snowblindrpg | [network] @Enoch; Day/Night 46 [open] [vomit warning]

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[network] @Enoch; Day/Night 46 [open] [vomit warning]

A: Day 46, video

[The first thing that appears is the image of a bottle, faint in the darkness of the snow-covered hospital. It appears to be filmed with the inside camera of the tablet, using the tablet's own light to illuminate the label. It's hard to read in the faint blue light of the screen, but not impossible to make out as he slowly tilts the bottle in his hand: it's labeled "potassium iodide". Enoch's voice comes from off-screen, behind the tablet.]

I found this in here, and I don't know what it is. Does anyone recognize it?

B: Night 46, video

[Enoch sits in one of the many waiting lobby chairs outside the hospital rooms on the third floor. His face is hardly visible in the darkness, though there is at least one other backlit tablet screen behind him.]

This day was not without its findings...for my part, I found a video...one moment.

[He fails to turn off the video as he pokes through menus on his tablet and speaks to its assistant.] Helel, would you please show them this one?

[A link to an attachment is posted.]

The video shows a young child ill or injured enough to vomit blood, so I would caution against watching it unprepared. Whatever happened here was disastrous. I don't recognize the surroundings, so they must be on a lower floor. Perhaps we'll find something there tomorrow.

Also, Quark found...something. I'm not quite sure what it is...

[He glances back at one of the tablet lights behind him, and the shadows shift as when Quark hears his name mentioned, his focus immediately snaps up from his own tablet.]

Yeah! Look, it’s a program or something! There’s a picture of a bird on it, but it doesn’t have anything to do with birds at all!

[He all but clambers over Enoch to show his tablet on Enoch’s feed, and he complies, shifting his arms to let him crawl over him and get into the shot. (Information about the app can be found here.)]

I know a little bit about computers, but not so much I really know what to do with this, and I don’t want to press the wrong thing and break something. Does anybody recognize this? Maybe that’ll help me figure out what to do!

[Enoch adds, once Quark is done talking:]

Whatever it is, it was well-hidden. I believe I went over the same room he did and found nothing, so wherever it was, only a child could reach. Surely that must mean something...

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[They'd had company on the road and hadn't known it. All along, two others had been about a mile behind, and had Enoch and the kids continued moving, they might never have known. But their intent was to search the hospital, so they couldn't go without running into one another. Maybe they'll find a child searching the rooms, or maybe they'll find Enoch emerging from one of the nurse's bases, turning over the bottle of potassium iodide in his hands, still. Or maybe they'll find them on their way to meet up before the doors lock that night, on the third floor...]

[ Lynne keeps herself busy, and so she doesn't take the opportunity to check the network until it's become late. ]

Oh, are you... maybe in the hospital? I'm there too, right now I'm in the first floor... Do you think I could maybe look for you tomorrow? [ She could possibly finally meet with other people face to face again soon--the thought makes her pretty happy. She's a trooper and the network does wonders, but it still felt pretty lonesome to not see anyone there with you. ]

Um, so that you guys don't waste your time rummaging for them, I haven't found any papers or files in the offices or labs. Their drawers are filled with card readers instead, with no cards. ... And there hasn't been a single dirty spot from these floors either, so I wonder what that means.

I've got no idea about what the app is though, sorry. [ She presses a thumb to her lips. ] I think I know someone who would back home but... unfortunately, I'm not them.

I am. We'll be coming down to look, as well, so... [he smiles a bit.] I'm looking forward to meeting you.

[The smile, a nonverbal pleasantry, vanishes quickly as he considers the rest of what she'd said.]

You're right about the cleanliness. They're keeping this place clean, certainly...even the air smells too clean. That makes me wonder why this card wasn't taken, if everything else was... I suppose they don't keep records in any other way...

[Since his brother died the day before, Al really hasn't been responding to much of anything on the network. But he has been watching, and he can't in good conscience ignore a question that he can actually answer. His voice is more subdued than usual, but at least no longer cracking.]

It's used for a lot of things, the most common one I know is as part of a combination of chemicals used in photography. I'm not sure why it would be in a medicine bottle, though.

"Photography"?

[Something to do with light...could it be useful if lit? Unfortunately, Enoch's only experience with capturing images has been digital - between Lucifel's phone and this tablet, he's skipped an entire step between them.]

Would it be of any use to us?

You mean photography? Not like this, the tablets can already take still images without the need for chemicals to develop them. Besides, if this is in a pill bottle then it must have a medicinal use too.

