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 Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 10:34 am
Melvin usually used new trainees for odd jobs. It became a habit that once you established yourself above trainee, you were at least one step less than division errand boy. He had done a lot of random assignments from fixing copy machines to fetching coffee when he was first came to the island, and while some full hunters might still flex their rank, he at least could shut himself in his own lab room and avoid their random requests.
Occasionally, there were new hunters to the division that needed to know where everything was, and he spotted a list of fresh hunters requesting a tour. He got their contact number, form a Mr. D. Cress, and texted him to figure out a time and place.
He decided inside the front doors of the Life Lab's building would be best, and waited at 10am that morning for the new trainee to arrive.
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 12:16 pm
He was getting more used to being on the Island now, so when he got up this morning for his tour of the Life Labs, Cress only walked in the wrong direction once and stopped himself fast to not waste too much time. He arrived only a couple minutes late and saw who he presumed to be his tour guide, standing inside the front doors. The guy had goggles on and a lab coat version of the division coat. For Science. Cress grinned. I wonder what kind of stuff they have stashed in the Labs. Maybe a particle accelerator? Though, that would be considering if Fear can be decomposed into separate particles. I did hear something about Golems, and if they are what I think they are, I wonder how advanced they have become though-
He stopped his train of thought temporarily as he walked through the front doors. There would be time to ask his questions later. He nodded towards the more experienced hunter and held out his hand to shake. "Dietrich Cress. Here for the tour. Sorry for my tardiness."MoonKitsune Do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around. That's what it's all about. /shotshotshot
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Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 6:35 pm
Melvin regarded the trainee who came up to him, checked his phone for the time, and was glad that he didn't keep him waiting too long. "It's fine. As long as I'm not here forever, I won't be pissed off." He informed him, regarding the trainee. Blonde. Long hair, one of the many on Deus island. He gave Rep a run for his money, but at least it was tidy and tied up in a pony tail. He was taller than Melvin, which was a bit unsettling, and he looked younger. It was strange that most hunters either ranged between tragically short to being runner-ups for the NBA.
"Melvin Wood, by the way. I'm a intermediate Lifer here on the island." He said, fessing up to his rank. He offered a black-gloved hand to shake his before gesturing. "Follow me."
He started to head down the hallways. "The Life Building is mainly seperated between research labs and the medical wings, based on our own research. There are then subsections and many labs are used for many different things as groups take over shifts. I'll head over to the labs first and we can end in the Infirmary."
He started to make a left turn and glanced to make sure Diedrich was keeping in step. "The Life Labs have a lot of specimens and as a trainee, they will probably put you on minipet duties. Walking. Feeding. Cleaning out cages. If you decide to do research, you'll be tasked to go and find specimens of your own or even sent to Halloween to pick up minipets to refresh our stock for other projects. Minipets outside of their cages have a short self life and melt, and during experimentation, they don't hold up.'
"Ah, first stop. This is the runic department."
Melvin paused in a set of labs. A eerie blue glow danced about various objects and various sized tables and objects in line were set on tables with various Lifers wearing protective eyewear. One was even wearing a pair of sunglasses as he tapped away at putting runes on a small tv.
"This is where all items go that need runics. Those are the glowing blue symbols you see all around. Nothing works on the island that relies on some battery or energy due to the Fear interference on the island. That's why everything needs to be runiced. Keep in good with these guys because if you want anything to work, you're going to have to pay big to get it runiced. I'd suggest schmoozing as much as you can in hopes they don't rob you blind."
He gestured again and headed down the hallway. "If you get into runes, I won't mind having someone I can talk to." Especially since it would be cheaper on his wallet.
"Have you thought about a specialization yet?"
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 4:49 pm
He raised an eyebrow when Melvin mentioned something about minipets melting. What the hell did he mean by minpet? How in the world was he supposed to go to Halloween and just pick one up? And what the hell would a melting minipet look like? He figured that he probably didn't want to find out and that he could ask his questions about them when they got to the minipet holding area or whatever it was called. After all, the intermediate trainee had continued talking and there was no point in interrupting now. What he said was interesting.
Cress glanced at the Lifers working on the strange objects with eerie blue glows. "How do runes work exactly? Are they a form of Fear or another force entirely? Or did humans create the energy behind them artificially?"
He paused. No, he had not thought about a specialization yet, but working with live specimens that potentially melted was a bit unsettling. Though there was that one thing--"I can't say I have settled on a specialization yet, but golems seem pretty interesting."
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 5:11 pm
"Oh, well, I haven't taken part in runecraft yet. It's something I've been meaning to get around, and I plan to start doing myself soon. It's a good skill to have when you have the time and if energy is ever needed. I like having multiple projects. They have a course you can take to start learning, which is where I'm going to start."
