HALO 183: The Not Remotely Gritty Reboot

[Zefir]

Well, I’m a sorceress.

But we might need a healer as well.

Should we recruit one before we go down there?

[Cam Room]

"Might be a good idea." C replies. "Who knows what might happen and all my potions are empty."

[Recaiden]

"Hasn't got one." Honeysuckle says, shaking her head. "It's brand new, as far as anyone knows. Just say the plague and we know what you're talking about. Maybe we could name it."

[Morty]

[Entry Pods]

"Ah Dorota. Good to see you again," Reinholdt says as he walks up from around the corner. "How have you been?"

"I've been quite well, thank you," Dorota responds. "Talking to Felandria gave me some insight into my recent studies. After talking to Crissy and my apprentice, I decided to accept your offer to join HALO. I won't be live here, but I'll be able to be on site for most of the day. Syela, my apprentice, will handle day-to-day operations in the store."

[Felandria]

[Cam Room]

"Might be a good idea." C replies. "Who knows what might happen and all my potions are empty."

Felandria nods and pulls out her phone.

I know exactly who can help us.


Felandria sends a message to Nurse, after all, who better to help than a Floofy Nurse?

[Reinholdt]

[Infirmary]

"It is generally accepted tradition that the scientist who discovers the disease in question has the right to provide it with a name. But if that has yet to occur and media has not yet settled on a popular nomenclature, then you may yet claim that privilege. If you hurry."

Maria stands up. "But first, we should go run those tests." It pays to be thorough.

[Entry Pods]

Rein smiles wide. "That's excellent news. Good timing too. We have a group joining us called the Fourth Tower. You might be interested in their work. Regardless, I will get a lab set up for you right away. We can get some people to help you move anything you're bringing in yourself. If you'd like."

[Recaiden]

"I'll have to think of one. Tell people about it."
Honeysuckle stands up along with her. Now she just needs to get to the lab, run the tests, and get back before Juleka wakes up and escapes, but after a nurse has seen to her offscreen.

Maria can look forward to being jabbed repeatedly with a needle before a vein is found, and then a lengthy-but-tense wait while a machine filters thoughts out of her blood.

[Morty]

[Entry Pods]

"I don't know what I'll be bringing it yet. I'll have to divide my equipment between here and Erin's," Dorota says. "I'll take a look at the lab first and see what I'll need. I'm afraid I haven't heard of this Fourth Tower. I've never been very informed about the various groups in the Nexus. This will have to change now."

[Reinholdt]

[Infirmary]

Maria is not terrified of needles, but she does reconsider her fear of letting a blind person try to precision needle her veins. Next time he'll do it himself.

Maria's blood's thoughts largely consist of 'gettotheheart gettothearm gettotheheart gettothebrain gettotheheart gettothefoot gettotheheart'. It's the most generic thoughts blood has ever had.

[Entry Pods]

"Haha, yeah, I guess that's pretty common." Rein is more informed than most and even he didn't know about the Fourth Tower until recently. "I'll order a subscription or two to the newspaper for the organization and leave them here at the entrance I think." Faith wouldn't mind the extra business, Rein's sure. What was the name of that one again? The Herald? Rein thinks that's right.

"Anyways, feel free to come and go as you please."

[5a Violista]

[Infirmary, several hours later]

Several hours later, once the sleep-spell wears off, Juleka wakes up.

Now that she's no longer near that leaking-magic source, plants no longer grow from her blood. Presumably, they've discovered by now that both the jacket and the glasses frames are attached to her and part of her, and discovered (and stopped) the sources of the bleeding. And cleared out all those flowers and grass. And locked her up. And put her in quarantine. And everything else.

Now awake, she looks up and around her. "H-hello? Can someone let me out? I'm feeling better now, I swear."


[On an unrelated note, wandering the hallways]

Holly the Half-Elf^TM is, as she said she would earlier, again exploring the hallways in order to get down the layout of the place and how it works.

[Deathkeeper]

She nods a few times.
"I do believe so. It is HALO after all! Some oddities are bound to happen." Mechanic nods a few times, scratching at the base of one of her large, white-tufted ears with a fairly clean wrench. "Assuming you're . . . feeling okay? Are you feeling okay?"

Hangar

Catie tilts her head, bounces on her feet a few times.
"Yup. Feel fine. Ready to go with...whatever it is that we're doing. What are we doing?" she asks.

