HALO 184: Red and Grey All The Way

[Reinholdt]

[Reinholdt's Office]

Reinholdt personally considers Felandria more a sizeshifter than a shapeshifter. Alas, the word is underused in the man's opinion.

"Oh, uh, Felandria." If Rein sounds surprised, it's because he is. "When I said this was an informal meeting, I didn't mean a get it done now pajama party. Sorry if I didn't get that across properly." Well she's here now.

Rein moves to close the door behind her. "Come, take a seat." He puts his hand on her back to try to gently lead her to the chair. As he does so, his hair changes color! Well sort of. His hair is still blue, but now it has frosted white tips. It's honestly very strange change. But Rein is watching to see if Felandria's hair changes in the exact same way. That would be an even stranger change. But it's the shapeshifting test he's got. Works on a very particular subset of shapeshifter though and it's unlikely to affect Felandria in any way. Unless she's secretly Juleka or Harley or Manja.

Either way, Rein'll have to sit across from her in his seat, making no acknowledgement his hair has changed. "Guess I don't need to offer you a drink. I'm mostly checking in. How have things been going for you?"

[Purple Eagle]

[Couple Tour]

"Weeeellll... let's save your office for last. It'd save us from having to go back there, once we're done." Rosie trails a finger down Fel's arm as she says so, grinning suggestively. "But first, duty calls, so... let's start with... those!" She's referring to the teleporters and portals, of course.

[Recaiden]

Honeysuckle will arrive at the teleporters, presumably with Jade right behind her, and head right off towards the labs.
"Next question is, what went wrong with the fire for me, it going wrong the normal way? Does it have something to do with the other problems? Something to do with you?"

[bc56]

Foxes in Time

Jade follows through the teleporter behind Honeysuckle. "I don't think I was a fox all along. I was born human, after all. She has to think about the fire thing. "I don't know. You were the only one I could actually feel something happening for. Everyone else, the fire just appeared, but I could feel it building up when you tried." Jade doesn't think she caused the problem though. More likely she's just not sensitive enough to magic to pick it up until the big stuff happened. Maybe she needs more tails first?

[Recaiden]

It's probably not a shortage of tails, since plenty of the students who got it had only one tail.

"Sure, then you were born human, but maybe since what happened, 've always been kitsune, hmm?"
That'll happen, having your whole history rewritten. Just got to hope it isn't as all-encompassing as it could be.

"Whatever's wrong with me using the fire, you notice it, or notice some side effects least. Why?"

Honeysuckle breezes past an 'Authorized Personnel Only' sign into the labroom where she keeps the time jars. No spa or healing minerals, just the pots, each one carefully set onto a moveable platform, and secured with cables and foam.
"Gotta warn you, this is like, rarely useful. And if think of something cool to do with it, pretty good chance time police show up."
She goes over to a widget, recites, "<today's date and time>, channel m5, request information on kitsune magic," and then casually throws the widget through a time jar before going over to a sort of control panel. "But at least got i' work faster."

[bc56]

Foxes in Time

"But I remember being human. And you remember me being human. So I couldn't have always been a Kitsune." Jade reasons. Is that true? I'm not sure Honeysuckle's confirmed that she remembers Jade as a human.
Jade looks at the assembly and watches what Honeysuckle is doing with interest. "How does it work?" She remembers that the pots open into different times, so is this a system to adjust what times they open to? It doesn't look capable of traveling time, but that could be deceiving.

[Recaiden]

"Nah, just change the past without our memories." Honeysuckle suggests. Just because they both remember something doesn't mean that it still has happened in the present day.
"The position of the pots controls when they link to themselves. So, move em, and you can connect to a different future, then the past of the first future. They can do the same thing in the future, pause responses until whenever. There's limits, but saves a lotta time."

And, just a moment later, a widget emerges from one of the other jars, and Honeysuckle goes to pick it up and listen to the answer.
"'The answer about kitsune magic has been inside you all along.' Do you believe this?"

[bc56]

Foxes in Time

Jade looks confused. "What is that supposed to mean?" She looks at Honeysuckle. "Literally inside, or just figuratively? You as in just you, or both of us, or Kitsune collectively?" She's already putting pieces together in her mind.
What if it did mean inside Honeysuckle literally? Could that have something to do with how her abilities are different in fox form? They really need some further explanation.

[Recaiden]

"Dunno! Turns out, problem with time travel is people in the future are insufferable!"

Another widget pops out of the time jar and Honeysuckle, though surprised, just catches it without even turning away from Jade, and listens to its message: "Just kidding. Explaining would be a paradox. Send this one back, thanks."

"Ugh. See what it's like?" She throws the widget back and lazily presses a button to send the time jars back to their default positions.

"That's good, actually. If it would be a paradox, that means the information would arrive in the lab's future via this lab, meaning that whatever's going on isn't a universal kitsune thing like I was about to say it was, but instead is specific to you and/or I."