[Which is where he bemoans his lack of medical knowledge again. What he wouldn't give for an hour with Dr. Knox to ask him about this sort of stuff.]

Oh...

[That's what it means. So much for that.]

Maybe one of the doctors will say something soon. I'm afraid I would know even less about medicine than you do.

[A pause.]

...But what are its less common uses you know of?

It's not a chemical I've worked with often in the past, but I think it also has uses to do with fluorescence in some way.

[He's mentally running through any alchemical equations he's seen using potassium iodide and coming up with virtually nothing.]

I know that I've seen reference to it in bio-alchemy, but I really don't know much about that field at all, so I have no idea how it's used in medicine.

Do you think it could be used as a light source?

[Probably not, the way he's talking, and he can't imagine it could be built into a permanent light source...but he doesn't know what to do with this stuff, and knowing it has some use neither of them know about is kind of infuriating.]

Maybe if we mixed it with some other chemicals, but I can't do much without those other chemicals or my alchemy.

[He sounds just as frustrated.]

Even knowing the transmutic reaction wouldn't help before then.

And it all relies on your powers of alchemy? Is there no alchemy you know of which doesn't require a power? I seem to recall word going about in Egypt...but it's been so long since I've been there I don't remember clearly.

[If there's some mundane version of this (it's called, of course, chemistry, but he's entirely unaware), it would be very useful.]

Alchemy is just a branch of science, and there are plenty of scientific methods and research which don't need that kind of power. Branches like physics, chemistry, biology... but they're not branches that I'm particularly well-versed in. I know a lot of the theories of chemistry, but mostly in how they relate to alchemy.

[The Elrics kind of heavily specialised.]

Maybe Hiro would know some more, though, I think he's studied the regular sciences.

All right. If I haven't had an answer here I'll contact him.

[Why can't he find things that are obvious to him, like tools and such. Even the food is unfamiliar! (chocolate is pretty good, though, if sweeter than he's used to.) He likes learning new things, but so much he knows being outdated or just plain wrong is starting to wear on him a little.]

I wonder how I keep finding these things I know nothing about.

It's happened a lot to me too, I guess it's because this isn't either of our home. I mean, I suppose it's not anyone's home here, but a lot of people have at least heard of the country this town is meant to be in. And those people seem to recognise more of the technology and items that are found.

[He gets it, it makes him feel homesick.]

There is no design that has not been improved on so much it is unrecognizable, it sometimes seems.

[He chuckles a little, irony laced with nervousness.]

I am impressed, of course...I've heard so much of what we're capable of and this is standing proof. That we are in completely different places and speaking to one another as if we were merely on opposite sides of a crumbling wall...it's unthinkable where I come from.

If only whatever had befallen this town had not happened. I would have liked to see it when it was alive.

We had some technology kind of like this, but way more primitive. I could never have imagined motion capture of someone's face sent to someone days away, the most we had was an audio line that wasn't even really portable.

[He hopes he can remember a lot of these things when he returns, he can't imagine how much this sort of tech would benefit Amestris in the long run.]

You must really miss your home, huh?

I miss the world I came from. [He offers a sheepish sort of look. It's not the best answer, he knows. Please don't worry about him, is what he's trying to say.]

I didn't have a home, exactly...I traveled too much. I was looking forward to finally having one, though...I would rather it not be here.

That definitely makes sense, this isn't exactly the most welcoming place to make a home.

[Though he can't deny his interest has been piqued now.]

What made you travel around so much? Was it your job?

...Well, yes, in the simplest of terms. My mission was to find Fallen Angels that were hiding somewhere on Earth, and they were hidden, ah...perhaps too well.

[He hesitates a little, a bit of lingering caution from his need to keep his immortality secret.]

...Well enough it took me three hundred years to find them.

[He can't help a sharp intake of breath. He has met others who have lived so long, but it's still unnatural enough to be a surprise.]

But how did you survive that long? I thought you were--

[Human? Normal?]

--a regular person.

I was.

[Maybe he still would be, if he had remained with his family, his original family, so long ago. He can't say he regrets agreeing to go to Heaven, partly because he can no longer remember the moment he was invited and partly because, though it may have been severely tested, his piety has largely remained intact.]

I told you that I was given blessings to help me on my mission... Immortality was one of them. They knew it wouldn't be so easy to find them.

[Immortality...

