13911/And the award for the weirdest geode goes to...

And the award for the weirdest geode goes to...
Date of Scene:	29 October 2021
Location:	Savage Lands
Synopsis:	...to be determined! Sinister, Lucifer and Dracula have a bit of investigating to do.
Cast of Characters:	Lucifer, Sinister, Dracula

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Lucifer has posed:
A little while after dinner concludes, Lucifer and company go back to the labs where Lucifer and Sinister had just busted open some geodes. The intention, at this point, is to now analyze what exactly is inside some of the weirder ones. Lucifer has decided to change into something more akin to wear in a lab environment because forbid he ruin any of his good suits working in the lab at all. Though this really isn't his forte so he is also allowing Sinister to sort of take the lead in this to work on the machines to do the analyzing.

Sinister has posed:
A generosity that is likely rooted in common sense!

A couple of switches flipped, so to speak, creates a negative pressure work space, juuuuuuust in case one of the geode contents goes and does something extremely bad, the rest of the study area is simply placed in a simple gas chamber; four walls and some good tactile protective gloves to work through. Sensor pads in that chamber to connect to the mass spectrometer and chromatograph and an array of reagents, in case of needing to etrapolate the compounds within. And in Sinister's case, a lab coat. He tends to favour white, just out of tradition.

The sealed geodes, some of them more fragmented than others, are all in little vacuum sealed pods -- the solid RED, oozy radioactive green sludge, oily-looking prismatic, celestial blue and slick oil pod. Five little mysteries. "See, this shouldn't have happened. It looks rather like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory with rocks, I'm afraid." It's actually the most ordinary looking ones that Sin begins on, taking a tiny swab of each, along the fracture lines' where particulates of each will remain. Slides are made with deft skill, given that he's wearing rubber gloves to do it, which takes a bit of learning... and he slides each into the mass Spec for work. "I mean, look at the snot one. It looks like a really bad case of rock dreaded lurgy."

Lucifer has posed:
"I mean, I know geodes can all be different and perhaps even unique but this is, on it's own, quite peculiar." Lucifer comments as he watches Nathaniel do his work. It's always an interesting thing to see, because Nathaniel makes it look so easy now - but there's years of experience behind the moves that he makes. "So, what exactly are we looking for? What these geodes are made of? I suppose that *would* be the first question to answer, wouldn't it?" He asks this aloud, but mostly to himself unless Nathaniel takes up the notion to answer him. At least they're all open now and so there's nothing more to spurt or splash out of the geodes themselves. One interesting thing to take note of perhaps and however, is that while the oil-filled one is sort of still mostly liquid, the 'snot' one has almost begun to harden a bit.

Sinister has posed:
"Well, yes. They are created in the broiling magma, under pressure, where the exterior is usually a different geological compound than the interior. Crystals form where there is equilateral pressure and space to do so. For example, the very common but very pretty tourmaline grows by hydro pressures -- natural cracks allow vapour and gaseous compounds to consistently keep fissures in the earth's crust open enough for the equilibrium to activate growth. That's why in the end, geodes do not -usually- have crystal structure all the way to the middle, the eternal pressures slow the growth eventually and they reach stasis, with their hollow cores. So this..." he points at the red solid one "...is the most unusual, geologically. The ones with any level of crystaline structure are a bit more normal. But yes. We're finding out what they actually are, first." Speaking of, the mass spec pings on the blue one and Sin looks at it. "Ah, well, this one's completely ordinary, if very pretty. It's Celestite and Sapphire, which makes it rare and pretty, but ordinary." He takes the blue one out of confinement and after a blast of something sonic, levitates it over to Lucifer. "Beautiful and harmless."

The other one is giving a bit more of a run for its money and it brings about the 'scientific solemn eager face' on Essex. As results come in, he looks more and more engaged. "Interesting..."