He adjusted his glasses as he recalled what he had read. "Runes are created. You need to find special runestones that are located under the island. Then you need to place your own Fear and concentrate on the intended purpose of the rune and that creates a rune stone. Of course those specializing can do many types of runes. I think they only teach the most basic one in teh course. I hear that are some rune masters that know the complete set and are still dsicovering more, but I'm not in that section of the labs to know for sure. I just know there are a LOT of them."
"If you ever want to try, I can show you the course. I'll be starting my runs soon."
He headed down the hallway and made another turn, avoiding a hunter whose arm was bandaged and was pushing a large minipet tank on wheels with a particular nasty looking creature inside.
"Oh, golems are this way. Let's head over." He made another turn and then stopped at a pair of doors to look in the window. "Okay, they aren't busy." He opened the doors and looked inside to see two techs using a cutie catcher and picking numbers. They looked up, annoyed to see the two. "Just doing a tour." He told them, which was good because neither looked like they were going to help.
"This is the golem labs. This is where they create and test golems. If you ever are curious, you can volunteer your own weapon to be placed in a golem, and there are plenty of missions where you will be using a golem to go into Halloween. When portals are up, you can also take golems out to go into Halloween, but there are time limits to how long a golem can be out. You can't use your weapon or have fear attacks when in a golem, since your physical body is sleeping in a pod on the island and you are only telepathically sending signals to move it. That is why it's also a matter of caution never to get caught by Halloween citizens due to not being able to produce Fear. "
"Any questions?" He said, beaming. He felt like he was being very good at this.
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 5:54 pm
He nodded along as Melvin talked. This all sounded very interesting and he would really love to get his hands on any of the tools and start tinkering. "A rune course sounds good." He followed the intermediate trainee down the hallway and raised an eyebrow at the passing hunter. He really shouldn't be surprised at this point, but there was weird little creature inside the tank which he could only infer to be a minipet.
Putting his weapon inside a golem? Now that sounded pretty interesting. He would have to try that sometime later. "If I was in the situation where I am caught by Halloween citizens, would I be able to forcibly eject my consciousness or basically stop sending telepathic signals to the golem? Or would I have to have the golem return to the Life labs first?" He paused. There were an awful lot of different questions that he wanted to ask, but which one first. "For technicality's sake, how do we fight with those from Halloween if we can only travel there through golems? Also, from what I understand, one of the components of a golem is Fear, therefore, would it be possible to channel this Fear into a different utility through some tinkering? Our weapons are creatures of Fear, so wouldn't a golem, made of Fear, follow the same principle?"
He changed the topic of his questions temporarily and asked out of curiosity, "What are you researching now?"
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 7:50 pm
"They want you to return the golem back, but they sometimes don't make it. They dissolve or explode after a few days depending on your rank. They are made from dirt, bone dust, and a lot of fear. You don't fight in golems. They are just to gather information and participate in events. You can't fight in a golem as you can as a hunter. If you are sent out to fight anything, they will just send you as you are with your weapon into Halloween. Golems are for information. Based on what type you get means you get different conditions and appearances. You can talk to the Lifers here about more information regarding them if you are interested. I don't know all the details. I don't think there is a eject button as far as I know, but there could be. It's why you try not to make it known you're a hunter inhabiting a mud-person." He said with a shrug.
"I'm currently researching artifacts." He decided that since the hunter was new, he'd elaborate without asking." Artifacts are ancient items in Halloween. They are located in different areas in the Halloween world and are guarded by Halloween creatures. If you are lucky and persistent, not to mention have a lot of time to kill, then you can try to get one for yourself." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. "This is mine. I've been documenting the ones hunters have gathered so far and testing them to see if we can learn more about them and apply the information to what we already know. Mine was originally a sash but had to be runiced to work."
"Usually artifacts give you a boost in battle, but some have some other unique traits that usable in battle. If you ever want to try to get one, I'm more than happy to help if you promise to let me document it after."
He turned to a door and just pointed at it. "That's our demolitions department. If you are into explosions and blowing stuff up, that's the place to go. I don't now jack about it so don't ask. I just know most of them have the worst hearing."
He turned and headed down the hallway. "We're going to head to the main labs now."
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2014 9:31 am
He looked at the handkerchief that Melvin was holding. It seemed pretty normal to him, thought with runes on it. Didn't really seem particularly ancient powerful objects from Halloween, but he supposed like all things, appearances weren't enough. "What does yours do?" He pointed at the handkerchief. It didn't really look like it could do much aside from wiping noses and other bodily fluids unless it could change sizes or something--coming to think of it, it probably did have some magical property since it was an artifact. "If I wanted to search for an artifact, would I need to have higher clearance?" He was still only a trainee after all.
