Alchemical Revenue

[Janick Beauchamp]

Oh... after the whole saga of rebuilding the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center was over, funded by money from her tihaar and ion bomb royalties, she could return to her primary business, that of alchemy. She looked at the prepaid, unearned revenues, and realized that the larger item in the unearned revenue book belonged to one [member="Sky'ito Yumi"] and that she had to somehow earn the revenue associated with it, and hence transfer it from a liability to equity. She was reminded of what chemical knowledge was relevant to teach the alchemy lessons associated with it: chemical reaction kinetics, activation energy, and also, the various species of spirit ichor which, in an alchemical sense, are to be considered as reagents in their own right when balancing equations for the purpose of chemical kinetics. In crystallography, the various stuff, such as Bravais lattices and other notions of crystalline structure relevant to an alchemist. Then again, perhaps she seems disposed to go write another holo-message to Sukai on her datapad to schedule an appointment where Sukai would actually be taking her lesson, whom she knew used the backyard forge when she last visited the Utapau Alchemy Castle, with the roads looking much better now.

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ATTN: Sukai Yumi

I may be wondering whether you are still interested in the alchemy lessons you paid a 500-credit deposit for. Let me know your availabilities and I shall attempt to schedule a lesson.

Janick

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[Sky'ito Yumi]

If asked about the lesson Sukai would say she remembered, being a vampire allowed for rather good memory, not perfect but they did not fade like a normal persons, something one needed when living a few thousand years. Though as for the lessons, well yes she was more then interested and for more reasons then one, let us just say she needed to use it for an 'under cover' emmm... mission of sorts, the objective, personal for now, but that was not a problem just yet. Taking her data pad the young Jin typed a reply to the master craftswoman.

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ATTN: [member="Janick Beauchamp"]

Thank you for contacting me about the lessons, and yes I am very much still interested in learning alhemy from you, is should be avaliable for anytime you find convenient.

Sukai'ito

---

It was a good thing as of late she had undertaken lessons from Yeoh Wu about the art of small and her mother about some basic forms of alchemy getting a small amount of knowledge before lessons could start. In addition Sukai had done a little bit of self study on crystallography, nothing over the top of complicated, mainly just theory based thing and general know how, but under Janicks hand Sukai was confident that her skills would sky rocket, slow at the start but in time gaining momentum and speed.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

So, whenever Sukai would arrive in Kessil once again, she will realize that the pavement has been remade around the New Barkhesh district and, in fact, city-wide, with the New Barkhesh district being last for some reason. Once the actual lesson starts, Griet would then make the following journal entry: Dr. Unearned revenue 500, Dr. Cash X,000, Cr. Sales revenue X,500, where X is the number of 1,000-credit bills in use; that student usually pays in 1,000-credit bills, she thought, while also realizing that allowed crystal structures depend on the chemical bonds between its constituents. She thus checked her agenda for whether she would be available to meet with [member="Sky'ito Yumi"] again. And actually get started with the promised additional lessons, while acknowledging that she would need to find a way to make it stimulating. And hence make sure that the end product that she will get out of the lesson is related to her needs. Now, she would have most of the common materials people at that level of skill in crystallography would ask for, just that she would need to keep in mind the corresponding materials expenses.

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Sukai,

If you could come within 3-5 days, I shall be available to meet with you for your lessons.

Janick

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[Sky'ito Yumi]

As per Janick had suggested Sukai had arrived a few day later, landing in a designated area for once then last time, stepping out of her fighter to few the surrounding area, and by the force had they done quite the make over. A rather new wide all around pavement having been place over the old one, something that probably would be a logistical challenge considering how many people would have used this on a regular basis. "Well this is a nice change, not like I come here often but it's nice, now to find lady Beauchamp for these lessons", the Jin mused to herself heading in the direction of the pre-arranged meeting area. Though having payed a deposit last time around Sukai made sure to bring some extra credits just in case of any more expenses that needed to be covered, one could never to too careful now. With a light skip in her step Sukai continued on her merry way, eager to learn a skill many back among the Silver Jedi would not have the chance to due to their more, light side focus.

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Welcome to the Utai Magic Circle. I was expecting you" she greeted [member="Sky'ito Yumi"], before introducing her into the castle for the second time.