[Mee]

Felandria nods and pulls out her phone.

I know exactly who can help us.


Felandria sends a message to Nurse, after all, who better to help than a Floofy Nurse?

As the text arrives, a very Jazzy version of Roundabout starts playing from the Nurse's phone, and she blinks a few times, picking her head up from the table where she had been dozing. Her ears twitch a bit, trying to locate the source of the sound, as she blinks sleep from her eyes.
"Henlo?" She asks, picking the phone up.
. . .
Oh it was a text. She blinks a few more times.
Coffee is required.
She pokes at her phone a few times, before drawing a little heart on the locked screen to access it fully.
Lessee.
Texts.

Hmmmmm.
Shampoo coupon. Shampoo coupon. Conditioner coupon. Shampoo coupon. Hair brushes and accessories coupons.
How did they even get her number, and why are they texting her?
There we go. Fel's message.
She blinks a few more times, but no matter how she tries, the words just do not make sense.
Coffee upgraded to a Definitely Required. So instead she just hits the button, putting her phone back to sleep, and slips it into her bag, the little keychain making a few protesting dink dinks.
Before she just paces off to go find Fel and ask what ":feldoll: :heart: :meeboppin:" means.

Hangar

Catie tilts her head, bounces on her feet a few times.
"Yup. Feel fine. Ready to go with...whatever it is that we're doing. What are we doing?" she asks.

"Fixin' an engine!" Mechanic replies, swinging her comically large wrench around a few times, before laying it to rest on her shoulder.
. . .
And overbalancing her slightly and she almost half stumbles, but tries to make it look intended.
It obviously was not though.
"Because it broke.
Because someone definitely not me decided to see how many Gs could be pulled by a cruise liner in orbit.
. . .
The answer was not 27.
. . .
Just in case you were curious."

[Felandria]

Cam Room

Felandria goes to the nearby coffee maker and pours a nice cup of coffee.

Once Nurse arrives in the room, Fel will hand it to her.

Greetings, Nurse.

I’d like you to meet Mr. C, he needs nursing.

[Morty]

[Entry Pods] ==> [Labs]

"Thank you." Dorota nods. "I think I'll go see the labs now." She heads there, but anyone could run into her on her way.

[5a Violista]

[Between the Entry Pods and the Labs]

It's not just anyone that Dorota runs into.

Actually!
It's Holly the Half-Elf! Black hair, dark skin, pointy ears. Floral-pattern skirt, carrying a tote bag. If elves lived in the Amazon, then she'd fit right in.
"Oh, hi," Holly says to Dorota. "It's been an awful long time since I've been here, so I don't really remember everything around here. You been here long?"

[Recaiden]

[Lab]

Maria is not terrified of needles, but she does reconsider her fear of letting a blind person try to precision needle her veins. Next time he'll do it himself.

Maria's blood's thoughts largely consist of 'gettotheheart gettothearm gettotheheart gettothebrain gettotheheart gettothefoot gettotheheart'. It's the most generic thoughts blood has ever had.

The floofy scientist summarizes this result to Maria:"There. Healthy."

Now, before that weird interruption, she...what had Honeysuckle been doing again? Can't remember.
Oh well.
They definitely still need to look into the psychic aspect of things. She can read up on that.

[Quarantine, many hours later]

Several hours later, once the sleep-spell wears off, Juleka wakes up.

Now that she's no longer near that leaking-magic source, plants no longer grow from her blood. Presumably, they've discovered by now that both the jacket and the glasses frames are attached to her and part of her, and discovered (and stopped) the sources of the bleeding. And cleared out all those flowers and grass. And locked her up. And put her in quarantine. And everything else.

Now awake, she looks up and around her. "H-hello? Can someone let me out? I'm feeling better now, I swear."

It takes a long time after Julie wakes up before Honeysuckle comes by. Maybe another fourteen hours.
She has things to do!

But if no one has helped Juleka escape in that time, she'll eventually check in.

[5a Violista]

[Quarantine, 14 hours later]

Juleka is bored out of her skull. After waking up, she's been in here for who knows how long and has long since given up ever getting out.

She is wearing a hospital gown, the leather jacket, and the lensless glasses. Other than that, she appears entirely normal, with no plants or knife-fingers.
Next to her are several random objects, though. A knife, a five ivory billiards balls, a bone flute, a tambourine made of bone and leather and metal, a skull, a chitin manacle-and-key, and a broken wine glass. No obvious clues as to how Julie got all of those to her.

