HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

[Reinholdt]

[Shark to Meet You]

"We-well, yes. Most expansionist groups are dangerous. This one just seems particularly effective at it." Maria says, shuffling her feet a little as Anika accuses her of knowing things. Maria's trying not to be too biased! "Though I fail to see any sort of personal or pragmatic benefit to saving Ilpholin from anything." Maria's a little biased.

The librarian does blink at Anika though and shakes her head after a moment. "I can't speak for the rest of HALO, but there has been no mention in any books I've read on the subject of a successful reversal. Granted I'm not exactly the most well versed on the subject- I didn't exactly dive deep. But there were at least several mentions of failed attempts. Essentially, if there is a cure, I have yet to hear of it."

[Shadowcaller]

[Shark to Meet You]

"So you're saying we need to look harder?" Anika strokes her chin and nods thoughtfully. "Well, nothing worth doing is ever easy. Just need to figure some stuff out. It's possible that her family could help out, or I could talk to my sister..."

She pauses and looks up at Maria again. "So any other book-y type other than you I could talk to you about this?"

[Ironsmith]

Skybase

Henry leans in curiously.
"Hm. Those are pretty cool. I don't think my work will involve sending secret messages much but I'm sure this will be cool for the field agents." Do they have those?
"You said you can work with ectoplasm? Do you have any sort of sensors for it?"

[Skybase]

"Well, not it specifically." Vlad begins, before grabbing a set of traffic cones out of the door. "But these contain sensors that are designed to pick up electromagnetic activity of all kinds. That's not especially helpful in a world where ghosts aren't actually a thing, but I've been able to adapt them since coming here. Made for a fun weekend project." He gives one of the cones a brisk smack and holds his hand under the base as a little black ball comes rolling out. "You gonna need a few of these? I can get you a dozen or so right away, and more with a little notice."

[Mee]

[Shuttle -> Entrance Hall]

A purple haired vampire sat alone in a shuttle, steadily descending down deeper, deeper into the water. She tapped her foot quietly against the metal floor, anxious but not strictly nervous. She was here on a job. She has a mission. And she was curious how long it would be before someone intercepted her.

Which she did know, at least, should be fairly hard. As it is nearly impossible to detect she even exists in that shuttle. Video camera? Would pass right over her and not see her.
Life sign detection? Nothin' there boss.
Magic? Nothin'.

Well.
Mostly.
The camera would see nothing of Naku.
The life detection would see nothing of Naku.
The magic detection would see nothing of Naku.

But all of them would see the bright, pink, faintly glowing wrist band her goddess had given her before sending her on this mission. Deliberately so the cameras *could* detect her. So the scanners *could* find her.
So she *couldn't* just slip in in the shadow of the night, and be gone with none the wiser.

Ah well, Naku sighed to herself.

A few more minutes, and the shuttle landed. The airlocks hiss, the pressure equalizes, and she slips out of the shuttle, just as stealthily as she had been *in* the shuttle, save for that glowing wristband, practically shouting her arrival to the heavens.
Silly thing.

Oh well, she thinks to herself, it will at least be interesting to see who finds her first.

[Keeper]

Skybase

"Oh! My nose kind of does that, apparently? I've been told it's a shark thing. But when I'm not in water the range of it is pretty much point blank so I'd be happy to have something that doesn't have that limitation. So yeah, how does that work?" He isn't sure how the little ball would tell him about electro-stuff.

Entrance Hall

The temperature of the hall drops a few degrees as someone comes 'round the corner. He's a large, fishy sort of fellow with spooky blue lights for eyes. As always, he's dressed in his swim trunks and carrying a towel as he makes his way back from the HALO pool. One might wonder how Henry keeps bumping into people on his way back from the pool, but Henry is a fish so he really just spends a lot of time at the pool.

"Oh, hiya. Welcome to Halo. Um, can I help you?" asks the ghost-shark. He doesn't seem phased at all.

