time to talk to dr d

(12:28:01 AM) Claire: It's later in the evening, the sun on its way below the horizon, and Claire finds herself walking alone along the beach--or, at least, as alone as she thinks she can be, what with having Beta along on the trip. After another minute of walking, she settles herself on the beach and opens an AR window...and makes a call.
(12:28:01 AM) Claire: The words "Contacting Dr. Desdemona" flash intermittently in her window.
(12:29:30 AM) Ikiryo: Before long, Dr Desdemona appears on the AR display. "Hiya Claire!"
(12:30:26 AM) Claire: She gives half a smile in return. "Hi, Doc. Am I calling too late?"
(12:31:12 AM) Ikiryo: She shakes her head. "Not at all."
(12:36:49 AM) Claire: "Awesome." She exhales noisily, then leans back in the sand to stare at the sky, the window adjusting its position to stay in her field of view. "We have something of a situation, and I thought maybe you'd have some insight. Or maybe if I talked it through with someone as smart as you are, I'll figure something out. Or something."
(12:37:55 AM) Ikiryo: "Alright, lay it on me." She nods
(12:44:05 AM) Claire: "Thanks." She nods, marshaling her thoughts, then: "We got an invitation from Miss Yvenne and Miss Sephia to come check out an old set of ruins on their property. Turns out, they're old Belkan in make, yadda yadda. When we finally get inside, there's this, like, folded dimension laid on top of the actual ruins. It's really confusing, but you might understand that.
(12:44:05 AM) Claire: "Inside that is this secret base of sorts, for an ancient Belkan splinter faction that tried to bring down the Saint Kings. There's no one left living in it 'cause it's a *thousand years old* but there IS a defense program AI patterned off one of the leaders of that same faction, who'd been executed for treason all the way back then. The AI's still guarding the place.
(12:44:05 AM) Claire: "She's really super lonely, though, AND she just found out that Belka's been dead and gone for all this time. So we're trying to set up to extract her from the base somehow, but there're some...issues."
(12:45:35 AM) Ikiryo: "...dimentional folding? Oooh...I'd been doing some theoretically research a while ago with my father about the possibility of that..."
(12:47:30 AM) Claire: "I'm sure I totally screwed up telling you exactly what's going on, but it's...weird stuff. Like, it's literally laid right on top of where these ruins are, but going through this doorway just...shifts you over to where the new place is. There's a barrier, there, a black void out past a certain distance away, so maybe it's like some sorta...pocket...dimension, I don't know, I'm a student."
(12:55:22 AM) Ikiryo: "...oooh, sounds like a lot of fun. The AI...not so much." She nods "Tell me more."
(1:03:42 AM) Claire: She sighs gently. "So...Henrietta--the AI--she's modeled after the long-dead person who was one of the leaders of this faction. Very serious about her job. When she's actually in a place that her projectors are working, she's got this killer attack that's like...vwoosh." She pantomimes a swooping motion with her hands. "Like...a vacuum blade of sorts. Just *nothing* that slices things up.
(1:03:42 AM) Claire: "...Except all it did was tickle Altea. But.
(1:03:42 AM) Claire: "She can also manifest using the normal cameras, but that doesn't carry the abilities with her. She yelled at us a lot for making requests or traveling through areas that we didn't have authorization for. She also told us she'd sent a message to the rest of her 'Void Knights' to deal with us, but...I think they're all dead, too, if only because, y'know, a thousand years.
(1:03:42 AM) Claire: "Earlier today, she somehow piled enough of herself into this ancient, ancient drone and flew it through the dimensional shifty barrier thing, then had a chat with us here, on Mid--which is when she found out about how long it's been and what happened to Belka.
(1:03:42 AM) Claire: "I asked Pana if she might be able to help Miss Sephia jury-rig like a sort of netrod thing we could transfer Henrietta onto to get her out of there, but Pana said her request got rejected by Athena, so I think we're kinda stuck there. So if you were an old Belkan genius, instead of a modern Hyperion genius, where would YOU put the core of a sophisticated defense program?
(1:03:42 AM) Claire: "There's three basement levels we haven't been able to easily get to, yet, and we didn't try brute-forcing it in case it made Henrietta preemptively blow the place up."
(1:06:27 AM) Ikiryo: She nods. "You are luck I'm here, not my dad. He'd suggest just hard resetting her back to factory standards." She ponders. "I'd say the second one. Insulated from both sides if the building gets breached."
(1:08:09 AM) Claire: She winces. "I'd...rather not do that to her. I don't even know if she HAS 'factory standards,' not after this long. But the second level makes sense. Now if we had a way to get there. Any ideas for how to trick her into accepting 'authorization'?" She cranks finger-quotes around the final word.
