Vigil VII: Strife Amidst the Clouds

[bc56]

Safe Room
Sekhmet nods. "It should be, uh, perfectly safe." She's not quite sure why all the precautions are necessary, but that's okay. She does wonder how the Vigilantes will test the portal if they aren't in the same room as it. But they're the professionals. She's sure they have a plan. "Whenever you're ready."

[Morty]

[Safe Room]

"I will stay here," Wenomir tells Cessie. He's confident he can handle whatever happens. And having one person right here will help.

[Laboratory - Clone]

"Can we be certain that Prime won't immediately possess this clone if we release him?" Wenomir asks Eun directly. "Having him inside our base, even restrained, is a major risk." He turns to look at Star of Hope again. "Not a bad plan in principle. But I don't know if an exorcism will work. I don't think Prime is an... unsatisfied spirit or anything like that. Sounds more like a psychic. I... used to know a psychic. And deal with others with such powers."

[Shadowcaller]

[Safe Room]

That's not why Cessie wouldn't be here but Wenomir had his own reasoning she was sure.

She disappears but soon her voice can be heard through the loudspeakers. "You may begin, Sekhmet."

[bc56]

Safe Room
Sekhmet looks up to Cessie, nods, and looks back down. She spreads her hands, stretches her claws, and tears a hole in the fabric of reality, a circular gateway just large enough for someone to walk through. "Uh, what now? Do you want to come through? Or, uh, what am I supposed to do?"

[Zefir]

[Other lab - object testing]

At a glance, looked at with the naked eye, the things in the box look like seven smoked glass marbles, with nothing to distinguish them from a toy a child could buy from a marketplace.

A more careful examination through a magnifying lense or, even better, a microscope, reveals the smoky parts are clouds of small gears and wheels floating inside hollow spheres. They are parts of some kind of machine, but disassembled and divided into seven parts. It would be possible to catalogue them and try to figure out how to put them back together, there are just so many parts that doing so by hand would take a long time.

Attempting to detect magic is weird. On first pass, the objects do not glow or give any other signifier of being magic. But if Mia thinks to repeat that test, on second and further passes they do glow slightly, indicating weak presence of divination magic. Something she did has caused a change in the objects.

The longer Mia observes the spheres, the more apparent it becomes that the machine parts inside them are not static. They move around slightly and if she focuses on one of them, she can even influence their movement, even bringing individual pieces into greater focus so she can examine them better. They seem to be reacting to Mia's intent to study them, though the mechanism of how they do it remains obscure. It's possible they're reading her surface thoughts.

[Other lab - object testing]

Mia's testing is rather structured and logic based. She doesn't rush and takes note of everything she can. for that right next to her appear screens which she can shift around. She can even use them to take a picture. That way she can document the parts in the marbels. She is aware that a foreign machine can be bad and good and since she has some skills in it she can guess what it will be, maybe.

The apereance of divine magic is a suprise, but it might just be a reaction to her own magic. It's hard to make a clear test since she isn't trained in arcane magic. She needs to ask for someone to help when she get's back to that.

Revealing that the gears somehow react to beeing observed is intressting. It only raises the question of how. Since she hasn't done anything physical she assumes either it's the normal procedure or it reacts on something else like thoughts. She will investiage that futher by trying to focus on thoughts that seem unnatural like geares stopping and spinning the other way befor stoping and turning around themsel. A random chain of actions to exclude the fact it is normal.

Either way she will put the marbels on the table using a mechanical arm. She won't risk direct contact until she is sure what she deals with. On top she will now use devices to determin different things, like weight, radiation and so on.

[Vahnavoi]

[Other lab - object testing]

Mia does manage to make some of the wheels and gears spin, stop and reverse direction with thought alone. This proves the machinery either is mind-controlled or at least capable of observing Mia in a way that reveals her intent. Since the parts are not assembled, the motion is not turned into any kind of useful work. It takes several hours, but eventually Mia has a picture of every non-redundant machine part and an estimate of their numbers.

