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Foundation Scions     Laplace Scientific Computing Center is, again, abuzz, with the promise of yet another opportunity for its scientists to get their greedy greedy hands on an ostensibly-alien artifact. From analysis of the Voyager Golden Disc, six separate published and accepted papers arose on the information encoding-methods alone, let alone countless proposals on re-applications; let alone the open-ended querying still being done on the disc's contents, as it stays here on indefinite-lease from Lilian.

    Today, is an entirely different beast of an opportunity! A strange 'fruit' offers far fewer obvious ways to study and interpret data, apart from the obvious, given the mythological associations of its name- it's with a deep reluctance that the LSCC scientists gathered technically aren't allowed to draw lots to volunteer for consumptive testing of effects (for the good of science!) That hasn't stopped many of them, aides, scientists, notaries, and technicians, from having gathered around the observation-decks and hallway passages around a multi-purpose experimental laboratory, within Laplace's Biology department.

    Laplace's very-own Cryptography Lead is present and attending; one of the multiple LSCC faces present for the second of Lilian's notable projects; far less enthused, but circumstantially, rather than out of a lack of interest, is Mesmer Jr., Artificial Somnambulist, and Animal Magnetiser, here on paper as a mandatory response for if, even accidentally, a subject is exposed to uncertain compounds with detrimental effects on mental coherency; not on paper, because the notion fascinates her, and she can time a much-needed vacation to be after preliminary research.

    Brought along, and kept close at heel behind Mesmer, is none other than Matilda Bouanich, not an LSCC employee at all, who's, largely, unfamiliar with these proceedings, save that for the last analysis of this caliber, Mesmer had elected to use her as a guinea pig for whether the Golden Disc itself promotes insanity. Surely that isn't Mesmer's intent, this time?

    'Volatile Articles Laboratory #01' is a sterile chamber, with notable fortification to its hallway-lining windows, and those of the mezzanine observation-decks peering down onto the study floor. With a raised dais in the middle of the room, surrounded by concentric circles of tracks for heavy-duty spectrograph equipment, acoustic monitors, X-ray emitters, magnetic resonance probes, and robotic sample-collection arms to be pushed around and positioned, for a variety of studies. In the middle of the roof, should the need arise, a heavy chrome hemisphere sits high above, ready to clamp itself down and seal off some unpredictable outcome or result. Whether this is a space made for understanding a chemical, a medicine, a virus, or a bomb, is far from distinct.

    While the Cryptography Lead is, as always, dressed in skin-tight white Laplace uniform-pieces, and high-laced pleather boots and gloves, his fishbowl head buzzing faintly with a focused (*), he isn't the only fishbowl-haver in the room: Mesmer Jr. herself has shifted her outfit to something nominally more situationally-apt, a cold-shoulder bodysuit, gloves, her usual boots, and a spherical fishbowl-helmet clipped into the chunky chrome collar that's the most-universal clothing trait of the LSCC. Thankfully, with crossed arms, she's more or less minding her own business, albeit, this means not very much minding the nervous Matilda besides her.

    Matilda, somewhat nervously, mostly excited to be in a room full of people she somewhat recognizes, tries to wave to newcomers, while Mesmer is distracted with configuring a readout console. Out of some worried impulse, each time, Mesmer shushes her, and goes as far as to hold her wrist to her side and keep her from wandering off.
Foundation Scions     "Mrs. Lilian Rook, PhD," the Cryptography Lead says, with a slight crackle to his voice, in the first moment he can push past eager (and slightly fawning) aides prior to the laboratory beginning low-level lockdown procedures. He's holding a voice recorder, its cable extending to clip into- him? Huh? "Upon my fifth personal review of official observational records of the last analytical project you sponsored, which was cotemporaneous with a seminar on publication and research ethics, it came to my attention that my eagerness at the prospect of scientific discovery could have been perceived as 'impersonal'. To that end, after consultation, I'd like to extend you the honor of voicing the formal starting mark of today's gripping endeavor."

    With a little wiggle of ferrofluid inside his tank, the Cryptography Lead presses down on the chunky record button, capturing Lilian's response. Mesmer stares at him, before adding, quietly, "This could have been pre-considered in an E-mail."
Lilian Rook     Lilian's brand new discovery, one which allegedly warrants the resources of LSCC to custody, was originally slated for a grand reveal (initial assessment) the previous week. The Storm Reformation Bill's final vote, and the debacle that had ensued in the rehabilitation ward, put a swift and definitive stopper in those plans. Having to requisition use of the department and the corresponding visitor pass all over again, her patience with the whole thing has worn surprisingly thin, especially given almost no time to decompress after the official instantiation of Team Timekeeper, but . . .

    Honestly, just having that 'guest' finally arrive seems to obliterate her bad mood all at once. At least, it finally puts a stop to her constant pacing and sighing and muttered swearing at inanimate objects.

    It's her guest visitor bringing the 'alien artifact', too, but Lilian rushes down the elevator to the earliest possible meeting spot the moment she gets the alert, so she's the one returning through the door with it. Dressed in her Laplace uniform (typical chrome bolero, black vinyl, high metal collar, long gloves, A-line one piece skirt, chrome-cuffed boots, ID card pinned to her chest with Night Mist woven through her green lanyard, the same colour as her lipstick), she could hardly look any more different than her companion, but the unified look with the other researchers of Laplace is very much the point.

    The woman following alongside her must be terribly self-conscious, going by the way she hangs so close to Lilian. Just under five feet tall, with hair even longer than Lilian's and oddly ambiguously-amber eyes, soft-faced and delicate as a doll, Sakura's 'usual' way of dressing would helpfully scream 'arcanist' here, but her success in finally making real opportunities to 'leave her post' is something she can't not take advantage of.

