A New Work

The process of making a new puppet was always a hard thing to accomplish for Ryuken, but he reveled in the opportunity whenever one rose. He had an itch to create something and in the theme of getting stronger for the village's sake, a new puppet was certain to kill two birds with one stone. The sun was out and the whole village was abuzz with people going about their daily lives. Ryu however, was sitting at his desk at home. He was working on the preliminary sketches for his new creation. Though it was the first and arguably easiest step in the process, it was often the part that took him the longest. Just getting a simple shape that he felt good about could take him hours if not days.

He tossed another scrap of paper, covered in bad designs, and grabbed another fresh one. He was finally starting to get somewhere at least. He had an idea for a puppet that could retract inside a shell, similar to a turtle. The only thing was, a plain old turtle wouldn't look intimidating at all. It wouldn't do to have an opponent laugh when he readied his weapons. And what use would a turtle hiding in its shell really be? No. It needed more, he drew sketches of designs with gas canisters, senbon launchers, even a built in ballista turret. None of them felt like they were right though. He decided to scrap the turtle idea, but keep the hard outer shell. If a turtle wasnt going to work then maybe another animal. The armadillo could be perfect. They were able to tuck away in a protective shell, but still maintained the ability to move.

He started drawing armadillo like designs, a puppet that could roll into its shell and be used like a wrecking ball. He wouldnt stop with just that. He could incorporate other animal abilities into it. Why stop with just one? His mind began to race with all sorts of wild animal combinations, but he decided going too crazy could hurt the puppet's concept. Keeping in theme with defensive animals he thought of the porcupine. It protects itself with sharp quills that deter predators from attacking it. Combining the porcupine with an armadillo he came up with the idea of a rolling spike ball type puppet.

With a solid concept in mind he could finally start to see his ideas take shape. With each scrawled design he could feel himself getting closer to a finished product. It took Ryu a solid three hours just to get a sketched out Blueprint for his latest puppet, but he was proud of it. It looked odd but at the same time a little offputting. Now that he no longer had to hide his puppetry skills from the people of Hoshi he wanted to make something that would stand out and he happily succeeded. He scooped up the sheet of paper the design was drawn on and tried to draw the puppet from a few more angles so that when he started to build it he would have a better reference.

A total of 5 hours in and he was finished with the design stage.

(WC 535)

With a fully fleshed out drawing of his new puppet finally finished Ryu was excited to start the next step of the creation process, material gathering. Making a puppet that would be up to Kugutsui standards required the pink haired jounin to use only the finest materials in Hoshigakure. Getting his hands on those resources wouldn't be a problem for Ryuken really as much as it would be for his wallet. He would need to make a few stops at some niche stores and most of what he need to pick up were pretty pricey goods.

The first thing on his list was the base material he would be using for his puppet. Ryu was a fan of making his creations out of metal, but the type of metal that he used would vary from project to project. His Iron Maiden as the name would suggest was made of iron. This new puppet however would need a couple types of metal. For the hard outer shell he wanted to use steel, but to save his bank account a load of strain he would make the main body out of aluminum. It would be hard enough and easier to mould into shape.

He stopped over at one of the village smiths, a short old man with a long grey beard named Olaf. Ryu always came to him when he needed materials. Olaf had provided supplies to the Kugutsui clan for as long as Ryu could remember and the old man always greeted him with a smile. There werent many Kugutsui left in Hoshi at this point and so Ryuken was sure Olaf was seeing less business than before.

He was presented with enough metal and gladly paid for his goods. "You've always got what I need Old man. Don't know how I would get by without you." He would laugh over his shoulder as he left the shop. From there the next step would be to gather all the fabrics he would need to pull the look together and keep the puppet from looking like a walking hunk of metal.

Ryu bought his fabrics from a small shop on the outskirts of the nice part of the city that was owned by a trio of lively young sisters. He wasnt sure if the girls owned the shop or just worked in a family business, but they were the only people who seemed to work at the store. Whatever the case was they stocked the shop with all sorts of odd fabrics one couldn't find in a normal store. He grabbed a few bundles of thick brown cotton fabric and quickly headed towards his final destination for his shopping list. All he needed was a couple buckets of paint. For that he usually just went to whatever paint shop was nearest by. Paint was paint, no point in being picky about where he bought it from.

With all of his materials prepped and ready to go Ryu would be able to start making his new puppet. That would have to wait until the next day though, because the jounin was exhausted and his muscles were sore from carrying all of his materials around all day. It was better than making more than one trip.

(WC 542)
(TWC 1077)

Ryuken woke up the day after his shopping spree and started off with a little bit of breakfast. He had a long day ahead of him and he needed to make sure to eat before he forgot. His cooking was nothing to write home about but he made himself a bowl of rice and cracked an egg over it before throwing it all in a pan and frying it up. Not the healthiest of things to eat for breakfast, but Ryu and healthy eating didn't mesh usually anyways. He sat down at his dining table and idly worked away at his bowl of rice while he looked over his final drafts for the puppet's design.

He was used to getting lost in making things over and over again in his mind and he felt that it helped him when actually putting his craft into practice. If he can visualize himself making it then he can do it in real life too. Once his bowl was devoid of any more food the pink haired man sprang to work. With his hunger needs taken care of for the time being he could buckle down and focus on the hand work. The first thing he needed to do was make all of the parts that would be moving within the puppet's body and the joints for the limbs. Making small fashions like those was a simple task for him at this point. After all he had been hand making all of his parts since he was a teenager.

The second step was a much more challenging process. That would be shaping the metal to actually form the puppet. For this particular work he would need to shape aluminum and steel. The aluminum would be fairly simple, he would be able to heat and bend the metal using fire chakra in his hands. He could form the shapes he needed almost as easy as moulding clay in that way. The steel however, needed much more heat to make malleable. He would need to course intense heat into the metal and use tongs to grab and shape. A much longer process that required a more delicate touch and a load of patience.

The sun was only just rising when he began working on shaping the metal and it was already high in the sky by the time he had all of the individual parts fashioned and finished. Ryu needed to take a break and probably take a shower. He had been sweating from all of the heat and molten metal. The process was grueling and intense but in the end it was always worth it. He had made puppets out of wood before, but he felt that his heart was never really in those projects. Where he really felt the exhilaration of creating something was when he was working with metal. It was almost therapeutic for him after doing it for years.

Looking at all of the parts, finished but strewn all over the place, he realized how much of a pain piecing all of them together would be. He decided to go get some lunch and worry about it afterwards.

(WC 526)
(TWC 1603)