HALO 183: The Not Remotely Gritty Reboot

[Reinholdt]

[Simulation Room]

"I know what you mean, technology is a mess around here." Faith herself was stuck with pseudo-future tech. She didn't trust magic too much considering she had no idea how it would interact with her and the fact it was even more of a mess than technology was.
"But it is remarkable, never seen anything like it if I'm going to be honest. So it would know how people would act as well? You did use a time-traveling example before so it seems like it'd be capable of something like that as well. Therefore, I imagine it would be amazing for therapy of various kinds, not to mention training or simple games. Indeed, the only negative side-effect would probably be that you spend too much time with it as it probably could simulate your greatest dreams. Why bother with reality when you have a much better one in this machine?" She gestures at the control panel.

[Simulation Room]

"Time travel was an example of something it couldn't predict because the creators didn't know how time travel worked. At least in so far as how to cause time travel." Reinholdt says. "... At least... I think they didn't know..." Man, it'd be super awkward to press some buttons and suddenly reveal the secret to time travel to an investigative reporter. For once, Rein chooses not to push the buttons.

He tilts his head at her enthusiasm though. "Well, yes, I suppose there's always the risk of someone spending too much time in here. But no one's done it yet. I honestly doubt it'd ever become a problem. Very few people actually know what their dream world would be like. Wouldn't even know where to begin changing things." Rein's probably underselling the risk, but then again people already live in a fantasy world of sorts. And rarely use this room anyways.

"You're free to come back and just try it out some time though. It sounds like you had an idea of something you wanted to experience."

[Deathkeeper]

HALO phone

“Could tell citizens virus cannot spread. Impossible. Their belief would shield them. But. Misinformation to public...risky business. Sunsworn would need to withhold truth of infection vector. Will not. Would need tell her you told me. Will not. For now, avenue viable only on small scale.
Call again if research bears fruit. Now you stand with us.
Fight! Win! Surviiiiiive.”

[billtodamax]

HALO Phone

Sure thing. Nigel says, hanging up. He goes back to his notes and waits for his other scene to end so his timeline can make some semblance of sense again.

[Purple Eagle]

Labs

I will keep you in mind. Nigel says, looking around the labs. Looks pretty good for a start. Just a couple of things, are you fully human? I noticed your eyes are a little odd, so I thought... he trails off, walking around the lab as he speaks, looks at the various machines and testing apparatus and generally getting himself comfortable with the space. And uh... can I get that dude's number? You said his name was like... Reinholdt? Did Nigel know a Reinholdt? He wracks his brain, pulling out his phone and swiping through a few numbers. Not in there... I'm gonna want to be able to call him. Hopefully get my hands on some of those samples. He pulls a laptop out of his satchel along with a number of newspapers from various different publications, most of them with front page articles about the disease. If Mirai catches a glimpse of what he's doing on the laptop he'll see he's googled "cat".

[HALO Phone]

The public phone to HALO rings, it probably has for a while considering the whole memetic outbreak but now it's displaying a potentially relevant caller ID.

Faith Sunsworn - Nexus Herald

She's the reporter that first broke the story about the disease.

Labs

"I thought everyone's eyes were odd when I first came here, funny enough!" Mirai exclaims, chuckling. "This is how 'humans' look in my world, we call ourselves numans here. Our irises aren't as limited in possible colours, either." Mirai explains, as a drone flies over to meet him for some maintenance. He watches Nigel go about his business, focusing more on maintaining his weapons while the scientist picks up the phone and starts talking away.

HALO Phone

Sure thing. Nigel says, hanging up. He goes back to his notes and waits for his other scene to end so his timeline can make some semblance of sense again.

Labs

By the time Nigel's done, Mirai's working on some device, just tinkering. "Here's Reinholdt's number." He says, handing a slip of paper to Nigel. "Are you alright by yourself? I need to return to my girlfriend in the room. Or more correctly, I'm a lightning clone the original Mirai made, and I need to go."

And if he's given leave to go, he'll disappear.

[Mirai and Zither's Room]

Mirai's eyes widen as the memories return to him. "Ah, new person. No, don't worry about it, Zii." He says, letting Zither know there's nothing to worry about.

[Earl of Purple]

Mirai & Zither's Room

"What? Oh. You did that two places at once thing, right? That gets really disconcerting, Mirai. I lose track of which of you is the real you, y'know?" She agrees with most of his suggestions for their room, though, and doesn't blush about the box.

[Shadowcaller]

[Simulation Room]

"Time travel was an example of something it couldn't predict because the creators didn't know how time travel worked. At least in so far as how to cause time travel." Reinholdt says. "... At least... I think they didn't know..." Man, it'd be super awkward to press some buttons and suddenly reveal the secret to time travel to an investigative reporter. For once, Rein chooses not to push the buttons.

