HALO 183: The Not Remotely Gritty Reboot

[Reinholdt]

[The Fourth Tower]

Reinholdt can't say he knows Vax well enough to be sure. He'd like to think she was Pro-naps. Rein certainly is. They boost productivity and efficiency after all!

Rein will lightly rap on the door and see if the knocking sound is enough to wake Onyeka.

[Sandwich Time]

Felandria is doing the exact opposite of what Reinholdt warned her about! The cat frowns deeply. "Not really. And Fel's grand, but incredibly vague, statements don't change that. I don't trust you."

Reinholdt looks away from both of them. "But I don't trust myself either. My judgement that is. That's why I chose to trust Felandria. Why she's in charge. And she trusts you."

There's a quiet moment as Rein tries to decide if there was more to be said. Failing to find anything worth bringing up, he actually heads through the door this time. "That'll just have to be enough."

[Gullara]

[The Fourth Tower]

Onyeka starts and immediately sits up. "Oh dammit." She absentmindedly picks at where her hair's gotten a bit flattened by her hand. "Reinholdt, you're back. Did you manage to talk to Korrina?" She says, acting as though he never just caught her sleeping.

[Reinholdt]

[The Fourth Tower]

Reinholdt clears his throat and decides not to draw attention to the obviously overworked Onyeka. "Yes, actually. Took some doing, but she said she would be here tomorrow morning. Her lover will be with her. Or at least in the general vicinity." Maybe not hovering.

Rein raises an eyebrow. "She also mentioned that she was officially on vacation. Do you know anything about that?"

[Gullara]

[The Fourth Tower]

Tomorrow? Onyeka rolls her eyes, but doesn't burden Rein with her irritation. "Seriously? Korrina's idea of vacation is announcing that she's going to be gone and then leaving regardless of if it's appropriate or not." She waves her hand dismissively and shakes her head. "But that's not my problem as long as she does her job tomorrow. Maybe we can lock her man in a closet long enough for her to focus." She smiles at the thought.

[Reinholdt]

[The Fourth Tower]

Reinholdt laughs and smirks a little. "Yeah, she didn't seem overly concerned about appropriate." He shrugs a little. "I'll see about keeping the goblin occupied long enough while Korrina works. Maybe show him the simulation room." It's not as fun as a closet.

[Lord Magtok]

Sandwich Time

"That's fair," is all Magtok can manage to mumble right now. His whole reason for showing up here in the first place was to set up exactly the sort of manipulative nonsense he's known for, to win over hearts and minds in preparation for...well, he hadn't decided what yet, but it was probably going to be something bad, just like Reinholdt thought. Gods, Reinholdt was right, a hundred percent right, aside from his decision to trust Felandria's questionable judgment. How did this even happen? Didn't we decide last year that we were going to start being a better person? Why are we here, why are we doing this? What secret plans was this supposed to enable, and why were they worth destroying Felandria's faith in us?

"Fel, I don't know, I think I should leave. The cat-I mean, Reinholdt isn't comfortable with me here, and we could always hang out somewhere else later," Magtok frowns, trying to shake off the brief flicker of acceptance the hug provided. Trust Felandria's judgment, bah! Look at the kind of people she associates with! Would you really trust the sort of person who befriends the cat and the cyborg? Clearly there must be something wrong with her.

[Gullara]

[The Fourth Tower]

"Oh yeah, you think? I don't care what those two get up to on their own time, but keeping them apart for a couple hours would really help." What they get up to being things Onyeka is pointedly putting out of her mind. "He'll need to be convinced. As far as I can tell he's one of those tough guy, no nonsense types. You know, annoying."

[Reinholdt]

[The Fourth Tower]

Conceiving a child is a natural part of life Onyeka! "And no fun, huh? Yuck. How boring. I wonder what she sees in him?" Reinholdt ponders for a moment. "I guess I'll find out. Hopefully he at least drinks..." Rein certainly will be.

"Well, I'll leave you to it. I don't want to keep you awake longer than necessary. Besides I'll be seeing all of you tomorrow anyways, yeah?"

[Felandria]

Sandwich Time

Nonsense, you are always welcome here, Magtok.

And you are more than welcome to become a member.

[Gullara]

[The Fourth Tower]

"There's no accounting for taste I suppose." Onyeka shrugs. "But yes, we'll still be busy tomorrow. Bright and early. I'll see you then."