The difference being that, when [member="Sky'ito Yumi"] last went to Utapau, the industrial park of the city was the district having the pavement rebuilt; the Mandos damaged the pavement in that area more. Any extra paid on top of the deposit already paid would at least partially go towards materials and other variable expenses, especially if the new crystals required expensive new materials to build. With the estimate that the deposit would cover the fixed expenses. And also that the journal entry is, in fact, to be made at the end of the training session. This time around, the lesson takes place in the basement. So she had to conjure up the knowledge of physical chemistry in her mind, as relevant to crystallography and phase transitions. If I wanted to build a holocron, which is essentially a solid-state drive activated by the Force, using crystallography, I would probably want some semiconductors, whereas a lightsaber crystal with the ability to channel Force-lightning would comprise cuprates or vonium instead, she thought, while realizing that she built a crystalline Force-detector with sawdust, Asobi 95% tihaar and blood, or a yellow lightsaber crystal with mead.

"With crystallography, there are a lot of different properties you may wish to give a crystal, some of which are dependent on crystalline structure. But you have to realize that some properties are feasible only with certain reagents, while others may not allow the property to occur because the crystalline structure required is impossible. Of course, some reagents may, under standard conditions, be amorphous, liquid or gaseous even, so the Force has to be used to create the necessary heat and pressure, while simultaneously adding in any spirit ichor required to get the desired properties"

 

[Sky'ito Yumi]

Once again as last time [member="Janick Beauchamp"] greeted the young force users, Sukai returning a customary greeting bow, proceeding to follow the woman into the main building, but not before giving the outside one more glace. It was rather nice, the question on how much it costed circulating through her mind before diverting attention away and back to Janick who seemed to be a little stronger in the force since they met, that was good, a powerful teacher meant better learning... usually. Keeping in tight tow Sukai followed down into the castle basement, the room feeling like a place where someone would conjure up dastardly deeds and curse other people. 'I wonder how many other people come down here for practice? what devices of items have been made here, all so interesting'.

Her small internal conversation would be broken as Janick began to speak about the properties of crystal latices and molecular structures. "Yes, I gathered as much, certain atoms and the way they bond do not always allow for the desired structure and arrangement of a crystal. Even the slightest variation in an elements atomic number and the electron shells can greatly affects its stability and the way it bonds with other atoms". "I've the basics of he art of small and altering enviroment to create the conditions needed for configuring but beyond that I do not know much, still I will try my utmost best while learning under you Master Beauchamp".

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"You probably know that the key issue is making sure you get the right reaction mechanism; this will be crucial to ensure that you will actually get the properties right. Not only that, but I suppose crystallography being a delicate process is nothing new to you. Even if you did get the crystal right, how it's cut and polished will affect its Force-properties"

So Sukai knew enough about chemistry to get to the thick of it, and also to know that chemical kinetics are part of the crystallographic game, she thought, while realizing that many would-be alchemists (whatever that means these days, especially since most FUs are drawn to adventure over the more quiet nature of alchemy) often had no clue as to what atomic and molecular structure entailed. She then showed [member="Sky'ito Yumi"] a special instrument that she uses to create alchemical crystals: a Force-crystallizer. Here the pressure vessel is simply a modified quadranium pressure vessel used to store about 20 pounds of liquefied tibanna gas, but she had to acknowledge that Griet may want one as well, especially as the blonde girl grows into someone more skilled in alchemy. Just that, while cooling crystallization was a common one in industrial settings, such as the production of sugar from beets or sugar-cane, it doesn't yield a whole lot of alchemical crystals, and hence phase-transition processes or evaporative processes are more common in the rarefied world of alchemists.

"A pressure vessel, a heating unit, the raw materials mixed inside and then a few Force-actuated controls, which are mostly used to increase or decrease the pressure, increase or decrease the temperature, or to introduce spirit ichor into the crystalline structure, with the seed crystals forming on the walls of the pressure vessel, from which the final crystal(s) are grown, and it requires a lot of concentration to use. However, the spirit ichor must be introduced while the mixture is still liquid, and crystallization is a process that cannot be stopped without ruining the final product. Oh and you may as well be getting your own Force-crystallizer into the cost of this lesson, so insert the mixed reagents into the pressure vessel, and once all the reagents are in the pressure vessel, then you may start heating the contents"

 

[Sky'ito Yumi]

"Yes I know a bit about, needing just the right amount, no more no less, and once again precise craftsmanship is not knew to me, but I did not really know how much that effected the force properties of the crystal being used. Like I expected it to be of some concern but it is quite a skill taxing part of such a process, one slip up and all lost".

