[Open] Field Trip: Supernatural Surveyor

[nor_iron_bars]

Who: Jailbreak, her class, and/or anyone else who signed up for the Supernatural Surveyor mission.
What: A field trip to an Orihalcum mine, because that's totally a great place to send impulsive teenagers and a known thief.
When: March 4th.
Where: The Sinnias Orihalcum Mine.
Warnings: Jail's swearing.


[On paper, the idea seemed to make sense.]

[The Sinnias Orihalcum Mine had been run by the Watchers for years, and the metal it produced was extremely useful. While daemon attacks on the premises where a known threat, the security was highly equipped to deal with them already, making it unlikely to require any visitors to fight. A relatively safe but still potentially important area like this would be a valuable learning experience for students who had the time to visit and find out more about how it worked, especially ones whose specialties or interests ran towards magical artifacts. And, of course, the Academy already had a class dedicated to the making of those artifacts, and a teacher quite knowledgeable about the process.]

[It was just that, somehow, this perfectly reasonable chain of thought had lead to a large group of students being let loose in a working mine with Jail as their only adult supervision.]

[The trip there, at least, had been without incident. As they approach the entrance, she stops and gestures grandly, turning to face her audience.]

Okay, kids, here it is: your best excuse to skip class for the day.

[The Magic Schoolbus, this really isn't.]

For anybody who ain't real big on metallurgy, Orihalcum is that shiny golden stuff that shuts down magic. Can't enchant it, can't scratch it with anything softer than diamond, can't find anything sparklier outside of a glitter fight in the middle of Mardi Gras.

And yes, that weirdly specific metaphor will be on the test.

[There may or may not even be a test, but that won't stop her from saying it.]

So, ground rules: this is supposed to just be a nice, easy walking tour of the place, but sometimes shit gets weird. If it gets weirder than you can handle, hit the alert app on your phone and it'll call me. Only ring me up for emergencies, or if it would be really funny.

Your phone also has a file that gives you more background on this place, in case you want more details or just missed the melodious sounds of my voice. Hit the icon in the lower left to switch from audio to written captions.

[The recording- or the captions, if you prefer them- is pretty similar to the kind of tour guide audio you get in museums... except for the part where Jailbreak's narrating, which means some of the language is. Interesting.]

[The quick version of the recorded lecture is that Orihalcum is extremely useful for dealing with supernatural threats due to suppressing magic, and that it was the basis of a pretty large and successful civilization from the Outlands up until their luck ran out sometime around 1039 BCE.]

[The nation in question would be known to modern day humans as the lost city of Atlantis.]

[Credit where it's due, Jail's recorded speech on the topic is genuinely very knowledgeable and informative, even if she does repeatedly refer to a specific Atlantean ruler as "a complete fucknut", and at one point gets sidetracked into an extended digression in which she critiques (read: roasts mercilessly) the ancient Athenian legal system.]

Now, 'cause this place is the biggest source of Orihalcum running these days, security is pretty serious. We're gonna head through their checkpoints in a second here, then we'll be in the mine. These guys make the TSA look all sweet and cuddly by comparison, so if anyone's got some shit they wanna ditch outside so it doesn't show up on the scans, now's the time.

Anyone who can spot a serious security flaw while we're in there, come find me after we're done here and we'll talk. If it's legit, you get extra credit.

If you got any questions, just ask while we're walking. Anything I can't answer, the guy we're gonna be meeting up with should know. He's a dwarf by the name of Regin, the general manager 'round here.

[She turns to start walking into the mine's entrance, pauses, and looks back over her shoulder]

Oh, and remember: when we're in here? You break it, you bought it. The school ain't paying for shit.

[This one's a complete lie. Daybreak Academy absolutely will be replacing anything the students damage if they act out while in the mine.]

[But, well. They don't need to know that.]

[Onward we go...]

Comments

[transfusionem]

Humans aren't that bad - there's definitely reason to take our side.

[Her lips quirk into a smile at his exclamation. She's pretty sure he's always thinking weird things, but she lets herself get dragged along anyways.]

Hopefully there's somewhere less distracting!

[yokeye]

[The next cavern is indeed less distracting. There are still veins and deposits of orichalcum all over, but more spread out and half-buried. Toki can at least look around with more focus. He drops Adelaide's hand to take a picture (without a flash) of the still-sparkly, but not overwhelming, deposits.]

It's much better in here!

[transfusionem]

[The next cavern is world's different to the last one - it must be one that they've already worked through, Adelaide guesses.