    So she sticks out to Lilian, personally, for a silk lace-up top in soft pink patterned houmongi-style up to the extra-large sleeves, partially overflowing a broad white tassel tie-up belt over dressy charcoal blue palazzos and cognac block heels. For Some Reason(tm), she's chosen today to wear by far the most casually 'normal' thing (though it probably still cleanly qualifies as fusion fashion) she's worn in ages, and yet, also, somehow acquired a tortoiseshell cherry branch hairpin using pink pearl and silver petals, suspiciously theme-alike to Lilian's lily.

    Hmm.

    The object of interest, for the second time, couldn't be more obvious. Despite Sakura's claim of it being ostensibly harmless to the touch, the order of the day is transporting it in a sort of steel-cornered tempered glass cube, with a faint flight array engraved on each of the inside surfaces to keep it levitating in the middle. It doesn't have to be large, because the 'artifact' itself is only the size of a hand-over-fist. Its garish metalloid coating in shifting shades of both copper-chlorines detracts nothing from the impression of it being waxy skin speckled with the faintest craters. Its occasional wobbling rotations within the container carried by Lilian cause it to shift in a way that implies some heavy, gelatinously sloshing core.
Lilian Rook     The pomp and circumstance puts her in a better mood, too. She'd spent enough time being on some of the Foundation's tacit shitlist until recently that being openly adored at Laplace puts her back straight and her chest out. Seeing Ulrich again, on a deck like this, overlooking chambers like those, brings back very mixed memories, and a more powerful sense of positive gravitas.

    "If you look any more thoughtful than right now, I wouldn't be surprised if you suddenly turned to marble." Sakura whispers into Lilian's ear, which instantly dispels the look of pensive deliberation that'd crept over her before she noticed.

    'Upon my fifth personal review of official observational records of the last analytical project you sponsored, which was cotemporaneous with a seminar on publication and research ethics, it came to my attention that my eagerness at the prospect of scientific discovery could have been perceived as 'impersonal'.'

    Alerted to tone at the letters P, H, and D, Lilian stands at attention through the entire preamble up until that point, where she is helpless to resist an involuntary 'pff'. "Is that so?" she says, smiling very faintly. "Well, we've since had much more time to get to know one another, so I won't think anything of it."

    'To that end, after consultation, I'd like to extend you the honor of voicing the formal starting mark of today's gripping endeavor.'
    'This could have been pre-considered in an E-mail.'

    Annoyingly, she kind of agrees with Mesmer. "First, I'd like to credit the lovely lady with me here today," immediately earns her a bop on the back of the wrist, which makes her smile a little more, while "Miss Yamada Sakura, who was, and I consider still, a critical correspondant in the discovery and handling of this find. As well as being a very close friend of mine, I would like you to assume her as amply capable of handling any complications as I." makes Sakura go a tiny bit red-faced, and lower her head at an ambiguous shallow-deep angle towards the scientists, unable to determine Ulrich's . . . anything.

    "This artifact was obtained by back-tracing the trajectory data that your cryptography team decoded from the Golden Record, actually; back a planet of origin marked by its finder, corresponding to Kepler-1652b. I'm certain you're wondering why I've brought this--" Lilian raps her knuckles on the tempered glass. "--to the cryptography and arcane biology departments, but you'll see in a moment."

    While Lilian trots down to the containment unit to properly unbox the 'artifact', Sakura takes it upon herself to continue. "Ah . . . In the brief amount of time we have been able to study the object together, I can say for certain that it appears to lack any arcane 'signature' of any kind. We have found no residue, that it interacts with no substances we've seen so far, and it even seems to sterilize an area . . . I believe something close to three feet in all directions? Much less allow growth on its surface."

    Sakura trails off, a little dazed by having to put the words together herself, then blinks suddenly. "Oh, of course, I mean bacteria and such. In any case, it may perhaps be designed, in fact, only to interact with living beings. The effect is rather immediate, and seems to differ from individual to individual. I haven't seen any adverse reactions so far, but just in case, I . . ." This is far too complicated to tell the truth about. "Have some particular talent in handling 'arcane' consequences, though I may not look it. Thank you very much for hearing me out."
Holly Asturias     There was absolutely no reason to deny spending time in Laplace as part of her community service. There's even a very real chance Holly'd want to spend some time here even after the hours are all accounted for.

    It was half of a coincidence that this was the time she'd picked to be present; but when she heard Lilian had heads turning about something, it just made sense to want to be present!

    Is it her first day? It might just be orientation, and she wound up here instead. This happens sometimes!

"This could have been pre-considered in an E-mail."

    "But an email would have been so much less fun!"

    Happily ready, holding a clipboard for note-taking, is the Revenant (and physician) Holly Asturias, identified by the simplest Laplace ID hanging off her uniform by a purple lanyard, and clearly marking her as an assistant, to be supervised at all times. It makes sense, and she's got no complaints.

    The chrome-and-silver uniform suits her well, after finding one she can tolerate. The bolero-esque top over a pencil dress-esque main layer, long-sleeved -- they even found gloves that agree with her long and sharp nails, which looks absolutely demented -- actually lets her breathe without being sinfully tight. It contrasts her darker skin quite a bit, and means her hair is lost in the mostly-silver figure, but she seems quite happy with it regardless. The gown's skirt could flare just a bit more, she feels, but comparing this to her comfy usual wear isn't fair at all. Still, eight out of ten.

    No helmet; given her golden crown of a headdress.

    Considering how Sakura blows open the color spectrum of the present crowd, it's hardly a concern!

    It's notable that she's minding her manners more than usual. This is a lab, a professional environment, and she's on the clock. The most obvious tell is probably the fact she isn't looking to hug Sakura in greeting, and rather maintains herself in the proper staff's vicinity.

