Part 1
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Prologue
A year ago, a group led by a man named David, built a boat and intended to sail to Europe with it. They brought a lot of tools and such with them. They eventually crashed on an uninhabited island. There they thrived, and built a society of their own. They named the island "Horizon". This is their story, after the one year mark.
This entire book is from David's perspective.
Chapter 1: The End of Normality
We've mapped out the island within a week's walk of our little camp. We were gearing up for a massive expidition to map out the entire island, seeing as how we can go from one end for a week without running into a beach. All of the scouts were going to be on this, and to carry all of the provisions and equipment, Noah, Tommy, Batu and I were working together to build a bunch of wagons. Now, you may be thinking, "Why are you using wagons when you don't have beasts of burden?" Well, it's because we are fairly strong, and can pull wagons by ourselves. Each of us supplies ~0.5 horsepower, so 4 to a wagon will be plenty. and we have 20 scouts. Back to the wagon building. As Batu and Tommy were finishing up a wagon, Noah and I realized we would need to build a loading dock so that we could load up the supplies easily. We walked over to the workshop where they would build crates and fill them with supplies, and drove a series of support struts into the ground, nailed them all together at the joints, then laid down a bunch of boards on top, and nailed those down. Then, we started helping in the crate making process.
The next day, when Batu and Tommy finished the fourth and final wagon, we started loading the crates up with our version of MREs. Our version of an MRE consists of chicken jerky( We found chickens on the island. We don't know how they got here), a potato, and a can of wine. Why a can of wine? Because A) it's good as a disinfectant, and B) we're gonna be gone for a while, and we need precious booze to save our sanity. Anyways, each crate is a 3' cube, and can hold up to 972 MREs, and each wagon can hold 12 crates. and we have 3 wagons carrying food, the last one carrying a mobile workshop. We will not be hurting for food.
The day after, all the scouts met up at the loading docks, set up the communications, and set off. The wagons were moving as fast as you can walk, the ones not pulling wagons were being real scouts and looking ahead, and I was checking the map, making certain we didn't lose our path. The minutes turned to hours, and, as we reached the end of the day, we stopped and set up camp. After we got a fire going, we broke into the first crate, and enjoyed a bit of jerky-stuffed potato dipped in wine. Well, I did, and everyone else just ate the jerky and potato seperately. After everyone but the sentries got a nice buzz, they fell asleep in their bedrolls. I checked in on Command and asked how they were doing so far. They were fine, they asked me the same, I said we were all fine. The hours became days...
Chapter 2: Beginner's Guide
17 days or so into the expidition, we were starting to get bored. We had busted into the card games I had made and realized that with most of us pulling carts for 14 hours, we couldn't play card games. As such, we used them as tinder for the fire. Anyways, on the 17th day, I came across a book and a bunch of mason jars filled with odd things. Written on the book's cover was "The Beginner's Guide To Magic". I opened it, and began reading.
"This is the beginner's guide to magic. No previous experience required, but it is recommended to know something about chemistry if you choose to take up alchemy." Huh. Alchemy. "There are two kinds of magic, and both of them require a bit of attention to be worthwhile. The first and most common is Alchemy, also known as Transmutation, which is the art of taking an object and reshaping it. However, you cannot create or destroy mass in this process, and any attempt to do so will simply fail, as it should. Alchemy relies on the user's knowledge to figure out what it should do, which is why, even with the same equipment, a skilled alchemist will be able to make more intricate stuff than a novice. The other one is Psionics, which have to do with the mind. Psions can go into the psychoplanes, which are inside people's minds. For example, a psion might project himself into your mind, said psion would be considered to be in the psychoplanes. Each one is quite complicated, and anything other than dabbling in multiple fields would be quite difficult." I shut the book, not wanting to read any further, as everyone was wondering what I was doing.
"I found a book and some mason jars! We should make camp now, so I can figure this out.", I yelled to the others.
"Okay, then.", I heard Frank yell.
After we set up camp, I opened up the book again, and started reading the section on beginning the path of magic. Apparently, you need to concoct an elixir from the materials in the jars. It also includes instructions for creating said materials, in case you got the book secondhand. I looked at what formula would do what, and decided to pick the one that would give me an even footing in both disciplines. There would be plenty of leftover materials to make elixir for the others and still perform lots of spells. I showed the book to Noah, and he decided upon taking up Alchemy exclusively.
