HALO 183: The Not Remotely Gritty Reboot

[5a Violista]

[Fel's Office]

The half-human sits, opposite of Felandria.

"I'm not completely sure," Holly says. "HALO does a lot of investigation and research now, right I am a Private Eye, and I've been doing a bunch of investigative work recently. I have a couple of pretty important - but lengthy - cases going on, so I'd be okay with whatever so long as it allows me to keep on doing my own thing and isn't too high-profile." That last part is especially important to her.

As an afterthought, she adds one more thing: "There's a bunch of scientific and medical equipment around, right? While I don't yet have the expertise to use them, I'd still like access to them because some of my work has led to a point where I can't progress without knowing what kind of chemicals I'm dealing with and their effects. I'd be okay with doing some menial assistance if necessary."

She stops rambling on.

[Inigo Montoya]

[ GUEST ROOM ]


Whoops.
The truth was, Hitomi had always had a child to take her place in the hellscape she'd inherited, to free herself from queendom of a circle of succubi and incubi, and Hitomi had left Isadora there, with her soft, good heart, and had gone off on her own.
For freedom.

But this was not something she could easily explain to Inigo, who had loved his daughter in the way a father should.
Purely. Sweetly. Strongly.
Hitomi had always suspected that if it had come down to a choice between Hitomi and Isadora, Inigo would not have hesitated to pick the young woman who'd inherited his dark hair and moral fortitude.

"She was, uh...not with me. But she is not where I left her, either."
Plainly.
But Hitomi grabs for Inigo's arms, holding him gently in place.

"Don't fret. She's an adult and I'm sure she's fine. I just... need her back."

[Guest Room]

His movement is stilled, if only because she holds him still. His mind is still racing ahead on several different tracks, which is why he doesn't catch the uncharacteristic hesitation in her voice. What he does catch though, is the fact that she was fine somewhere. So she either left willingly or...

"One question. How would we even know where to look for her? I don't know if any sort of magic would work, and it's...been so long since I've seen her I'm not sure I would know what she would enjoy."

He thought about what she did enjoy as a little girl. Breakfast with him was one of them, but he highly doubted she became a short order cook.

[Reinholdt]

Spoiler

Show

[Hallway]

Honeysuckle would shrug, to indicate how unimportant the plants are. Weirder things happen all the time, and Julie shouldn't be worried about her own plant-blood. This is another transparent attempt to trick them, and so the fluffy scientist just gives a slight shake of her head.

She just taps the bloodied syringe before taking her hands out of Jules's 'pockets' in shock.
"Ya just jabbed yourself with whatever needles were lying around the lab? That was a critical sample!"
Emphasis on 'was'. Now it's going to be hopelessly jumbled up with Julia's own blood. Or that of her jacket, or...

Suddenly the frustrating but crazy patient has ...scared Maria somehow? Honeysuckle jerks away and brings her hand back towards her goggles.
Is that a knife that Julius is holding? Where did she get that? Well obviously she stole it from the lab, she told them as much, but she wasn't holding it a moment ago...

"Or you'll what?"

[Hallway]

Wait! That's not how you're supposed to act. You're supposed to be scared, not confused. What's the point in making a threat if they don't get scared?

This is all so frustrating! Why isn't it working like she wants it to? At least Book-Girl is kind enough to play along. But Fluffy Scientist is just being frustrating and obstinate. "What am I?" Julia turns and looks right at Maria. Her voice rises into a yell. "I'm frustrated, that's what!"

She balls her right hand into a fist and punches the hallway wall. It hurts, sure, but that's not important now and besides, the adrenaline makes up for it. "This?" She waves her left hand - including the finger-knife - at Honeysuckle. "Or I'll...it's supposed to be a threat! Come on, you can't actually say anything, because then it's not scary! Everybody knows that! You need to leave the threats hanging!"

Juliette reaches into the pocket with all the sharps from the sharps bin, and violently throws them at the ground. (Hopefully nobody is barefoot...) "That's not how it was supposed to be! Couldn't you even just act scared, or whatever?" she asks the fluffy scientist, before pointing at Maria. "She knows what to do!"