    She does stare at Ulrich a lot, in a fascinated-and-curious way.

"and it even seems to sterilize an area"

    "Sterilization with no adverse reactions? That's quite the find. Oh, is it unique?" It's a bit goopy, looks like. "Certainly that mustn't be its primary purpose if it's unique?" She's curious! And hasn't introduced herself. Woops.
Lilian Rook     'Sterilization with no adverse reactions? That's quite the find. Oh, is it unique?'

    Sakura puts on an attentive, yet somehow faraway smile. It's only ever smiles when Lilian is out of the room. "You're quite right. At this time, our belief is that there is some promise in, mmh, as better words escape me, 'planting' it, to see if it can propagate. It's very unlikely we'll find a sample like this ever again." she says. The way she stares up (and up) at Holly seems to imply she has no idea Holly isn't a local LSCC employee. "Lilian decided to bring it here only after we confirmed my arcane skill was able to restore it to an intact state."
Regulus "Don't know much about history o/~ Don't know much about biology o/~ Don't know much about a science book o/~ Don't know much about the French I took o/~ But I do know that I love you o/~ And I know that if you love me too o/~ What a wonderful world this would be o/~"

A recently liberated rock and roll pirate dances her way down Laplace's halls, a stuffed folder clenched in one hand. She's wearing her black leather ensemble, complete with pageboy cap, boots and jacket with blue interior lining, skirt with numerous studs along the hemline. She's wearing a similarly blue dres shirt and her shades are resting on top of her hat as she boogies about.

Behind her, floating along, is APPLe who says, "You seem to be in high spirits, Captain."

"Of course! Freedom, glorious freedom! And all this bloody paperwork is over and done with. We just got to dump it off, finish our probation, and we'll be free of all this tosh. Hm hmm hmm hmm o/~"

Along the way, though, Regulus and APPLe hear the hub-ub of the upcoming experiment. A dangerous twinkle appears in Regulus's eyes.

"Captain, perhaps we should focus on what we came here for...?"

"Oooorrr we can show we're go-getters! And check out the latest hottest experiment! It apparently involves some fancy fruit! You can't say you aren't a little bit interested in that!"

"Just so long as they don't mistake me for the other." APPLe says. "But what of the paperwork?"

"We'll hand it off to someone there. I bet whomever'd be taking a look would be there anyway. We can leapfrog the competition! Let's go!"

And so Regulus hurries along to the Biology department only to find there's a huge crowd. "Ahh shoot, we'll have to slip by them or we won't see anything...!" And so they crouch low, briefly going invisible to help them slink towards where the action is, only revealing themselves moments before they move into view of the Elites and everyone else.

Regulus's eyes widen upon whom she sees there. "Well hallo, Mesmer!" Regulus smiles brightly and sunnily. "Hallo Matilda! Fancy seeing you here." That latter is probably just to Matilda herself, since Mesmer being here is pretty normal.

"Ah, Captain, perhaps we ought to quiet down...?"

Regulus gasps and good-naturedly zips her mouth shut and pockets the invisible key before also throwing a wave to Lilian too. She does not understand the potentiality of Matilda being used as a guinea pig or, in fact, the potentiality of being used as a guinea pig herself knowing her luck so her cheer is utterly undiminished.

''Miss Yamada Sakura.''

"Woah...so that's Sakura." Regulus says like she's seeing a celebrity in action. "Pretty elegant o/~"

''I'm certain you're wondering why I've brought this--''

Regulus nods excitedly.

''Holly staring at Ulrich.''

Regulus nudges the Revenant with her elbow. "Don't stare come on..." She says in a low whisper.

Regulus hastily hangs a visitor badge she's nabbed from her pocket and wiggles it before shoving it back into her pocket.

"Wow, she can turn it back to normal? That's pretty useful for tests like this." Regulus admits.
Tamamo     For Tamamo to be here in her own Foundation 'uniform' should be no surprise, nor worthy of comment to many, but there are some who haven't seen it. Sakura, in particular, has seen Tamamo around plenty, in both casual and magical wear, but not in this sort of monochrome office-wear, with few accents in sea greens to complement her natural colors. She's shifted it in one way that only Lilian, having seen her get ready, would have seen before -- an ambiguous formal/informal shift of putting her hair up, but doing so with a pair of crossed hairpins of gold inlaid with jade, the former spreading petals around the latter. For her, at least, this is 'something comfortable.'

    "Miss Sakura." She should've sounded professional, but that was definitely a little teasing. She surely never calls her that. "It is so good of you to join us." Even though Tamamo's here as an observer, and not staff of the LSCC, too. She should probably be standing somewhere else.

    "It is good to see you, as well, Ms. Bouanich." Her warmth is genuine. Those in the rebellion may have had some issues she may have heard something about... but she wasn't involved with that, so she's decided it's none of her business until someone makes it so. She looks about to say something while pointedly looking at Mesmer holding down Matilda's arm, but ultimately doesn't.

    'Lilian decided to bring it here only after we confirmed my arcane skill was able to restore it to an intact state.'

    "I would be rather concerned, otherwise. The potential harm in such a thing is measurable by the potential energy contained, rather than intents and purposes, after all." The purpose is something she can read, a bit, as 'mixed.' The hostility, back then, was directed. That doesn't make anything safer. "And I suspect it to have grand potential."
Lilian Rook     'Woah...so that's Sakura.'

    Lilian, seeing the wave from the observation deck, tilts her chin up, raises her hand, and wiggls her wrist in Regulus' direction. Sakura, who can actually hear her, smiles at her with a certain kind of thoughtful reservation, only to point at herself, and say "I'm very sorry, but are we familiar to each other? I didn't expect that I would know anyone here."

