HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Herein lies the various threads in which our characters live out their lives
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Arkhosia »

[Morbid Adventures in Occult Science]

Dulcinea can't quite disguise a flash of tired annoyance at the news that they'll have to walk, though she does giggle with Zhareen at the mental image. It would be quite a sight. "Yes, we live in Northside - though the park itself is in Eastside, just over the border. That won't be a problem, will it?" She tilts her head inquisitively.
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

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[Morbid Adventures in Occult Science]

"Oh, Eastside shouldn't be a problem." Zhareen remarks with a nod. "We'd have to take the-" A beat. "Wait, how did you get here anyway, miss Dulcie?"
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

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Reinholdt wrote: May 29, 2023 5:08 am [Library]

Reinholdt didn't have any trouble staring at Seraphina. Maybe Maria has a type. Or she just finds people awkward to begin with.

"Oh?" Maria wasn't aware this wasn't a library visit. She looks up again and... Seraphina's right! Reinholdt is here. She completely missed that. For a second she's distracted by Seraphina's mention of Maria's book though and Maria glances back at it. "It's less about dragons and more about the impact of any fanatical worship of a single entity and how that affects technological development. Kobolds just frequently make dragons a source of their reverence, thus providing an excellent basis for study. The title is a tad misleading though."

Maria closes the book and pays some closer attention to Seraphina now. "Which party is injured?"
[Library]

In all honesty, it's entirely likely that the reason Maria stared at Seraphina is because the main character in a supernatural teenage romance novel somewhere in the Nexus is directly based off of an alternate-universe version of Seraphina and Maria's library-senses tingled, so she immediately was able to sense that fact.

Seraphina nods as she listens to the description of the book. "I find it annoying when the title suggests one thing but the book says another," she says sympathetically.

More importantly, the actual reason why they came here! "It's me, actually," she says. "Several days back, my leg got hit by some kind of magic, and there's still some obvious magic left there." But except for, like, a physical description of the magic, Seraphina is a little hopeless at describing it.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Zefir »

[Fairy Tales]

"Well then, It would be nice if you can keep us up to date in that matter." He says as he wants to leave. Since he didn't come from the door he won't exit that way. Instead he pulls out a human sized grappling gun (So several times his size). Shoots it at the roof, which flies futher then anyone expects the roof to be and then get's dragged up by the winding grappling gun to disapear in the darkness of the roof.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Arkhosia »

Shadowcaller wrote: May 29, 2023 3:08 pm [Morbid Adventures in Occult Science]

"Oh, Eastside shouldn't be a problem." Zhareen remarks with a nod. "We'd have to take the-" A beat. "Wait, how did you get here anyway, miss Dulcie?"
[Morbid Adventures in Occult Science]

Dulcinea blinks. "Why, the Riftline of course! It's not that long a trip in the grand scheme of things." She shrugs. "I could have asked my father to drive me if we're being honest, but it probably would have taken just as long." And besides, having one of her parents here would have totally cramped her style.
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
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SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Shadowcaller »

[Morbid Adventures in Occult Science]

"Oh, I figured your family might have taken you here." As Dulcinea suggested. "But ah, I just need to tell the students that I will be gone for a bit and we'll be off."
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Reinholdt »

[Library]

Maria shifts her book aside to expose another book and shifts that aside to expose another book and then shifts that aside to find her personal notebook buried underneath. She flips it open to a fresh page and starts writing down notes.

"How many days ago? What kind of magic was it? Who cast it? Why did they cast it? Please expose the area in question. Would you describe the injury as an accident or intentional? Was there a ray like-effect, a blast, or did the injury spontaneously appear? How has it affected your limb movement? Does it hurt now and how badly on a scale of 'annoying' to 'oh god oh god make it stop'? Do you feel drained and fatigued? Are there other symptoms you've been experiencing? Do-"

Reinholdt clears his throat and makes Maria pause to look at him with irritation. "Perhaps we should move this to somewhere more private first?" Maria's face shifts from irritation to blank confusion. She doesn't seem opposed to the idea, she just has zero idea as to why it would be necessary. "To protect the privacy of the patient?" A library is public by nature.