"Why alchemy, rather than psionics?", I asked.
"Because alchemy is more practical.", Noah replied.
"Well, to each his own."
Chapter 3: Magic and other guff
I looked at the first excercise to perform for what path, and I wanted to do alchemy first, and Noah was only doing alchemy, so we did the same thing. What we first had to do is draw a circle on the ground in chalk, put a bit of some relatively pure element in the middle, and try to imagine it as being a different material. We had a fair amount of refined iron, so we used that. The book included an explanation on what was going on in the transmutation, so we would be better able to pull it off. We both sat down at opposite ends of the circle, put our hands near the edges, and envisioned the agreed upon material: gold.
We opened our eyes, and saw a bar of gold where there was once a bar of iron.
"Holy shit."
Frank had already grabbed another bar of iron our of storage, before I told him not to bother. We had no use for gold yet, so I immediately turned the gold back into iron. I immediately thought of another test, and grabbed a relatively straight stick, put it in the circle, and concentrated on rearranging the carbon into nanotubes. I gave it to Ronny, the strongest of us, but even he couldn't snap it. Excellent, I thought, This will serve me well. I looked in the book for the next lesson, and found that I had completed it without knowing it. I then helped Noah through it. I checked, and the next lesson was compounds of various sorts. We tried salt, then sugar, and then any random compound we thought wouldn't go boom. We were wrong a few times. But we lived. We eventually put a potato into the circle, to learn how to make one, and tried turning a rock into a potato. It ended up working. Eventually, Noah was burned out on alchemy for a while, so we decided to take a break.
I looked through the book for suggested projects, and found that an alchemical dynamo was actually fairly easy to do. So, I carefully transmuted the parts, put in the prerequisite reagents, and screwed everything into place. Once it was finished, it started to spin very fast. I picked it up by the base, and screwed it on to the underside of the wagon. Fortunately, I had the forethought of putting a gear on the dynamo's axle. I set up a systen of gears and such, so that the speed could be changed. I put the axle of the front onto another axle, so that I could steer the damn thing.
Chapter 4: Psionics 101
The next day, with all of the wagons linked end to end so that we only needed one motor, we started moving again. We had transmuted two more wagons, for me and Noah to use for research purposes. He'd be continuing his research into alchemy, whilst I would be movng on to psionics. I thumbed through to the psionics part of the book, and found that beginning psionics was easy enough, it was simply time consuming and boring. Mental exercises and such. Eventually, I reached the point where I could go into the psychoplanes. I had already been into my own mind, and had done nothing interesting there.
"Hey, Noah! Do you mind if I visit you on the psychoplanes? No pun intended.", I said across the edge of my wagon.
"Sure, I was taking a break anyways.", he replied.
I cast the necessary spell, and found myself in the outer rim of his mind. I waited for him to send a greeter to me, then realized he wasn't a psion, and went down to his core. When I reached his core, I spoke.
"Hello, Noah. It's me, David. I've come to the core of your mind to speak to you directly.", I said(?) to Noah.
"David? It's odd to see you here. This is my inner sanctum. I do not recall summoning you here.", Noah replied.
"Well, I am a psion, while you are not. I am visiting your mind. If you were a psion, you'd be able to alter your mindscape to fit your conscious choices."
"I am not a psion, I am an alchemist. If you want a competently put together mindscape to chat with me in, then let's go to yours."
"But you would need to be a psion to do that. It took me 8 hours to get to the point of being able to visit my own mindscape, and another day to visit yours. and you are at a terrible disadvantage with regards to psionics. You are, however, shaping up to be our resident alchemical master."
"Oh. Well, I'm not too terribly distraught, seeing as only alchemy interests me."
"Oh, and by the way, we need to figure out a better heirarchy than 'David's in charge, but feel free to do what you want within reason.'"
"How about 'David's ultimately in charge, but if it's not something big, than one of the lieutenants', where a lieutenant would be anyone you appoint to said position."
"Yeah, but each department has it's own lieutenant, so you could be the lieutenant of alchemy, and once we get a dedicated psion, they can be lieutenant of that department."
"Can we end this soon? It's getting a bit odd..."
"Fine. But I will get you to learn basic psionics by the end of the decade."
I then left his mindscape, and retreated to mine. I don't think I'll ever go into his mind ever again, at least, not until he's at least a psion.
I then walked over to play catch-up with alchemy.