    'Wow, she can turn it back to normal? That's pretty useful for tests like this.'

    "That is so." Sakura says, lacing her fingers together at her waist; a habit from a different ensemble. "Though, I more often work with injuries, I have a great deal of experience working with artifacts and antiques, and some small amount with machines. I hope it will prove of use to you."

    'Miss Sakura. It is so good of you to join us.'

    If you squint just right, the smile on Sakura's face is a little 'kill me if you must'. "It's wonderful as always to see you, Lady Tamamo, or is Mrs. Rook preferred here also?" she says. "Our voyage was an even more auspicious one than I had thought. The return of our find has given me an unprecedented excuse to travel." It's as vague as she can get about saying 'saying the right words about a 'divine relic from the moon' gets me out of the same old building now'.

    'And I suspect it to have grand potential.'

    With the contain removed, Lilian pings the intercomm switchboard for earpiece access, then instantly beelines to talking to Tamamo. "Right?! So what better place?" she says. "Certainly better than faffing around with it on the beach, both in terms of progress and risk." Stopping to wave at the observation deck, she raises her voice slightly with "By the way, please do everything you can to avoid burning or crushing it; if such a thing is even possible. It's more difficult to fix that way." Which is only a half-lie.

    "It may be helpful if I demonstrate on the floor. It wouldn't be anything new. After that, I'd recommed volunteers; arcanists if at all possible, seeing as we haven't tried it with humans yet." The 'New Fruit' has indeed only touched the hands of Blooms, the Beauty of Ash, and Xion.
Holly Asturias "'planting' it"

    "Mhm, mhm! I can imagine normal soil won't cut it... why soil at all might not cut it. So it's a matter of finding the kind of environment it can thrive in, and then what means exist to energize it that the sterilization field won't interfere with."

    That just sounds like it'll be great to observe! Even though, safety procedures surely say, there's ten whole rounds of tests to do on that thing before trying to make a second one. Let alone more.

"Lilian decided to bring it here only after we confirmed my arcane skill was able to restore it to an intact state."

    "Ah, but pardon, for those of us who weren't there -- 'intact'? What happened to it, and what was different about it when it wasn't such? Was it less safe than it is now?"

    Tamamo's speaking of potential harm and energy contained, so it sounds like a Story happened! Lilian more or less confirms by talking about avoiding burning or crushing it.

"Don't stare come on..."

    "Oh why hello Regulus," Holly whispers back, to avoid interrupting the whole room. "I just think he's neat! But how right you are, it's impolite of me." Regulus is quite used to Awakened. Holly isn't!

"After that, I'd recommed volunteers; arcanists if at all possible, seeing as we haven't tried it with humans yet."

    "A chance to touch a forbidden fruit...?"

    Okay well you can't expect her to be COMPLETELY on her best behavior. Some things are just, deep-ingrained.
Xion Xion had been as diligently present as possible, lurking at the edges and on beaches, checking in at the Garden and curious as to the disposition of the 'Fruit'. She had held it, and it changed to evoke keychains and monochrome, and she felt an impulsive yearning to take her own bite of the fruit.

In the meantime between beach days and garden lingering, Xion disappears into her two dimensional portals of dark portent. Sakura had put her on trying to resolve a situation, but her interpretation on 'how' to do that went in a direction that didn't produce any real results immediately but kept her somewhere else for a while.

Hearing that the Fruit was to be transferred to the LSCC - with Sakura and Lilian! - Xion hustled along in the pair's wake, broadly interested in what the science gang was going to do to the touch-reversed enigma of a new world... And got held up at reception because she was not in any kind of Laplace or Foundation type uniform. Stopped at the warpgate for random inspection due to not having a local fit or a permanent badge, Xion eventually catches up with a visitor badge looped into the beltloops of her black shorts, tied to dangle besides a hanging cross-charmed gold keychain and a glass sphere filled with swirling red charm on black keychain. Wearing a grey t-shirt depicting a faded synthwave sunrise under a black coat with silver draws worn open and black shoes, Xion approaches with her hands in coat pockets, slouching a little, having already had her first crack at the Fruit and needing to push through the crowd of Laplace scientists to get in on the proceedings.

"Oh, nice, is someone else going to touch it? I feel almost embarrassingly ignorant on the meaning of it all, still, and I *went* there." She admits, on entry, a still a little sheepish. Sakura had certainly wanted to support her, but Xion had a hard time forcing or finding her confidence on this topic of all of them. Called and compelled and led to the truth, now that it was so tangible and tokenized, she...

...she felt...

Like she was late to the presentation!

"I'm going to have to figure out the badge situation before next time if all the objects are going to home here, but also, it probably needs to be kept in a special. . . science. . . place? Or, like, one of those boxes with a bunch of magic paper all over it so it knows to stay within the box." She looks to Tamamo while she says this, smiles, and returns to Lilian and Sakura.

"It's funny, I was all spun up to argue with Ash more about this, without them I'm just interested in what happens." The noirette admits, casual-sheepish again. Sleepy in the awaiting, she is ready for something she doesn't know what will happen or how to fully proceed, but she's here for it, as she knew she must be.
Lilian Rook     'Ah, but pardon, for those of us who weren't there -- 'intact'? What happened to it, and what was different about it when it wasn't such?'

    "Oh, allow me." Sakura says, despite there being no one else to explain anyways. "We don't know of any more of an 'intact' state than this. My presence is partially of use in case damage comes to it in the course of study, and partially so that it may be possible for individual samples to be removed without irreversibly damaging the artifact."
        'A chance to touch a forbidden fruit...?'

    Sakura side-eyes Holly, struck with worry about something. Lilian points aggressively through the window, and says "Hey. Watch it. I see that badge on your chest. I can call human resources here.", which makes Sakura laugh.

