Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Page 309

--donation bonus (day #18, post 3/5)--
I understand what you were thinking,’ said Garovel. ‘But no, that’s not the way it works. If you wanna create a machine--or any complex structure for that matter--then you have to know all the parts of it, as well as where they go. Essentially, a blueprint in your head.

“Damn...”

And you should probably know how each piece functions as part of the whole.

“Yeah, okay...”

Also, a basic understanding of how the fucking thing works in the first place might be helpful.

“I get it, geez...”

I can tell you all about catapults, actually. You’ve got the ballista and the springald and mangonel, but those all need rope or twine to operate. Maybe you could figure a creative solution around that, but you’re probably better off going for a trebuchet. Then again, a really good trebuchet would use a sling AND a counterweight, which could be problematic, but hey, if this is just for practice, then what does it matter, right?

“Uh. Th-that’s nice, but I don’t, um...”

Yeah. Not very helpful without diagrams to look at. We can go find a library tomorrow, if you like. I’m sure they’d have plenty of useful reference books, catapults or no.

“Guess I should...”

In the meantime, though, why don’t you try to make something that you actually have a proper idea about?

“Right.” He decided to go for something he’d practiced before. He held his gloved hands up in front of himself and concentrated. The metal gathered quickly and took form--the exact form, this time--and to his surprise, the gauntlets were completed in a fraction of the previous time.

Wow,’ said Garovel. ‘That used to take you fifteen minutes, but just now--that couldn’t have been more than thirty seconds.

Hector waved his arms to see if the metal plates stayed linked together. They did. He added pointed fingertips, stubby metal claws. He grinned.

I am sufficiently impressed. But also curious. C’mon. What else can you do?

8 comments:

  1. or any complex structure for that matte*r*



    Also, first.


    AlA

    ReplyDelete
  2. How about a bicycle? Except for the tires and the seat, everything
    could be made of iron, maybe... he would need to look up diagrams again,
    but it might solve his running-around-everywhere problem.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Iron tires would have a lot of slippin' and slidin'.

    ReplyDelete
  4. For mechanical lucid imagery, I know one real man that could build a real fingerprints of complicated things in his mind! no, no, not Tony Spark, he is fictional.


    Dun dun dun, ba-da-bum-tsssssss:
    It's our alien overlord! Nikola Tesla! The real wizard ever lived!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Addition: if Hector continue Tesla's unfinished Legacy which is Teleforce (the Death Ray), i will bow to you, Mr. Frost!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you so much for writing the creations of complex structure as being impossible without knowing all the parts that make it up. A couple weeks ago I was reading a fairly popular japanese novel on japtem.com called Arifureta. Started off nice enough, but then the MC started creating shit like vehicles and fucking gatling guns. I strained my memory to see if the MC had intimate knowledge of these things but there was nothing. The author didn't offer much more explanation than "IT'S MAGIC!" I promptly dropped the series. Popular series, but it isn't for me.

    ReplyDelete