The mechanical arm has no trouble moving the marbles, but measuring their weight begins to reveal oddities. On first weigthing, they seem to weigh 25 grams each, for a total of 175 grams for the whole set, but this is not stable. Their weight fluctuates by +- 0.5 grams, and the more attention Mia pays to them, the greater the fluctuation becomes, adjusting up and down depending on how heavy she thinks they should be. It isn't a mere error in her instrumentation, because if she imagines their weight close to or below zero, they will visibly float off the scale. This proves the outer shell is reactive as well. With some practice, Mia might be able to make the spheres fly across the room.

Radiation testing provides confusing results. Machinery does not detect the marbles as radiating or reflecting any light outside human visual spectrum. Infrared shows the outer shells as uniformly room temperature, but does not show the internal mechanism at all. X-ray would show them as opaque blotches. Electron mass spectroscopy just fails. Sometimes, Mia can see lights flickering inside the marbles, but the light does not register on machinery. It becomes even more apparent if she dims or turns off the lights in the laboratory. Such test would prove she can see the orbs even when the room is dark, but machines can't.

[Morty]

[Safe Room]

"We thought you would call upon your servants and bring them here," Wenomir explains. He thought it was clear, but maybe it wasn't. "So we can see how it works and who they are. Could you actually let us cross into your domain this way?"

[Ironsmith]

[Lab]

Star of Hope looks back and forth between Miranda, Eun and Wenomir. He isn't sure they're all on the same page. Why wouldn't killing this vat person be an option?

After a while, he coughs and rubs his hands together. "So, I suppose we'll start by pulling him out of that goo? Before we do, a suggestion, for how to deal with this Magtok Prime. We know its physical bodies can be destroyed, and that it is insistent on regaining one. So, in case he flees again, it would be useful if we could get one step ahead and predict where it would go for its next host. Then, we could swap its host for a decoy and imprison it inside a weaker shell. It's not a permanent solution, but it would buy us time to find out what lingering grudges keep it tied to the material realm, so we can exorcise it properly."

[Laboratory - Clone]

"Can we be certain that Prime won't immediately possess this clone if we release him?" Wenomir asks Eun directly. "Having him inside our base, even restrained, is a major risk." He turns to look at Star of Hope again. "Not a bad plan in principle. But I don't know if an exorcism will work. I don't think Prime is an... unsatisfied spirit or anything like that. Sounds more like a psychic. I... used to know a psychic. And deal with others with such powers."

[Laboratory - Clone]

"Not to mention, facilitating Prime's desires to get rid of him might not be especially practical." Miranda chips in. "During our encounters, he was spouting about wanting either world conquest or omnicide. Even if we could do that, it would be worse than simply dealing with Prime himself."

Eun shuffles nervously. "I can't guarantee that." She says quietly. "But so far, Prime has seemed unable or unwilling to possess anyone walking around with a mind of their own, and this clone seems to be in a ready-to-use state as of right now. I can't promise that he'll be safe from Prime's influence if we wake him up, but we'll be trading a 'definitely not' for a 'maybe'."

[Vahnavoi]

[Laboratory - clone]

Star of Hope gives all of the other conversants askew glances. "The one thing that sets an evil psychic apart from an evil spirit is that the former hasn't physically dead yet. Unless you're suggesting that this Prime still has his original body alive and stashed somewhere, I'm afraid I don't understand what distinction you're making", he says to Wenomir. Then he turns to Miranda.

"Prime may profess wanting such silly things. Such insanities are quite common among evil spirits. I don't mean to fulfill those. It was an accepted truth among my people that such are just a symptom of deeper spiritual pathologies. Getting to the root of Prime's evil might not be easy, but it could be quite mundane, compared to his outspoken goals."

"But I digress. Getting back to the matter at hand, I don't think Prime's spirit is near enough to possess this clone, even if we wake him up. I suspect we would've felt his presence if it was. This clone might get hostile all on his own, though."

[Shadowcaller]

[Safe Room]

"What Wenomir said. That's why I'm in the observation room right now, Sekhmet." Cessie calmly explains.

[bc56]

Safe Room
Sekhmet peers through the portal. "Uh, does anyone have time to, uh, talk to the Vigil commanders?" "One moment!" A fiendish woman emerges from the portal a promised moment later. She looks similar to the succubi encountered earlier, but her skin is black as charcoal, her hair formed from flying sparks. She wears only two bands of fiery red cloth around her chest and waist. "Hi your Majesty. What do you need?" She seems happy to be here. "Hi Charcoal. These people, uh, have some questions for you, I think."