"What tests can do without needing a brain expert, now that we both know to transform?"

[bc56]

Foxes in Time

Okay. The second message makes more sense. "So if it's one of us..." Jade's not sure which it would be. They both have magic problems, but different ones. "We could try measuring the temperature and trying to create fire again. We might be able to try turning into other things, too, but I don't know how we could collect data on that."

[Recaiden]

Well, there's obviously something wrong with Jade. It's that she's an engineer.
But there's also something wrong with Honeysuckle. It's that [REDACTED].

"Sounds like pretty clear data. Turn into it, or you don't. Not here though."
There's a lab more suited for potentially hazardous magic somewhere in this maze of a base, right? Honeysuckle certainly thinks so, and is leading the way over there.
"Get some thermometers from over there." she waves.

And, since it shouldn't be too hard to find thermometers, even in the messy lab, we can move on to the tests.
Can Jade create fire, knowing what she knows now? Or at least make it slightly warm?

[bc56]

Foxes in Time

What does being an engineer have to do with anything? Isn't Honeysuckle an engineer too?

Jade can attempt to create fire again. She focuses, reaches out her hand, and thinks about creating a flame around the base of the thermometer.
For a moment, nothing happens. Then, ever so slightly, the thermometer begins to detect rising temperature. A few seconds later, and it's increased by maybe 10 degrees. No fire, but it's a start. Jade sighs. "At least it's something. It doesn't explain anything though."

[Recaiden]

There we go thinking about this logically again. Is that going to get anyone anywhere?

"Oh! Heating up, isn't it? No, the only thing that's changed is you managing to transform, right? So that must matter. Showed you to do it, or something."

"My turn."
Honeysuckle places an outstretched hand just over another, still-cool thermometer and tries to imagine the flame appearing, the same way she imagined the fox moving.

If one watched closely, they would notice:
A candle-flame appears at her fingertip, and the recorded temperature starts to rise.
Just an instant later, there is a separate, larger blast of fire that throws Honeysuckle's hand back, spins her around a bit, and may well crack open that thermometer.

[bc56]

Foxes in Time

Jade jumps back at the explosion. "Woah! Did you see that?" She did notice the candle flame, and it's got her curious. Honeysuckle apparently succeeded, and then the explosion happened. "Is there anything recording? I'd like to play that in slow motion."

[Recaiden]

"Hah, course not. Felt a lot of heat. Was ready for it this time, and -oh, yeah, there's a camera over there. Not sure how to work it."
Honeysuckle does point it out though, and it shouldn't prove difficult for Jade to get a replay of the lab footage.

Anyway, they have their first answer. That does happen every time.

[bc56]

Foxes in Time

A few minutes later, Jade is replaying the video. She's about to start explaining it to Honeysuckle, then she realizes. Honeysuckle's blind. She can't see the image on the screen. "At this frame, I can see a candle flame above your hand. It stays around until here, a few frames later, it explodes. Did you feel anything unusual after a second but not when you started?"

[Recaiden]

There's a reason Honeysuckle couldn't give any details about the camera.

"Hard to tell. I think there was something different about my sense-of-things. That instead of vision. Might just be the heat, though."
She paces around the lab, wondering how to tell for sure.
"Got any kinda torch or somethin? Compare it to normal fire, right? Then I would know if anything else was going on."

[bc56]

Foxes in Time

"No, but making a fire the normal way isn't hard with all this equipment. Just need to get a few things together..." One Bunsen burner and one match later, Jade should have a small gas fire going. "Here. This is about candle-sized. What do you feel?" Jade doesn't feel anything, she thinks. Maybe Honeysuckle, with triple the tails, is triply sensitive.

[Felandria]

[Reinholdt's Office]

Reinholdt personally considers Felandria more a sizeshifter than a shapeshifter. Alas, the word is underused in the man's opinion.

"Oh, uh, Felandria." If Rein sounds surprised, it's because he is. "When I said this was an informal meeting, I didn't mean a get it done now pajama party. Sorry if I didn't get that across properly." Well she's here now.

Rein moves to close the door behind her. "Come, take a seat." He puts his hand on her back to try to gently lead her to the chair. As he does so, his hair changes color! Well sort of. His hair is still blue, but now it has frosted white tips. It's honestly very strange change. But Rein is watching to see if Felandria's hair changes in the exact same way. That would be an even stranger change. But it's the shapeshifting test he's got. Works on a very particular subset of shapeshifter though and it's unlikely to affect Felandria in any way. Unless she's secretly Juleka or Harley or Manja.

Either way, Rein'll have to sit across from her in his seat, making no acknowledgement his hair has changed. "Guess I don't need to offer you a drink. I'm mostly checking in. How have things been going for you?"

Pretty okay, all things considered.

My term as mayor has been remarkably uneventful thus far, which is probably a good thing.

Things around here are running pretty smoothly.

How’s things with you?