    'I'm going to have to figure out the badge situation before next time if all the objects are going to home here, but also, it probably needs to be kept in a special. . . science. . . place? Or, like, one of those boxes with a bunch of magic paper all over it so it knows to stay within the box'

    "Xion! Hello!" Lilian calls out. "And I doubt we'll be indefinitely housing this one at the LSCC. You can imagine what might happen if the wrong caller came knocking."

    'It's funny, I was all spun up to argue with Ash more about this, without them I'm just interested in what happens.'

    Sakura looks faintly surprised at Xion. "It seemed to me that you enjoyed arguing with Ash." she says. "Why else would the both of you be committed so?"
Petra Soroka     Petra doesn't usually get around 'the rest' of Laplace! Mostly, her role at the LSCC has become pretty unironically in line with her technical position of service dog, keeping Lilian company at her lab (for psychological and emotional stability) and occasionally getting her blood drawn. Besides a few visits to Medicine Pocket and heated conversations with Mesmer Jr., she's largely kept to the area around Lilian's office here.

    But of course she has to be here today! Not only is the new Fruit of Kepler-- the name 'Underived Conviction' almost certainly to not be spoken all day-- something that she's already invested in, and in fact personally requested to receive, but also, the guest.

    Petra, wearing her service animal vest over a t-shirt that says 'DON'T PET ME I'M SAPIENT', is closely tagging along behind and between Sakura and Lilian from the moment they come through the warpgate, like the third less-liked friend trying to be included in a conversation on a too-narrow sidewalk. With Tamamo too, her position falls to fourth, but that's still fine; she's still very excited to be here. Her little hyperactive trot that continually forces her to slow down to keep pace with the trio of older women makes it *so* easy to imagine a leash on her, even though there isn't one.

    Naturally, she is a constant stream of babbling conversation to be ignored or indulged at their leisure.

    "Oh my god! Sakura! You dressed up! That's so pretty! Lilian, did you already tell her that? You have to, or it's rude, since it's technically your invitation. Oh, oh-- if you go up these stairs, like four or five flights, and then you go right, and then left, and then right again, that's where Lilian's lab is; and we'll probably have time to see it after? If I remember correctly it was abandoned for years before she got it, but surprisingly a lot of rooms in this whole big building are empty and have been for a while, but we cleaned it up and stuff so it's good. Over there's where Medicine Pocket works, and they're, like, a freak; you'll understand how I mean it in a good way if we see them; and over there's . . ."

    "Oh! Matilda! Hi!"

    Energized by company and topic, Petra bounds into the laboratory to lock on to her weird French protégé, raising her hands up above her head like a... sort of mimicked gesture of a hug? Like a cat trying to look big and scary? Who knows.

    "Oh my god, it's been so long. You know I literally thought you were dead? Like, for a little bit, I mean. I knew you weren't." She narrows her eyes at Mesmer grabbing onto Matilda's wrist. "Why are you touching her?"

"Mrs. Lilian Rook, PhD,"

    Despite her time at Laplace, Petra has simply never seen Ulrich. She knows about him, but they've never really had a reason to cross paths, with Ulrich being the head of the Cryptography Department and Petra being, legally, a dog. She's weirdly fascinated by him as well, engaging in possibly her longest sustained visual attention on a man in her life, before scooping up a bit of her floating Silver into her palm and forming it into an emotive exclamation mark and star.
Petra Soroka "Well, we've since had much more time to get to know one another, so I won't think anything of it."

    Her rightful place, though, is hovering behind Sakura gossiping in hushed tones to her about Lilian. "'Lilian Rook, *PhD*.' They *really* like the doctorate here, if you couldn't tell. I think it's pretty uncommon to get a PhD in recondite-- magic-- arcane stuff around here, like it's not offered at many places, or something."

"Oh, of course, I mean bacteria and such."

    Petra mouths, in her best silent imitation of a stand-up comedian, 'well I'd *hope* so!'.

    Petra was there, and does have some perspective on the phenomenon of the Fruit, but she's kind of unsure of how much of her theorizing can actually be shared without delving into the nature of the Blooms themselves. So, hedging her bets, she adds, "I think-- so I didn't hardcore interact with it or anything, but I did pick it up off Kepler and was holding it for a while-- and I think it's a pretty likely thing to say that it *can* hurt you, but isn't *meant* to. In a sort of, um, narrative sense, it's a 'gift from beyond', so the threat is... madness?"
Holly Asturias "I see that badge on your chest. I can call human resources here."

    "Oh!"
    Quite true.
    "I'll control my baser instincts," she smiles with a giggle, waving towards Lilian and the safety glass.

"We don't know of any more of an 'intact' state than this."

    "Oh amazing! So this might not even *be* the whole of it? But your skill also allows partially duplicating it without making it less whole...?" This lab stay is incredible already. And this is a friend of Lilian's? Like the one at the beach? It's no surprise she surrounds herself by interesting people, but still!

    So that must mean the other young lady with the dark hair and the t-shirt is also of Lilian's entourage?

"You know I literally thought you were dead?"

    "Oh not to worry, she was merely being the Foundation's very own top investigator, and anti-Rebellion specialist unit besides." It's not sarcastic! Those fear rocks were something.

"it's a 'gift from beyond', so the threat is... madness?"

    "Madness? Can you elaborate on symptoms?"
Regulus Regulus says, "I don't think we've met, love, but I heard you over the radio. You're one of Lilian's mates. We're fellow members of Team Timekeeper!" Will Regulus ever stop going 'Team Timekeeper!' at people? Probably not. She was doing that before the proposal was even drafted after all, but at least she's sticking to Team Timekeeper instead of going for Suitcase Squad or Luggage Legion or something. She puts on the most posh tone she can to add, "Your excellent reputation precedes you." Then she giggles into herh and.

