Dawnbreaker - Construction

With the creation of the Shibuya Game Reserve, Cyrus has been busy helping with the production for animal medicine. And with reports of the Dungeon Heart being destroyed beneath the reserve, he's waiting for Mikage to get back to the heartquarters.

He's just managed to put some of the elemental pieces into a special jar over a small burner. Slowly melting some of the elemental metals. He's melting wax in another little jar, preparing to create some wiring after creating shapes.

He occassionally glances to the door, his tail lazily swishing left to right, waiting for Mikage to arrive so he can show what he's got so far.

As seems to be the case anytime that Mikage goes out to face the unknown, she comes back a bit worse for wear. It isn't quite so bad as the last time, though. Still, there is obvious signs that something has eaten at parts of her armor and a purplish stain that clings to some areas of her exposed skin. "What I wouldn't give for a warm shower."

Her voice murmurs even before she steps in. Rama ends up being the first to arrive, though he seems relatively fine. She did have a tendency to keep him out of the thick of most battles, though the little cat still did seem to have a bit of frost on his whiskers.

Then, she pauses in the doorway, looking around. "You've been keeping yourself busy." She comments, trying to take in what look to be his attempts at science.

"You and me both." Cyrus answers. "Though I can probably whip something up that represents a warm shower, if I had enough water and fire magic available to me." The youth notes, pondering this for a moment, before shaking his head and instead getting up... and then wobbling for a moment. "Eech, sorry. It looks like my legs fell asleep." He starts making this bow-legged approach towards her for a moment, befoer he manages to right himself properly, and pulls out a small napkin from a breast pocket.

"Try this." He answers her, offering the napkin to her. "It may help with some of the stains."

He then kneels down and chitters at Rama. "How're you doing little one? Do you need any medicine?" He is clearly checking Rama out medically. Deciding the feline is fine however, he gets back up again, legs trembling for a moment.

"Ah, yeah." He points behind him and glances to the table. "I've been trying to make wires to conduct your magic throughout your bow. I got a succesful prototype if you want to see."

"Sounds like the sort of thing that would require a lot of trial and error, and I'm not so interested in playing guinea pig." Mikage comments, managing a half-smile at that. The young woman had dealt with years of testing, experimental medicines and therapies in the real world, so it's no wonder she might not want to be the test subject for any new abilities in this one.

"Rama is fine." Miki explains, taking the napkin and using it to wipe at some of the purple splotches, which don't seem to want to go anywhere. "Some developer thought it would be fun to paste bear appearance over spider behavior, and then decided to cross the two." Yes, she still believes some quests and monsters are the result of the devs, at least until proven otherwise. "Rama got to play hero and finish off the boss monster."

After her previous comment about not wanting to play guinea pig, the Were Fang tilts her head, looking at him with a brief bit of concern as he invites her to take a look at the prototype. "Sure, let's see what you've come up with?"

"I don't think that warming up water is that hard of an experiment." Cyrus answers Mikage, "But I promise I will not use you as a test subject for my experiment." The Snow Leopard Cait Sith promises, even raising his hand as he does so.

The youth then gives her this /look/ as she explains the Spider Bear situation... and can't help but stiffle a bemused sound. "A bear... spider." In his mind, that's just hilarious. "Sure it wasn't a waterbear?" He adds, shaking his head and suppressing a snort.

Cyrus gives Rama a thumbs-up, before moving to his small work station. "Basically, I've discovered that the elemental stuff you are working with can be heated and molted, put into a new shape, and reconstituted. I've only used a tiny bit. But here." He points at the wax, and then at the small bit of molten metal. He grabs a set of tongs, and pours it into a test shape that is simply a square. It melts into it, and hisses.

"Give it a few seconds, and it'll remain in that square shape. This means we can line this throughout the entirety of your bow. It's strong enough that it won't snap, and just soft enough that there's no risk of it breaking when you pull your bow to its fullest extent." He explains.

"Very sure it wasn't a waterbear." Mikage replies, stepping out of the doorway. "Luckily, I'm not afraid of spiders or it would have been a very bad time for me."

Having very little in the way of actual crafting expertise, herself, Mikage just watches the dmonstration with a sense of wonder. "That... would be amazing if we could manage it." She looks from the bit of metal to Cyrus and then back again.

"I really appreciate all the help you've been with this." She admits, brushing back some hair from her forehead in an almost shy sort of response. "I wouldn't be even half as far as this if I'd had to try to figure all of this out on my own."

Cyrus wraps a hand around her waist while seated, squeezing her against his shoulder for a moment, and then releases again. "I used to do handicrafts with my uncle. He had a repair shop in the village. He would repair things from flutes to clocks. So I got to see some interesting things from time to time." The cat explains.

"Besides, I gotta make myself useful to the party too. What with you going out there and kicking ass at the dungeons and protecting the world." He adds to that, winking at her. "I'm going to need your help though. We need better wax to form these shapes. As you can see, I am getting some inaccuracies here." He points at the edges of the square shape.

"I need monster bones, and bees wax. And I simply do not have the skills to gather that stuff." He explains to her. "If we get better wax, it'll be sturdier at higher heats and come out more accurately after I bind a shape we need."

"I... never really did much creative work." Mikage admits, lifting one hand and holding it outwards. Despite the fact that they are still in the game, and her hand is steady, it's a gesture she's used before to represent the tremors that she suffers from in the real world. "I even had to get my dad to help with my angel."