[Morty]

[Laboratory - clone]

"I don't claim to be an expert on psychics or evil spirits." A trace of impatience enters Wenomir's voice. "But I remain doubtful that finding out Prime's motivations will let us banish him. But then, knowing the enemy's motives is useful regardless, so maybe the point is moot." He turns to look at the clone again. "Is there anything more we can find out about the clone before we make a decision to wake him up or not? We will have to consult... Magtok Junior sooner or later." Magtok Junior. He likes that. He'll have to refer to him this way every time when discussing Prime from now on. "He probably won't lie to us in this matter."

[Safe Room]

Wenomir sighs, looking distinctly unimpressed. What is it with demons and wearing as little as possible? Is it just to keep mortals off-guard?

"We do. You're one of Sekhmet's... subordinates in her new position. Did you also work for her mother?"

[Ironsmith]

[Laboratory - clone]

Star of Hope gives all of the other conversants askew glances. "The one thing that sets an evil psychic apart from an evil spirit is that the former hasn't physically dead yet. Unless you're suggesting that this Prime still has his original body alive and stashed somewhere, I'm afraid I don't understand what distinction you're making", he says to Wenomir. Then he turns to Miranda.

"Prime may profess wanting such silly things. Such insanities are quite common among evil spirits. I don't mean to fulfill those. It was an accepted truth among my people that such are just a symptom of deeper spiritual pathologies. Getting to the root of Prime's evil might not be easy, but it could be quite mundane, compared to his outspoken goals."

"But I digress. Getting back to the matter at hand, I don't think Prime's spirit is near enough to possess this clone, even if we wake him up. I suspect we would've felt his presence if it was. This clone might get hostile all on his own, though."

[Laboratory - clone]

"I don't claim to be an expert on psychics or evil spirits." A trace of impatience enters Wenomir's voice. "But I remain doubtful that finding out Prime's motivations will let us banish him. But then, knowing the enemy's motives is useful regardless, so maybe the point is moot." He turns to look at the clone again. "Is there anything more we can find out about the clone before we make a decision to wake him up or not? We will have to consult... Magtok Junior sooner or later." Magtok Junior. He likes that. He'll have to refer to him this way every time when discussing Prime from now on. "He probably won't lie to us in this matter."

[Laboratory - Clone]

Miranda smirks. "Magtok Junior" did have an appropriately playful ring to it. Something to rib him with at least once, circumstances permitting. Ah, better to leave that up to someone with a personal history with the man, though.

"As much as I like the idea of a good psychoanalysis, I have to say that's low priority compared to actually capturing him." Miranda points out. "Does VIGIL have any tools for containing evil spirits and/or psychic imprints?"

Eun wordlessly resumes examining the body, checking for any sort of implants or other artificial modifications.

[Lord Magtok]

Laboratory - Clone

There are subtle differences between this cyborg and the others that have been seen thus far. A psionic amplifier built into the left side of its skull, a handful of cable sockets dotting its ribcage for gods only know what purpose, a small pair of plastic explosives tucked inside the back row of its teeth, and mottled, aged skin, with the kind of wrinkles you'd expect to see in a nursing home, not a brand new human being who'd just been grown in a vat. Regular Magtok (I'm not calling him Junior, die in a fire) doesn't look significantly older than he did a decade ago, but Prime's body is positively ancient. Whatever wacky science nonsense allows the younger Magtok to keep his clones so resilient to the passage of time was not something he inherited from the megalomaniacal ghost.

[Shadowcaller]

Safe Room
Sekhmet peers through the portal. "Uh, does anyone have time to, uh, talk to the Vigil commanders?" "One moment!" A fiendish woman emerges from the portal a promised moment later. She looks similar to the succubi encountered earlier, but her skin is black as charcoal, her hair formed from flying sparks. She wears only two bands of fiery red cloth around her chest and waist. "Hi your Majesty. What do you need?" She seems happy to be here. "Hi Charcoal. These people, uh, have some questions for you, I think."

[Safe Room]

Wenomir sighs, looking distinctly unimpressed. What is it with demons and wearing as little as possible? Is it just to keep mortals off-guard?

"We do. You're one of Sekhmet's... subordinates in her new position. Did you also work for her mother?"

