HALO 184: Red and Grey All The Way

[Recaiden]

[Teleport Pad]

Marin, imagining the absurdity of someone setting up a huge roundabout trap just to make it send someone to the future, laughs at it.
"Yeah, it would be pretty impressive. If someone could set up all that, it'd make me wonder why they bothered to go to all that effort."

She stops in place and thinks.
"Say we are ten years in the future," she says. "How would we tell?" Obviously, the easiest way would be to either find some child who grew up and you mistake for their older sibling. But Marin doesn't know enough people who would fit that criteria. The second-easiest way would be to find a conveniently-placed calendar.

"Ask somebody. If it's the future, be real surprised to see us, yeah?"
Honeysuckle takes a moment to attend to their surroundings, and then steps off the teleport pad.
"Feels like the same time."
So probably they ought to -
"Find us Magtok?"

[Reinholdt]

[Outside Simulation Room]

If Mr. C gets electrocuted, that just means deep fried lizard for Rein. It works out well for the cat. But the console is turned off right now, lacking any power whatsoever. It already exploded in fire, so it probably can't get worse. The whole thing needs replaced.

"Everything is fine now and Fakidavit is gone," Reinholdt says with an almost eyeroll, his gaze darting between Harley and Magtok. Something else happened? He'd ask Harley about it later. Better than admitting some level of gratitude or debt to the cyborg.

"I'll go over what happened and do some serious adjustments to the simulation room to make sure it never happens again. Upgrade the equipment or something." Rein's a little out of his depth managing the simulation room, but he'll figure it out somehow.

He'll take back his hat from Mr C and nods to Dorota and Felandria, letting her pin down the obvious fake Magtok in a hug. "Thanks again." He says, turning to Harley and suggesting they get Manja someplace less excitable and crowded.

[Angeline's Day Date]

Reinholdt tsks. "I suppoooose not. I dunno. Kids are smarter than anyone gives them credit for I think." Well. Some kids.

The box is actually pretty heavy, but moves out of the way easily enough. It apparently has nothing to do with the massage either because Rein doesn't open it, use it, or otherwise mention it at all as he begins. Lying down on her stomach is definitely the easiest way to get things rolling and Reinholdt uses some massage oils rubbed on his hands as he starts with her shoulders and slowly works the knots out.

"So, I doubt I've told you, but I was pretty lost for awhile back when I forsook my purpose and didn't even remotely know what to do with myself. And, umm, one of the things I tried was professional massaging. Well sorta. I took a few courses. I would not even remotely call myself a professional. A little above apprentice maybe?" Almost intermediate! "Didn't end up going through with it obviously. Got distracted enrolling in GLoG." Lazy might be the better word, the cat spending more time on the roofs of GLoG's cabins soaking in the sun than he did on self-improvement courses.

[5a Violista]

[Teleport Pad]

Marin assumes Honeysuckle has some sort of way to tell if a lot of time has passed. Like, maybe the composition of...something? The water? Layers of dust? Able to see aging in metal? Looking for rust?
Something like that, probably.

"Yes," she says. "In case something happened before everyone else was able to meet up with him." They were able to throw off whoever-caused-this's plan: only some of them went through the teleporter into that weird space, so there were still people here at the base.

The catgirl starts looking down the different ways out of this room, to see if there's a way to tell which way he went.


[leaving Outside Simulation Room]

Harley says 'yeah'.

She walks away from the crowd, asking her infant, "So, how did you get out of your crib?" They need to somehow stop this from happening again.
The baby obviously doesn't give away her secrets, and instead just makes some defiant noise and yawns.
Fearing that Manja will somehow just vanish away again, Harley makes sure to hold her daughter tight.


[Angeline's Day Date]

"At least with humans, it takes around four years for them to learn the difference between what's imaginary and what's real," Harley claims. So it should also take about that long for them to know what kinds of addictions are bad.

But!
Wait!
The box isn't part of the massage? What's it for, then? She didn't really consider it because she assumed it was just something typical and standard, but now that it's clearly not. . .what's it for? Why was it there, in the first place?

