Starring:
Date: February 11, 2014
Summary:
A vein of silver has been discovered, but can't be mined because it has an electric current running through it. Itami along with Ayumu have taken it upon themselves to discover the source of this current and see if they can't do something about it to make the silver accessible.
"Shocking Silver"
Mountain Range - Northern Desert
A vein of silver! That's the sort of boon Sunagakure needs and Itami is now on the job to try and see how to deal with the problem. Along with Ayumu's help, she might be able to figure this out. In fact, he may even prove to be much more useful here than she would. Something is causing electricity to run through the vein and it seems like it's enough voltage to wound, but not kill. That's great news, but mining it in this condition would be a pain.
She heads to the caves where mining operations are taking place and is guided by some crew members present to the vein in question. It's a bit of a ways down, but nothing particularly threatening. She came from a subterranean clan and this place…almost sort of feels like home.
"Except instead of faulty wiring that needs fixing, there's conductive rocks to deal with it."
After nothing but a haphazard greeting and silence on the Iga's part throughout the entirety of the trip, it may come as a complete suprise for Itami that he spoke up at all, let alone so abruptly after they reached the caves. Granted, it would not be technically the first time the red-haired wonder did something so random. Nor even the third time for that matter.
Itami wouldn't be the only one reminded of home as well. Unlike the watanabe, Ayumu is more tense than actually melancholy. So much so, that he starts to form a chain of hand signs, but stops short and glances in her direction. "How do you wish to proceed, Itami-sama?" He says, oddly formal for a change.
"Conductive rocks…yes," Itami remarked to Ayumu. It seemed strange to speak about that just now, but whatever works. Once they're at the place they need to be, she steps forward saying, "We proceed inside, of course. The vein of silver isn't much further," she states as she points out the vein from the lanterns they utilize down here. She takes one in hand as she continues onward. Upon approaching the vein of silver, she touches it and immediately feels the jolt to her hands. As suspected, yes, but she needed to know exactly what they were dealing with.
"Hmm. Tips of fingers are tingling, but they'll be alright," she rubbed them together lightly. They'd be numb for a bit. "This is why I needed you here. You see, I need your senses to pick up on where the electrical current goes so we can follow it back to it source. I'm certain there are some parts of this vein we won't be able to see, but what you'd be able to feel. So, can you do this for me?"
Ayumu nods faintly in response and follows along, mindful all the while to keep his off the walls or ceiling. Unfortunately, he couldn't do the same for his bare feet at the moment, but those were the breaks. The moment he sensed her reaching out for the charged rocks Ayumu thoughtlessly started to reach out and interject. He hesitated, however, and it costed him precious seconds.
He is still wearing a frown when she turns to ask her question, and for a moment there, it even looks like he was gonna refuse her wishes. An almost sad sounding sigh escapes his lips. "See and feel actually, even through this stuff. But even so, no promises on where we'll wind up." And on that note, Ayumu seems to stir something inside his mouth before thin, centerimeters thick, pale white tendrils seep out from his lips and stretch outward towards the wall. Creepy and almost unearthy things those are, but in fact, just enlarged version of something found in sharks. "Hmm… that tingles." He says despite not making contact. "Alright. I'm ready."
"Remember, you only need sense where the current is going. You don't need to come into contact with it like I did," she states. "We'll need you as a guide," she points out to the one that gave them the elevator ride. "So please, lead the way," she states. The miner nodded and took a lantern, proceeding forward into the shaft to lead them. He knew his way around here, but still needed help from time to time.
He didn't know where the current was coming from, but he did know where it tended to be the most prevalent. "If we can stop this current, we'll be able to mine the silver here. I'm…excited about this. I don't sound like it, but I'm keeping it contained, a bit," she states. "This is an opportunity for Sunagakure to progress. I couldn't be more happier," she chuckled.
Within the cave where the concentration of silver managed to be the greatest, there was an apparent static in the air. It made the hair stand on end, but it still wasn't anything lethal. If anything, the current seemed to be the same throughout. There was something different, here. The dry air that made up the mine before gave way to it being mildly muggy. There was something moist around here.
