Mantis's Birth

"What a bother!" Malvoes exclaimed after throwing away the fifth piece of paper. The  source of his frustration was his decision to create a puppet, which wouldn't be so bad considering he was trained to do so since he could walk, except for the fact that he couldn't manage to figure out a design. Flailing his arms about as he drops his head onto the desk in his study, sighing heavily. Closing his eyes in an effort to forget his futile attempts, he soon feels a tap on his hand. He brings his head up to look at the intrusion and it's one of his kikaichu, trying to encourage him to continue working. Sighing happily he opens up his palm for the bug, "You little bugs have always kept me going, I guess you have to since you live with me..." Looking at the kikaichu crawling around his hand let Malvoes stumble upon an idea. "You little bugs are fantastic!" Letting the kikaichu return to inside him he started furiously scribbling out his schematics. "I shall call him mantis, for the curved blades he wields and that pincer mouth of his." Holding up his design he smiles and then starts listing out what he'll need for his puppet. "The wood is no issue, but I'll have to call on an old connection of dad's to get the blades made." He draws up some designs for the blades themselves and a letter requesting them to be made. "Hopefully Darius won't mind, I mean he hasn't gotten a request from us in a while." Malvoes straps on his shoes and grabs his jacket, quickly heading out to take the letter to send the letter out and collect some wood. Dashing through the streets, weaving through the crowds of people until he reached his destination, the courier office. "Hello Steven." He greets the man behind the desk of the courier office, Steven nods and holds out his hand. Handing the letter to stecen Malvoes says, "Here you go, make sure this gets to Darius the metalsmith." Steven nods and Malvoes takes off out of the building heading out to his next stop, s shipyard. A long time ago Malvoes's father struck a deal with the owner of the shipyard, Sal, so that his son and himself if ever in the need of lumber would be capable of taking spare from his stockpiles. Little did Sal realize that dear ole'dad was a puppet maker, but his loss was our gain. Malvoes soon stepped onto the shack marking this local shipyard's company headquarters, inside was a bald man working at a desk, writing casually in his book. "Yo Sal! I'm here for some materials." Malvoes greeted the man, looking up with a grimace at his unannounced visitor Sal spoke in a gruff voice "Kid, I thought you'd never be back again, was thinking I'd actually get some business." Smiling his trademarked crooked smile Malvoes retorted back with,"Sal I don't know if you've ever had any business." Shaking his head Sal sighs heavily, "Kid, just go get what you'd like and get out of my hair." Malvoes walks out with a final, "You don't have any hair!" as his farewell to his old friend. Walking down the ways to a warehouse marked "Spare Wood" Malvoes throws open the door, revealing lumber of different shapes and sizes, the odds and ends Sal gets with his shipments or just things he scoops out of the water. After rummaging through the cluttered warehouse, Malvoes pulls out a couple misshapen blocks of wood and a decrepit and deformed masthead about his own size. Stepping out around the corner of the warehouse he uncovers and old cart used for transport large pieces of lumber, wheeling it over to the entrance he starts on his first task, loading the cart. Dragging the masthead onto cart was his only challenge considering it was as tall as him and considerably wider it was no wonder that it was so heavy. After several minutes of sweating and grunting he managed to drag it on the bed of the cart, loading the other pieces on he took his place at the front and started pulling. At first he had trouble getting the cart to move through the streets but as he started to gain momentum he started going faster and the going got easier, that is until he wanted to stop. Colliding with the wall of his home was not a pleasant experience but an effective way to stop moving. Pulling the smaller chunks of wood into his workshop he tosses his jacket into the corner and starts on the task of moving the massive masthead into his shop. After much struggling and an argument with his doorway he makes it into the center of his shop, taking a moment to breath he walks back out and sits on the cart, looking up at the sky. After the rest he makes his way to the front of the cart  and drags it back to the warehouse, covers it back up and then starts dashing back to his home. Shutting the door behind him, he grabs his blueprints and puts it up onto the wall, grabbing a chunk of wood and a carving tool he sits down and gets to work. Taking a chisel he roughly traces out the shape of the head, carving out the rough oval shape he sanded it smooth and got to carving out the face. The mouth didn't need to be operational but it was a touch that Malvoes loved to add, especially since he could also use it as an access panel, he carved out the inside of the skull to make room for the mechanism he planned on adding, he finally etched out the eyes, deciding he would paint the details last, grabbing the scrap wood from this piece he decides that he'd be able to use what's left to create his mandibles. first he started sharpening out the points and after that was simply a matter of following his design, he set the mandible close to the head, so they could await their paint job together. Malvoes stretches out, looking up from his work with a smile on his face, his eyes go wide realizing that night is upon him. He quickly cleans up his desk and heads off to bed, his head swimming with ideas of what the future will bring.