She tries to calm down by running both hands through her hair - but the serrated finger-knife gets caught in it and she has to jerk it to get it out, tearing out a bunch of hair in the process. "And it's all that guy's fault for telling me I'm not immune! It makes me want to find him and tie him up and slice open his veins one by one and make everybody watch and then curl up in a ball and cry because that's not me!" Her adrenaline crashes, and her knees give out - quite possibly because of the blood loss finally catching up to her. "That's not me...that's not what I want...not me...I can't even think what I want to think," Julie says as she breaks down, sobbing. "Why does this always happen to me? I'm practically human, so why does that inhuman part matter so much?"

Exhausted (in every sense of the word), Juleka can't do much more beyond crying into her knees.

...
Then again, this could all be another ploy just to get them to lower their guard again. (It's not.)

[Hallway]

Maria follows a roller coaster of emotions. Primarily confusion, fear, and sympathy. This is quite the opposite of a nice day in the library. It was a mistake dropping by the kitchen for a snack. Despite everything the shapeshifter has put her through, Maria gets hardest by Julia's last line. A large amount of Maria's old life was fixated entirely on the most inhuman parts of his soul.

At the same time, Juliette's a shapeshifter with a knife for a finger. One with a rather descriptive desire to slice someone open. And let's not even explore what samples Julie might have been infected with from Honeysuckle's lab. Maria remains guarded as he stands back up, using the wall for support. "M-maybe if you go to sleep, we can get you the help you need." From appropriate medical staff! Regardless, Maria is putting a magical compulsion effect, casting the most basic of basic spells, sleep! It, uh, can put someone to sleep unless they resist. She's not the strongest spellcaster around, definitely much more focused on the elaborate divination rituals, but this is one of her few quick cast options. Maybe it works.

[The VAX Phone]

Two days later, Reinholdt is contacting Vax on her phone with the answer to her earlier proposal.

[Zefir]

Felandria watches the video and grimaces when the doors close repeatedly on poor Mr. C

I think you’re right.

We should talk to this man, at the very least he owes you an apology.

[Cam Room]

Mr. C looks confused at the giant.

"You are aware I really mean 'the door' and not the guy?" he says and immediatly holds his paws up to stop her from replying how dumb that sounds.
"I know...I know this sounds wierd, but just take a moment and listen. You are a giant half goddess? Not 100% sure here. And I am a living stuff animal toy. How unbelivable would be sapient door assassins. Especially since I got sapient furniture as my arch enemies."
Can't say much against that logic, right?

[Recaiden]

[Hallway]

Spoiler: Previously

Show

Wait! That's not how you're supposed to act. You're supposed to be scared, not confused. What's the point in making a threat if they don't get scared?

This is all so frustrating! Why isn't it working like she wants it to? At least Book-Girl is kind enough to play along. But Fluffy Scientist is just being frustrating and obstinate. "What am I?" Julia turns and looks right at Maria. Her voice rises into a yell. "I'm frustrated, that's what!"

She balls her right hand into a fist and punches the hallway wall. It hurts, sure, but that's not important now and besides, the adrenaline makes up for it. "This?" She waves her left hand - including the finger-knife - at Honeysuckle. "Or I'll...it's supposed to be a threat! Come on, you can't actually say anything, because then it's not scary! Everybody knows that! You need to leave the threats hanging!"

Juliette reaches into the pocket with all the sharps from the sharps bin, and violently throws them at the ground. (Hopefully nobody is barefoot...) "That's not how it was supposed to be! Couldn't you even just act scared, or whatever?" she asks the fluffy scientist, before pointing at Maria. "She knows what to do!"

She tries to calm down by running both hands through her hair - but the serrated finger-knife gets caught in it and she has to jerk it to get it out, tearing out a bunch of hair in the process. "And it's all that guy's fault for telling me I'm not immune! It makes me want to find him and tie him up and slice open his veins one by one and make everybody watch and then curl up in a ball and cry because that's not me!" Her adrenaline crashes, and her knees give out - quite possibly because of the blood loss finally catching up to her. "That's not me...that's not what I want...not me...I can't even think what I want to think," Julie says as she breaks down, sobbing. "Why does this always happen to me? I'm practically human, so why does that inhuman part matter so much?"

Exhausted (in every sense of the word), Juleka can't do much more beyond crying into her knees.

...
Then again, this could all be another ploy just to get them to lower their guard again. (It's not.)

Maria follows a roller coaster of emotions. Primarily confusion, fear, and sympathy. This is quite the opposite of a nice day in the library. It was a mistake dropping by the kitchen for a snack. Despite everything the shapeshifter has put her through, Maria gets hardest by Julia's last line. A large amount of Maria's old life was fixated entirely on the most inhuman parts of his soul.

