onemorebounty | Radio Free Tamriel

The tribune has made one small mark on the Nexus. Beside one particularly medieval-looking iron-and-oak door there is now (as it was foretold) a table with an Imperial banner draped over it in red and black. Naturally, there is also the sort of wooden chair designed to punish anyone who sits in it for more than half an hour.

Doubtless this is why Stratos is standing in front of the desk. He's listening to a legionnaire who wears hardened leather armor, but has a similar blue-green hood pulled over his head. Beneath that is a pained set to his mouth. Apparently he's not too pleased with whatever madness his tribune's assigning him. He's all earnestness as he speaks, gesturing at the door for emphasis.

"...need the power if you want active spells on this side," he's pointing out. "I'm only saying, it's far simpler to take the advantage you're already given here."

Stratos doesn't look remotely convinced by his argument. It'll be rather a relief to spot Samus so he can cut the discussion short.

*The fragment of the conversation she catches gets a raised brow from the Hunter. As she reaches a comfortable distance for conversation, Samus interrupts (taking full advantage of the way being from outside their culture lets her ignore its mores when convenient), greeting Stratos with a lift of her chin.*

Stratos. You've been busy?

*That said with a nod indicating the table and Chair of Regret.*

Her interruption makes him raise his eyebrows back at her. But privately, he is relieved. He nods in greeting to her. His presumable subordinate turns as he steps back smartly, falling into place at Stratos' flank. (All the better to look curiously at this woman.)

"Samus Aran - forgive me, I don't believe I asked your proper title." He barely glances at the table. "We have taken some early steps. More interestingly, I believe I have gathered a selection of armor that will suffice for our experiment."

*The subordinate is in for an eyeful; Samus is 6'4" with a body honed by constant exercise, and the clothes of the future don't hide that fact in the slightest. She moves with economical grace, no movement wasted.*

For the governments I work with, the title is Hunter. Who's your associate?

*That said with a glance to the yet-unnamed subordinate. Stratos can practice title-usage, perhaps, in the introduction.*

"The auxiliary here is Felix. Auxiliary, this is Hunter Aran, who I mentioned to you earlier."

"A pleasure." Felix bows to her smoothly- or it would be smooth, except his uniform is too new. The leather is both uncomfortably tight and a little squeaky. He has a friendly smile, growing increasingly rueful as his armor pinches away. As the name suggests, he's another Imperial; there may be some resemblance with Stratos, if you took off ten years, gave him sharper features and substantially relaxed his demeanor. His eyes flick with interest between his commander and this foreign woman. Samus is by far the more interesting, but he's terribly curious to see how they interact.

Stratos continues, "For now, Felix will be attending to our security on the Nexus side - as well as any of our citizens who may need assistance."

After all, current research suggests a fifty-percent chance that they will be time-displaced and need warning away from the Fourth Era door. Never mind any of the many, many other predicaments Tamriel's good people enjoy getting themselves into.

Likewise.

*Samus answers Felix's bow with a nod, and Stratos' explanation tugs her lips into a lopsided smile, higher on the left.*

Impressive. Most people aren't so efficient about setting up a consulate. Bags all packed? Need me to carry anything?

Stratos inclines his head, faintly amused. "I have three crates waiting. Bring them through, auxiliary."

"Yes, sir." It comes out with a hint of mocking exaggeration. Felix didn't intend it to, and to his credit he winces slightly. Before the tribune can glance his way he adds earnestly, "I'll, ah, get to it."

He disappears through the door, leaving Stratos to ask, "How far will we need to carry them?"

*Samus holds back a laugh at the tone of Felix's remark, but can't fully hide her amusement.*

Crates. You are thorough. Just to here will be fine, I can open my door wherever.

*And then, because she's curious, and it's an opportunity, she asks about what she'd walked in on.*

So, what advantage did Felix mean you to take?

Stratos has a small twist of annoyance to his mouth. If Felix is going to be embarrassing (and he can't claim that was unforeseen) entertaining their new acquaintance isn't the worst possible consequence. But he had better watch that.

"I did have some time to make arrangements," he notes. "And we should have no difficulty moving them. Your door must be exceptionally convenient."

Reluctant to return to the previous discussion, he gestures dismissively. And then, considering what will happen if she just asks Felix instead, he sighs and chooses a slightly less dismissive answer to go with it. "A minor question of our approach to security. He has some notion about using the violence-prevention effect rather than more typical defensive spells."

*The nice thing about the Nexus, for people like Felix, is that it forces change. Either they grow into better, more mature people, or they land themselves in some kind of trouble that teaches them to stop talking. At the mention of her door's convenience, her lips draw up into a smirk.*

You have no idea. Although you're about to, I suppose.