Maria's blank expression doesn't change.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Thursday Violist »

Reinholdt wrote: May 31, 2023 5:18 am [Library]

Maria shifts her book aside to expose another book and shifts that aside to expose another book and then shifts that aside to find her personal notebook buried underneath. She flips it open to a fresh page and starts writing down notes.

"How many days ago? What kind of magic was it? Who cast it? Why did they cast it? Please expose the area in question. Would you describe the injury as an accident or intentional? Was there a ray like-effect, a blast, or did the injury spontaneously appear? How has it affected your limb movement? Does it hurt now and how badly on a scale of 'annoying' to 'oh god oh god make it stop'? Do you feel drained and fatigued? Are there other symptoms you've been experiencing? Do-"

Reinholdt clears his throat and makes Maria pause to look at him with irritation. "Perhaps we should move this to somewhere more private first?" Maria's face shifts from irritation to blank confusion. She doesn't seem opposed to the idea, she just has zero idea as to why it would be necessary. "To protect the privacy of the patient?" A library is public by nature.

Maria's blank expression doesn't change.
[Library]

As Maria asks the questions, Seraphina answers them, and watches Maria's hands and the notebook.
Also, she swallows because her mouth feels watery and she feels somewhat hungry. The glass of water earlier must've been enough to make her mouth start salivating again and her brain to stop screaming how thirsty she is.
"It was a couple weeks ago," she answers.
"Not really sure what kind of magic..."
"It was cast by some...magic user? Wearing a cloak?"

The why is a lot easier, though, since it's actually something she knows. "I stumbled across a fight with a bunch of people using magic on each other."
Obviously, she doesn't expose her leg, and looks uncomfortable.
"So, magic was intentional, but I think I was the wrong target?" she answers. Then, she describes, "There was this slow-moving light, stung a lot but just looked like a rash at first."
"It doesn't really affect me. Just...feels on par with a sprained ankle. I have been feeling exhausted and drained in the evenings and nights, but that could've just been the other injuries..." Like, the blood loss. Blood loss makes her feel drained, too.
...
...
She glances at Reinholdt in thanks.
"Yes, um, a private area would be nice. I can show you what it looks like somewhere else," she says. "And on the way there, I can answer more questions."

Such as, what it looks like now since it just looked like a rash immediately after receiving it. "Now, it looks purple and bubbly. Not, like, blisters, but more like a bubbly liquid?" Kind-of like grape juice after you shake it up, but she doesn't mention that out of not wanting to ruin grape juice for anyone imagining it. "Sorry, I don't know more details, I actually know basically nothing about magic except 'it exists and is sometimes cool'." If she did know more, she would probably be able to recognize that it was actually a curse designed to drain magic power and energy and not just a regular magic attack spell, for example. Or that it's supposed to give that power to the caster through a direct link but the link is no longer there, owing to the caster being dead and all. Or other things like that.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Reinholdt »

[Library]

Things are scribbled down in Maria's notebook. Things like:
-Not intended recipient
-Aggressive magic used in brawl
-Lingering effects
-Symptoms varied
-Getting substantially worse, not better

Maria hesitates for a moment, trying to figure out where would be private. "Well I suppose we could requisition a private reading room. They can be locked from the inside." Maria turns to walk towards the side rear of the library to find one currently unused to take.

Reinholdt will follow, but when they get to the room, he'll just lean against the wall next to the door rather than go inside. "I'll chase anyone off." They won't be bugged with Rein nearby shooing away overly curious HALO members. They're a naturally inquisitive bunch.

Maria doesn't seem to care either way, just continuing her thoughts. "Well if it were a normal spell evoking the elements or spirits to inflict bodily harm, it would be getting better, not worse. It isn't ritual magic or it'd be more subtle. You're likely dealing with something that intended to cause a disease, a curse to take hold, or maybe some kind of poison. Though the last seems unlikely given the time frame."

