Vigil VII: Strife Amidst the Clouds

[Vahnavoi]

[Laboratory - clone]

Star of Hope stops just short of bumping into Magtok. For a moment, he stands in the doorway, still as a statue, effectively blocking Magtok's way. Only his eyes move. He looks at the angry cyborg, then at Wenomir who still has a hand close to his sword, then at Eun who is still kneeling, then at Miranda. Finally, he turns his head down slightly and looks Magtok eye to eye. He does not return the cyborg's anger. Instead, his eyes shine with calculating curiosity.

To Magtok, it might look like a pickpocket trying to figure out where a mark keeps their wallet. In actuality, Star of Hope is trying to figure out where the echo of Prime's telepathic command came from.

Star of Hope stays put for long enough for Miranda to offer her olive branch, before stepping to the side so Magtok's path is clear, bowing to the cyborg slightly as he expects him to pass. Then, he walks to Eun, grabs her by the shoulders and hoists her back to her feet. It's not exactly a highly developed remedy to a psychic attack, but maybe a big man physically forcing her to stand will be enough to kick her brain back on track.

[Morty]

[Laboratory - clone]

"What were you expecting to happen, Magtok?" Wenomir says before the cyborg leaves, his hand falling away from his sword. There's no sympathy or apology in his voice. "You broadcast a mind control command without warning, to prove a point. And now you're leaving in a huff because someone didn't react the way you wanted? Punching the mind-controller in response is a perfectly valid reaction in a real situation."

[Safe Room]

Wenomir sighs heavily. He has no idea if his own homeworld has any afterlife to speak of, but at least there doesn't seem to be anyone in charge of it. Certainly no one trying to make a moral point.

"That is the best we can hope for, I suppose. I can see you're doing your best to make your portion of the afterlife less of a nuisance. Are other demons opposing you?"

[Lord Magtok]

Laboratory - Clone

Magtok was not expecting them to be so blind, to adamantly refuse to acknowledge that he had toppled Miranda's entire argument for being left alone with the vat clone with just a single empowered word. He'd hoped that they would at least begrudgingly admit he had a point, even if they didn't agree with the way he expressed. Instead, here we are. None are so blind as those who refuse to see. He swats the handkerchief aside, looking incredulously at Miranda. She's going to baby him right after breaking his nose? She thinks he's going to let her anywhere near his face with that rag, immediately after punching him? How stupid, how easily manipulated does she think he is? She can shove her 'olive branch' somewhere terribly inappropriate. And as for Wenomir...no, that's it, this demands an actual response. One last thing before he walks through the threshold and abandons them to their madness. He pushes his thumb against his neck, pressing it against the skin just below his jaw, and a synthetic, obviously artificial voice emits from somewhere within his throat.

"Her knees buckled. You’re all so high off your own righteousness and arrogance that you think you can convince yourselves and everyone around you that it didn’t happen, or that it somehow doesn’t count because I didn't ask permission first, but I saw it. I proved my point. The real thing isn't going to warn you ahead of time, either. This belief that things will just work themselves out for you because you’re the heroes of the story? It’s crap. Keep begging me for help and then spitting in my face like you always do, see where it gets you. It’s why your old Vigil tower is a smoking ruin," Magtok answers, his lips curled into a scowl, not moving along with the words since there's no need for him to do so.

[Ironsmith]

[Laboratory - Clone]

Fortunately for Eun, Star of Hope putting her on her feet is much more than she needs to snap out of her trance. She shudders involuntarily at the sensation; she already didn't like being touched, so being manhandled was nearly unbearable. Eugh. At least she's free to think about other things now...

Like that her hands were just on the floor.

She sighs and starts peeling off her gloves, starting the process of resanitizing her hands.


Miranda sighs. "...You know something, mister Magtok?" She gives his shoulder a little squeeze. "You're absolutely right. Sort of. Not quite literally, but still." She smiles a little. "You made your point, and you made it rather succinctly. You've been a terrific help throughout this examination, and I for one am grateful that you took out the time, not to mention the personal risk, to get involved. And I sincerely apologize for the damage, and it would only be right for me to do what I can to make it up to you." She makes a second attempt at giving him the handkerchief, pressing it into his palm and closing his fingers around it.

"Having said that, the knowledge that he might be able to convince me to punch him in the face isn't going to stop me." She gives Magtok a tired little smile. "I may not be immune to that particular trick, but I'm still resistant enough for it to be an acceptable, manageable risk. We'll set up a deadman switch, just in case." She steps back and spreads her hands. "...Are there any other problems you foresee? You are, after all, the expert here."