*Good thinking, Stratos. Spin control is always preferable to letting the embarrassing guy field questions.*

Ah. The AV field is useful, certainly, but it's sensible not to count on it entirely. There are places, here, where it doesn't extend, and things that can make it drop that might not seem obvious, at first. Best not to count on it before you learn the ins and outs.

He's not sure he ought to be sanguine about learning too much of Nexus doors, so that part draws an ambivalent 'hmmm' from him.

"That's helpful to consider, thank you." Stratos nods as if he hadn't made his mind up already. "I prefer to rely on power that isn't merely borrowed."

Felix edges through the open door with a crate that looks about half his size. Stratos indicates a clear space where he can dump it. The auxiliary is definitely pretending not to listen to them. Although since his cargo is more weight than he's used to hauling and his armor's poking him in a distressing number of places, it's rather hard to concentrate on eavesdropping.

That is the more sensible option. You'll probably come through your first el-oh-el better than most.

*Bemusedly, Samus watches Felix's struggles, lowering her voice to ask Stratos a quiet aside.*

Is his lack of a handtruck of some kind an order of yours, or is that decision all him?

"The- ah, cursed food? I don't intend to accept any." She speaks of succumbing as a foregone conclusion. That prompts a tiny little twinge of concern.

Felix is heading safely back through the door, but Stratos drops his voice to match as he makes an admission. "That is one item we've yet to provide. There are only three boxes, though-" here the sound of warping space drifts through the doorway, "...and I'm certain he will manage."

He refuses to sigh. He'll only give one disapproving look when the younger mage returns to the door and waits there for a flame atronach to pass the next crate through. Felix is displeased enough with his lot: he has no interest in self-martyrdom on top of it. And hey, he's still doing some of the carrying...

It isn't always food. Sometimes there's a cloud of gas, a glowing rock, a spell gone wrong, or simply a wrong place at the wrong time.

*The summoned atronach gets a raised brow.*

The fire-person can handle things without burning them?

*With at least one crate arrived, and another on the way, Samus reasons it's time to open her own door. She taps a small device on the back of her right wrist, which causes a small cloud of glowing glyphs and numbers to fill the air above it. A few are prodded, a few changed, and then a sound like bacon hitting a hot skillet accompanies the appearance of a vertical line in the air beside her, extending from a little above her head to the ground. Still sizzling, it widens until it's nearly square, then goes still and silent--not a line, but a doorway, through which a room of white-enameled walls, freestanding panels, and various obscure machinery lie. With another prod of the device, the cloud of numbers vanishes and Samus lifts the first crate (without apparent effort) and steps through.*

...Increasing concern, now. This makes his mouth twist. "Then perhaps I had better simply pray for luck."

At her question, Felix perks up. Congratulations, you have selected his favorite subject. "Oh, atronachs don't have to burn everything they touch. For example-" he dumps his crate down and draws another breath- "they generally don't set fire to their own summoner. Otherwise they'd-"

And he shuts right up, because great Mora is that a door appearing. Beside Samus, Stratos watches her work with fascination, eyes flicking between device and glyphs and result. Felix keeps his eyes on the door like a cat who's sighted the elusive laser dot. When it stabilizes, he lets out a whistle and sidles closer.

"Auxiliary." Stratos directs him back to get the last one. The tribune wants to get his first look at where Samus is taking him. It certainly looks better than the tales of Oblivion planes one gets told.

*Increasing concern is an appropriate reaction. At least he's getting a little advance notice before such a situation drops in his lap. Setting down the crate to one side of the door, Samus gestures to invite Stratos to have a look.*

Guaranteed free of disease, el-oh-el, and other dangers, to the extent that any room with a sampling of radioactive isotopes and a Class G Hazard can be.

*She steps back through to retrieve the second crate; the doorway is wide enough for two people to pass when neither of them is carrying a cumbersome burden. All the same, she offers a word of caution.*

Make sure you don't touch the edge.

*She may need to see about visiting this fledgling consulate later, when Stratos is off duty, to see if she can get the rest of that explanation out of Felix.*

Stratos fears she might make her own visit, but it's not like he can lurk around constantly. That's the entire point of having Felix. Giving mostly-complete answers and trying to deflect her interest is all he can do for now.

At this moment his thoughts are quite elsewhere, though. He glances at the auxiliary, still fetching that last crate, then steps through. On the other side, he steps away to make space for Samus, taking a moment to pull himself together while he looks around. One step, and even the air tastes different. So much machinery, and so much white space. "...Well. I can't claim I've seen anything... quite like this before."

"Amazing how sharp the edges are," Felix comments. The warning was a good thought: Stratos might be wary, but the more conjuration-inclined mage would love to poke at the doorway some. "I wonder if that's a quality of the Nexus. Ordinary portals aren't that clear-cut."