The librarian considers other questions to ask while Seraphina gets around to showing her the afflicted area. "What, to the best of your knowledge, is your current species? Do you have any known allergies? Have you had adverse reactions to magical treatments in the past?"
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Ironsmith »

Earl of Purple wrote: May 22, 2023 2:03 pm Outside, Near The Shuttles

Well, the good news is, if he decides to machine replacement parts, the wheel assembly is designed so all four are identical. And the issue with Bentley's jammed wheel is Earl's own lack of engineering knowledge; I have no idea how such a device might break to produce the results I'd previously stated (in this case, the wheel locking into one position) and had to make something up.

In brighter news, Bentley reports that the airdusting has cleaned his solar panels up to a 85% efficiency, which is low but within the operator's manual for acceptable. And his electronic nature and human construction means Vlad can probably figure out a lot of what's going on. Bentley was designed to be quite easy to maintain- as the modular nature of his wheel assemblies attest- but also designed for rider comfort, and the combination means the wheel assemblies themselves are quite robust; many parts are worn, especially the breaks and tyres, but Bentley was built to last, of high-end parts. There's some more unusual flaws as a result of his long-term reliance on parts that should have been replaced, but he's in surprisingly good condition. His tyres are worn, but the airless technology used to produce them has prevented Bentley developing flats.

Also, whilst he's under Bentley, if Olga can pick up radar, Vlad might pick up Bentley's parking radar. The car is aware he's not got any other choice, but wants to keep an eye on Vlad anyway.
[Outside, Near The Shuttles]

Olga can, of course, pick up radar. Despite its bulk, it was designed for stealth missions (well, surprise attacks, same difference); not being able to tell when it was being monitored from afar, as well as from what and in which direction, would be a fatal design flaw. Even more so if it couldn't pick up a radar that is, at most, three feet away at any given time.

"Well. Good news. You're metric, so it looks like I've got the parts for you after all." Vlad rumbles as he removes the wheel assemblies. "Or at least close enough. I'm not going to be able to fix you entirely today, but the wheels can make it up to my workshop easily enough."
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Thursday Violist »

[Library]

Seraphina follows Maria to a private reading room.
"Okay, thanks," she tells Reinholdt.

She glances at Maria. Then looks away.
Seraphina takes advantage of the cloak she's carrying, and manages to only show the injury. It's about a third the length of her thigh, purple, wet, liquid, foamy, and bubbly. Someone with the ability to see magic would, of course, see the magic is drawing something out...and then it's not really going anywhere. Just sitting there, stagnant. Someone who can't see magic or tell what's going on just by looking will, of course, probably have to do a bit more deduction and other things.

She sits.

Since Seraphina read what was written on the notebook, and since Maria mentioned it, Seraphina feels like she has to add, "It got worse at first, but eventually it just stabilized and stayed the same." She trusts that Maria is knowledgeable enough that her deductions are true.

Seraphina then answers the new questions.
"I'm..."
She stops, and thinks. She looks down, then to the right, then down again. Maybe it's because she's been jokingly telling people for the last year that she's a sixty-fourth catgirl, a thirty-second mermaid, a two-hundred-fifty-sixth elf, a forty-eighth cow goddess, and a few other things that she's forgotten? That would explain the pause. But, no, she hasn't forgotten: "Human, Homo Sapiens. No, no allergies, as far as I'm aware. Never really gotten any magical treatments, either, so I'm not aware of any that I've been negatively affected by." She considered throwing in a joke there, too, but figured right now wouldn't be the most appropriate time for it, especially since right now in this private reading room she's having difficulty mustering enough confidence to make a joke so obvious it won't get taken as serious. Give her a few moments, she'll be able to do it.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Earl of Purple »

Outside, Near the Shuttles

Olga can find a pretty large blindspot in the parking radar, or rather several. Bentley's got one on each end, but they don't cover his sides or underneath. They can swivel a little, but not much.

