and miniscule. Of the larger pieces, may were rings of steel of varying diameters. In fact, the piece that the man was working on seemed to be another ring, larger than all of the others. It happened to be an entire foot in diameter. Several pages of sprawling notes were placed haphazardly underneath the steel. The only thing that could be clearly was 'Madrys'. Further along, on a table pushed up against the wall, were racks of vials. Ether, of varying degrees, was stored in all of them. White mostly, the same stuff that powered the forge. The gold, thick and almost luminescent, was held in all but one. Blue, electric and stormy, filled the last vial. The vial of blue ether, taken from the man's own blood, laid in the center of the table, sprawling notes underneath it. On another table stood what looked like a hollow globe, made of glass, with thousands of tiny pinholes in it. Another note was placed next to it that read 'Core'. On the other side of the room was another table, covered in grease, tools, and pieces of machinery. What looked like a bike, half finished, sat to one side while a metal wolf, large and wild, was on the other. The engine of the bike was taken apart and placed, systematically, on a tarp next to the bike. The wolf, on the other hand, had a gaping hole in the center of its back, just large enough to house a 1-foot wide sphere.

Rodion

Rodion hammered away, sweat dripping around his goggles with every swing. His breath, heavy and loud, escaped his lips in a set rhythm. He had been trying to focus on his work for the past thirty minutes, but Ziotea kept coming up. Rodion had already been forced to scrap five rings because of this. Taking a deeper-than-usual breath, Rodion's thoughts returned to an event from earlier that day. He had figured out, after several years, how to get Madrys' core to work correctly and had wanted to share it with Ziotea. However, when he found her, she was standing next to Stina. Rodion didn't have anything against the larger man, but for some reason Rodion's chest clenched in emotions when he saw this. His eyes, that had been slightly wider in excitement, quickly narrowed to just below their usual place. The back of his jaws clenched ever so slightly in frustration. Stopping in his tracks, Rodion turned back away and wandered. His thoughts were in turmoil. Why had he ran? Why had he been frustrated? What had gripped his heart? The questions kept coming, and they kept swirling within his head. Frustration captured his body and mind again, forcing him to move to its bidding. 

Shaking his head, Rodion managed to clear his thoughts, the frustration retreating to the figurative box in his mind. He was breathing heavier now, sweat dripping from his face. His lips, pulled back slightly revealed a snarl, though to anyone but Ziotea it would look as if he was just trying to get more air in his lungs. Looking down at the tongs in his hands, they now held a mangled piece of steel, useless. It had been the sound from his hammer hitting the anvil itself that had roused Rodion from his thoughts. Sighing, Rodion threw the mangled piece of steel back underneath the bed of coals. Stepping away from the forge, Rodion took his gloves off, placing them on the closest table, which also housed a heavy, leather apron on it. Taking his goggles off of his eyes, Rodion let them fall down around his neck. Turning around to face the door, Rodion's eyes immediately found hers.

Ziotea was standing in the doorway, and god how Rodion hoped she hadn't seen him just now. His heart was immediately gripped in warring emotions of shame and longing. Her nearly golden eyes looked straight into the blue depths of his own. Her fiery hair, a color that he loved without knowing why, framed her slender face. Her skin, marred in places from old scars, was perfect in the mechanist's vision. His lips clenched together ever so slightly as his heart threatened to beat out of his chest. Looking away, Rodion's eyes centered on the center table. Swallowing, Rodion went threw words in his head, trying to find something to say.