- - - Updated - - -

[Couple Tour]

"Weeeellll... let's save your office for last. It'd save us from having to go back there, once we're done." Rosie trails a finger down Fel's arm as she says so, grinning suggestively. "But first, duty calls, so... let's start with... those!" She's referring to the teleporters and portals, of course.

---

Ooh, yeah.

So for the most part they’re pretty secure, mostly one way and requiring authorization, want to make sure we’re not randomly showing up in other people’s houses and vice versa.

So typically the system knows which locations each member has authorizations for.

[Reinholdt]

[Reinholdt's Office - Felandria]

Reinholdt raises an eyebrow. Uneventful? Wasn't there a huge rat crisis in Riverside just recently?

Well, none of his business. He's focused on HALO.

"I've been doing alright. Staying busy. Dating, recruiting, tinkering, hunting.

I wanted to ask you and others what the current project you're working on is."

[Recaiden]

[Foxes in Time]

"No, but making a fire the normal way isn't hard with all this equipment. Just need to get a few things together..." One Bunsen burner and one match later, Jade should have a small gas fire going. "Here. This is about candle-sized. What do you feel?" Jade doesn't feel anything, she thinks. Maybe Honeysuckle, with triple the tails, is triply sensitive.

"Well, can the air fizzing around as its heated, of course."
"Gimme some time."
When she thinks she's observing the fire and herself well enough, Honeysuckle stretches out a hand to the side, away from Jade and the burner, and conjures a wisp of fire.
Once again, there is a wave of heat and force, that would have knocked her over if she weren't already sitting down. Prepared for it as she was, all she does is shake out her fingers for a slight pain they feel.
"Got it. Sense-of-things was reduced, closed in. Does this power count as looking at things in some magic way?" Honeysuckle muses.

[bc56]

Foxes in Time

"Maybe? I don't know." Magic still doesn't make sense to Jade. "So, are you saying your magic senses are somehow restricted? Is that what's causing the explosions?" She's not sure she heard that right.

[Recaiden]

"Maybe not causing, but connected somehow."
"First, I make the flame. Then, my senses weaken, and the flame explodes out and then stops."
Honeysuckle shrugs. It doesn't really make sense to her either.
"For you, might help to do like the being-a-fox. Think of the flame already there. And like, be glad it's there?"
"Dunno how to say it, exactly."

[bc56]

Foxes in Time

Jade frowns concernedly. "That doesn't sound good. Is there a magic-doctor or something we could take you to? Someone who might know more about it than us?" Then there's the suggestion for her. "I didn't do anything to become a fox. I just thought about being a fox, and then I was." To illustrate, Jade does it again, returning to her red fox shape. It seems like she's having trouble believing that she could just create fire like that. But how hard could it be? She's already doing impossible things to her mass and body configuration. Maybe there's some connection she's missing? Or a mental barrier that needs to be broken down?

[Recaiden]

"I dunno. Normal doctor no help, priest no help, guess I could see a wizard?" Learned kitsune have been some help with the basics, but they have no experience with Honeysuckle's specific problems. She's clearly not excited about the idea, expecting disappointment.

"Exactly. 'k foxfire is the same, just think about it already being there. But for me, how I felt about it, in the abstract, tha mattered."
Honeysuckle shrugs.
"Learned a couple things already. Progress. Not sure what it all means together, though."

[bc56]

Foxes in Time

"That might work. I don't really understand magic."

"So I'm supposed to imagine the fire, and then it will come into being?" Jade returns to humanoid shape and tries to imagine a candle flame floating above her hand. She thinks about the flickering light, the faint warmth. But isn't this pointless? She'd be surprised if she could manage a few sparks.
Her doubts prove prophetic. Above her open hand, there's a brief flicker of light, a spark, and then once again, nothing.

[Recaiden]

"There something there. More than you managed before." Honeysuckle insists. First nothing, then just heat, now a spark.

"Give it another try later."
It does seem that an understanding of magic may be required, which would bring them to the end of Jade's ability to help.
"Hey, uh, thanks. Wouldn't have found out even this without you."

[bc56]

Foxes in Time

Jade nods. "You're welcome. I couldn't have figured out... Well... Fox things... Without you." She smiles. "That's what friends are for, right?"

[Recaiden]

Honeysuckle has a moment of uncertainty. Are they friends? Jade's not like any other friends of hers. But they are working together-
Ah. That's it. Yes, they must be.
"Right. See after the next lesson."
With that, she grins and heads out of the lab, wondering how she'll find the time to practice all these things.

[Aleph Null]

[Reinholdt's Office]

At some point Aen would follow up on the announcement from Reinholdt to check in at his office. After a few moments of remembering how to interact with these strange objects known as "doors" that people seem to need to move through walls, he would send a moderately loud knocking noise through the office.

// Sir Reinholdt? I believe you requested the presence of each member of the organization at some point. I have determined that now would be an optimal time for this meeting with respect to my schedule, and wish to know if the same can be said for yours. //