20:31 <banana> October rolls on. Bob's emergency is over, and his next point of contact with the new job is a one-on-one debriefing - down at the greybox, Richard Haldane wants to pick his brains for the cell's wiki. 20:33 <banana> Everything is starting to look more built-out, though the interior partitions don't rise to the full height of the safehouse. If they add higher layers someday, they're going to have to add ceilings to at least the toilet block. 20:34 <banana> Entering the building is always the same experience - two doors, unlimited wires - so the way that the safehouse inside has been updated every time Bob comes here gives him the impression of rapidly passing time, an interior decoration montage. 20:34 <tom> Bob's gotta integrate his new Optic into the ODIN suite anyway, so if Richard isn't there when he arrives, Haldane will find the man at his station fucking around with a screwdriver and a mounted magnifying glass inside the butchered remains of some triclopian tactical headset. 20:35 <tom> It's magic. I don't have to understand shit. 20:38 <banana> Richard pops into the workroom, poking his head in the doorway before catching up with it. "Mr. Goreman, just the man I wanted to see." 20:38 <tom> "Oh, hey Rick- Richard." 20:39 <banana> "Just Richard is fine," he affirms. "If you don't mind my asking - does your handyman impression extend to electronics?" 20:39 <tom> Bob's just finishing up, having scooted the murdered viscera of the headset off the side of the table while he boots up the visor to see if the mods are working. 20:40 <tom> "After a fashion. I'm not going to learn to code, if that's what you're asking." 20:40 <banana> That's promising. Exactly the kind of integration we're looking for here. 20:40 <banana> Haldane: "Oh, I wouldn't expect you to. Code is nasty stuff, it gets in the ethics." 20:41 <tom> Bob taps the frames on his stupid-looking aviators. "You don't mind flicking the lights on and off for a sec, do you?" 20:42 <banana> Obligingly, the administrator trots over to the exterior wall and fiddles with the exposed Wires. He connects one to another, and you are plunged into darkness. 20:42 <tom> From some way away in the dark: Click, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee- 20:43 <tom> Haldane can hear Bob stand, immediately slam his toe into the leg of his table. He's been working in his socks. Bob curses. "O-okay we're good." 20:43 <banana> The lights come back after a moment. Richard's busying himself taking something out of a cabinet, a sort of tripod assembly. 20:43 <banana> "Are we? That's nice to hear." 20:44 <tom> Bob is rubbing his foot at his chair. "I know it's stupid but, you know the thing that happens in like every spy movie.." 20:44 <banana> What is that thing? 20:44 <tom> "Where Matt Damon or whoever just completely tears through like, America's finest because they were all tacc'd up and he just shines a flashlight in their cool, weirdly visible green-ass glowing night vision." 20:45 <tom> "So that's one less thing to worry about." 20:46 <banana> Haldane: "Yes, the flashbang effect. So your gizmo's now immune?" 20:46 <tom> "Should be. I'm not sure you want me to perform that stress test on-site." 20:46 <tom> "We live and die in the edge cases. Don't judge." 20:47 <banana> On a clear workspace, he sets down a bundle of cabling, a small video camera, the tripod-thing - looks like a couple of motors and mechanical arms - and a rigid assemblage of axial rods in fluorescent green. The TrackCheck. 20:48 <banana> "I wouldn't dream of it. Now, Bob. I asked you here to pick your brains about changelings.. but how do you feel about a little side project?" 20:49 <tom> Bob sits up in the chair, which squeaks in protest. "You have my curiosity." 20:50 <tom> Bob's hiding his excitement here- side projects are the only thing he's got going to keep him from thinking about where his life's been and immediately having to be restrained by Aaron again. 20:51 <banana> Haldane: "You know about this thing. Discarded by the Human Office, capable of revelation in principle, sets cats among pigeons. A couple of our fellows have taken it out for a spin, yourself possibly included." 20:52 <banana> "Unfortunately, they've reported back that the damn thing is too inconvenient. Physically, socially, anthropologically. And yet I'd rather not waste all that treason." 20:53 <tom> "Yeah. You know.. my people scare easy. I'm not about to point a fucking ray-gun at them." 20:53 <tom> "I just got done apologizing for the last thing." 20:54 <banana> "Absolutely." Richard takes note of 'my people'. "Here's an alternative, then." 20:55 <banana> He gestures at the parts and cables. "Do you think we could build some sort of harness for the widget? If we show it pictures on a monitor and record the outputs - OCR is pretty easy - we'd just need to hook up activation based on a signal from an app, you see." 20:57 <tom> "Hmmmmmm." Bob exhales, Richard can see his eyebrows furrow. 20:58 <tom> "My visor's meant to stream real-time back to H.Q. If we can set up a station somewhere nearby, the van, wherever, you could maybe interface the TrackCheck there." 20:59 <tom> "Have it take in what I'm recording via the GoPro or I can just.. it's sort of a pain to interface the ODIN with commercial systems but I bet it's doable." 20:59 <tom> "Does it work if you point it at a camera?" 21:00 <banana> Haldane: "Well.. I don't know the capabilities of your specialised equipment, but it definitely works with a Huawei." 21:00 <banana> "Would you mind standing in front of the camera there? Let's have a demonstration." 21:01 <tom> "Now we're sure this thing doesn't like, paint us with radiation, right? I've already been sweeped twice." 21:02 <tom> He does as directed. 