"Thankyou. I... don't have much to repay you with, I'm afraid. But I have memorised the route to a service station from the same Earth I came from; there might be some useable technology to salvage there. It has an inductive charging station that's still hooked up to working power, though I'm not sure if it's solar or wind. It helped keep my batteries full, given my electrical issues. There were a few other vehicles there, but nothing by my manufacturer, nor any self-driving models." Dumb cars were a lot cheaper than smart ones, and many households had some kind of robot that was able to drive. Self-driving cars like Bentley were status symbols for many reasons.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Reinholdt »

[Library]

Maria can't help but wince at the wound, but her pen flies across the paper making a rather impressive sketch of the afflicted area. She was actually very good at sketching, having practiced it a great deal for her educational expeditions into the wilds.

"Oh. Why didn't you mention it was an extraction spell?" Maria asks as if this was the most common injury in the world. To be fair, every mage hunter and professional magical duelist should know some variation of this spell. It's unfortunate Seraphina is presumably neither of those things.

"Though I guess I hadn't seen one advance this far without release before. I wonder what went wrong." Maria ponders for a moment before shrugging and continuing. "I'm sure we'll figure it out when we figure out what was being extracted. Life, blood, magic, soul... etc. Probably not bones. What did the person who cast this upon you do or say exactly?" Surely they would have mentioned if they wanted the soul of the person they were fighting.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Ironsmith »

[Outside, Near the Shuttles]

"Repay me?" Vlad's skepticism is audible. "You don't need to do that. Coming out here to fix you doesn't cost me anything but my time. And we're meant to do pro bono crap like this anyway." He shrugs. "That said? We'll have a look at that service station anyway. No good reason to not, yeah?"
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Thursday Violist »

[Library]

People who are good at sketching are pretty impressive.

"..." Seraphina is somewhat at a loss of words, figuring that Maria's question about it being obviously an extraction spell to be more of a statement to not worry: she knows with absolute certainty what it is and what to do, just put in a slightly humorous way. But Seraphina doesn't know how to respond to that, is she supposed to laugh? But it was more of a statement than anything else, so...oh, wait, she thought of something.
"Oh, of course, an extraction spell. I should've known. I guess there was just too much going on." She facepalms herself as if to punish herself for overlooking something so obvious, playing along with what she presumes Maria's intent is.

"I like my bones, so I'm glad they're not being extracted," she comments.

Unfortunately, it's been a while. And Seraphina wasn't focusing on trying to memorize exactly what the people casting magic were saying. So she does her best to remember what was said: "Oh, um. They were saying things like 'Die!' and 'You'll pay for that!' and 'I'll kill you' and 'Give back...' something-or-other, and 'What did you do to...' somebody, or things like that," she explains.

Seraphina closes her eyes and leans her head against the wall. She tries to focus on...something. Not on how thirsty she still is. "I...dunno. Sorry. Once I saw I might get caught in the crossfire, I didn't feel like sticking around to find out what was going on or who was doing what, or to find out what kind of magic they were trying to use on each other. But it seems like some of their magic was designed to seriously hurt each other, and some of it seemed more like...well, it was like they wanted to kill some and incapacitate others and they were pretty indiscriminate about who survived and who was just down and unable to fight back."
...
She adds, "Obviously the spell that hit me wasn't one of the most dangerous ones, since I'm not dead and I still have my leg."
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Earl of Purple »

Outside, Near the Shuttles

"And you think your time is not valuable? Because it is. And this is a service I couldn't get anywhere else, nor provide myself. I was not provided with any self-maintenance ability, beyond my diagnostics program. Nor do I have the limbs required to carry out any maintenance if I had the knowledge of what to do. Besides, it's not just time, but you are expending effort, energy and resources in machining new parts, aren't you?" Bentley doesn't know about the hotbox, but even if he did that would require specifications that Vlad doesn't have to replace the worn-out parts.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Ironsmith »

[Outside, Near the Shuttles]

"Fair enough." Vlad replies, kneeling in the suit and making a few adjustments to Bentley's chassis. "Counterpoint; we're the good guys. A little charity helps the world go around and all of that. There's not really anything in particular you could give me that I would want, but this is something to bear in mind the next time you encounter someone you can help."
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Reinholdt »

[Library]

Maria adds another thing to the list.
-Lethal intent without lethal results.
Faulty/experimental spell?
Incorrect spell components?
Poor pronunciation?
Recipient specific?
Broken concentration?