Safe Room

"I am observing you from up here. I am commander Cessie of VIGIL and the man you're talking to is commander Wenomir." Cessie can be seen through the glass of the observation room. Her arms crossed over her chest as she looks down on this demon.

She doesn't have any questions though, letting Wenomir ask them for now.

[Vahnavoi]

[Laboratory - clone]

Star of Hope sighs. "I suspect I count as a psychic by your terms, but sadly, wards and bindings fall out of my area of expertise. I had other people at my beck and call for those, back where I came from. I only know they can be done. Not how."

He resumes spying on Eun's instruments, but fails to make head or tails of what he's seeing. "I'd be in favor of calling Magtok Junior here as soon as possible. Do you think it'll take long for him to get here? I've not slept for a full day and have only eaten some cookies and water for lunch. If you do not need my continued presence, I request a permission to leave and go take a rest."

[bc56]

Safe Room
It's really hot in Sekhmet's kingdom. Less clothes is more comfortable for most there.
But also something about being manifestations of lust or something like that.
"Sort of? Briefly?" Charcoal answers uncertainly. "She did experiments on me, and also had me work as a maid for her." She goes into an explanation. "Before I was a succubus, I was a pyread, a fire nymph. The old queen kidnapped me and a few other nymphs to experiment on with demonic corruption. Sekhmet's chief minion, Rose, rescued me and then Sekhmet fixed the corruption." Sekhmet looks a little exasperated at the mention of her chief minion.

[Morty]

[Laboratory - Clone]

Wenomir nods.

"We do have a spellcaster who is very proficient in wardings and bindings of various kinds. She might be able to prepare a trap for Prime. Or, perhaps, protect this clone from being possessed. But then, having him spend who knows how long in a warded circle isn't ideal... we'll need to ask her. We can call Magtok Junior here immediately, whether or not her arrives is another question. He might tarry out of spite. But you probably need to rest in any case. Do you have a place to go or do you need accommodations here?"

[Safe Room]

"So you've recovered your free will, but remained a demon?" Wenomir asks. "Were you enthralled to the previous queen before?"

[Vahnavoi]

[Laboratory - clone]

"I did buy a house earlier today, but it's back in the city, on Arkham Street. I'd rather rest here, in case you desire my assistance later."

[Ironsmith]

[Laboratory - Clone]

"I'm clear for another twenty-two hours yet." Miranda replies. "If you deem it appropriate, I can contact Junior. He seemed concerned for my safety when we last talked, it's a fair bet his response to me would be at least neutral."

"And I'm going to take the bomb out of this man's head." Eun concludes.

[Zefir]

[Other lab - object testing]

Mia does manage to make some of the wheels and gears spin, stop and reverse direction with thought alone. This proves the machinery either is mind-controlled or at least capable of observing Mia in a way that reveals her intent. Since the parts are not assembled, the motion is not turned into any kind of useful work. It takes several hours, but eventually Mia has a picture of every non-redundant machine part and an estimate of their numbers.

The mechanical arm has no trouble moving the marbles, but measuring their weight begins to reveal oddities. On first weigthing, they seem to weigh 25 grams each, for a total of 175 grams for the whole set, but this is not stable. Their weight fluctuates by +- 0.5 grams, and the more attention Mia pays to them, the greater the fluctuation becomes, adjusting up and down depending on how heavy she thinks they should be. It isn't a mere error in her instrumentation, because if she imagines their weight close to or below zero, they will visibly float off the scale. This proves the outer shell is reactive as well. With some practice, Mia might be able to make the spheres fly across the room.

Radiation testing provides confusing results. Machinery does not detect the marbles as radiating or reflecting any light outside human visual spectrum. Infrared shows the outer shells as uniformly room temperature, but does not show the internal mechanism at all. X-ray would show them as opaque blotches. Electron mass spectroscopy just fails. Sometimes, Mia can see lights flickering inside the marbles, but the light does not register on machinery. It becomes even more apparent if she dims or turns off the lights in the laboratory. Such test would prove she can see the orbs even when the room is dark, but machines can't.

[Other lab - object testing]

With the pictures she can at least start one thing. A simulation. Using her high tech to merg the pictures into a machine or a 3d model of it. Maybe it will reveal it's purrpose when she can see the finished one.