[(1,074/2,800) for Mantis. +3 stat points?]

Waking up with the rising sun, Malvoes smiles brightly as he remembers what today's task is going to be, the creation of Mantis. Quickly getting dressed he makes his way to his fridge, and after deciding to fry an egg for breakfast, he heads down to his workshop after scarfing it down. He pats the huge masthead and nods at the head he made the night before. He drags over the two other large pieces of wood and lines them up, marking the skeleton out, one would be the top half and the other would be the lower half. Since this was the support structure of the entire puppet, it was key for Malvoes to take his time and make sure that it is perfectly carved. Down from where the head will be connected it'll be a series of beams and joints, making a rough outline of a human body, except for the lack of hands and feet, the chest is a cross of sorts with an arc supporting under the top of the cross. Using a large amount of strength he connects the two halves, sealing them together with a series of bolts. Standing up, appreciating his craft, he decides that he should make sure that he can control it, he's never attempted to control a puppet so large, before this he's always just messed with small toys. He extends one of his hands letting his chakra threads descend on the skeleton, and he felt them anchor onto the puppet. Making a few gestures the skeleton slowly gets up, moving his hand around he easily makes the puppet walk around. "This isn't as hard as I thought it would be," he says happily letting the skeleton fall. He then turns his attention to the masthead, he first takes a moment to appreciate the quality of this aged wood and then takes a chisel and starts marking where he'll be carving out the outer shell of the puppet. This will be placed over the skeleton, giving it its appearance and its defense. A majority of the wood will be used to plate the chest, the rest will be for the arms and the legs. He starts carving out the chest, which won't necessarily be large though it will be thick, to make sure that it can withstand any blows it takes. He slowly cuts it off of the main block, setting it aside while he carves out the plating for the limbs, he sets out measuring what he'll need and starts tracing out where he'll need to cut, using the wood as well as he can. Cutting the separate pieces out was a simple process of curving behind where he has carved before, making the cuts as clean as possible so he could reseal them back onto the skeleton. After his task he brings them over next to the skeleton and starts lining up the back pieces so they make the outline of the puppet. Malvoes lifts up the skeleton and places the joints between the pieces of the outer shell, lining up the limbs and the chest to their shell pieces. He then takes the front halves of the outer shell, placing them around the skeleton onto their companion pieces, also putting on the feet and the sockets for the blades. Slowly and carefully going around bolting the pieces together and sealing them, he steps over to his desk and retrieves the head of mantis, placing the mandibles into their sockets, he then takes the puppet and places it into a vat of liquid, he places a lid onto the vat and quickly lights a fire under it. As the vat heats up the wood will absorb the concoction within it and use it as a reinforcement, making it sturdy enough to handle most assaults from nearly any ninja. Making sure the fire is roaring he grabs his jacket and makes his way down the street, weaving through the sparse crowd. He quickly makes his way to the courier office and steps to the counter of the main desk, "Hello Steven, do have a package for me?" Malvoes says happily, Steven nods before turning around and searching through the several spaces until finally grabbing a package and handing it to Malvoes. "Thank you Steven, always a pleasure speaking to you." Malvoes says cheerily, bounding out to the street, sprinting his way home. He enters the workshop placing the package on his desk, he grabs a large hook, uncovering the vat and fishing out the puppet, hanging it up to dry. He places the lid back onto the vat and sits at his desk, unwrapping the pale brown paper he reveals a box with a note attached to it and the schematics for the blades. First he opens up the letter and it reads;