"Well at least we know what we're working with to an extent. I may have to modify the usual reversal spells though, seeing as how this injury seems incomplete. I shall go collect the necessary books." Without really waiting to see if Seraphina has any questions (she probably has several), Maria turns to walk out and go peruse the library.

At the very least, Maria doesn't need a card catalogue to find what she's looking for, already certain of each book's placement. But it may take some time anyways. She didn't seem to be in a rush.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Earl of Purple »

Outside, Near the Shuttles

"The only thing I can really offer is transport. And I don't have hands, so I can't even help load anything into my storage compartments. I'd offer it to you, but you've got some kind of armoured suit there, and there's the shuttles as well. Those might primarily be just between your base and the beach, but there's a train station not too far. Walking distance, I'd say, not that I can walk. I did not think you would have need transport, except to particularly isolated areas, and... I am still rather new to this Nexus. I don't know where to find everything yet." Although if Vlad did want to visit Vigil in Bentley to scare Eun he'd be willing to oblige, provided she didn't panic too much.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Ironsmith »

Earl of Purple wrote: Jun 09, 2023 12:31 pm Outside, Near the Shuttles

"The only thing I can really offer is transport. And I don't have hands, so I can't even help load anything into my storage compartments. I'd offer it to you, but you've got some kind of armoured suit there, and there's the shuttles as well. Those might primarily be just between your base and the beach, but there's a train station not too far. Walking distance, I'd say, not that I can walk. I did not think you would have need transport, except to particularly isolated areas, and... I am still rather new to this Nexus. I don't know where to find everything yet." Although if Vlad did want to visit Vigil in Bentley to scare Eun he'd be willing to oblige, provided she didn't panic too much.
[Outside, Near the Shuttles]

"That's not the point." Vlad explains, kneeling down next to Bentley so as to "look" him in whatever passes for an eye. "Maybe there's not a lot you can offer. But transport is still something and there are people around, both here and elsewhere in the Nexus, who could use it. Not to put too fine a point on it, but those people are every bit as lost without transportation as you were without a mechanic. A stranger came to help you... why not be that stranger for them, too?"
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Earl of Purple »

Outside, Near the Shuttles

If Vlad's shut the clamshell doors, there's a small sensor suite in the top of the door frame, though that's not exactly cameras- there's a scanner to examine police badges to assess their authenticity, and a retina scanner to compare the police officer with the biometric data inside their badge. If the doors are open, there's a fisheye camera in the central column providing rigidity and charging ports for personal electronics, as well as housing a large part of Bentley's brain. Otherwise, there's cameras in the ends near the parking radar, which are a lot more sophisticated than the others since Bentley is a car and needs to be able to see the road more than anything else.

"That... is a good point. The area the service station is in, known as Apocalypse Junction, I don't believe there are many working trains there. I did see rails, so there might be, but... One railway bridge went over the motorway, and had partly collapsed. I crossed another at a level crossing, and the rails were rusty and there was a broken-down tractor on the tracks." Which doesn't mean there's not a perfectly preserved and still working railway somewhere in the Junction, just that Bentley didn't see any. And it's likely to be some flavour of dangerous anyway.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Thursday Violist »

Reinholdt wrote: Jun 09, 2023 5:41 am [Library]

Maria adds another thing to the list.
-Lethal intent without lethal results.
Faulty/experimental spell?
Incorrect spell components?
Poor pronunciation?
Recipient specific?
Broken concentration?