Her mind is now extremely torn between wanting to find out what it's for, and enjoying this massage. She can't help but glance at it every once in a while.

"You're right; that's not quite professional," snake-Harley says, agreeing with him. "Still better than most people, I'd say. I've never even done any kind of training for it at all." Just...other things. Like, shapeshifting or swordfighting or infiltration or assassination or anti-mage combat or things like that. After a little thought, she says, "Turns out, most of the things I'm good at are suited to fighting or war or government and so on, so I'm actually a little jealous."

Harley spends an amount of time enjoying the massage, and another amount of time staring at the box, and then makes a confession. "Actually, I've been at GLoG before. In disguise. Just the clinic part, really. After a fight with a zombie, I got infected with, like, a thousand diseases at once and had lost my arm. Had a pretty bad fever, too." She pauses, and takes a deep breath. "Then, as I was leaving, their security system activated and I got chased by dozens of ghosts." She swallows. Might as well bring this part up before it suddenly becomes relevant, like their encounter with Wenomir at the Spooktober party. "I figured the ghosts wouldn't hurt a child, so I ended up holding a kid hostage just so I could escape. I felt so bad about it for months afterwards, but I thought going there to apologize would just make everything worse."

And that's her experience with GLoG.
Great medical staff, but secretly really terrifying.

[Reinholdt]

[Angeline's Day Date]

"Humans are soooo sloooow...." Reinholdt doesn't actually know how long it takes cats and kittens to learn the same though. He never studied that particular branch of science.

The box sits there.
Quietly.
Doing nothing.
Except being a box, waiting to be opened, for being opened is one of its three purposes in life.

Rein mulls it over a little as he rolls his palms. "There's reasons to be good at those things. And to be proud of them. Not always, sure, but it's just a matter of looking at it from a different angle. I'm good at shooting things. It's not a good thing or a bad thing. It just is, until it's put to use. Then I can be judged for it." Sometimes government and war and fighting are ok too.

Harley relates her GLoG story and there's a little awkward quietness. "I see." That might be one of those bad things she could be judged for in regards to fighting. Oops. "Well, GLoG is pretty big on forgiveness. I bet they'd love it if you showed up to apologize. Last I checked, the ghost population was declining too. If you still want to, I can go with you." It may have been too long ago admittedly.

[5a Violista]

[ Angeline's Day Date]

Cats and kittens are probably a lot faster, because of how quickly they grow up. Following that logic, elves probably take decades.

Harley, of course, looks at the box again.
Maybe if she looks at it enough, it'll reveal all its secrets.
She (gently! this time) bites her lip, in hopes that will be enough to force the box into surrendering.

"The problem is," Harley replies, "it wasn't the organization that was hurt. Even if they would 'love it', a public apology would be pointless, just some kind of...ego thing, I guess."

"I don't even know if that family is still there. And, sure, I'd like to make it up to them, but wouldn't me showing up just be kind-of traumatizing?" Not to mention, she doesn't even know what she should say or do.
She's never really done something like that.

Luckily she is really long so there is definitely enough time for a whole conversation like this to happen during this.

[Recaiden]

That's a nice assumption, but actually Honeysuckle is just making the guess that if ten years had passed, the entrance hall would be a bit different.

The foxgirl follows the catgirl to the doorway.
"Hello? Anyone here?"

[5a Violista]

Since at this point in time, most everyone is still outside the simulation room, it's unlikely they immediately see anyone else.

Marin would venture down the hallway, but... let's be honest, if she does, there is a decent chance she'll get lost.

"If we wait here, someone might come by to teleport away or leave through the entrance," she reasons. "But then, we might miss them. But if we stay here...we won't know if we're already too late or what."

[Reinholdt]

[Crossing By]

Rein chuckles a little at Manja and shakes his head. "She's going to be a natural at breaking out of jail some day. It might be time to lock and baby proof doors?" With those very annoying plastic handle grip things.

It doesn't take too long for Rein and Harley's paths to cross with Marin and Honeysuckle on their way back to the dorms. Rein gives them a wave. "Hello."

