Mikki DuBois
Someone told Mikki there was a problem with the dragons, and she knew that problems involving the dragons usually weren't good things. True, she was technically dealing with something else at the time that she'd heard this particular news, something that she couldn't just immediately drop and run to look at said dragons, which made her even more nervous. But years of working at the park had given Mikki something of a knack for working through nerves. If anything, they just fueled her eternal cheerfulness, so she plastered an even bigger smile on her face as she faced her guests.
"So, I believe that you were reporting something regarding a disappointment? We here at The Secret Lands take all our tourists quite seriously," despite the words most certainly coming from a script (which Mikki not only had memorized, but had helped revise quite recently); she'd just outright latched onto the term that pretty much everyone at the park used for guests and just pushed it to the forefront, even included it in the advertisement. Mikki sounded downright pleasant, cheerful, almost casual.
Which she needed, as the blustering man standing behind the counter with his equally blustering wife and their somehow not blustering but more embarrassed children had leaned forward, looming over Mikki. That happened, even though standing Mikki probably would have met Mrs. Blustery Tourist's nose at the very least. She wasn't that short, but the inch or so below average really showed in times like this. Didn't really bother her though; it just meant she had to crane her neck a little more, the tension not even pulling at her smile. "Yes, we took our children here," he gestured toward the three behind him, "because we heard this was a family friendly establishment."
"Oh we are sir!" chirped Mikki, bobbing her head. She pointed toward a nearby poster that hung on the wall of the "Tourist Services" offices. It happened to show Mikki along with her father (Walther) and several others who happened to work at the park, proclaiming that they wanted their family to welcome every family here. "We pride ourselves on our family friendly—"
The radio clipped to Mikki's belt chirped for a moment. She reached down, clicking it a few times, a signal to let anyone on the other end know that she happened to be with guests.
"Well, our children were exposed to decidedly not family friendly fare!" now Mrs. Blustery Tourist had gotten in on the action. "We didn't come here to be exposed to---to that! Our children are innocent!" She gestured toward the children, drawing Mikki's attention back to them. Near as Mikki could tell, at least one was only a few years younger than Mikki, which likely meant less "child" and more "teenager," though many adults rightfully didn't differentiate. Even excluding the oldest, the youngest had to be dangerously close to hitting double digits.
Mikki's radio squawked again, this time words coming out: "Repeat, the dragons are on fire. Mikki, we need you to—"
Mikki flicked her radio again, smile twitching slightly. Fire plus dragons generally wasn't a great combination.
Apparently Mr. and Mrs. Blustery Tourist had heard that word, because they'd both lapsed into silence, staring down at Mikki's waist, making her wish she'd ducked behind the service counter. Mikki waited a second, during which her radio chirped again, before prompting them: "You were saying something about how one of our entertainments wasn't quite---"
"Err, yes," said Mrs. Blustery Tourist (Mikki made a quick mental note to get their names; labelling tourists was never very friendly). "It was… the promised show from the winner of that new singing competition, America's Dream?" Mikki could literally hear the italics. She'd barely needed to hear it before reaching down, already knowing precisely what form she'd have to start filling out. Again.
"Yes, we know that Raelena St. John—"
"St. John," corrected Mikki.
The two tourists blinked at her, lapsing into another momentary silence. Mikki's radio took advantage: "MIKKI, WE'RE PRETTY SURE THAT THE DRAGONS ARE ABOUT TO TAKE OFF AND THERE ARE STILL CHILDREN INSIDE THEM! We repeat: children inside the---OH GOD, IS THAT MORE FIRE? Mikki you have to—"
Click. "It's pronounced Sin-Gin," Mikki reiterated. "She's oddly particular about it," she set the form in front of her, seemingly ignoring the two slightly panicky tourists. "Oh, excuse me," she looked up at them, still smiling, "I didn't get your names?"
"Sh—shouldn't you---" stammered Mrs. Blustery.
"Did her radio say fire?!" exclaimed the teenager behind, suddenly perking up considerably, his eyes lighting up.