[Reinholdt]

[The Fourth Tower]

Ugh. Bright and early. Early was always a pain. Well, just this once it could be arranged. "Yeah. Have a good night Onyeka." Reinholdt waves and turns around to walk back out and head off to sleep himself.

[Lord Magtok]

Sandwich Time

Nonsense, you are always welcome here, Magtok.

And you are more than welcome to become a member.

Magtok sighs. Felandria's going to make him spell it out, isn't she? Blegh, he really didn't want to have to go this far.

"That's the thing, I don't want to become a member, Fel. I don't want to join anyone's clubhouse. I still remember everyone hating and distrusting me every step of the way when I led this one, when I was involved in the effort to unite WATCH and HALO. They hated me more when I was trying to help them than they ever did when I was just minding my own business doing villain stuff. It'll be a lot easier for me to do good if I operate outside of the organizations, and Rein will have one less thing to worry about around here."

As if suddenly reminded of something by his own mention of working outside the organizations, Magtok peers down a hallway, appraising it quietly, before turning back to the red-headed giantess. "About how many refugees do you think you could fit here, hypothetically? Like, let's say I happened to do something I can't talk about right now, and a whole bunch of people were set free from evil people in the process. Do you know how many would be able to stay here comfortably? I know that sort of resettlement thing is usually GLoG business, but this totally hypothetical matter would need something safer than a campground, and what could be more secure than the bottom of the ocean?"

[Felandria]

Magtok sighs. Felandria's going to make him spell it out, isn't she? Blegh, he really didn't want to have to go this far.

"That's the thing, I don't want to become a member, Fel. I don't want to join anyone's clubhouse. I still remember everyone hating and distrusting me every step of the way when I led this one, when I was involved in the effort to unite WATCH and HALO. They hated me more when I was trying to help them than they ever did when I was just minding my own business doing villain stuff. It'll be a lot easier for me to do good if I operate outside of the organizations, and Rein will have one less thing to worry about around here."

As if suddenly reminded of something by his own mention of working outside the organizations, Magtok peers down a hallway, appraising it quietly, before turning back to the red-headed giantess. "About how many refugees do you think you could fit here, hypothetically? Like, let's say I happened to do something I can't talk about right now, and a whole bunch of people were set free from evil people in the process. Do you know how many would be able to stay here comfortably? I know that sort of resettlement thing is usually GLoG business, but this totally hypothetical matter would need something safer than a campground, and what could be more secure than the bottom of the ocean?"

Felandria stifles a giggle at the question of room.

Oh, we have plenty of room, we’ve expanded the base recently, and even then, if need be, I can use some spells and create an extra dimensional space that will be sufficient to allow as many as you need.

You just let me know if you need any theoretical assistance.

[5a Violista]

Since I had forgotten Holly was still here...

[Halls]

Holly the Half-Elf^TM decides it's finally time to stop wasting time, and so she heads down the hallway in the direction of the exit.

[Lord Magtok]

Felandria stifles a giggle at the question of room.

Oh, we have plenty of room, we’ve expanded the base recently, and even then, if need be, I can use some spells and create an extra dimensional space that will be sufficient to allow as many as you need.

You just let me know if you need any theoretical assistance.

"Great. How far in advance do you need to know before I suddenly arrive with dozens upon dozens of refugees? I'm trying to keep everything I can about this plan on a need-to-know basis and I don't want anything leaking before it's already in full swing," Magtok seems to perk up, as the talk of business and schemes and saving the day gets his mind off the morass of guilt and shame and self-loathing that characterized his thoughts only a moment ago.

[Felandria]

"Great. How far in advance do you need to know before I suddenly arrive with dozens upon dozens of refugees? I'm trying to keep everything I can about this plan on a need-to-know basis and I don't want anything leaking before it's already in full swing," Magtok seems to perk up, as the talk of business and schemes and saving the day gets his mind off the morass of guilt and shame and self-loathing that characterized his thoughts only a moment ago.

Honestly, about an hour would do, the spell doesn’t take that long to cast.

And supplies shouldn’t be an issue, we try to stay well stocked, food wise, you’d be amazed how many burgs Nurse can put away.

[Lord Magtok]

Schemes and Sandwiches

"You have someone named Nurse on your payroll?" Magtok asks, inadvertently delaying his escape by at least one more round of posts to get the answer to a question he really didn't need to ask. Drat, and he was so close to running out of reasons to still be here, too!