He tilts his head at her enthusiasm though. "Well, yes, I suppose there's always the risk of someone spending too much time in here. But no one's done it yet. I honestly doubt it'd ever become a problem. Very few people actually know what their dream world would be like. Wouldn't even know where to begin changing things." Rein's probably underselling the risk, but then again people already live in a fantasy world of sorts. And rarely use this room anyways.

"You're free to come back and just try it out some time though. It sounds like you had an idea of something you wanted to experience."

[Simulation Room]

"People usually go for the simplest fantasies first before moving into entire dream worlds." Faith glances at the machine again. "Still, an amazing device that I wouldn't be surprised if people came to try out after hearing about it, so keep that in mind." She pauses as Rein mentions her own ideas however and raises her hands as if protesting.
"It's fine, I probably- I mean, my ideas would be deeply personal and I shouldn't get that close to something I'm covering. Not really appropriate in my line of work, even if I do it on my free time. Maybe if I did it as a part of a therapy session, but it feels like its long way before psychology can catch up to this kind of technology. Especially since there is only one of them."

[Reinholdt]

[Simulation Room]

"Iiii... really think you're overthinking a simulated relaxing day at the beach with no one else to bother you." Reinholdt shakes his head and shrugs.

"Anyways, will this suffice for the photo you wanted?"

[billtodamax]

HALO Phone (this man will not stop calling people)

Yeah, that's all good. I've give you a yell if I need anything made. Nigel says, taking the number and plugging it into his phone, saving it in his contacts first and then giving it a ring.

Hey, is this Reinholdt?

[Reinholdt]

[Halo Phone]

The phone rings for a long time. If Nigel doesn't give up though, the recipient will finally pick up. The line is full of heavy breathing, a frenetic tone, frequent angry shouts from third parties, and a lot of questionable noises.

"Yes! What?! Who? Kinda busy."

[billtodamax]

HALO Phone

Nigel likes to let the phone ring until the voice mail machine.

Hey, it's Nigel - I think we met once? Anyway I'm at HALO doing some preliminary work on this meme virus and I have a bunch of theories to test but I need those samples. They coming soon? He asks. No point assuming he's infected right away even though that is definitely the case.

[Reinholdt]

[HALO Phone]

"What? Yes. Did I not leave I note? I left a note. Did you not read the note? You can read right?" Surely whoever this impatient punk is, they are at least literate. Otherwise why are they working on such a sensitive thing? But they clearly can't read, otherwise they'd know Rein is working on it and will be back soon!

"Excuse me kid. Need that. Thanks." There's some shouts over the line for mommy, he stole my yo-yo. It's quite distressing. Give that kid his yo-yo back.

[Shadowcaller]

[Simulation Room]

"Iiii... really think you're overthinking a simulated relaxing day at the beach with no one else to bother you." Reinholdt shakes his head and shrugs.

"Anyways, will this suffice for the photo you wanted?"

[Simulation Room]

Faith smiles. "Prooobably, you're not the first one who said that, I call it a work-related injury." She gestures at the simulator. "Can I take a photo at a simulation too? Something impressive. I wasn't quite ready the first time."

[billtodamax]

HALO Phone

I read the note, just clarifying - you have more protection than just the suit, right? Nigel asks, pulling his syringe gun out of his bag and loading a few syringes into it as he cradles the phone to his face with his shoulder. Anyway just making sure you're still on target. If you start seeing things or feeling different to normal just try to remember how great it'd be to come home and sleep on your couch alright? Cats love to be lazy there is no way this plan will backfire.

[Reinholdt]

[Halo Phone]

"... I have this yo-yo too. Why?" If anything, Ness has taught us that yo-yo is quite defensible. "Look, I don't have time for this. I'm hanging up now." And he'll do just that unless Nigel has something else to add. Hopefully something not cat racist. Even if couch naps are amazing.

[Simulation Room]

Rein's tail flicks, but he adds no more about hang ups. Everyone has them after all. "Sure. Knock yourself out. Maybe a black hole?" Rein suggests, motioning Faith to the controls to let her decide on what simulation would make a good picture for her article. Maybe not a black hole then. Ink is expensive.

[billtodamax]

HALO Phone

...Great well get back quick, yeah? is all Nigel has to say. He sets the phone down after Rein hangs up, takes a moment to sigh deeply, and finishes loading his syringe gun. Probably unnecessary. He's not given more time to think on it though as one of his alchemical devices starts bubbling and frothing and he has to quickly see to it. All that's left now is for Rein to get back.

