[Nexus] DART Headquarters

[TechnoScrabble]

DART HQ

Jackalopr pivots misstep to make his way to the boss's office, swallowing nervously.

"Right-o! Thanks for the head's up, Kyle!"

[Fenric]

[DART Skyside: Agent 10's Office]

Jack comes to the door: the name-plate has the simple label "10"

Inside, a human male in his later 50's is sitting at a desk. He looks up at Jack as he enters, utterly unphased by the jackalope's appearance.

Ah... Agent sixty-nine. Amusing circumstance, is it not? Did you enjoy your evening with our customers?

He waves any potential answer off

The deal was already sealed, and celebrations were in order. What matter who you took them with? We have a new issue brewing, and you have already been put forward as one who could handle it. HE would like to speak with you.

The way he said the pronoun was chilling... terrible, even. Given the theme, given the numbers, there could only be one person that meant...

[TechnoScrabble]

agent 10's office

Jackalope pauses for a moment, not entirely sure what all is going on.

"The way you say 'he'...Would I be wrong to hope you mean Kung Fu Jesus or someone like that? I mean, you said it awfully ominously..."

[Fenric]

[DART Skyside: Agent 10's Office]

Agent 10 shakes his head

I'm sorry, Jack: you have to meet Agent One. We'll most likely never see you again here at Derrek Avery's: You will either join the inner circle, or... you'll be killed by your target. We'll send a card to Miss Cartwright for you, if you want.

[TechnoScrabble]

Agent 10's Office

"I'll deliver it myself," Jackalope says with a smirk, "After I do...whatever it is Agent 1 needs me to do."

[Fenric]

[DART Skyside: Agent 10's Office]

Agent 10 nods

Whatever you want, Jack. There's a shuttle leaving for Inside in 10 minutes. You're headed to Davison Accounting, Reporting, and Testing: that's our front down there, and the main office. Your liason is Agent 44 who will escort you to your next stage.

He stands and extends his hand

You haven't been with us long, but you've been better than most people I've worked with for years. It's been an honor, sir, and I wish you the best of luck.

Liberte, Fraternatie, Egalatie, ou La Morte!

[TechnoScrabble]

Agent 10's Office

Jackalopr accepts the hand with slight hesitance, repeating the strangenmotto and thinking about how he hasn't even been a member for a full twenty four hours yet and doesn't even actually know this man.

"I'll be on my best behavior. "

[Fenric]

[DART Skyside -> Shuttle]

Agent ten nods and smiles. Immediately afterwards, an assistant opens the door

The shuttle is arriving, sir.

Agent ten nods again

Off you go, Jack. Good luck!

The assistant looks expectantly for Jack to follow down to the shuttle.

[TechnoScrabble]

>>>Shuttle

Jackalope nods and makes his way out, following the assistant and making serious reflection back on his life.

He'd probably learn a thing or two if by 'making serious reflection' I didn't mean 'thinking about making love in sports cars'.

[Fenric]

[Shuttle -> Mountains]

The shuttle leaves the Skyside platform and starts to head away from Inside, north and out into the mountains. But it abruptly turns back and speeds up rapidly

Urgent message from Inside: agents in need of assistance. We have a priority one chaos anomaly to contain and transport to base.

---

[LATER....]

The shuttle containing Jack and Fortuna pulls up into the roundabout in front of the Davison Accounting, Reporting, and Testing building. The description is on the first page.

A man in a lab coat is waiting in front of the double doors with a cheerful smile.

[TechnoScrabble]

Davison Labs

Jackalope holds the door for the quad-copter and waves to the lab technician in his usual way. (Read: Oh god why I am suddenly attracted to someone with antlers and floppy ears)

"Well, here we are! You want me to head in with you?"

[Rebonack]

[Davison Labs]

vvvvrrrrrrr...

"That's up to you," comes Fortuna's voice from the quad copter. "We're probably just going to talk about a bunch of really dry physics stuff that won't be very interesting."

And since the drone can't wave as it lacks the capacity to do so, it just approaches the fellow at the door.

"Hello there, Fortuna speaking. Thanks for inviting me to your lab. Please understand that I couldn't attend in person."

[Fenric]

[Davison Labs]

The man nods, but looks uncomfortable

I'm going to need to get you to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement and given that you are here remotely, I will also need a binding Memorandum of Understanding that you won't record any images, audio, or video of the lab or the property... we do not usually allow cameras or recording devices to be brought in by visitors.

[TechnoScrabble]

Davison Labs

Jackalope shrugs.

"I'm not too big on all that high techy stuff, really. If you don't need ms, I'll find my way out."

He gets about halfway there before turning back around, a stupid grin on his face.