Dracula has posed:
Weird geodes are a curiosity, and such things simply beg to be investigated further. The elder vampire has followed in the wake of Sinister and Lucifer, making his way along towards the labs. Given Sinister's knowledge in the realm of sciences, he happens to be inclined to defer to the fellows expertise as well. He takes a moment to look about the space once within, and one of his eyebrows quirks up a touch. His gaze drifts from one geode-holding pod to the next, looking each of them over in turn. It's only with Sinister's words that he turns his attention to the man, tilting his head a touch to one side, and a smile tugs the corners of his lips. "It is amusing and colourful and intriguing, all wrapped up into one thing," Vlad says softly, lifting his right hand to gesture slightly towards the rocks.

"It looks as though it is dying of pneumonia and splorching deadly mucous," he comments. He's quiet for a moment, considering the geodes. "Is it normal for them to have something within them other than crystals?" he asks, a touch of curiosity to his voice. "Perhaps these ones had not finished baking, so to speak."

Lucifer has posed:
"See that's what I was thinking. That they were just all in different stages of forming or something. But then there's the coloration of some of them. Like the teal and mucas ones.. pretty weird colors even for geodes I think." Lucifer offers to Vlad before his attention goes back to Nathaniel. He reaches to take the blue ones floated over since they're normal enough and he's keeping them. It's when Nathaniel is working on the next one that Lucifer tilts his head and takes a step forward. "Interesting? Define interesting. What is it?"

Sinister has posed:
"That's the thing, we shouldn't be finding an underdone brownie of a geode." Sinister replies, glancing over his shoulder at Vlad. "That is... scientifically a bit cock-eyed." TO say it without being rude, at any rate. He samples the mucus green one, setting into the mass-spec the same as he'd done the other one and prepares the oily one also. The red one, he's leaving to absolute last.

"This one is a pyrite geode, with some labradorite impurity. But it's... got something that the mass spectrometer can't define. It's coming up as a high bar of unknown element." Gesturing to the read-out for the spectrometry, he scratches at the back of his neck moving to the reagents that he has on hand, adding tiny swab amounts to a variety in test tubes and adding catalysts of various kinds. Only one actually produces any reaction and that's a very strange explosion of rainbow coloured light, as if very briefly, it emitted a fractured light burst spectrum. "Erm. Can one liquify mystical energy?" he asks

Dracula has posed:
"Indeed, the colouration of each is a thing to be considered as well. There are quite lovely, assuredly," Vlad says softly, admiring each of them in turn. "I believe I have only seen geodes in shades of purple, pink, and white before," he muses, a thoughtful note to his voice. His attention follows the blue one that Lucifer moves. "Theblue colours in it are quite remarkable," he comments.

Vlad chuckles softly and looks to Nathaniel before inclining his head towards the fellow. "You will have to forgive the lack of scientific knowledge, my dear," he says, his dark eyes showing a touch of a sparkle to them. He mixes science and magic to accomplish his goals, and the results sometimes look strange. "I do sometimes come up with some cock-eyed ideas," he comments, winking at Nathaniel. He tilts his head a touch to one side, considering the information shared. "Unknown element? I wonder what it could be that such a machine might not be able to suss out?" he wonders, a touch of curiosity to his voice. "It is possible and probable. If you wish, I could prod it?" he offers. With magic as the poking stick, of course.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer listens and watches, but for a moment, he doesn't say much. Perhaps he's trying to piece together things in his head. At Nathaniel's question about liquifying energy he tilts his head. "Maybe. I mean, anything can become a liquid at the right temperature right? Or perhaps the mystical energy is already in it's natural form as a liquid?" He offers, then motions to Vlad. "I wouldn't be oppossed to him taking a look at things to possibly gain a magical perspective." He offers this as well, and in his mind he thinks it'd be a better option than asking a certain other self-proclaimed mystical know it all to do it. Lucifer likes Constantine, most the time, but lately the man has been getting on his last nerve. "Was that the snot one or the teal one?"

