HALO 183: The Not Remotely Gritty Reboot

[billtodamax]

Nope. Nigel says, carefully lowering a brass rod into the mixture. I know the disease is more of a curse than a disease so I'm hoping it'll at least stave it off but things are pretty much never this simple. Felandria and Reinholdt both need something so I'm hoping this helps. God the cat in particular is just... ugh. Nigel says, venting to Dorota. Oh, sorry, I'm Nigel, this is Juliet. By all accounts she's actually very nice. He tells Dorota.

[Gullara]

[The Fourth Tower]

Onyeka's cheeks flush. "Reinholdt, I've heard about you. We're just in the process of getting everything moved in. I'm overseeing." She turns toward the tapestry. "Bili, please."

The ape person, apparently Bili, grins at Reinholdt and tilts the tapestry a bit more straight.

"It's a piece of our compound's history. The Thirsting Tree of the Northern Savanna is said to emerge every thousand years. Our compound sated it during its last emergence. This tapestry in particular was woven by one of our past leaders."

[Reinholdt]

[The Fourth Tower]

"From Vax I presume?" That still didn't guarantee hearing anything good about Rein, but the chances were probably still higher than average simply because of how low the bar is set.

"It looks like the cost of that was rather high. Not a tree I'd want to get involved with. How many years ago was that?" If it happens every thousand years, keeping track of the time becomes important.

Turning away from the tapestry and the unusual Bili, Reinholdt faces Onyeka again. "Is there anything I can help with? I can handle a box or two."

[Gullara]

[The Fourth Tower]

Onyeka nods to confirm it was Vax. "I couldn't say I know that myself. I'd have to consult with our records keeper to get specific details." Of course given the shifts in the compound since that time, even before the most recent split, who knows who actually holds that piece of information. "By all accounts costly is exactly the word." She says pleasantly, the morbid implications rolling off her back.

"Oh no, I couldn't ask that of you." Onyeka waves her hands. That'd be embarrassing, surely. Vax wouldn't hear of it. "But, well... Maybe you could help me with one problem. You see, one of our members has been absent during the move, but we need her back for a particular task. She's been difficult to contact, though, and someone needs to make the trip to Riverside to fetch her. We're just so tied up here, though, so I haven't been able to arrange for it." Not to mention directing Fourth Tower members is like herding cats...

[Felandria]

[Felandria's Room]

Reinholdt is shocked! Bapped! Him? Bapped?
His head pulls back and he just stares at Felandria indignantly like he can't believe that just happened.

Oh, don’t give me that look.

You know you’re still my favorite kitty.

But we have to stay in here.......

Although, now that she thinks of it, Fel would like some those nachos soon, maybe she could save Nigel the trouble and go get them herself, after all, she was fine.

Wasn’t she?

Of course she was.

[Mee]

[Negotiations]

"I don't think we get anything else out of this creature." Mr C says. "We need to find the others and find out who got them here."
And he is sure Felandria can show what the next step is.

Well, then.

He has no further information and he is threatening our lives.

I also know mimics have no specific talent for long range communication, so

Felandria pulls out a wand and fires a barrage of Magic Missiles at the door.

Nurse's eyes go kinda wide the sudden and overwhelming barrage of firepower.
"Ooooooooooh. That's . . . that is a lot of pew pews"

Haunted Pool

Anja floats up a bit and lays down, settling her chin on her hands like she were laying on an invisible bed while she looks at Kin. "I'm glad to hear it. Mind showing me once you've finished swimming? Or bathing? Or both?" She guesses, finally taking a look around to figure out what the room actually was. For all she knows it was just a bath designed with the lamia's length in mind.

"Just swimming." Kin says with a bit of a grin, before nodding, stretching slightly, and popping her neck. "I can always come back in a bit!" She pulls herself out of the pool, one shimmering, glistening loop at a time, before 'standing' fully, and nodding her head off towards one of the doors.
"Do you wanna just go straight to I can show you the room, or an impromptu tour of the base first?" Kin asks, assuming Anja will follow, as she heads into the locker room and towels down pretty quickly, before pulling on her clothes she had tucked away in a locker.

[Reinholdt]

[Felandria's Room]

Reinholdt stares dubiously at Felandria for a while longer. Then turns around, looks at the door and meows, glancing over his shoulder briefly at her so she knows who he's talking to. Meow meow.

[The Fourth Tower]

Reinholdt knows a few things about herding cats. Just not from that end. "Bah. Don't be afraid to ask me anything. But this is probably a better task for me since I'll be wanting to meet each of you later anyways. Learn a little about each other. Put faces and names together and such." He'll have to pay more attention to who's a HALO member and who's Fourth Tower now.

"Just tell me her name and where to find her and I'll go get her for you."

[Zefir]

Nurse's eyes go kinda wide the sudden and overwhelming barrage of firepower.
"Ooooooooooh. That's . . . that is a lot of pew pews"

Well, then.

He has no further information and he is threatening our lives.

I also know mimics have no specific talent for long range communication, so

Felandria pulls out a wand and fires a barrage of Magic Missiles at the door.

