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Soteria had come to the arboretum, dressed in her usual style of leather and jeans and boots, hair pulled back into a ponytail. She found a spot near the tree itself and sat down; she was taking deep breaths of freshened air from all the flora, as if recovering from something.
Tommy slipped into the arboretum under some simple mind magic to not be noticed. Once they were safely within the Consilium's grounds, however, the spell dropped, as did most other active spells.
Today, they were in their feminine appearance, wearing what would be far too cold for the current weather for most. A black suit coat and slacks with white heels and a white gold choker-style necklace. The suit coat revealed that she wore no undershirt, and just had it buttoned at the belly.
She took a look around the area and approached the tree. Once closer, she noticed Jane and pulled out her phone to text them. She sat at a nearby bench and took a photo of Jane and the Tree
Hi!
Attached was the picture
Tommy gets a text in reply, Jane not even moving to do so: "Guess you couldn't just walk over?" A moment later, she stood up and headed over towards where the angle of the photo would indicate it was taken from.
Tommy smiled and bobbed her head as Jane approached, "Hey hon, how goes?" and then she shook her head a little bit, "Some magic on me that I don't wanna have interfer with the tree at all."
"It's going okay. Just took my meds and trying to work through the side effects.." She nods, "Yeah, gotta keep the magic stuff off the Tree."
"Ah, the medicine. The metaphorical gasoline for your engines?" a tilt of her head, "If that's not offensive. I'm sorry if it is."
"Not offended, but not quite accurate. More like oil to keep the gears from grinding." She smirked. "At least you didn't call me something like 'Tin Tits'." A reference to past events, perhaps, but she seems to be in a good mood about it. "How's things going for you?"
"I'm feeling more settled in the city, but I'm worried... no not worried, I guess... let down? Something akin to that, that I haven't had more folx asking for my help with their dreams or what not yet, but I guess I'm new enough...." she catches herself starting to ramble, and instead paused to look at the new friend infront of her, "So, what happens to you when you have the medicine?"
"Well, I haven't come to you because I haven't had any odd dreams." She shrugged. As for the second question, Jane took another deep breath, "If I take the medicine, the side effects sometimes involve vomiting or coughing up blood, bloody noses, leg cramps and neuropathy. And I'm lucky I can handle it so easy. Without it, I have a period where the limiters kinda go offline before everything else and I can do even more than ever." A sigh, "And after that, withdrawals start and that means the implants don't work and suffering begins. I don't have enough of the stuff to be on a steady dose all the time, so a lot of the time I'm running without my limiters on. And some days, I just have to take my lumps and go through withdrawals."
She pauses, "Again, I'm lucky, I heal faster than most people, even others like me." (edited)
"...Goodness gracious," she looked with wide eyes, "That's... and its human, hyper science? So very strange. I wonder how they make it. And frankly wh-- no I get the why."
"I'm not sure exactly what kinda science it is; apparently there's a 'Creator' who might've been involved in my case that I think does magic stuff?" She seemed unsure. "But it's tech and it doesn't seem to have any magic waves or whatever."
That piqued a brow, "That's a familiar name. Mark and Mary and Hades..." she said softly, "The Mars Project. All very interesting. Especially since the Other Side is so heavily involved with Mars. Another connection between this individual and cybernetic enhancements..."
Jane nodded, "I'm supposed to meet Mark soon, I think. Interested to hear about all that stuff, maybe learn more about what's going on with me and the Protocol. Also, you know.. space stuff, that's always interesting."
"Ah, I'm supposed to meet up with them soon as well," a bob of Bones' head, "Would be interesting to study this Protocol sometime myself. Giving its use, could be resonant with a few things that could be of use..." more musing, "...Maybe even possible for a Moros or other Master of Matter to create it wholesale..."
"As long as it doesn't involve disassembling me." She says with a tone that's half joking, half concern.
"Oh, never. Just studying the fuel itself. One of the doses before you take it, or something," she winced, "Sorry. I get into academic mode so easy."
She reached down and lifted her shirt; a compartment opened in her abdomen and she reached in to pull out a small vial containing the serum. "Fox is also working on this stuff, I've let her do her thing with it and she was able to synthesize some extra doses for me. I'm sure she wouldn't mind an extra hand in trying to figure out a better less-harmful version."
"Oh goodness. I was not ready for that..." she lifted the vial and studied it, "...Is this what's keeping you limited at the moment, or next dose? WOuld I be able to study it for a while?"
Jane shook her head, "It's just a storage compartment, I have to inject it, so that's an extra I carry with me. I can't really let you keep it very long, not longer than a day, unless someone can do like Fox and make some more. The downside to all my tech is.. I go through the serum very fast."