At the same time, Juliette's a shapeshifter with a knife for a finger. One with a rather descriptive desire to slice someone open. And let's not even explore what samples Julie might have been infected with from Honeysuckle's lab. Maria remains guarded as he stands back up, using the wall for support. "M-maybe if you go to sleep, we can get you the help you need." From appropriate medical staff! Regardless, Maria is putting a magical compulsion effect, casting the most basic of basic spells, sleep! It, uh, can put someone to sleep unless they resist. She's not the strongest spellcaster around, definitely much more focused on the elaborate divination rituals, but this is one of her few quick cast options. Maybe it works.

It all makes a little more sense as Juliul waves her hand around. She's not holding a knife, her finger has turned into a knife. She's some sort of transforming creature. Maybe a time-travelling killer robot? Or... a plant-powered killer cyborg, anyway, since she said she was mostly human. Although that was probably just another lie.

"We're not going to act scared just because- this isn't some play or story where we gotta role to-eek!" Throwing a bunch of sharps on the ground where they could scatter everywhere and cut people is scary, and Honeysuckle jumps back down the hallway to keep away from Juleka.

And that thing about killing Nigel actually was scary, but mostly just sad, with Julia melting down the way she is.
"Why don't you just, yeah, listen to Maria. We'll get you to the nurse and get you a cure someday."
Even if this is all Julian's fault really. They warned her repeatedly about the plague, but she insisted on lying to them and then running into an infected area. Blaming Nigel is absurd.

[5a Violista]

[Hallway]

I mean, if we really want to play the blame game, we could just blame it all on Magtok, because the only reason Juliette came back to HALO was because he played along with the con she was doing on him and, in order to get rid of her, told her she needed to find a certain cat.
Actually, speaking of that, her actual leather jacket had something unique in its pockets. What happened to her real jacket? That's one of the greatest mysteries of our time. It probably won't have any future relevance, however.


Unfortunately,
Juleka's too exhausted to fight back against the sleep spell. She doesn't have the chance to leave with one last witty comment or lie at what they said to her.

Her sobbing soon stops as she falls asleep. Because of the spell cast on her, it also speeds up the plant-transforming process, causing even the blood in the pockets and on her wrists to change to flowers and grass and weeds.

Her body relaxes, and she slumps over, lying in the pool of her own bloo...plants.
.
And the lensless glasses are still on her face. They must be, like, connected to her, or something, like that knife. And the jacket.

[Gullara]

[The VAX Phone]

Two days later, Reinholdt is contacting Vax on her phone with the answer to her earlier proposal.

[The VAX Phone]

The phone is answered quite promptly. "Hello, you've reached Vax of the Fourth Tower." She answers smoothly.

[Reinholdt]

[Hallway]

Magtok is certainly always to blame, but so is Nigel. Constantly telling previously immune people they aren't immune has been disastrous!

Maria is dreadfully behind when it comes to information about the plague however. Right now, she's just kinda staring at Juliette for several moments before breathing again. "A-ah, it worked," Maria says, a little surprised. At least Julie looks peaceful among the plants.

He looks to Honeysuckle. "Sooo... uh, shall we place her in quarantine then?" Whatever Julie was infected with, she also jabbed herself with a bunch of potentially infectious needles of all sorts. Julia needs medical help, but she also needs to not get everyone else sick. What was the proper procedure here?

[The VAX Phone]

"Hello Vax. This is Reinholdt." Rein considers for a moment before adding to his statement. "Of HALO. How are you today?"

[Felandria]

[Cam Room]

Mr. C looks confused at the giant.

"You are aware I really mean 'the door' and not the guy?" he says and immediatly holds his paws up to stop her from replying how dumb that sounds.
"I know...I know this sounds wierd, but just take a moment and listen. You are a giant half goddess? Not 100% sure here. And I am a living stuff animal toy. How unbelivable would be sapient door assassins. Especially since I got sapient furniture as my arch enemies."
Can't say much against that logic, right?

Felandria looks at the footage some more, then at Mr. C.

An expression of dawning realization appears on her face.

Of course.

Don’t you see?

We could be dealing with a mimic.

Creatures that disguise themselves as objects to lure in innocent adventurers.

A mimic may have disguised itself as the door and attempted to snack on you.