[Angeline Day Date]

The box can't take it anymore, spilling its whole life story. How it was cut into corrugated pieces, folded and glued. How it always thought wider boxes were better than long boxes and how it needed to go box anger therapy by order of the great Ikeyuh.
Unfortunately, box language is completely indecipherable. Even boxes don't understand other boxes.
Only the legendary carboardmancer from NO's olden days could understand boxes, but those secrets are too dangerous to share.
So it looks like the box just sits there, despite how hard it tries.

"Well I don't think it'd be a public apology, unless you wanted to make it that," Rein says. Boy Harley really is long. He knows much less about how to massage lamia tails, but he picks up quickly. "Could be, you're right. Might be better to call ahead first and talk to someone in charge of those things. I know woman there that specializes in talking things out. She helped me off some of the... harder, more addictive things I was doing to myself."

[Recaiden]

"Before, we could wait. Now, gotta go get information."
That said, Honeysuckle ventures out of the entrance hall and quickly runs across some people!
She gives a nod in greeting.
"Reinholdt, Juleka, heeey. What happened? Magtok okay?"

[5a Violista]

[Angeline Day Date]

Harley-lamia really likes hearing the box's story. Or, rather, she would if she could understand it. The fact that even other boxes can't understand them is a pretty large obstacle to understanding.

"No, not public," she says. Again, she thinks a public apology is more for the person giving the apology than anyone else. She is rather enjoying this massage, so it's fine if it takes a while.
"That person would know if they're still around or not," Harley says, "and might know if it would be good for them or not."

Her curiosity had been building up so much because of the box, that when he mentions another mystery, the curiosity spills over. "So, harder, more addictive things." She asks, "Want to mention what they were, or you prefer to just not talk about them?"


[Crossing by]

"Baby-proof doors..." Harley thinks abut those and weighs the merits of them. "Oh, I hate those. They're always so hard to open."

Harley does look pretty similar to Juleka, especially to Honeysuckle, but the baby in her arms might be a little more distinct. Maybe.
Harley looks behind herself, trying to find if there's any Juleka that way that she's talking to. She is, understandably, confused since she has never gone by that name. "Um...hi?" she says.

Marin, who is a catgirl who has purple hair (and ears and tails...oh, she has two tails; it's a new development. Also, two sets of ears, 'cause she doesn't just have cat ears), a turtleneck shirt even though she doesn't need it anymore, and a bad sense of color matching, expounds on Honeysuckle's question: "We think there's some kind of plot targeting him, because beyond the fake and emergency and everything, the teleport pads were also rigged to trap anyone who used them."

Harley, meanwhile, responds: "Oh. Yes, he's fine. The emergency's been dealt with."

[Reinholdt]

[Angeline Day Date]

The box, too, finds this most inconvenient.

"Well. Like I said, it's up to you. Let's not worry about that today. You're supposed to be relaxing today remember? I'm not massaging well enough." Rein smiles a little and increases the pressure slightly. He'd much rather have Harley focused on his hands than on any bad business she might have had in the past.

Hmm... does that include Rein's bad business? It's super tempting to use his previous logic to duck the question, but then that'd mean Harley revealed something embarrassing about herself and Rein left her hanging. Well, if they're going to join in the solidarity of bad decisions, Reinholdt might as well tell her.

"Ahh... well. Have you ever heard of Liquid Agony?" He waits a little bit. "Well I wouldn't feel bad if you hadn't. It's a very specialized drug created by Professor Affidavit. Designed to inflict an immense amount of pain on whoever comes in contact with it. And- And I couldn't get enough of it." Reinholdt bites his lip, not wanting to elaborate any further than he has to. Not that there's much more to tell. Already revealing that he's a pain junkie, a sucker for masochism. It's been awhile though. Nothing's even come close to the purity of Liquid Agony, so all other pains have felt... wanting.

[Crossing by]

Reinholdt nods in agreement. "Yeah, they're pretty awful. Maybe there's some other solution."

He glances over at Harley, with a slight eyebrow raise. She hadn't told him about her Juleka persona. Not that she's told him the name of all her personas. But wait, wouldn't she be shapeshifted for that? Maybe she shifted into something very similar looking to Harley and called it Juleka. That does seem exactly like the kind of overly complex identity creation she would do.

