crystal

[pathlit]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Jason Talons & Viktor Tendercrisp
RECIPIENT: One thread private to Cosima, Marcus, Yseult & the current Diplomacy representative; otherwise, open.
NOTES: Context under the cut.

[ It's an ordinary day in post-sieged Kirkwall. The air is muggy with intermittent summer showers that dampen dirt and stone, invoking the scent of earth and, in the lower streets, aerosolizing the stench of a crowded populace. Reparations continue, maneuvering around them normalized.

So it's an ordinary day in Kirkwall up until the exact moment that a workshop in Lowtown erupts with a brilliant hue of blue light bursting from every open window, door and crevice. The blast is felt more than heard; a subtle drop in pressure 'round the block seconds before acute release, its pulse strong enough to rattle the foundation and knock an average-sized human off their feet.

A pillar of fire shoots out from the building's chimney, high enough to be seen from The Gallows for all of a few seconds before abruptly vanishing. Light blue particles glimmer in its wake, as if suspended amongst the humid air, then gently float downward to vanish the moment they alight.

No casualties (aside from whatever creature may have been naïve enough to roost upon the chimney's crown). Mild property damage. Elation. ]

( open )
[Viktor's voice, broadcast to Riftwatch at large, is at first distantly quiet.]

What should I—

[Suddenly much closer and clearer:]

Ehh— should anyone happen to have noticed a combustion event on the mainland just now, please be assured it's nothing to worry about.

( closed to Division Heads )
[ Minutes later, the sending crystals of the division heads light up. ]

Hey! Hi, uh-- [ Jayce clears his throat. ] Hello. It's Jayce. Jayce and Viktor. Research div. There was a-- an incident in Lowtown. That was us, not an attack. Everything's okay. Could you let the Viscount know?

[From a few metres away, raised thin with excitement, Viktor's voice:] Tell them! Tell them what we've done!

[ Jayce, with a breathy laugh and an excitement scarcely backdropped by the worry of reprimand (and-or shock of success): ] Yeah, we've-- we've got it! Runic enchantment. Viktor and I figured it out. How to do it ourselves, I mean.

Comments

[pathlit]

Gela! We're fine. [ Superficial damage, really. ] Everything's fine. It was just a little bit of fire, it didn't do anything--

[grindset]

[They're both talking into the same crystal.]

A plume? How tall?

[sprent]

(She's answering Jayce,) Good, I won't feel bad for being angry with you, then.

It was very tall, Viktor! We all saw it from the Gallows—

[pathlit]

Nothing's burning, everything's fine! I checked-- [ and chokes on his own words because, higher pitched in dismay, ] --the Gallows?!

[sprent]

Yes! I even saw it from the courtyards of the Gallows!

(I.e not from high up!!!)

[grindset]

That's... good, very useful to know, thank you.

[OK, that's maybe a little too high—]

[pathlit]

[ Folding his gloved hand over the crystal, ] We need to scale back the output by at least seventy-five percent until we figure out why the regulator failed--

[ --unless it didn't, but ]

[grindset]

I'm not convinced that was it. But you're right, a decrease would be prudent, regardless. We'll have plenty of room to noodle around with it once we're set up in the blast chamber.

[Noodle around: a verbal remnant of Tony Stark.]

[pathlit]

[ After a beat, he cants his head in Viktor’s direction. ]

‘Noodle’?

[grindset]

Yes, noodle.

[On a delay, he looks up. His face and his forearms are streaked with soot, and his hair's looking a little crazy.]

What?

[pathlit]

[ Fondness blooms, softening his dismay. Jayce smiles warmly, then uncurls his hand and returns his attention to the voices on the crystals. ]

[grindset]

[After giving Jayce a funny look, then exercising some restraint on the curvature of his own mouth, he does the same.]