"Names?" prompted Mikki.
"We're the Williams Family," said Mr. Williams, "but really—"
"Right," said Mikki, bobbing her head and filling out the form, "so, our visiting performer's performance wasn't appropriate? You are aware that the performance is marked as being more appropriate for teenagers," her eyes flicked toward the older offspring, who was still goggling at her radio, "and that there may be slightly more mature themes? If you've heard Raelena perform before…"
"MIKKI, where are you? The dragons are starting to spin and that—that is definitely fire!"
The Williams were now just outright gaping at Mikki.
"So what about this performance was particularly unusual or different from what you were expecting?" prompted Mikki, pen dancing across the form with practiced ease.
"You know, I really think it's not quite as important after all..." Mr. Williams said, exchanging a glance with his wife.
"Yes, yes, it's---nothing they wouldn't see on TV," agreed Mrs. Williams.
"Can we go see the dragons?" asked teenage Williams.
"Well, if you're sure…" said Mikki, raising her brows. "I already have the form—"
"Fire; repeat Mikki: dragons. Plus. Fire," Mikki sighed, finally reaching down to click her radio several times in agitation.
"You know, I really should tend to this…" she said, looking up at the Williams.
Mikki couldn't recall ever seeing anyone nod so quickly.
Fortunately, it wasn't that difficult to get to the dragons. They'd positioned the dragons near the Last Cliffs, which was on the far end of the park. But Mikki had memorized all the shortcut tunnels that they had underneath, and she'd made certain to time her arrival from any two points on the park. At her fastest sprint, she could get from any major point in the park to another within twenty-six minutes, less if she could hitch a ride on a cart or utilize one of the more dangerous shortcuts. Tourist services didn't meet the top limit, but it was still another twelve minutes thirty-seven seconds until Mikki popped out near the cliffs themselves.
The cliffs did stir slightly. They rose several hundred feet and were one of the wholly natural parts of the Secret Lands. The impressive rock faces had the same, golden white hew they so often had, standing stoic and majestic, mysterious and aloof, precisely as the park had intended. The area around the Cliffs had been arranged as a sort of mixture between mining town and rocky wilderness, with various attractions hewn out of the stone itself. At least one section did include a more materialized area, with the Stalwart Bastion looming up.
The real noise came from the attractions, specifically toward the base of the cliffs where the dragon ride had been set up. Mikki sprinted that way, twisting her dark brown hair up into a tight high pony as she went. Determined set her face, amber eyes setting in stone while she ran through potential scripts in her head.
The dragons were set up as a sort of free-form swing type ride. The actual dragons varied in size, allowing parents to sit with children or teenagers to sit in matched couples or even the occasional lone rider. Each dragon had a different age suggestion that the ride attendees were supposed to have memorized, and each one could be steered slightly as they circled. All you had to do was tug slightly on the wings and lean. This did create something of a cluster of chaos in the general area, but the dragons were mostly connected and the programming guaranteed that they wouldn't cross or cause problems.
They were also on fire.
Mikki approached the crowd, reaching down to her belt to pull out a cylinder. She flicked it, the thing kaleidoscoping out into a tube with one end slightly wider than another. Mikki raised the narrow end to her mouth: "Tourists!" she announced, drawing sighs from the various park workers that had been trying to wrangle panicked tourists. Mikki had her usual bubbling smile on already as she practically bounded forward. "I assure you that we here at Secret Lands have everything perfectly under control!" She hooked an arm around one of the mesh railings they used to separate the crowd into lines, using it to lever herself up onto a perch. The various connecting bastions weren't all that big, but Mikki had more than enough practice standing on one.
"They're on fire!" called someone from the crowd, pointing.
"Well of course they are!" Mikki called back, beaming, "they're dragons aren't they?"
A beat of silence sounded so loud that Mikki could feel it in her ears. She held her breath, waiting while listening to sparks behind her.
"You're saying they're supposed to do that?" a guest finally asked.
"Naturally! We aim for a realistic experience! It's all part of the show, perfectly safe!" insisted Mikki, waving her hands.