"Then again, last time I was in a lab, I got superpowers, so hey, why not?"

[Rebonack]

[Dart HQ]

Fortuna knows what that first thing is.

She has no idea what that second thing is.

"Oh, well, alright?" she replies a little cautiously. Probably has something to do with not leaking R&D secrets. And/or preventing her from exposing their eeeeevil.

[Fenric]

[Davison Labs]

The man looks apologetic

I'm sorry... I'm rather used to visits by corporate executives who are impatient, incurious, and already familiar with these things. Please allow me to start over:

My name is Steve Johnson, I'm the Lab Manager for the research group here at Davison.

Before we can let you into the lab, I need you to sign a contract promising that you will not share the information you learn here with anyone else without permission from us, because we consider it either trade secret or intellectual property. Some things here are patented, some are intended to be patented, some thing here belong to other people and are used under licenses that don't allow us to share them.

Because you are visiting us remotely and using a camera, I need you to promise that you won't record the video feed. And I need you to promise it in a legally binding document that we can use in court if you decide to record the video anyway. Normally, a laboratory like ours does not allow cameras inside at all - otherwise people are likely to steal trade secrets, customer data or information, or security information like the location and type of door controls, security cameras, motion detectors, glass break sensors, and so on. It's a precaution both for our financial security and for the safety of our employees.

[Rebonack]

[Davison Labs]

"Oh! Well, that sounds pretty reasonable," Fortuna replies brightly. "You have to understand, the only reason I sent the copter instead of coming myself is because one of the agents who invited me here shot at me. I decided to do some digging and found some worrying rumors. I'm not sure what if anything is true, but it left me feeling really uneasy coming here in person to a location that's ostensibly under their control. But in case this is all just a big misunderstanding, I still wanted to come and help them better understand both how magic works in my home universe and how the Nexus' interesting translational properties function."

She's still curious.

And she still wants to help people to learn.

"So I'll be happy to sign those documents if you like. And... for what it's worth I have an eidetic memory. I can recall in perfect detail everything that I'm focusing on or paying attention to. Obviously that would be covered under the non-disclosure agreement since I can't exactly share my memories with someone, barring the use of equipment of a third party."

Fortuna knows about the memory orbs and memory extraction spells the Ministry of Morale used to employ, but she doesn't exactly have access to any of their technology.

[Fenric]

[Davison Labs]

Steve smiles, and doesn't address the agents at all...

That's right: your brain is covered by the NDA. So, let's get this formality out of the way and then we can move on to more interesting things!

And so, the SPOOOKY RECEPTION DESK is visited.

Er...

well...

Ok, it's really the "bog-standard, light honey colored maple reception desk with a chipper young intern from some local college or other". Steve smiles

Ana, I need a standard lab NDA and a no-record MOU.

Sure, Mr. Johnson!

And she swiftly plucks two forms out of two stacks of such forms and puts them on the counter, along with a pen.

[TechnoScrabble]

Davison Labs

Jackalope leans on the desk and makes the usual small talk with Ana, waiting patiently for lab access. Typical chat, y'know, like 'Hey', 'how are you', 'what's it like working into the labs', and 'wanna mack in the closet while they're busy'. Nothing out of the ordinary.

[Rebonack]

[Davison Labs]

"Umm..." the drone drones.

It seems there's a problem.

The drone lacks any method of manipulating a pen.

"Could I copy these documents, fill them out, and then send them back to you electronically? I'm sorry that this is all really inconvenient, but I really don't want to be bumbling into a trap."

Because traps are terrible.

[Fenric]

[Davison Labs]

Ana giggles and simpers at Jack

Steve ignores them both

Um... I guess that would be ok...

Then he looks concerned (and a trifle hurt)

Do you know the name of the person that you met in the park who worried you quite so badly? It really isn't normal for visitors to be quite so apprehensive about visiting us. We don't do weapons research, the only magic allowed at all is under very strictly controlled circumstances, and we aren't a pharmaceutical company. We are regulated by several different government agencies and are routinely audited.
Because truly, if one of our employees shot at you then we need to fire them immediately and turn them over to the proper authorities.

[TechnoScrabble]

Davison Labs

"That's what I said!" Jackalope testifies to the idea of turning in Fortuna's assailant before turning back to the intern, "Seriously though, I'm good looking, you're good looking, they're obviously gonna be awhile before I get to play with anything shiny, I'm sure you get bored sitting behind this desk all day..."

[Rebonack]

[Davison Labs]

"He only refereed to himself as Agent 24," Fortuna admits. She provides the best description of him that she can, but given that her race has very different things they focus on in facial recognition...

Anywho!

