Subtleknifewielder Posted October 14, 2010 Report Share Posted October 14, 2010 "Blast it all!" The tech cursed as the power refused to come back...again. They'd restarted this plant (a smaller substation, but still significant) several times, and it seemed to be working perfectly...but no power was getting through to the nation. And the first time they'd done that, several personel had died. They had all been unshielded at the time, so as extra precautions, every individual during these attempts was now required to wear an insulating suit. Before each attempt, they left observers in a different section of the station. It was inevitible that they would discover the source of the problem...surely they would find what was sapping the energy away from the city...surely... OOC: Cookies to anyone who gets the reference in the title. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iKrolm Posted October 14, 2010 Report Share Posted October 14, 2010 OOC: Dune, but it's "we need desert power" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtleknifewielder Posted October 14, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2010 [quote name='iKrolm' timestamp='1287083627' post='2484596'] OOC: Dune, but it's "we need desert power" [/quote] OOC: I couldn't remember the exact quote. Anyway... *hands iKrolm his cookie* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maelstrom Vortex Posted October 15, 2010 Report Share Posted October 15, 2010 Narrator: And they would find that the same problem that was affecting all the other continents was at work in Australia. Lightning Elementals were sucking on the turbine's outputs. The only time the Elementals became dangerous to an observer was when the turbine was turned off and power output ceased, at that point it began looking for the nearest source of any voltage.. often times that was organic hosts or portable electronic devices running on batteries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtleknifewielder Posted October 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2010 (edited) All observers were, this time, fortunately shielded, but one had, unthinkingly, left his cell phone on and lying on a table in the main control room. The engineer there was just about to try and restart the power again, when he saw the gathering of what appeared to be (at least this was the closest thing he could compare them to) giant floating, dancing sparks. Comming the others to get there asap, he glanced around for something to trap them or drive them away...the closest thing he could think of were magnets, in the next room. Fairly powerful... Just to make sure they would stay in there long enough for him to try his idea, he turned on one of the laptops before leaving the room. When he found what he was looking for, he turned...and realized it might not be a good idea to step into the room with this thing in his hand, even insulated as he was. Qickly, he opened the door, tossed the magnets in, and only then did he step back inside to see the effect it had had... ---- One of the workers was not completely 'civilized' per se. An aborigine who wanted to see more of the world, he got the idea once the 'culprits' were described to him over the comm. Shamans would probably know better how to deal with these things... Edited October 15, 2010 by Subtleknifewielder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maelstrom Vortex Posted October 16, 2010 Report Share Posted October 16, 2010 Narrator: Interestingly enough, when the magnet was tossed in the midst of this being of lightning.. the being itself wrapped around the field lines of the magnet.. but didn't die. It continued to consume power from the cell phone while being wrapped in and around the lines of the magnetic field. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtleknifewielder Posted October 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2010 By this time the other technicians had arrived. Curiously staring at the phenomenon for a moment, they began conferring. "We could trap it in some kind of insulated box...the effect of the magnet indicates it's clearly electrical." "Agreed. But what about in the meantime?" One of the technicians got wise and took a rag...wetting it in the faucet of a sink, he tossed at roughly where the middle of the being would be... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maelstrom Vortex Posted October 16, 2010 Report Share Posted October 16, 2010 (edited) Narrator: The being.. if it were able to be grounded and didn't at least have some control over its electrical composition.. would have grounded just by being in contact with the floor. The water does attract it, causing the dimension of its size to compact by about half.. getting closer to the water.. but the water does not ground it out completely. It also seems to try to move away from the magnet and the water, but the magnet keeps drawing it back into the field and the water continues to pull it as well resulting in that the elemental can't seem to move from its current position. There also seems to be an audial crackle in the room now. They may not know it, but the being was pissed off a bit, because even though it was not being ground out.. the battery it was feeding on most certainly was. Edited October 16, 2010 by Maelstrom Vortex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtleknifewielder Posted October 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2010 "What the hell you trying to do, kill us? There's no telling what that would have done!" The tech couldn't answer. What he'd done had been foolish, impulsive...but they had learned more... Someone had, once