Sinister has posed:
"That's the prismatic teal one. Labradorite gave it the poly-chromatic edge, but it shouldn't have had any liquid content. It's essentially normal, with a little bit of what the heck is that..." Sinister carefully removes one half of the pyrite-labradorite geode from the gas chamber and again, after a strange sonic (for Vlad it sounds like a continued bat sonar for a little longer than is usual for a bat and a little bit higher in frequency) he levitates one half of the geode to the vampire's waiting hand.

Meanwhile, the snot slide is slid into the mass-spec and he studies the readouts intently throughout the analysis.

And given that Lucifer is also mystically sensitive, actually holding the geode and focusing, it has a residual magic, as if it was dropped into a magical liquid puddle and is almost dried off, so that it's very little that remains in the general composition. Washed in magic? That's what it feels like it might be. And logically speaking, given where it came from, the only 'liquid' that it was saturated in, would have been the lava flow itself. Also, geodes usually take millions of years to make. To find them nicely 'farted' out isn't unheard of, but it does call into question how /recently/ they were farted, if the lava flow itself has mystical property.

Dracula has posed:
There is a slight gesture from the vampire, and a smile that curls at the corners of his lips. "The three states of matter, indeed," he says softly, a sparkle touching his dark eyes. "It may depend on the sort of mystical energy that it is. There are different types, I believe," he muses, a thoughtful tone to his voice. As he looks at the geodes, though, he keeps his magic to himself, at least for the moment.

One of his eyebrows quirks up and he chuckles softly. "Perhaps it is something that is unique to this place or to the history of this place," Vlad muses, a thoughtful note to his voice. His ears perk up somewhat at the sound that comes, twitching just a touch, yet the sound seems not to bother him much. As the geode is brought over to him, he allos it to settle to his hand. Carefully, he crafts a sort of shield around it in the shape of a sphere. The shield will prevent any potential explosion from going beyond it, though his hand would be forfeit in the process. It takes him only a moment to focus upon the geode itself, and he tilts his head a touch to one side. "Most interesting," he says quietly. Gently, he prods at it with slivers of his magic, nudging it softly. "You said that this came from a lava flow, yes? Do you have a sample of the lava itself?" he asks, glancing briefly towards Sinister before his attention returns to the geode.

Lucifer has posed:
"Didn't think to grab a sample of the lava at the time." Lucifer offers to Vlad first before glancing to Sinister and then he seems to think on things. "I could go and come back fairly quickly if we think a sample of the lava itself would be good to have." Which it could, given where this all seems to be going. It's not that he's ignoring Nathaniel's words, and in fact he looks back to the man and tilts his head. "So mystical properties in the contents of the geodes, and significant proof that maybe these geodes are... premature? Or just mystically altered?" He taps his chin and then glances around a moment. "Do we even have anything I could put hot lava into after I collect it?"

Sinister has posed:
"No, we do not have a sample of the lava itself. There was no thought to do so at the time, we did not know that the geodes were anything other than normal." A look is shot to Lucifer with a thoughtful frown, then a glance to his equipment. "Not here. Just a moment..." he places a single finger to his temple and carries on examining the mass-spec, sliding in the snot slide with a narrowing of eyes as the initial readings start to come free. "Well, this is just quartz with chromium oxides in it, giving it that neon colour. But again, it seems like the mass spec can't cope with whatever else is in it..."

A couple of human minions scurry in, hefting a rather heavy ceramic container with thick walls. It's a steel smelting cauldron, for small scale machining, as a reference. "...wait a second..." more readings seem to have finished calibrating "...carbon, oxygen, iron... gold, arsenic... cal..." he blinks "...some of this snot is alive, or component of living material."

