Marie grinned, bending down to put her eyes over the little child, offering a finger for her to focus on instead of her mother's hair. It came with satisfaction to both Julie and Marie when the girl did so, happily chewing on her finger, nibbling it. Another hand came to play with the child.
"It went... decently." She muttered, trying to keep a smile. "I can't say much - some of it is classified," and it would turn things to hell if she spoke of some things - such as the pseudo-Gundams. "It was mostly things that everyone in here already knew."
Dr. Emerich looked above him, realizing the girl had something else to say. There was a reason big Boss called her personally, after all that happened, instead of simply shipping her home.
"But from now on... I think I'll be working here."
"What?"
Emerich's hands gripped his handles as he almost forcibly lifted himself, unable to believe the course of action. Julie herself turned to them, retreating with her child, who cried when Marie's finger left her mouth.
"As it turns out... it's not something I can just go home without raising suspicions. There are skills Uncle John needs of me, and I'll have to stay here." She stood her ground. Her red eyes turned straight to him. "I'm young. I know it. But Big Boss wants me here. I know it."
Emma calmed down as soon as she grabbed again onto her mother's hair, as everything calmed down.
"A teenager." His electric chair whirred back to life as he moved past, muttering to himself. "How many more skeletons does Big Boss have...?"
[Professor Emmerich glared at her, and then in the general direction of Big Bosses office.]
- Well, you'll probably have to stay here until the evacuation is done, but after that - I'll have to give him a piece of my mind, again, it seems!
[And then he wheeled off toward Big Bosses office, cold determination in his eyes.]
[Hal stared after him, and sighed.]
...You know, Marie, Papa was always scary, but... I never thought he actually had a "Darth Vader Mode", before.
[Marie wasn't quite sure to make of the cold look in Professor Emmerich's eyes, either, but she decided not to worry about it for now. Life was too short, after all...]
[And less then an hour later...]
[Marie sighed, as Uncle John - No, Big Boss told her, no ifs or buts, that she needed to go home once this was all over, and though he wasn't really sure of the value of a University education, personally, he really wasn't going to fight Professor Emmerich about that, either way.]
...So what are you actually be supposed to be doing, anyway?
[Marie said, looking at Kotomi's laptop.]
I'm afraid Unc - Big Boss didn't really explain the details...
[Kotomi smiled at her.]
Oh, um - I'm supposed to be translating something, and then doing something with the translation, except that it's a partial translation of a partial translation, and trying to figure out what it originally said is pretty hard!
But hmmm...Say, Marie-chan, what level of clearence do you have, anyway?
[Marie blinked.]
I have no idea, actually, but - Whatever it is, it should be high enough, I think? Since I'm supposed to be helping you do your "special project", among other things, after all...
[Kotomi nodded, then.]
Alright, then - Follow me!
[And then she grinned again.]
I'm going to show you something...Special.
[15 minutes, later, Marie in someplace that looked like a very big storeroom, looking up at a massive something, halfway covered in a blue sheet.]
- This is Artifact A-17. It doesn't look like much, but it's almost as heavy as one of those not really gundams they're making in the upper labs - It took usdays to figure out how to get it in here in one piece...
[Marie sweatdropped, then.]
...Does everybody here know about those robot things?
[Kotomi laughed, then.]
- Oh, the robot things aren't even really a secret at all, well, not in this Base, at least - Everybody's saying that they're probably be on sale all over the world in about 5 years, anyway!
[And then she grinned again, and then pointed at a slab of something that looked like slab of rock, covered with strange writing and what seemed to be pictures and symbols.]
Oh, and that's Artifact A-23 - It's almost as important as A-17 is, I think...
[And then Kotomi took a deep breath, and touched the slab.]
[Marie started as the slab started to humm, and then glowed a faint pink.]
[Kotomi took her hand away, eventually, and then the thing just looked like a rock slab again.]
Some people can make it glow, some can't. Professor Mizuki can't make it react at all, and he was really bummed out when he realized that...
[Hal Emmerich was sighing, and patting his stepsister's head.]
...You know, Emma? I have no idea what's going on here, at all. Why did we end up here, anyway?
[Emma smiled up at him, angelically.]
Me neither! Maybe we should go ask Mommy? She knows more stuff then she pretends to, most of the time, I think!