The affectionate gesture has a brief bit of color showing on her cheeks, but she manages to clear her throat and push past that, "Hardly protecting the world." She admits, seeming to bite at her lower lip as she tries to ponder how best to help in this situation.

"Monster bones shouldn't be a problem. I probably have a decent number of those in my inventory." She doesn't seem to bother checking, but having the hunting skill means that she is likely to have gotten more than her fair share of bone drops. "Beeswax is harder. We'd probably have to go to some of those flowery plains areas back on the Isle of Beginnings."

As her hand comes outwards and showing her former tremors, he reaches a hand up and carefully supports it. "You can - now." He then tries to lead her hand down and offers her a simple metalic rod. "It's simple. See this rod. Now, take some of this wax, and warm it in your hands. Then just roll it to be the shape of this rod." He offers to her, making eyecontact, blushing just a little himself.

Cyrus moves to the side to show it. "This is just simple handicrafts. Even I can't do the intricate stuff. But making metalic wires - even you will be able to do it. Basically, the idea is, we create a shape with wax. We then put something around it that captures that shape until it takes. Melt the wax, and then pour metal in the shape."

In this world, she might not need that support, but the fact that he reaches for her hand anyways certainly means a lot to her. She gives a hesitant sort of smile, something a bit uncertain. Then, as he begins to show her how to go about the process, it seems as if her usual easy-going attitude slips a little.

Her skill as a fighter had come easily, having taken a lot from the visualizations that playing Angelic Layer had taught her. This is harder. She can't quite hold in her mind the exact shape that he wants her to make, and the material isn't something very familiar to her.

In the end, she manages to make a rough shape, but it isn't quite straight, nor is it as clean as Cyrus' earlier molds. "I... probably need a bit more practice at this." She admits with a shake of her head, "I should probably stick with the things I'm good at." Though she does want to experience as much as she can, there are certain things that seem to push the edges of her comfort zone more than others. Perhaps creative tasks like these more-so, because it's something she just would never be able to do in the real world.

"It's rough, especially when you're just doing this for the first time." He does guide her a bit, touching her hands from time to time to show her directions to put her fingers into. "But it's not terrible for your first time." He then adds, encouraging her. "Don't give up. Even I made some terrible ones." He points at a shredded piece of wax that looks slightly charred of all things.

"If we had someone who knew how to make rings and the like, this would be a lot easier. But with enough time, I can get some nice strands going, I think." He adds. "Don't be afraid to try things you are bad at. It's the only way to get good at them." He pauses, before asking; "So your dad helped you set up your angel huh? How much goes into doing that? I believe there were all these model and accessory kids in the Piffle Princess stores, right?"

"I've... been trying to get a hold of Miho. I think she would be fascinated by working with Elemental Machine parts." Mikage explains, not seeming too discouraged by her lack of success. She isn't the sort to get too down on herself, though she does seem to acknowledge where she might have weaknesses. "I imagine she might be able to help with some of the larger pieces, or with some of the finer detailing."

Then again, she'd been having trouble getting a hold of the Alliance's resident smith. Hopefully that would get resolved sooner rather than later.

"I'm not afraid of trying things." She answers him, "I guess... It's more that I don't want to spend a lot of time to learn something in here, if were only going to end up back in the real world in a few months. I'd rather be out experiencing things than sitting in a workshop grinding skill points." Unlike some people who seem to be afraid of losing this world, Miki seems more afraid of losing out on the experiences.

As she tries again, taking a bit more time with it, she nods. "My dad used to play Elder Tale with me. The offline version." She clarifies, "So for my birthday, he got one of the modeling kits and helped me design my angel to look like my favorite monster." Miki glances over at him then, "Were Fangs weren't really a player race back then."

"We could always reach out to Kaydon. I hear he's got some interesting things done around weapons like this. He's the one that invented that new metal, right? The... Damascus Steel?" He offers to er.

The youth then sidles a bit to the side and turns to properly look at her. "That's fair. I enjoy the workshop. But even I've been feeling cooped up lately. And going out there and getting more experiences would be good." He notes.

Then, nodding, he remarks; "Yeah, I think I heard about that. I didn't play the Offline game back then. What was your favorite monster?" He asks her, tilting his head a bit - thinking back for a moment on previous discussions. "Ah wait, no, don't answer me that." Right, he should figure that out himself.

Mikage seems to blink, then. It's clear she hadn't even considered reaching out to Kaydon on this particular project. "I... hadn't thought of that." Her lips press together, "Well, if I can't get a hold of Miho, I'll see if I can track him down. Though I imagine he's probably off killing things." That seems to be what he most enjoys.

"Well, you're always welcome to come out with me. I've gotten myself into my fair share of hairbrained adventures." She smirks. "I'm sure there's a few quests you haven't done that we could throw you into."

As he asks about her favorite monster, she just shakes her head. "Not giving it away that easily." The girl chuckles to herself. "I'm sure you'll figure it out, sooner or later."

Cyrus grins. "I will indeed figure it out one day. I just feel I haven't seen your favorite monster in person yet." He answers her, before he leans back over towards the wax and begins to try and roll thin and long threads of wax to use. It'll be a while for him to finish, and he gives her a bit of wax to try again herself. "Keep trying for a few more minutes. And after that... dinner." Followed by the telltale sound of an empty stomach.