My coughing fit comes to an end, my freest claw waving away at my uplifted mask. I hear the doors open and the mask slips right back down, netting some smoke in with me. My eyes water up, the relatively magic rich gas burning as smoke did once upon a time. I keep my back to the oncoming and likely annoyed Lady-King, huffing and puffing the air away.
I try to make use of what limited windows I have, but it's hardly enough. So, I lean out and around, taking the moment to literally clear my head. Her storming steps finally enter the room and I lean back in. Mask safely coming back to stature.
"Yes, yes... I know, I know." I droll, rolling and flexing my claws and wrists about. I walk her way, walking by her side as we switch to the less smokey room. The door closes right behind me, nearly slamming shut and getting lodged there as its hinges show their weakness. I'm trying to keep things safe, but there's only so much I can do about this.
"Do not even dare to take that tone with me, Nin. YOU NEARLY BLEW UP MY PALACE AGAIN!" she goes, firmly at first and breaking up into full-on screaming.
"I can't help it if magic is volatile in a low-tolerance environment! There's only so many ways I can try and work this damn machine of yours!" I explain, probably not even using the right terms or anything at all, really. It's a mess of ideas underneath this skull of mine. One way to try it, a counter-point here and there.
"... Just try not to..." she sighs, blowing her breath out with enough force to disrupt the smoke spilling out onto the floor. She heads on over to a new window, throwing it open and motioning the smoke to leave. It hardly obeys, but some of the trailing, burn-flavoured mist heads on out.
"If you want me to, I can look into making this lab safer?" I ask, perhaps too quickly. I have no idea how to make this safer! The problem is that I can't get a proper injector or whatever to work! Is the material too weak or am I just that bad at making things?
I get it's crude and all, but...
"There is a path up the mountain you should be able to use. It leads to my private observatory, though, naturally, I don't really use it with the whole..." Morgihranur explains, her hand going out of where we are to somewhere else. An observatory? I can work with that. In it. Whatever.
"Is that even safe? I can't even get the machine to work right here. Having the magic go through that much of a distance will only expose more of the palace to sudden flash fires." I point out and she shakes her head, waving me over to the open window. I join her, looking out and then down like she is. A narrow path, but hardly a barely cared for one like the stories stereotype.
"The path is right there. You'll only have to make a pipe that can go over this windowsill and then along the path. It's a private space. Devoid of life, abandoned of anything of note and away from the palace as much as you can reasonably be," she explains, pressing her brow and going down to her nose about it.
"That'll work..." I go, lingering my eyes on the narrow, but safe mountain path. A carefully laid out stairwell of polished stone and gaudy guardrails. It'll make things a bit of a mess to get to and back from, but it abides the wants of the landlord. So, I can't really complain, can I?
It will certainly let me take more risks with the design of everything, too.
"Other than that, how has your latest attempt been?" she asks, the obvious withstanding from a spoken need by quite some distance. My focus shatters and I try to get it back together, almost gibbering in chitters.
"It's hard to explain right now, I think it will be a simpler mess to sort when the..." I start to explain, peeking out of the window to double check. The smoke is still rolling out into the open, catching as many spectators as usual. I slip back in and go to the door, letting it open. A wall of the stuff falls down, carpeting the floor but at least leaving a clear view.
"I can manage. I've handled far worse." Morgihranur explains, going in first as she has done many other times with this very problem. She makes her way down the familiar path and arrives at where I've set myself up. A mess to be cleaned up yet again.
"As you can see... It fractured about here and here, the usual mess up comes along with it and... Well, boom and smoke." I explain, hardly going into any more depth than I did before. Still, she seems to understand it enough. I think... I hope.
"Write out your materials list and I'll see what I can do. If you need magic-enforced materials, it will be easier to handle them away from this machine. It takes in more than just external-magic." she explains and I nod, knowing full well what she means by it. One of my earlier experiments was just that, testing to see if I could reinforce the apparatus before trying another test. It hardly worked out, either.
None have so far... I've gained more knowledge about demolitions and explosive shockwaves than handling this machine. There's a means to get magic out of it, yeah... But it also refuses to let said release valve just play out like a release valve. The two processes contradict each other and while it's taking away, it's letting out and the whole feedback loop is...
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
"Boom..." I let out, putting an end to the frustrating thoughts as Morgihranur makes her way around the machine. Her hands start heading to a familiar place and my brow furrows, the frustration quite a common occurrence right now. These books are a damn focus point for it all.
