[Thread] ' 'No More Dead Heroes ' '

[sierra_058]

Characters: OU Linda-058, OU Captain Keyes, Open to Halo characters
Where: the park/wandering around, the cafe
When: noon/early evening
Summary: Linda and Keyes arrive at just about the same time. Linda investigates the call for aid from a dead captain. Old friends unite. / Keyes, with Linda trailing, explores the new facility he finds himself in.

Comments

[sierra_058]

Linda halted instantly when she spotted Dr. Halsey walking towards them; the same keen eyes that allowed her to be such a perfect sniper easily spotted the doctor from a fair distance away. It took Keyes a moment to notice the Spartan wasn't still following but she paid him no mind for the moment even as he glanced back at her questioningly.

Linda straightened and automatically went into a salute when the doctor got close enough. It petered off into hesitance however after a few seconds and she lowered her arm in a slow gesture and nodded a greeting instead. "Dr. Halsey."

Behind her the captain moved to stand up next to her side and, if she wasn't mistaken, actually smiled for a moment as he gazed at the doctor. "Halsey," he said, "it's good to see you again."

Again? She hadn't ever realized the two had met. But then, she didn't really know a lot about the captain at all. And--truth to tell--she probably didn't really know all that much about the doctor except what the ONI civilian specialist wanted the Spartans to know. (Or anyone for that matter.)

The smile on Keyes's face didn't last long, but he got the impression that it was definitely noticed. If his memory was still serving him correctly--and it was--he remembered Catherine to be extremely observant and, if he had to guess, her memory a photographic quality that never let her forget. She wasn't just a genius--she was a damn machine. He knew well that she could easily put an AI in its place.

As he gave his greeting his thoughts went along a tad bit different line. He hadn't expected to run into her just yet. He wasn't ready. He hadn't had enough time to collect his thoughts and recent memories. Too many things all at once--the line kept repeating itself in his brain. He inwardly groaned even while he remained steadfastly in control on the outside; he wasn't prepared to make a fool out of himself in front of her just yet. He would have liked to have been able to cohesively speak with her about things instead of being in such a confused state as he was now.

[charlie_hotel]

For Halsey, it wasn't simply "good" to see Keyes again. He was not only one of Halsey's oldest and closest friends, but one of the many she mourned for when his life was taken in the Great War. Naturally, her proffessionalism forbade her from ever showing any sort of emotion: Neither Keyes nor any of her Spartans would ever accept it.

After being patched through John's suit on his conversations with the newcomers, indeed, it was too much for them to grasp in one meeting. Fortunately, Halsey had one way they could talk over everything -- Both from this place, and from their universe.

"Shall we go? I got us a few cups of coffee once I realized you two were here." Of course, truth being that she requested the Indigeo for three cups of coffee

[sierra_058]

Keyes blinked--he hadn't expected that. Of course, leave it to Catherine Halsey to plan ahead. Hell, not even just plan ahead--but practically read the future from a few scraps of the present. It was almost eerily unnerving; it was familiar, and comforting.

He nodded once and glanced at the Spartan. "We'd be more than happy to escort you, Dr. Halsey," he replied. Where the hell the word 'escort' came from even Keyes didn't know. He vaguely wondered how boyish and silly he sounded right then, as if he were trying to hide the fact that he was clearly not in control as much as he'd like to be.

Linda ignored any subtleties on the captain's part--really, was a Spartan, a being so un-used to being in prolonged contact with civilian and civilian-like atmospheres, truly even capable of picking up on such things?--simply skipped to the acknowledgment part. She nodded briefly.

[charlie_hotel]

Halsey smiled. He was the formal man she remembered. Even when it was Keyes who accepted 'escorting' her to the café while the Spartan followed him around -She knew Linda would have a harder time than her or John in believing that Keyes was alive-, Linda would want to accompany them, nevertheless.

As the Doctor directed them to the café, she briefly looked at Linda: She began to wonder how hard would it have been for her Spartans that were drafted in Econtra to live no more under a government, but into a free -truly free- existence. She observed that John and Kelly, after a year here, adapted and became more social... But Linda had just been Drafted.

What would it be like, for someone who had lived her entire existence under strict rules -even to the point of embracing them-, to be so quickly given freedom?

Once they sat, however, they'd have to address the situation at hand: Econtra, and what happened after the destruction of the first Halo.

[sierra_058]

Linda and Keyes followed the doctor dutifully to the cafe. Keyes found himself walking instinctively by Halsey's side--a memory based upon a lie briefly came to mind, her arm wrapped 'lovingly' around his--and felt more or less at ease despite his winding mind. This was actually more familiar than he consciously realized: during the entire month or so that he had worked for with Dr. Halsey his mind had been wrapped around the idea of trying to figure their work out. The circumstances had changed, but the concept was still the same. He was still next to her, and trying to figure out a puzzling dilemma.

