Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

Nate stopped considering. "Well, I can think of three more important details."

"First off, there is a way for certain people to persuade demons to assist them, rather than attack at random. And before you ask, yes. I am one of those people. In my case, I'm part of a group that uses the demons to assist in attempting to maintain the separating barrier, and investigate breaches. That is, when I'm not busy with my company. And yes, investigating breaches does entail containing or repairing as possible. Which does often involve combat."

"Second, there does exist a couple of tricks of altering things to a state where the demons are forced to fight more on our level. I know of both, and use at least one of them."

"And finally... I guess that this is a bit of a warning. There are those who exist that know about the demons, and can control them, that are out solely for their own gain. They're often involved, if not directly responsible, for the previously mentioned breaches. However, just because a breach occurs doesn't mean that one of those Dark Summoners, as they're sometimes called, are involved."

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

"Well, what does all this have to do with me, then?" The drow woman asked, standing and starting to pace slightly, a few steps in either direction. "I mean, you said that you don't expect me to mystically wander into this other dimension again, right? Should I just pretend none of this ever happened, or what? I thought I was going crazy, wierd eyeball owls outside my window and chased all through an empty town by some flying cat thing."

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

Nate shrugged. "Well, you did ask me to tell you everyth...Wait. Eyeball owl-things?"

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

Bell jumped a bit, suddenly looking a little nervous. "Oh, right, yeah, didn't mention that, did I? The day I was here last, there was some odd bird thing outside my window. Pretty big, and with a gigantic eyeball pretty well for a head. i couldn't catch it on camera, so I thought I was going loopy, and went to bed early."

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

Nate looked puzzled. "Not showing on a camera... And that appearance..."

He stopped, obviously thinking hard with his arms crossed. After a while, he continued. "That sounds like it could be another type of demon, but... That's not one I know of. Strange that you could see it, though."

He took a breath, then added, "Normally, when they end up on this side of the barrier, demons remain invisible to normal sight. They usually require some training to detect and see... Wait, were there any other drow present that saw it?"

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

"I had an employee in the other room, but she didn't go checking. I described it to my human tech, figured it was just someone's pet or something, but he had never heard of a bird like that before."

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

Nate spun the nearest chair, which happened to be the one at the head of the meeting table, around. He sat in it, pressing one hand to his forehead while resting the elbow on the chair's arm. After a moment, he looked up, obviously uneasy with this new information.

"Hopefully, that was just a random occurrence, but I've still got some poking around to do later. Something about your description of that avian creature doesn't sound right."

He paused, thinking. "I think, barring any further bizarre encounters, it should be safe enough to just write off your incidents yesterday as a bad streak of luck. However, if you have, or recently had, any other encounters with anything like beings from urban legends, folk lore, or other such, like ghosts... Go ahead and contact me right away. I just can't shake this feeling that there's more going on around Pathos than what's visible on the surface."

At that, he risked a slight grin in Bell's direction. "And I suspect that you'd be just as happy not to find out it's a whole iceberg we're dealing with, instead of just random pieces."

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

"Well..." She said slowly, shrugging. A moment passed in silence, the drow glancing about as if trying to find something to say. "And if I get sucked in again, or however this works?"

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

Nate gave his own shrug. "Well, there's an automated maintenance system already in place on the holo-bracer's software. Shouldn't be too hard to code in a tracking protocol, so I'll be alerted if something happens. That was one of our first steps towards the full-function version. Also it's the only one so far that we've gotten to work."

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

"Ah, the tracking system in there, right. Suppose that works. Much as it kinda creeps me out, guess I'd be thankful if it winds up being necessary." She answered. "On the bright side, I'm not supposed to be anywhere for today, so I can hunker down and sort out this place. You're too busy to give me the grand tour, I bet, but where should I start?"

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

"One second." Nate got up, and headed back into his office. Bell could hear him shuffling things for a bit. After a moment, he came back out with an ID card and some manner of flat device.