[Vahnavoi]

[Laboratory - clone]

Once Star of Hope is sure Eun can stay on her feet, he lets go. His eyes shift back and forth between the conversants. As it continues, he inches closer to Wenomir. "Forgive me, but... what does he mean with that 'heroes of the story' part?", he whispers to the other swordman's ear, confused by Magtok Junior's tone.

[bc56]

Safe Room
"Of course they are. But we have the queen's support now. I think it'll be easier in the future." That's an optimistic take, but Charcoal seems pretty secure in her belief. "Do you have any other questions for me? Or maybe your partner does?" She gestures up at the observation room where Cessie is waiting.

[Zefir]

[Other Lab - object testing]

Mia's choice may be the wisest. What she can read of the source code suggests the program is a cellular automaton, which is itself an universal computer. So executing the program would first create a virtual machine inside her laptop, then use that virtual machine to generate more code for other programs, on and on to the limit of available memory and processing power.

[Other Lab - object testing]

This is most troublesome, even thought it would be very intressting, too. It's just that such a programm might infect others and the world is not ready for an invasion of their household electronics.
Mia makes sure the programm doesn't start, using some security measures.Then she prepares the whole thing for the next person or maybe for the bin as she is clear this will end bad if anyone tries it out.

[Shadowcaller]

[Safe Room]

Partner? Interesting choice of words.

Cessie nods to acknowledge that she's now talking to Charcoal and her voice can be heard through the speakers within the safe room. "We have never encountered your form of demons before so my first question is why you've come to the nexus. As I understand it, the souls of this world don't go to yours normally so do you have any idea why Sapphira came here? Since the manifested that huge building in the middle of Inside specifically. Which, by the way, what's going to happen to it now that Sapphira is... gone?"

[bc56]

Safe Room
Yeah, like a business partner.
What did you think she meant? :P

Charcoal looks a bit unsure and begins to say something in response, but Sekhmet cuts in. "I'm, uh, better able to answer that. Sapphira came here because of me. I was here, so she came here to, uh, capture me." She has to think about the building bit. "Uh, it depends how she made it. It might just stay there, or it might fade away over time. I'd, uh, have to see it to be sure." Charcoal continues to look awkward. She's the one that's supposed to be interviewed, not her queen.

[Shadowcaller]

Safe Room

Cessie would prefer 'co-commander'.

"Fade away over time? Like all at once or a little bit at the time?" Either way, better not to have anyone inside that building and put up some warning signs.
'Building can fade out of existence at any time' would probably be pretty effective at holding eventual visitors at bay.
"But you Sekhmet came to the nexus willingly or were you 'taken' by it?"

[Ironsmith]

[Eun's Laboratory - Solving a Serum]


Beginning Simulation...

Eun watches the tiny disc-shaped robot flicker to life, producing the image of a tiny, oblong insect crawling around on its surface. If it were real, Eun wouldn't much enjoy having it so close to her; even harmless insects like the simulated firefly were enough to creep her out, just a bit. As it is, she watches the tiny creature with some vague amount of interest, a light smile working its way onto her face. These things were gross, yes, but also fascinating. Getting to see one up close without all that biological ickiness was still a wonderful treat to her. She taps her finger to the projector, letting the holographic insect crawl onto her glove so she could watch the wheel-like motions of its legs as it ambles up, only for it to take off as she removes her hand from the simulation area. If she really wanted to, she could just spend a few days playing around with virtual bugs like this one.

But, she had other work to do. With a sigh, Eun turns her attention to her keyboard and types in a quick command, prompting the insect to trigger its illumination.

Which it does. By setting itself on fire.

Eun watches as the simulated bug curls up into a pile of ash, unable to withstand the sudden conflagration. She sighs and turns off the projector, despondently noting the outcome in her experiment log. That was the other benefit of using simulated insects; she didn't have to worry about her experiments killing any real ones. The computer was helping her map out a number of genetic possibilities quickly, in what amounted to thousands of elaborate "what if" scenarios. She was hoping to glean some useful insight into Felicity's condition before asking anything of her, by recreating her powers in something with a much simpler genome. Namely, fireflies, because she sort of appreciated the pun.

With a little sigh, Eun starts up the simulation again, with a slightly altered genome. Maybe this one would be more flame-resistant. She's too engrossed in her work to hear anyone come in.