Linda kept in step slightly behind and to the left of Captain Keyes as they walked. Standard military protocol. Though her helmet never moved, she shared the glance when Halsey looked her way. The gesture sent a thrill of curiosity flooding into her mind. What was Halsey thinking at that moment? What was that brilliant, hyper-active brain contemplating? --And would Linda approve or disapprove of it.

It was true that Halsey was the closest thing to a mother figure that the Spartans shared. But that didn't mean that some of them, some times, wondered what the doctor's true purposes ever were. Or that they never disapproved of the doctor's actions or ideas.

However, those that they didn't they still generally accepted. More or less.

Upon arrival at the cafe Linda found a dark nook to place herself in. She automatically moved the cups of coffee, with expert hands in juggling them with one less hand than cup, to a spot closer to her chosen spot. She sent them all down and took up her position while the others were still tagging along behind her.

Keyes was amused by this but he kept the wry smile to himself. He began to set himself down in one of the chairs at the table the Spartan chose but stopped short and waited for Halsey to seat herself before proceeding.

[charlie_hotel]

Halsey found the Captain attractive for many reasons, but there were two reasons on why she hadn't done the very act Keyes imagined: ONI taught her better than showing her emotions, and the Captain was a married man. The very act of wrapping her arm on him would have costed her a lot... If her act of treason against humanity wouldn't cost her enough, already.

Some of Linda's thoughts were shared by Halsey. The Spartans were always attracted to combat. Their loyalty to humanity and the UNSC were unbreakable, to the point she knew they would have stood and fought on Earth had she not intervened. The only Spartan that confronted her about her true intentions it was Kurt -- moments before his second death. If Kurt used to be here, then how much did John really know?

And would Linda follow suit?

The trio reached the café. After Linda put the cups of coffee for each chair, Doctor sat on one of the chair that neither the Captain nor the Sniper would occupy. She took a breath.

"Well then, I think you two may have some questions that are yet to be answered. John isn't the most talkative person." She began. By what she heard, John still wasn't the talkative type. Like her, he was hesitant to actually mention to Captain Keyes that what the Arbiter said was actually true, and especially when he mentioned the Entropi.

Her gut told her that John's reasons to avoid talking about the Entropi were as worrying as the Flood.

She took a sip from her Coffee, then looked at the pair.

"Shoot."

[sierra_058]

Keyes's memory wasn't faulty--and he didn't have to imagine the scene that came to mind when he walked next to her. It had really happened--for all of about two seconds. Then Halsey had sensed him stiffening in discomfort and let got with a sigh. The reasoning behind the act had been perfectly reasonable and should have been equally acceptable, but that didn't mean Keyes was used to such intimacy, real or for show, and therefore that part of the act had to be dropped. Parents looking for their child's ideal school indeed--just not very close parents apparently.

Linda didn't look too keen on testing the small chairs with the weight of her MJOLNIR armor on. Probably even had she been outside her suit for some bizarre reason she would still have taken up her watchful position standing in the corner.

Keyes, though, took his seat after Halsey had finally settled herself down and stared at her in a thoughtful manner. He was still processing his thoughts and attempting to decide on the best place to begin when the Spartan, again, beat him to the punch.

"John wouldn't expand on his statement of 'expect everything,'" she began. "What did he mean exactly? What sort of 'everything' should we expect from this place?"

Leave it to a Spartan to skip right past all the useless babble and start right at the heart of things. First things first: current sitrep, and then idle reminiscing could be done.

[charlie_hotel]

Everything. The word John refused to elaborate. He didn't know whenever if to blame him or not. She couldn't help but smirk to herself with amusement when she read the logs of John when he talked to some newcomers about the nature of Econtra -- Especially with those of Tony Stark and of the Arbiter: After they questioned his sanity, he most likely gave up on telling the newcomers the truth about... magic.

Halsey quickly thought of a way to describe to them the nature of Econtra, then began talking with a calm tone.

"Remember that, with alternate universes, it can also means alternate laws of reality. And... Some of these residents have survived through their own means in their own worlds by interacting with their own." Halsey drank from her coffee. She attempted to use every term to describe the residents that were able to manipulate reality -- It must be mentioned, she wanted any and every term, but magic.

"This place has been known as the center of the omniverse for many of the residents, so it should be no surprise that different species, cultures, philosophies, even laws, collide. When you two talk around with the residents -Even if they are humans-, if you're lucky, you might hear of things that happened either over five hundred years ago in our history, or beyond our age and technology; In other cases, their entire universe will have no relation to ours."

The Doctor drank once again from her coffee. Even if she indirectly hinted that the Arbiter had been right, now it was up to Keyes and Linda if they believed the things she said. But, the reason she did this, was that one thing was describing the consequences of reuniting individuals from different universes.

And another, outright saying that wizards existed. It was insulting. She hated the very words related to magic. It felt as if their existence in this place was merely to mock her understanding of reality.

That aside...