Chapter 5: Intermediate Alchemy
As it turned out, I had missed a lot of really cool alchemy while I was dicking about with psionics. I had brushed briefly on automation, but Noah had delved into it full speed ahead. He had become very precise with alchemy, but I was catching up.
"Why is it that you're faster to learn alchemy than I am, when I'm the one whose elixir favored alchemy to the extreme?", Noah asked at one point.
"Not a single clue.", I replied.
Eventually, I got to where he was, which was alchemical automatons. He had shown me the diagram for the alchemical brain, and the alchemical controller. We had decided to make ourselves a few guardian robots, in various types. I had decided on a large steel dog, and an aluminum bird. I began work at once on the delicate and comlex procedure of creating an alchemical brain, and the decidedly less delicate procedure of creating a steel german shepherd with proper alchemical nerves, muscles, and sensors. All the nerves and such were connected to muscles and sensors, and all led to the "brainstem" of sorts. There, the brain and the body would merge, creating a semblance of life. I installed the control chip into it's brain, so that the poor thing wouldn't spaz out uncontrollably, despite how funny it would have been. I turned it on, and watched its eyes start glowing.
"It's working! I think I'll name him Elvis, after my dog when I was a child.", I said as Elvis tenatively took his first few steps.
Right around that time, Noah's ocelot came online, and took its first steps as well.
"Well, if we're naming these after childhood pets, I'm naming mine Viper.", Noah said.
"Didn't I throw Viper into a pool?"
"...You stay away from my cat."
"Meh. Well, I'm gonna try to make alchemical power tools."
"You realize we'll run out of raw materials eventually, right?"
"Why do you think I want resource gathering tools?"
"Huh. Well, let me show you a little contraption here. I call it the Collector."
I saw the machine he called the collector, and I reasoned out that it was called that because an alchemical dynamo generated perpetual energy, and said energy was transmuted, through means Noah would explain in lengthy detail later, into matter. And it was actually kind of fast at generating matter. 4 grams per minute. Noah then explained it enough for me to understand it and replicate it. The only new thing was the converter. I tried to make my own version of it, except smaller and in the shape of a chestplate, so that I could wear it. The output was split between 4 tubes, which I would route to my extremity mounted alchemical gizmos.
The days became weeks...
A year ago, a group led by a man named David, built a boat and intended to sail to Europe with it. They brought a lot of tools and such with them. They eventually crashed on an uninhabited island. There they thrived, and built a society of their own. They named the island "Horizon". This is their story, after the one year mark.
This entire book is from David's perspective.
Chapter 1: The End of Normality
We've mapped out the island within a week's walk of our little camp. We were gearing up for a massive expidition to map out the entire island, seeing as how we can go from one end for a week without running into a beach. All of the scouts were going to be on this, and to carry all of the provisions and equipment, Noah, Tommy, Batu and I were working together to build a bunch of wagons. Now, you may be thinking, "Why are you using wagons when you don't have beasts of burden?" Well, it's because we are fairly strong, and can pull wagons by ourselves. Each of us supplies ~0.5 horsepower, so 4 to a wagon will be plenty. and we have 20 scouts. Back to the wagon building. As Batu and Tommy were finishing up a wagon, Noah and I realized we would need to build a loading dock so that we could load up the supplies easily. We walked over to the workshop where they would build crates and fill them with supplies, and drove a series of support struts into the ground, nailed them all together at the joints, then laid down a bunch of boards on top, and nailed those down. Then, we started helping in the crate making process.
The next day, when Batu and Tommy finished the fourth and final wagon, we started loading the crates up with our version of MREs. Our version of an MRE consists of chicken jerky( We found chickens on the island. We don't know how they got here), a potato, and a can of wine. Why a can of wine? Because A) it's good as a disinfectant, and B) we're gonna be gone for a while, and we need precious booze to save our sanity. Anyways, each crate is a 3' cube, and can hold up to 972 MREs, and each wagon can hold 12 crates. and we have 3 wagons carrying food, the last one carrying a mobile workshop. We will not be hurting for food.
The day after, all the scouts met up at the loading docks, set up the communications, and set off. The wagons were moving as fast as you can walk, the ones not pulling wagons were being real scouts and looking ahead, and I was checking the map, making certain we didn't lose our path. The minutes turned to hours, and, as we reached the end of the day, we stopped and set up camp. After we got a fire going, we broke into the first crate, and enjoyed a bit of jerky-stuffed potato dipped in wine. Well, I did, and everyone else just ate the jerky and potato seperately. After everyone but the sentries got a nice buzz, they fell asleep in their bedrolls. I checked in on Command and asked how they were doing so far. They were fine, they asked me the same, I said we were all fine. The hours became days...
