Well today is a
late post since it took me so long to write this story but its a good
one. Seizures weren't too bad but whatever.
The
Scientist and the Wizard
“You really
will do anything in the name of progress?” said the wizard as he
looked around the scientist's lab. Though the lab was mostly clean
there were still a few barrels of waste of several vials of deadly
chemicals. Also there were animals in cages. The animals looked happy
and content but they were caged and tagged nonetheless.
“And what
about your needlessly stubborn defense of useless tradition?”
responded the scientist he adjusted his glasses into place, as if the
guys-with-glasses-are-smarter stereotype could actually give him an
intellectual advantage in the conversation.
The wizard
adjusted his gray hat, a common compulsive habit for wizards, “Don't
mock my traditional magical rituals. Your scientific method is a
tradition you follow blindly. Perhaps if you didn't stick to your
traditional logic so much you scientists would be able to make more
of that progress you want so much. Sometimes I think we wizards
experiment more with our sorcery more than you
scientists do with your science.” The wizard crossed his
arms, his black robes quickly folding along them. The scientists
white lab coat hit a stark contrast with the robes. “I just wonder
what kind of experiments your doing with this waste and these
animals. Or are they different experiments?
The scientist
scowled at the wizard, “You degrade my experiments? Have you ever
wondered how many lives my experiments have saved alongside other
experiments by other scientists? Yes, I will do anything in the name
of progress. Well, not anything. I've heard about what you wizards
have done. Haven't you wizards killed alligators just for their eyes
then slayed dragons just to pull out their hearts all to cast simple
fire spells for simple firework shows. And don't think I don't know
about the wizard Saruxi. The one who would kill to extend his own
lifespan, but the spell would only increase his lifespan by one year
for each person he killed.”
The wizard then
yelled in response, “That man is called the Dark Wizard Saruxi for
doing that. And if you to speak as if his deeds reflects upon me then
the deeds of all the bombs and war machines used in any of your
greedy wars reflects upon you! And as your medicine has cured people
my magic can bring life to fields where farming techniques created by
your principles have failed.”
They both
paused. The room filled with silence. Even the animals in the cages
didn't chatter.
“This is
pointless.” they both said in unison.
The wizard
sighed, “Yes, I didn't come all this way on my old dragon just to
argue with you I came here to do something much more important.”
“Y'know,”
the scientist said with a smile, “I could have drove you all that
way if your dragon is so old.”
The wizard
rolled his eyes, “I'd rather not ride in that loud contraption of
yours. And you already risked your life enough the first time you
went deep into my land.”
It was true.
The scientist had risked his life. Though scientists and wizards
mostly tolerated each other and sometimes formed friendships many of
the most principled scientists and the strongest wizards hated the
other parties. This scientist needed a powerful wizard for his
special project so he had to venture into the land of the most
powerful wizards. Many of them would have loved to have cast a nasty
curse out of spite on him. But they didn't. That was because he was
willing to go into the tavern where the most powerful wizards dined,
interrupt their dinners with a loud shout, and then asked them if
they would put aside their differences to assist him in changing the
world by helping him with his special project, something that needed
both magic and science. They all respected his guts. But only this
wizard was willing to come to his lab.
“But I
succeeded and got your help.” the scientist said. “So we can
change the world.”
The wizard
looked at scientist, “But what if it doesn't work?”
The scientist
shrugged. “Then we'll have to try, try, try again. Though if it
doesn't work the way we want it to then I hope it just becomes a dud
instead of some sort of horror movie monster.” he looked over to a
table on the far side of the lab. On that table was a robot body in
the shape of a young boy. He pointed to the robot. “There's the
body. Complete. Just like a said it would be. So did you bring all
your magical components?”
The wizard
laughed when he looked at the robot at the table, “ I was expecting
a full man sized body. But a young boy?” the wizard smiled. “When
I investigated you to be safe I heard the rumors but I didn't expect
them to be true.” the wizard gave the scientist a condescending
look, “O, high and mighty scientist, you're not doing this for
progress. You don't want to change the world. You're sterile just
like rumors say and all you want is a kid.” the wizard laughed.
“And that's why you brought me here to do is to help you to do by
putting a soul in it.”
The scientist
gave him a sad look, “Yes it's true. I'm sterile. Even with
scientific means my sperm aren't viable to make children. I've tried
to adopt. But not one agency likes the idea of a child living with a
single father with only a lab full of chemicals as living space.”
the scientist let out a small chuckle with a tear. “I figured steel
skin would fix that problem.”
The wizard
walked up to the robot body and touched it. When designing it the
scientist knew he couldn't make something completely perfect so he
focused on giving his boy a moving, flexible body instead of
something that looked better but could hardly moved. So everything
was open and closed as it needed to be and painted a nice hue of
black. Every part was perfectly placed. Even without knowing nearly
anything about robotics just by looking at it the wizard could tell
the perfection of the craftsmanship. Though one part of the body was
perfectly human looking. The head. The best prosthetic skin in the
world. The eyes looked biological but must have been mechanical just
like everything else. The wizard grabbed the brown hair on the head
of the robot. He couldn't tell if it was real or fake.
The wizard
looked at the scientist. He adjusted his gray hat. “I'm sorry for
laughing at you earlier.” he said with a frown, “But I'm not sure
if I should continue. At first I came here expecting to fix problems.
The problems where scientists would make robots with artificial
intelligences that would make their machines smack into walls while
we would bring souls to Earth in worthless bodies like zombies. I
thought I was going to be here to bring humanity into a new age of
soul summoning. But in truth I'm not here to help make progress. I'm
just here to help a lonely man get a son.”