[bc56]

Safe Room
"Uh, I was taken accidentally. I hadn't, uh, learned, uh, what I was yet." Sekhmet nervously answers. "I didn't, uh, find out until much later." Hopefully that's a good answer. "I could, uh, probably return to my old world now, but, uh..." It's not her home anymore. And it kind of sucked.

[Earl of Purple]

Eun's Lab- Solving a Serum

There's a knock on the door before it opens, as Felicity is polite enough to try and warn Eun of her arrival- even if it doesn't work very well. The bald, ashen-skinned woman is wearing her labcoat over thick hi-vis yellow trousers and a white shirt; the trousers might be recognisable as part of a firefighter's uniform, as are Felicity's boots which zip to the bottom of the trousers. Slung over her shoulder is a satchel, probably containing spare clothes- just in case- and she's carrying a metal case, like a briefcase but not, with some samples inside it. "Hey! Um, hi. I'm not early, am I? I lost my watch a while back." She looks a bit curious at what it is Eun's doing, with the hologram fireflies. Hopefully Eun likes bugs, as Felicity has a few with her... in the case.

[Ironsmith]

[Eun's Lab - Solving a Serum]

Eun bolts upright at the knock, hastily turning off her monitor and projector. She doesn't know who is at the door; it could be a random technician, or it could be one of her bosses, and she wasn't sure how the latter would respond to her using Vigil's resources to pursue what was essentially a personal project. Granted, she printed off most of the tools here herself, but the worry remained all the same. She sighs and goes to let whoever i-

Oh. It's Felicity. Whew.

Eun lets out a visible sigh of relief as Felicity enters the room, then turns the monitor and projector back on. "Hi. Sorry, um... I wasn't expecting you for..." She glances down at her own watch and blinks in surprise. "...Ten minutes, apparently." She thought she had hours, at least. Had she really been at this that long?

At the realization that she had been at this for as long as she had, a wave of fatigue seems to wash over her, as though her body had just now managed to get a message through to her that she was pushing it way too hard. She leans up against her desk and quietly prints off a cup of coffee- no, better make that two- and gives Felicity a tired little smile. "How are you doing?" She asks quietly, not sure how else to start this conversation.

[Earl of Purple]

Eun's Lab- Solving a Serum

"Ah, thank you." Felicity sets her case down and takes the coffee, taking a large gulp. Regardless of how hot the coffee is, it's not going to be hot enough to hurt Felicity's mouth or throat as she swallows- not without posing a serious threat to the entire base. "I'm doing great, actually. Geneva told me about a shop that sells fire-resistant clothing, so I'm pretty happy there. Mostly I wind up looking like a firefighter, but that's much better than looking like an arsonist." Because only arsonists wander around wearing fire-damaged clothing. "How're things your end? I've not seen you in the Battered Shield." Felicity hopes Eun has managed to get some relaxation time in and hasn't just been cooped up in here studying Felicity's superpower.

[Ironsmith]

[Eun's Lab - Solving a Serum]

"Well... no." Eun replies awkwardly. "I, um... haven't been going." She shuffles nervously and tries to occupy her hands with something... stirring her coffee should work. "You know how I am about crowds." She shakes her head slightly. "I tried going in when it was quiet, but... I don't know. Some of the staff still freak me out. There was one lady there that called me a 'walking stack of organized neuroses', which I guess I can cop to, but since we never met before then..." She shudders. "...So , yeah, it's mostly been my cats and me in my quarters." When she bothered to be home, at least. She had a hard time staying there with science to be done here.

[Zefir]

[Skyship Port]

Sor some time now the transportation to the island worked fine. Ships come and go on a regular basis. But the last few days it has slowed down. Either the ships stand still at the bay or haven't returned from their tour. What happened to those away is unknown, but you can easily find out why so many ships stand still. The crws of those ships are all asleep. It's no deep slumber you can't wake up anymore, but most of the crew argue that they are in no condition to fly around. Odd, isn't it?

[Earl of Purple]

Eun's Lab- Solving a Serum

"Right, fair enough." Felicity doesn't mind that Eun's not going, since it can be crowded, and if- as Felicity suspects- Eun is a little Autistic, then it's not great for her. "How are your cats? Feeding well, getting in the way?" Hopefully Eun has been visiting her bedroom often enough to feed them, especially as Felicity thought there was only one cat in there.