"That's a pretty impressive arcane skill." Regulus agrees. "I'm sure it'll help! But don't worry so much about that, it's just good to see you!"

APPLe looks a little nervous. Just how much of the gruesome details is he going to observe from here? He adjusts his tie, it's feeling a little tight around sphereoid body.

Regulus has no idea why the fruit can't be planted. "You know, plants grow better if you play some rocking music." Well of course Regulus was going to say that.

"Well of course he's neat," Regulus whispers back. "But he might take offense." She does not know the Cryptopgraphy Lead at all just yet.

''A chance to touch a forbidden fruit...?''

"For someone who isn't looking for anybody, you sure are thirsty." Regulus complains. "I'm not making a vampire joke."

''DON'T PET ME I'M SAPIENT''

Regulus raises a hand.

APPLe forcibly pushes Regulus's hand back down.
Lilian Rook     'Oh my god! Sakura! You dressed up! That's so pretty! Lilian, did you already tell her that? You have to, or it's rude, since it's technically your invitation.'

    "Haven't I dressed 'down' instead? It's been a while since I've enjoyed so much freedom of movement." "Obviously I did! Who do you take me for?!" "I believe it went 'The girl you see for ten seconds on the street one day and never get over'." "Oh for--"

    'Oh! Matilda! Hi!'

    Sakura turns and stares at Matilda with newfound 'polite' interest. She'd kind of been just a face until Petra said her name. "Oh! This is the girl you so often spoke of along the way?" Her eyes transparently go from blonde head-top to blonde head-top. "I understand now." she says, cryptically.

    'I think it's pretty uncommon to get a PhD in recondite-- magic-- arcane stuff around here, like it's not offered at many places, or something.'

    "I knew I finished it for a reason." says Lilian, who finished out of sheer stubbornness. "And it's rather obvious why, isn't it? We're at the only place that could teach one."

    'I'll control my baser instincts,'
    'For someone who isn't looking for anybody, you sure are thirsty.'

    Sakura makes eyes at Petra to come closer, then leans in to whisper something, hand raised to conceal her lips.

    'I don't think we've met, love, but I heard you over the radio. You're one of Lilian's mates.'
    'Your excellent reputation precedes you.'

    Sakura allows herself a moment's pause, touching her fingertips to her breastbone and staring at the floor, then folds her hands right back again and smiles at Regulus; whom she is only barely taller than in heels. "Although I am surprised, I am honoured to know that my name is spoken fondly where she goes." Stiff as the words are, her smile actually reaches her eyes.

    'That's a pretty impressive arcane skill.'

    That sentence, for some reason, severely tests it. "So I have been told." Sakura says. "Lilian and I are what one might say are 'extraordinary cases' when speaking of our world." Her meaning is so unclear that it appears to have no value but stating that they're both from the same place, and not Elite Friends.
Petra Soroka "Oh, is it unique?"

    "At least... for now...?" Underived Conviction was so excited to hand it out to Petra when she asked-- *Petra*, not one of the Blooms, so the standard can't be that high for them to want to produce it. It feels a little bit like a 'project' of theirs in an ideological sense, which is pretty easy for Petra to guess on account of it being a literal crystalized gift of ideology.

    "It's unique and from a unique source, at least."

    Then, remembering something, Petra helpfully informs Sakura like the attendant she is, "Oh, that's Holly. She's a Concord Partner and a bit of a pervert."

"I'm very sorry, but are we familiar to each other?"

    "That's Regulus," Petra's duty continues. "She talked to you briefly over the radio. And sometimes Lilian and I bring your name up. She's from this world and her thing is 60s English rock and roll."

"I hope it will prove of use to you."

    "Well, hopefully not *too* much use." This is a bad thing to say without being able to explain context, so she hastily amends the statement. "I mean, if Laplace fucking smashed a one of a kind thing by accident, I dunno if they'd really be all that qualified to examine it in the first place. I think they'll be gentle-ish hopefully."

"After that, I'd recommed volunteers; arcanists if at all possible, seeing as we haven't tried it with humans yet."

    Petra raises her hand, mournfully separated by observation desk glass. "Let me know if you want or don't want me specifically. I think I'm probably either safer or way less safe than average, depending on what we learn about it."

"A chance to touch a forbidden fruit...?"

    "Lady, they won't let *me* take a bite of the forbidden fruit."

"Oh, nice, is someone else going to touch it?"

    "I wanna touch it so bad it makes me look stupid," Petra asides to her fellow tagging-alonger. "I mean, you didn't seem any... *worse* for wear afterwards? Right? It wasn't bad."
Foundation Scions     Mesmer is visibly taken aback by Sakura's presence. In the flurry of the previous week, she'd half assumed Sakura's visit to have already happened, or to have been cancelled. Actually seeing her along for this (as much sense as it makes) is a sharp surprise, one which has her staring, and taking a strange re-balancing step.

    Quiet and stiff more than tense, "Sakura. I hope you've had an agreeable time visiting Laplace's campus." A pause follows, while she still stares her up and down. More stiff, as she turns back, "I hope you've been well. You look more relaxed."

'It is good to see you, as well, Ms. Bouanich'

    "Ah? Salut!" Matilda calls back, quite frazzled at the proceedings she's been dragged along for. Mesmer relents, and lets her wave- "I hope you have been well! And, of course, it is now not 'Ms.' Bouanich, but 'Junior Investigator'!" She can't not rub in her promotion to everyone. This isn't even the Foundation.

'Oh! Matilda! Hi!'