[Hal sweatdropped.] Emma, Emma, I know you're supposed to be a genius, but you scare even me sometimes, you know?
[But Emma, in the meanwhile, had gone off and asked Julie anyway. Julie put her coffee down, and sighed.]
Oh, OK, OK, I'll explain things, then -
[And then she took out a teddy bear out of seemingly nowhere, and put an eye patch on it. Hal stared - Where had the stuffed animal come from, never mind an eye patch?]
[Julie didn't seem to notice his staring, however.]
Alright, dears - This is Big Bear. Big Bear was very strong, and was a pretty charismatic leader, too, so eventually, a lot of people became his fans!
And lo, the Big Bear Fan Club was born! Well OK, it wasn't really like that, but that's close enough, I think...
[And more stuffed animals. Hal sighed, and decided to stop wondering where they had all come from.]
But eventually, the Big Bear Fan Club made many enemies, and one day, some of them tried to attack them outright! They were being sneaky about this, though - First, they set a trap, so Big Bear himself would be stuck in a base in the middle of nowhere, and then they attacked his friends!
[And then she grinned.] However, the Fan Club was much tougher then their enemies had thought they were, and they mostly managed to beat back the enemies by themselves, even though Big Bear wasn't there to help them directly.
[Hal stared at her.] So Papa was...
[Julie grinned.] Well, he was more like a former Fan Club member, but he still was a friend, I suppose. Sort of. And a good thing, too - I don't think we could have gotten away from 3 sets of enemies all by ourselves, anyway...
[And then, Emma waved her hand.]
But what now? The enemies aren't going to just give up and slink away now, right?
"You said you think you outrank me, Marie-chan. If you are close to Big Boss, then I think you can. It's why I asked."
It was what she assumed her Uncle would allow her to do. However... touching some alien, ancient piece of history that reacted supernaturally didn't completely sit right with her. Radiation, unknown effects, among other things. Kotomi Ichinose, in spite of being an intern, was quickly catching up, but she didn't know if her ease to be around those slabs was either the product of her advanced learning and constant thirst for knowledge, or her common air-headedness.
... But still, gathering valor, Marie sighed. And moved a hand over the second slab.
Her hand felt warm... and the stone glowed green. It seemed to split in three irregular pieces still in the same size as if an invisible knife had cut it, and rearranged it into another form, consistent with the glyph it carried... and after forming another shape, the stone stops glowing.
The girl slowly retreated her hand, unnerved, much in the way a cat would face something it didn't understand.
"What... was that?"
Kotomi turned, understanding and yet at the same time intrigued.
"It is another of the functions of the slabs we found. The first one I touched has the property of displaying outward radiation which can--"
"It's radiation!?"
Kotomi put her hands on her chest upon being intimidated.
"I--It's not ionizing radiation or anything we've found before! It's harmless! It's just that it's a form of non-ionizing radiation much akin to radio or microwaves that seems to form some sort of link with a few of the other slabs!"
Marie blinked.. and stared again.
"So... something like a radio?"
... Kotomi slowly nodded.
"Hn. And what you touched was one that hard reconstruction and rearrangement properties. Both slabs are just two out of many that could be used for this project. Immediate unhampered and complete communication along with a self-reconstruction mechanism would be important assents in the field."
This time, Marie looked impressed, looking at the other slabs, but no less distrustful of what she was seeing. She steps towards a few others, but more akin to a trainer knowing the dangers of the lion inside the bars.
"Is... there another one that forms some sort of... energy field?"
[A great amount of shouting started outside one of the doors in the room they were in.]
- Dr Emmerich! Where the fuck is Dr Emmerich, we have an emergency -
[Marie and Kotomi stared at each other, and then, Marie slowly went toward the door and opened it, gun in hand.]
[An old nurse who looked like she might be in her 60s was clinging to a teenager who was carrying around a rifle that was longer then he was tall. She had a blood stained bandage on her head, which the boy looked at worriedly.]
...What in the world is going on, here!
[And there was Huey Emmerich in the flesh, wheeling down the corridors, several armed men following him closely.]
[The nurse glared at him.]
- We have a situation, Dr Emmerich - About six out of ten of the trucks and vans which were supposed to take the children under my care to safety - Well, relative safety - Have disappeared. Vamoosed. Or more to the point, some fucking idiots thought it would be a good idea to hijack them outright!