Itami sniffed at the air and proceeded to flick her tongue out to take in more information. She collected what she could from the air and began to process it. "Hmm. There's…water around here…" she states. "It smells…metallic, though."
"Ah," He emits, nodding in understanding, then following along right after the miner when the time came. Sometime along the way the Iga sucked back in the tendril and spat out perfect balls of flesh. The balls, bearing the electroreceptors, roll along among the groups feet and even ways ahead, constantly monitor the area for any abnormal spikes or potential offshoots worth investigating.
"But in what direction? Says the Iga as he smiles faintly in amusment." Ayumu says, smiling faintly in, well, amusement! Just as there are sensorys devoted to tracking the current, there are those lined about the Iga's person that pick up the change in the air. Ayumu would comment on this, but held his tongue back instead until he understood more. Once the reach the main chamber with the greatest concentration of silver, a glance in Ayumu's direction would reveal his hair gaining the potential to put certain blonde-haired extraterrestial of another dimension to shame.
"Metallic? Hmm… and underground current then… though that still doesn't explain all of this. Unless…" Ayumu trails off at that point and starts to wonder off. The organs unleashed before also scatter every which way. While they devoted themselves to the task of finding the greatest concentration of electricity within the charged room, Ayumu would busy himself with locating said spring. Start to at least, only to catch himself and ask if the miner knew anything about what Itami described.
The miner seemed disturbed by Ayumu's abilities, but anyone in their right mind would be. Itami was always bothered by them, but she grew used to them over time. When they reached the center point, the miner began to reply to the Iga's questioning saying, "Uhh, yeah, I kind of know what's being talked about. There's a type of well here, I guess. It's not really a well more like just a…something, I don't know, but that's where the current is coming from. Along with silver, there seems to be other metals in here that are in contact with water that washes in and out every day. The other metals don't extend through this area here with the exception of silver. From what we've experienced, the other metals seem to be magnetic. We don't know what kinds of metals they are. If we could somehow stop them from connecting with the silver, we could mine it out."
"Ah, I see…" Itami starts. "What you really wish is to drain the water, I suppose…if that's drained, then we may be able to keep the current from being active."
"A… something?" Ayumu found himself parroting, though with the miner's guiding hand he picks up on what he meant. Tempted though he is to immediatly wonder off and try investigating the well directly, the Iga instead diverted some of the organs scattered about to the task, along with a few less special ones that slipped down and out of his pants legs. If need be, some are even sacrificed to the pit by direct diving or adhere to the walls of it and crawl down.
"It'll have to be more than just a one time deal as well." Ayumu pipes up sounding uncharacteristically worried. "Better to divert it… though, I am not an expert." He turns to Itami with a weak smile plastered on. "Guess this is where my usefulness ends, neh?"
"Not exactly. I need help in trying to guide the water away from this area so that the charge to the silver can be canceled out. I'm sure the water is probably subject to electricity as well and will be more difficult to escape if I make the wrong move. I can dig down and see if I can't see a way out of this, but I'll still need your senses to ensure that the water will be going the right way. In other words, I'll likely be digging blind," she explains.
She makes a handseal and proceeds to dive into the earth to see how this water is accessing this area. It's likely some sort of aquifer…
There is not should about it, or so the organs that fell down the well reported. Ayumu winced at their destruction, but reigned in the urge to try and shake of the feeling of residual charge as Itami laid down the plan. "Alrighty… but how am I too—" He starts to say, but is a few moments too late to finish before the watanabe is already underground. He meanders over and crouches down next to the hole. It would seem that there will be much yelling involved. Ayumu's head falls forward with a weary sigh.
"Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dumb, Remi."
Three sensory organs join the Iga's side, and as soon as he pointed towards the hole left behind, all three spheres bounce their way down inside, adherering to the sides at the earliest opportunity before proceeding after the watanabe. In the meantime, Ayumu would sit back and open himself up for a potential world of distraction by bolstering the signal, and by extension, information processing speed.