Reinholdt frowns at the discussion of Magtok. Ugh. He really hates that guy. "What's this now about the teleporters? Did someone get trapped?" It's one thing for the simulation room to malfunction, but if the teleporters are acting up too, that changes things from a bad accident to probable sabotage. Which means someone was taking advantage of all this chaos as a distraction. Or using it as a test.

[5a Violista]

[Angeline Day Date]

Harley trusts that he'll make that phone call tomorrow, or some other time.

She makes a 'no' sound, she's never heard of that.
"..."
She opens her mouth, closes it again, then opens it once more. "I can see that. Makes sense." And it's actually pretty close to what she was imagining, though she was imagining knives or rings or something. And, as someone who is willing to 'accidentally' fall out out of a flying person's arms, half for the adrenaline rush and half to see how he'd react. . .she can actually kind-of relate more than she'd like. The only reason why she doesn't just inject herself with adrenaline is because she loves experiencing the danger too much and that would completely eliminate it. "I've always found drugs to be a poor substitute for the real thing, but I guess it's different for pain."

Harley falls silent, (mostly) just enjoying the massage now. Her curiosity about the box is starting to build up again, but she eventually decides that asking about it would just delay in finding out about it. He'd probably say something like 'i'll tell you later' or 'after this' just to increase the suspense, and then he'd intentionally take longer just to tease.

[Recaiden]

Honeysuckle does focus on Manja, trying to figure out what she's sensing. Is ... that a ... baby half-human half-shadow-monster half-cat? Wait, no, that's not how fractions work. But something like that?

"Oh, not any longer. Caught us, but she found the way outta the trap." Honeysuckle explains, indicating Marin with a gesture.

"All taken care of, good we-"
"Wait."
"Already had one imposter. If you're the real Juleka, uhh, what kind of music'd you play while were sick?"

It might occur to Marin, the way it occurred to her which symbols would activate the return teleporter, that the baby is very cute and endearing.

[5a Violista]

[Crossing by]

Manja, as it happens, is also 1/22 will-o'-the-wisp. And maybe half-bunnygirl, too, but maybe that's actually part of being a half-shadow-monster. And she doesn't care about addition of fractions, anyway, so she doesn't mind whether or not that's how fractions work.

Marin already knew the baby was cute, but it is true that the way the baby has pretty interesting ears that look like a mix of a cat's and a rabbit's, but...well, the coloring is also interesting, with all that white and pink. But, yeah, definitely a cute baby.
She's too distracted by the baby (who is also looking back at Marin) to say more.

Harley glances at Rein, trying to see if he knows who this Juleka is or what the point of this question is.
"Um...I'm not a musician, so if I had to pick one, probably... something percussion? Like a, um, tambourine or an agogô or...um..." What are those things even called in this language? She has no idea. "Wait, I don't even know who this Juleka is, and I am definitely not her."

[Aleph Null]

Spoiler: Faceclaim

Show

[Teleport Pad]
A ripple in the fabric of space was the only precursor to the appearance of the strange being, a strange shimmering in the air accompanied by a the sound of a brief but rapid rushing, and it stepped into the room as though walking out of thin air. It was about six feet tall, seemingly formed of void and starlight, with violet robes that seemed to waver slightly in reality and wings of stardust and space sprouting from its back. Its eyes were simply glowing pips of violet light under the hood of the robes. As it stepped in, though it could have been touching the ground, it wasn't...or at least, its footsteps made no sound.
The glowing eyes scanned the room, as the strange being took note of the others there, and then a strange phenomenon occurred; it was a wave in space, as though something were being written into the fabric of reality -- the essence of thoughts, distilled into meaning, and projected into the space around the creature that they could be perceived as the semblance of words by those nearby.
// Greetings; my name is ♄☿♅♌︎♓︎; I recognize this is a tad difficult to pronounce, so you may call me Aen. I have come seeking membership in your research organization. //

[Morty]

[Teleport Pad]

"Those nearby" in this case includes a slim, blonde human woman wearing glasses. She's carrying a box of something, which she nearly drops when she perceives the newcomer's words.