"Well at least we know what we're working with to an extent. I may have to modify the usual reversal spells though, seeing as how this injury seems incomplete. I shall go collect the necessary books." Without really waiting to see if Seraphina has any questions (she probably has several), Maria turns to walk out and go peruse the library.

At the very least, Maria doesn't need a card catalogue to find what she's looking for, already certain of each book's placement. But it may take some time anyways. She didn't seem to be in a rush.
[Library]

Seraphina nods.
And, once Maria leaves, she exhales, and then swallows.
Instead of getting up and stepping out of the private room, she remains seated, and breathes slowly with her eyes closed. Geez, Maria just seems too good. Too delicious. She puts her head down on a table, trying to cool it, and swallows.

She runs her tongue across her teeth...oh.
Oh.
Seraphina sits up, opens her eyes, and feels at her ears..."No...this is a day too early," she says to convince herself of something. She thinks back, trying to see if she can figure out how long ago this happened. Was it when they came into the library? Back in the infirmary? No, it's got to be longer; someone might've commented on it. Probably. So, was it just before coming down into HALO? Or was it earlier? At least two hours, she figures. Maybe several hours, at worst. Assuming worst-case scenario...Seraphina figures she would need to leave HALO immediately. It's probably not the worst-case, though, right? She probably has enough time to at least get the magic injury treated, so long as it doesn't take too long, right?

Seraphina sighs.

She puts the cloak on, making sure to cover up with it - even putting the hood back on - and holding everything else close.

She steps out of the room, clears her throat, and looks around for both Reinholdt and if she can see which direction Maria went off to.
(assuming he's still there), Seraphina steps up to Reinholdt and tells him, "Um...hey. It seems she knows it's some kind of 'extraction spell' that went wrong, so she's going to look up how to alter the reversal procedure." She pulls the hood down tighter to cover up her face more. "Do you have any idea on about how long it would take? Like, minutes? hours? Or longer? I just remembered I had something planned and scheduled," claims the woman who just spent the last several months wandering around the wilderness trying to get from GLoG to HALO.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Reinholdt »

[Library]

Reinholdt is still there, debating whether he should check on Seraphina now that Maria's stepped out or continue to stay out here where he won't be embarrassing Seraphina by glimpsing skin.

The problem is solved for him!

"Oh that's good. Well not good. It's good she knows what it is. I wouldn't have guessed that." If he had guessed it, they wouldn't have needed Maria in the first place! Rein stares at Seraphina for a moment, noting she was hiding her face again. He's already seen it. Was she really this shy? Well... that would explain why she hadn't been to a doctor until practically forced to. Heck, if she leaves now she may never get treated!

So it's his job to convince her to stay and get the help she clearly needs. "Well... maybe an hour. Maria knows a lot, she should get you taken care of quickly." Reinholdt lies. He has zero idea how long it will take. Some rituals take days, months, years! Though those usually revolve around the stars aligning and are world shattering. A basic ritual like this shouldn't take longer than a day Rein imagines.

"An extraction spell is dangerous to leave alone and you've already been practically hospitalized upon arrival. I would just recommend canceling your plans for today and get the treatment out of the way now. Do you need a phone?" Rein has phones. He'd be happy to help Seraphina cancel her plans.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Ironsmith »

Earl of Purple wrote: Jun 14, 2023 11:33 am Outside, Near the Shuttles

If Vlad's shut the clamshell doors, there's a small sensor suite in the top of the door frame, though that's not exactly cameras- there's a scanner to examine police badges to assess their authenticity, and a retina scanner to compare the police officer with the biometric data inside their badge. If the doors are open, there's a fisheye camera in the central column providing rigidity and charging ports for personal electronics, as well as housing a large part of Bentley's brain. Otherwise, there's cameras in the ends near the parking radar, which are a lot more sophisticated than the others since Bentley is a car and needs to be able to see the road more than anything else.