Dracula has posed:
The elder vampire tilts his head faintly to one side as he studies the geode that is held within his hand. He is not only curious but he is intrigued by the geodes. "Is there perhaps a way of knowing or telling when the geodes were expelled by the lava which birthed them?" Vlad wonders aloud, casting a glance towards Nathaniel. His attention shifts to Lucifer, and he gives a small nod about the lava. "Ah... that is unfortunate. The geode gives the sense of having been washed in something which is mystical in nature. As though it has been washed or perhaps rinsed in magic," he muses, a thoughtful note to his voice. "A sample of the lava may be interesting in its own unique ways."

His attention turns back to the geode within his hand, studying it for a lingering moment and prodding it a touch further with his own magic. After a moment, his attention shifts to Sinister, and he raises an eyebrow slightly. "Living snot?" And then he blinks. "I wonder if it is dinosaur by-products of some kind, that became caught in the lava in some manner."

Lucifer has posed:
"So the crystals themselves, and the material making them, is normal.. but something has gotten into the geodes that's making them... not normal?" Lucifer asks, in a sort of way to prove that he's trying to understand. When the minions comes in with with that ceramic container with thick walls, he smirks. "The container can stay there. I'll just hold the lava in a shield and then place it in the container when I come back." He offers this much and then looks between Dracula and Nathaniel. About to leave when Nathaniel speaks again. Talking about...living material? Though what Vlad offers makes sense too and then he smirks. "I shouldn't be too long and it seems like the lava is our missing component to connect some of the dots together. Though how the lava may be mystical is a little beyond me. I shall return in a little bit." And, unless his leave is protested, he'll take two steps and disappear in a plume of black smoke which leaves an after scent of brimstone.

Sinister has posed:
"Well, that, in theory is a possibility, it would be an outside one. Dinosaurs and their bodily fluids are not fireproof -- this... wait a moment." He watches Lucifer vanish and during that time, turns his right hand into a pair of very sharp looking secetaires, taking the end of his pinky on the left hand and cutting it off at the top knuckle. It bleeds of course, for a moment only before it starts regenerating under his watchful eye, bone and flesh regrowing until he's whole again at record speeds. He uses the secetaires to chop a little bone shaving, a little flesh and blood too and creates a slide of himself, slipping it into the mass-spec. He then moves to a different area of the lab to get a blow torch, which he turns to the hottest setting, to incinerate the stump, making another slide of that, also slid into the mass-spec.

A bit of rapid typing and he brings up both compound spectrometry from living and from carbonized living matter, which has very different spikes when overlayed. Same basics, but proportionately different in their compound structure.

"The snot is considerably more like the living than the incinerated. Which is just /incredibly/ fascinating."

Dracula has posed:
"Indeed, that strikes me as a significant possibility," Vlad says softly, inclining his head towards Lucifer. One of his eyebrows quirks, and he chuckles as he gives a nod about the plan for the lava. "Be careful with the lava, my dear. If it is as I believe and has some mystical nature to it then it may not wish to be contained so easily," he says, a thoughtful tone to his voice. The lava might connect some dots or it might not, but the best way of finding out is by acquiring a sample and then running tests on it. Then he blinks as Lucifer simply... vanishes. "Well... usually I am the one who vanishes," he comments, a smile quirking his lips.

His attention turns to Nathaniel, and he tilts his head a bit to one side. Listening, and considering what is said. "I have a feeling that your science will more accurately determine which possibility is the correct one rather than my variety of guessing," Vlad says, shifting the geode in his hand. He keeps the geode within the shield that he'd first placed it in. He looks towards the living snot, his eyes narrowing slightly, and then his attention returns back to Nathaniel. "At some point, it became alive. Which has me curious over what the mystical energy is that might be possessing the lava. Or why more of them are not alive. The lava flows, it originates from somewhere... perhaps what makes it different is something at the source of it. This may bear more investigation," he muses, turning the geode about in his hands.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer is gone for a breath, maybe a few. Honestly unless someone is actually keeping time, there's no telling how long he's been gone. He does, at some point, simply re-appear again in another plume of black smoke, only as he returns he tries to get to the jar quickly as he can while obviously fighting with the lava he's collected. It pours into the ceramic heat-safe tumbler easily enough - but Lucifer actually looks burned in a couple of spots. And they're not quite healing as quick as they should. "I'm calling it now. There's something in the lava...I think. Maybe." He motions to himself, and then to the container. "I don't burn except for very particular reasons...there's properties in the lava that bring me gentle harm. So...there's that." A smirk as he looks between Nathaniel and Vlad. "Oh. Also. Hi, darlings, I'm home!"