[Mee]

Entrance Hall

The temperature of the hall drops a few degrees as someone comes 'round the corner. He's a large, fishy sort of fellow with spooky blue lights for eyes. As always, he's dressed in his swim trunks and carrying a towel as he makes his way back from the HALO pool. One might wonder how Henry keeps bumping into people on his way back from the pool, but Henry is a fish so he really just spends a lot of time at the pool.

"Oh, hiya. Welcome to Halo. Um, can I help you?" asks the ghost-shark. He doesn't seem phased at all.

Entrance Hall

Naku visibly tenses slightly at the approaching footsteps. Not because she felt there was any *danger* at all, but just . . . meeting new people isn't her forte. Which . . . admittedly may have been part of why Civvy sent her here.

"Hello." She replies, her voice low, nearing husky but not quite there. Her words are slow, thoughtful, and deliberately chosen. "I am here on a mission. I need to find-"

Now Naku. Civvy had said, less than an hour prior, Don't you dare go in there, get the thing, and leave. Get a tour. Go around. Talk to people. Meet some friends. she had instructed, to which Naku, of course, argued.
I have Uncia?
Yeah? And when I borrow them to go dress shopping?
I . . . have Uncia?
. . . mmm'kay that one's on me. But you need more friends okay? Please just . . . please?

Naku sighs quietly to herself. Not aimed at the friendly shark, but at what she's about to say.
"What I mean is.
May I be introduced to this place? I have heard much about it."

[Ironsmith]

[Skybase]

"As in, the specifics of the sensors?" Vlad shrugs. "Not entirely sure. Something about ferrofluid, I think? I'm hazy on the details." He chuckles. "Ask me about the one piece of equipment where I haven't read the manual, why don't you. Ooh!"

He pulls out a set of metal poles from the cabinet, setting them on the floor and screwing them together into a cube shape. "You're gonna love this one. Quantum sails. They're a product of an electromagnetic effect that allows matter to pass through in one direction but not the other. Breaks a lot of previously-considered hard-and-fast laws of thermodynamics. Do it right and you can set up a perpetual motion device. But, more importantly for you, it can be used to set up a simple but ridiculously effective trap. Imagine walking into a room unopposed and later realizing you just can't walk back out."

[Reinholdt]

[Shark to Meet You]

"Or that it is beyond our technomagical capabilities," Maria pessimistically points out. "If a solution existed in written form, it would probably be widespread and ubiquitous, not hidden in the depths of an unread journal. Unless the Phyrexians themselves came up with and subsequently buried such knowledge. It is much more likely you will have to create a cure from scratch."

She stares blankly at Anika for a time as the night elf asks for recommendations on other people. What other people were there even? Ummm... "Well... I suppose the natural metallic components lend themselves to Dorota Glińska's alchemy. Perhaps some level of transmutation would be required. Cessie Mithar would also be a natural choice for any magical and scholarly pursuits." There. Two out of the five people she knows.

[Shadowcaller]

[Shark to Meet You]

"Or that it is beyond our technomagical capabilities," Maria pessimistically points out. "If a solution existed in written form, it would probably be widespread and ubiquitous, not hidden in the depths of an unread journal. Unless the Phyrexians themselves came up with and subsequently buried such knowledge. It is much more likely you will have to create a cure from scratch."

She stares blankly at Anika for a time as the night elf asks for recommendations on other people. What other people were there even? Ummm... "Well... I suppose the natural metallic components lend themselves to Dorota Glińska's alchemy. Perhaps some level of transmutation would be required. Cessie Mithar would also be a natural choice for any magical and scholarly pursuits." There. Two out of the five people she knows.

[Shark to Meet You]

Anika blinks. "C-command? I thought you said you didn't know her. Well, she's in VIGIL so I can always ask her later. But do you know where this Dorota chick is then? Since I'd like to talk to her. I've had my fair share of potions so I know that alchemy can cure quite a few things."