She hears the furry scientist approaching. "Heeeeey," Juliet says. "Can I be let out now? I apologize for what I did before, and I'm feeling better now so it's okay, and you can even check - that nurse earlier said I was fine and just need to sign the papers to be let out but then there was some other emergency so they had to run out and forgot to get me the papers," she lies.

[Reinholdt]

[Lab]

Honeysuckle was looking for something in the closet.

Once Maria's been given the all clear, she will resume prodding for information about the virus before joining in the research for a cure. Maria can provide valuable insight into magic theory that may help the actual doctors better understand how the virus is functioning and how to develop a counter agent.

[Zefir]

Cam Room

Felandria goes to the nearby coffee maker and pours a nice cup of coffee.

Once Nurse arrives in the room, Fel will hand it to her.

Greetings, Nurse.

I’d like you to meet Mr. C, he needs nursing.

Cam Room

Righht then one of the chairs turn around in those James BBond styles when the villian leader faces the hero. Even the james bond music is playing. At first glance the chair is empty, but then she might see the little green creature. He's only 2-3 inches long has green skin that appears to be some kind of cloth just like stuffed animals got it. A yellow crage makes it appear like a cameleon. just with little paws instead of thos reptilian feets. A monocle is right in front of his button like eye.

"I was waiting for you, Ms Nurse." he says ina deep voice. He caughts and spills blood with that. A small health bar appears above him which turns from yellow to red. he felt under 20%.

[Recaiden]

[Lab]

Honeysuckle was looking for something in the closet.

Once Maria's been given the all clear, she will resume prodding for information about the virus before joining in the research for a cure. Maria can provide valuable insight into magic theory that may help the actual doctors better understand how the virus is functioning and how to develop a counter agent.

If only there were someone who could remind her what she was looking for.
Honeysuckle will explain about the disease as best she can. Just keep in mind that she doesn't know much medical terminology.
Disease spreads through more-or-less synchronized audio-visual contact, but even infected blood doesn't seem to be contagious.
Seems to respond strongly to the power of suggestion, but even a little bit of doubt can make you susceptible. Hasn't been seen to infect humans. Honeysuckle thinks maybe a heroic speech about one's inner humanity could cure someone, but she sucks at giving speeches.
Makes people fall back on instinctive or stereotypical behavior, possibly by bombarding them with relevant psychic messages from within. Maybe transfusing clean blood into people could help?

[Quarantine, 14 hours later]

Juleka is bored out of her skull. After waking up, she's been in here for who knows how long and has long since given up ever getting out.

She is wearing a hospital gown, the leather jacket, and the lensless glasses. Other than that, she appears entirely normal, with no plants or knife-fingers.
Next to her are several random objects, though. A knife, a five ivory billiards balls, a bone flute, a tambourine made of bone and leather and metal, a skull, a chitin manacle-and-key, and a broken wine glass. No obvious clues as to how Julie got all of those to her.

She hears the furry scientist approaching. "Heeeeey," Juliet says. "Can I be let out now? I apologize for what I did before, and I'm feeling better now so it's okay, and you can even check - that nurse earlier said I was fine and just need to sign the papers to be let out but then there was some other emergency so they had to run out and forgot to get me the papers," she lies.

"Hahahahahaha."
"Hahaha."
"Haha."
"No."
Honeysuckle actually seems really amused.

"Obviously fake. And, like, find a specific form? Me?" Do you think, Julie, that the disease liability forms are just stored in a reliable place where people can find them when they need them? Don't be absurd. Honeysuckle would need to find someone who can read and then go through heaps of unlabelled folders to try to find a set of paperwork that probably doesn't exist. It would take forever.

Then her perceptions of the quarantine unit catch up to her.
"...whose bones?"

[5a Violista]

[Quarantine, 14 hours later]

Juliet avoids talking about the bones for now, finding another tangent she feels like she can work with.
...
Unfortunately, she somehow hasn't quite figured out that Honeysuckle is blind. "Oh, so you thought the nurse was fake, too?" She leans closer and lowers her voice to a whisper, and looks around conspiratorially. "I knew there was something fishy about her, but I didn't want to bring it up in case she was watching. Don't tell her this, because then she might feel like an accident 'needs' to happen, but I'm pretty sure she saps away some of the life force from the patients, which is why it takes so long for everyone to recover in here."