they had the thing trapped for the time being, thought to use the laptop (being sure to keep it well away from the...thing) to send a message. With all the other strange things that had been happening, this was relativelyu tame, so few would think to question their description...or the request of a rubber-lined box. Not sure what else to do in the meantime, they maded sure the rag stayed damp, and the magnets in place, to keep the thing trapped. One of them pointed out that if this thing had appeareds with the first storm...that could easily mean there were more in each storm that followed. Or even at other times...who knew when and where these things could appear again? They needed a sure way of dealing with them every time, or better yet...repelling them. The Aboriginal worker, who went by the name of Charles, finally voiced his idea. "If this thing came with the original storm," the mention of the storm reminded of the small tropical storm threatening their east coast, "and there's no reason to think otherwise, it is obviously a magical creature." Such was the state of the world these days that no one scoffed at his 'superstitions.' "I...have a man in my tribe who might be able to determine a way to keep these things away...or at least keep them from consuming all our power." ---- When the storms came, of all the people in the nation, the only ones not affected were those who lived in the wilds, without the use of modern conveniences. Most of these...were the aboriginals. They had adapted quite well, and in fact, their lives were getting better. Gifted with minds not hardened by skepticism, they embraced the changes as something good, a blessing by their gods, their spirits. Some, the ones viewed as touched by the spirits (the Shamans), learned to harness this power, even if it was only for smal things, like heating water when needed, or taming wild animals. It was to these people the technicians would determine they must go. At the very least, if it failed, they hadn't lost anything, because they'd just be right back where they started, though now that the thing was boxed up (they'd made sure to stay well away from it...it almost felt angry), they could bring the power back online until the next storm, at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maelstrom Vortex Posted October 19, 2010 Report Share Posted October 19, 2010 (edited) Narrator: There are rumors that average worms are getting larger and larger in Australia.. particularly in the deserts. It's causing some chaos among the locals who still are trying to come to grip with the changes the world is going through.. including the periods of darkness caused by generator outages. The largest of the worms measured thus far is about 3-6 inches, or the thickness of a human arm by diameter. Edited October 19, 2010 by Maelstrom Vortex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtleknifewielder Posted October 26, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2010 [quote name='Maelstrom Vortex' timestamp='1287469238' post='2487528'] Narrator: There are rumors that average worms are getting larger and larger in Australia.. particularly in the deserts. It's causing some chaos among the locals who still are trying to come to grip with the changes the world is going through.. including the periods of darkness caused by generator outages. The largest of the worms measured thus far is about 3-6 inches, or the thickness of a human arm by diameter. [/quote] So far the worms had yet to harm anyone, but with an added level of strangeness, it was enough to tip some people over into madness. The Aboriginals, of course, took it in stride. They in fact, as the worker had suggested, were in a unique position to help the rest of the nation. Having exhausted all other alternate options, Shamans were brought in to study the creatures feeding on their power...perhaps there would be a way to actually make use of these things... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maelstrom Vortex Posted October 29, 2010 Report Share Posted October 29, 2010 Narrator: The shamans have found a substance produced by the worms excretions that seems to be able to strengthen the overall constitution of an individual substantially. How this happens is not sure, but scientists studying magic believe it related to the ambient magic beginning to permeate the soils of Australia as a result of its nearness to the south pole and the fallout from the south pole volcano. ooc: 1% shift of Australia towards magic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtleknifewielder Posted October 31, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2010 "This is sounding like a novel I read once..." the translator said to the scientist who'd hired him. His employer, and also his friend, groaned. "Not another 'novel' experience, Jay. Just translate what they are saying. And then tell them we need them to study those electrical beings too. Science hasn't found a way to keep them out on a permanent basis. We need a way to either block them or harness them." "Oh, fine." Jay chattered away to the Shaman, who chattered away back to him. "He says he's willing to come with us to a power plant and wait for the next storm. He's as curious about all these changes to the world as we are. Though considering his background, restoring power isn't as urgent to him as us. He's more interested in just learning about this mysterious blob of electricity that eats the white man's power." "Great. Ask if he--" "He has no trouble riding back in the jeep with us." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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