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Post by demikara on Nov 24, 2019 13:55:08 GMT -6
Molly yelped and rubbed her arm, holding it close, then standing. There was no way that hadn't bruised badly. It still hurt. "I didn't mean to knock you over." She hadn't thought she could. Apparently, the warden could be taken by surprise. Still, she turned and paid attention to the new recruit. "Hi! Please, call me Molly. I look forward to working with you."
Maria managed a smile for Ivor. "Hello. I think I've met the forensics tech before, if she's the same one who works the regular cases. I was a regular officer here before I was a specialist. So its really only this part of the facility that's new to me." And it was very new to her. "It's nice to meet you Ivor. I look forward to working with you." Would she have anything to do with research? Probably just using what was made.
"And I look forward to working with you too Molly." Though the other was entirely too excitable for her tastes. How did anyone have that much energy given the job they worked? IT may be her first day as a specialist, but she had heard tales of the workload.
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Post by littlekreen on Nov 24, 2019 15:00:00 GMT -6
Ivor nodded to Maria and Catherine, "I saw the requisition for server quota she sent up. She's got two scenes being reconstructed. Whatever that case is she's got my sympathy."
Ivor patted his labcoat pocket adding, "I got a text that she had to fill out a police report so she'd be delayed this morning. Not sure how she got my personal number but I appreciate the heads up."
A nod from Ivor to Maria the researcher returned her politeness, "I handle a lot of hot or toxic areas lately from my logs. I'm on the hotline if you call us to check a scene hazard. If you don't see me you'll hear from me."
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Post by Circe on Nov 24, 2019 16:33:34 GMT -6
Catherine suspected that one of those scenes being reconstructed belonged to Tyrus's ranch, the other could have been anything else. She had been gone for months of time in this world, and not that of the fae which moved infinitely slower. That was the only way Tyrus had been able to fit the required amount of time necessary to fulfil a Council training mandate; not that either of them had been too terribly eager to be in that position once all was over and done with. Catherine would have loved nothing more than to return home and stay there, allowing herself to be dictated only by the rythm of the seasons and cycle of the stars. Unfortunately Tyrus had seen fit to remind her otherwise, and eventually she had returned only to find herself drawn into the chaos of the Dragon Court some weeks later.
"It sounds like I'm going to have to have the boundaries discussion with more than just one person.." She sighed as she knelt down and picked up the small tablet and papers Molly had sent flying. Catherine had expected business like usual, and hadn't been expecting Molly to try and hit her like a minature line backer. The months spent in the relative safety and confines of the court had done her no favors, and only served it seemed to encourage her to put her guard down in ways that seemed to benefit no one. Catherine would have to resolve herself to be a bit more careful and proactive when it came to officers like Molly.
"You're welcome to join us this afternoon if you want Ivor, we might have some tasty tidbits for you to play with this week." the Warden hinted. The tablet and papers contained details on their next and newest case. The Specialists group had the running joke of, 'The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer.' when it came to some of the assignments they were given. Often times they involved obscure magic, artefacts, and less than savory community members.
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Post by demikara on Nov 24, 2019 16:40:45 GMT -6
"Alright, I'll keep that in mind." A toxic scene R&D guy. What had she gotten herself into? No, she knew what she had gotten into. Or at least, she knew some of it. This would be different than being a regular officer, but she could manage it. Maria took a seat uncertain and swallowed. She could do this. She had no clue how and she could feel the anxiety building. Herblore and minor healing. Was that good enough for a speciality to make it in the field? Was she going to be expected to do research also?
She didn't know how to handle that on top of her duties. What would she even research? The idea baffled her. Hopefully she wouldn't be expected to do that at all.
Molly huffed and took a seat. She was not looking forward to another conversation about boundaries. It would not be the first time or the last, she was sure. Other people were just so un-affectionate and she had no clue why. It was nice to be friendly. But really, tackling the other had been an accident. Catherine never let her actually manage that before.
Though she hadn't done it more than once or twice and both times on the tail end of a particularly nasty case.
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Post by littlekreen on Nov 24, 2019 18:17:03 GMT -6
Ivor sat at one of the free seats at the table tub set in front of him looking at Catherine, "Do tell, Warden! Dallas is nothing if not interesting. Random craters today and research went awry in interesting ways. Research is never bored at least."
A cookie removed from its package Ivor took a nibble of one to gesture with it held in his fingers with an eyebrow raised, "Just keep us informed or bring back the shiny things and we'll help keep you safe, Specialist Maria. If Chrysanta can't give you an answer we step in to give you some theories."
Cookie twirled in his fingers Ivor leaned back, "I admit sometimes we give you explosions but it's the price of staring down the unknown. So if the lab's rocking, do knock first, hmm? We might be a minute but the walls are pretty thick and we'll probably be fine."