[Reinholdt]

[Shark to Meet You]

Maria shifts in place, not used to lying so much. "Oh, ahh, ummm... I just... didn't know she was in charge of VIGIL is all." That much was true. Such organizational trifles are beneath the librarian. "I believe Dorota maintains a laboratory in Mallside with her wife."

"Though..." Maria considers for a moment, as if trying to decide if something really happened. "I thought I saw her in HALO's kitchen once. She may have been visiting, or I might have been suffering from hunger induced hallucinations. Sometimes I forget to eat." Most of the time really. She's not keeping that figure through exercise.

[Shadowcaller]

[Shark to Meet You]

Anika laughs at Maria's comment regarding seeing Dorota in the kitchen and lightly pats her shoulder. She was aware that some people didn't like being touched so this was more experimental.
"Yeah, people don't usually live in the kitchen my dude."

Wait, hadn't she just said something about not eating?

"-but, uh, you should probably eat more then. Maybe you should take lessons from me. My sister always found seeing me eating, 'fascinating'." She chuckles again. "She can be a bit of a bitch sometimes, but aren't all sisters bitches occasionally?"

[Reinholdt]

[Shark to Meet You]

Maria doesn't fall away under Anika's touch, though the librarian does visibly blush a little. "No one posited she was living there." People can be in a kitchen without living in it!

"More than occasionally. I will keep that advice in mind, should it prove to be practical. I don't understand how you could provide lessons, but I find the subject a secondary concern." The first being just about anything else. Mostly reading. Food for thought is greater than food for body.

[Shadowcaller]

[Shark to Meet You]

That makes Anika chuckle again, though she was suddenly less clear on if Maria was joking or not.
"Well, as my uncle always said, to eat words you gotta' eat food first. Otherwise your nogging can't process them y'know?" She gestures to her head. "I've read books only to suddenly realize I can't recall what was said on the last page at all. Like, uh, the words are leaking right out of my ear." To be fair, her ears are huge and perhaps that made them leakier too.

"I re-read the page and suddenly I can recall them. Like I'm stuffing them back in there. But when I'm hungry or tired it just keeps happening."

Yes, Anika actually read books. Without pictures.

"So before I go for a book I always make sure my belly's full first." She pats said ripped belly. "So I guess that's my 'lesson'? Since that's also what my mom always told me. The mind is as much a part of the body as everything else so you gotta keep it fueled."

[Reinholdt]

[Shark to Meet You]

Maria watches Anika gesticulate and as the elf pats her toned stomach, the bespectacled human's eyes linger there for much longer than they should. "Ahh, well, uhh, hmm... perhaps there is something to that then. I shall keep your... 'lesson' in mind." Reluctantly, Maria tears her eyes away to look back up at Anika's eyes.

"Regardless, I should proceed on researching what I can about Phyrexian society and processes. Sooner rather than later it seems." Maria inclines her head and starts heading back towards the library.

...
Oh wait, she came out here to go to the kitchen and eat something, didn't she? Ah well. She'll get back around to it.

[Shadowcaller]

[Shark to Meet You]

Anika's head tilt ever slightly to the side as she looks to Maria. Interesting.

So before Maria can leave, the druid positions herself in her way. "Oh, thanks. But not before you eat something lady. Don't want you passing out or anything. Don't suppose there's anything I can do to motivate you?" Her eyebrows raise, either innocently or suggestively. It's hard to tell.

[Reinholdt]

[Shark to Meet You]

"Ahh!" Maria didn't expect anyone to get in the way so physically and walks face first into a soft cautionary tale. She steps back, swallowing, blushing and apologizing, having gotten more than an eyeful. "Well, umm, I, sorry, wow, I didn't mean." Maria focuses really hard on looking up again, eyes slipping only a little. "M-must I? Motivation?" Maria's certainly gotten sidetracked! That's half-way to getting to the kitchen.