Or you may be correct and maybe the doors did attack you and attempt to frame a poor, unsuspecting mimic.

Either way, this definitely requires further investigation.

What do you propose?

- - - Updated - - -

[Fel's Office]

The half-human sits, opposite of Felandria.

"I'm not completely sure," Holly says. "HALO does a lot of investigation and research now, right I am a Private Eye, and I've been doing a bunch of investigative work recently. I have a couple of pretty important - but lengthy - cases going on, so I'd be okay with whatever so long as it allows me to keep on doing my own thing and isn't too high-profile." That last part is especially important to her.

As an afterthought, she adds one more thing: "There's a bunch of scientific and medical equipment around, right? While I don't yet have the expertise to use them, I'd still like access to them because some of my work has led to a point where I can't progress without knowing what kind of chemicals I'm dealing with and their effects. I'd be okay with doing some menial assistance if necessary."

She stops rambling on.

Felandria grins widely.

Yes, that would be terrific, that’s exactly the kind of thing we need around here.

We very well may need someone with your investigation skills in the near future.

Of course we would allow you to continue with your existing cases, and may be able to assist you with those as well.

I see no reason why you can’t join out team.

Fel reaches under the desk and pulls out a HALO tote bag, with a welcome book, Felandria, Reinholdt and Nurse plushies, a HALO tee shirt and travel mug, and a gift card for The Olympian.

[Gullara]

[The VAX Phone]

"Just fine, thank you. I hope you're calling with good news." She replies.

[Zefir]

Felandria looks at the footage some more, then at Mr. C.

An expression of dawning realization appears on her face.

Of course.

Don’t you see?

We could be dealing with a mimic.

Creatures that disguise themselves as objects to lure in innocent adventurers.

A mimic may have disguised itself as the door and attempted to snack on you.

Or you may be correct and maybe the doors did attack you and attempt to frame a poor, unsuspecting mimic.

Either way, this definitely requires further investigation.

What do you propose?

- - - Updated - - -

[Cam Room]

"Well, the main Problem here is if the door is a mimic it can just open and flood the bay." Mr. C replies. "We would need to trap it OR use some magic to banish it. In any case we can't keep that thing down there. Maybe I was just a random victim. "

[5a Violista]

[Fel's Office]

The half-elf smiles and nods. "Good. Thanks."

She looks at the tote bag.
That's neat.
...
but, plushies? A T-shirt? A mug? She can't help but laugh at the sight of those. "What, do we have a gift shop somewhere?"
Knowing about the existence of gift shops is important. Then she'll know if just anybody can get these.

[Recaiden]

That seems like a stretch since he's only tangentially involved and didn't know any of this would happen.
But I'm sure Reinholdt would want us to blame Magtok, and he's basically in charge here. So let's go with it.
It's all Magtok's fault that Julie got infected.

I mean, if we really want to play the blame game, we could just blame it all on Magtok, because the only reason Juliette came back to HALO was because he played along with the con she was doing on him and, in order to get rid of her, told her she needed to find a certain cat.
Actually, speaking of that, her actual leather jacket had something unique in its pockets. What happened to her real jacket? That's one of the greatest mysteries of our time. It probably won't have any future relevance, however.

Unfortunately,
Juleka's too exhausted to fight back against the sleep spell. She doesn't have the chance to leave with one last witty comment or lie at what they said to her.

Her sobbing soon stops as she falls asleep. Because of the spell cast on her, it also speeds up the plant-transforming process, causing even the blood in the pockets and on her wrists to change to flowers and grass and weeds.

Her body relaxes, and she slumps over, lying in the pool of her own bloo...plants.
.
And the lensless glasses are still on her face. They must be, like, connected to her, or something, like that knife. And the jacket.

Magtok is certainly always to blame, but so is Nigel. Constantly telling previously immune people they aren't immune has been disastrous!

Maria is dreadfully behind when it comes to information about the plague however. Right now, she's just kinda staring at Juliette for several moments before breathing again. "A-ah, it worked," Maria says, a little surprised. At least Julie looks peaceful among the plants.

He looks to Honeysuckle. "Sooo... uh, shall we place her in quarantine then?" Whatever Julie was infected with, she also jabbed herself with a bunch of potentially infectious needles of all sorts. Julia needs medical help, but she also needs to not get everyone else sick. What was the proper procedure here?

"Uh, yeah. Good job."
Honeysuckle stands there for a moment, taking all of this in.