[Dr Emmerich stared at her.]
Calm down, Nurse Hudson, and give me a proper report!
[And then he looked at the boy.]
- And you are?
[The boy stood at attention.]
I was part of the team getting the hospital complex ready, Sir, and that's going as well as expected up to this point, but without 6 trucks worth of supplies -
[Huey Emmerich groaned. One problem after another...]
[Marie stared at what was going on - And that was when Kotomi poked her sleeve.]
...I'm not really sure what's happening, but I heard they were going to try and evacutate the young orphans and sick and injured people to a hospital in one of the nearby towns, first. Just in case.
The Commander was making some kind of big charity hospital and school kind of thing there, I think, and it hadn't started operations yet, but we do own the place, so...
[And that was when a tall man in a white lab coat who looked like he might be Japanese came rushing onto the scene.]
...What in the world is going on here!?
[And then he turns toward Dr Emmerich.]
Professor Emmerich - Can't you do something!?!? My research is much more important then a pack of orphans and some sick men who probably wouldn't be useful for anything anymore anyway!
When I'm saying that the Artifacts in here can quite possible change the future of the entire world, I'm not kidding at all, sir...
[The nurse and young man glared at him, while Kotomi sighed, and bit her lip.]
...P-Professor Mizuki, please calm down, OK?
[The man called Mizuki glared at her.]
Oh, shut up, young miss - They haven't even set up any plans to evacuate Artifact-17 yet, I know that for a fact!
[And that was when the old nurse cut in -]
...As if we actually could evacuate that thing in time! It took almost a month to get it inside the base and put it where it is now, or have you forgotten that already?
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
3/3
Date: 2013-10-02 07:27 am (UTC)[Uncle John probably hadn't told her everything by a long shot, of that she was pretty sure, but...]
[And that was when Dr Emmerich caught sight of her.]
- Miss Zofie! Are you all right? How did everything go?
[And then he turned around toward his son.]
...See, Hal? Miss Zofie is quite all right. And Emma darling...Stop chewing on your mother's hair, OK?
[Julie blinked, and drunkenly stared at her daughter, who was indeed chewing on her mother's hair in her sleep.]
...Emma! Stop that!
no subject
Date: 2013-10-23 07:19 am (UTC)"It went... decently." She muttered, trying to keep a smile. "I can't say much - some of it is classified," and it would turn things to hell if she spoke of some things - such as the pseudo-Gundams. "It was mostly things that everyone in here already knew."
Dr. Emerich looked above him, realizing the girl had something else to say. There was a reason big Boss called her personally, after all that happened, instead of simply shipping her home.
"But from now on... I think I'll be working here."
"What?"
Emerich's hands gripped his handles as he almost forcibly lifted himself, unable to believe the course of action. Julie herself turned to them, retreating with her child, who cried when Marie's finger left her mouth.
"As it turns out... it's not something I can just go home without raising suspicions. There are skills Uncle John needs of me, and I'll have to stay here." She stood her ground. Her red eyes turned straight to him. "I'm young. I know it. But Big Boss wants me here. I know it."
Emma calmed down as soon as she grabbed again onto her mother's hair, as everything calmed down.
"A teenager." His electric chair whirred back to life as he moved past, muttering to himself. "How many more skeletons does Big Boss have...?"
1/3
Date: 2013-10-24 05:53 am (UTC)[Professor Emmerich glared at her, and then in the general direction of Big Bosses office.]
- Well, you'll probably have to stay here until the evacuation is done, but after that - I'll have to give him a piece of my mind, again, it seems!
[And then he wheeled off toward Big Bosses office, cold determination in his eyes.]
[Hal stared after him, and sighed.]
...You know, Marie, Papa was always scary, but... I never thought he actually had a "Darth Vader Mode", before.
[Marie wasn't quite sure to make of the cold look in Professor Emmerich's eyes, either, but she decided not to worry about it for now. Life was too short, after all...]
[And less then an hour later...]
[Marie sighed, as Uncle John - No, Big Boss told her, no ifs or buts, that she needed to go home once this was all over, and though he wasn't really sure of the value of a University education, personally, he really wasn't going to fight Professor Emmerich about that, either way.]
[Well, OK, then, buuut...]