[Shadowcaller]

Safe Room
"Uh, I was taken accidentally. I hadn't, uh, learned, uh, what I was yet." Sekhmet nervously answers. "I didn't, uh, find out until much later." Hopefully that's a good answer. "I could, uh, probably return to my old world now, but, uh..." It's not her home anymore. And it kind of sucked.

Safe Room

"So exactly how many demons like you are they and how likely would you say it is that they would interest themselves in the nexus now that your mother has? Since you make yourself out to be unique among these demon rulers I assume that the others might take interest in such an oddity. Since, if I may be so frank, it seems to me likely that if they are anything like your mother they would try to take advantage of your inexperience and timidness. Or in other words, if you aren't careful they might just eat you alive, Lady Sekhmet." That was indeed very frank for Cessie.

[Morty]

[Laboratory - clone]

It occurs to Wenomir, too late, that he isn't helping the situation by being hostile to Magtok. Even if Magtok really deserves it.

...

This train of thought is interrupted by a flash of white-hot rage when Magtok throws the fall of Vigil into his face. How dare he? It's pretty clear to anyone who looks that he restrains himself from making Miranda's punch look like a playful jab. A more aggressive response is forestalled by Star of Hope asking for some context. He lets Miranda make her peace overture, though he doesn't expect it to work.

"Magtok likes to use dramatic terms. And is accusing us of being short-sighted," he says, forcing a calm tone. "To further clarify, I destroyed our old base. To keep it from falling into enemy hands."

[Safe Room]

"It might be in our best interest to make sure Sekhmet isn't replaced by someone worse," Wenomir observes.

[Vahnavoi]

[Laboratory - clone]

Star of Hope can feel Wenomir's anger and grimaces at the forced calm tone. He looks back and forth between Wenomir and Magtok, then straightens up and walks between the two men, arms wide. "Gentlemen", he begins, "let's not drag past events into this. Mister Magtok Junior has already been of great help, if he wishes to leave, let him. If he wishes to return later, let him, if not, we'll make do with what he's already told us." He nods towards Magtok with an apologetic smile on his face. He then returns his attention to Eun. "Doctor Bu? Are you feeling all right?"

[Ironsmith]

Eun's Lab- Solving a Serum

"Right, fair enough." Felicity doesn't mind that Eun's not going, since it can be crowded, and if- as Felicity suspects- Eun is a little Autistic, then it's not great for her. "How are your cats? Feeding well, getting in the way?" Hopefully Eun has been visiting her bedroom often enough to feed them, especially as Felicity thought there was only one cat in there.

[Eun's Lab - Solving a Serum]

Eun gives Felicity a little smile. "Definitely getting in the way. They like to gang up on me when I come in the door. The first three steps into my quarters are the hardest." She gives an amused little shrug and turns to her monitor.

"Anyway, I've been running experiments to see if I can recreate the basics of your metabolism. I thought that might be a good starting point for determining exactly what the serum did." She types in a command and another firefly appears. "Most of it wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be. The hard part is finding a tissue that... well, you see the problem." She says, as the insect spontaneously combusts, burning away into an indistinct pile of ash.

[Earl of Purple]

Eun's Lab- Solving a Serum

"Yes, I do. But! I did bring with me samples. I've got a bit more of my blood, since I know that's tricky to study." Given it ignites on contact with air, getting it under a microscope to look at it is quite tricky. "Also some saliva and urine. I also brought some of the stuff that Professor Payne collects, two samples of triffid oil- one refined, one not, a sample of triffid venom, and a maggoty thing in black goo, from one of the child-things that live in Skyside's alleyways and abandoned places." Not just Skyside, but Felicity doesn't know that. "The maggot should be dead, if it's not we need to keep the lab brightly lit once we open that vial or we might get in trouble. The child-things are... really creepy. Look like children, except they've got an eye in their mouth and their eyes are tiny mouths on retractable stalks, they can walk and run up walls and they bleed this black goo and decay fast when they're killed, all these maggots coming out and heading towards somewhere dark to pupate and grow into more of the things." Eun may have heard of the kyldren before, but it's possible she has not; they live in all the cities, preying on whatever they can, but most of the time they're just dismissed as an urban legend.

[Lord Magtok]

Laboratory - Clone

"...Are there any other problems you foresee? You are, after all, the expert here."