She guessed it was the similar way with how even the slightest change in a glass prism could alter the way light recreated and the angle of refraction, but enough monologing, time to study. Following [member="Janick Beauchamp"] lead Sukai's blue eyes stared at the rather expensive looking machine, earning a small mouthed 'whoa' from the young grey Jedi, it seemed to be a simple compressor but no doubt it was heavily modified and altered to be a fine turning device for making the strange force centrist gemstones. Sukai continued to circle around the machine while Janick continued to explain the processes and how it worked, most of it she was able to understand easily, pressuring, heating up, cooling and using a liquid that would slowly crystallize over time forming the final product. She remembered doing some simple things like this as a kid with copper sulphate in a saline solution.

"Purchasing the crystallizer, no problem, I am sure that would be in my price range, so what tips do you have for heating up? is the temperature self regulated? I assume you will be stepping me through the processes so I do not make a mistake". Would not be very cost effective if that was the case, though Sukai would have to get a personal pressure vessels if she was to make her own force crystals in the future. That was unless the Silver Jedi stocked their own, the medical team seemed to make their own, Tana getting a force amulet from the Grand Master to help with healing, so there should be one around the Silver Rest somewhere.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"With the Force-crystallizer, the main reason why it requires constant concentration is due to the heat regulation mechanism, because an unattended crystallizer will cause the temperature to diminish prematurely. Once the crystallization process is complete, you will see the shape of the raw crystal when looking at the crystallizer in the Force"

Now the X in Cr. Sales revenue is known: 17. However, how much of a profit I am making out of her depends on the reagents of the desired crystal, she thought, while realizing that crystals have different recipes, depending on what one wanted out of them, and hence [member="Sky'ito Yumi"] was going to get a crystal that suited her needs. She knew also that there were several recipes to attain the same result, such as lightsaber crystals: mead yielded a yellow blade, she could even get a black lightsaber crystal if she wanted to, provided she could get her hands on Manpha petroleum, and cuprates if she wanted it to channel Force-lightning. And yet, even with all that chemical knowledge contained in her head, she didn't craft that many crystals as an alchemist, and she is left wondering what recipes are out there that might be useful for her to get. Or even create her own recipes if push comes to shove, but she is just preparing to get reagents in order based on what Sukai wanted out of her crystal that she is, in fact, paying good money to learn how to make.

"I am in good faith, and I would like nothing better than to ensure the crystal will be made to your satisfaction. So if you have a specific effect in mind, please tell me so"

 

[Sky'ito Yumi]

Sukai gave a firm nod to [member="Janick Beauchamp"] as she continued to explain the process, herself becoming a little nervous on the process that was about to take place, but also excited to begin and hoping to do a decent task in the process, it would be a shame if her first crustal was unusable. "Concentration and attention, once the raw crystal is finished I assume that is when we will be doing the cutting and shaping"? "As for effect I was thinking of a healing one, to make sure wounds don't put me out of battle for to long, what process would we use for that"?

In truth Sukai was also doing this to mask her vampirc nature, many times in the past herself having to fake wound as a means of hiding her regeneration or just pretending she was never hit in the first place. Though armor was a good help it did not always help and certain wound like internal bleeding were still ever present when the young Jin entered battle. Though, if she had an amulet that healed wounds, well then she could always just use it as an excuse. Though she did wonder, what other types could she make with this device? surely unlike the Jedi back at the Silver Rest Sukai would be capable or making a greater variety of force crystals due to the dark side.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"For the healing effects, it's more of a reagent question than a process question. Since we don't have bacta, kolto is going to be a big deal here, the main ingredient even, and also balms used for first aid"

Pre-Thyferra I would have gone the bacta route, but kolto is the one we ought to use right now. It won't guarantee the same effectiveness as bacta, but better kolto than nothing, she thought, while Manaan was mostly unaffected by the various incursions of the Sith in FWC territory, which mostly hit Alderaan, Kuat and Balmorra, and, to a lesser extent, Hapes and Onderon. While she went out fetching the reagents for Sukai's healing crystal inside the basement's storage room, she realized that [member="Sky'ito Yumi"] had a question left unanswered about where cutting and shaping the crystal fit in the process of crafting alchemical crystals. Even though its answer may be obvious to Janick, perhaps it was not as obvious to Sukai. Once she returns to the pressurizer, with the reagents in hand, the kolto and the balms, as well as the unused blood from Sukai from the last sitting in this castle, ready to be poured in the pressure vessel, she finally provides the answer to Sukai's question, realizing this entire time that she shouldn't have left the question unanswered for so long:

"Yes, it's after the raw crystal is finished, a little hot perhaps, so it is important to wait for the artificial crystal to cool down before cutting it: it's less likely for impurities to be introduced at the cutting stage then. Somce"

 

[Sky'ito Yumi]

"Ah so that is part of the latter stage then, like similar to how the sword was made, the alchemy is what give it's affects", like how [member="Janick Beauchamp"] explained how certain things affected the process. Meaning that if you had drugs in your system or other affects the object someone alchemist, well that was unless Sukai was completely wrong, but that was why she had a craft master with her. In this case Kolta was chosen, she remembered her mothers stories about how the product had been all but forget in time, during the Galactic civil war the empire finding about it and invading the planet. In that time Kolto was a cheap alternative to bacta and many stating it was not as effective, but such could have changed.

It had been many years since the product was still used widely and there were reports that the liquid was actually more potent then Bacta in the past, if the crystal had a good quality Kolta then perhaps the item would actually be more effective, but that had yet to be seen. In the mean time Janick replied to her posed question after returning with the necessary materials, "okay, just wondering, I would like to not make any mistake and get and hang for this as soon as possible without rushing". "Ah we to start now"?

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"So we are, in fact, to start now" she told Sukai after inserting the kolto and the first aid balm into the crystallizer.

She watched carefully as [member="Sky'ito Yumi"] started the crystallizer and also she kept an eye for the inside of the crystallizer in the Force, watching as Sukai's concentration seems to be increasing and making sure that she does not disturb the energy vampire, and also sensing that the hexagonal seed seems to be forming at the bottom of the crystallizer, with the resulting crystal yielding a hexagonal Bravais lattice, and, due to that particular batch of kolto's green-ish hues, she would expect the resulting crystal to be green, much like she would expect a bacta crystal to be blood red, with the same properties and then some. Oh, because Sukai seems to appreciate what I can put on the table, I still accepted to teach her about crystallography even though my experience with crystal making is rather limited; that said, I think I would be able to make some progress in that direction, just that more and more my clients seem to want some learning out of me, and not just an alchemized object, she thought, while realizing that perhaps future alchemists operating in ORC-land may wish to look to her for stuff at that level.

 

[Sky'ito Yumi]

Sukai inhaled with sharpy as [member="Janick Beauchamp"] went to work inserting the ingredients into the pressure chamber, reaching out with the force and concentrating on the items inside, the first closing in around in a ball shape. Slow a new object formed inside the contraption, hexagonal, slowly forming the lactic structure of the crystal that would come to be. She could feel it growing bit by bit, Yeoh Wu's lesson on the art of small allowing Sukai to keep close track of the atoms and molecules as they bonded with one another, forming a larger and larger crystal. "I believe that it is almost ready, what is the procedure once the crystal reached the right size, keep it pressurized with the force"? she asked not diverting attention away from the chamber. Once again she wanted to make sure this when perfectly not mistakes not mishaps, yes it was slow but once she got a feel for it the young Jin would be able to make more and more crystals by herself.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Now it is time to cool down the crystal while maintaining the pressure, and after the contents returned to room temperature you can gradually reduce pressure, because maintaining the temperature while pressure was being lowered could result in the crystal melting or evaporating"

To ensure that the crystal remained solidified after all the reagents were, in fact, crystallized, it was recommended that the temperature was lowered, since there would be no risk of it melting in the crystallizer at high temperatures, since lowering the pressure at constant temperatures could result in it melting while still maintained at this temperature. I wonder how much chemical knowledge really is required for me to master that part of the art, knowing how much I already have - but I guess it might depend on exactly what I wish to achieve with the crystals, she thought, realizing that there was so much chemical knowledge that she would probably want to access if she wanted certain properties even if it meant going to read scholarly chemistry journals to get the alchemy process started. She watched carefully as [member="Sky'ito Yumi"] was entering the final stages of the crystallization process, satisfied of the learning she made thus far, but then came the other part commonly considered as a bottleneck: cutting and polishing. While, of course, she could cut a crystal with a cubic, orthorhombic or tetragonal Bravais lattice into a rectangular prism, lattices imposed constraints in other cases.