[Zefir]

Spoiler

Show

Haunted Pool -> Haunted Kitchen!

"Of course, tour it is!

I live here now, I think. Hasn't been officially squared away; but I'm sure it's fiiiiine." Kin converses as she makes her snakey-way down to at least the kitchen. "So far, these are the super exciting hallways" She says, not sarcastically at all, just jovially, making otherwise plain and boring hallways fun! "And then this is the kitchen!" She says, when they arrive in the most important room of all! The kitchen!
It's large, full of supplies, and just about as many ovens/cutlery/fridges/really just about anything one could need! "And this is where most of the interactions I've seen around here go on! It's very important!"
As well as, of course, showing around things so she at least knows where stuff is!
. . .
Though Anja doesn't probably need food.
Kin maybe should have thought of that.



"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm we could put large boxes around. Propped up on a stick. With a rope coming from the stick. We put some floof in the box, and wait for the mimics to fall for it, and then trap 'em in the box!"

[A bunch of Mimics] - Kitchen

Mimics are pationed. They wait until it's to late. The mimic will wait until Cessily is so close he won't escape. At worst that happens when the electro mice put's his hand or maybe his head into the breadbox for closer look. The mimic will bite into his prey, thougth he won't be easily bite of an arm, but he got many sharp theeth so they will hurt VERY much.



[Shuttle Bay - Door 3]

"Something comes up." he says and might interrupt the healer.
"We could either find out how they got in and use that to track back others OR, we lay out a bait for them."

[Shuttle Bay - Door 3]

"I doubt it would work, unless the box is the mimic." Mr. C says. "We can only try and error with every box and look out for any unusual stuff."

[5a Violista]

[=> shuttlepod waiting]

So, Holly gets to the shuttlepod station and waits for the next one going up. The half-human looks at the schedule...twelve minutes until the next one. Good; but hopefully there's none of those mimics are around here. She's a little tired of doors trying to eat her as she moves past them, or finding out the showerhead is secretly a monster, or opening the breadbox and finding mimic guts on the inside.

So, while waiting, she lies down on the bench and yawns: it's been a long past couple of days.

[UncleWolf]

Haunted Kitchen

Kin watches the ghost's antics with a smile, and then laughs a genuine, hearty laugh at the Pokemon Pot.
Gosh, Anja's adorable.
"And full of fun culture references! Fun!" With another nod, Kin continues the tour! They visit the various places, like the training area, the gun range, the bedrooms, the pool (mostly due to just passing by it to get to the rooms, more than deliberately going back), the Other Kitchen, the TV room, and all the other fun rooms HALO's got. If Anja wants to stop anywhere along the way for more, Kin makes sure she knows she is welcome to, and they could poke about there for a bit!

Haunted Tour

The ghost drifts along, not really asking any questions about different things as she looks around. She understands most of what everything is despite coming from a different realm, and the only real question she has is what the TV does and stands for. "So, where's your own fancy room?" She asks, slinking down to settle side-saddle upon Kin's tail so she can be carried around. "And...well...who do I talk to about joinin'? Is there an official swearing-in process or form? Would I get a fancy title? Oh! Is there a uniform?" Anja asks, sounding rather excited by the prospect.

[Reinholdt]

[=> shuttlepod waiting]

So, Holly gets to the shuttlepod station and waits for the next one going up. The half-human looks at the schedule...twelve minutes until the next one. Good; but hopefully there's none of those mimics are around here. She's a little tired of doors trying to eat her as she moves past them, or finding out the showerhead is secretly a monster, or opening the breadbox and finding mimic guts on the inside.

So, while waiting, she lies down on the bench and yawns: it's been a long past couple of days.

[Shuttlepod Station]

Reinholdt in his humanoid form wanders by to see Holly lying down on a bench. Man, that's a fantastic idea. Why don't more people just lie down and take naps? Is she sleeping or is her eyes just closed? "Hello?" Rein whispers just quietly enough to not wake her if she is. You don't disturb people who are sleeping. You let them sleep. Forever. It's a rule.