[Shuttle Bay - Door 3] ((Because I want a tag ))

That is kind of unexpected, but it works fine. Mimics are no Objects so a Magic missile targets them just fine. The barrage hits the mimic which responds with an ear pitching deathcry. The mimic will then fall forward as he seperates himself from the door it was mimicing, leaving only a slightly burnt body.

Mr C seems to have noticed the wand and turned to Felandria and the nurse, walking away from the barrage of explosive magic. Sunglasses appear on his face. This all appears to happen in slowmotion just to show of a "cool guys don't look at explosions"- expression.

"How do we find other Mimics?" and to himself he wonders if anyone heared the scream.

[Gullara]

[The Fourth Tower]

"Great. Her name is Korrina. She should be at this apartment in Eastside." Onyeka pulls out a notebooks, scribbles on a page and tears it out. She hands it to Rein and he'll see it's an address. "I have no idea why she's being so unresponsive right now, but Vax is insistent she be back. I think you delivering the news should bring her back to reality."

"Once we're a bit more settled I can see about introducing the whole crew to you and anyone else that wants introductions. I'm sure I can nail down at least most people."

[Reinholdt]

[The Fourth Tower]

"Thanks Onyeka. I appreciate it a lot," Rein smiles again and pockets the address as he starts to head out. "I'll let you get back to work. Talk to you later."

[Gullara]

[The Fourth Tower]

"No, thank you. See you later." She says with a big smile.

The last thing Rein hears before leaving the room is Bili laughing.

[5a Violista]

[Lab]

"Hi." Julia waves at Dorota when she's introduced.

"Shadow monsters also stereotypically don't like drinking potions," she adds, completely making something up again. "It tastes too magicky and that makes it gross and they usually have a really weird texture that feels weird when it accidentally shoots out your nose."

...That does remind her of something important, however. Making magic potions presumably is magical. Magic doesn't really play nice with Juliana so she needs to take precautions against it now. She forgot to bring her other things with her so she'll have to make do.
...
Probably related to 'making do', her fingers start growing really long and spindly and sharp, piercing holes into the sheet. She tries to not draw attention to this, by continuing to make up things: "Out of all the people, magicians taste the worst because they've got all their spare magic coming out of them like sweat, and it makes me want to shove them into a shower first."

[Morty]

[Lab]

Dorota nods.

"I've heard it referred to as a virus, which would suggest disease. But I don't know if it's accurate or just what people took to calling it. A potion to remove a curse is worth a try... unless it'd harm her, in which case probably not."

[billtodamax]

Lab

Nigel is certainly much too invested in brewing his potions to notice Judith's fingers. Dorota will likely be able to tell that they are very simple potions that he is labouring over very carefully to make sure he gets right. Ah but that's ok cause we're thinking human thoughts, right Juliet? Nigel asks Janice. From what we've heard it's a magically engineered disease. Designed not to target humans. So it's like... a spreadable curse? He pauses, holding a couple smaller bottles for distributing the potion mixture as he thinks. I guess that's my current theory. Really need to get a few more people into the MRI I modified - you up for that before we try this potion Juliet?

[5a Violista]

[Lab]

"...Right. Because humans like sweaty wizards and potions," Judy says. She sighs. "Fine. I'll try to put up with them."

MRI, MRI, what does that stand for again? she wonders. Something about magnets. Doesn't sound that dangerous, so...maybe? Gotta make sure there's no metal...or maybe something to do with rations or men...but maybe she could get him to do something for her? "Sure. I can do your MRI-thing. As a favor." June emphasizes 'favor' because she wants him to feel indebted to her later. If he feels indebted, he'd be more likely to do what she wants, and then she could...oh, wait, human thoughts. Gotta think human thoughts. Like, sweaty wizards and not eating people and not trying to manipulate people into doing what she wants.

"So where's this MRI?"

[Zefir]

[A bunch of Mimics] ATTENTION!

At some point in time a few portals have opened. Non should have been noticed by anyone, but maybe there is a way to tract them afterwards. Those portals have done something bad. They send a bunch of Mimics into the base which replace some of the current objects in the base.

The mimics have replaced the following:
A shower stall, which seems to not work well now.
The bread box which now appears allways empty.
A random treasure chest.
And a few more which players can decide on their own.

Mimics are rather dumb and act on instinct trying to consume their prey. They got a hunger for furry things or stuff animals.

[Morty]

[Lab]

"It does sound like a magically-engineered disease," Dorota says. "But to affect everyone except humans... that would require a lot of precision. Let's see what the scan says."

[billtodamax]

Lab

Well, human supremacists, y'know. Nigel says, finishing bottling his potions and scooping them up, carefully sitting them into little pouches on his belt. Just this way. I'll make you a drink once this all quiets down Juliet. Sorry, I never grabbed your name miss...? He says, looking to Dorota. He'll lead the pair to the MRI machine a couple doors down that he's covered with various papers (and altered the inside with more, although they won't be able to tell). The papers have alchemical runes scrawled on them in black ink. Dorota will see that the runes are prominently of sight, permanence, and revealing - although there are sundry other less important ones as well. If she knows what an MRI machine does it's obvious they're there to help it process the magical effects of the disease, if she doesn't then it's not hard to guess. He'll motion to the bed-thingy (it's 1am and Bill does not remember the word) for Janet to lie on.