"What- um. Oh. Yes, that's good to hear. Welcome to HALO," she says, trying to get a hold of herself. What should she say to a new candidate? She's never been the first one to meet someone here yet. "My name is Dorota, a member here. I'm not in charge here, but I can show you around and see if one of our leaders is available."

[Reinholdt]

[Angeline's Day Date]

Rein frowns a little. Guess he finally took Harley off guard. Well, some role reversal every once in a while never hurt. Or well, it actually did hurt. A lot. That was kind of the point.

"In many ways Liquid Agony was... safer than the alternatives I was used to." Rein says. He has pics to prove it too. "The pain from a chemical concoction is just as real as the pain from anything else. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by substitute for the real thing."

He's almost finished, but hasn't once mentioned the box. He may never mention the box at this rate. Still, he works the tail end of her tail. "Let me know if I missed a spot." There was a lot more Harley than usual. "Or if you've had enough."

[Crossing By]

Reinholdt shrugs at Harley's attempt to get information from him through a glance. Should he introduce Harley or something?
"I can confirm this is not Juleka." Or at least that Harley says she's not Juleka. She may still be Juleka, but playing it off like she wasn't. Rein's not sure what to expect at this point.

Rein nods to Marin who apparently countered the trap. "I'll have to take a look and run some diagnostics. Probably take them offline until we can prove there's no more traps." Unless that's what the saboteur wants them to do. But then, why didn't they just take the teleporters down to begin with?

[Aleph Null]

[Teleport Pad]

Aen made a gesture that somewhat resembled a nod.
// Yes, that would be wonderful, // came the unnerving voice in words printed on the fabric of reality. He (he? The voice was masculine, but it was hard to tell if this creature even had a gender) approached, leaving odd shimmers in his wake, and waited for Dorota to lead the way.

[Morty]

[Teleport Pad]

Dorota leads Aen deeper into the base. She's clearly nervous and out of her element, but she seems to soldier on bravely.

"I'm actually somewhat new here myself. Others have been here far longer. HALO is a very old place, but the current leadership decided to take it in a direction of research. What exactly is your speciality? I'm an alchemist, so I mostly work in the laboratories."

[Recaiden]

"If not Juleka, where is she? And who-" Honeysuckle starts to ask, wagging a finger at Harley.
Oh wait, it's all obvious! She lifts her other hand up towards her visor, and her tails (the foxgirl has three, that's one more than last time she was here in HALO) curl down nervously.
"Would you have any connection to an immortal shadow-monster who tried to take over the world?" She asks carefully. Her speculations depend on anything Juleka said having been true, which is really quite a lot to ask. But if they are true, it's clear who the second fake Magtok was and how they planned to take the real Magtok's place! Which further explains why the teleporter trapped Marin in particular. It's all coming together.

[Aleph Null]

[Teleport Pad]

The being followed, floating along just above the floor.

// My specialty? I am a magic-user, mostly. I lean towards magic related to the stars and cosmos...I also study the inner workings of different worlds. //

Different worlds...implying this being was definitely a planar traveler of sorts as well.

[Morty]

[Teleport Pad]

"The Nexus is a good place to study those," Dorota agrees. "All the worlds come together here. I'll let the leaders know you're here."

The alchemist puts down the box and sends a quick message to Felandria and Reinholdt:

A new member has arrived. I'm showing them around but they'll need to meet with you.

"As an alchemist, my areas of research are a bit more down to earth. Though I have been researching deities in my own time. Not that defining 'deity' is an easy job."

[5a Violista]

[Angeline's Day Date]

Harley considers just letting that part of the conversation drop, but after a little thought she says (so that he doesn't misunderstand), "I mean, I'm not referring to pain, but...how lots of chemicals just reproduce an experience." Whatever. It's hard to explain, anyway.

"Well." She look at the box again. "You missed explaining what that was for," she says. That counts as missing a spot, she thinks.