"That... is a good point. The area the service station is in, known as Apocalypse Junction, I don't believe there are many working trains there. I did see rails, so there might be, but... One railway bridge went over the motorway, and had partly collapsed. I crossed another at a level crossing, and the rails were rusty and there was a broken-down tractor on the tracks." Which doesn't mean there's not a perfectly preserved and still working railway somewhere in the Junction, just that Bentley didn't see any. And it's likely to be some flavour of dangerous anyway.
[Outside, Near the Shuttles]

"Well, there you go." Vlad smiles, offering the car a reassuring pat before realizing it's probably having the opposite of the intended effect, as even small impacts tend to be things a car would likely rather avoid. "I'll get your wheels fixed up by the end of the night. Think you can hold out until then?"
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Earl of Purple »

Outside, Near the Shuttles

Fortunately, Bentley is bulletproof- a light pat isn't going to do much except possibly damage the solar panels, and Vlad should be smart enough not to do that. And besides, he's a car- a sense of touch, whilst possible, was regarded as too much work for too little benefit. "Of course. Mister Brown had a garage where I spent the nights and weekends, if he didn't have golf or anything. I've tuned in to a radio station." Though he's not playing it aloud, he's still able to listen to it- the radio equipment is plugged into his brain so he can listen to traffic reports without disturbing any passengers using his entertainment suite.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Ironsmith »

[Outside, Near The Shuttles]

"Good man." Vlad nods, kneeling and lifting Bentley off the ground to relocate him to a small garage up a little farther from the shuttles. "You should be comf... safe here until tonight. Until then, Bentley."
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Earl of Purple »

Outside, Near the Shuttles --> Garage

"Thankyou. Rest well yourself." Bentley knows humans sleep, Mr. Brown occasionally napped on his seats, but doesn't understand it too much. Bentley would prefer to be left outside so he's not as reliant upon his batteries, but this is a repair shop and being indoors is also quite pleasant. He'll examine the garage whilst Vlad's away, as much as he can anyway given he's currently immobile, but otherwise it's now just a waiting game.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Thursday Violist »

Reinholdt wrote: Jun 16, 2023 4:35 am [Library]

Reinholdt is still there, debating whether he should check on Seraphina now that Maria's stepped out or continue to stay out here where he won't be embarrassing Seraphina by glimpsing skin.

The problem is solved for him!

"Oh that's good. Well not good. It's good she knows what it is. I wouldn't have guessed that." If he had guessed it, they wouldn't have needed Maria in the first place! Rein stares at Seraphina for a moment, noting she was hiding her face again. He's already seen it. Was she really this shy? Well... that would explain why she hadn't been to a doctor until practically forced to. Heck, if she leaves now she may never get treated!

So it's his job to convince her to stay and get the help she clearly needs. "Well... maybe an hour. Maria knows a lot, she should get you taken care of quickly." Reinholdt lies. He has zero idea how long it will take. Some rituals take days, months, years! Though those usually revolve around the stars aligning and are world shattering. A basic ritual like this shouldn't take longer than a day Rein imagines.

"An extraction spell is dangerous to leave alone and you've already been practically hospitalized upon arrival. I would just recommend canceling your plans for today and get the treatment out of the way now. Do you need a phone?" Rein has phones. He'd be happy to help Seraphina cancel her plans.
[Library]

Seraphina, solving problems left and right without realizing it.
"I wouldn't have guessed it either, so I'm glad we spoke with her." Plus, Maria is pretty smart.

Speaking of solving problems, now she has her own problem to solve: how to gracefully decline assistance in cancelling the plans. Complicating factors include how she can't think of any decent excuse to not turn down the nonexistent plans. But she still needs to not cancel them, nonetheless.

"Oh. Um."
Seraphina covers her mouth with her hands and exhales slowly.
"If...if it only takes an hour, then there's no problem at all," she says. "No need to cancel anything just for that."