It doesn't damper any of her curiosity, though, as she steps closer to the wall.]

It's still pretty amazing... How much of this stuff do you think there is?

[yokeye]

[Toki runs his fingers along one vein of the orichalcum. He's still kind of amazed with it.]

If this is the biggest deposit of it, there maybe isn't much? Or it's all hidden somewhere so normal people don't catch on!

[transfusionem]

I mean, that would make sense...People put a lot of effort into making it so normal people don't know this stuff.

[She doesn't know half of anything that's going on at any given time.]

I don't even know if you could mine this stuff with normal tools...

[yokeye]

[That's definitely something to consider.]

Wasn't there supposed to be a foreman or or a manager or something around here? We should find him!

[transfusionem]

Probably? I don't think they'd let us run around without someone in charge watching us.

[That would just be stupid, after all.]

[yokeye]

[Toki forgot the manager's name, but remembers he's a dwarf. There's a short guy skulking around by the entrance to the cavern, so he's making the assumption that this man is who he's looking for. Toki has no idea if dwarves just look like short humans or if they're something else; he's never encountered one. He walks over and taps the man on the arm to start asking questions.]

Hello, Mr. Dwarf~! The lovely young lady over there was wondering if orichalcum can be mined with regular tools or are there specialty devices more suited for the task~!?

[transfusionem]

[Adelaide is about to say they don't need to bother anyone, it's not that big of a deal...

But then Toki is already making his way over to a dwarf to pester them with questions. She can't even be mad, and she's more bemused as she follows after him quietly.

She is, admittedly, curious enough to want to know the answer.]

[yokeye]

[The dwarf talks about various unfamiliar minerals and magic things for a few minutes. What Toki takes away from it is that while specialized tools are easiest, mundane mining ones like pickaxes can still be used if enchanted with runes to make them harder. Both options are available for students to use to obtain orichalcum during their visit.]

I guess either works~!

[transfusionem]

[It feels like they should be investing in orichalcum, geez.]

I don't know, you'd think after enchantments they wouldn't count as normal any more...

[Which is just being pedantic.]

[yokeye]

That's a good point~! There's not much difference then; all magic stuff!

[Which really should have been expected.]

[transfusionem]

[It's always magic stuff.]

D'you think some day we'll run into something that's not just magic stuff?

[yokeye]

[That question releases a spiral of pondering.]

I don't know, but maybe not! What is magic anyway!? Is it the same as science!? Is magic just something that can't fit anywhere else because it goes against accepted established parameters!? Everything's theoretical anyway and maybe the laws of physics and whatever that classify something as unusual enough to be magic, they themselves, the laws, are incorrect because they're based on wrong assumptions from the beginning, and really in that scenario nothing means anything in terms of categorical labels~!

[transfusionem]

[This she should've expected.]

I mean...You're probably right? If something can't be explained, "magic" isn't really a good explanation because that would mean everything is magic, but that's just not true.

[yokeye]

[There are too many thoughts now.]

Is there any real definition of magic!? It's subjective right, like some things are normal to us, but magic to someone else who doesn't understand it... so why are we still calling things we now understand "magic"!?

[He has no idea where he's going with this.]

[transfusionem]

There probably is.

[Toki, calm down.]

I mean...we're here to learn what's really magic, and what's just something we don't understand, right? So we can figure it out.

[yokeye]

Right~! Okay! Too much discussion~! Are you planning on bringing any orichalcum back with you?

[transfusionem]

[She laughs softly at the change in discussion, before nodding.] Yeah, it seems like it might be a good idea to have some on hand.

[yokeye]

Agreed~!

[He obtains a couple of specialized digging tools from the dwarf and hands one to Adelaide.]

I guess we just... mine it?

[transfusionem]

Guess so!

[She has no idea what she's doing.]

Any idea what you want to make with it?

[yokeye]

[He has no idea either.]

A bracelet or something wearable; to see if it works on my powers!

[Toki starts tapping on the edges of the vein with the almost-pickaxe magic tool. The surrounding rock isn't splitting and causing a cave-in immediately, so he figures he's doing a decent job thus far.]

[transfusionem]

To just...cancel them out completely?

[It...would work, probably, but she can't fathom why she'd want that.

Adelaide starts up on her own vein, keeping what she assumes to be a safe distance, before she starts to swing.]

[yokeye]

Exactly~!

[Toki moves a little further away from Adelaide as she goes for the vein. She doesn't appear to be making a gentle strike.]

[transfusionem]

[She has a lot of pent up aggression, okay.]

That seems like it might be a bad idea...