"But we saw someone get burned!" a worried female tourist pointed out.
Mikki spread an arm out, fingers splayed. "And they got better immediately, didn't they?"
The tourists were all quiet, a few looking to the makeshift first aid tent. They were quite sure that people had been burned; there had been fires after all. But nobody in the tent had any signs of burns at all. Various park workers, mostly dressed in medical smocks with impressive hairnets, tended to the wounded, but everyone seemed… fine? Most seemed to have heat stroke or dehydration, fairly common amusement park ailments.
"Sorry for the confusion people! We did promise a unique experience! As compensation for your distress, we'll be providing you all with a free t-shirt and dragon tart!" she said, gesturing. Sure enough, a few other employees had gotten shirts out, each one reading I Got Burned by Dragons at—before displaying "Secret Lands" in its unique font and symbol (Mikki hadn't actually designed that one; the shirt, yes, the symbol, not so much).
She handed off the megaphone to a park employee pausing to look into their eyes, "Nathaniel," she said, speaking clearly, "you've got this, right?"
When he nodded, Mikki returned the expression, ducking around the hastily erected barricade around the ride to get closer to the dragons proper. A handful of ride tweakers were already on site, though most were staying out of range of the dragons. Mikki soon saw why as one stepped closer, only to jump back as sparks shot out.
"You've got to get them from the off side," she said, reaching a hand out. The head operator of the Dragon Flight, longtime park worker Kel-sia handed off the key, a long tube like instrument that you could use to instantly slide into any of the individual dragon rides and do a quick reading.
"I told you that we needed another inspection on these," the grumpy woman said, folding her arms over her chest. "They've been acting up for weeks now."
"I know," agreed Mikki, carefully watching the sparks. "It's on the list." The list was growing, growing faster than they could tend to it. She flicked her eyes back to Kel, "You know we're short-staffed."
"Your dad needs to get on hiring more then," grumbled the operator, jerking her chin. "And where were you?"
"Tourist relations," said Mikki, she pointed with the key, 'I'm going for that one, have someone watch out."
A quick nod, and Mikki darted forward. She'd been dancing with these dragons since before her dad had let her work the park properly. She knew their exact flight location, knew that they were likely to keep moving even if they were disengaged if things went a little off the rails, and knew which dragon was more likely to be temperamental. Surprisingly, it was the ones that had the smoother, slower flights. Probably ground the gears more or something: Mikki didn't quite understand the specifics.
She ducked under a low-looping dragon, feeling hot sparks connecting with her hair. Something smoldered near the back, but Mikki ignored it, ducking around again. She dove a little closer to the main pole, where she knew a dead-man switch to be. Another dart, this one a little less planned as a dragon jerked slightly out of its proscribed flight path. Mikki bopped the dragon's nose with the key, though it wasn't like the machine was going to respond.
Another burst of heat washed over her back as she ducked lower, getting close to the pole proper. She hissed as she slid forward, hips brushing against something; whoever built this hadn't taken in consideration the average human build, probably elfish or Gremlin or something. Her hand came up, and she pushed the key into the final switch, twisting it. The ride shuttered to a stop, though not before one last dragon bobbed over her head. Mikki saw its face, chiseled out of metal like the rest and shimmering with metallic paint, aimed directly at her. She ducked just as a burst of fire erupted from the mouth, and she could literally feel the back of her hair going up.
Rolling, Mikki slid into the small space just around the pole. Her head hit the pole, but she managed to slide underneath the pole to where the real machinery of operation lay. She could dimly hear people gasping, hear Kel assuring everyone it was alright, before she rolled again, patting at her now mostly fried hair.
Sighing, Mikki sat up, looking around her at the real culprits responsible, the testy machinery and its even testier source of power. The coffee skinned teen stood up, dusted herself off, and then put her hands on her hips, hair still smoldering. "Well, what do you have to say for yourselves?"
Several immature dragons all exchanged looks with one another, before looking up at Mikki. The lead one puffed a ring of smoke at the park worker, and she chuckled as she waved it away.