Itami continued digging down until she popped out the other end and heard the water running. "Alright, now that I'm down here…" She started and mildly grumbled to herself. "Ayumu, can you tell what direction the water is flowing from?" She wondered aloud. "I can't really tell from here, but if I had to guess, I think it's opposite the mine shaft's direction. If at all possible could someone use a lantern to put some light on this situation?"
The miner assisting them with this issue went to find some rope where he'd then begin to tie the lantern around it and lower it down until it was hovering over the water. It was a faint glow, but it was enough to establish some visual. In all her concern regarding the water, she sort of forgot they had lanterns. Sigh. The problems with being distracted, but at least the thought came back to her here.
"Alrighty. I still can't tell where the water is flowing, but at least I can see a bit better…"
Ayumu can hear her, but required another few moments to get fully callibrated. The last time he entered the state he was in there were a few… hiccups. Best to avoid that happening again. By the time the Iga is official ready, her second request for light is relayed to the miner. The first on the otherhand would be put on hold until the woman could at least see his adjustment to the plan of yelling.
At the price of sacrificing some of the excess energy in the organ, wind is gathered about the disembodied eye, Remi, granting it flight once enough was gathered. Keeping it stable took some time to manage, but inevitable the Iga found a sweet point. It floats on straight in front of Itami, spins around a few time like compass needle, then stops abruptly and floats onwards above the water. Following a quick, intensive though brief looking scan of the water, the eye shoots downriver a foot above its surface.
In thick-headedness on Itami's part would be resolved with a glare, then an arrow plus a message being carved into a nearby wall.
Itami continued to cling to the walls of the hole she dug while looking about. A little illumination helped to keep down disorientation here in the dark. What managed to come out of that darkness nearly made her lose grip of the walls. She saw something moving, but couldn't quite tell what it was until a bit of illumination revealed it to be an eyeball. She lost her grip momentarily, but quickly reestablished it before she fell into the water and met with an electrocution bath.
"Thank you," she stated in a blunt fashion. "I don't think I was prepared for that, but I should have. I don't know why I wasn't…" she muttered the last part to herself. Now that she was able to see what direction the water was coming from, she began the effort of digging further in order to try a way to redirect the water. Since it was at a dead end here, she figured it wouldn't hurt to give it another place to go to.
Slinking through the earth, she felt areas where there was apparent static and others that were clear which made her trip around a bit of an issue, but she did manage to find her way to the other side of the small aquifer where she began to bust holes into the wall where the water would begin to drain into.
Even biting down on his thumb is hardly enough to keep Ayumu from laughing at Itami's predicament. This was definetly a moment he wanted engraved, so sometime in the near future, a certain Yamanaka cousin was gonna recieve a vist. Stiffling what mirth he could, Ayumu realigns the current surrounding the eye before the organ ended up taking a dip as well, and followed after Itami. The journey is a difficult one for more reasons than one. Thankfully, the fact that it is a short-lived one provides Ayumu with a quick opportunity to calm down and even relay some of what has transpired, though beyond that, the Iga stayed focused on the task at hand. While Itami went about making diversion points for the water, Ayumu kept a close eye on the area itself, watchful for any suprises that might be result of a misplaced strike or an unknown factor.
Itami continued striking at points until she was able to see the water drain back and away from the area that electrified the silver. The silver was likely still going to be charged for a bit, but should die down over the course of a few days now that the water was being directed. It seems that the metals that were in contact with the water were corroding and as a result, electricity was generated from the corrosion. Without water, the corrosion should slow and the silver that was between these metals should be able to be used soon. "Alright!" Itami chimed. "That ought to do it!" She states.
"I'll be making my way back up in a bit. You know, I think the metals in here will be useful. Silver and all. Then again, I don't know the grade of the metal, so…maybe not. I'll leave that up to the experts, but at least the silver should be worth something, right?" She grinned as she resurfaced back inside the mine shaft