"To the infirmary first. She is cut up. Then an isolation room once she's stable."
Or have the plants topped the bleeding? Better have the nurse check her over either way.
"'ve got another couple patients where they can't hurt themselves or infect people."

Honeysuckle steps back into the lab to pull on a pair of gloves before even touching Juleka.
Now, you might think they should put Jule on a stretcher, or go fetch the medical staff and bring them here.
But no, HALO is too understaffed for any of that.
They'll just pick her up and carry/drag her to the infirmary. That should be fine, right?

Then zip back here to clean up all the broken sharpness before someone manages to come and trip over it.

[5a Violista]

[Hallway => Infirmary]

The unconscious Julie, being unconscious, is easily dragged to the infirmary.

As such, she's unable to react.

The pocket-wounds are, of course, not bleeding due to grasses and other plant roots and stems blocking it up.

[Reinholdt]

[Hallway -> Infirmary]

"How virulent is this contagion anyways?" Maria asks as she helps move Julie to the Infirmary. It probably wasn't airborne. Right? Still, Maria did get rather close in her attempt to bandage Julie earlier.

Should have just let the moss and daffodils do the job.

[The VAX Phone]

"Well I talked to Felandria and she agrees your proposal is a good idea and has accepted the offer. The Fourth Tower now has a full partnership with HALO." Hooray.

The champagne will no doubt be served at the employee party later.

[Gullara]

[The VAX Phone]

"Excellent news then. I'll start making arrangements on our end and send some of our people ahead to start working out the logistics." Vax replies. Said logistics will likely be boring and off screen. "Is there anything else we should know before proceeding?"

[Mee]

Hangar

Catie looks at Mechanic, not quite believing her.
”Why? Are you sure?
Well, still. I’m here to help you as always, Miss.”

She nods a few times.
"I do believe so. It is HALO after all! Some oddities are bound to happen." Mechanic nods a few times, scratching at the base of one of her large, white-tufted ears with a fairly clean wrench. "Assuming you're . . . feeling okay? Are you feeling okay?"

[Felandria]

[Cam Room]

"Well, the main Problem here is if the door is a mimic it can just open and flood the bay." Mr. C replies. "We would need to trap it OR use some magic to banish it. In any case we can't keep that thing down there. Maybe I was just a random victim. "

You are absolutely right, we must go down there and take care of this.

Do you need any supplies or equipment before we set out?

- - - Updated - - -

[Fel's Office]

The half-elf smiles and nods. "Good. Thanks."

She looks at the tote bag.
That's neat.
...
but, plushies? A T-shirt? A mug? She can't help but laugh at the sight of those. "What, do we have a gift shop somewhere?"
Knowing about the existence of gift shops is important. Then she'll know if just anybody can get these.

Well.....

Yes, we do have a gift shop.

And yes, we do sell plushies there.

However!

The plushies we give to members are very different.

Each one has a microchip inside, and they will emit a cry for help if the person represented is in mortal danger.

Eventually, we would make one of you as well and issue them to the other members.

Obviously you don’t need to carry them with you, they will also send a message to your communicator.

[5a Violista]

[Fel's Office]

"Oh, good," the half-human says, half-laughing because of the image in her mind. "I was imagining being on an important mission when all of a sudden a plushie falls out of my pocket." That would be pretty funny, mind you, but also weird.

"Anyway, that all sounds pretty reasonable." She picks up the tote bag and, smiling, says, "Thanks."

She stands up. "I guess I should probably revisit the layout of the place, because getting lost in here wouldn't be a good thing, right?"

[Recaiden]

The unconscious Julie, being unconscious, is easily dragged to the infirmary.

As such, she's unable to react.

The pocket-wounds are, of course, not bleeding due to grasses and other plant roots and stems blocking it up.

"How virulent is this contagion anyways?" Maria asks as she helps move Julie to the Infirmary. It probably wasn't airborne. Right? Still, Maria did get rather close in her attempt to bandage Julie earlier.

Should have just let the moss and daffodils do the job.

But what is the other Julie doing?

"'s not too bad. Not like catpox or SCCS. Just the side effects get you in trouble." Honeysuckle says, pausing to catch her breath. Dragging people around isn't as easy as it looks.

"You should be immune, though." Maria is an actual human, isn't he? Not nearly human, mostly human, pretending to be human, etc.