Mia will come to the conclusion of the weight. Mostly because she really assumes they weight more first. Then when it happens sceptic rise and she will get a lower weight. She won't manage to make them fly, at least not so soon, but she will get to the point where they are weightless. After all this might just be like a bag of holding thing were the weight of the inside is not reflected to the container.

The marbels themself are closed up? She doesn't try to break it, but now that she has the idea of it reactiong to her thoughts she imagines them to be a bit bigger and maybe easier to observe.

Her darkness test would be with special gogles that give you vision in the night or on dark places. Since whose are machines as well they might not show her anything.

Well then let's go to magnetism, heat, cold and such to make out if the marbles reacht to it OR just the inside

[Vahnavoi]

[Other lab - object testing]

The spheres indeed fail to show properly through nightvision goggles - Mia sees them, but only as well as she'd see them without the goggles. Light amplification is, for some reason, failing.

The experiment to make the spheres bigger is a success, sort of. When she tries, the spheres cluster together and fuse into one bigger orb, 25 centimeters in diameters. For some reason, this change affects all the pictures she took of the spheres as well - all image files of the orbs as a group have been replaced with one big orb. This may cause Mia's instruments to put up all kinds of notifications and alerts of files being tampered.

Experiments with magnets prove the now singular orb is not ferromagnetic at least, and neither are the machine parts inside of it. Testing for paramagnetic or diamagnetic properties would take disgusting amounts of power. Heat and cold temporarily change the surface temperature of the orb, but it returns to room temperature almost instantly after heating or cooling equipment is deactivated. No change is apparent in the internal machinery. This suggest the orb somehow regulates its own temperature or has a very high thermal capacity. Additionally, the internal machinery may be insulated by a vacuum.

[Shadowcaller]

Safe Room
It's really hot in Sekhmet's kingdom. Less clothes is more comfortable for most there.
But also something about being manifestations of lust or something like that.
"Sort of? Briefly?" Charcoal answers uncertainly. "She did experiments on me, and also had me work as a maid for her." She goes into an explanation. "Before I was a succubus, I was a pyread, a fire nymph. The old queen kidnapped me and a few other nymphs to experiment on with demonic corruption. Sekhmet's chief minion, Rose, rescued me and then Sekhmet fixed the corruption." Sekhmet looks a little exasperated at the mention of her chief minion.

[Safe Room]

"So you've recovered your free will, but remained a demon?" Wenomir asks. "Were you enthralled to the previous queen before?"

Safe Room

Cessie does not want to overwhelm this person with questions so she's going to let Wenomir ask all his and then start asking her's once he was done. She have brought up a notebook to write down things she sees as interesting however.

[Zefir]

[Other lab - object testing]

The spheres indeed fail to show properly through nightvision goggles - Mia sees them, but only as well as she'd see them without the goggles. Light amplification is, for some reason, failing.

The experiment to make the spheres bigger is a success, sort of. When she tries, the spheres cluster together and fuse into one bigger orb, 25 centimeters in diameters. For some reason, this change affects all the pictures she took of the spheres as well - all image files of the orbs as a group have been replaced with one big orb. This may cause Mia's instruments to put up all kinds of notifications and alerts of files being tampered.

Experiments with magnets prove the now singular orb is not ferromagnetic at least, and neither are the machine parts inside of it. Testing for paramagnetic or diamagnetic properties would take disgusting amounts of power. Heat and cold temporarily change the surface temperature of the orb, but it returns to room temperature almost instantly after heating or cooling equipment is deactivated. No change is apparent in the internal machinery. This suggest the orb somehow regulates its own temperature or has a very high thermal capacity. Additionally, the internal machinery may be insulated by a vacuum.

[Other lab - object testing]

The bigger test was mainly meant to just think they get bigger, strange that they fuse in that process. It seems they do got some limits on them.
If possible she just saves those new pictures somewhere and tries to regain the old ones. If possible at all. She didn#t knew this thing effects her data so she didn't put up a magic protection, which she will do now.

Well, it is kinda hard to do more and it seems you can't find out what purpose the machine has. Mia's magic works on a broken machine, but this one seems to be deconstructed to his parts so she won't have that option. For now she continues with researches, looking at the internet for clues.

