HALO 184: Red and Grey All The Way

[Ironsmith]

[Entrance Hall]

Vlad steps through the airlock, seawater still dripping from his armor as he pries off the helmet and takes a deep breath of... well, probably not *fresh* air, given the base's location, but certainly less recycled than what had been circulating through his rebreathers. He looks down at his suit, wondering if the saltwater would ruin the machine's crinson finish; he'd made a point of getting it all spruced up for his first meeting with HALO. He wanted to make a good impression on them while he was able; he was on his own now, so if he said or did anything stupid, there wasn't going to be anyone around to vouch that he "really isn't that bad when you get to know him".

He pulls an arm free of the suit just long enough to run a hand through his hair, hoping the helmet hadn't made it unpresentable. Everything was going to be all right, he kept telling himself. He was going to go in there, look the interviewer dead in the eye, and nail this job.

Unless she was hot. Then he might have a problem.

No, no, not even then, Vlad admonishes himself, stepping forward. He could control himself for ten minutes. Just keep eye contact. It was as simple as that. Eye contact.

Right. What were the odds that was even going to be a problem, anyway?

[bc56]

Foxes in Time

Some questions answered, yet so many remain. But it seems Honeysuckle is done now. "Okay, bye!" Jade leaves, still unsure what to even think about this whole process. But she's glad she has a friend like Honeysuckle to share this experience with. Figuring all this out on her own would be much worse.

[Reinholdt]

[Reinholdt's Office - Aen]

"Yes, Maria, now's fine," Reinholdt calls out, shaking his head, though he's already opening the door. The sight on the other side gives him pause. That wasn't Maria. Who the hell is this? "Oh, uh, sorry about that. Yes, still. Come in, come in."

Rein moves aside to let Aen in so he can shut the door behind the... cosmic anomaly? Either way, he moves in the general direction to put his hand on Aen's back to lead him to the chair. He's got a plan, he's sticking to it! Probably!

[Entrance Hall]

Eye contact is perhaps the single most difficult thing to actually accomplish with Maria. She could be considered 'hot' per Vlad's tastes, but it's definitely a more subdued version. The bookworm isn't looking to impress anyone. She isn't looking around at all actually, her nose quite firmly planted in the heavy tome she's carrying. The History of Nouns From 14A5 to 17B1, Part Two. It must be riveting cause she does not look up, as she peers through her glasses at the page. It's actually really impressive how well she reads while walking. Especially in that long, flowing dress of hers. Anyone else would be tripping over themselves all the time.

Maria has a lot of practice reading while walking in long garments though. She has even more practice completely ignoring other presences. If Vlad doesn't say anything, she is going to walk right by him without so much as a peep. Kind of rude really. Well you know what they say about people who wear glasses.

Spoiler

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[Ironsmith]

[Entrance Hall]

Right. On to the inter-

The inter...

Humana humana humana.

Vlad mentally admonishes himself. No distractions. Now was the time to focus. She probably wasn't who he was here to meet; she seemed to be ignoring him, along with everything else in the room. They were in the same place at the same time; that's it.

Plus, that kind of response seemed... wrong. More so than it normally would be. This wasn't just a woman; this was a lady, not merely attractive, but beautiful in a whole other sense. Being his usual lecherous self with her would be like drooling over a marble statue; gross and wrong.

So, that was it, then. He was going to ignore her, too. No need to cause any trouble.

...Which way was he supposed to go?

Crud. He didn't know the layout of the base at all. If he was going to make it to the interviewer's office, he was going to need to ask someone for directions, and there was nobody here except...

Ah, great.

Vlad takes a tentative step toward Maria, gently tapping her on the shoulder with a massive steel hand, which was much harder than it looked. "Um... pardon me, uh, madam, I was wondering if, uh... you knew the way to the interviewer's office?"

[Purple Eagle]

[

---

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.

[Couple Tour]

"Ohhhh, I see!" Rosie says, listening very closely to her girlfriend's words. "So, I could go straight home from here, the loooong way around? That's positively smashing, like a Den-Den Mushi for people!"

She walks up to one and caresses the outer ring. "So, could you help me setting up my authorizations, luv? How many authorizations per member?"

[Reinholdt]

[Entrance Hall]

Even Maria can't ignore a heavy tapping on her shoulder. Well, she can, certainly. But at that point it would have to be a deliberate act rather than the usual completely absent from the world around her.

She even starts a little, as if being forced to wake up and looks around. Oh there was a person inquiring about directions. Why was she in the Entrance Hall? Oh yes, she remembers. She left the library to get something from the kitchen. Got to the kitchen. Completely forgot to get any food like she originally intended and started to head back to the library. Eating really is a bothersome distraction she could do without.