"Well... I-I can think of a few things I'd like to eat. In-In the kitchen that is! No one else- I mean where else! No where else. Yes." Maria turns to reorient herself, looking for the signs while she readjusts her glasses. Oh yeah. The kitchen's in the other direction isn't it? It is clearly labeled as such.

[Shadowcaller]

[Shark to Meet You]

Anika grins widely at Maria's reaction and can't help but to giggle a bit at her reaction.
"Okay, what about this, I'm pretty hungry too after all that swimming so why don't we eat some lunch together and then you can have me for desert?" She inquires as she has to readjust her bikini-top after Maria walked right into it. Wouldn't want to give her that much of a preview just yet.

"The more food you eat, the more me you eat. How does that sound?"

[Reinholdt]

[Shark to Meet You]

Maria can't help but pause and boggle at Anika. Was she... she was serious. The librarian has to seriously consider her options. On one hand, that would cut considerably into reading time. On the other she did truly need to eat something at this point. But books.

A glance down at a hint of what Anika's offering as she adjusts her bikini makes a compelling argument.

"... Yeah, yeah ok. I could go for a multiple course meal like that. And I'd love to share you- err, share lunch." Get all the eating out of the way for the week. Besides, if Maria tries to head back to the library now her mind's just going to be full of all kinds of distracting thoughts. Better to release the tension now.

"This way then," Maria gives Anika something of a tentative smile, the first Anika's probably seen from her. She'll motion with her hand and lead the way to where Halo keeps the food.

[Shadowcaller]

[Shark to Meet You]

Anika gives her two thumbs up and a broad smile in response.
"Great, it's a date then." And so she starts going in the direction Maria gestures at.
"So what's your favorite food? Since you should have plenty of that." She inquires as they're heading to the kitchen.

[Keeper]

Entrance Hall

Naku visibly tenses slightly at the approaching footsteps. Not because she felt there was any *danger* at all, but just . . . meeting new people isn't her forte. Which . . . admittedly may have been part of why Civvy sent her here.

"Hello." She replies, her voice low, nearing husky but not quite there. Her words are slow, thoughtful, and deliberately chosen. "I am here on a mission. I need to find-"

Now Naku. Civvy had said, less than an hour prior, Don't you dare go in there, get the thing, and leave. Get a tour. Go around. Talk to people. Meet some friends. she had instructed, to which Naku, of course, argued.
I have Uncia?
Yeah? And when I borrow them to go dress shopping?
I . . . have Uncia?
. . . mmm'kay that one's on me. But you need more friends okay? Please just . . . please?

Naku sighs quietly to herself. Not aimed at the friendly shark, but at what she's about to say.
"What I mean is.
May I be introduced to this place? I have heard much about it."

Entrance Hall

"Oh! Well, you're in the sea base for HALO, premier research organization in the Nexus. I'm Henry Vadnova, Halo's first and only paranormal investigator. Would you like me to give you a tour?" He looks down at himself.
"Um. I can go get changed if you'd rather I did? I don't know is giving a tour in swim trunks unprofessional?" He's pretty sure his old boss from when he worked retail would get mad at him if he showed up to work without a shirt but that place was a lot less casual and also he wasn't a fish at the time.

[Skybase]

"As in, the specifics of the sensors?" Vlad shrugs. "Not entirely sure. Something about ferrofluid, I think? I'm hazy on the details." He chuckles. "Ask me about the one piece of equipment where I haven't read the manual, why don't you. Ooh!"

He pulls out a set of metal poles from the cabinet, setting them on the floor and screwing them together into a cube shape. "You're gonna love this one. Quantum sails. They're a product of an electromagnetic effect that allows matter to pass through in one direction but not the other. Breaks a lot of previously-considered hard-and-fast laws of thermodynamics. Do it right and you can set up a perpetual motion device. But, more importantly for you, it can be used to set up a simple but ridiculously effective trap. Imagine walking into a room unopposed and later realizing you just can't walk back out."