Cress glanced at the demolitions department and mentally made note to stop by it later. It was not that he was particularly interested in it, but getting his hands on some small explosives was also useful--plus, he would not have been able to in his old life, not legally any way. Getting his hands on some small bombs just because he could had a kind of satisfying feeling to it. Not a particularly good righteous one, but satisfying, yes. He followed Melvin towards the main labs.MoonKitsune You're amazing. OuO <3 Thank you for all the info.
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2014 9:53 am
Lady in the Golden Wood NP. Check the Info subforum in the guild. It will be your new best friend. I can also answer any other questions you have. I have AIM open almost always: DeviantBebop. Our shop also has a AIM blast chat where everyone can give you information if you are confused or if you want to just chat/plot with fellow TIH/Deus hunters.
"Mine toughens my Fear shield for a small amount of time. Usually enough to withstand one powerful blow. The only downside is that it seems to like sprouting up sealife for days after." He didn't mention that the sealife usually sprouted on him. He had found too many hermit grabs in his hair and random fish in his pockets to count anymore.
"I can show you how to go about getting one, if you want. It's safer for the first time at least, and then you'll know for the future. I hope to try my hand at some of the more rare artifacts soon, but I want to get a bit stronger before I take on that task." He really valued his life after all, and he didn't want to fall onto any more spike pits.
"Alright. These are the main labs. You'll probably be doing a lot of errand work for the hunters here. Getting coffee, fetching things, and grabbing equipment. Basic stuff. Some hunters have set labs they keep, and others rotate time slots. We all work on whatever we specialize our focus on. You'll also see most labs have minipet tanks used for experimentation. It's standard Life duty to be assigned to walk and take care of these minipets for other hunters from time to time while they are busy or off island."
He turned back to smile at him. "Ready to head to the Infirmary?"
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2014 10:20 am
He raised an eyebrow. "...sea life?" That sounded strangely bizarre from a handkerchief. Just imagine, some poor soul goes to blow his nose on the handkerchief, and woe betide, a hermit crab's got a firm grip on his nostrils. But then again, he supposed strange stuff was all the usual for life on the Island, so he nodded. "Help would be fantastic. I would rather not die if I can help it." He didn't really like the sound of artifact locations being guarded and having traps, but that was standard, so if he were to end up in some crackpot situation down a bloody ditch or something, it would be nice to have others there to give him a hand.
Cress looked around the main labs. Coffee mule, fetching stuff, taking care of minipets, that was all fine. Typical work for a research intern after all. He wanted to go and have a look on the work that all of them were working on, but it would take a lot of time, so he supposed that would have to wait until later. He would have enough time on his hands afterwards anyway. In short, life here was going to be pretty f***ing awesome. He grinned, "Yeah, ready."
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Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 9:19 am
He smiled and turned, heading down the walkway. As he did, he was mildly (okay VERY) curious about the new hunter, and since he didn't want his reputation as a compulsive question-asker to get to him just yet, he decided he might as well reap the rewards of ignorance now while he still could.
"So, where did you live before Deus?" He said innocently enough.
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Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 2:30 pm
"Outskirts of Boston, near Cambridge. My dad was, probably still is doing, research in combinatorics and dynamical systems in one of the labs there." He paused and corrected himself. "Did also go to an university elsewhere for a year or so before dropping out." He couldn't've exactly just gone on with his daily life once Deus had come knocking on his door, especially considering the lack of direction he had had. Also, what better reason for dropping out of college but to join a top secret organization to save the world. There was really nothing much to it.
"What about you?"
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Posted: Sun May 25, 2014 8:54 pm
His eyes lit up. "You're from Massachusetts?! I'm from there! I went to University of Mass Amherst." He hadn't meant anyone yet from Massachusetts and was suddenly excited and no longer caring about the tour. "What did you study?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 4:31 pm
Cress grinned. Another Massachusettnite? Fantastic. "UMass? That place is fantastic. A lot of my high school classmates ended up going there. What department were you?" He paused and shrugged. "I was a freshman, so I wasn't able to take any of the really in-depth courses. But I was looking into applied mathematics in conjunction to artificial intelligence--developing algorithms for computers, voice recognition circuits and stuff."MoonKitsune Sorry for replying so late. @____@;; Out of country at the moment and don't have much access to internet.
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Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 1:59 pm
Lady in the Golden Wood No rush. Take your time. Enjoy yourself while you are out and about, too.
Most people weren't very helpful.
"Though voice recognition and computers seems more something the Death division would be interested in. Glad to have you on our side."
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