[Shadowcaller]

[Halo Phone]

The phone calls again, but this time it's Faith again. Looks like there is something else she wants...

[Simulation Room]

"I think I'd prefer a sunrise, seems kinda fitting with HALO's current state wouldn't you say?" I assume the controls are really simple to handle if Faith are to be able to make a sunset with them. Is there like a button for it?

Either way, if its simple a photo will be taken. "Perfect, that should be enough. Got everything I want now."

[Reinholdt]

[Simulation Room]

"Heart of a poet," Reinholdt comments.

If Rein can handle the controls, anyone can. In fact, there's some stickers to show what (some of) the buttons do, as discovered through classic trial and error. Sunrise and sunset are the same button pushed a different number of times. "Voice command works too." Oh yeah. That's probably way more efficient.

"Glad to hear it. Come and visit us again some time."

[Returning]

Well using the yo-yo to escape the angry banshee turned out to be even more convoluted than Rein thought. The dullahan wasn't that bad, not being in the later stages of infection. Though she only agreed to provide samples in exchange for Rein's floof later. Rein knows it's the oldest profession and all, but he's still not sure how he feels about selling cuddles like that. The gargoyle on the other hand, turned out to be a nightmare. Of course she would be the high priestess of a church devoted to the goddess of statues. Eve, that was a nightmare.

The blue cat in a hazmat suit maintaining very questionable amounts of integrity stumbles out of the shuttle and heads towards the labs. Might as well find this Nigel character.

[billtodamax]

Returning

Rein will find Nigel standing around a set of bronze instruments set up on a table, using a protractor and a compass to outline a magic circle before committing salt to table, as it were. He's got a couple more bronze crucibles bubbling away happily on a desk to his right, both containing small amounts of thick black liquid. He's not wearing his hazmat suit anymore (it absolutely sucks) instead just wearing a light blue coat over a button up shirt and slacks. He also has a loaded utility belt around his waist.

Ah, Reinholdt! From the uh... the party! He says, suddenly remembering him. It's um... oh, god, right. Have you seen anyone else on your way in? He asks seriously. Need to get you into quarantine... He starts looking around the lab for any useful rooms he can stow Reinholdt in.

[Reinholdt]

[Returning]

"... YOU." Reinholdt exclaims, glaring suspiciously at the doctor. Jiiiiiii.

Hmph. Well, he couldn't be trusted around impressionable young women, but he was here now working on the problem. So be it. "What? Yeah a few. It's fine." Tour tends to greet people in general and Felandria always insists on hugs whenever he gets back.

"There's no need for quarantine. I'm not infected. That's the whole point of wearing the suit in the first place." The light headache he feels is because of all the nonsense he's had to put up with today. "Here." Reinholdt hops up onto the desk, bumping a bronze crucible and nearly knocking it over. He takes in a sharp intake of air at the near accident. Was he compelled just now to do that?

Regardless he finds some free space and plops down his carefully sealed samples. A treant's bark, a vampire's blood, a conch with a banshee's voice trapped inside, a dullahan's hair, and a gargoyle's... rocks. The gargoyle one was tricky alright?

[billtodamax]

Returning

Nigel makes a lunge for the crucible, steadying it with one hand. Jumping up and knocking things over... He says, looking over to where his laptop is. Yeah that's one of them. If you wouldn't mind I'd like you to write down everyone you saw and spoke to. He says, picking up the samples. Man some of these are going to be a pain in the ass to work with. Hopefully you aren't too far along. It's a magical disease, right? Magical transmission vectors. He stows away the samples in his pack and pulls out a syringe. Do you mind if I take some blood? He asks Rein.

[Reinholdt]

[Returning]

"Oh please, Captain Overreaction." Reinholdt rolls his eyes. He jumps up on things all the time! It's not his fault if Nigel is making everything cluttered and easy to knock over.

"Waddya mean magical? Look, I'll write down what happened in Inside for you, if that'll help your research, but you aren't taking my blood. You don't need it. You've got five perfectly good samples and I'm not infected." Unless... Nigel wants Rein's blood for other nefarious purposes. That... That was probably it. He was plotting something to use against Rein. Against Blanche. Rein's eyes narrow suspiciously at Nigel and he hops down, heading towards the door. "Now if you don't mind, I want to get out of this suit and get a bath. I'll be back later."

[Felandria]

[Felandria's Office]

"Well, I don't know if I could move in here. It's also my wife's decision," Dorota says. "As for deities, well... it started when I tried to figure out if my people's gods were ever real. I still don't know that. So I'm trying to find out what it is that makes someone a deity. Which means... how did you become one?"