He opens up the box revealing a velvet lining, surrounding two 36 inch long curved blades, slowly he retrieves the blades from the box, testing their weight and their sharpness. He places them down onto the desk, and walks over to the puppet, checking around it to make sure that it is dry. Taking it down, he brings it over to the desk and lays it out on the floor, sprawling out the arms. He grabs the blades from the desk and starts the task of socketing them into their corresponding places, sealing them tightly. He steps back looking at the nearly finished product, smiling at his work so far. He walks back over to his desk, opening up one of the large drawers, he pulls out two jars of paint, a black jar and an emerald jar, and a paint brush. He kneels down at the head of puppet and starts painting the black eyes of the puppet. Finishing up the easy task he goes on with the emerald paint and covers the tips of the mandibles, and after doing so he waits a few moments for the paint to dry. He then flips it over and paints an emerald smile onto the back of the puppet’s torso, the smile is nearly identical to the one on Malvoes' bandanna, except for the fact that it bridges along the shoulders of the puppet. He cleans up the paint brush and returns the jars back to the desk drawer, taking a moment to relax as the paint dries before continuing working on the puppet. After taking his breather he opens another drawer filled with mechanical parts, and begins pulling out odds and ends. He starts putting pieces together, making a central box and having two symmetrical prong mechanisms stem off from either side. As he finishes building the device he turns it around and places his hand onto the box, channeling his chakra through it for a moment it quickly pulls the two prong mechanisms back with a considerable amount of force. He steps over to the puppet, flipping it over, and opens it's mouth, he maneuvers his hand and the device into the head of puppet, socketing the prong mechanisms into the back of the mandible joints. Malvoes closes it's mouth and flips the puppet over, grabbing onto the back of the head, lifting it up slightly. He channels his chakra through his hands into the puppet's head, triggering the mechanism, making the mandibles quickly slam together, closing into a vicious bite. Nodding approvingly he sets the puppet down, and starts looking around the shop. "Now we can't have you going into battle naked, I believe I had something around here." He opens up a chest, and searches through the bits of fabric. "Aha!" he exclaims as he pulls out a dark hoodless cloak, he makes his way over to the puppet and props the torso up. He carefully slides it onto mantis's shoulders and lets him drop. Standing back he extends his left hand, "Hope this works." He says nervously, three chakra strands extend from three fingers, one from each, and connect to various places on Mantis. "Wakey, wakey." Malvoes says with a smile, pulling his hand upward, mechanically Mantis rises, his torso swinging upward slowly. Soon his head adjusts to sit upright and with a flick of two fingers his arms come into a ready position, and his legs spread out onto the ground taking a good position. "If I didn't know better I'd say you've come to life." Malvoes jokes, sweeping his hand making mantis dash to the side. "Now let's see some combat." Malvoes says as he nimbly moves his hands and his fingers, making mantis swipe at some spare wood, chopping it up easily, making neat little squares. "Now bite," Malvoes says flicking his wrist, Mantis leans forward as his mandibles forcefully close on a chunk of wood crushing it easily in a spray of splinters. "Now let's try the blade channeling." Malvoes states, twisting his fingers and pulling his hand back, Mantis leaps backwards as he does, extending his arms out and his blades start glowing a pale blue with an aura around them. Swinging his hand about, Malvoes makes Mantis dash forward, furiously swiping. As he swipes, the chakra infused blades seem to literally cut the air they were going through, leaving streaks of blue as they slashed, and with a flick of the hand the glow ends. Malvoes maneuvers Mantis back over to his desk, making him leap onto it looking outwards. He releases his chakra threads and walks over to Mantis, looking him over one last time. "You're a bit heavier than the toys I'm used to, but I'm sure with practice I think you'll do. Mantis you and I are partners from this day onward, you are my first puppet and I hope that the work I've put into creating you will be reflected in your fights. Let's make a name for ourselves my friend, Malvoes and his masterwork puppets!" Malvoes says with a loud cheer, smiling at his emotionless puppet, as he looks at the puppet he gets a strange feeling and his smile slowly fade, he stands there for several moments looking at the puppet. It was perfectly to his design specs but it looked incomplete for some reason. He hurriedly pulls out his blueprints and stares at them, quickly looking back and forth to the puppet and the plans, not being able to see what it was. Then it hits him, "I forgot to give you your hair!" he exclaims clambering around his workshop. As he searches he stumbles upon an old bin of wigs that at one time had been use excessively, prying it open he begins searching through it. After several minutes of scrounging he finds a short haired red wig that would fit Mantis perfectly. He makes his way over to Mantis, grabbing a bottle of adhesive liquid as he does. He puts a fine layer over the top of Mantis's head and slowly affixes the wig to it. Adjusting it slightly and combing it to perfection. "There looks like you've grown it yourself to be honest." He says beaming at his work, satisfied with what he has done he puts away the jar of adhesive and latches the wig box back up, putting it back into it's place. Yawning dramatically he heads up to his bed, falling asleep quickly.

[+1,924 words, making my total 2,998/2,800. also +9 stat point for this?"