"I figured it out, Ziotea. I figured out how to get Madrys to work properly." Rodion looked up at his partner, his other half, his friend. Oh god how he hated having to use the word 'friend'. WHich only served to frighten him more because he didn't know why he hated that word when it came to Ziotea. A smile, small but attractive, crept into his lips as excitement overwhelmed his mind. He was talking to Ziotea about things that he had made, and things that he will make. These were the conversations he loved, and he tried to seek them out whenever he could.

shylarah -

The tiny woman didn't fill all that much of the doorway.  She was leaning on it and watching her friend for the moment, though as soon as he noticed her faintly puzzled expression turned into a smile.  "I thought I saw you heading this way a while ago."  She didn't mention the ruined piece he'd shoved back in the heat of the ether's coals, but she'd seen it.  It had been going on for a while.  Sometimes she'd walk in on him looking off at nothing, or working without paying attention, but he always brushed it off.  Ziotea found it concerning, but if something was wrong he'd tell her.

And his news pushed all thought of his daydreaming aside.  "You did?!  That's great!"  She quickly crossed the room to his side, her excitement mirroring his own.  He'd been working on the project for years now, and were it anyone else she'd think it impossible.  She found a clear part of the table and hopped up to sit on it.  Her feet dangled above the floor, the loose legs of her pants far less of a danger in the workshop than the fluttery skirts she wore whenever she could reasonably find an excuse.  Her shirt was loose too, a lightweight fabric that moved with her and puffed out a little above her snugly cinched belt in such a way that one might be deceived into thinking she was something other than a stick.  It wasn't true, of course, but she made the best of it.

This set of diagrams was complicated, even compared to his usual projects, and she couldn't understand what she saw of them.  But his tinkering made him happy, and his triumph made her happy, a warm, fluttery feeling that made her heart beat faster.  "So?  How'd you get around the issue of...it was power, right?"  Ziotea leaned forward eagerly, tucking her hair behind her ear where a stray lock threatened to get in her eyes.  "I can't wait to see how she'll be when she's all finished," she added.  "Any idea how long it is going to take?"
Quote

Drakey -

Rodion's heart fluttered as Ziotea walked closer. He liked having her around, but he was afraid that she would someday cause his heart to fail. However, much like his coffee in the morning, Rodion would never be able to let her go. Then, as she jumped onto the table, Rodion gulped slightly. Damn, he had been hoping that she would have worn one of her skirts. Then, clenching the back of his jaws ever so slightly, Rodion shoved his thoughts of her legs from his head. Though he knew that as soon as she left he'd probably go back to thinking about them.

"Well, it wasn't exactly a problem of power, rather it was a problem of stability and sustainability." Rodion's baritone voice came out smoothly as he went about sorting his notes and schematics. "If you recall, the last version of Madrys faded away after 24 hours. WHile that was a record, she faded away anyways." At that point, Rodion brought over a small round object that was covered in a cloth. One could see the object spinning around at high speeds underneath what seemed to be a cloth napkin.

Uncovering the object, a golden glow enveloped the room. A small sphere, only about an inch across, was spinning on its axis while hovering a few inches above Rodion's hand. Well, the sphere was actually made up of about fifty different steel rings. Each one smaller than the next as it moved to the center. Each one spun on its own axis in a different direction as golden ether circulated around their movements. Electric blue ether vaporously drifted off of the outside ring as Rodion held the item out. Passing the sphere off to Ziotea, the object continued to hover a few inches above her hands.

Rodion took a moment as he passed the miniature core over. As he did this, Rodion noticed Ziotea's hands. He saw the faint traces of scars from their younger days. Scars that were left when she first began to use her own powers. His eyes closed slightly as he reflected on those days. Well, they didn't matter anyways. Ziotea was here now, she was by his side. Rodion grasped her hand from underneath with his own. He quickly released it after only a moment of tightness. Then, turning back around to the large glass sphere on the next table over, Rodion continued to speak.

"It had to do with the type of ether I was using." Rodion took a deep breath as he formulated what he was thinking. "I was trying to mix ethers that were incompatible with each other, and they were warring with each other." Rodion then passed onto the table with the numerous vials. Grabbing the vial of his own ether, Rodion passed a glimpse of to Ziotea, catching her eyes for just a moment. Then he went back to those of Omestrian ether and grabbed them as well. "However, like with blood types, if you mix the correct ethers together, then they won't war with each other. Now, the second problem was how to get them to sustain each other. That little sphere is what proves that I figured it out."

