Pouring over Data

Log Info

• Title: Pouring over Data
• Emitter: Slixvah
• Characters: Slixvah, Patch
• Place: Arcanists' Society
• Time: October 20th, 2022
• Summary: Slixvah and Patch are pouring over some readings from an excursion out to the site of mana fluctuations. They come to some theories, one most particularly unsettling: something used up so much magic it drained leylines and expunged the mana back into them. They elect to write up some reports and hand them to all the colleges to get more information, more access, and more eyes on this issue.

Arcanist's Society, Evening.

Readings. Tomes. Recordings. Measurements. All of it is spread about on a table within the Arcanists' Society. One of the women present pouring over the pages and data is that of an rust red and white feathered egalrin woman. Wings held loosely behind her with several robes having been doffed to take up less space. A finger taps her beak, "Hmmm... perhaps... a waste product of a ley line going out?" she suggests, glancing to a tiny bird on her shoulder. Said birb just shrugs with their tiny wings. "Prolly..."

She's slowly pacing.

"I don't know. If it truly is such a force, could this be how the deposits of magicite in Alexandria naturally form? Isn't the city rich in it? Have mines?" Patch asks, her form leaning against a bookshelf near the research area as she had watched Slixvah pace and pine about the results. "It's odd, Slix. Completely odd, but I don't want to assume disaster or unnatural. Not yet." trying to keep her guesses within the realm of reason, for now. "So, one theory is... this could be natural phenomenon. Is that too unlikely? I'm not a scholar or a wizard."

"So, tell me what you think it might be, yeah?" Patch eager, and willing to try and trade ideas. Maybe a bit talkative from it all too. It's not her expertise, but she /was/ on to something.

Slixvah's gait comes to a careful halt next to a set of readings, her reaching a finger out to flip a page back and forth. Her beak slowly grinds. "... hrm. Fair point, shug."

She looks over to where Patch is hanging out. "It could be natural. It'd make sense fo' a leyline ta shift. But slowly. Like a river. Positing its mana slowly. Hence how the crystals are formed me thinks. But..."

She looks up to the ceiling, closing her eyes. "Hmmm... what /I/ think it might be? Maybe perhaps something... big got used someplace down the leyline. Ya know, stuff ebbs and flows. But if someone made a /biiiiig/ wave like a tsunami. All the leyline mojo gonna get sucked out fo' a time until it comes rushin' back. But it ain't settled. Ain't right," she opines, making vague gestures like she was sloshing a tub of water.

Patch is wide eyed at Slixvah's reasoning. She opens her mouth to contribute again, but no words flow. Just a sigh as she stands tall, and walks towards the table. Time was needed to think.

"That means we are looking at something big. Shit!" Patch finally concedes with a bit of temper. "I didn't like it when I witnessed it on a small scale. It's just going to get worse, isn't it?" she asks, shaking her head, an ear flicking in frustration. "Honestly, Slix. I had hoped magicite could spontaneously form.... eh, no. Now that I say it aloud, that was clearly just a dream." her tone dropping again. "I am going to have to tell the Bardic College. Hell, we need to tell all the colleges." finally her glance focusing, and fixating on Slix. "Fidah got any sage advice for us?"

Slixvah seemed to have reached that conclusion already after Patch's exclamation, her freed tail feathers giving a flick-flick in response. "Yeah..." she sighs, grinding her beak again. Her eyes open, settling on the agitated elf for a beat before she ambles over, one wing curling around the short woman as an arm wraps around her waist. "We'll alert 'em. It's fo' th' best ta raise a red flag befo' shtuff really hits."

She glances to Fiadh. "Well, Fifi?"

Fiadh rustles themself to attention, them twitching their head one way, then another before: "Tempests bring false calm betwixt the eye. Fortituious we wearthered the undeath. But now we may face the overmore of the essence of being, of Creation. Of the Weave," they twitter sagely.

The egalrin huffs. "... yeah, shit. That's good ta know."

"I don't really know if that makes me feel any better. I was hoping for something a little more encouraging." Patch teases at Fidah, shooting the bird a wink.

"I admit I already told Cor'lana about the incident, but not of the results. I tried to spread a bit of warning even before we knew something was truly wrong." Patch says, looking to Slixvah with a shrug and second sigh. "I'm kind of disappointed that it wasn't connected to the dragon bone."a half-joke as she tries to bring some levity to her mood. "I'm not ruling it out yet, but it's not seeming as important to our next step."

Fiadh's solid gold eyes stare at Patch. "Empty platitudes are a hollow foundation to build upon. Knowledge of what is to come allows preparation for- chirp!"

"OKAY, pocket time Debbie Downer!" Slixvah states suddenly, the birb getting grabbed and shoved into a pocket on her robe. A sigh leaves her, and she chuckles. "... well. It could be the dragon bone doin' the thing. But mayhaps it ain't that."