Well, we’ll be here all week if I gave you the long version, so I’ll try and summarize.

My mother raised me, she was a high elf, and I never knew who my father was, I don’t even think my mother was really sure, as it turned out.

She wasn’t too thrilled about my not being a pure elf, she had a reputation to uphold, so I was kind of her little secret.

Eventually I was big enough to where I could start earning my keep, or more specifically, earning enough to set out on my own.

I eventually hooked up with an adventuring party, we traveled together for a couple of years, a pretty solid group, aside from this one halfling rogue who clearly selected the wrong class, we ditched him not long after we fought this massive frog, my buddy Vladimir got himself intentionally swallowed because he had spiky armor and he wriggled around in there until the frog died.

To this day I occasionally have nightmares about that frog.

At one point we travelled into the underdark, a kingdom was under siege from this diabolical wizard, who briefly stole my body for his own uses.

While we were in this particularly foul dungeon, I stumbled across this sword.

Felandria reaches under her desk and pulls out a beautiful longsword.

I didn’t understand why at the time, but something about this sword spoke to me, the moment I touched, I just knew that it belonged to me, like it had been waiting for me.

Anyway, when we returned from the underdark having killed the wizard and destroying his corpse, we were celebrated as heroes, but it was short lived as a new threat made itself known, we ventured into a cave of ice in the north, but the trail had dried up, just as a massive worm began digging its way through the ice towards us.

That was when we found this dais frozen in the ice next to what appeared to be some sort of gateway, and the curious thing was, carved into the dais, was this symbol.

Felandria brings the sword closer to Dorota, where she will be able to see the engraving of a cloud with a bolt of lightning running through it.

And inside the dais was a slot to insert the sword.


But when I inserted the sword, nothing happened.

I should probably note at this point that I was regular sized when this all happened.

So it turned out the sword was too small, however, when the king threw us a feast celebrating our defeat of the wizard, he presented us each with a gift, my gift was to learn a new spell, one that a sorceress was normally unable to cast.

I had chosen the cleric spell Righteous Might, which I cast on myself in the cave, at which point I doubled in size, along with all my equipment and everything I was carrying, including the sword, which now fit perfectly into the dais.

The gateway immediately sprung to life just as the worm made its way into the room, we all dived through the portal, I went last, grabbing the sword just before to make sure it closed behind me and the worm would be unable to follow.

When we had gathered our bearings, we found ourselves in the most beautiful place anyone has ever laid their eyes upon.

Olympus.

[billtodamax]

Returning

No I meant... ok, fine, fine. Nigel's hand goes to his bag and rests on his syringe gun halfway through before rethinking it. HALO is already contaminated, as much as he wishes it weren't. Ok, uh... he rubs his forehead with his hand in exasperation. Look, the only thing you need to be exposed to to be infected is sight and sound of another infected person. It's not by airbourne contaminents, or body fluids, or anything that suit would actually help with. So I'm not gonna tell you you definitely are infected, I just want you to note down any time you feel paranoid, or if you're seeing things, or if you have a headache, okay? And at least for today try to stay in the base, at least. He tells Rein. Noone ever listens to the goddamn doctor.

HALO Phone

Nigel stirs from his experiments which look very cool and sciencey and I am too lazy to describe properly to answer the phone yet again. Hey, it's Nigel, shoot.

[Reinholdt]

[Returning]

"W-what? Are you serious?!" Reinholdt pawses in his tracks to look back at Nigel. Ugh.. He was probably still... doing something... nefarious. Yeah...

Rein's heart drops a little all the same. "Well, hell. Do you know how hot it was in here? Running around like a maniac for no reason..." This seems like exactly the kind of information that should have been shared over the phone!

Grumbling, Rein resorts to stripping there instead, shedding the hazmat suit look.

[billtodamax]

Returning

Yeah. So, anyone non-human you talked to on your way in... Nigel throws up his hands in a "what are you gonna do" way. Anyway, lemme know when I can grab some blood, preferably before you start vividly hallucinating, and let me know if you spoke to any orcs, goblins, snake people, whatever the hell you have here on your way in. Nigel says, picking up the vampire blood and looking at it. This definitely makes the most sense out of all of the samples he's gotten, and apparently he's not going to be able to work with any fresh samples, so this will have to do. If Rein wants to say anything else before Nigel starts messing around with the science then now's the time.

[5a Violista]

[Shuttlepod]

Julie, black-haired young woman, sits in the pod, taking the long trip and mentally preparing for what she assumes will happen upon arriving there.

How long as hit been since she's been there last? Probably...last time she was there was when they were trying out that merger with Watchtower. Julie laughs. Those were good times. She can still remember...