[Crossing By]

Marin, as someone who is not a HALO member, is completely lost about this conversation. She just happened to be here today. So, beyond saying "I could answer any questions about what happened when you get there," she doesn't interject. She doesn't know Juleka, and she doesn't know who these other two people (and the cute baby) are. So, all she could do to contribute to the conversation is slowing it down.


Harley shifts the baby to her other arm.
"I..." She...Other people probably already have questions about why a Harley now is claiming this baby is her daughter while last month a different woman was claiming that, and months before that a different woman was pregnant with the baby; so, everything is already tangled up and at this point the best she can hope for is that just nobody cares enough about it all to not question it. But now she's getting confused for someone else and it seems denying it won't actually prove anything, especially after all the rest of this. . ."I'm Harley, and..."

And why would this three-tailed foxgirl even ask about this? How would she even know? she wonders. "N-not this world," she says. "And, well, first of all, that's unproven propaganda, and second of all, so what? Why would that have anything to do with what happened today?"

[Reinholdt]

[Angeline's Day Date]

"Ah. Well... yeah, I guess so." Reinholdt considers for a moment before asking. "Do you have experience then with chemicals?" If they're going to be sharing embarrassing stories as a way to connect, Rein might as well investigate the topic on hand.

Reinholdt leans back up to rub her shoulders, giving them extra attention while he leans in to whisper. "Oh, is it not obvious? It's for YOU silly." Rein thought the ribbon gave it away.

After all the build up, it's the most basic of Angeline Day traditions. A gift!

[Crossing By]

Of course Honeysuckle has more tails now too. Rein can't ask about them because it went so poorly when he asked Kitsuki about hers. Hardly the time admittedly.

"Sure. Thanks. One sec," Reinholdt says with a smile and a nod at Marin. Can't leave Harley by herself in the middle of an interrogation!

Rein steps a little, not quite in between Honeysuckle and Harley, but to one side. "Look, we've never met a Juleka." Was the immortal shadow-monster that thing in the walls Harley mentioned earlier? Or was this another superpower team-up contract deal? And if so, just how many were there? Rein thought he asked all the questions he needed to, but apparently he wasn't asking the right ones.

[Teleport Pad]

A reply!

Take your time. I'll be in the office when you're done.

[Recaiden]

Rein just needs to bring it up obliquely, without seeming like he's asking about the tails.
Honeysuckle turns to be facing between Reinholdt and Harley, not directly towards either of them.
"Okay, okay. Today, Fel's message about a fake Magtok. Actual transporter sabotage. At least one Magtok arrived."
"Why? A plot to replace the real Magtok with the second fake Magtok."
She lifts up more fingers, counting off elements of the scheme.
"Juleka. Shapeshifter. Tried to sneak in as a HALO member, don't know why. Disappeared during the meme-plague. Seems just like you, Harley."
"Might also be tied in with some members who haven't been seen recently."

"So, two questions. You know anyone who started multiple wars and became a knight? Do you feel that you have real feelings?"
"And how do we know you're really Reinholdt? Sorry, third question."
That's pretty much the whole situation, though.

[Aleph Null]

[Teleport Pad]
// It seems to be different in every world, and actually that definition is one of a world's key parameters, akin to its laws of physics or magic, // Aen mused. // The easiest definition is that of a being that gains its powers from, and is subject to the rules of, divinity. Of course, the concept of divinity is defined differently in every world, and it need not exist for a world to be well-defined...so this definition is itself only a standard that is held to by some worlds. //
Then he stopped for a moment, adding, // Please stop me if I go too far off on a tangent. I tend to lose myself in the immersion of massive amounts of information, as it were. //

[Morty]

[Teleport Pad ==> Tour]

Dorota shakes her head as she leads Aen to the library first.

"Oh, I am the last person to begrudge anyone for that. At any rate, yes, if there's one thing I have learned is that there's no definition of what a deity even is. I've spoken to several here, including one of our leaders... though she's only a half-deity. I have no evidence that the deities I was raised to worship ever existed. At this point I doubt it."

[Zefir]

[Outside Simulation Room]

When Reinholdt takes his head the small stuff animal lizard freezes again, not so bad, but it's still not warm enougth.