[5a Violista]

[Lab]

June nods, hoping the drink will not taste awful. "Just imagine what would happen if it mutates," she says. Diseases like mutating, right? Then it might be able to affect humans, or maybe it will make everybody act like stereotypical zombies or elves, or maybe it will make people act the opposite of their stereotypes.

She follows him to the MRI room.
"Wait, I should get rid of metal, right?" Juleka asks. She decides to drop the sheet, revealing that she's wearing...besides a hospital gown, she's wearing fake -nonmetal- glasses without any lenses. "Just make sure nobody looks in, because I still don't want to be caught."

She takes off and sets down the glasses on the table outside the room. Then, she puts down a dagger that wasn't in her hand before. And then a scalpel. A ring, too. "Okay, that's all of it. Anything else I need to put down?"

....Once all that's over, she, as instructed, lies down on the slideable bed.

[Morty]

[Lab]

"Dorota Séregon. A pleasure," the woman says. She does indeed recognize the runes scrawled on the MRI. Here's hoping they work. Mixing technology with alchemy or magic is never a sure thing. "Human supremacists do sound like an obvious answer."

[billtodamax]

Lab

Nigel looks at the small pile of things Jessie sets down in confusion. Where was she keep all of those? Uh, yeah, everything metal. Try not to think too hard while you're in there either. That's not actually important for the scan. Yeah, but don't go spreading around that you know it's them. I'm not supposed to be telling anyone about that. Nigel absolutely does not care about Intersection's gag-order but when he doesn't have a reason to spread it around he might as well avoid it. Oh, you aren't a human supremacist, right? How do you feel about lizards? Nigel asks Dorota as he starts to fire up the MRI. It is very loud.

[5a Violista]

[Lab]

Julie tries her best to not think.

Then, she realizes something: "But wait aren't I supposed to be thinking human thoughts?" she asks.

...
Her voice probably gets drowned out by the magnets moving and the metal creaking under all that force. So she raises her voice to say something different. "Also, don't you have a lower volume setting?" she asks. "It sounds like a grunge electro-pop concert in here. Not saying I'm not a fan, but haven't you got any better music? The melody is all janky."

She really should be as still as possible when getting an MRI.

[Morty]

[Lab]

Dorota huffs a little, breathing through her nose.

"Human supremacist? Hardly. My wife's a half-elf. I saw enough cultural posturing back home. I can keep a secret, but why shouldn't you tell anyone?"

[billtodamax]

Just try to think them quietly! Nigel calls into the machine. You're doing great! He adds, not really paying attention to what Jasmine's saying as he pours over the data coming out of the machine. Looks like it's working at least. With this scan he's going to try and contrast the changes the disease is making on Josephine's mind and body with the changes being made to Rein, to try and find any commonalities between them and hopefully via that to figure out how the disease was made and how it might be cured.

Good, good. Nigel says. Intersection is hopefully doing a sting operation on whatever agents New Inside has monitoring this right now. Don't want to compromise them. Hopefully they'll just be able to get me their research notes so that this feels a little bit less like poking around blindly in the dark.

[5a Violista]

[MRI]

Julia responds, "Okay!"

She lies there trying to think quiet human thoughts.

...and quickly grows bored in the machine, so she decides to tap out music on her thigh to the MRI's beats.

[billtodamax]

After a couple more minutes Nigel will call out again to Josie. Great, that's all we need. The machine will power down and the bed will slide out of it, freeing her. Here's your um... your knives and your ring. He says, handing them back. Still not entirely sure where she was keeping those. Here, drink this too. He says, handing her one of the potions. Should help! Now let's see about getting back to Felandria and Reinholdt. He says, leaving the MRI to process.

[5a Violista]

[Not in the MRI]

"Awww, it was just getting to the good part." Juleka complains as the machine starts to slowly power down.

Once the bed comes out, she gets up, leaves the room, and grabs her things. She awkwardly holds them all in her hands, apparently unwilling to put them all away here. Except for the fake glasses, she puts those on.

"Okay," she says. She tries to shift everything to one hand, so she can grab the potion. She drinks it. "It's gross." Juliana follows Nigel away, and slowly puts away the random things one-by-one.

[Morty]

[Not in the MRI]

"Are Felandria and Reinholdt affected as well?" Dorota asks, concerned. She's not sure how this would manifest for them, but it can't be good.

[Felandria]

[Felandria's Room]

Reinholdt stares dubiously at Felandria for a while longer. Then turns around, looks at the door and meows, glancing over his shoulder briefly at her so she knows who he's talking to. Meow meow.

Felandria considers it a moment.

Nigel should be back any moment, with nachos.

And it would be a shame if any cat hair got into the nachos.

Okay, fine.

But only under the condition that you don’t go anywhere too far, you have a cold and you shouldn’t get anyone else sick, ok?

Promise?

[Reinholdt]

[Felandria's Room]

Rein meows. He promises. You can tell because he looked Felandria straight in the eyes when he did it with the most adorable eyes he has. Kitty eyes.
Meow.