Passing the table with the glass sphere, Rodion placed the vials with their stoppers facing its center. Like a large porcupine, the sphere became covered in outside facing vials. The vial of blue ether was directly on the top, facing downwards. Then, he walked back over to Ziotea. Leaning next to her, Rodion began to explain how the little sphere in her hands worked. However, his voice caught in his throat as their shoulders brushed against each other. She was warm, and small. All of a sudden, Rodion caught the urge to wrap his arm around her shoulder, but he caught that desire. Instead, Rodion placed his hand on the edge of the table, gripping it against his own will. Then, with his right hand, Rodion began to point out the spinning rings within the sphere. 

"Do you see it?" He asked, a small smile on his lips as he resumed speaking. "The rings spin faster than our eyes can keep up with them. They're circulating the ether within, keeping it from dissipating. Since, as we found out with Madrys' first incarnation, Stationary ether will dissipate within the hour if it isn't kept within something. However, this form keeps the ether inside, circulating, moving, as though it was in a living body."

As Rodion's voice faded away, he caught sight of Ziotea's lips. They were small and pink, and god how he wanted to kiss her. Gulping, he forced himself to turn away and walk back over to the glass orb, where he began to adjust pieces here and there with the lightest fervor known to man.

shylarah -

Ziotea gasped as the golden light filled the room.  The tiny whirling ball glittered above Rodion's hand and she started to reach for it without thinking, though she immediately checked herself.  Grabbing unknowns in the workshop was a good way to get hurt, and she looked at the man before her for approval before holding out her hand.  He took it, gently transferring the small sun to her.  His caloused fingers were rough, hardened by years of labor and fighting, even as hers were, but she'd never seen them as anything but strong.  Her wide eyes reflected the light as she gingerly brought her other hand to join in cupping the model core.  "It's...incredible, Rodion," she whispered.

He grabbed the vials of ether off the table, and she couldn't help the frown that passed across her face when she saw the blue one.  She remembered that -- how could she forget?  She'd helped him to gather it, drop by painful drop.  She hadn't really wanted to, not after the disaster of the second time.  Her trying to siphon it off had gone poorly.  But that machine...Ziotea still had nightmares, every now and again, of the horror that was an ether factory.  But those were slaves long weakened by the toll of extraction.  It hadn't prepared her for the agony that twisted Rodion's face, how he'd immediately slumped, the way he kept twitching after she shut the machine off.  She'd felt like someone had torn her heart out of her chest, that day.  But she kept helping him with it anyhow, because Madrys was his dream, and she couldn't abandon it any more than she could abandon him.

With an effort of will she shoved the memory from her mind and focused her attention back on Rodion as he explained how it all worked.  No, Ziotea couldn't do anything other than help him, no matter how crazy the project.  This was where she belonged, her shoulder pressing against his, leaning over his latest work, the heat from the forge beating at her and his warm voice in her ear as he explained the device.  She never tired of listening to him talk, or just hearing him work, knowing he was nearby.  It hurt, just a tiny twinge of pain, when he stepped away, and she almost slid off the table to follow, wanting to keep him close.  Instead she settled for watching, the shifting light illuminating her face from below.  

"How long will the vials power it for?" she asked, worry creeping into her tone.  The memory of his stricken face flashed through her thoughts, and her eyes narrowed.  "Are you going to need more of your ether?"

Drakey -

Rodion stood up straight as he heard Ziotea's questions. Thinking over it for a moment, he passed her on to the other side of the room. A table, threatening to topple over, was covered with mountains of books and notes. Digging through the first couple of inches, Rodion swiftly pulled out the pages he was looking for. Flipping through them, he looked up at Ziotea. Electric blue met with golden eyes as his heart jumped into his throat. Gulping, he began to speak.