A shrug and a smirk, "Sometimes explosions notice problems ahead of time so we can fix things before they explode, infect, and/or curse. That would be where specialists come in."
He palmed the cookie then plucked another to thumb then launch in slow spun lob toward Molly, "And we need someone to break stuff... open, boy howdy, got one of those right over there. Ha!"
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Post by Circe on Nov 24, 2019 19:00:01 GMT -6
"Considering Dallas sits atop several leylines and is within 100 miles of a major nexus... then yes we can consider it 'interesting'." Catherine deadpanned. She had been in Dallas for at least some time and had encountered all manner of things, likely related to the city being the 3rd largest metropolitan area in the country.
"In other words, don't go down to the labs unless absolutely necessary.. and when necessary come bearing gifts and watch your step." She explained as she set everything up. "R&D has its uses he's right, but it's not very often. Most of what they do is make a mess and destroy things." Catherine watched as Ivor spun across the conference room in lazy circles. She wondered where he had gotten the cookie, as no one had put in an order for lunch during the briefing. Ivor was a puzzle that she wasn't entirely certain she wanted to figure out, and was more than likely best left to his own strange devices.
"I'm sure you've already been told, Maria, that everyone here has a specialty. Molly's, like Ivor here mentioned is ward breaking. Xiaolian's is nullification and teleportation." She didn't say what her own specialty as a Warden was, as it often tended to make people uneasy from the start. She would prefer to not loose yet another officer to another branch if she could help it. Keeping a lid on the chaos would be difficult, and Catherine now saw that she herself had been remiss in allowing it to continue to happen. She had told herself as long as they accomplished things it was fine, but it looked like it would be hurting them in the long run as they gained more team members.
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Post by demikara on Nov 24, 2019 19:09:20 GMT -6
Molly caught the cookie happily and began to snack on it. "Thanks Ivor! And yeah, I'm one of the best ward breakers in the states. I like to play in R&D myself, when there's time." There wasn't often time, so she made there be time. It wasn't easy but it was doable. She finished off the cookie and smiled to Maria, trying to be welcoming. Being the new person wasn't exactly the easiest position in the world after all. "What's your specialty?"
"Herblore." Maria answered, confident in that at least. "And some minor healing." Major healing was beyond her, but she could manage bumps and bruises and cuts. She could keep someone stable for emergency services so long as they weren't too bad off at least. She could manage all sorts of things with herbs though, and if she had one of her poultices with her, she could heal even better.
Hopefully that would be enough for them though. She still wasn't sure if that really would amount to much for here, but she'd do her best to be worthy of being a specialist.
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Post by Circe on Nov 24, 2019 19:36:48 GMT -6
"Oh finally...that means we don't have to deal with that bitter bitch Baird and her familiar." Xiaolian cackled with amusement. If any group had a particular dislike of MCU's own medical examiner, it was the specialists. They routinely took bets on how badly the ME would flip out over some piece of evidence and had at one drawn straws over who would deal with her until Catherine had stepped in and put a stop to it.
"Either way, we're glad to have you, we really are."
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Post by demikara on Nov 24, 2019 19:44:29 GMT -6
"Ah. I'm not...I can heal, but not...a lot." Maria said, not wanting them to rely on them. "I can do small things. And if I have my poultices then I can do a lot more than just that. But don't expect me to be able to, um, set a broken bone or something like that." She didn't want them to think she could do major healings. "I'm afraid minor healing only. I'm not strong when it comes to magic." She could do magic, but it wasn't like she was a powerhouse. She was below-average in her skill.
But she could still do a lot with herbs.
Molly shrugged. "You don't need to be strong magically to be a specialist. You just need to know your stuff, that's all. So don't worry too much about the strength of your magic." Molly didn't expect a lot of magic out of any human, not really. But she did know you didn't need a lot of magic to do amazing things with it. Given the right tools, you could do a lot with a little.
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Post by littlekreen on Nov 24, 2019 20:09:48 GMT -6
Ivor shrugged adding, "You'll have plenty of occasion to develop your skills. We'd have more interesting tools to offer but we can't exactly have specialists walking up walls. Still, we keep busy. Only I or the Warden gets to make withdrawals from the toy box."
He eyes Catherine feigning tears with a knuckle, "She doesn't visit. We're very sad. We're always glad to have Molly come and see some of the new toys. But, yes, we're mostly for emergencies like properties exploding hard enough to strain the fabric of magic. That one we're still rehabilitating. Service of the public interest. We're not needed often but we're still busy in between on projects to help pay the bills to keep us on point."