Spoiler: Rein Description

Show

Merely a man. A really, really amazing man. Screw Jazirian, Harth, Fanboy, even... Wait. He's probably, in fact, the most attractive humanoid to have ever walked the universes, in an over-hyped, inhuman, Stephenie Meyer described, kinda way. Take Amour’s intrigue (without the weird loner, and lover, issues), Nomlas’ boldness (without the uncouth idiocy, and ignoring the occasional bouts of OMG-cowardice), Vespe’s flair (without the moral weakness – don’t try and deny it), Butler’s sexiness (without the overtones of rank easiness), Fanboy’s gothic impressiveness (without the tendency to get on your nerves), and everyone else good looking you can think of’s attractiveness (without that ugly stench of mortality). He has slightly pointed ears, pale, almost luminous skin, big, red-pink eyes, lacking pupils, and a wiry, muscular physique, that screams effortlessness. He's flaming hawt.

[5a Violista]

[Shuttlepod Station]

Holly's eyes flutter open. How long has it been...?

Also.
She's a Half-Elf^TM.
Do half-elves even sleep?
Holly has forgotten whether she's supposed to be able to sleep or not. She's heard different conflicting things. Luckily, she hadn't actually fallen completely asleep, or otherwise thus guy would have noticed she was asleep when she didn't respond and that probably would have been bad. She was just almost asleep, she thinks. Or maybe she's a light sleeper.

"...hi?" Holly sits up and blinks, looking around. Her hair's a mess now, and her make-up has smeared a little on the cheek she was lying on. "Did...what..." She then notices the timer for the next shuttle. Seventeen minutes? But not too long ago it said twelve!

After a moment to make sense of things, she realizes what happened. "Oh. I missed the shuttle." And the train that she would take as soon as she got up to the surface. The shuttles leave at regular times, but the train - especially at this time in the evening - has a longer wait, sometimes even an hour or two. Is today the weekend? she wonders. Weekends might have a two-hour wait for the next train, especially since it's no longer peak hours. But what if she actually went to sleep and missed several shuttlepods? Is it even evening anymore? It's so hard to tell this far under the water. Or, wait, what if it's a holiday? What was the train schedule

She looks around, yawns, and then focuses on Rein. "U-um, excuse me, do you know what time it is? And, er, what day?" She glances down at his chest...and her eyes linger there for far too long. Maybe she's still a little out of it? "Trying to see when the next train to Riverside comes by."

...She forces her eyes away from his chest and back up to his face.

[Felandria]

Schemes and Sandwiches

"You have someone named Nurse on your payroll?" Magtok asks, inadvertently delaying his escape by at least one more round of posts to get the answer to a question he really didn't need to ask. Drat, and he was so close to running out of reasons to still be here, too!

Fel nods.

Oh, yes, indeed.

She is very floofy and eats my candy.

Are you in need of nursing?

[Reinholdt]

[Shuttlepod Station]

There's a lot of loot in Reinholdt's chest, but he guards it jealously.

She was probably just still tired though. He's been in that position before. Of not awake enough to bother even looking up. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to wake you. It's... umm... Drakenmber 14th, eight fifteen in the evening," Rein says, looking past Holly at the clock above her head. The kind that's impossible to see unless you stand up off the bench and turn around.

Rein shakes his head. "Don't know about the Riverside train schedule though. I prefer to walk or fly." Helps keep him in shape to make up for all the sleeping.

Tilting his head, he looks Holly over. She kinda reminds him of someone, though he's nowhere near sure who or why. Maybe he's mistaken. "Are you a new member here?"

[5a Violista]

[Shuttlepod Station]

"Eight-fifteen, eight-fifteen..." she says, trying to see if it will jog her memory. "Trains to Inside are on the hour, which means Riverside's on the half-hour. But..." But, the shuttlepod leaves in sixteen. To make it up to the surface in time, she'd have to swim. She could do that, but with all the security cameras around... "But there's a two-hour gap between the second-to-last and the last. Which means..." With a little mental calculation, she finally says: "Ten-thirty." That's the last train of the night, and the next available one. Of course, the last train of the night usually leaves three to seven minutes late while the workers make sure everything is put away and ready for the next day, but Holly doesn't know that.

With that all figured out, she sighs in relief and figures she can now answer his question. Or, rather, multitask by pulling her hair back and answering his question: "Yes, I'm new here," she answers. "I ran into Felandria a few months ago and after a short discussion, she invited me to join."

Still unaware that her makeup is smeared, nearly uncovering her scars, Holly decides that she looks all put-together. "So, then I came and joined. But I haven't spent a lot of time here. And you? Been around a lot?" She doesn't seem to recognize him.

[Reinholdt]

[Shuttlepod Station]

"Are you in a rush?" Rein inquires. She didn't seem to be, that may have been before falling asleep. "I could maybe let you use one of the emergency shuttles. Or there's a telewarp to Eastside's mayor's office." Rein doesn't like the telewarps personally, but they came in handy sometimes.

He spends a moment staring at the smears, before glancing away with a light blush. It was rude to stare at someone and boy she's going to feel embarrassed enough later. So Rein almost makes it a point to avoid looking at her face. "That does sound like Felandria. As for me, I come and go. Do some things here, do some things there. I should probably get recruiting again myself since I'm more or less useless here compared to all the intelligent people. I'm Reinholdt, Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire." Reinholdt performs his trademark flourish.

[5a Violista]

[Shuttlepod Station]

While telewarping to the Eastside's Mayor's Office would certainly be convenient, the key to juggling this many identities at once is to keep them all separate. One of them is already around there frequently - telewarping there once as Holly won't make a difference, but if she keeps on doing it then it will quickly get very confusing and she'll slip up, one way or another. She's already made a similar slip-up earlier when she ran into Felandria and couldn't remember if she had met her as Holly yet or not.

So, Holly shakes her head. "No, I'm not in a hurry. My neighbor's house isn't completely finished yet so they're staying with me and I was planning on only getting back after their kids went to sleep, anyway."

The half-human stands up and stretches. "Nice to meet you," she says. "I'm Holly, private investigator." She doesn't have a flourish of her own.
She saw some of the labs here and they all seem really useful, but she has no idea how to use most of the machinery so she's glad there's other people who can use them for her. "I'm probably going to be bored for the next hour and a half...starting to wish I had brought a book or something to do."

[Reinholdt]

[Shuttlepod Station]

Rein smiles. "Well that's good." Sort of. Should he be encouraging avoiding other people? Ah well.

"I'm sure we can find something to do for the next hour and a half, together." Reinholdt assures her. Was that suggestive? Which part was the together referring to? "Talking usually fills the void pretty well. But we also have a pretty decent library. Though you may have to privately investigate where all the fun books are. A lot of it is pretty dry." That was terrible.

"I was also headed towards the simulation room to work on my own project some more if you wanted to check that out." Holly has a good deal of options!

[5a Violista]

[Shuttlepod Station]

Holly has discovered that her eyes drifted down to his shoulders again. "I'm sure we can." She then blinks and...realizes this is still probably rude, so she turns to look down the hallway back to the base proper. She starts to look back at him when, all of a sudden, the pun happened.

That may have been terrible, but it made Holly's player laugh out loud when it was first read.
And if it can make her player laugh, it definitely makes Holly laugh. "I don't think I'd want to leave something unfinished, so the library's probably not the best idea if I'm going to get to the train in time."

"But..." the half-human says, "the simulation room definitely sounds interesting. A project you're working on has got to be ho-" Oops. Freudian slip. "I mean, fun." Come on, girl, just because a hot guy is flirting with you doesn't mean you can lose your mind again. Focus, and try to not do anything stupid.

[Reinholdt]

[Shuttlepod Station]

Reinholdt smiles, happy to have gotten a laugh. "You know it's a library right? You can just check out the book. Borrow it. Return it later." Hopefully. She'll have to sign a form to check a book out! They'll have her name on paper and know who it is that didn't return their books! Spooky.

He tilts his head, uncertain about the slip, but nods all the same. "Hopefully? Could be fun. Well, this way." Reinholdt turns around and takes the lead as he walks to the...

[Simulation Room]

And holds the door to let her inside, stepping in after her. The room is dome shaped and mostly featureless, except for the intermittent sensors and projectors visible along the walls. Rein steps over to the control panel on one side. Next to it is a lot of tools, some written notes, a small computer pad, and a Frankenstein looking helmet with a lot of wires that aren't currently plugged into anything.

"So this is the simulation room. You can simulate pretty much whatever generic thing you want. Beach, Mountain Climbing, whatever. I've mostly used it for training, though nothing quite beats a regular fire range with the kick of real bullets. That and the project. I'll be honest, I don't think any other members even use this place. Which is fine. Gives me room to think." Rein shrugs.

"Did you want to see a particular setting in action?"