Skybase

"Oh, I just meant how to use them." Surely Vlad knows that much at least. The sail he looks at with curiosity. He's definitely impressed.
"So it's like a one-way wall? That's pretty crazy. I wonder how that interacts with folks like me being able to pass through solid things? It would depend on if it acts like a wall or if the field it generates can block something insubstantial from getting through it.
Detective Michalson would be good with all this stuff. He's smarter than me." Though he doesn't know if Michalson is any more experienced with gadgets.

[Morty]

[Seminar Room]

"While I'm aware of all the rumors surrounding Magtok I don't think they necessarily prove anything. Though more to the point, how is this connected to Blanche exactly? Since while I know her mother and he has a relationship that doesn't exactly make them close and her biological father is... well, you saw his reaction." She gestures the way they came from.

Someone else might realize that her entire mission is based on decidedly shaky premises, but Calm Reed isn't very good at self-reflection. It's something she inspires in others, not the other way around.

"Her mother is married to him now. It may not make them close, but I felt I had to investigate nonetheless. Though having her two fathers, so to speak, in such conflict with one another... a complex situation."

[Mee]

Entrance Hall

"Oh! Well, you're in the sea base for HALO, premier research organization in the Nexus. I'm Henry Vadnova, Halo's first and only paranormal investigator. Would you like me to give you a tour?" He looks down at himself.
"Um. I can go get changed if you'd rather I did? I don't know is giving a tour in swim trunks unprofessional?" He's pretty sure his old boss from when he worked retail would get mad at him if he showed up to work without a shirt but that place was a lot less casual and also he wasn't a fish at the time.

Entrance Hall

"I . . . sea." Naku nods, her minor hesitation before her dry, flatly delivered pun barely there. As if she weighed, for a *brief moment*, a micromillimeter of hesitation, before cracking her mask just a tiny bit. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Henry. I am Naku. Champion and right hand of my Lady Civvy." she nods politely.

"But . . . certainly. Whatever may make you the most comfortable. It does not offend or bother me, but if you would to change, I would be delighted to wait."

[Reinholdt]

[Shark to Meet You]

"A-a date... how unexpected." Maria blushes again but seems to keep her composure at least. The librarian knew leaving the library for even a moment was dangerous, how did it end up this way?

"Oh I usually just acquire and eat a nutritional bar, usually of protein. Sometimes I have tofu with some prune juice for flavor if I'm feeling especially peckish," Maria explains how she goes absolutely wild and luxurious with her food. How embarrassing.

The kitchen is remarkably clean and the pantries are stocked to the brim with a large variety of foods for the diverse membership they have. Quite a lot of different dietary needs and Felandria requires quite a lot to keep so active and tall. So there's plenty to choose from.

[Keeper]

Entrance Hall

"Ch-champion? Oh okay. Um. Well if you come over here we have everyone's rooms. I'm not allowed to live here due to family curse but I can keep extra clothes for when I need them. Um. Just one moment."
Henry shows Naku down the hall to where the private quarters are. Which is not terribly exciting since he can't really show her the rooms. Henry disappears into his own (as he opens the door it's pretty clear he only uses it to store clothes, gear, and maybe shower as it's pretty bare). After a few minutes he reappears wearing a full black silk suit and a little bowler hat. The effect is either ruined or completed by the fact that Henry still adamantly refuses to wear shoes.
"Okay! Well, was there anything specific you wanted to see?"

[Mee]

Entrance Hall

"Ch-champion? Oh okay. Um. Well if you come over here we have everyone's rooms. I'm not allowed to live here due to family curse but I can keep extra clothes for when I need them. Um. Just one moment."
Henry shows Naku down the hall to where the private quarters are. Which is not terribly exciting since he can't really show her the rooms. Henry disappears into his own (as he opens the door it's pretty clear he only uses it to store clothes, gear, and maybe shower as it's pretty bare). After a few minutes he reappears wearing a full black silk suit and a little bowler hat. The effect is either ruined or completed by the fact that Henry still adamantly refuses to wear shoes.
"Okay! Well, was there anything specific you wanted to see?"