2/3
Date: 2013-10-24 05:55 am (UTC)...So what are you actually be supposed to be doing, anyway?
[Marie said, looking at Kotomi's laptop.]
I'm afraid Unc - Big Boss didn't really explain the details...
[Kotomi smiled at her.]
Oh, um - I'm supposed to be translating something, and then doing something with the translation, except that it's a partial translation of a partial translation, and trying to figure out what it originally said is pretty hard!
But hmmm...Say, Marie-chan, what level of clearence do you have, anyway?
[Marie blinked.]
I have no idea, actually, but - Whatever it is, it should be high enough, I think? Since I'm supposed to be helping you do your "special project", among other things, after all...
[Kotomi nodded, then.]
Alright, then - Follow me!
[And then she grinned again.]
I'm going to show you something...Special.
[15 minutes, later, Marie in someplace that looked like a very big storeroom, looking up at a massive something, halfway covered in a blue sheet.]
- This is Artifact A-17. It doesn't look like much, but it's almost as heavy as one of those not really gundams they're making in the upper labs - It took usdays to figure out how to get it in here in one piece...
[Marie sweatdropped, then.]
...Does everybody here know about those robot things?
[Kotomi laughed, then.]
- Oh, the robot things aren't even really a secret at all, well, not in this Base, at least - Everybody's saying that they're probably be on sale all over the world in about 5 years, anyway!
[And then she grinned again, and then pointed at a slab of something that looked like slab of rock, covered with strange writing and what seemed to be pictures and symbols.]
Oh, and that's Artifact A-23 - It's almost as important as A-17 is, I think...
[And then Kotomi took a deep breath, and touched the slab.]
[Marie started as the slab started to humm, and then glowed a faint pink.]
[Kotomi took her hand away, eventually, and then the thing just looked like a rock slab again.]
Some people can make it glow, some can't. Professor Mizuki can't make it react at all, and he was really bummed out when he realized that...
[And then she smiled at Marie.]
- Soo - Do you want to try it out?
3/3
Date: 2013-10-24 05:56 am (UTC)[Hal Emmerich was sighing, and patting his stepsister's head.]
...You know, Emma? I have no idea what's going on here, at all. Why did we end up here, anyway?
[Emma smiled up at him, angelically.]
Me neither! Maybe we should go ask Mommy? She knows more stuff then she pretends to, most of the time, I think!
[Hal sweatdropped.] Emma, Emma, I know you're supposed to be a genius, but you scare even me sometimes, you know?
[But Emma, in the meanwhile, had gone off and asked Julie anyway. Julie put her coffee down, and sighed.]
Oh, OK, OK, I'll explain things, then -
[And then she took out a teddy bear out of seemingly nowhere, and put an eye patch on it. Hal stared - Where had the stuffed animal come from, never mind an eye patch?]
[Julie didn't seem to notice his staring, however.]
Alright, dears - This is Big Bear. Big Bear was very strong, and was a pretty charismatic leader, too, so eventually, a lot of people became his fans!
And lo, the Big Bear Fan Club was born! Well OK, it wasn't really like that, but that's close enough, I think...
[And more stuffed animals. Hal sighed, and decided to stop wondering where they had all come from.]
But eventually, the Big Bear Fan Club made many enemies, and one day, some of them tried to attack them outright! They were being sneaky about this, though - First, they set a trap, so Big Bear himself would be stuck in a base in the middle of nowhere, and then they attacked his friends!
[And then she grinned.] However, the Fan Club was much tougher then their enemies had thought they were, and they mostly managed to beat back the enemies by themselves, even though Big Bear wasn't there to help them directly.
[Hal stared at her.] So Papa was...
[Julie grinned.] Well, he was more like a former Fan Club member, but he still was a friend, I suppose. Sort of. And a good thing, too - I don't think we could have gotten away from 3 sets of enemies all by ourselves, anyway...
[And then, Emma waved her hand.]
But what now? The enemies aren't going to just give up and slink away now, right?
[And Julie sighed.]
Yeahhh...That's the sticker, all right...
no subject
Date: 2013-11-01 07:07 am (UTC)"Can I really touch it?"
Kotomi smiled.
"You said you think you outrank me, Marie-chan. If you are close to Big Boss, then I think you can. It's why I asked."