She leans against the wall.
And she considers probing into what Reinholdt has seen: he did see her face, of course, so by finding out what he had seen, she can narrow down whether she has to worry about worst-case scenario (she should leave within the hour before she loses control) or if all she has to worry about is some awkward questions about how her appearance has obviously changed. "Um....I...hey, I have a question..." Seraphina pauses, realizing that asking too hard would draw attention to it and possibly lead to even more awkward questions that she'd rather not answer. She needs to rethink what she was going to ask.

Seraphina reaches up into her hood and feels her ear. Actually, wait. She told Maria that she's human, right? And yet even her ears say otherwise. What if Maria mistakenly believes that's part of the side-effects of the spell, now?
Her mind races to come up with a solution to both these problems.

And she comes on to one. She looks over at Reinholdt to see if she can read how he reacts to what she says about maybe-not-being-human, to see if it's a surprise or not: "Um, so...I told Maria I was human, yeah? So...I mean, I've met people where 'human' means something completely different to them than to me, so I'm wondering if you think that would affect the solution."
She realizes that's probably too indirect.
Seraphina turns away: "And...actually, on that note, in your opinion would you say I'm human?" She turned away, of course, because she would rather know his opinion based on his memory, not based on seeing her right now. Of course she doesn't look human right now, she looks more like some kind of...white-haired blood elf or something.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Reinholdt »

[Library]

"Oh that's good. No problem's a good problem." Rein doesn't seem to understand that is in fact the absence of a problem!

Rein watches for a moment before leaning against the wall beside Seraphina. Probably not worth going in to sit down. Now just to come up with something to talk about... but Seraphina the problem solver comes up with a pretty good topic on her own.

Though her attempt to read his face while also turning away so he can't see hers may be incredibly difficult. If she's capable, Rein does seem to be considering the assertion about her being human in a way that suggests he hadn't considered it before.

"Uhh... well, I can't say I've met many humans who could instantly reverse life threatening injuries. Even less whose hair changes from red to white half way through a doctor's visit. Human wouldn't have been my first guess, but you're human enough that I doubt whatever countermeasures Maria comes up with will be affected." Seraphina seemed to respond to treatment and injuries just like any other person. Shouldn't need special treatment here. Rein guesses.

"Is it... a crime to not be human where you're from?" Reinholdt asks. Maybe that's why she's hiding her face all the time. But Reinholdt is clearly not human himself, too supernaturally good looking to be just a human. So she needn't hide her face from him. Unless she's afraid he'll turn her in for leniency himself.
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Re: HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

Post by Thursday Violist »

[Library]

Seraphina is, of course, a pro at looking at someone without looking at them.
...
Well, not really. That's impossible. But, at least, she can pretend to be a pro at it.

She opens her mouth.
However! She doesn't say anything, since she's too busy listening to him to speak. And! She gives up on just pretending to not look at him, and instead just pretends to pay attention and look at him, while her mind runs through a couple different scenarios and consequences. She hears him mention the hair color change. Her mind comes to the conclusion that...whew, worst-case scenario averted, she not only has an hour but several hours before anything bad is certain to happen.

She is visibly relieved and relaxed.

"Oh, um," Seraphina shakes her head to ground her thoughts again back to the conversation. And! It's something she's been wanting to get off her chest for a while. "Um. No, it's not. Um....rather, where I'm from, basically everybody is human. Not because everyone is, y'know, the same species and all, but instead because..." She pauses to collect her thoughts, as she remembers all the times she's had trouble explaining this before to others. "Well, if someone talks like a human and thinks like a human, then they're human. But here, I've found people usually get upset or confused when I called them human, or that they have weirdly specific definitions of 'human' that I can't make sense of..." Even supernaturally good-looking people count as human, in her opinion.
This is, of course, complicated by the fact that Seraphina currently looks more like some kind of vampire elf or something than a human.
Seraphina hopes she was able to explain that well enough. "...does that make sense?"

Well, anyway.
With the immediate tension of 'am I on a tight time limit?' gone, she slides down the wall and sits on the floor.
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