Magtok bites down on his answer. There's one very severe problem still standing in the room, that will still be there once he's gone, but...no. The group is already close enough to punching him a second time as is. Maybe if he has the misfortune of speaking with Miranda again at a later date, he can explain himself, but for now, it's much better just to get the hell out of here before things exacerbate further.

"Good luck, don't call me for anything else unless your lives depend on it, and don't touch me ever again. You so much as put a hand on my shoulder when Wenomir's not around to protect you, and I'm breaking a finger. Maybe two, if I'm in a bad mood," Magtok promises, before stepping out of the room, dashing away, and disappearing completely the moment he turns down a hall and is completely out of sight.

[Ironsmith]

[Laboratory- Clone]

"Don't worry. If I call you again, there will be lots of screaming and bleeding to death involved." Miranda replies with dissonant cheer. As soon as Magtok leaves, she turns her attention back to Wenomir. "Hm. Nice guy." She says, in a tone that seems to be teetering on the line between sarcastic and sincere.

"...I'm sure there's a lot of history here I'm not entirely aware of." She adds, her tone turning a little more conciliatory. "So before we proceed any further, I want to thank you for being as patient as you have been. It takes a big man to put up with being insulted that egregiously, even for a moment. Probably more so than I realize." She gives Wenomir a similar pat on the shoulder; a careful observer might note that she uses her opposite hand, as though doing so was further seperating her dealings with Wenomir and Magtok. "If you would like, we can discuss it at a later time. Perhaps over coffee or tea." She nods back toward the clone in the vat. "...I'd say we have other concerns at the moment, though."

Eun gives Star of Hope a little nod, furiously scrubbing her hands together with what is definitely entirely too much hand sanitizer. With her gloves off, he'll be able to see deep lines in her knuckles that indicates she does this sort of thing far too often, to the point of injury. "Yes. I'm fine." She says, not entirely sincerely, as she produces a set of blue nitrile gloves and begins tugging them on.

[Eun's Lab - Solving a Serum]

Eun's eyes widen as Felicity describes the Kyldren and their maggots. "...Right." She begins, tapping a few buttons on her Hotbox's display. A moment later, she produces a floodlight, which she sets up over the maggot container and turns on; in the event of an accidental spill or breakage, the immediate area was going to be absurdly well-lit. "I have a spectrometer set up just over there." She nods to a cylindrical container a few meters away. "Go ahead and bring your blood samples. We can analyze them that way without ever exposing them to air."

[bc56]

Safe Room

"There are, uh, four others that are as powerful as, uh, my mother." Sekhmet hasn't really gotten her head around the idea that she's now roughly as powerful as Sapphira was. When Cessie talks about eating her alive, she looks distinctly uncomfortable and nervous. "I, uh, can't help that." She may be a demon queen, but at heart she's still just a scared girl out of her depth

[Shadowcaller]

Safe Room

"I know you can't Sekhmet but what I'm trying to hint is that you should try to get someone that does to help you out with this. Someone who has a good grasps of the politics of your world, or just politics in general." She pauses as to give Sekhmet a moment to let that sink in. "Do you know anyone like that, Sekhmet?"

[Earl of Purple]

Eun's Lab- Solving a Serum

Felicity places the kylder blood-and-maggot in the centre of the area lit by the flood lamp; the liquid within is thick, black and viscous. The maggot is white, a pallid and soft-looking thing, bobbing around slowly.

She'll then take a sample of her blood and put it in the mass spectrometer. Earl thinks this is the spinny science toy? Earl isn't sure. Either way, science probably occurs, and Felicity's blood is mostly human blood, just with complex and unusual volatile hydrocarbons in the blood plasma. If Eun managed to seperate the red blood cells from the blood plasma, the red blood cells might not ignite when touching air. Which is probably a good thing, given the primary job of red blood cells.

[Morty]

[Laboratory- Clone]

Wenomir sighs deeply, not deigning to say anything else to Magtok before he leaves.

"There is a lot of history between Magtok and me. And Magtok and Vigil. I was really hoping he was truly gone. But he keeps coming back." He shakes his head. "But I won't burden you with old grudges. We're no closer to deciding what to do with this clone than we were before he arrived. And for all his clownish posturing, he's not wrong about the danger of Prime's mental commands."

[bc56]

Safe Room
"Uh, I don't think so?" She does know someone who qualifies, but she doesn't yet know that person would qualify. "You're, uh, saying I need an advisor?" She does. She definitely does. "Uh, I guess that's right. I don't know, uh, anything about, uh, being a queen."