Sinister has posed:
"I think I'm the only one that has to do a big song and dance about teleportation. I prefer doing it with my rings, if I'm bringing things from elsewhere, but I do have a portable cane with ruby quartz that can sometimes be quite a specific kind of style." Sinister comments, even as he's looking back at the snot sample, adding a few biochemical reagents to see if they react with it, as if there was genetic material at any rate. Nothing so far, seems to be working.

But then there's the return of the Devil. "Why, so you are, and a bit singed." It doesn't take lava long to start cooling, once it's away from its heat source. Already, as it's poured in, the crust is getting that black pummice layer. An eyebrow is arched at the injury upon Lucifer, though it does seem to be healing now and a tool is reached for to skim some of the pummice from the surface, when the upper crust heaves upward, the sides troughing as the lava attempts to surge out of its containment, yet it's still cooling and sloshes to the side, reaching extrusions out of the ceramic against a losing battle of hardening as it does so. Sinister just about has time to throw up a kinetic shield infront of himself, but it's all over in the blink of an eye, as what's hardened in the kiln looks like a blobby hand reaching forth. "Now that -really- isn't supposed to happen."

Dracula has posed:
The return of Lucifer is something that nigh immediately earns his attention when it happens, and he tilts his head faintly to one side as his gaze slips over the devil's appearance. "You are... singed," he says softly, a flicker of concern to his voice. There is a brief glance cast towards the crucible which now holds the lava, and then his attention turns back to Lucifer. "It would seem that one of those very particular reasons is possessed within the lava," Vlad says softly. He takes a moment before he is satisfied with the fact that Lucifer is not harmed in a significant manner that would require his attention. He inclines his head towards Lucifer, a smile quirking his lips. "Welcome back," he says in a warm tone.

His attention turns to Nathaniel, and what is said of teleportation is considered before he gives a small nod, and a smile quirks up the corners of his lips. "I am rather fond of your style, Nathaniel," he says softly. The things that Sinister can do with science and technology are significantly beyond what he'd be able to accomplish. Magic isn't everything, after all, and once upon a time, science was considered magic by many. His attention turns to the lava, and he raises an eyebrow slightly as he watches the way it behaves. Shifting slightly, he easily moves his hand to set the geode to float within the shielf sphere that he yet keeps it in. Then he steps a touch closer to the lava, curiosity getting the better of him. "The lava lives," he says softly, sounding a touch intrigued.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer says, "Yes. Singed. Nothing too bad though." And while it's slowly healing, it's at least healing and not causing him any further harm. When Nathaniel comes to try and gain a sample of the lava that continues to try and make some sort of pathing for itself to no evail, he steps back. Then it all stops and that hand has formed which has caused the three of them to sort of peek back into the kiln. "No. No it's not." He then glances over to Nathaniel, to Vlad, and back again. "What in the bloody hell have we discovered here, Nathaniel?""

Sinister has posed:
"I do not know. But I believe we will have to do more investigation of the volcano itself. I recommend we vacuum seal the geodes that are abnormal and that lava... hand... and retire for a bit to prepare. The volcano is large and we will have to work out the directionality of the flow to find the source. And perhaps see if other geodes in different flow areas, sport the same qualities." Sinister looks at both of them in turn, "methodically." This is firm, as there's a bit of danger involved here, if something in that volcano is capable of /burning/ the devil himself. One should exercise caution, when facing the fire!