21:05 <banana> Richard: "I can't see any reason it would!" 21:05 <banana> The camera's on, presumably recording Bob. Haldane opens up the TrackCheck and holds up his phone to it, then toggles the switch. The dulcet tones of the vuvuela fill the air once again. 21:06 <tom> Bob can't help but smile every time. 21:06 <banana> He flips the music back off with some haste. "Welcome to the Internet of Things." 21:06 <tom> "Cool. So we can just stick that sucker back in the van and have it transmit on a separate frequency back to us for real-time readout." 21:06 <tom> "That's what you're suggesting, right?" 21:07 <tom> "I guess it'd be more convenient to have someone carry it up." 21:08 <banana> Richard: "Again, I wouldn't dream of it. That would put the burden on you and the rest of our colleagues - you'd have setup and teardown, realtime distractions, a moving transmitter.. when we can simply leave the gadget here and reverse the demonstration." 21:09 <tom> "Yeah, as long as we're in radio communication with the base. Not always a given." 21:09 <tom> "But convenient, yeah." 21:09 <banana> He holds up his phone. "This camera becomes your camera. Imagine- you point the phone at a mysterious monster, it sends a video stream back here to the greybox. The TrackCheck activates and produces music as well as an ominous readout." 21:10 <tom> "Yeah I.." Bob is trying out thinking before speaking: "I know nobody's talked about it right, but that readout." 21:10 <banana> That mechanical activation is your bit of the work, as is capturing the signals it produces. I'd hope we can have the whole thing recorded and saved on our central servers- and accessible immediately through the same app!" 21:10 <banana> Haldane: "Horrifying, isn't it?" 21:10 <tom> "I'm not trying to open up a can a' worms here, but nobody's asked, like, who that's for." 21:10 <tom> "What does 'this is not a farce' mean, you think?" 21:10 <banana> Haldane: "You mean, who was it previously for. Finders keepers." 21:11 <tom> He's chewing the words over in his mouth. "Ahah, yeah, that's a word we'll have to talk about if you want to know changelings." 21:12 <banana> He's a little hesitant to comment on Bob's readout specifically. It seemed like God, or whomever, was implying that Corporal Goreman is prone to be taken unseriously. 21:12 <banana> "Do go on." 21:14 <tom> Bob adopts a mocking, nasal tone. Does Richard know who Ben Shapiro is? 21:14 <tom> "Let's just assume, if you will, as a matter of debate," 21:16 <tom> "You were in OpFORT, and your bosses are telling you yeah, let's go kick ET's ass for probing all those hicks out on Cayuse mountain in the eighties. First-and-last-line-of-defense." 21:16 <banana> This is quite a workout for the imagination. 21:16 <tom> "Let's just say you thought you were a real hardass actually, I mean actually defending the free world from.. you know... all sorts of weird shit." 21:18 <banana> Richard: "Werewolves, demons, vampires, warlocks, changelings, psychics and, if the records are to be believed, Tutankhamun." 21:18 <tom> "And then, at the end of your ten-fucking-years, a whole god damn decade of service, you pop on in to a Cheiron lab and it's like, haha, pranked, it turns out this entire time there's been a cabal of international interdimensional child-grabbers that ADAMSKI never said FUCK ALL about." 21:19 <tom> "And m- this hypothetical stupid asshole's been jerking off in a corner thinking he's hot shit this whole time." 21:19 <tom> "So that's what a 'keeper' is." 21:21 <banana> "I suppose in America you don't have the same-" he was going to say 'history'. "Legends. An elf is from Azeroth, not Germany." 21:21 <banana> "I suppose in America you don't have the same-" he was going to say 'history'. "Legends. An elf is from Azeroth, not Germany." 21:22 <banana> Richard: "Have the local changelings told you much about 'keepers'? It could be very important if we're in a bad position someday." 21:22 <tom> "I had to basically burn every bridge I had to just get the word, and I been working to get back in their good graces ever since." He's shaking his head. "That should get you to the level of fear we're talking about here." 21:23 <tom> "But they're bad fucking news, I can say with confidence." 21:23 <tom> "I mean, I think it's the same thing as the rest of them, right? Wrought Iron seems to be a sore point." 21:24 <banana> Haldane: "I'll mark them down as increasing our list price. Jobs to avoid unless appropriately compensated. How about the rest of the faery genera, then? Have you got much on their capabilities and fears?" 21:26 <tom> "The people I'm with are all perpetually gone to ground. It makes sense, right. It's asymmetric warfare at its most basic," he's holding up his palms. "Kinda like a cell structure, really, to limit damage if someone finds them." 21:27 <tom> "They have a couple big events that I might be able to get into if they don't spook and run screaming into the woods." 21:28 <tom> He frowns: "You know what 'Samhain' is?" 21:29 <banana> Briskly: "A pagan remnant largely overwritten by All Hallows' Day. Feast of disguises." 21:30 <tom> Bob immediately brightens up: "Please tell me it's a costume party." 21:31 <banana> They go back and forth. Richard presses Bob for as much information as he's willing to give, about Winter and the hinted-at others. He's younger than the American and not exactly tough, but the gleam in his eye when expanding his knowledge of occult secrets is something to see. 21:32 <banana> The good news is that Samhain is definitely a costume party. 21:34 <tom> Bob will answer his questions as best as the man's able. He's still trying to keep the Winter Hill's exposure down, but anything that broadens the base of knowledge will be essential for what comes later.