She clears her throat and leans back. "Oh, right, yes, everything is going fine," she says kind-of loudly, as if she wants someone else to overhear. "What else did you ask me about?" She looks around for her props...oh right, she asked about bones. "Oh! Yes, this thing." She reaches down at the skull and lifts it up, looking at it. "Alas, poor Yorick!" she says, before turning to Honeysuckle. "I knew him, Ms. Scientist: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy."

She turns towards the skull again. She adjusts her glasses, and says to it, "Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her..." she leans close to the skull and whispers something to it, occasionally glancing over at Honeysuckle between whispers. Then in a louder voice, she says to Honeysuckle, "Oh and tell that book-girl that I'm still wearing glasses, and ask her if she is, too."

Julie then drops the skull and it lands on the tambourine. Back to Honeysuckle, she adds, "Eh, he came in here with me and I just love teasing him. His reactions are pretty funny." She leans back, stretches, and then accidentally kicks the skull, breaking it. "Oops." She quickly picks it up and stuffs it inside her jacket, where it quickly dissolves and absorbs into the jacket's bloodstream.
"I guess I'm done playing with it. Want to hear some music?"

It seems the fuzzy scientist could get more answers out of Julia if she stopped distracting herself so often.
But she's sooooo bored! Why'd you leave her in here for so long? She's trying to get all her daily dose of interaction in a very short time period, just in case the fuzzy scientist leaves her alone again.

[Morty]

[Between the Entry Pods and the Labs]

Dorota is a slim, pale and blonde human woman in a respectable brown jacket and long, green skirt adorned with alchemical symbols. She's wearing a pair of glasses.

"I just got here, actually. My name is Dorota Séregon and I've just joined this organization."

[5a Violista]

[Between the Entry Pods and the Labs]

"Oh, I guess we're in the same boat, then," the half-human says. "I'm Holly. Nice to meet you."

She turns around, facing the direction Dorota was headed before being stopped. "So, where were you going? Mind if I go in that direction with you?"

[Morty]

[Between the Entry Pods and the Labs]

Dorota nods.

"Towards the laboratories. I will be working there, so I need to check what they have and what I will need. You're welcome to come along."

[5a Violista]

[Between the Entry Pods and the Labs]

Holly says, "Okay, thanks."

She then starts to head in that direction. "That actually reminds me. One of the reasons I did come to HALO was to check out the lab equipment." She starts rambling a little, saying, "So, while I'm pretty good with phones and cars now, and I'm working on understanding computers, a lot of this research equipment goes right over my head. While investigating some fires-" - and the skinwalkers that are currently deadtimed - "- I found an extremely dangerous mutagen and I've been looking to see if I can find out what exactly it is."

[Morty]

[Between the Entry Pods and the Labs]

Sophie smiles brightly.

"You're in luck, then. This is exactly my area of expertise. If the labs here are up to the job, I can try to take a look at this mutagen."

[5a Violista]

[Nearly at the Labs]

"Oh, neat!" Holly the detective says.

"I have some of it in a glass bottle safely stored so it doesn't spread around," she says - because it would be dangerous if it does - "but it's really dangerous and would need serious safety procedures set up before I'd recommend looking at it." And, obviously, the player running the skinwalkers would need to have time or would need to be asked because I know very little about how it works besides what I've been told/have read in posts and have inferred from Discord discussions on the skinwalkers.

Looking down at both her hands - the right hand is gloved, by the way - she adds, as an explanation, "See, I spilled some of it on one of my hands. To put it simply, that's why I need to wear a glove now."

[Recaiden]

Juliet avoids talking about the bones for now, finding another tangent she feels like she can work with.
...
Unfortunately, she somehow hasn't quite figured out that Honeysuckle is blind. "Oh, so you thought the nurse was fake, too?" She leans closer and lowers her voice to a whisper, and looks around conspiratorially. "I knew there was something fishy about her, but I didn't want to bring it up in case she was watching. Don't tell her this, because then she might feel like an accident 'needs' to happen, but I'm pretty sure she saps away some of the life force from the patients, which is why it takes so long for everyone to recover in here."

She clears her throat and leans back. "Oh, right, yes, everything is going fine," she says kind-of loudly, as if she wants someone else to overhear. "What else did you ask me about?" She looks around for her props...oh right, she asked about bones. "Oh! Yes, this thing." She reaches down at the skull and lifts it up, looking at it. "Alas, poor Yorick!" she says, before turning to Honeysuckle. "I knew him, Ms. Scientist: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy."