The signed documents should be faxed back shortly.

[Fenric]

[Davison]

Ana giggles

It does get pretty boring, yes. But I can't very well leave reception empty!

Steve frowns

That doesn't sound like anyone I know. Suits would imply the accounting guys, though... but they're all tweaked to begin with, and I could certainly see one of the bean-counters cracking and going vigilante. Well, I'm terribly sorry: you aren't going to hear us referring to each other as "agents", and nobody is armed except the uniformed security guards

An example of which waves boredly: balding, overweight, navy pants, blue shirt, shiny badge, belt with too many things on it... hard to miss.

If you'll follow me, I've set up a lab with our current prototype Portable Impossibility Excluder. They are intended for law enforcement, private security, and small zone protection. Magical attacks are a significant problem here in the Nexus, particularly against security personnel, and the hope is that these will help both with employee safety and overall success rates.

because really, a bunch of dead guards is just adding insult to injury.

[Rebonack]

[Davison Labs]

"If someone had stolen of your PIE units and was using it out in the field without authorization, would you have some way of tracking that? Or at least tracing when the unit was taken?" Fortuna inquires. "They had one such device that they used to neutralize the ongoing chaos magic effects that I was testing. It was really rather disruptive and completely ruined my data. I had to start the whole experiment over again."

And no one likes having to start he whole experiment over again.

Collecting data can be boring enough all on its own, let alone being forced to do it twice.

[TechnoScrabble]

Davison Labs

If Ana looks over to her left, she'll find another Jackalope leaning on the opposite edge of the desk, idly inspecting his finger nails.

"Who said anything had to be empty?" he asks with a smile.

[Fenric]

[Davison Labs]

Steve leads the Fortuna-drone down to nicely appointed lab: several computer terminals, devices and scanners of several types, a few boxes of not-immediately-obvious purpose, and resting on a table is one of the PIE units next to a Star Trek style phaser pistol.

No... I didn't put tracking in them... I probably should have. This is my newest prototype: it rejects seven more varieties of impossible effects than the previous model. This is the first one to exclude "science fiction" style weapons that can't possibly exist, particularly directed energy types that have effects that can't possibly happen.

That pistol, for instance, is just shy of a magic wand: it can instantly incapacitate a human, kill them without leaving a mark, or dissolve them to a plasma. But it has a tiny power cell and somehow the effects it causes magically know to only interact with the intended target: most settings won't impact clothing or equipment, but no setting will damage the floor or other surroundings.

Meanwhile, the giggling Ana gets up to follow Jack wherever he might lead.

[TechnoScrabble]

Davison Labs

Jackalope looks for the nearest empty room that isn't too dirty or cluttered, already calling up ghost hands to massage Ana. Meanwhile, the other Jackalope fiddles with a pair of pencils at Ana's desk, trying in vain to juggle a quarter between them.

[Rebonack]

[Dart Labs]

"Oh! I recognize that, it's a Star Trek phaser," Fortuna announces excitedly. "I've been watching Star Trek on NexFlix recently, it's really fascinating. It's... umm... for purely research reasons, of course. Into human culture and mythology."

Of course, Fortuna.

That's the only reason why you've been watching it.

It has nothing to do with the program being entertaining.

"I was really curious about their technology, though. It seems awfully outlandish when you really analyze the range of effects a phaser or something like a tri-corder can produce. We had stunning weapons back home, but they were mostly variants on electrolasers. And of course the laser portion of the weapon could cause some pretty serious burns. Just typically not lethal ones."

This is all very fascinating!

"Barring a system that enforces a particular set of physics I'm not sure how well a device like the PIE will work against equestrian magic. It's a coherent part of the set of physical laws that govern our universe and so it really isn't impossible. I do know of spells that can inhibit magic use, but that's more of a targeted paralysis of the corresponding organs."

[Fenric]

[Davison Labs]

Interns... go figure.

Steve nods

It is quite the unlikely technology. And that has been the case so far: if something ends up following the rules of a physical system (and not just wishful thinking, mind), then the PIE doesn't usually have any effect at all. But the further off something is, the easier it is to disrupt. For example, one very important device I just rendered inoperable yesterday is this little gem.

He holds up a smallish cylindrical device, which when activated emits a quite annoying high pitched modulated buzzing

This little gem can do just short of anything you might want, has numerous break-in and infiltration uses, and might as well be a wand of infinite limited wishes for all the reality there is in it.

He turns it off and shakes his head

"Sonic Screwdriver", indeed. But as far as enforcing any particular set of physical laws? The point of the device is to make crime more difficult, not hurting people whose metabolism depends on non-standard physical laws. Trying to enforce something like that is not safe and potentially lethal.