Oh yes. The man. "Interveiwer's office?" Maria hesitates uncertainly for a moment. "Clarify." She's not terribly familiar with an interviewer. Did they have one? It was possible. They probably had a lot of things she couldn't be bothered to care about.

[Ironsmith]

[Entrance Hall]

"Oh. Right." Vlad clears his throat. "I heard you guys were looking for new members and decided I wanted to be a part of what you do here. Presumably, I need to talk to someone about that... your boss, I guess?"

He had no idea. It didn't help that she seemed to be an out-of-place librarian or something.

His whole "eye contact" thing didn't seem to be working, either. She hadn't met his gaze (so far) and it was difficult for him to look at her without imagining what was under the dress. Damn you, years of conditioning!

[Aleph Null]

[Reinholdt's Office]
Aen sort of just floats in; as Reinholdt moves to put his hand on his back, Aen makes a sort of gesture of avoidance.
// Not to sound hostile, but you should not put your hand there...unless you wish it to be torn off by the grav-field, of course. I have to stay reasonably-sized somehow... //
He makes a sort of chuckling sound.
// It is rather inconvenient at times, but assuredly the inconveniences of not being able to fit inside any buildings would be far greater. //

[Reinholdt]

[Reinholdt's Office - Aen]

Rein pauses and withdraws his hand. There's a moment of silent suspicion, a stare of uncertainty. That would be what an infiltrating shapeshifter would say, wouldn't it? One that knew what Reinholdt was after? But then, they'd have to suspect what Rein was up to. He had no idea how intelligent or predictive this shapeshifter could be and whether they'd come up with such an obscure defense against detection.

He'd have to play along for now and attempt to discern things another way. There was always process of elimination if it came down to it. Presuming there was an infiltrator to begin with.

"Of course. My apologies." Reinholdt moves around back to the other side of the desk and sits in his chair. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name. Or, your species. Or that you were a member. I can offer a drink if you're capable of such things though." Reinholdt has a good array of alcoholic beverages in the cabinet nearby.

[Entrance Hall]

"Oh. That. Your statements are accurate within an acceptable margin of error." Maria says with a slight shrug of non-committal as she looks back down at her book, completely oblivious to the thoughts Vlad was having about her. At the same time she points with one hand down the hallway in the direction she came from. "You will want to head sixty-nine meters that way without deviation followed by eight meters ninety degrees clockwise from your original heading. Reinholdt is more readily available, but you can take your chances with Felandria if you wish."

She turns the page.

[Ironsmith]

[Entrance Hall]

Right. Sixty-nine meters down the hall...

Man, was it just him, or was it getting really hot in there?

Vlad reaches up and wipes the sweat off his brow, looking a little flustered. She wasn't doing it on purpose, he didn't think. He'd seen actual robots that spoke less robotically than she did. She couldn't possibly be trying to provoke him. And all the same...

Vlad clears his throat awkardly. "Right. Thanks, miss... um... sorry, what was your name?"

[Reinholdt]

[Entrance Hall]

Name, name...

"Nadas-" For a moment, Vlad may hear a squeak of panic and for the first time, Maria looks up at Vlad, then around the room. It was devoid of anyone else of course, but for someone who hasn't been paying attention, she wouldn't have known that.

"I mean. Maria. My formal designation is Maria Kayin." Now she stares at his eyes, scrutinizing him from behind her glasses. It's probably the closest her gaze has ever come to being 'smoldering'. "Under what appellation do you address yourself?"

[Ironsmith]

[Entrance Hall]

Uh-oh. He almost preferred it when she wasn't looking at him. Now he found her gaze to be way too intense, like she was trying to dissect him with her eyes. Reddening a bit, Vlad turns away, suddenly extremely fascinated with the wall.

"Vladimir Lustig. My, ah, friends call me Vlad." He manages to say. "I'm a mechanic- well, engineer, kinda- by trade. Work on aeronautical vehicles mostly. Much, ah, harder than it looks."

Easy, Vlad. She asked for your name, not your life story.

[Reinholdt]

[Entrance Hall]

If that is the extent of Vlad's life story, it has been a short one indeed!

"Vladimir Lustig," Maria repeats, apparently not considering him a friend yet. Though it is unlikely she would use nicknames for anyone even if they were close friends, given the way she talks.

Her deep scrutiny of the mechanical engineer comes to an end and she pivots her attention back towards her book.

He probably wasn't a threat. There was no cause for alarm.

"I am certain they will find a way to utilize your skills to occupy your time in a productive manner."