"You are sure you've been reading the instruction manual properly?" she questions, picking the book in question. Tablets, too.
"I've been reading them again each time something goes off, like I've told you before." I say and she nods away, her typical behaviour dulled by all this mechanical involvement.
"If only I could contact Daddy... His workers could help you more than I ever could. I wouldn't even have to be doing this. Just throw you all out..." she goes, trapped once again in that same annoying thought. How to handle the problem? Unfortunately, the answer is me. Fortunately, the answer is me. What a mess.
"I'm sure everything is fine, Morgihranur. I'm sure it's all fine." I tell her, feeling like there is at least some need to tell her such things. She looks around and then nods.
"What can I do bu take your word for it?" she goes, wandering off.
"Hey, wait a moment!" I call out, giving a quick chase.
"What is it? I need to once again calm the people of this city about your affairs." she explains and I slow to a crawl, sighing in turn myself.
"Can only imagine how much they're willing to eat it up..." I point out and she stops herself.
"With the Crack in the Sky, my people are willing to believe a lot. Just don't test their good nature by making too much of a mess, please. Now, noble doctor, I must make haste to calm the ails of my people." Morgihranur explains, shifting into her Lady-King character as is proper for her game with these people. I quietly nod and let her get to it, and I get back to my affairs.
Heading back into the receding smoke, I look over my mess. Some thoughts pass on by, but it all ends on the same topic and hint. The piping I made fractured under the strain. A flow of magic busted out into the open and then the usual followed up. The machine can only clean up so much at once and the flash fires are short-lived because of it.
Perhaps...? Perhaps that is just what I need to do? Breathe in what I can in those moments? I certainly feel energised for what it's worth. The whole reason I'm not even in pain compared to the first test is precisely because I'm picking up magic.
It's hardly enough, however.
"I need a steady stream and an explosion of magic that is cut off just as quickly as it bursts to life is hardly..." I let out, so much already going through my head as some annoyed chitters run off on one. My eyes glaze over the alchemical devices the work crew left here. Particularly, the gas burner tool they left down here. I look over to the candles and their steady flame.
Perhaps...? Perhaps I'm not thinking about it right. I need to treat it like the fire it's behaving like. Treat it all like a steady fire for which to... Burn myself in? Mm.
I need to find a way to have the magic come out in such a small quantity that it is like a candle? A campfire at worst? How did I even do it back before Tobaballe was destroyed? All I remember is tearing up some cables and basically leeching off of them.
But, my failures so far aren't really proving much of anything. No matter how much this damn machine controls the magic, everything here is of a magic-touched land! It should be far stronger and tougher than anything Tobaballe had.
"Guess that's the reason I'm- Was a Grounder, and not anything more." I muse, putting a curled up claw to my mandible-made chin while I lounge on a nearby table. Magic in the right way is not explosively dangerous. Iishar Ho and the Goldhands all proved that. Tobaballe wasn't bursting into magical fire. Neither did that hidden facility I was kept.
Liadanann's shock suit or whatever it was certainly did the same. It had to have been magic, there's no way a simple suit like that could exist from what I know of Tobaballe's technology. Lights needed generators and batteries were bulky things, barely capable of a lot.
"Maybe it's just impossible for me to find a safe dosage?" I question, glancing over my palm as some magic comes to the fore across and about it. My magic control is so much greater than a decade ago, but, with lots learned, much is forgotten. I used to see the world by picking up the grains of sand, and now my claws are too big to handle anything but pebbles.
Maybe that's what I need to do? Make a sieve or a shovel of some kind? Not literally, but, something close to the idea? Well, I should probably find my tablet so I can get to writing these things down while they're in my head.
These damn claws are useless for anything needing finesse unless I use...
"My magic is basically making tools." I speak, getting out of my head as an idea just happens to cross my mind. I don't need to make precise tools or try anything of the worst. All I need to do is a single thing. The pipe.
Make a sturdy pipe that can handle the magic travelling down it and then I can use my own power to funnel the power! It's not external-magic entirely, something of a hybrid, really. I never developed within Suhurlodst so I'm not entirely sure, but it beats trying to craft things. My imagination really is the limit!
Even if my magic does interfere with the process, it's only going to be an intake valve for me. Yeah, yeah. This should work... Where did I...?
"I swear, if the flash fires broke my bloody notetablet..." I complain, patting around the still smoke-infested room for my things.