"Oh. I see. Well, I don't wnat to do it so close to the tree, but perhaps another time I can manage to look at it more deeply if that's okay with you?" (aka downtime sometime)
"That'll work, sure." She nods, "I try to schedule my doses to stretch things out as best I can while keeping myself in as good condition as I can."
"Makes sense to me. I'm so sorry that they did that to you in the manner that they did. Some truly evil things a foot, and then some truly just... uncaring too. Not evil per se, but no care for those they hurt or help other than how it helps them. Though maybe that's a form of evil all itself."
Jane seems to ponder that a moment before speaking up, "If it wasn't for the lies and it wasn't for the serum being such a pain to keep in supply, I'd.. honestly, be fine with it. I like being able to do what I can do, I just want to do good stuff with it." She looks around at the plants, "Someone who can do what I can do with the skills I have could do a lot of good."
Bones took that in and pondered as well. "Even those who drink the blood of humanity can do good, or the ones that can turn into ten feet of fury and furry death.... so I guess even the abilities from some sort of supernaturally sourced oil can do the same," a bob of her head, "I get you... that makes sense to me, just like the evils done by some of the Awakened instead of using it for good."
"Just hope no blood sucker gets goofy enough to try to get a bite of me, because.. I don't think they'd like the taste with that stuff in my blood stream." She snorted and looked over at some interesting plants, eyes scanning over it, "Given all I know is real already, makes me wonder some times about other things.. Sasquatches? UFOs?"
"Let's see.... I've seen soem creatures that might be related to Sasquatches, but its so hard to tell when you're in an area where the world of spirit and earth tend to blend.. Or where magic is innate to the area. Of course, some Awakened might try and make one," she scratches her jawline, "However, I've hit the point that I assume everything is real until proven false these days."
Jane shook her head and gave a thumbs up, "Assume it's all real, great. So, what kinds of magic stuff do you do?"
"I am a specialist in the realm of Forces and Prime, so Energy and Magic itself. Then I'm decent at the magic of Time, and middling at the magic of the Mind, and of Life itself." (edited)
"I mean, more in exactly what do you do? I'm good at infiltration, but what I do is copy people, turn invisible, pick locks, hack RFID readers, to get into places."
"Oh. Uh. I read and help decipher all sorts of strange symbology connected to the realm of Atlantis, which is kind of the Mage Shorthand for before Magic stopped being normal. Additionally, I can defend myself at about a blackbelt level, even if I'm not the best at it in the world or anything.... but otherwise, it's a lot of reading, studying, observation and the like."
"Nice," She gets up to go check out a specific plant she just spotted, "I'm not really trained in any specific form of fighting, myself; just a whole lot of practical training and a mix of things. No black belt in anything except 'anything goes'."
"Yeah, I don't have the titles or anything, bought I've fought a few black belts or soldiers or the like in my life," Tommy followed Jane, not bragging but just honest, "And it was even stephen. I also have some work with knives," she pulled a sleeve of knives out of her bag, just to show them to Jane before tucking them away.
"Ahhh, I'm okay with those, but if I need some sharpness, I have my own options to add it to my punches." She smirks, then gestures to the plant, "You ever stop to smell the flowers?"
"Love to, yeah," she bent down to smell one, "Been many places on the globe, and nature is so relaxing. I think that's why I took to a bit of that Life magic I mentioned."
"That Life magic, it good with helping healing?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. Though I know only the basics. Master Fox would be better of course, but yeah."
"Good to know." She bites her lip and holds herself back from saying more, "In any case, stopping to smell the flowers, play in leaves, do stuff in nature.. it's part of how I remind myself who I am. I don't want to get stuck in the philosophical, 'Am I really a human or a machine in human skin with memories to think I'm human?' type stuff."
"...do you frequently need some healing?" she asked, "And yeah... I mean, those are very valid thoughts. The psychology of such things could fill whole new specialities I think."
"I take a poison that hurts me or I don't take a poison and that hurts me, so.. sometimes?" Jane 'asks', but it's more just a quick reminder before getting to the real point, "But I also have a specific modification that I reserve for very dangerous situations only which helps me deal with the danger.. but when it's past, the strain it puts on the body can put me in the ICU."
"Jesu Cristo... I will definitely keep that in mind, and should you need something and I'm close by, I will do what I can to help. There are certainly ways to do it that can enhance it too, if we have time."
"Good, good. I've only ever had to use it twice, though, hopefully I won't have to again."
"Twice sounds like too much to me, but yeah. I get that sort of thing," then her phone beeped and she checked it manually, before smiling, "And with that, time for me to be off. Got an early meeting. I hope you have a good night my friend."
"You, too." She gave a nod and a wave, "Good luck with the meeting."
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