[Reinholdt]

[The VAX Phone]

"Excellent news then. I'll start making arrangements on our end and send some of our people ahead to start working out the logistics." Vax replies. Said logistics will likely be boring and off screen. "Is there anything else we should know before proceeding?"

[The VAX Phone]

"Not really. You've got the full green light. Have at it. If you need anything specific, call me or Felandria. Or you could find me working in the simulation room." Otherwise he'll help with the boring logistics as off screen as possible.

[Infirmary]

It's not easy at all. Fortunately there are counters and chairs to lean against in the Infirmary while Julia is being taken care of by the medical staff. Get some breathing room.

"That... On what basis do you make the presumption of my immunity?" Maria asks. She can't imagine what would make her immune and not Juliette.

[Zefir]

You are absolutely right, we must go down there and take care of this.

Do you need any supplies or equipment before we set out?

[Cam Room]

Mr C looks up over him. a health bar appears which points out that he is still at low hitpoints around 20%. Not that life really works with thath but guess what he just had some near death experiences.

"I think we might need a spellcaster or so. I can't really deal with that i can ony use magic."

[Gullara]

[The VAX Phone]

"Excellent. We won't waste any time then. I'll see you soon, Reinholdt." And if that's all, Vax will end the call.

[Recaiden]

"Hmm, how'd you say it?"
Honeysuckle tilts her head, thinking.
"An examination of you when you first entered the lab suggests you are a member of a nonsusceptible population, and you remain asymptomatic despite extended interaction with Juleka."

"Got sick because she's actually a shapeshifting plant monster. You're not. But yeah, not a sure thing. Better take you back to the lab run a blood test."
After a minute of rest.

[Reinholdt]

[Infirmary]

"Well that is certainly a relief." Being human had its advantages, despite the occasional cramp in Maria's style. "This virus' symptoms must express themselves exceptionally quick upon contraction," Based on Honeysuckle's truth in absence.

"Are you familiar with this illness' nomenclature?"

[Morty]

[Entry Pods]

Some time after her visit and talking to Reinholdt and Felandria, Dorota returns to HALO. It seems she has made up her mind about the offer and is here to deliver her decision.

[Felandria]

[Fel's Office]

"Oh, good," the half-human says, half-laughing because of the image in her mind. "I was imagining being on an important mission when all of a sudden a plushie falls out of my pocket." That would be pretty funny, mind you, but also weird.

"Anyway, that all sounds pretty reasonable." She picks up the tote bag and, smiling, says, "Thanks."

She stands up. "I guess I should probably revisit the layout of the place, because getting lost in here wouldn't be a good thing, right?"

Felandria rubs her own neck.

Yeah, It’s a big place, we’re working on more signage.

You want me to show you around, or you wanna go by yourself and get acclimated?

- - - Updated - - -

[Cam Room]

Mr C looks up over him. a health bar appears which points out that he is still at low hitpoints around 20%. Not that life really works with thath but guess what he just had some near death experiences.

"I think we might need a spellcaster or so. I can't really deal with that i can ony use magic."

Well, I’m a sorceress.

But we might need a healer as well.

Should we recruit one before we go down there?

[Recaiden]

"Well that is certainly a relief." Being human had its advantages, despite the occasional cramp in Maria's style. "This virus' symptoms must express themselves exceptionally quick upon contraction," Based on Honeysuckle's truth in absence.

"Are you familiar with this illness' nomenclature?"

"Yeah, real fast. Most of time, anyway."

Honeysuckle shakes her head.
"Familiar with its what?"
There's only so much keeping-up-with-Maria that she actually can do.

[5a Violista]

[Felandria's Office]

Holly shakes her head. "I'm sure we're both busy. I can do it myself; besides, I think looking around myself will help me remember it better." Sometimes when someone shows you around, you just think 'Well I know it's somewhere but because I went off the path the tour guide went, now I'm completely lost'.

At least, she thinks that way.

Plus, she already had a scene with someone where she was looking around and got lost. So, y'know, for continuity. Plus, her player has a lot of scenes currently.

As she leaves, she does one of those cool over-the-shoulder waves. "I'll see you around."

[Reinholdt]

[Entry Pods]

"Ah Dorota. Good to see you again," Reinholdt says as he walks up from around the corner. "How have you been?"

[Infirmary]

"Its nomenclature. Uh, its scientific name?" Maria repeats, with some explanation. If she knew the name, she could do some research on it.