Work Text:
Meanwhile Khebi tries to make an aetherostatic chalk dust collector. It arrives with a very emphatic warning tied to the power knob saying to keep it under 3. The knob goes to 10.
Synnove and Halulu stared at the note on the power knob dubiously. The Highlander glanced back at the aetherostatic chalk dust collect, reaching up with one hand to idly shake white and blue chalk particles from her short, dark brown hair (and instead leaving behind green and pink ones), and examined the intake valves, the upright cylindrical storage container, control panel, and cobbled-together other parts of the machine with a curious eye. Her tonberry research assistant, meanwhile, continued to incredulously examine the note their colleague, A'khebica Ginwa, had included.
“Why have it go to ten at all?” Halulu said at last, throwing up her hands in exasperation.
Synnove hummed noncommittally, gaze wandering back up to take in the equation-covered slate chalkboard on the wall beyond. Her green eyes narrowed suddenly, and then unfocused: the very peculiar combination of physical tells that meant she was thinking.
Halulu groaned. “Oh, no.”
Five hours later, they were at the Arcanist’s Guild outdoor testing range on the cliffs near the Foremast in Three-Malm Bend. Halulu set up the aetherostatic chalk dust collector, while Synnove dumped an old grain sack filled with chalk dust (ground up from all the tiny little useless chalk nubs scattered throughout the Guild that damn near every arcanist ended up collecting in their offices and workrooms) in its immediate vicinity. The wind today was thankfully still, even next to the ocean, and the dust pile barely moved - thankfully, as performing this little experiment inside the Guild itself was not an option. There was still enough disturbed chalk moving in the air that Galette, trailing after Synnove, kept stopping to sneeze every five paces or so, fur and tails both puffing out as she did.
Halulu finished configuring the collector and turned the power knob to ‘ten,’ but did not push the ‘on’ switch just yet. “Finished here,” the tonberry said.
“Excellent,” Synnove said, dropped the sack on the ground and wiping her hands on a spare cloth, and tossing that on the chalk piles, too. She pulled the protective goggles sitting on top of her head down over her eyes, and then crouched to do the same with Galette’s. The emerald carbuncle yipped her thanks.
“Halulu, head over to the bunker, and let me know when you’re ready,” Synnove said. “I’ll turn the collector on once you are and then run for it.”
“Twelve bless your ridiculous Highlander tallness,” Halulu said with a salute, and scurried to the test range’s safety bunker one hundred yalms away. While she waited, Synnove double-checked her goggles and Galette's and the dust collector configuration. As she stood upright again, she pursed her lips thoughtfully.
"Galette," she said, "Protocol 724-B."
Her carbuncle blinked rapidly exactly seven times, paused for a heartbeat, blinked twice, paused again, and finally blinked four times. Her left and middle tails curled, one on top of the other, and then Galette shook herself and beamed up at her summoner. "Mya!" she said.
Synnove leaned down to scratch her ruff with both hands. "Who's a good giiiirl," she crooned. "We'll turn your active aetheric sensor processes back on after we're done, Mama would never forgive herself if she blew out your senses. The passive ones will get us some very nice readings, anyway."
A flare finally went up from the safety bunker. Warning bells also began sounding across the testing range, telling all personnel on site to get in cover and any civilians nearby to stay away from the range's perimeter.
Synnove scooped up Galette under one arm, flipped the collector’s switch to the ‘on’ position, and booked it.
Once she reached the bunker, she slammed the heavy steel door closed behind her, and flopped into the chair next to Halulu, now wearing her own safety goggles and seated at the observation window, barely winded. Galette wiggled out of Synnove’s hold to assume her regular draped shoulder perch.
“We probably should have started with the setting on ‘four,’” Halulu said, checking her graphite stylus for any imperfections and opening to a fresh page in her journal.
Synnove shrugged, Galette chirping as she was jostled, and got her own materials ready. “Observe the worst case scenario first, then work our way back down the scale if there’s anything left.”
“We could have asked A’khebica about the different power settings.”
“Where's the fun in that?”
“This is incredibly unscientific of you, Synnove, I'm horrified.”
“And yet you want to see how big the explosion is just as much as I do.”
Halulu harrumphed, but didn’t contradict her.
In the distance, a faint glow could be seen starting to coalesce around the aetherostatic collector. Synnove and Halulu leaned forward, styli at the ready.
On the very edge of her senses, Synnove could 'hear' the ambient aether of La Noscea start to hum strangely.
And then-
BOOM!
The enormous mushroom cloud of blue and purple and pink fire that rose a malm into the air over Middle La Noscea could be seen from every town and outpost on Vylbrand, from the drydocks in Moraby Bay in the south to Camp Overlook on the slopes of Mount O'Ghomoro in the north.
Meanwhile, in the safety bunker back on the testing range, Halulu and Synnove were coughing on dust, both chalk and not, goggles shoved back up on their heads with clean imprints left behind around their eyes. True to form, they were both frantically writing down the results in their journals in shorthand. Galette was in the midst of a sneezing fit and trying to find a clean spot on Synnove’s shirt to rub her face on and clear away the dust on her fur.
“Chalk’s not a flammable substance, much less an accelerant,” Halulu managed to wheeze out.
“Apparently it is under the right aetheric pressure,” Synnove gasped, taking a moment to find a canteen of water and take a swig to clear her throat. She poured some of the water into her cupped hand, holding it up for Galette who practically shoved her face into Synnove's palm, and then passed the canteen to Halulu. “My best guess is the main culprit is the static build up. And be sure to write down everything, especially once we get outside and start examining the debris."
Halulu’s expression was deeply offended. As if she’d ever forget the first tenant of Science!.