No.4354
>Date: October 31st, 2017
>Location: The Hollows - Below Sanctuary City
>Time: 12:02am
>Below the dense city streets of Sanctuary lies a maze of tunnels, passages, and chambers. Some of these are simply maintenance tunnels, others parts of previous versions of the city, simply built on top of when the time came for something new, and others yet make up parts of secret routes that have been made, used, and abandoned over the years.
>Within this warren, an undercity has formed, across these tunnels, caves, and mazes, various pockets of people, whether it's those spurned by society, or those just simply seeking a life away from the surface, have formed groups, even settlements in some cases.
>Even further below the tunnels, and sometimes between them, lie the natural caves below Sanctuary City.
>Within one of these caves, a calm lake sits, a small hole within it providing a clear path to somewhere on the surface, outside of the actual city itself, through which the moon shines, a clear image of its lunar body being visible on lake's calm surface.
>At the edge of the lake, a young woman sits, humming a tune to herself, never opening her eyes as she does, a headpiece of crossing lines covering them. From the back of her head, a set of four white, feathered wings sprout, each pair perfectly synchronised, "balancing" the other pair out.
>As the woman hums to herself, another woman enters the cave, a pair of antlers sprouting from the top of her head, and stands behind the young woman, waiting.
>Without any prompting, the young woman stops singing.
"Ah. . . soon there will be visitors. . ."
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>Further up in The Hollows
>Within a more built up area, a group of men stands around a table, at which a woman sits at the head, quietly tapping the side of her head and reacting as if she hears something.
>Narrowing her eyes, the woman leans forward.
"They're planning something, I want you to be ready."
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>Elsewhere in The Hollows
>A redheaded woman climbs up a makeshift tunnel and stops, kicking the side of it to make some noise, getting the attention of a man outside.
"Hey, pass the package."
>The man walks over to a backpack across the room and carefully takes out a package from it, walking over to the tunnel and lifting up to the entrance, where the woman's legs wrap around it and she contorts her body to bring the package up to her hands.
"Thanks, only a few more of these to go. . ."
No.4355
>>4354>Date: October 31st, 2017>Location: Sanctuary City - Financial District
>Press teams gather outside of the entrance of a new building, herded into place by simple makeshift barriers. In the air above, several camera drones fly about, getting images and footage from different angles.
>At the head of the crowd, on a podium located by the main entrance of the building, a nervous looking woman in glasses stands, leaning just a little too far into the microphone."a-and I would like to thank our donors. . . without who we. . ."
>The woman shufles some papers, switching from one page to the next.". . .wouldn't have been able to build this. . ."
>The woman pauses for a moment, coughing."Our organization, w-which is to say, the. . . .the. . ."
>The woman goes silent again, gulping."Futures Foundation. . . thank you. . ."
>The woman says the last part quietly, the microphone barely being able to pick up the words despite it being too close, and steps off the stage, a more trained press officer taking over after her.". . .and that was our Scientist in Chief, Dr Hiram, I'll briefly be taking questions before we move onto the tour of our facilities. . ."
>Near the back of the crowd, Madeleine Cox, the blonde-haired telepath, stands, rubbing her temple as if fighting a headache, her focus moving away from the event itself as the questions begin to roll in.
>As Madeleine stands there, a woman with auburn hair walks over, coughing to get her attention."Not much of a public speaker, it seems."
"Hm?"
>Madeleine looks over at the newcomer."Dr Hiram. . ."
"Oh, right, I wouldn't say so."
>The woman offers out her hand for Madeleine to shake."Danielle, Danielle Hallowgate."
"Ah. . ."
>Madeleine takes Danielle's hand and shakes it."One of the other donors, head of Valkyrie Labs, I'm-"
"Ch- Madeleine Cox, yes, I know."
>Danielle pulls her hand away."They're always a bit too noisy, aren't they? These events."
>Madeleine doesn't respond immediately."They're not. . . sorry, I'm being rude, but I'm actually waiting for someone. . ."
No.4356
>>4355>Almost on cue, Orion suddenly comes up from behind, looking at something in the distance."Hey Maddie, sorry something came up on the way. You know how it is."
>Orion stops, and then turns around. His eyes shift towards Danielle."Oh. Sorry I didn't mean to interrupt your conversation."
No.4357
>>4356>Madeleine shifts her attention from Danielle to Orion, relaxing slightly as he approaches, as if the mysterious headache she was suffering from earlier has lifted."Don't worry about it, they didn't give you any trouble getting out of work, did they? Did you use the excuse of wanting to look into a potential investment that I gave you?"
>Danielle doesn't seem offended by the interruption from Orion, and instead offers her hand out for him to shake."No need for apologies. My name's Danielle Hallowgate, by the way - and I'm guessing you're Orion Thompson."
>Still holding her hand out, Danielle half shrugs, pre-emptively addressing Orion's inevitable question."My cousin's met you before, her descriptions can be quite vivid, plus it's useful for me to know who's who sometimes. . ."
>Without skipping a beat, Danielle then adds:"So, how long have you two been a thing?"
>Madeleine almost goes pale at the question. No.4358
>>4357>Orion is taken aback for a moment, not having expected the question. He shakes Danielle's hand."Oh. Er…"
>He scratches the back of his head while he thinks."Well we've known each other for probably more than a year. But we've been a 'thing' for… seven months, I think?"
>Orion looks at Madeleine for confirmation. No.4359
>>4358>Madeleine coughs."It would be about seven months. . . yeah."