She turns towards the skull again. She adjusts her glasses, and says to it, "Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her..." she leans close to the skull and whispers something to it, occasionally glancing over at Honeysuckle between whispers. Then in a louder voice, she says to Honeysuckle, "Oh and tell that book-girl that I'm still wearing glasses, and ask her if she is, too."

Julie then drops the skull and it lands on the tambourine. Back to Honeysuckle, she adds, "Eh, he came in here with me and I just love teasing him. His reactions are pretty funny." She leans back, stretches, and then accidentally kicks the skull, breaking it. "Oops." She quickly picks it up and stuffs it inside her jacket, where it quickly dissolves and absorbs into the jacket's bloodstream.
"I guess I'm done playing with it. Want to hear some music?"

It seems the fuzzy scientist could get more answers out of Julia if she stopped distracting herself so often.
But she's sooooo bored! Why'd you leave her in here for so long? She's trying to get all her daily dose of interaction in a very short time period, just in case the fuzzy scientist leaves her alone again.

It would be easier to figure out if you could see that her eyes don't look at anything. But the goggles conceal that fact pretty well.

"The bones, Juleka."

"Okay, yes but where?"

"Juleka, you're not wearing glasses, and of course she, hey, wait! Bones! Focus!"
Honeysuckle sighs and leans against the wall.
The skull is just more of her shapeshifting plant monster tricks.

"Music later."
"Now, you wanna get out of there? You gotta help me."
"Let's start easy: what are you?"

[5a Violista]

[Quarantine]

She honestly wants to put off the answer as long as possible. As soon as she answers all her questions, she knows she's not going to be let out. She's just going to be left alone for another dozen hours, or however long she's been in here.

She really doesn't want to just be alone. More than getting out, she just wants to have someone else nearby.
Honestly, the best threat that could be given in order to make her cooperate would be 'I'm going to leave until you're ready to start answering.'

So, it's to nobody's surprise that instead of answering the question, she instead says, "Are you sure you don't want to hear music now? I've been practicing this really neat trick where I play the flute at the same time as the percussion. It's pretty hard, actually, do you want me to show you how to do it?" Juliekana then proceeds to try to pick up the tambourine with her toes and - unless Honeysuckle starts to have a disapproving look on her face or tone in her voice, starts playing it with her feet.

Intentionally misunderstanding the question, she keeps on talking: "The answer to your question is actually pretty obvious. I'm a musician-slash-artist-slash-motorcycle-chick."

...Feeling that Honeysuckle isn't going to accept that answer, she keeps on talking. "But, seriously, that's a tough question to answer so I don't know why you called it easy. Like, 'what are you' is a question that's been debated by tons of philosophers like Plato who said man is a miserable pile of secrets and...er...Sparticus, I believe, who said you are what you eat." She's literally just making all this up on the spot. If she had known a scientist would had asked her a really deep question, she would have spent more time preparing. She stretches again, and then lifts her legs (and the tambourine) high into the air, keeping the hospital gown barely modest enough using her hands. "The answer I'm partial to is that who you are is not what fate said you had to be at your birth, but instead..." the tambourine falls off her feet and hits her square in the face. "...wait, don't go yet, I'm getting somewhere with this." She randomly says this even without looking, because there's a tambourine blocking her vision. She grabs one of the billiard balls and tosses it upwards, only to catch it again."So, like, so what if my grandma's a man-eating shadow monster thing that seduces the hearts of men and tricks them into whatever? I've never met her, and besides, I think that whole nature vs nurture argument is bunk, anyway."

[Morty]

[Labs]

"Well, that is fair enough," Dorota admits. "I certainly won't argue against proper safety procedures when handling dangerous substances. That said..." She looks down at Holly's hand. "Just what did happen when you spilled it?"

[5a Violista]

[Labs]

Holly shrugs and holds the (gloved) hand out, wiggling her fingers. "Pretty much what you'd expect," she says. "Just a bunch of random nonsense. Acid burns, cells doing the wrong things, dangerous proteins, random fibers, and so on."

"Like, imagine a god was trying to build a body but only had random remains from other bodies thrown together. Nothing really...directed, just thrown together."

She drops her hand to her side. "I'm hoping to eventually fix it, but I imagine that would take a while."