Ivor nodded at Xiao's comment, "Heh. We can make or maintain most of the tools of the trades in any case. Except for cars. Not anymore. Council orders. With a little determination and time though, we can tell you what you might want to read to help get something done."
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Post by Circe on Nov 25, 2019 19:57:10 GMT -6
"Because the last time I visited, you asked me to hold something which promptly exploded, then stained my face and hands purple for a fortnight." Catherine clarified, secretly thankful for glamours. That had been embarrassing even for her. Research and development types were a menace in her opinion, and it didn't help that somehow her office sat right above the safer sectors of the labs. Smoke pouring out of the air ducts had almost become routine, and when sparks followed that was generally the cue to make leave of the premises.
"Council orders on the cars because we don't need man eating vehicles." She added bluntly. Some of the things that they came up with didn't exactly blend into the mundane well. Catherine considered little of the lab was safe knowing that Ivor gladly gave Molly free reign over most of it. That was yet another way that led to madness that she was even more reluctant to explore.
"Really? Damn Ivor..." Xiaolian whistled, impressed that R&D had actually managed to make that work. She had seen a few things in her career and very little stood to impress her as of late. "But seriously, I wouldn't visit you either if you were going to use me as your own personal guinea pig." The officer added.
The rules of engagement were clear, especially after what had happened out at Mezar; only certain persons needed to have access to what R&D created. Often it was something that stood the chance of killing them, wiping out an entire city block, or ripping a hole in the very fabric of the universe. Complaints had been made for things a little less aggressive, but it was usually countered with being told that which hadn't killed, cursed, or transmuted them had made a tactical error.
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Post by demikara on Nov 25, 2019 20:14:11 GMT -6
Maria smiled uncertainly. It was good that they didn’t think that she needed to be magically strong, but they may be surprised by how weak her magic was. She had heard stories of them going in magic blazing. What were her herbs against all of that? Hopefully something. She was here after all, and she had earned her place. Maybe she shouldn’t have requested Dallas though. Family nearby or not, this could end up being a terrible mistake.
“An explosion? Are you talking about the magical accident Mr. Rahal had?” That was the only thing she could think of that would cause that big of a problem. “All I knew was that he had an accident that landed him in the hospital. But…well, he’s the only one I can think of in the Dallas area that could maybe do that.” Though they could be helping elsewhere too.
It was…common knowledge in MCU at least that Mr. Rahal had more magic than most and enjoyed experimenting. She didn’t know if that knowledge had made it past the doors of MCU, but he was a prominent member of the Dallas community, important enough that no one questioned the guards posted to his hospital room. Everyone knew of Mr. Rahal at least. He taught at the academy after all and the Dallas community was only so large.
From the sounds of it though, she didn’t want to bother the people in R&D too much. Proper safety was probably not being followed if they’d just put a potentially explosive device in someone’s hands like that. Even when she worked with her herbs, she was very careful about her procedures. Things could go terribly wrong if cross-contamination occurred after all. It sounded like that may be a serious problem here. Her kitchen wasn’t ideal, but apparently it was a better choice than otherwise. “I think I may stay away from R&D unless I need to go. I’m not fond of explosions.”
“Tyrus did have a rather explosive accident.” Molly admitted. “It’s mostly cleaned up.” At least enough he could live there again, and really what more did he want? The magical contamination had to be hell though. “You may get to meet him at some point. He works with our team from time to time.” And she wanted to see Maria call him Mr. Rahal to his face. It would be poetry in motion.
She didn’t know anyone over the age of ten who called him Mr. Rahal. Though a good portion of that was people using his other title, but still. The point stood.
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Post by littlekreen on Nov 26, 2019 4:23:12 GMT -6
Ivor put his hands up palm outward and apologized explaining to Maria, "It wasn't that kind of explosion we confine those to empty rooms far from the offices if we know ahead of time something might explode. Tyrus was far enough from Dallas for the detonation to not be a risk but even I think it was a little too close for comfort the more I look at Chrysanta's developing scene. Honest, Warden, we hadn't expected the indelible mark to react for you so violently. Admittedly the mark was a target-powered antagonist spell but it was supposed to only last for hours not weeks. Since it's not like we can keep her out Specialist Molly even helped us fix the problem."
A finger tapped his chin remembering the tests with recolored hands and coats as marks advanced the stain sliding away back to testers when coats were removed, "Though we turned her colors once or twice for a bit shorter duration getting some replacement prototypes running. We have a paintball gun now with the ammo to keep mass-shifters marked and it's been made medically robust to not leave welts. Nobody's approved it yet though its nature should maintain excellent plausible deniability mundane exposure. Never did manage to win much in the field tests, alas. Alan and interns were festooned with color off and on for months trying to surprise Specialist Molly in the R&D hallways."
