Colin's posts

Hal was silent as he saw the mana float over towards him.

"....very well." he replied.

"I, Hal Sharp, solemnly vow to keep watch over this artefact, for as long as necessary, until it can be properly stored and cared for." he said aloud.

He then grabbed the package, and made his way over to one of the walls. Once there, he tapped 3 times on it, and a hidden panel swung open, revealing a heavy safe door. He unlocked the door, placed the package in safe, shut the door, locked it, and then closed the panel again.

"There. It is protected." he told Hollie.

"........" Hal was left speechless for a moment, taking that all in.

"Er... right then." he said.

"Admittedly, I have several questions." he told her.

"However... let's get down to the most basic one." he said.

"What IS this?" he asked, gesturing to the package.

"Not that I don't trust you, but I'd like to know what it is that I'm guarding to diligently." he explained.

Hal looked to be surprised to see Hollie.

"Oh, Hollie." he said.

"...what is it?" he asked her, cutting to the chase.

"What do you need help with?" he asked further.

He could feel the heaviness in her tone, and could tell that this was something important. It didn't seem... extremely urgent, as he didn't sense panic in her tone, but he had a feeling this wasn't to be taken lightly.

"Do you want some tea?" he then asked.

"And no, I'm not making light of whatever it is you have to ask of me, you just look like a cup of tea could do you some good." he quickly clarified.

Jake paused as he saw this, before his eyes shifted from side to side.

His tongue then flicked out several times, and she saw him smile... slightly... mellowly.

"Ah, yeah." he said.

"Yep. That works." he told her.

He then pressed the button, allowing her entry, before flicking his tongue out a few more times.

"Mmmm, yup." he murmured.

Jake was silent for a moment, and sighed.

"I believe it's you." he told her.

"And I want to just let you in." he said further.

"However, we've had breaches of security because of some extremely talented shapeshifters." he went on.

"I'd never forgive myself if I allowed such a thing to happen because I didn't follow protocol." he informed her further.

"So I'll need some verification."

Jake, who was reading the newspaper... as usual... paused for a moment when he heard her. He heard the heaviness, the weight, in her tone of voice, and set the paper down to look at her.

"...Miss Remmington?" he addressed her.

"This is unexpected." he said.

"Normally Agent Sharp gives me a heads-up when you're stopping by." he commented further.

"...is something wrong?" he then asked her.

"Well, it seems that everything else is as it should be." Illias said, looking at the screen.

"...yeah. Yeah, everything else is reading normally." he told her.

"...." he was then silent, before looking towards Kiah, and sighing quietly.

'I need to do better.' he thought.

'She deserves a better coworker than me. She deserves... well... better than me, right now.' he further told himself mentally, before looking back at the screen.

"Careful with beaker A. The temperature seems a few degrees higher than it should be right now."

Illias just sighed.

"Lovely." he said.

"And I was looking forward to it, too." he told her.

"All I can do is watch the solution and monitor its salinity." he went on.

"Do you want me to make sure all the other components and elements are accurate and correct?" he then asked her.

Illias accepted the pen back, and looked at it, before looking at what she jotted down.

"Huh." he said.

"So this isn't just some antique or decorative item." he commented.

"Seems like this was actively used." he went on.

"Well... if someone comes forth, asking about it, I'll return it." he told her. "Otherwise, I may just hang onto it." he told her further.

"It's always nice to have a good pen." he reasoned with a small chuckle.

"Regardless, you may need to have a word with that intern, if it was, indeed, the water that was the issue." he then told her.

"Well... hm." Illias mumbled.

"I suppose it wouldn't be surprising. Pen and book sets are common, especially when it appears to be such high quality." he commented, before sighing.

"But yeah, I couldn't just leave it there. It's too nice." he reasoned.

"I know, it's a stupid reason, but it was merely something that delayed me an extra minute." he lamented.

"The real reason was because I got caught up reading that new text about how the various elements react with various mana potencies." he admitted to her.

"Huh?" Illias asked.

"Oh, it's... it's stupid." he said.

"I got caught up reading some books, and then got distracted on my way here." he told her.

"Found a lone pen in the hallway." he went on.

"Seemed too nice to just leave, so I grabbed it." he admitted, before taking it out and showing her.

"See? It's really quite exquisite." he commented.

"Oh, crap, yeah, him." Illias responded.

"Well, it's a good thing this is the only beaker with water in it." he said, grabbing it.

"Let's try tap water." he told her, taking it away, grabbing another one, filling it with the right amount of water from the tap, and bringing it towards her.

"This might solve the problem." he commented.

"Otherwise, I have no idea what it could be."

Illias was silent for a moment, studying the readouts, before going back over to the beaker.

".........hmmmm." he mumbled.

He looked all over the thing, before scratching at his chin.

"Wait..." he muttered.

"Who filled this?" he asked.

"Because this might be that specially filtered water. You know, the one that's enchanted to purify itself?" he suggested.

"It could be that the water is actively ridding itself of the salt."

Illias looked at the displays, and checked a piece of paper on a clipboard he had grabbed.

"Hmmmm." he mumbled.

"......hm?" he then muttered.

"For the most part, things seem fine." he told her.

"But for some reason, the salinity of beaker C is a bit low." he said further, before looking at the glass container in question.

"It seems like it needs half a gram for it to be where we want it to be."