"According to my trials and calculations, her core should run nearly indefinitely. However, she will need a power source while in a body." Rodion's shoulders shrugged a little as he motioned towards the wolf and bike. Sighing just a bit, Rodion walked back up to Ziotea, papers still in hand. "If I am correct, then a single vial of Omestrian ether should last her about two hours in either form." 

Pulling his goggles back on, Rodion left the papers half-off the table next to Ziotea. Walking towards the glass sphere, Rodion twisted the vial that stuck out from the top. A drop of electric blue ether fell into the sphere, floating in the center. Like a blossom, the drop exploded, filling the entirety of the sphere. Reaching around the bottom of the machine, Rodion flicked a few switches. Almost immediately, white ether began to circulate around the device's base, causing the sphere to rotate. Reaching towards the remaining vials, Rodion opened their floodgates slightly. Stepping away from the forming core, Rodion turned to Ziotea.

"No, I will not need to use any more of my own ether for Madrys. Not anytime soon at least." Passing her, Rodion leaned over the table. His shoulder brushed against hers again. Catching his breath, Rodion had to take a moment to refocus himself on his task. Rummaging through the notes and schematics on the table, Rodion found what he was looking for. The measurements for the last piece he had to forge. A ring, exactly a foot in diameter, eleven inches from the inside edges.

"This is the last piece, Ziotea. Once I have this finished then I'll be able to build Madrys proper." Rodion placed the schematic back down as he walked over to the table holding his apron and gloves. Donning the apparel, Rodion grabbed his tongs off of the wall. Pulling the earlier piece from the coals, Rodion looked it over. Yes, it was mangled, but not all that badly. Grabbing a hammer off of the wall as well, Rodion set about fixing the last piece. 

His thoughts, while focused on the work before him, drifted off and images of Ziotea's legs crept into his mind. A small smile curved on the corners of his lips as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face.

shylarah -

"Good."  She didn't want to have to do that again.  Maybe by the time they needed more of Rodion's ether, she'd have figured out how to draw it from people and store it without causing them so much pain.  She relaxed as his shoulder bushed hers again.  By the cursed gods themselves, she dreaded the thought of trying to extract more of his ether, and being assured that it was only a distant possibility was an immense relief.

He pulled the ring he'd been working on from the embers -- the last ring, he said.  The muscles in his bare shoulders rippled as he moved, and Ziotea watched the light play over them.  She leaned back, glancing behind her long enough to find a bare spot to place her hand so she could rest her weight on it.  She'd heard other ladies at the seminary discussing his appearance, and while he was handsome that wasn't what she liked best about him.  It was the light inside him, the gleam in his eyes when he'd solved a puzzle, the warmth in his voice that nobody else seemed to hear and the way his smile made it impossible to keep from smiling back, even as her heartbeat quickened.  The rest of the world could do as it liked; with the rhythmic clang of hammer on anvil Ziotea could forget how awful it was.  Let her comrades-in-arms think Rodion cold, let them believe her a murderous heretic, let them complain that the forge was stifling.  This was her tiny sliver of perfection.

It had taken an entire year to draw out that single vial of Rodion's ether. One session per week, always on a saturday. The sessions had drained Rodion, not only because of how taxing they were in and of themselves, but also because he had tried to hide them from everyone. Well, everyone except Ziotea that is. In fact, she was the one that had helped him in his endeavors.

The sessions had been painful, extremely so. It had taken place within his own workshop. A high-backed chair, with varying apparati, was the device that had drained his own ether. Rodion had built it himself, after studying the subject for nearly 6 months before hand. It had taken him nearly several weeks to build the device in secret. The first time he had used it though, Rodion had underestimated how much it would draw on his ether. He had made the device too strong causing it to weaken him almost immediately. Fear had begun to grip the young man's heart. The last thing he remembered of that experience was Ziotea's face. The next thing that Rodion saw was the ceiling of his own room.
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