(1:08:56 AM) Ikiryo: "Hmm...Henrietta, you said? She turns up in our history."
(1:10:10 AM) Claire: "Yeah, that's the right name. General Henrietta."
(1:11:00 AM) Ikiryo: She nods. "She was a rival of Circe. According to our history, they both died in a duel against each other."
(1:13:31 AM) Claire: She blinks. "Really? Because...according to what everyone here has said, Henrietta was executed for treason..."
(1:14:12 AM) Ikiryo: She raises an eyebrow. "...really? That doesn't line up at all with our history..."
(1:16:05 AM) Claire: "It sure doesn't." She shakes her head. "Oh, but maybe...that would explain..."
(1:16:38 AM) Ikiryo: "Oh? What are you thinking about?"
(1:17:42 AM) Claire: "We had the chance to stumble into...an armory, or storage room, or something." She half-smiles again. "Circe's staff is in there."
(1:18:04 AM) Ikiryo: She stares. "Seriously? Now THAT I need to get my hands on~"
(1:20:17 AM) Claire: "It's in really bad shape. But Eris was about ten thousand percent sure that that's what it was."
(1:20:52 AM) Ikiryo: "Oooooh~" She grins.
(1:22:29 AM) Claire: "There were other things in there, too, that you might find familiar. Like a pair of emplaced gun turrets that Eris said were really really old Hyperion models."
(1:23:03 AM) Ikiryo: She nods "Interesting...not sure how they got the staff if she died in the duel though."
(1:29:54 AM) Claire: "No idea, Doc. Clone? Fake? Usurper? Miss Zamiel--she's, uh, a spirit, and Miss Sephia's familiar, but she was alive at the time Belka fell, and she knows that General Henrietta was executed. So maybe there was some selective editing on your guys' part? Hard to tell when anything to go off of is so old."
(1:31:42 AM) Ikiryo: "Yeah. Not many first hand accounts any more." She frowns. "This is getting interesting..."
(1:35:19 AM) Claire: "Yeah. My, um, top priority is getting Henrietta out of there, but if we have the chance, I'll totally make sure to get Circe's staff."
(1:36:58 AM) Ikiryo: "Cool. It took me forever to find an actual genetic sample from Circe to make...well, Circe. Getting her staff will let me learn more about her magic style. Hyperion's magic is basicly lost to time."
(1:37:51 AM) Claire: "I hope opinion swings back some day to make it okay to use again," she smiles.
(1:40:42 AM) Ikiryo: "We'd need to learn what it IS first. I needed to basicly make up Circe's from scratch."
(1:41:36 AM) Claire: "Well, I meant magic in general, but that makes sense, yeah." She nods. "...And now I'm wondering if Henrietta might have footage stored from back then."
(1:42:18 AM) Ikiryo: "Maybe. Depends how true our version of history is..."
(1:44:22 AM) Claire: "Only one way to find out, right? Oh...any ideas how we might convince Henrietta we have authorization? Tazzari's already thought of just trying a direct hack to alter Henrietta's database..."
(1:46:37 AM) Ikiryo: "...that could end badly. I dunno, distract her with Circe?" She shrugs.
(1:47:58 AM) Claire: She opens her mouth to object...then shuts it with a little click. "...You know, I didn't even think of that...but it just might work. Do you think her Aegis system could handle that sort of vacuum attack thing? I don't actually know what it can do, especially against mass-based stuff."
(1:49:26 AM) Ikiryo: "What can't it do?~" She grins. "It's based on the few bits of magic I could still locate. It's basicly invulnerable as long as she's still got mana to work with."
(1:50:13 AM) Claire: "Awesome." She grins. "We might just have a plan. Thanks, Doc, you've been a great help. I'll be sure to nab the staff for you."
(1:51:21 AM) Ikiryo: "Oooh, that will be the best birthday present~"
(1:52:02 AM) Claire: She giggles--but the phrase seems to trigger something, and she raises a finger as she calms down. "Remind me, next time we chat, to ask you about Pana, please?"
(1:52:47 AM) Ikiryo: "Oh?" She raises an eyebrow
(1:53:52 AM) Claire: "I'm cooking up a nice surprise for her, I think, but its viability is something only you could say yes or no to, but I have to get a few more details in place before I even want to waste your time with it."
(1:54:31 AM) Ikiryo: "I like potentially non-feasible plans~"
(2:00:43 AM) Claire: "I'll tell you more later, when it's not just a jumble of silly words. I should get back to the beach house and stuff before they come looking anyway. It was nice talking to you, Doc, hope things go okay for you."
(2:04:52 AM) Ikiryo: "Yeah, likewise."