She gives the elf a squeeze in the side hug before freeing her arm to shove some of the readings away. "And that next step bein': 'above-our-paygrade'. Or, at least, 'sneak-a-peak-at-the-poor-sod's-work-who's-paygrade-it-is'."

Patch returns that squeeze, the side hug lingered upon a moment even after that arm tries to free itself. She does let go, just reluctantly. "Slix... I was thinking th same thing, ya know?" she admits, biting on her lower lip as she dares to look at what Slixvah pushed away. "I know that Seldan will be interested. He reasoned it could be magicite.... so he was close." a short-laugh as she shakes her head.

"Fidah isn't a downer, but... they're right. Sitting on this would do no one any good." Patch's words softer, turning to run an eye over the rust and white colored Egalrin. "Regret me dragging you about because I was curious?"

Slixvah was just nudging away things into a pile to get picked up for later. But it seems to be mostly readings of the latent mana as well as the residue. "Could be magicite. Magicite being used reaaaally far away ta harbor a ton of mana, then expunged back into the leylines."

She laughs softly. "Fiadh ain't, but they's ain't gotta rub it on how bad shtuff it is. They ain't got a honey filter. But at least they bein' blunt can help set things straight."

She peers down at Patch, a curious, feathered brow quirked. "Me? Regretting you draggin' me 'bout?" She bends down to Patch's level, joy and intrigue all in her sky blues. "Puh-lease. This is way more interestin' than listenin' ta a bunch o' mages do a wand-measuring contest 'bout what theorm is tha most complicated! Plus, I get ta hang out wit' you!"

"Well it's a job of the hymn-singers to make sure things get noticed." Patch says with a bit of a preen at Slixvah's words, a flush taking her cheeks as she leans into the feathery woman and hugs her proper. "I'm not the smartest of brain and books, and I am only educated so far.... but I try to pull my share of things when I notice the wrongs." she states, much like Fidah, she too has her mission.

"Vaire deems it so, really." Patch says, sometimes speaking of her goddess, having some connection there, even if she doesn't exude the religious vibe.

So, with a warm smile, and wiggle of brow, Patch kisses Slixvah's beak suddenly. More timed as the Egalrin was shifting to look at her. "Thank you, that means a lot... I can't argue theory as well as some, but I do research what I don't know." a deeper flush at her admission, looking away. "So, uh. What do we do now?"

Slix turns a bit to return the embrace, a happy thrum echoing in her chest as she gently rocks the bard to and fro. "Now now, there's somethin' ta say 'bout street smarts, hon. Experience can beat out any smart pants. So you doin' a lot of good pullin' here, I'd say."

She glances up to the ceiling. "Yeah. Vaire gotta song ta tell it seems. Just gotta figure out tha notes." Slix herself happy enough to apply any god/ess to any situation.

With the bird hunched over, Slix blinks as a peck is rendered unto her, and not the painful kind. Her face feathers floof some. "Well of course, hon," she coos with a trill. "And tha's part o' bein' smart. Researching when ya don't know. Else ya'd be spoutin' bullshit without sources and we /can't/ have that, oh no no no."

The witch's eyes half lid to a cheeky sort of smile. "Hmm. What to do... what to do..? Well, we write a nice little report-" she steps closer, "-that we can copy out all easy like to the colleges. We get that squared away, then we see what access we can get from them?"

A wide smile at Slixvah's words forms, but as she finishes Patch is left with a quizzical look and a slow nod. "That too. Totally." her flush deepening for a moment, but fading as she lets her thoughts go with a laugh. "Work should come before play, you're right."

"You really think we might get some access to help with it all?" Patch asks in a hopeful tone, smiling at Slix "That would be more than I hoped for."

Slix chuckles warmly, her carefully picking up the readings and materials to organize them as she leans against the table. "Sometimes, work /is/ play. And sometimes work is boring without a bit of play," she winks over a shoulder.

The information management halts. "Think? Psh. Girl I /know/ we'd get some access. We've both gots a silver tongue- well, yours more silver than I- you got tha' Hymn, I got the Tapestry, and we're both drop dead gorgeous. Ain't nothin' we can slip into wit' a lil' bit of social engineering!"

She grins with her eyes as she picks up the last of the supplies. "Come on! Let's go find a clipboard. You'd be /so/ surprised how many places ya can get into with just a clipboard and a hurried look!"

-End Scene-

Research Info

She can, with a little help, see some strange things are afoot! Far from the root cause, really, but there's some magical residue, like the kinds that gives rise to magicite (crystalized magical energy) in places where there were once ley lines that seem to have withered. Like something sapped magical energy for a time, and now it's back but in a slightly different place and still unsettled. The energy is just off.