He shrugged continuing with a swirl of his hand, "There's an EMT somewhere in Dallas using testing one of those reactionless launchers for herb pellets or some such as I recall. We're still working on a variant to overpower glamours, given a ward breaker to impulse it, but that one's been a very long-term problem space. While it would work better on non-casters with self-sustained objects it's still far too unstable for live testing."
Ivor tried to remember who commissioned that vehicle project though found it entirely blank, "The armored limo was not well received, true, but it wasn't an unstable man-eater despite the written report. Well, not in the traditional sense. Someone paid exorbitantly well for the design and construction for an, ah, unconventionally fueled secure vehicle. I mean we put a safe minimum on the draw, per-instance viable occupant, though I suppose it was a bit unpalatable. Though I don't remember that being a concern at the time come to think of it now. Hmm, ah well, it's for the best."
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Post by Circe on Nov 26, 2019 18:35:26 GMT -6
"Of course you didn't..." Catherine grumbled eager to put an end to the mild hazing of the new team member. Ivor and Molly would eagerly go on at length all day if allowed, and she was in no mood to deal with the time wasting today. "If you two are quite done scaring my officer... we have a case that we need to discuss. It might possibly interest you Ivor, considering there appear to be some communicable symptoms associated with it." That alone should have gotten at least one of their attentions. Communicable tended to mean a lot of things, but it was generally used in association with the werepacks or vampires. Neither party was remiss in acknowledging that that could happen, but most weren't interested in creating new members of their groups currently. With the Dragon Court in flux as their courtiers adjusted to a different Ra and the werewolves up in arms about Tyrus, there was no telling what was being hidden from everyone involved however.
"If all four of you will direct your attention to the first slide, we'll get started." Catherine advised turning out the lights. The projector cast strange shadows in the room from it's place on the ceiling, creating the images of objects and shapes in shadow on the walls. "To get everyone up to speed, the Dragon Court has been in flux for the last couple of months. Often the Cedar Ridge pack is at odds with one party or another in the area, claiming territory or political offenses; be they real or imagined." At this point she flicked through the next few slides on the screen, showing the map of the werewolves local territory with a picture of the current known alpha; O'Hara. Much the same was done for the vampires, but she quickly sped past it and conviently left out the current Court's structure. "There have been some strange rumblings coming out of their home territory, and they've been deliberately stalking and attacking many of the local vampires, many of whom have no previous charges with us." She explained, thinking back to the incident at the shop. That had been complicated enough as it was, but she hadn't been able to shake the feeling there was more to it that a few pups out for a good time.
"Here's where the communicable issues come into play, there have been agreements made between Cedar Ridge and the Dragon Court with MCU as the neutral arbitration party. As of three weeks ago, they were in direct violation of any truce between the two groups... which stands to offer them no benefit. During this period, a pre-veil artifact was also reported missing from the collection of a well known unseen mage school." Catherine at least had reason to believe the two were connected, especially given the behavior from Cedar Ridge. "Normally these would be two independent events, but the behavior of Cedar Ridge has gone on to show madness."
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Post by demikara on Nov 26, 2019 19:00:23 GMT -6
Maria got the feeling she should be thankful it wasn’t that kind of explosion. Somehow, she still was not reassured by the fact that they had protocols in place for potentially explosive events. That implied they happened far more often than she wanted to think of. The new specialist offered Ivor a weak smile and turned her attention to the briefing. Though she did want to know more about the reactionless launchers for herb pellets. There had to be some special trick to getting them to bind, because finding a binding agent that complemented, or at least didn’t interfere with the magic could be interesting.
She decided to firmly ignore any notion of an armored limo. Especially one that had a reputation for eating people. Some things should not be thought of and that was one of them. Besides, they were already getting started with a case, so this was clearly a sink or swim situation. “Isn’t the Dragon Court beginning to stabilize? There’s rumors of new heirs and everything.” Heirs would stabilize the situation, politically at least. She frowned and considered it. “Could the instability of the Dragon Court have something to do with it as well?”
“I’m more curious about this artifact. Pre-veil artifacts are dangerous in the wrong hands. What do we know about the artifact? Can I get a look at their ward schemes?” Molly would be able to pinpoint weaknesses from there, even if the wards themselves had faded, which was entirely possible given it sounded like time had elapsed.
She knew why the Dragon Court had been in flux. Everyone there did, along with much of the Unseen, though she doubted most knew the details. Learning details in the Unseen was a rare thing though. She had also known there were more troubles with the Cedar Ridge pack lately. She paid attention to what happened with the officers. They often had the best information available after all.
Whatever this artifact was, it apparently had a side effect of madness. They’d need to retrieve it and by the sounds of it, Cedar Ridge likely had it. That could be a political nightmare.
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