The scientist
then yelled, “You're talking as if there's something wrong with
that!”
The wizard then
took a glance at the robot then back to the scientist. He took
glances back and forth between the both of them several times. He
then pulled out a bag from the belt beneath his robes. He poured out
all the spell components on the floor. Then he began the soul
summoning ritual.
“So
scientist, how exactly do you intend to get this soul to attach to
your robot? At first I didn't question it but now I wonder how a man
with little knowledge of magic would be able to make something that
could hold a soul. If you had that knowledge why would you need me?”
The scientist
smiled at the wizard. “No, I need you. I know very little about
magic. The logic of magic is often bizarre, backwards and often
arbitrary to me. It would probably take me years to truly comprehend
it. But I knew that even if they didn't make sense to me magic did
have rules and I didn't have to understand them to use them. The
robot body is built to follow the rules and standards for artificial
bodies like a zombie or a golem except with robotic parts. I don't
understand the reasons behind the rules or standards but eventually I
figured out how to replicate them with robotic parts.”
The wizard then
laughed, “So you actually don't understand any of it. You're like a
kid copying the answers of a textbook for his homework. That's rather
clever scientist. So all I have to do is send the soul into the body
like I would for a zombie or golem?”
“Yes. That
should work.” the scientist worked very hard to maintain a
professional composure but the fact the wizard was cooperating made
him ecstatic.
The wizard
nodded. “Good. You should be glad you got a wizard of my talent. I
can summon the soul of a young boy who had an untimely death. He
won't know that, he won't have any memories for that matter, but his
essence will still be there. He won't know how to speak. You okay
with that?” The ritual was going along fine. The wizard could
easily perform it with distractions. He was one of the most skilled
wizards of them all. One of the reasons the scientist risked his life
to go into the land of the dangerous wizards who hated scientists was
to get someone of his talents.
The scientist
shook his head, “Memories shouldn't be a problem. I've given him
memories to allow him to understand language and how to walk and
talk. He'll know what our world is like, for example he know what a
cat or dog or tree is. Or what a wizard or scientist is. Though I
haven't given him any sort of artificial memories beyond concepts. I
want him to live his own life. But he'll know how to speak.”
The wizard
laughed. “Wow. I am impressed. I'm getting a new found respect for
your talents scientist. If it actually works and the soul goes into
this machine like it would a normal magical vessel like a zombie you
would have cheated magic!” the wizard then noticed the scientist
looking awkwardly at the robot body. “I'm sorry I'm laughing again.
I'm not considering how much differently this situation means for you
than it does for me” The wizard continued the magic soul summoning
ritual successfully despite their conversation. He was close to
finishing.
“It's
alright. In a way we're practically from different worlds.” The
scientist smiled at the wizard. “Okay. As soon as you finish the
ritual it should automatically start up.” The scientist didn't want
to call his prospective son “it” but he wasn't sure how
comfortable the wizard was with the concept of it being a living "he" and he didn't want the
wizard to have second thoughts at the last moment.
“Alright.”
the wizard responded. “As soon as I finish say a few last magic
words the ritual will be complete.” then the wizard glared at the
scientist. “And if you laugh I will kill you.” the
wizard then took a deep breath before saying the magic words, “Foo,
hoo, yuu, tu-tu, doo-doo!” Considering he was about to have his
long awaited son it did not take much effort for the scientist to
resist laughing at the magic words.
Without any
prompt from either the wizard or the scientist the robot got up and
looked around the room. It looked startled, its prosthetic able to
move perfectly to create human expression. It became even more
shocked when it looked at its hands and own body.
“Holy crap
I'm a robot!” the young boy modeled robot shouted at the top of
steel lungs.
The scientist
approached the robot. “I know this must be scary for you. But it's
all okay. I'm here for you. I'm your new father and this wizard
helped me create you by bringing your soul into this world.”
“Well duh!”
the young boy robot yelled back. “This is a lab. I'm a robot on an
operating table and your wearing a friggin' lab coat! It's not that
hard to figure out! And really the soul's probably the only a reason
you'd have a wizard over here. Oh, God. I just looked over at the
chalkboard you have over there with all the equations and I
understand them all. Did you give me a super brain too?”
The wizard then
gave the scientist a judgmental glare, like a scornful father.
“Really now? I just thought you gave him memories to help him walk
and talk? And he says super brain?”
The scientist
responded with an awkward look on his face, “I just wanted my son
to be smart.”
The robotic boy
then smiled. “Okay, I can totally dig a super brain. So how about
any other cool gadgets and stuff?”
The scientist
looked back at him puzzled. “Cool gadgets? What do you mean?”
“Y'know.”
the boy responded. “Like jet boots. Please told me you gave me jet
boots. I don't need lasers or scanners or extendable but for the love
of God please tell me you gave me jet boots.”
“N-no.” the
scientist replied with a stutter. “I didn't give you jet boots.. I
didn't give you anything extra either.”
The boy then
leaped off the table. “Man what kind of mad scientist are you then?
No jet boots or anything?”
The scientist
then mumbled back, “I'm not a mad scientist. I just wanted a son.”
The scientist then looked over to the wizard with a pleading look.
“Hey, don't
look at me like that. It's your kid now. You made your bed now you
lie in it.” the wizard then started to head out the door. “Now if
you'll excuse me I have an episode of Hot Witches & Broomsticks
to catch on my crystal ball.”
This work is
copyright Langdon Kennedy you may share this story(email it, print
it, post it on your own website etc.) work unaltered as long as you
credit me as the author and put a link to this blog and it is not for
profit.
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