Chapter 2: Beginner's Guide
17 days or so into the expidition, we were starting to get bored. We had busted into the card games I had made and realized that with most of us pulling carts for 14 hours, we couldn't play card games. As such, we used them as tinder for the fire. Anyways, on the 17th day, I came across a book and a bunch of mason jars filled with odd things. Written on the book's cover was "The Beginner's Guide To Magic". I opened it, and began reading.
"This is the beginner's guide to magic. No previous experience required, but it is recommended to know something about chemistry if you choose to take up alchemy." Huh. Alchemy. "There are two kinds of magic, and both of them require a bit of attention to be worthwhile. The first and most common is Alchemy, also known as Transmutation, which is the art of taking an object and reshaping it. However, you cannot create or destroy mass in this process, and any attempt to do so will simply fail, as it should. Alchemy relies on the user's knowledge to figure out what it should do, which is why, even with the same equipment, a skilled alchemist will be able to make more intricate stuff than a novice. The other one is Psionics, which have to do with the mind. Psions can go into the psychoplanes, which are inside people's minds. For example, a psion might project himself into your mind, said psion would be considered to be in the psychoplanes. Each one is quite complicated, and anything other than dabbling in multiple fields would be quite difficult." I shut the book, not wanting to read any further, as everyone was wondering what I was doing.
"I found a book and some mason jars! We should make camp now, so I can figure this out.", I yelled to the others.
"Okay, then.", I heard Frank yell.
After we set up camp, I opened up the book again, and started reading the section on beginning the path of magic. Apparently, you need to concoct an elixir from the materials in the jars. It also includes instructions for creating said materials, in case you got the book secondhand. I looked at what formula would do what, and decided to pick the one that would give me an even footing in both disciplines. There would be plenty of leftover materials to make elixir for the others and still perform lots of spells. I showed the book to Noah, and he decided upon taking up Alchemy exclusively.
"Why alchemy, rather than psionics?", I asked.
"Because alchemy is more practical.", Noah replied.
"Well, to each his own."
Chapter 3: Magic and other guff
I looked at the first excercise to perform for what path, and I wanted to do alchemy first, and Noah was only doing alchemy, so we did the same thing. What we first had to do is draw a circle on the ground in chalk, put a bit of some relatively pure element in the middle, and try to imagine it as being a different material. We had a fair amount of refined iron, so we used that. The book included an explanation on what was going on in the transmutation, so we would be better able to pull it off. We both sat down at opposite ends of the circle, put our hands near the edges, and envisioned the agreed upon material: gold.
We opened our eyes, and saw a bar of gold where there was once a bar of iron.
"Holy shit."
Frank had already grabbed another bar of iron our of storage, before I told him not to bother. We had no use for gold yet, so I immediately turned the gold back into iron. I immediately thought of another test, and grabbed a relatively straight stick, put it in the circle, and concentrated on rearranging the carbon into nanotubes. I gave it to Ronny, the strongest of us, but even he couldn't snap it. Excellent, I thought, This will serve me well. I looked in the book for the next lesson, and found that I had completed it without knowing it. I then helped Noah through it. I checked, and the next lesson was compounds of various sorts. We tried salt, then sugar, and then any random compound we thought wouldn't go boom. We were wrong a few times. But we lived. We eventually put a potato into the circle, to learn how to make one, and tried turning a rock into a potato. It ended up working. Eventually, Noah was burned out on alchemy for a while, so we decided to take a break.
I looked through the book for suggested projects, and found that an alchemical dynamo was actually fairly easy to do. So, I carefully transmuted the parts, put in the prerequisite reagents, and screwed everything into place. Once it was finished, it started to spin very fast. I picked it up by the base, and screwed it on to the underside of the wagon. Fortunately, I had the forethought of putting a gear on the dynamo's axle. I set up a systen of gears and such, so that the speed could be changed. I put the axle of the front onto another axle, so that I could steer the damn thing.