    Excited to be around People again, this much, let alone ones she's sorta friendly with, Matilda's already in such a mushy state to not even hesitate to copy Petra's arms-up posture. "Petra! It is good to see- Hein? Dead?! Certainly not! Please remember that I am an expert diviner! If a gloomy fate awaited me, I would see it long ahead of time, and prepare to avoid it!"

    Matilda looks down to Mesmer's hand, now having grabbed her wrist again, and pulled her arm back down, and blinks. "Mesmer? Why are you doing so?"

    Mesmer pretends not to hear.

'But an email would have been so much less fun!'

"Excuse me?"
"Excuse me?"

    Two fully different tones zero-in on Holly, confused for different reasons at her addition of exactly two cents; the Cryptography Lead weirdly curious-buzzy, and Mesmer just tired at an unrelated comment being grabbed up.

'Back a planet of origin marked by its finder, corresponding to Kepler-1652b. I'm certain you're wondering why I've brought this--'

    There's an immediate rush of activity amongst the clipboard-holding observers on the mezzanine decks, leaning close to the fortified glass to see. The Cryptography Lead himself buzzes an excited (!) at the mention of that travel. "I assure you, I've no end to questions. Curiosity may be fatal to felines, but as you can see, I'm fully inorganic, so it's purely a matter of scientific rigor. I'm pleased that the coordinates were useful in field applications, and might I just ask," Perfectly to the tone of 'when will the kids be on their way', "When will your observational findings from such a journey be published?"
Foundation Scions '--to the cryptography and arcane biology departments, but you'll see in a moment.'

    "Ah-hem, now, to seal the room, and get to work..." Despite that being the Cryptography Lead's words, it's a cue for Mesmer, to step over to a series of wall-mounted controls and throw a highly-satisfying lever. Absentmindedly forgetting to let go of her classmate's wrist results in Mesmer dragging Matilda over, too. Can't have a lab like this stay open while the artifact is unveiled! Surely, nothing will happen, but there's a protocol to these things anyways!

"Er, wait, Mesmer? Please let go, and, Mr. Ulrich? Shouldn't the closing of the room wait, until all observers are-"
"Arrgh! Wait! Dumbasses! Out, get, out of the way-!" comes from the hallway, interrupting Matilda's nervous hopes to actually escape the room.

    Shuffling past busybodies in the hallway, Medicine Pocket, the lanky head of Arcane Biology at Laplace, is too late to get to the reserved lab before the heavy doors have started closing, but not too late to, with another near-growl of annoyance, baseball-slide under it, before it seals with a *kh-thsshk*. The get up, unphased, and dust themselves off, immediately yawn, and sorta-rudely ask, "Did I miss anything?"

    Mesmer Jr. sighs, but, after the commotion, does let go of Matilda, who is now as trapped in there as anyone else is. Medicine Pocket stays a little uncomfortably close, as the Fruit itself is unveiled, whistling. "Hey, c'mon, so, how is it that Ulrich gets to get in on two of your big projects, and this one's not all mine? What's up with that?" Medicine Pocket-ese for 'what's this about cryptography?'

'so the threat is... madness?'

    Mesmer Jr. sighs at that, the motion visible in her shoulders. "Madness is fixable. That, at least, was pre-considered in experimental protocols."

'Right?! So what better place?'

    As if on cue to that, the Cryptography Lead calls out to the various technicians, while pressing, also, a button on a nearby wired-up console, "Begin imaging procedures, please."

    On articulated boom arms, the in-built sensor-machinery of the laboratory start to circle and hover around the fruit, dialing in and producing 'shit tonnes' (metric, not imperial, this is a scientific facility) of information, printing out by the ticker-tape typeline. The machinery isn't so obstructive to prevent other experimentation, but just a continuous level of thoroughness.

'By the way, please do everything you can to avoid burning or crushing it'

    "Anyone with combustibles, hit the dirt!" Medicine Pocket calls, putting their hands around their mouth to amplify the words. A few scientists do immediately drop and hunker down, to which they snicker. "Department Head Medicine Pocket, please, mind additional disruptions-" "Pssh, okay, okay. They listen faster that way! Look!" The Cryptography Lead makes a pointed :( symbol, and looks away, back out on the experiment grounds.

'After that, I'd recommed volunteers; arcanists if at all possible, seeing as we haven't tried it with humans yet.'

    Mesmer Jr. casually elbows Matilda- to the result of an almost squeaking noise! Secondary instinct, Matilda sticks her hand up in implicit volunteering, followed quickly by Medicine Pocket.

    "All recording instruments are active, and callibrated, Mrs. Rook. Feel free to begin your part of the demonstration at your prerogative."
Tamamo     '...or is Mrs. Rook preferred here also?'

    "In truth, Laplace Center is a bit of a haven for informality," Tamamo says, very possibly thinking of it as 'a place Medicine Pocket can exist,' "but the Foundation leadership do know me as Mizukume Rook."

    She smiles. "'Mrs. Rook and Dr. Rook,' perhaps?"

    'Our voyage was an even more auspicious one than I had thought.'

    "By any reasonable metric, we must be considered greatly fortunate." In the tone of an in-joke, "How terrible that I am so very greedy for good fortune, then."

    'Certainly better than faffing around with it on the beach, both in terms of progress and risk.'

    "If this should happen often, I might need find the time to expand my workshop." It's fine, though. For now.

    Seeing Xion direct attention her way, Tamamo gives a little wave and smile. She might be thinking about boxes covered in seals, too.

    '...but surprisingly a lot of rooms in this whole big building are empty and have been for a while...'

    That actually catches Tamamo's attention, though she's slow enough to respond to it to make it potentially unclear. "I wonder as to just how much unused capacity there is, within the campus walls." It's a pretty important question, considering.

    'I'll control my baser instincts.'

    "Please," 'behave,' "Dr. Asturias." That aghast tone sounds a bit feigned, however.

