![[Work in Progress]](.//images/icons/cs_wip.png "[Work in Progress]"){kind=icon}
Thrust
The morning sun streamed into the clearing where
Chest
sat, catching dust specks dancing in the air as they lifted one of their many legs to scratch the back of another. Inside the construct, mechanical parts and half-finished projects lay scattered across workbenches and floors alike. In the corner sat the jetpack chassis on a stand, polished metal glinting. Winston inspected it slowly while nibbling a Sunburst Fruit, pondering his next steps.Totrial he would craft its heart - the jet propulsion system itself. This key component remained a puzzle to be solvedm but he was confident that once this simple matter was resolved, he would be flying through the air in no time!
Building a reliable, renewable propellant was no trivial task though. The flight pack looked ready to fly but lacked a force to propel it in order to transform it from sculpture to functioning machine. However, success totrial would change that... he hoped.
He gazed out the window at clouds drifting across the blue sky, yearning to soar among them, unbound by earthly tethers! For now, however, the jetpack stayed grounded and while not in his fairy form... so did he.
That would not be for long though, as the clever alchemist could imbue objects with magic, crossing the gap between fantasy and reality. Moreover, he could work Wells into the mix, taking what they had to offer and blending it with anything his imagination could conjure.
After the last sweet fruity bight, the inventor began. He tidied his workspace, organizing tools and clearing surfaces. Careful handling of volatile substances required order!
Satisfied with the orderly workspace, he retrieved his notes on propulsion. Perusing pages of diagram and considered options - compressed gas? Combustible stuff? Balloon flight? Each had pros and cons. Cans of gas emptied quickly. Rockets were volatile and liable to produce firework ferrets. Finally, balloons lacked any form of intentionality about their flight path... Teq might have disagreed, but Winston wanted something considerably more agile.
What he wanted was a balance of power, efficiency and sustainability. No ordinary fuel would suffice and so instead he would craft a custom propellant using his ensorcelling. Combining science and magic expanded possibilities no end! Much trial and error had honed this hybrid approach, though often with more error, as evidenced by his singed eyebrows as he moved away from the use of Firestones and instead moved to the Windstars. Wisdom emerged from the ashes of failure and so would he.
"Naw..." mused Winston, "'ow tuh convert wind magic intuh directed thrust?" He pondered, tapping his chin with his finger.
Smoky
-Joe
floated beside him, the fingers of one tapping the chin of the other, mimicking their fury friend."The raw well worked just fine in Yaralon against the Goblins." The Diri observed candidly.
"Yeah mun, bot et wus really 'ard tuh aim an' worked well enough an sometin' dat wus weightless, bot et might nat work so well wid sometin' wid some weight." Joe nodded in agreement, taking the ferret's words on face value and not really understanding much of it.
Winston's gaze fell upon his faded textbook titled 'Fundamentals of Wind' and then looked at his forge, it's great bellows sitting dormant beside it. He recalled from his Academic studies on fluids, that squid used compressed water to propel themselves swiftly. Might these offer insights? He retrieved the vintage tome and gently turned brittle pages. Diagrams of the wind, it's affects of cnadles, trees and the floating of leaves attributed to being light ran past his gaze. One chapter on nozzle design for the bellows caught his attention. "...de bellows 'as a big lung an a small open apacha... Dis allows a low presha to create a strang stream af air..."
"dat's et!" He exclaimed. This section described how tapered nozzles focused escaping gases from the lung of the bellows. By channeling airflow, even simple pressure could produce thrust. The principles might translate to magic... well, the magic was irrelevant. It was nothing more than the source of the air... Beyond that it was just plain old physics! With a Windstar Well, he could improve its propulsion without heavy machinery, compressed gas canisters or explosive combustible substances!
He jump up, giving Smoky of high-five with a "Let's do dis!".
He needed a vessel to direct the Windstar's flow."Et will be a simpal container far naw, which bolts intuh de main unit." He made some marks on the back of the chest piece. Wings were found on the back, in every single case he was aware of. How these worked exactly, he was not sure, but he was convinced it must be magic of some kind.
Joe continued to nod. "Yup, that's just what I was about to say." He replied with a thoughtful frown.