He hates the idea of it still, even after spending so much time with people who wanted to use it for good like Ling and May. His first thought is of how excited the two Xingese people would be if they heard this, Enoch would be kidnapped away and questioned to within an inch of his life in seconds.]

Oh.

[He's trying not to judge too much, trying to remember what Tim said about not holding other worlds to the standard of his own.]

What happens when you have found them all?

[Will he just keep on living forever?]

I have, and...it seems I would simply continue living. We were going to discuss it further in the morning, the night after I succeeded, but I...woke up here.

[He thinks he's going to keep living forever. Mostly, it's because he can't imagine himself as a mortal anymore. He can't even remember being mortal aside from vague impressions.]

What will you do?

[He doesn't believe immortality is a good thing, but neither would he wish death on a friend, so he's more just curious where his life would go now that he'd completed his mission.]

Well, there's a woman with me...or there was, at the camp before I was taken here. Ishtar is her name. She was chosen by God, too, so...perhaps she is also immortal.

[He rubs the back of his neck, suddenly sheepish.]

Regardless, we've both faced hardships and have grown close for it... Whether she'll grow old without me, or we'll both grow old, or neither of us will...well, I planned on asking her what she would think of marrying me.

[So embarrassing. He half-considers making this private. He doesn't normally make the first move, leaving it up to the other party to show interest - and she definitely has, but...well, it's a mixed bag that would take more time than needed to get into.]

[Of all the answers he had been expecting, that was not one of them. It's... such an adorable answer and warmth floods his voice.]

I really hope that works out for you, it's nice to hear someone has something nice waiting for them back home.

[That's a sad rarity here.]

What was she chosen for, if... if it's okay to ask?

Edited 2015-12-01 19:22 (UTC)

The same thing I was - to find the Fallen Angels. She initially failed, so I was to, in the course of binding the Fallen Angels, aid in her resurrection.

We...well, in the end, we helped each other out of our respective binds.

[He's not sure what to say about the fact that he actually met her before her death but didn't know who she was. That's still very weird and involves memories that are still mostly faded from time.]

[And again the conversation swings back to touch on immortality and resurrection, adding a veneer of discomfort to the genuine well-wishing he felt for Enoch and his possible future wife.]

I don't understand why gods would choose normal people to send after angels. I'm not-- I don't have a religion, but it seems unfair. Aren't gods powerful enough to control angels themselves?

I would have once thought so, myself. ...It's more complicated than that.

[He's not even sure he's got it entirely right. It's all snatches of information gleaned over the course of three centuries or so, and some bits are clearer than others. Still, he does his best to explain.]

The story of Creation holds that God gave Adam dominion over the Earth. ...He meant that. Earth is ours. He wouldn't interfere, and angels in fact cannot interfere without express permission. It's much easier to get a human to volunteer themselves and bless them, I think, than tell every angel, yes, they can do this or that every time something they do might interfere.

[He doesn't really know the story of creation, nor has heard of Adam, the few religions that exist in Amestris are not compatible with this. But--]

I guess that makes sense, but it still seems kind of unfair. He's asking a lot of you, of anyone He wants to do this task.

[Not that he's saying Enoch isn't up to the challenge. But just because someone can do a task, doesn't mean that it's right to ask them to.]

But those angels you're hunting down don't have the same restrictions?

I volunteered for the task. Nobody even asked me to...I suppose that makes it somewhat odd to call myself "chosen", but I was the only living human in Heaven to volunteer, and I was there because I was chosen to serve as a scribe. I can only assume Ishtar volunteered herself, too. They're very adamant about our free will not being imposed upon up there. Our right- our ability to say no is special, in their eyes.

[That out of the way, he takes a deep breath, sitting on the hospital bed in the room he's in as he thinks about the Fallen Angels. Fallen. That's the key word. They'd rejected their angelhood.]

Fallen Angels aren't...quite the same anymore. They've turned their backs on God and Heaven and revoked their ties to both. It's...dangerous, when that happens, because it's as if a child has come to inhabit a very powerful body - Fallen Angels lose much of their strength in the fall, but these found strength in another source, a pact with a demon. They...they don't quite grasp the consequences of their own actions. Certainly they will learn, but my world was threatened by destruction, because the children of angels and humans... [He shakes his head.]

When they mature, they become powerful giants who know nothing but inflicting destruction on everything around them. And yet...there were many mature Nephilim. Fire Nephilim, they're called. Their destruction, that consequence, they either didn't truly grasp it or they did not care.