"You will hear of all sorts of things, and see all sorts of characters. John's warning to 'Expect everything' might be an accurate one."

[tactical_loop]

Linda frowned behind her helmet, probably only a physical reaction to Halsey's words because the Spartan knew no one could see it. What Dr. Halsey made sense--in the abstract--but it also did not answer the question to her wishes. A glance at the captain confirmed she wasn't the only one to think in this vein; a soldier is a soldier is a soldier, and they all tended to think alike in certain matters.

Captain Keyes's face was a thoughtful frown. Emphasis on the frown. With a hint of--not quite confusion, but perhaps perplexity and slight disbelief combined together. The idea that Halsey was avoiding the subject--and yes, he could tell she was skirting around something--gave off a troubling air. He ignored that for now. More importantly, along the same lines the Spartan was thinking, he was more interested in getting a straight answer. Or at least something that made sense in a lateral sense.

"While I might get what your hinting at, doctor, please, if you would kindly remember who you're talking to--layman's terms, Catherine. I'm a soldier, not a scientist," the captain replied to all of that vaguely scientific babble.

[charlie_hotel]

Halsey looked at Keyes, with little to no changes in her expression after the Captain asked her for a straight answer. She expected it. As much as she would explain about the possibilities of Econtra, the two of them preferred a straight answer over an unelaborated statement, and over a beating around the sides of a bush.

"Before I tell you the truth, keep in mind that, in our known universe, energy doesn't exist by itself, which rules out the possibility that they would've been born in this one. With the powers they have shown here, they might as well be a species that have been evolving for at least several million years in a variety of alternate physical laws."

The Doctor paused. Neither Linda nor Keyes liked the hinting that Halsey and John were making, but she just knew they would hate the truth that they would soon realize about multiple universes. She sighed at the very thought of admitting that... magic... existed.

I'm really starting to hate magic, Halsey thought. While on better circumstances ONI would have gained an interest in Spectral Combatants, on their world Halsey would have lost every bit of credibility after speaking the now-bitter truth.

"So, if you want it on layman's terms," Halsey took a sip from her coffee, intentionally making a dramatic pause before dropping the proverbial bomb, with admirably hidden emotions at the face of the greatest insult to her knowledge in physics she has ever received in her entire career, "There is magic here."

((OOC: I wish I knew how to imitate Halsey's actual scientific babble from the books. ;_;

[tactical_loop]

Keyes frowned at the beginning of Halsey's statement. Again, she was using terms and tangents that hardly meant a thing to him. While he was a bright and learned person, he was by no means a scientist, and did not think in the terms generally used by such people. No doubt, Linda felt the same at the moment.

But Halsey continued and Keyes (and Linda) gave her the benefit of the doubt in explaining herself. And the captain was justly rewarded--

--with an impossibility.

He stared at Halsey blankly for a long, silent moment. There was no way he had just heard her correctly. "I beg your pardon?" he asked. When she simply stared at him, equally blankly, and he could feel that the answer was not going to change, nor was she suddenly going to shout out "just kidding!" on him, he had to lean back in his chair and accept the truth: she meant what she said, and what she said was absolute bull-shit.

Linda leaned forward a bit from her position, likely in a similar reaction to Keyes just shown in a different way. Her posture shifted slightly, became more focused, tense, and she seemed ready to pounce on anything. The excitement in her posture leaked into the open air of the cafe and made hairs stand on end. It was obvious, despite her silence, that she was also wary and disbelieving of the statement.

"Magic," Keyes said slowly, "is here. Magic."

((I think you do a fine job anyway. It's a hard character to play--trust me, I've tried Cortana. X_x))

[charlie_hotel]

Halsey only sighed at their reaction, understanding their hesitance to accept the existence of that art, and remembering she had the same reaction when she had heard it not from the Norn Urd, but from her Spartans. The Doctor had predicted how hard it would've been for the two of them to be told by her about... magic. If anything, however, she managed to keep herself calm and in stride as she talked.

On the outside.

On the inside, Halsey cringed at the fact she had just surrendered her logic towards accepting the existence of magic.

Luck was one thing, and no doubt it had helped them in their brutal war. Watching Mr. Stark turn into a small, joyful, anthropomorphic mechanical robot was a violation and an insult to all known laws of reality. It mocked all of her years receiving Doctorates. It made fun of even her most basic understanding of reality.

If there was a God watching over the Omniverse (at this point, she dared not to tempt fate by pondering about the possibility, though), it was laughing at the Doctor right now.

She nodded, seemingly unmoved by the shocked expressions of the Captain and the Spartan.

"On layman's terms." The Doctor answered, "The reason their laws might work here may be because the Keepers wanted them to work, and decided to build the facility in a world that was had similarities with the world they fought in. They could be great sources of energy, after all."

"If you remain doubtful about it, you can check the logs of Sierra One-One-Seven and Zero-Eight-Seven. They've been here for quite a while, and have kept an extensive amount of data, both from this world, and from many others."