...Anyway. Is she ready for this? She looks down, making sure she has all her props. Come on, girl, stick to the script this time, she tells herself. Keep it believable. She's wearing that sci-fi watch on her right wrist, check. It's actually a recording device, so there's that. In her leather jacket's pocket is some magic transformation orb that'll let her temporarily alter someone's appearance for an hour. Check. She pats down her other pockets...oh, shoot, she forgot that piece of paper. Oh well, changing her plans on the ride there isn't that bad, right? Just a little bit ought to be fine, so long as she doesn't take it too far and tries to not improv too much. And...anything else?

Nope.

She is feeling a little apprehensive, though: HALO's deep underwater and closed off from large open spaces. If her magic builds up too much, will there be...nah. She's probably fine. So long as there's not a lot of ambient magic or spellcasters or whatever, everything's (probably) fine.

Julie arrives into the base. Since she's been here before she knows the basic way around (she did give a couple of tours around the base, after all) but...it's probably best to pretend she doesn't know so much.

[Purple Eagle]

Spoiler: Quotes

Show

Living Quarters

Mirai'd try and convince his girlfriend that they're just heads, but after she refuses to budge, he acquiesces and nixes the heads. "So, white light for day, red filter for night. White, or perhaps teal walls, black lines and angles. Our bed in the center, there..." He readies himself, lifts the bed and speedily aligns it to the center of the room. "Small shared workbench for when we need to work away from the lab, dresser for clothing, furniture for emergency weapon storage, under-the-bed locker for funtime storage..." He winks at the end, grinning at Zither.

Mirai & Zither's Room

"What? Oh. You did that two places at once thing, right? That gets really disconcerting, Mirai. I lose track of which of you is the real you, y'know?" She agrees with most of his suggestions for their room, though, and doesn't blush about the box.

[Mirai & Zither's Room]

"I know, babe. That's why I don't do it often around you... and I don't do it that often, period." Mirai replies, smiling. After it's all decided where everything will be (if it isn't there already), then the work of portal-ing in furniture and containers with more capacity than one would think starts, along with Mirai buying copies of their stuff for HALO use over WakodiNet.

"I have an idea. Let's make a HAZMAT Vehicle for HALO. That way, if Reinholdt has to go out for samples, he'll have a vehicle to do it in. I don't have any missions lined up, asides from combat training." Being a ninja, you have to be good at both stealth and combat, but Karasu's nature and powers make her better suited to stealth, and he suited to combat, 'action stealth' as he likes to call it. "Electromachinery, baby." He adds, winking.

"As for a combat scenario, I'm thinking... me in the open field, you at higher ground, covering me, enemies approaching from everywhere, we just focus on killing them, and without getting in a lose state?"

[Shadowcaller]

HALO Phone

Nigel stirs from his experiments which look very cool and sciencey and I am too lazy to describe properly to answer the phone yet again. Hey, it's Nigel, shoot.

HALO Phone

"Hey Nigel, it's Faith again. Sorry to be so abrupt but I got some important news. The azure clover is going into full cover-up mode and are recalling every agent they have in Inside. Pretty sure they're leaving some people behind as they don't want to be blind to what's going on, but the orders I got from my source was for everyone. If you've been keeping up with the news you probably noticed that the article regarding how the virus spread wasn't written by me. I gave it to a journalist I know on another newspaper to muddy the waters but I'm pretty sure they still suspect they have a spy in their midst now." She explains in a relatively slow and steady tone considering the situation.

[Earl of Purple]

Mirai & Zither's Book

"A... hazmat vehicle? So, like, able to roll through a nuclear wasteland inhabited by flesh-melting diseases and pools of toxic sludge without harming its occupants in any way at all? I mean... I'm good, don't get me wrong, but... I have never made anything like that before, and I'm not sure I can. It'd have to be airtight, and coated in some rare and expensive material I've not worked with to prevent it rusting. And there'd be air filtration, and probably tracks because metal's more hard wearing than rubber for tyres, filters on the engine's air intake to prevent dust clogging it, and... Lots of very complex stuff." Now she talks about it, the challenge is perking her up- but she still thinks it's at best at the very tip of her ability to create, and quite possibly beyond her.

"What, like training? I'm not a big fan of combat, Mirai. I'll fight if there's no other choice, but I'm a builder, an engineer. Not a soldier, or assassin." Which is one reason she favours a rifle; it's less personal, and she's using a piece of engineering.

[Morty]

[Felandria's Office]

Dorota looks like she'd be taking notes if she could, but as it is she just tries to remember everything.

"Olympus... isn't that the seat of the gods in some of the worlds?"