[Al sits quietly and listens while Enoch explains, gripped with interest at such an alien subject. Even the possibility of alchemically created humans, homunculus, were overwhelming to believe in... but actually legitimate gods and angels? It blows his mind, far too surreal to really wrap his head around.]

That sounds awful, so frightening for both sides. I can't imagine how horrible it would be to be capable of nothing but destruction.

[But he can definitely see why they need to be stopped.]

And it was your task to stop them? You must be an amazing warrior.

I wouldn't say so. With special weapons I do well enough, but I do what I can, and that's all I can truly say about my skills.

[Of course, without any powers at all, this is still the man who's going to eventually nearly kill Handsome Jack alongside Beckett. Combat experience is combat experience is combat experience.]

I can't be entirely sure, but I think I recognize the nurse in your video.

[He'd figured out very quickly that responding to text with video or audio was awkward, so he switches to text, as well.]

You do? How so? Who is it?

[Information? Something came of this, after all, aside from a morbid sight?]

That looks like a decryption program. And a good one, as far as I can tell from here. Not much more I can say without being able to look at it on my own tablet, though.

...Please humor me, all of this will only exist in my future. What would we be able to do with this if we knew how to use it?

[Enoch gives the unseen speaker a nervous smile. Of all the people Quark could have been with when he found this program...]

Basically, decypher encrypted text. Codes and shit like that. Looks like there are some other options too, but nothing that's useful at the moment.

[He knows coded messages! That...sort of helps him out. But not really.]

So if anyone is communicating with someone in code, this could help us understand? I suppose that would have been very useful for one side or another during the protests...

Yeah, something like that. It's pretty likely the admin's got some encryptions going on as well.

I'm afraid I wouldn't understand the difference...but if it means it could uncover something that is being hidden from us, we will need to find someone who could use it.

[And, of course, Quark will find someone...or someone will find Quark. Either way.]

Potassium Iodide is a decent expectorant if you're careful about dosages. I've used it mostly for emergency treatment of hyperthyroidism, and I know it's good for radiation poisoning, but something tells me that we'll get the best use of it here as cough medicine.

It's in solution, right? Can you see what color it is?

[He...doesn't know what any of that is. Except cough medicine.

For once, he replies to text with video, his face visible as he turns the tablet around to read the message (he smiles when he sees who it's from), and then turns it back to the bottle so he can shake it and Clayton can hear the pills rattle in it.]

I don't know the measurements, but it isn't a solution.

[Cough medicine, though...didn't Tim need something like that? He'd said he'd had the flu...he keeps that thought in mind as he waits for Clayton to clarify, in case this changes everything.]

[Apologies, Enoch--there is a reason for this.]

I'm sorry, can you repeat that? I'm at the school right now and everything is...muted. I can't hear anything over the tablets and no one with me can hear each other talk. It's very strange.

[He tilts his head at the screen, very clearly saying, even if Clayton can't hear him, "What?"

He's still looking quite confused when the video feed ends.]

That's incredibly bizarre, what could be causing it?

The potassium iodide isn't a solution, it sounds like it's formed into pills like the aspirin.

Your guess is as good as mine. No visits from our spirit friends yet, though, so I suppose that's a good thing. Still kind of unnerving.

Good! That should help with dosages, but you should still probably check that they haven't expired before we think about using them. Can you chip off part of one and dissolve it in some water? Tell me what color it turns.

[Well, it's dark, so it takes a lot of awkward fumbling keeping the tablet's light on the bottlecap he's using (the child's thermos he's saving for who-knows-what is too deep to observe the bottom with an inadequate light source like his tablet), but several minutes later, he returns.]

It's dark in here, so I can't be entirely certain, but it didn't seem as if the water changed color at all.

Very good! Should be safe to use, then. Be careful about it--that's heavy stuff, really easy to overdose with. I wouldn't use it casually.

Good find, though! Thanks Enoch. I'm guessing things are going well down there, then?

So far, yes. We arrived without incident, and Quark and Clem are searching other rooms. It's a large building, so we've split up to search it.

If it's so dangerous to use, perhaps I should give it to you when we meet again.

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[network] @Enoch; Day/Night 46 [open] [vomit warning]

Action prompt (Closed to Quark, Clem, Clarke, and Bellamy)

video; ms.Detective

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A; @LELRIC; audio

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@AK | text

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B; @hjack69; voice

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day - text - @claytonator

what the heck happened to this notif I know I saved it for later

~*it's a mystery*~ - text

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~it's a mystery~ - text