"If you excuse me now. I need to find a sunny spot or a heating lamp for the next hour."

He then hops of and sarts walking away. Well might need a few minutes befor he is around a corner.

[5a Violista]

[Angeline's Day Date]

"Um. Well..." At this point, Harley probably should just be completely frank about it, right? Even though the reason for it is completely dumb and not at all interesting or relatable. "Well, yes, I have. I wanted to find out what chemicals were dangerous for me, and which ones were situationally useful, and safe and lethal doses, and so on...and I've always learned best through experience, so...yes, I've taken all sorts of poisons and hormones and venoms and medicines." And other things, too. But, honestly, "...just so you know, alcohol's probably the worst one for me, half because of what it does and how quickly it works, but mostly because of how common it is." Ever been at a party where everyone else is drinking and you know you shouldn't but you're afraid everyone will call you out on it if you don't drink it, but if you drink more than just a little, your shapeshifting will go out of control and it will ruin everything you've been carefully planning for the past several years? Harley has, not that long ago.

Anyway,
back to her shoulders.
"Oh. Oh! It's a gift." She looks at it again. "I was thinking it was part of the massage, so I was trying to figure out how it fit in."

"..."
"I didn't get you one in return," she then admits.


[Crossing By]

Figuring all this stuff out is important, especially if there's an infiltrator or something around, and it ties into the teleporter sabotage. Marin doesn't mind waiting to sort this all out.

Meanwhile, to ask about the tails, you could just say something like 'hey, you look different, new haircut?' and hope they didn't actually get a new haircut.


"There was a simulation that went out-of-control," Harley says, informing Honeysuckle (and Marin) what had happened. "I had thought the simulation had gained sentience or something and was trying to escape, but whatever happened was all dealt with." Probably. The simulation broke and got hard-reset. Harley, who has been largely keeping to herself, doesn't particularly know all the people around; but, most importantly, during the meme-plague she was doing things in Inside the whole time.

"So," answering the two three questions, Harley says, "Not in that order, but yes I became a knight when I was a teenager, and, sure, I did kind-of start some wars but lots of people have, and, again, that was before I came to the Nexus." And, yet more unproven -- well, not just unproven but actually false this time -- propaganda that most likely came from her homeworld (how many times has she heard that same line?): "and of course I have feelings. And he is definitely real." Harley brushes her hair back, and is actually a little uncomfortable imagining that there might be another shapeshifter around here imitating her. She already has enough problems with her own past catching up to her, that she doesn't need someone else adding on to that.

[Reinholdt]

[Angeline's Day Date]

"Wouldn't experimenting to find a lethal dose only succeed once?" Reinholdt asks. This seems to be a common theme. Harley keeps using her body as a testing ground. Reinholdt can't deny it... is a little off-putting. Finding someone physically attractive is harder when they keep putting mega viruses, poisons, and mutagens in their foot. Fortunately he doesn't have to say it out loud as she has plenty of other topics to focus in on. "Really? You can't handle alcohol? That's strange. You're tempting me though. I kinda wanna see drunk Harley..." Rein teases a little.

Rein shrugs and pulls off Harley, giving her room to get at the box if she so wishes. "That's ok. I didn't exactly tell you it was a thing. I don't see many people celebrate Angeline's Day. I do it because I was... am? friends with the goddess its named after. Haven't seen her in awhile though."

[Crossing By]

"When Felandria made that call, she was confused by the simulation of Magtok in the program that was running. There never was a fake Magtok. And even if there was, no one would ever know." Because Rein programmed him perfectly darn it! Right down to that easily caressable chin ugly face!

This other shapeshifter is concerning however. Alright. Well, Rein's going have to actually do something about it huh? Not instantly of course. Acting rashly helps no one. But it does mean he's going to have to perform measures to check for shapeshifting Julekas.

Reinholdt points at himself. "Who? ME? I'm never myself, even when at my finest, but I try anyways to pretend to be the best me you can think of. Go on. Ask any question only pretend best me would know. That'll prove I'm the real fake."