*Setting the second crate beside the first, she gives Stratos a sidelong smile. There's something amusing about the understated way he's phrasing that.*

Not too much of a disappointment, I hope?

*Stepping back for the third crate, she adds an explanation for Felix.*

It's a property of the device I use to make my portals; there's no substance to it, just a hole in space, so there's nothing to stop one part of an object from crossing its boundary.

*Taking up the last crate, she looks to the atronach.*

Thank you for your help.

"Not at all." Stratos twitches his fingers, tugging a little as if to check that physics still bend on this side of the portal.

Felix stops to listen as she explains, though it's her words to the atronach that draw a surprised smile from him. The flaming elemental turns its head as if to focus on her, but otherwise remains as aloof as an eyeless being of fire can be.

"It understands you," the conjurer assures her. "They just aren't very communicative, generally."

*Samus didn't consciously choose a dead-magic Facet, and people traveling via Nexus tend to bring a little bit of their home physics with them, so odds are good that the world around Stratos responds more-or-less as expected. Samus, meanwhile, gives Felix a smile and steps through the portal.*

Understanding's enough. Thank you, Felix, we'll be back soon.

*Setting the crate atop the others, she touches the device on the back of her wrist, and the portal closes with a quiet snap.*

Ready?

He manages a brief nod to the auxiliary before Samus closes the portal. It's reassuring to feel his abilities working as normal. Stratos wouldn't admit to trepidation at the speed and ease with which he finds himself alone on a foreign plane with a woman he barely knows... but nonetheless. It's perturbing to see his exit vanish like that.

Stratos makes himself relax, and turn his attention back to the room at hand.

"Of course." He steps over to examine one of the computers. Without touching the odd machine, of course. There's a faint hint of electricity in the air: it could be sensitive. "I'm very keen to learn what I'm looking at here."

That's one of the control consoles. It'll let us turn the radiation on and off from safety.

*Striding into the room, she gestures to some of the free-standing panels.*

These have been treated with a paint that fluoresces when it's exposed to most bands of radiation. We'll set up our test objects between the emitters and these screens, and anything that blocks it will cast a shadow.

*Surrounded by the screens is a small box on an armature.*

And this is the emitter. It can produce different bands of radiation, which I'll explain in a moment, and adjust the beam focus. So: what would you like to see first? A basic proof-of-concept experiment, or straight to the things in the crates?

Stratos listens attentively. He's done enough teaching to appreciate the way she explains - simple enough for a novice to follow, without being condescending.

"Perhaps a demonstration before we unpack. I'd like to see how it works without interference." And so he can fix it in his mind before he starts explaining their target objects.

*She nods, taking a moment to set a screen where they'll have a clear view of it from the console Stratos found. When they're testing the magic things, she's going to insist they retreat to the booth, but for one quick demonstration this should be safe.*

*With the scene set to her liking, she strides back to Stratos and waves a hand near the console to wake it. A diagram of the room is displayed in wireframe on a black background, with icons labeling pictures of several buttons and sliders. Samus demonstrates each as she explains them.*

This is for the lights in the room, here. We'll dial that down so we can see better.

*Deed is suited to word, and the ambient light in the room, which had been coming from glowing panels in the ceiling, dims to a faint gloom. The glow of the console is still clearly visible, however, and it seems to react to Samus' mere proximity--controls grow as her finger draws near, crowding others away, and shrink again and are crowded in their turn when her proximity drifts elsewhere.*

We'll set the aperture fairly narrow, to start, and then turn the emitter on.

*Adjusting the aperture slider adds a green wireframe cone to the wireframe of the room, indicating where the radiation is going to go and how widely dispersed it will be. She slides it down to a narrow beam, then presses the small white button that turns the emitter on (the companion button, to turn it off, is much larger, bright red, and flashes dully to attract attention while the emitter is running). Over on the indicated screen, an oval of light has appeared, glowing a bright green. Stratos might recognize that it's intersecting the cone of radiation at an angle rather than straight on, resulting in the oblong shape.*

Stratos stands at her shoulder with folded arms and intent look, just far enough to respect personal space while he follows her adjustments. He's aware he's the wide-eyed foreigner at this point, blinking at how easily Samus can manipulate their surroundings - how even this control panel reacts to her intent. It may not technically be magic, but in practice this machinery really isn't dissimilar.

Once in a while he glances over at the detection screen, so he catches when that oval of light appears. He still takes a minute to look between it and the on-screen diagram, confirming the link.

"You may not be a wizard, but your laboratory could shame some of the finest," he remarks. Really, she has a machine that simply displays where the invisible flows of energy? With which she can control them? It seems too easy. "Is there a purpose in angling the screen like that?"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject