Xanadu Weyr - Clearing
A large, flat clearing stretches out in three directions, the ground packed tightly, though there are manicured areas of grass and flowers interspersed within the center point, raised beds containing various colored blooms throughout the warmer times of the year. Trees, however, are strictly absent, and even with the landscaping, there are plenty of open spaces for the constant draconic traffic which passes through this clearing.
The tall cliff housing the center point of the Weyr looms up in the west, pale stone stretching out to the north and south, visible as a light backdrop to the other buildings of the Weyr, while to the south, in the distance, a bit of sparkling water can be seen on a reasonably clear day. Scattered along the outskirts of this clearing are carefully built complexes, utilizing the new technology available. It is here that the crafters and residents are housed and work, though the hatching arena is certainly the center point, the large round complex taking up a large portion of the perimeter, a line of trees visible beyond it.
Large, lightweight shelters have been set up over the strategically laid-out walkways of Xanadu's clearing in an attempt to protect those at the gather from the beating rays of the sun. It is underneath these canvas shields that booths have been set up - bakers, harpers, smiths, and woodcrafters alike, side by side, with other crafts are well represented as well. Powered lights are spaced along the paths, in celebration of the return of full power, lighting up the shade.
The heat of the summer afternoon is starting to fade as the sun drops towards the horizon, casting a golden hue over the relative calm of the Xanadu clearing, with most choosing to avoid the heat. Calm, that is, until a strong explosion rocks a central portion of the crafter's complex, near the computer workshop, sending smoke out the open windows accompanied by panicked cries, and shouting.
Having been monitoring the computers during this bit of metal working, C'ale nearly leaps out of his seat at the sound of the explosion, coughing, and hacking at the thick, acrid smoke. « I'm fine, calm down Kee'. » He calls out to his panicked life mate. "Hey, is everyone OK!?" He bellows out as he waves his hand through the smoke, trying to get a peek down at his laptop as he hugs the computer close to him.
Tay sputters and chokes as she stumbles out of the craft complex with many others of the craft persuasion. Smudged and streaked, scratched and cut are those who rush out. At least this time Tay can openly say she had nothing to do with thie disaster, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ryski had been collecting things in the infamous bucket of his. The rocking and horrid loudness of the explosion has the little boy falling down though, staring wide-eyed at the billowing smoke and people starting to rush about.
Niva was in her office for the explosion, and as such doesn't take too long before she's out in the clearing, standing with mouth gaping, looking around for some source. And then, her senses return to her and she's rushing towards those exiting the complex, lifting her voice, hoping to be heard above everyone else. "Is anyone injured?"
Kirilla had been working in the main cavern - at the sound of the explosion, she is on her own way out, not far behind Niva, eyes wide in both curiousity and horror.
Smoke plumes upward, dragons rumbled and bugle as their riders are called forth. Techies rush about like avians with their heads cut off as people move inward to get the fire out. "There's still people in the Computer Lab Niva, think that's where it all started at." the stumbling greenlet calls out. Luckily for Tay she was not in that section of the complex, nope she was in plasticraft going over well that's not important.
As some of the crafters have drifted out of the complex, and the smoke is starting to clear finally, there's another quick rumble and a series of loud cracks, almost like firecrackers, before the smoke starts to pour out anew. Standing on her tiptoes, she nods at Tay, moving to open up the external door to the computer section. "Hey!"
Finding Niva, and Tay in the smoke, C'ale is coughing into an arm, while balancing his computer on the other. "Hey!" He calls over to the pair, trying to keep his head down as he wheezes. "You should see these numbers. Something is happening in there." He insists, glancing over to the computer room. With another cough, he puts the laptop down before them.
Ryski just sits there on the ground, looking rather shocked about the whole thing. He gets up after a moment though, letting out a little cry as he runs over toward Tay, latching onto her.
Tay drops to one knee as she sputter and coughs, patting Ryski on the back as the boy grabs on to her. "It's okay." she murmurs to him before a hand lifts to wave at Niva "Shells, I thought those numbers were a fluke when they rose and fell yesterday."
Niva waves her hand back and forth in front of her face, trying to clear the smoke while she ducks slightly, moving to help C'ale out of the smoke should he need it. "Numbers?" Glancing over her shoulder at the central location for the weyr's technology, she looks almost confused. "How do numbers have anything to do with this?" Poor, technologically inept Niva.
"I was mining the reproduction manner for the metal, because I was hoping to find an easier way to replicate it at a faster pace, with our limited resources." C'ale says, piping up quickly as he points at the screen, showing off harmonics of all sorts. Graphs, waves, lines. "See, here is the normal, weekly testing, right? Now look at it." He says, pulling up a new screen. "Its.. mutating. We got a new compound being created right in front of our eyes… well.. more like.. in there." He points over to the site.
Niva stares at him for a long moment, rather confused before she finally looks at the charts and graphs and all on his screen. And, at the screen she stares for a long moment, before looking back over her shoulder at the poor section of the complex which is finally ceasing to smoke. "You mean…" And trailing off, she ducks as she turns to head into the complex, coughing slightly as she tries to keep below what smoke is still stuck inside.
"I'm naming it!" C'ale insists as he hurries after Niva, leaving the laptop behind to rest on the bench outside. He fans the smoke from his face, before pulling his flight goggles over his head, tightening it around his eyes. "Did you see the charts though? Its very dense, most likely the hardest compound I have /ever/ seen on here! With just the right temperature, we can break it down into a liquid, and then begin duplicating, and regenerating it. Maybe its an active alloy. I can't wait to get ahold of it."