[Ironsmith]

[Entrance Hall]

Oh. Good. He had her confidence, sorta. "Yes. Well. That was the general idea." He clears his throat, wondering if he should go ahead and move on to Reinholdt's office... wherever that was. Of the options she'd given him, that one seemed the least likely to end in his embarrassment and subsequent rejection via airlock.

Ah, well, manners. He should at least thank her for her time. "I... think I'll go have a word with mister Reinholdt now." He says, moving toward the hallway. "Thanks for your help, pretty lady."

Wait, no, that was not what he meant to say. Crap. Maybe she didn't notice.

[Reinholdt]

[Entrance Hall]

"That would be a prudent course of action," Maria suggests, turning to walk the other way. This is convenient because it can also, hopefully, hide the slight blush on her cheeks. She doesn't actually interrupt her exit to respond at least.

As long as Vlad follows Maria's instructions approximately, he should be able to find Felandria and Reinholdt's offices. It helps that there are also occasional signs indicating directions. Unless he wants to get distracted and swing by the pool to see if anyone's there, it's unlikely he'll have any trouble.

[Ironsmith]

[Entrance Hall -> Offices]

Naturally, Vlad does follow her instructions. Tempting though that pool sounded, it also sounded a little too much like a minefield to him.

When he arrives at the offices, he takes a moment to listen and hears that Reinholdt seems to already be in a meeting; either that, or he was fond of talking to himself. It doesn't look like a good time to interrupt. On the other hand, if he doesn't deal with him, he'll probably end up being interviewed by this Felandria person, but he couldn't tell from here if she was even in right now.

Vlad sighs and settles in, resolving to speak to whoever opened their door first; Reinholdt at the conclusion of his meeting (or to permit him to interrupt), or Felandria, for whatever reason she chose.

[Reinholdt]

[Office Hall - Vlad]

Waiting outside unannounced is a good way to waste a lot of time.

About an hour later, there's a soft scratching noise that ends the discussion in Rein's office and a few moments later, the door opens. Standing in it, half-way into leaving is merely a man. A really, really amazing man. 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. 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.

There is no one behind him at all. There is, however, a small pile of recently finished paperwork with catpaw stamp prints on them. He also appears to be in the middle of leaving said office, though he pauses upon seeing Vlad.

"Uh, hello. Can I help you?" Reinholdt asks.

[Ironsmith]

[Office Hall - Vlad]

Eh, six out of ten.

Vlad stands at attention, which is difficult for him to do in the suit but shows off their combined stature reasonably well. "Yes, sir. I'm here for a job, sir." He says calmly. "Vladimir Lustig, ex-ARC, aeronautic engineer and mechanic, heavy weapon specialist, sir."

That was a bit of an embellishment, but not exactly wrong. He was, after all, standing inside a person-shaped tank when he said this. Calling him a specialist was probably a bit of a stretch, since he had more experience putting together the suit than actually using it, but then again, nobody knew its capabilities quite like he did.

[Felandria]

[Couple Tour]

"Ohhhh, I see!" Rosie says, listening very closely to her girlfriend's words. "So, I could go straight home from here, the loooong way around? That's positively smashing, like a Den-Den Mushi for people!"

She walks up to one and caresses the outer ring. "So, could you help me setting up my authorizations, luv? How many authorizations per member?"

Well, you only need the one, we just need to scan your biometrics, make sure it’s really you and not an impostor.

We can do that later, what else would you like to see?

[Reinholdt]

[Rein's Office - Vlad]

"Oh, you're the guy who walked here instead of taking the public shuttles. Come in." Reinholdt waits until he's turned back towards the office before rolling his eyes a little. This is going to make him late for meeting up with Harley and Manja. Can't be helped. He steps aside to leave Vlad room to enter before shutting the door behind them.

The office itself is cozy. Nice rug, nice chairs, fancy desk, liquor cabinet, bookshelf, and even an antique looking record player, though it's actually one of those faux new ones that just look antique. Indeed, it was just playing a pretty neat audiobook Rein might recommend some time. Though that would mean admitting Harley convinced Rein to listen to a Nymph of Our Dreams on audiobook and maybe Rein would rather not admit such things. A glowing purple crystal sitting on the desk stands out as does a red hood hanging on the wall for decoration, which is odd because it looks old and tattered with holes. You usually want something nicer looking than that.

Rein gives a quick glance over Vlad's armor. Umm... that'll make it difficult to test Vlad for shapeshifting infiltration like he usually does. ... Let's put that down for a future check and put Vlad in the 'maybe' column. Rein moves past Vlad to return to one side of his desk. "Take a seat, uh, if you can. Can I offer you a drink? Do you have a preference?" Regardless of Vlad's choice in the matter, he pours himself a bit of whiskey.