Entrance Hall

Naku, for her part, is mostly just wearing a t shirt, a full-arm, leather sleeve on her left arm that's tied . . . somewhere under her shirt, and some comfortable jeans.
Hardly the outfit of a champion, honestly.

"That- . . . actually sounds perfect. Thank you." Naku follows, on surprisingly silent feet. She just doesn't make *any* noise while she follows. It's possibly a little unnerving.

She offers a quick 'of course, I will wait' when he ducks into his own room, and takes those few moments to peek around. She refuses to pry into her host's room -- she would be invited in if he wanted to share --, but she was actually surprisingly close to where she had been sent here *to* go.

Civvy wouldn't mind if she just *happened* to find her way to where she was going, right?

So Henry would come out to surprise Naku slightly, who was further down the hall, tapping on an older, lightly dusty door. Clearly having not been used in . . .
Wait we're underwater how does dust *form* down here-

"Apologies. I . . . just a tour, please. It is my first time here."

[Shadowcaller]

[A Meeting of Minds]

Utayo's eyebrows quirk up at the suggestion, but she has no protest. "The energy is quite divorced from it's original source at this point." She explains, but even so she touches a point on her skirt. With a light tug she pulls a section of it away, and it immediately starts to fold before their eyes. In barely a moment it's shaped like a butterfly. She lets it go and it flutters in the air between them. "These are a variant I designed myself."

[Shark to Meet You]

"A-a date... how unexpected." Maria blushes again but seems to keep her composure at least. The librarian knew leaving the library for even a moment was dangerous, how did it end up this way?

"Oh I usually just acquire and eat a nutritional bar, usually of protein. Sometimes I have tofu with some prune juice for flavor if I'm feeling especially peckish," Maria explains how she goes absolutely wild and luxurious with her food. How embarrassing.

The kitchen is remarkably clean and the pantries are stocked to the brim with a large variety of foods for the diverse membership they have. Quite a lot of different dietary needs and Felandria requires quite a lot to keep so active and tall. So there's plenty to choose from.

[Seminar Room]

Someone else might realize that her entire mission is based on decidedly shaky premises, but Calm Reed isn't very good at self-reflection. It's something she inspires in others, not the other way around.

"Her mother is married to him now. It may not make them close, but I felt I had to investigate nonetheless. Though having her two fathers, so to speak, in such conflict with one another... a complex situation."

[A Meeting of Minds]

"How is it divorced from the source exactly?" Ambrosia inquires as she observes the butterfly. Would it come off as a spirit to her or something else?

[Shark to Meet You]

"A date? Sure. But you deserve way better food for that if it's gonna be a date with me." She stops to look around, Anika wouldn't call herself a chef but she had helped out a lot in kitchens and traveling the world kinda forced one to make food more than just occasionally.

"You just sit here and I'm gonna see what I can do. Probably something with chicken. Or boars. It's gonna be great, I promise." She gives Maria a gentle pat on the back before walking off towards the kitchen.

[Seminar Room]

"I see." Not even Calm Reed sounded particularly convinced of what she was saying yet she had come all this way? Something wasn't adding up.

"So how did you pick up on this trail exactly? Was it something Magtok or Blanche did? Or did you hear it from someone else? Since I did happen upon Magtok a while ago. He was observing a play I was performing for the book HALO recently released. I believe he and Rein was arguing, though I'm not sure about what."

[Murkus]

[Fourth Tower Compound]

"I would argue that being transformed unwillingly into a completely different being is quite malicious, even if the offending creature did not mean it so. I've known cases where those transformed did not survive such transformations - at least, not wholly as themselves, and if they did not perish outright from shock or lose their minds on the spot. Of course, it's hardly rare for the fey I'm familiar with to kill purely by accident."