Chapter 4: Psionics 101
The next day, with all of the wagons linked end to end so that we only needed one motor, we started moving again. We had transmuted two more wagons, for me and Noah to use for research purposes. He'd be continuing his research into alchemy, whilst I would be movng on to psionics. I thumbed through to the psionics part of the book, and found that beginning psionics was easy enough, it was simply time consuming and boring. Mental exercises and such. Eventually, I reached the point where I could go into the psychoplanes. I had already been into my own mind, and had done nothing interesting there.
"Hey, Noah! Do you mind if I visit you on the psychoplanes? No pun intended.", I said across the edge of my wagon.
"Sure, I was taking a break anyways.", he replied.
I cast the necessary spell, and found myself in the outer rim of his mind. I waited for him to send a greeter to me, then realized he wasn't a psion, and went down to his core. When I reached his core, I spoke.
"Hello, Noah. It's me, David. I've come to the core of your mind to speak to you directly.", I said(?) to Noah.
"David? It's odd to see you here. This is my inner sanctum. I do not recall summoning you here.", Noah replied.
"Well, I am a psion, while you are not. I am visiting your mind. If you were a psion, you'd be able to alter your mindscape to fit your conscious choices."
"I am not a psion, I am an alchemist. If you want a competently put together mindscape to chat with me in, then let's go to yours."
"But you would need to be a psion to do that. It took me 8 hours to get to the point of being able to visit my own mindscape, and another day to visit yours. and you are at a terrible disadvantage with regards to psionics. You are, however, shaping up to be our resident alchemical master."
"Oh. Well, I'm not too terribly distraught, seeing as only alchemy interests me."
"Oh, and by the way, we need to figure out a better heirarchy than 'David's in charge, but feel free to do what you want within reason.'"
"How about 'David's ultimately in charge, but if it's not something big, than one of the lieutenants', where a lieutenant would be anyone you appoint to said position."
"Yeah, but each department has it's own lieutenant, so you could be the lieutenant of alchemy, and once we get a dedicated psion, they can be lieutenant of that department."
"Can we end this soon? It's getting a bit odd..."
"Fine. But I will get you to learn basic psionics by the end of the decade."
I then left his mindscape, and retreated to mine. I don't think I'll ever go into his mind ever again, at least, not until he's at least a psion.
I then walked over to play catch-up with alchemy.
Chapter 5: Intermediate Alchemy
As it turned out, I had missed a lot of really cool alchemy while I was dicking about with psionics. I had brushed briefly on automation, but Noah had delved into it full speed ahead. He had become very precise with alchemy, but I was catching up.
"Why is it that you're faster to learn alchemy than I am, when I'm the one whose elixir favored alchemy to the extreme?", Noah asked at one point.
"Not a single clue.", I replied.
Eventually, I got to where he was, which was alchemical automatons. He had shown me the diagram for the alchemical brain, and the alchemical controller. We had decided to make ourselves a few guardian robots, in various types. I had decided on a large steel dog, and an aluminum bird. I began work at once on the delicate and comlex procedure of creating an alchemical brain, and the decidedly less delicate procedure of creating a steel german shepherd with proper alchemical nerves, muscles, and sensors. All the nerves and such were connected to muscles and sensors, and all led to the "brainstem" of sorts. There, the brain and the body would merge, creating a semblance of life. I installed the control chip into it's brain, so that the poor thing wouldn't spaz out uncontrollably, despite how funny it would have been. I turned it on, and watched its eyes start glowing.
"It's working! I think I'll name him Elvis, after my dog when I was a child.", I said as Elvis tenatively took his first few steps.
Right around that time, Noah's ocelot came online, and took its first steps as well.
"Well, if we're naming these after childhood pets, I'm naming mine Viper.", Noah said.
"Didn't I throw Viper into a pool?"
"...You stay away from my cat."
"Meh. Well, I'm gonna try to make alchemical power tools."
"You realize we'll run out of raw materials eventually, right?"
"Why do you think I want resource gathering tools?"
"Huh. Well, let me show you a little contraption here. I call it the Collector."
I saw the machine he called the collector, and I reasoned out that it was called that because an alchemical dynamo generated perpetual energy, and said energy was transmuted, through means Noah would explain in lengthy detail later, into matter. And it was actually kind of fast at generating matter. 4 grams per minute. Noah then explained it enough for me to understand it and replicate it. The only new thing was the converter. I tried to make my own version of it, except smaller and in the shape of a chestplate, so that I could wear it. The output was split between 4 tubes, which I would route to my extremity mounted alchemical gizmos.
The days became weeks...