It was what she assumed her Uncle would allow her to do. However... touching some alien, ancient piece of history that reacted supernaturally didn't completely sit right with her. Radiation, unknown effects, among other things. Kotomi Ichinose, in spite of being an intern, was quickly catching up, but she didn't know if her ease to be around those slabs was either the product of her advanced learning and constant thirst for knowledge, or her common air-headedness.
... But still, gathering valor, Marie sighed. And moved a hand over the second slab.
Her hand felt warm... and the stone glowed green. It seemed to split in three irregular pieces still in the same size as if an invisible knife had cut it, and rearranged it into another form, consistent with the glyph it carried... and after forming another shape, the stone stops glowing.
The girl slowly retreated her hand, unnerved, much in the way a cat would face something it didn't understand.
"What... was that?"
Kotomi turned, understanding and yet at the same time intrigued.
"It is another of the functions of the slabs we found. The first one I touched has the property of displaying outward radiation which can--"
"It's radiation!?"
Kotomi put her hands on her chest upon being intimidated.
"I--It's not ionizing radiation or anything we've found before! It's harmless! It's just that it's a form of non-ionizing radiation much akin to radio or microwaves that seems to form some sort of link with a few of the other slabs!"
Marie blinked.. and stared again.
"So... something like a radio?"
... Kotomi slowly nodded.
"Hn. And what you touched was one that hard reconstruction and rearrangement properties. Both slabs are just two out of many that could be used for this project. Immediate unhampered and complete communication along with a self-reconstruction mechanism would be important assents in the field."
This time, Marie looked impressed, looking at the other slabs, but no less distrustful of what she was seeing. She steps towards a few others, but more akin to a trainer knowing the dangers of the lion inside the bars.
"Is... there another one that forms some sort of... energy field?"
...
Kotomi tilted her head.
"That sounds like science fiction."
"Yeah."
no subject
Date: 2013-11-01 07:30 am (UTC)[A great amount of shouting started outside one of the doors in the room they were in.]
- Dr Emmerich! Where the fuck is Dr Emmerich, we have an emergency -
[Marie and Kotomi stared at each other, and then, Marie slowly went toward the door and opened it, gun in hand.]
[An old nurse who looked like she might be in her 60s was clinging to a teenager who was carrying around a rifle that was longer then he was tall. She had a blood stained bandage on her head, which the boy looked at worriedly.]
...What in the world is going on, here!
[And there was Huey Emmerich in the flesh, wheeling down the corridors, several armed men following him closely.]
[The nurse glared at him.]
- We have a situation, Dr Emmerich - About six out of ten of the trucks and vans which were supposed to take the children under my care to safety - Well, relative safety - Have disappeared. Vamoosed. Or more to the point, some fucking idiots thought it would be a good idea to hijack them outright!
[Dr Emmerich stared at her.]
Calm down, Nurse Hudson, and give me a proper report!
[And then he looked at the boy.]
- And you are?
[The boy stood at attention.]
I was part of the team getting the hospital complex ready, Sir, and that's going as well as expected up to this point, but without 6 trucks worth of supplies -
[Huey Emmerich groaned. One problem after another...]
[Marie stared at what was going on - And that was when Kotomi poked her sleeve.]
...I'm not really sure what's happening, but I heard they were going to try and evacutate the young orphans and sick and injured people to a hospital in one of the nearby towns, first. Just in case.
The Commander was making some kind of big charity hospital and school kind of thing there, I think, and it hadn't started operations yet, but we do own the place, so...
2/2
Date: 2013-11-02 06:12 am (UTC)...What in the world is going on here!?
[And then he turns toward Dr Emmerich.]
Professor Emmerich - Can't you do something!?!? My research is much more important then a pack of orphans and some sick men who probably wouldn't be useful for anything anymore anyway!
When I'm saying that the Artifacts in here can quite possible change the future of the entire world, I'm not kidding at all, sir...
[The nurse and young man glared at him, while Kotomi sighed, and bit her lip.]
...P-Professor Mizuki, please calm down, OK?
[The man called Mizuki glared at her.]
Oh, shut up, young miss - They haven't even set up any plans to evacuate Artifact-17 yet, I know that for a fact!
[And that was when the old nurse cut in -]
...As if we actually could evacuate that thing in time! It took almost a month to get it inside the base and put it where it is now, or have you forgotten that already?