Sticks doesn't really have all that much to add here beyond his own insights into solving the problem. "I had considered that, if the use of this 'cold iron' or 'neverath' proved unfeasible, I might attempt a binding of my own. While binding creatures of this kind is not strictly my forte, I possess several items and substances which are spiritually 'heavy'. They exist simultaneously on multiple overlapping bramfatura - that is, distinct metaphysical universes - and resonate heavily with the power I understand to be the immortal 'soul'. Such items are how I create my own craft... how I bind spirits, which are simply intelligences... beings... or blobs of energy that exist on a bramfatura of near but slightly differing alignment." He shrugs. "Perhaps these could capture this creature. Perhaps not. But I have to trust that the fears of my apprentice and lady Jaahlyn are valid, and I would like to seek out the best possible solution."

[Keeper]

Entrance Hall

Naku, for her part, is mostly just wearing a t shirt, a full-arm, leather sleeve on her left arm that's tied . . . somewhere under her shirt, and some comfortable jeans.
Hardly the outfit of a champion, honestly.

"That- . . . actually sounds perfect. Thank you." Naku follows, on surprisingly silent feet. She just doesn't make *any* noise while she follows. It's possibly a little unnerving.

She offers a quick 'of course, I will wait' when he ducks into his own room, and takes those few moments to peek around. She refuses to pry into her host's room -- she would be invited in if he wanted to share --, but she was actually surprisingly close to where she had been sent here *to* go.

Civvy wouldn't mind if she just *happened* to find her way to where she was going, right?

So Henry would come out to surprise Naku slightly, who was further down the hall, tapping on an older, lightly dusty door. Clearly having not been used in . . .
Wait we're underwater how does dust *form* down here-

"Apologies. I . . . just a tour, please. It is my first time here."

Entrance Hall

"Okay! Well, like I said, these are the private quarters. If we go down the hall here..."
Henry leads her back in the direction he came from, towards the pool.
"This is the pool. It's pretty big, as you can see. And I think it's filtered with magic because if it was chlorine it would make my gills feel weird. I guess once I get ghost-proof swim trunks I can just pass through the floor and swim in the ocean but I don't think the pressure would be good for me..." Henry does not know if ghosts have to worry about water pressure.

[Reinholdt]

[Shark to Meet You]

"It was your i- nevermind." Maria must have confused herself. "I've found the food nutritionally sufficient. I fail to see what counts as better than that." Maybe nutritionally rich? That might count.

Maria frowns with concern but takes her seat, carefully maneuvering her robes. "Are... are boars still eaten?" She knows many primitive civilizations hunted them to survive, but surely they've advanced passed the need to do any such hunting. Well nervousness aside, if Anika's gonna to be working on the meal, then Maria can resume reading and that does seem like a win. Maybe Maria should hire someone to get her food all the time. If only they had some kind of food delivery service down here.

Back to the books!

[Ironsmith]

Skybase

"Oh, I just meant how to use them." Surely Vlad knows that much at least. The sail he looks at with curiosity. He's definitely impressed.
"So it's like a one-way wall? That's pretty crazy. I wonder how that interacts with folks like me being able to pass through solid things? It would depend on if it acts like a wall or if the field it generates can block something insubstantial from getting through it.
Detective Michalson would be good with all this stuff. He's smarter than me." Though he doesn't know if Michalson is any more experienced with gadgets.

[Skybase]

"That's not as well-understood as it could be." Vlad admits, stepping to the other side of the pole structure. "It definitely prevents some insubstantial things from getting through; light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation, heat, sound, all that jazz. I can't see you from this side of the wall. But, at the same time, so does regular matter, to varying degrees, and the entire nature of the problem is that regular matter doesn't stop ghosts. The quantum sail achieves this through the repulsive forces of electromagnetism, but again, so does regular matter. Perhaps the monopolar nature of the 'sail' will have an effect regular matter doesn't, but I haven't actually had the opportunity to test that."