[Ironsmith]

[Rein's Office - Vlad]

"Yes, sir. Thought I'd take the scenic route, sir." Vlad replies. "And I'll pass on that drink, sir. Never while I'm on duty."

The suit he's wearing is a massive, red armored mechanical rig, which in combination with his natural stature made him close to ten feet tall. The shoulders are hilariously oversized, implying that they have some unseen mechanism built into them. Depite its size, the suit is oddly quiet; there's a low hum emnating from it, about the sound one would expect to hear from an air conditioner, but that's about it.

"Sir, if you don't mind my asking..." Vlad points to the tattered red hood. "What happened to your cloak there? Get into a nasty firefight or something?"

[Reinholdt]

[Rein's Office - Vlad]

"You're not on duty yet. Unless you mean you're working for someone else right now?" Reinholdt tilts his head quizzically. Regardless, he'll down half his own glass as he sits down. He holds up his hand as well. "Just Rein is fine. Sir is not for me."

Rein slides a paper towards Vlad. It has space for his name and equipment he will require and... nothing else? "I feel I should warn you that HALO moved away from its militaristic combative roots a few years ago. We're no longer vigilantes, but focus more on the benefits of R&D. Sure, sometimes that means researching myths to find a big bad's weak point or curing a meme virus, but it just as often means developing new irrigation techniques. Whatever best helps everyone." He waves his hand a little. "That said, we DO have an airbase collecting dust. I don't think anyone's been up there in five years, so... you would have plenty of work making the stuff up there up there usable again."

With a swivel of his chair, he looks back at the hood and studies it for a moment before finishing off his glass and turning back towards Vlad. "I used to get in a lot of firefights, but that actually belonged to a friend of mine. She was quasi-killed by a prisoner I shouldn't have let free. She's a rock now and with her dad. A reminder that helping everyone isn't necessarily helping everyone." A second look will make it more clear that the red hood is too small for Rein. Even too small for an adult.

[Ironsmith]

[Rein's Office - Vlad]

So Rein wasn't one for formalities. That was good to know. Vlad sighs and relaxes a little, listening to Rein describe HALO and what he'd be doing there. Fixing up old airplanes might be an interesting project; playing around with antiques usually yielded some interesting insights. As for R&D, he had a few technologies he could contribute, but wasn't much of an innovator himself; hopefully, that wouldn't be a problem.

Then Rein gets to the part about someone getting "semi-killed". Nothing about that story wasn't confusing. "I'm afraid I don't follow, Rein."

[Reinholdt]

[Rein's Office - Vlad]

Ok. The full story then.

"As the premier Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire... that's what I do by the way," Reinholdt gives his flourish, but it is half-hearted. "I get many jobs. This one time, a wizard golem asked me to go to Skull Mountain and retrieve three gems. It's a creepy place, let me tell you. Pretty exciting though. You can find it in [Outside] if you ever feel like scaring yourself to death for gold, though I cleaned out a lot of it on my second trip." Not necessarily picked clean. There are a lot of floors even Rein wouldn't touch.

"I find the first gem in the throne room that's surprisingly early in the place. It was cracked and broken, but what the wizard was looking for." Reinholdt pours himself a second glass and slides a pen over to Vlad in case he needed one. "Then I met the girl in that hood. Ten? Eleven? Trying to convince her to leave the dungeon was a no go. I ended up following her lead instead. I didn't trust her at first, because honestly? Little girl in a spooky dungeon? That's a death flag. But I couldn't just leave her by herself either. There were very spooky things in the dark you definitely did not want to look at or be in the same room with that we narrowly avoided. Some osha unfriendly catwalks. And the undead gorillas were not to be trifled with. But we became friends. She warned me away from a succubus I nearly let free. See the entire place past the first floor is actually a giant superprison for all of the old kingdom's worst of the worst."

"But some of those were just people who went against the crown for ideological reasons. Political prisoners held by dark magic by a country that didn't exist anymore. I let two prisoners out. The second one worked out fine." He takes a swig of his drink. "The first. Well, she was... is... a beautiful fey. We split up because she wanted to release her brother from the bottom floor and I had to keep up with Ruby, the little girl. Anyways, continue on and we finally get where we're going. A vault with a lot of gold and a box continuing a cursed dagger that could cause a lot of damage to the fabric of reality. While we're there, the fey - Cerridwen, falls from the ceiling and backstabs Ruby to death. Turns out she wasn't able to free her brother. She winks and says she's repaid the favor as she walks out while I'm still in shock."