Niva pauses, ducking close to the ground to take a few deep breaths before she heads in the direction of the compound creation counters, looking for the one most recently in use. "I'll take your word on it, wingsecond." And then, she gives way to him, to find out where exactly she should be looking.
Pulling on some gloves out of his back pocket, C'ale hopes to protect his hands from any radioactive type material, or painful in general. He pulls out a small monitoring radio next, and begins to calibrate it for this new metal as he scans the ground. There is a loud, rambling clicking noise coming from the squawk box as he lets out a breath, then starts to root through the debris, fishing about. "There it is." He hacks out, pointing to the bright glints of metal that has a bit of a shiny, green texture to it.
Niva leans a bit closer to look at the greenish metal in the dish, wrinkling up her nose as she peers at it. Waving her hand around her face a bit more, she glances up at him. "Can you move the dish its in, or is it stuck?" A glance over her shoulder at the room to see what damage was caused, she waits to find out.
Reaching down to the dish, C'ale gets a good grip of it with his hands, then tugs it up a bit, loosening the debris, and soil that covers it. As he wrenches it upwards, he takes a quick stumble backwards, then straightens once more. "It's pretty heavy for such a small bit of it." He admits, squinting at her through his fogged up goggles. "We should get this contained though, just in case."
Niva watches him carefully handle the material, before nodding slowly. "I'll leave it to you to contain it, and test what you can with it.." Coughing, she waves a hand infront of her face once more, moving to exit the room. "We'll see what we can do about cleaning this up.." And she leaves the door open, hoping a breeze would push the rest of the smoke out.
Finding a container, C'ale carefully scoops the new, green metal into it with a loud clink. After making sure he got it all, he seals it off with a tight cap, then puts it in one of the fridges, locking it up. After a bit, he follows after Niva, tugging off his gloves, and tossing them off to the side. "For the moment though, I want full security on this room. I don't want anyone, but the most experienced handling that new metal."
Niva puts enough space between her and the door to get some fresh air, and she turns back to nod at C'ale. "I'll get some guards in place, and once its settled, we'll put it back together." Glancing at the crafters spread out around the clearing, most of them talking amongst themselves, some coughing occasionally, she looks back at him. "Lets hope this was worth it."
"Well, its not like I was planning on it. We should find the miners and ask what they were doing when this went boom." C'ale says as he pulls a rag out from his pocket, pressing it to his face to stop from choking on the thick smoke. "But for now, lets get out of the smoke?"
Zera enters the clearing, and her eyes go wide. "What happened?" She asked, sneezing, waving a hand in front of her face. "Najath said soemtihng went wrong in one of the crafthalls…"
Niva nods quickly, motioning C'ale out into the clearing. "We'll make sure to ask, but give them a little bit to recover." And the healer in her takes over, while she glance over at Zera as the brownrider draws close, nodding her head slowly. "Something went wrong with the miners… We think everyone's okay."
Nodding his head, C'ale gives himself a good stretch over his head, then offers up a quick, wild grin to Zera. "Think we may have uncovered a new metal as well. I really want to name it Pernanium. Does that sound stupid?" He asks both girls.
Zera grimaces. "Stupid miners. You'd tihnk they'd know better." She peers at C'ale. "Seriously? New metal? Pernanium isn't so bad, but what about Xanadunim?"
Niva laughs softly, letting the other two debate the name while she starts to slowly make the rounds, pausing at each crafter, crouching to talk to them as she goes, though she spares an occasional glance over her shoulder at Zera and C'ale.
"Xanadunim is hard to pronounce. Pernanium sounds believable, and less egotistical." C'ale says with a chuckle as he shrugs his shoulders. "Anyways, right now we just need to test it, and make sure its stable, before we start reproducing it. The density levels was off the charts! I can't believe how tough it is. Its heavy also."
Zera Raises an eyebrow. "Oh, alright." She grumbles, but is smiling. "If it's that heavy, are we going to be able to move it by hand? Wouldn't the dragons half to help?"
"Its hardly that heavy!" Niva pipes up from where she's sitting nearby, grinning, before going back to talking to the miner, nodding slowly as the young man gestures with wide arm motions.
"It's pretty heavy for being as small as it is. We pretty much only got.." C'ale says, picking up the computer again, checking the read outs. "Twenty two grams? Huh. That isn't much, so we should be careful."
You paged Ethne with 'They should all be set up to hatch whenever you'd like :) So feel free to post to the Xanadu board about a date, and tell people they should come, bring their NPC candidates, and we'll have a hatching party.'.
Zera shakes her head. "So big buckets of it, enough to run tests on, with that only twenty two grams? We'll need a green at least."
"No, no, grams, Zera. Like.. small enough to put in my hand." C'ale says with a wry grin on his face over to the brown rider. Oy. He looks rather amused though. "Its sitting in a jar right now in the lock box."
Zera oops. "I'm a Weaver, not a miner." She says, laughing. "I know inches, yards, and feet, in order of measurement, THat's it."
Niva moves onto the next crafter, moving to help her to her feet, and starting to head towards the infirmary. Nodding her head at the others, she waggles her fingers, and then the two are talking as they go, go, gone.
Flashing a quick grin to Zera, C'ale excuses himself quietly. "I need to catch up with Niva, so I can talk her ear off about this new metal. Come find me later if you want to know more." He says, bounding off after as he throws up a hand in departure.