"The pad contains a sort of introductory guide to the complex, and the ID will get you into most of the place. For safety reasons, occupied apartments, the labs, treatment rooms, and maintenance areas are off-limits, of course. That should help you with a tour."

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

Bell took the items, sliding the card into the top of her shirt, and keeping the datapad in a hand. "Sounds good, thank you." She said, standing. "Anything else you needed, or should I let you get back to whatever you were doing?"

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

Nate shook his head. "No, I think that about wraps things up for now. Of course, you probably should keep the bulk of this conversation to yourself, but I doubt I really needed to mention that again... At least, I think it's again..."

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

"Yeah, hush hush, I know. Though I really think that the chance to randomly leave this plane of existence and get eaten is something people should know about. Ah well. Always thought I would like cloak and dagger stuff..." Bell said, waving her hand about in a dismissive way. Starting to look at the datapad as she left the room.

Figuring it would be an easy place to start, Bell moved towards the dormitories.

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

The guide she'd been given indicated that the dormitory area for the Administration building was actually close by... In fact, it comprised most of the 'tower' she was already in. It also noted that most of the software development personnel for the entertainment division, at least the ones who moved into the Center, were housed in that section as well, for ease of access to workstations.

Once she found an unoccupied apartment, an easy task as the doors themselves had built-in displays that either gave the resident's name or read 'Unoccupied', Bell would be in for what might be an interesting sight.

The far wall was, like Cross' own rooms, entirely window. The guide listed the window as being comprised of starship-grade materials, further reinforced by a structural integrity field. It also stated the exsistance of automated deployable blast screens for further defense against catastrophic storms. It was also sizable, and had double doors on the left wall, and an opening into a kitchen and dining area, which wasn't tiny either. The double doors lead to a sizable bedroom, complete with attached bathroom and walk-in closet. The entire apartment seemed, while currently unfurnished, to be designed with adaptability in mind.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

The drow woman took a quick walk around the quarters, impressed by the size. Cross really didn't cut corners. The place sounded like a bunker as well, judging by the notes given on the guide she had. Was it simply because of the unusual architecture and possibility of storms? Her building certainly had nothing of the sort. Were they expecting an attack at some point? That thought made her shudder a little.

Deciding that there was little else to see here, she wandered out again. She wanted to see what her workspace here would be like next, she went that way, following the map on the guide.

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

The directions provided by the guide lead her to the other tower of the building she was in. They also seemed to have lead her to a currently unoccupied part of the actual "Work Tower". The workstations seemed to come in four varieties: Single occupant offices, both with and without a window-wall, as well as larger group workrooms, again with the option of being fully sheltered or having the window-wall. Two features stood out on all four options. Again, the open space and easily adaptable design was present. Also, hook-ups were present for both human and drow computer system.

A note in guide stated that most employees end up using two workstations, a solo station and then one of the group stations as well when needed for major projects.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

Bell was again impressed at the apparent cost of the place, wandering between rooms and checking them out. Out of curiosity, she wandered over to a solo workstation and poked around. She didn't have (or at least didn't know) her company login yet, but it was always interesting to see what you could see from stuff available without one.

Once that was done, a glance at the guide told her there was really little else to see that would matter to her, so she wandered back down to outside of the admin building, wondering whether to go and see cross again, or just head home for the day.

 

[ShadowWolfSBI]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

As she was waiting, someone would be approaching from the direction of the station. The person in question appeared to be a human male, roughly appearing to be late in his middle age with the first signs of grey hair appearing. While he was noticeably different in appearance from Cross, there was something similar about his manner. The few Center employees that were moving around the pathway all gave this man visible respect, and usually moved out of his way, although he didn't seem bothered on the occasions where he had to stop or move himself.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Horizon Research and Treatment Center - Admin Building and Dormitory

Bell furrowed her brow as she saw the man making his way up the walk, people moving out of the way for him. She didn't think too much of it, though, silently moving aside herself when he got close enough. Her head was already back in her programs, carefully manipulating the holographic display on her arm. Working out programming problems always seemed to help her work out her own problems, she was hitting two birds with one stone, as the humans say.