"The crystal lattice will generally determine which shape is optimal for getting the most out of the crystal: here a hexagonal cross-section will be the way to go"

 

[Sky'ito Yumi]

"I see, keep it pressured and let it cool down". Keeping the force enclosed around the crystal Sukai continued to put pressure on the crystal as the heat slowly abated, feeling the crystals edges, sharp uncut natural but with potential. It took a while but soon the pressured chamber became cool once more, but Sukai did not let off the force until told so, 'I wonder how easy this if for master, could people keep track of more then one crystal at a time? She wondered if the healing amulets that the Silver Jedi used where made in the same manner, ones that increased the person force powers in that area. Perhaps she would be able to do some study on the side while waiting for the next lesson she was to have with [member="Janick Beauchamp"]. Soon it was ready to the crystal to be cut, the shaping part that would define the items powers and use. "What tools do we use to cut the crystal, also do I take it out now"?

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"I think we can take it out now. As for crystal-cutting tools, I usually use sonic scalpels for that sort of thing"

[member="Sky'ito Yumi"] would probably realize that it's often the preferred route if you have enough reagents to produce several crystals in one batch: cutting one big raw crystal into several smaller crystals, with the wastes being kept aside for other purposes, such as other crystals with similar properties, so as to reduce the quantities of reagents for future crystals. So she started noting what the reagents were in each batch of crystallized waste, since she knew that Griet's memory wasn't as good as hers. Especially since Griet could, later down the road, be alchemizing those crystals: she knew enough about crystallography thanks to her knowledge of mining engineering to get started. At some point I really ought to teach Griet how to make crystals using alchemy, especially if Sukai is satisfied. In that case Griet will likely be satisfied, too, she thought, while acknowledging that Griet was growing as an alchemist with her role in the Circle. She then fetched a sonic scalpel, while being mindful of how sharp the knife actually is, and why sonic scalpels were well-suited to such use.

"The reason why polished, cut crystals are often better than unpolished ones is because unpolished crystals would make the energy flow unevenly, especially in the direction of the flaws"

 

[Sky'ito Yumi]

Sukai gave a nod to [member="Janick Beauchamp"], slowly opening the pressured container after what had felt like an our, stilling holding the crystal within the grasp of the force, the un-cut a raw looking item coming into view of the vampire, "It looks quite... interesting". If was the first time she has seen a crystal in the unrefined state, herself slowly moving the new crafted product over to he table, while Janick fetched the cutting and shaping tools, soon the master returning with the deadly sharp instruments. "Is polishing the crystal similar to polishing a mirror, to not distort the light, or in this case the flow of the force, understandable". "Soo, how should we proceed on cutting this, is there a special way or shape that must be used"? she replied, looking back to the raw crystal that lay before her. "Also what materials will be used for fashioning, like a pendant or necklace?

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"The cross-section should usually mirror that of the lattice, since polishing a crystal is much like polishing a mirror, and usually the Force flows best into a crystal if the polished crystal had the same cross-section as its lattice"

If the Bravais lattice was a parallepiped, then so should the cross-section of the resulting polished crystal be. [member="Sky'ito Yumi"] readily understood that, and same was the case if it was hexagonal. There were six fundamental Bravais lattices: cubic, tetragonal (also called quadratic), orthorhombic, monoclinic, triclinic and hexagonal, even though, as far as she was concerned, polishing crystals with quadratic and cubic lattices was the same as polishing crystals with an orthorhombic lattice, so, for the purposes of polishing a crystal, there were really four possible lattice systems: orthorhombic, monoclinic, triclinic and hexagonal.

"As for a pendant, one should make sure that the crystal gets wider until it reaches about 5/6 of the length or so, and then it starts narrowing down again. Materials that should be used for setting a crystal in should normally not react with the crystal's constituents, or else it would interfere with the crystal's properties"

 

[Sky'ito Yumi]

"Okay so cut parallel to the crystal latices, can do, seems that the force works in a similar fashion to light waves, rather interesting don't you think"? It was kind of useful in that regard, made talking to scientific people a little easier as it would not simple be pushed aside as silly religion or what not. Turning back to the crystal Sukai took the scalpel in hand, feeling around the crystal structure, how it was formed and the best way to cut it as [member="Janick Beauchamp"] continued to explain the next stage of making the full item. "Wide 5/6 of length then narrow it, okay got it, and shall I leave the pentand part up to you? guessing this place has the necessary metals to make a nice necklace from this", she replied going to work on the rough crystal that lay before her.