It was pretty shocking.

"When I check on Ruby, she's nothing more than a skull with a gem in one of its eye. No surprise, a ruby. I'm still dazed at this point and haven't put two and two together and take the skull and the box to leave. That's when I get ambushed by another little girl. This one wants that dagger. And she wants it for very nefarious purposes. She hated the world and wanted to lash out. To hurt people like she had been. To kill everyone and everything. The skull, or more specifically, the red ruby stone starts telepathically talking to me saying how she was hoping to secret the dagger to safety before her sister found out. I... tried. Tried to talk her down. Say there was another way." Reinholdt stares at his glass for a moment, forcing his hand to stop shaking by downing the rest of the drink and pouring himself a third. "Turns out I'm better at talking a lot of nothing than I am talking persuasively."

There's another pause before he forces the truth out. "I took the easy route and I shot her." Reinholdt takes one finger and taps right below his left eye. "Right here. Broke the gem and killed her to keep her from becoming the true threat she was hellbent on becoming. Took all three of the gems to the wizard golem. Turns out he was the banished king not allowed to enter the mountain and those were his three daughters who were not allowed to leave. He knew they had become twisted too and didn't expect any to live. He and Ruby got a second chance to truly be father and daughter, though it was doubtful she'd ever have a body again. That much at least, turned out ok."

Well.

Vlad asked.

[Ironsmith]

[Rein's Office - Vlad]

To Vlad, this all just sounded like a fairy tale. Not the modern kind that's been fine-tuned around one or two bits of magic. The old kind, where the symbolism and background is lost to the modern reader. He was even less certain of events now that Rein had given him the full story; gems keeping people alive, banished kings and imprisoned princesses, daggers that cut reality, and undead gorillas all just seemed outlandish and nonsensical to him. And since Rein had gone to all the trouble to explain it, continuing to act confused would just be embarrassing for them both. So he just nods slowly, trying not to look like he's questioning Rein's sanity.

"Back to the here and now... you mentioned an airfield?" Vlad begins again.

[Reinholdt]

[Rein's Office - Vlad]

What a mediocre response! Maybe Rein intimidated the new guy. That would almost be amusing considering Vlad's nearly twice his size, but it certainly wasn't the intention. Tsk.

"Aerial base," Reinholdt emphasizes. "Flying island perpetually held aloft by magitech. Come to think of it, you might want to check on that too." Even good magitech needs maintenance and it'd be a shame if the island decided to crash. "Did you want to see it before joining?"

[Ironsmith]

[Rein's Office - Vlad]

A flying island? Well, that was a whole other matter. Technology powerful enough to keep a rock that big in the air for that long was worth looking into.

But, yeah, Rein had a point. It was definitely a try-before-you-buy sort of thing. This magitech could easily prove to be well beyond his capabilities to maintain, let alone contribute meaningfully to.

"Well..." Vlad begins, lingering on the question for a moment. "...All right. Let's see what's keeping your island in the air."

[Reinholdt]

[Rein's Office - Vlad]

"Very well." Rein makes a quick motion and finishes off his drink, before scooping the application off the desk and standing up. He'll motion for Vlad to follow him as he leaves the office.

He'll lead the mechanic down a few corridors until he reaches a room full of seemingly pointless archways and goes up to the console beside one of them. "Lessee... one of these turns it on... the other is a multi-megaton self-destruct... HMMM..." He looks thoughtful for a moment before touching one of the buttons. The inside of the archway suddenly shimmers with a blue light, rippling unnaturally. "Ah. There we go."

He turns back to Vlad and motions to him. "After you." He clearly expects Vlad to walk through the blue curtain.

[Ironsmith]

[Rein's Office - Vlad]

Vlad cringes a little as Rein seems to have trouble remembering how the portal works. He hoped Rein was joking about either the self-destruct existing or not remembering which button it was; he finally comes to the conclusion that it'd be nonsensical to have the equivalent of a nuclear bomb ready to go off if someone happens to be a bit too tired when operating this thing, and therefore, Rein was pulling his leg. Wait... this whole place ran on nonsense. That didn't actually tell him much.

Fortunately, he wouldn't have to worry about it much longer. As soon as the portal comes on, he steps through, only slightly perturbed by the fact that he can't see where they're going.

[5a Violista]

Marin gets off the shuttle.
She came here to see a certain someone on a whim, ... but didn't think to call ahead. Pretty dumb move, probably.

Marin, who is not a member here, is a catgirl with purple hair and a poor fashion sense when it comes to color matching (and, unusually, two tails but she's used to it).