Humming cheerfully, Winston gathered components - he'd create a flask-like item out of
Embersteel
, imbuing it as he had the Chest plate, with all the colours of the rainbow, water resistance and Minithelite's ability to blend into its surroundings. Combining this alchemical metal with the Windstar Well, they would be weightless. He carefully arranged these on his workbench beside his Alchemical forge
. All was ready to begin.He initiated the ritual... As he stirred in the magic catalyst, the metal took shape inside the ingot mold. Winston next recited a short incantation in a song, channeling the prepared Well's Aeronyte magic into the prepared metal and combining them both together.
He paused while he considered how to activate the cloaking affect...
The Devil on My Shoulder
Curiosity: But you won't see the awesome rainbow colours if it's hiding you!
Winston: Yuh... We need tuh turn et an an' aff.
Curiosity: How?
Winston: Nat shar.
Curiosity: A sound?
Winston: Nope, dat will nat help if yuh ar trying tuh hide.
Curiosity: Truuuuueeee... How about a command? Like 'STEALTH'? You could whisper it?
Winston: Yeeeeaaaaaahhhh. Bot den any time me are anyone else says dat word I suddenly stealth, ar worse yet UNstealth.
Curiosity: Yeah, not ideal.... Oh! How about when you touch it with something?
Winston: OH! Yus, mun! Cake.
Curiosity: Yeah ca... Wait what? I was thinking more like a switch with a bit of copper on one end that....
Winston: Shhhh... Me 'ave some cake reet 'ere. AH!
Curiosity: OK, yes. Of course. Cake it is then.
Curiosity: But you won't see the awesome rainbow colours if it's hiding you!
Winston: Yuh... We need tuh turn et an an' aff.
Curiosity: How?
Winston: Nat shar.
Curiosity: A sound?
Winston: Nope, dat will nat help if yuh ar trying tuh hide.
Curiosity: Truuuuueeee... How about a command? Like 'STEALTH'? You could whisper it?
Winston: Yeeeeaaaaaahhhh. Bot den any time me are anyone else says dat word I suddenly stealth, ar worse yet UNstealth.
Curiosity: Yeah, not ideal.... Oh! How about when you touch it with something?
Winston: OH! Yus, mun! Cake.
Curiosity: Yeah ca... Wait what? I was thinking more like a switch with a bit of copper on one end that....
Winston: Shhhh... Me 'ave some cake reet 'ere. AH!
Curiosity: OK, yes. Of course. Cake it is then.
He gathered the meta-regents he needed to support the effort, arranging the glyphs of his forge in the large spherical area around his forge. The camouflaging affect would be triggered and not always in affect. This would help reduce the frequency with which it needed recharging and anyway, there was no point in it begin rainbow coloured if it could not be seen. The trigger would be cake... Yes... he used the flavour of cake, which he would smudge on a discrete section of the armour when he needed it to activate. He had to pop out to find a tongue, but laying down a bovine tongue he began to probe it with the alchemical forge. The glyphs shifted and changed colour as Kisaik has taught him while making the Bat Healing Chews to identify the best place to harvest the ability to taste, combined with a little sample of his delightful cake he set the trigger.
"See? Rub on some cake to activate and wipe it clean to turn it off!" He beamed at his own ingenuity.
"Ingenious? Sure. Hygienic? Not so much. You could have just made it out of steal right? It's only a prototype."
The ferret beamed cheakilly at his friend. "Dat wud 'ave bin far less entatainin', new wouldn't et?"
He spent the rest of the Trial, working on the thruster, shaping and working the metal into a hollow flask with a tapered open end, making sure to direct all of the Well's energy potential into the center of the object to ensure the wellsmithed item did not simply expel wind in every direction of its surface.
After much effort and time, he had his wellcrafted item, rainbow coloured and attached to the back of the chestpiece. It was time to give it a test flight... He looked at it... He looked at the room... "Dis definitely needs tuh be done outside."
"Yeeeaaaah. I'm just going to let Angela know... Just in case you don't come back." He said with a worried smile before disappearing to warn his friends.
Continued here...
Original template credit, love and admiration goes to Kisaik