>Danielle lets out a snort at the two's reactions."Don't worry, I'm not going to go around telling people about what you get up to. . ."
>Danielle trails off for a moment."Oh, yes, I didn't mention my cousin's name. Lisa."
>Danielle holds up a hand just short of her height."About this high, red hair, always in a rush. . . Hangs around with your boss's sister sometimes. . ."
>Danielle trails off again as she hears a sound in the distance."Ah, someone's after me. . . well, if you want to chat later I'm sure we'll have plenty of time, bye~"
>With a casual wave, Danielle walks off, disappearing into the crowd.
>With her gone, Madeleine relaxes slightly."It's not because I'm embarassed of you or anything, by the way, the question was just a bit sudden. Although I
would like to avoid questions about it if I can, I'm not great at those."
No.4360
>>4359>Orion watches Danielle disappear into the crowd."I don't exactly go around chatting about it either. Although my sister likes to ask about you a lot."
>He looks at Madeleine. "So has anything interesting happened or is it just a big crowd listening to some speech…?"
No.4361
>>4360"You should really organise a proper meeting between us some time. . ."
>Madeleine moves so that she's to Orion's side and pokes him with her elbow."Unless you're embarassed of me?"
>With a chuckle, Madeleine looks over at the press area."Just a few speeches from some of the important people, including an. . .
interesting one from the Scientist in Chief. You skipped the boring part, really, the interesting stuff is the tour they're going to run for us."
No.4362
>>4361>Orion smirks."Of course I'm embarassed of you. You're into the worst stuff."
>He follows Madeleine's gaze."Good. I hate sitting through speeches. Hopefully the tour has something interesting. Otherwise I want my money back."
>Orion says this, with an amused tone. No.4363
>>4362"I'm sure your sister's well aware of your terrible taste, so you don't need to worry about it. Plus, it's weird that I met your cousins before properly meeting her."
>Madeleine scoffs."Says the man who hasn't paid anything for this and is just enjoying a free ride from his girlfriend who's paid a
lot of money for this. . ."
>Madeleine gestures up at the building."Do have to admit it's a nice building, though."
No.4364
>>4363"Well then I want
your money back."
>He looks up at the building, and does a half shrug."It just looks like another big rectangle to me. But I'll take your word for it."
No.4368
>>4364"Yeah, it's a big rectangle, but it looks like a nicer big rectangle than the other ones around, I mean. . ."
>Madeleine points up at part of the tower."The other big rectangles here don't have the. . . uh. . . thing."
No.4378
>>4371"I think she means the isolation unit. . ."
>The woman who gave the speech earlier, Dr Hiram comes from behind the pair and points up at a break in the building's windows, roughly three quarters of the way up."Yeah, that's right, the isolation unit, it looks like it can do some cool sci-fi stuff. . ."
>Madeleine seems to notice who spoke up for the first time."Oh, sorry Dr Hiram, I didn't realise it was you."
"Oh. . . no. . . don't worry. . . I don't want to be an inconvenience to you. . . I'll just wait until you're finished with your conversation."
>Madeleine waves off the comment."It's fine, Dr Hiram, isn't that right, Orion?"
No.4380
>>4378"Isolation unit? For what?"
>Orion's mind seems to wander momentarily, until he snaps back into reality."Huh? Oh. Yeah, it's not a bother."
No.4382
>>4380>The doctor's demeanor seems to switch in an instant when Orion asks the question."To answer in a simple way, anything that needs isolating, but if you want a more complex answer, some experiments within the foundation may have dangerous side effects, so the unit is designed to, essentially cut the labs within the given area off from the outside world in as complete a way as possible by placing the isolation area slightly out of phase with the surroundings. Of course there are potential flaws with the system but-"
>Dr Hiram pauses as she needs to catch her breath, and her thoughts seem to catch up with the social situation."I. . . uh. . . mean. . . uh. . . it isolates things yeah. . ."
>With a smile, Madeleine looks at Orion."Dr Hiram is a brilliant scientist, when she can put her mind to it, what she lacks in social ability is more than matched by her scientific ability, that's why she was put in charge of the foundation."
"I. . . uh. . . thank you. . ."
No.4383
>>4382"That's… useful…"
>He seems to be wandering his mind again. "…Wouldn't want someone- something getting out…"
>His eyes move towards Madeleine, with his expression showing a hint of something more going on behind them."Well it's good that they've got her, huh? Wouldn't want anyone…"
>His eyes narrow slightly. Before he forces a smile back."Unethical in charge."
No.4384
>>4383>Orion feels a presence brush against his mind."{
It's ok, Orion, it's nothing like. . . that, it's for stopping, like, explosions and stuff so they don't hit the surrounding buildings.}"
>Dr Hiram shakes her head when she hears "someone"."We wouldn't try to trap any people in the building, in fact, there's a failsafe to allow anyone inside to escape from it safely if it activates with them inside. Any human experimentation has to be entirely consensual, and the foundation can only work on human trials that involve bettering quality of life - cures for diseases, regrowing limbs, things like that. Miss Cox was very insistent on that, as well as some of our other sponsors."
No.4385
>>4384>Orion relaxes a little."Sorry, it was a slip of the tongue. But I'm glad you guys are being ethical about this."
>He puts his hand on Madeleine's shoulder. He smiles, playfully."And it's good that you listen to Madeleine. Don't ask her about her interests though. They're very bad."