((I'm a bit oout of possible tests and I assume this is not how we should proceed. I miss a reason for her to get this together especially since it seems to mindread.))

[bc56]

Safe Room
"When I was her prisoner, she gave me a collar that forced me to obey her. After she had finished experimenting, I..." Charcoal looks thoroughly embarrassed to admit it, but, "All I wanted was to serve her. If she had told me to kill myself, I would have done it without question." So the answer is yes, she was enthralled. "Sekhmet cured me of that. She's been a great princess, I'm sure she'll be a great queen!" Sekhmet looks embarrassed at the praise.

[Vahnavoi]

[Other lab - object testing]

Spoiler

Show

The bigger test was mainly meant to just think they get bigger, strange that they fuse in that process. It seems they do got some limits on them.
If possible she just saves those new pictures somewhere and tries to regain the old ones. If possible at all. She didn#t knew this thing effects her data so she didn't put up a magic protection, which she will do now.

Well, it is kinda hard to do more and it seems you can't find out what purpose the machine has. Mia's magic works on a broken machine, but this one seems to be deconstructed to his parts so she won't have that option. For now she continues with researches, looking at the internet for clues.

((I'm a bit oout of possible tests and I assume this is not how we should proceed. I miss a reason for her to get this together especially since it seems to mindread.))

Mia manages to recover her original image files after casting the protection spell. If the spell cover her own person as well, the machine parts inside the orb cease to move according to her will and the weight of the orb stabilizes at neat 250 grams. This suggest her protection spell has eliminated or at least suspended the effect the orb uses to read her mind.

As she searches the internet for clues, the machine algorithm she has searching for possible ways to assemble the parts inside the orb keeps running. Nothing matching this particular mechanism is found on the internet, just the usual cautionary about mysterious artefacts, boxed artificial intelligences and the friendliness problem.

Fortunately for Mia, she doesn't strictly need to figure out what the machine parts inside the orb are for. She only needs to provide an opinion on whether she thinks the object is dangerous enough to warrant being locked up in a vault. Just the fact that taking pictures of the object can influence machines somehow may be enough cause of concern. In case she can't think of more tests or can't think of a good security measures to keep the object contained, she can always pass on the task and what she has found to the next researcher in line.

After some hours of browsing the internet, her computer puts up an alert: her algorithm has found a partial assembly for the parts inside the object. However, a computer simulation of that assembly is also a program. Somehow, images of the object consist or contain a code and analyzing them with sufficient fidelity is the same thing as running it.

The alert is followed by a permission prompt. Roughly: "Unknown program from unknown provider is asking for permission to be run on this computer. Allow or disallow?"

[Morty]

[Laboratory - clone]

"We can let you stay in some spare quarters for today, then," Wenomir decides, then turns to Miranda. "Contact him. We shouldn't waste time."

[Safe Room]

That's... immensely disturbing. Sapphira has a lot to answer for. Once they decide who can even hold her accountable. But her crimes are many and heinous.

"And what is it that you do for Sekhmet, precisely?"

[bc56]

Safe Room
"Nothing yet, really. I mostly work for Rose, helping new succubi get settled. When we get the court sorted out, maybe then I'll have more formal duties. I want to be Keeper of the Swans." Sekhmet gives Charcoal a look. "Uh, swans can't live in my realm." Unfortunate.

[Vahnavoi]

[Laboratory - clone]

Star of Hope bows to Wenomir. "Thank you." Then he leaves the laboratory and goes looking for someone with the appearance of a duty officer, or anyone else who could tell him where these spare quarters could be. Failing that, he walks back to the Academy landing area and sits down in a corner, looking up to the open sky.

[Ironsmith]

[Laboratory - Clone]

Miranda nods and, after confirming that she has the right contact information (Magtok might not have left her any) finds herself a quiet room and calls him up. "Good evening, mister Magtok." She begins. "It's Cortez. You know, that lady from Trog's earlier? We went after Prime. He got away, but we were able to retrieve something from his lair you might want to have a look at."

Eun, meanwhile, will set about removing or disabling the clone's more dangerous implants... turning off the psychic amplifier and excising the explosives in particular. Flappable though she normally is, she's a very steady hand while operating, especially since she's doing it remotely through a series of microprobes.