    "This is a professional environment." Didn't she just say the opposite to Sakura?
Xion 'seeing as we haven't tried it with humans yet.'

Xion doesn't make a face, not precisely, but as she slides over she takes a second, and adds in a low voice: "I'd say I count as human, but," She trails off, and the 'but' is daringly obvious to everyone who knows her, Lilian and Sakura perhaps especially.

'You can imagine what might happen if the wrong caller came knocking.'

Xion nods, smirking softly. "Hey-o." She lamely begins, low-key but at least happy that she was here. "It extends the chance of someone having whole hours with it and all kinds of lame intentions, definitely. I've heard of all *kinds* of theories about trees and apples and free fruit and tragedies of commons." Or tragedies of the uncommon, in this case.

'It seemed to me that you enjoyed arguing with Ash.'

Xion goes furtive for a moment before a smile spreads with a sighing exhale through nose. "Yeah, well, they're fun to argue with and they're paying attention so they're worth talking to. I'd say the rest is wanting to win, but..." She shrugs.

"Maybe it's how they can't help but go 'fuck, that's sick'-" She does her best Ash impression, then pops a light giggle. "-even when they'd rather call things stupid loser stuff."

When Petra makes her Silver !, Xion can't help but chuff with a grin at how cute that is, the mirroring being so cutely considered.
Regulus ''Her thing is 60s rock and roll.''

"Just rock and roll, I've really expanded my repertoire! Though they don't quite do it like the 60s." Regulus needs to hold onto some pride for her era here.

''--arcanists if at all possible''

Regulus hops up and down on her feet and raises her own hand excitedly. Looks like there'll be no shortage of volunteers at least. This time she dodges APPLe's attempts to bring her arm down. Periodically she gets distracted by Petra's shirt again but then quirks her head at Xion, a little uncertain as to who this person is. If they met before, she's forgotten!! But she's not sure she hasn't met Xion before so she's kind of wobbling a little to try and remind herself if it's one or the other rather than just asking which would be embarrassing.
Holly Asturias "For someone who isn't looking for anybody, you sure are thirsty."

    "I'm burdened by apparently impressive greed," Holly smiles to Regulus.

"Excuse me?" x2
"Oh, that's Holly."

    "Ah, sorry! Doctor Holly Asturias, though right now, 'assistant' will do just fine~. If you require anything, and I do mean anything, I'm serving as a pair of extra hands on deck, so please don't hesitate. Otherwise, I'll be taking notes on how things usually go here, that I might better assist in the future~."

"Lady, they won't let *me* take a bite of the forbidden fruit."

    "Terrible. There truly is nothing and no one to sink one's teeth into, these days." Well, there's Odette. Who is not here!

"Did I miss anything?"

    "What a refreshing energy! Why I might like you."
    She might not, if she had to spend a hour being Medicine Pocket's assistant. Or it might cement the opinion in place!

"This is a professional environment."

    "So it is! Ahem." She might actually behave after all, and all it took is Tamamo. And like, three four individual quips.

"All recording instruments are active, and callibrated, Mrs. Rook. Feel free to begin your part of the demonstration at your prerogative."

    Ah, right! The notetaking. Very important. Holly zips it, eager to see what's in store, and to see the local staff at work besides.
Tamamo     'And, of course, it is now not 'Ms.' Bouanich, but 'Junior Investigator'!'

    "Oh, of course! I did hear of your promotion. Congratulations, Junior Investigator Bouanich." Oh no. She's going to use the full title from now until she's asked otherwise.

    She then watches in confusion warring with the impulse to give a tired sigh at Mesmer deafly dragging Matilda around for literally no reason. Medicine Pocket's entrance is perfectly unremarkable, by comparison.

    'I'd say I count as human, but...'

    Being something that didn't need to be said at all, Tamamo is quiet in voicing, "More so than many, but..."

    There seem to be plenty of volunteers, so it's nothing to worry about. She'd put herself rather low on the list, considering it something not meant for her.
Petra Soroka "I believe it went 'The girl you see for ten seconds on the street one day and never get over'."

    Petra has never covered her mouth with her hand and gone 'fufufu' before in her life. Now is the time.

"Oh not to worry, she was merely being the Foundation's very own top investigator, and anti-Rebellion specialist unit besides."
"And, of course, it is now not 'Ms.' Bouanich, but 'Junior Investigator'!"

    "Yeah! You did, didn't you! Mess with the rebellion, I mean. Anti-Rebellion specialist unit, huh?" Petra raised-eyebrow side-eyes Matilda with a little smirk that could be insulting to literally anyone involved in this conversation. "Is that as official as 'Junior Investigator, or is that just whining?"

"If a gloomy fate awaited me, I would see it long ahead of time, and prepare to avoid it!"

    With Matilda mirroring the big kitty posture, Petra just sort of unthinkingly keeps her arms raised above her head throughout the course of greeting her. "Well, it's your divination that got me worried, but-- true. I bet you could avoid any gloomy fate."

    Petra's hand drops down suddenly from where she's raised it, bonking the top of Matilda's head with a loose fist. "Gloomies you."

"This is the girl you so often spoke of along the way?"

    "Yes. Yes!" Petra confirms, and then gets suddenly more enthusiastic, dropping her voice to a whisper aside to Sakura that is not even close to being too quiet for Matilda to hear, "Oh my god, Sakura-- this is the *perfect* girl to do readings and stuff on. There's this girl that she's got this huge crush on that goes *nowhere*."

    "Hey, Matilda, what was the date and time when you were born? And location? And-- er-- year, relative to the, um, continuous flow of time forwards?"

"When will your observational findings from such a journey be published?"

    Petra glances at Lilian for her reaction. *Surely* it's fine to talk about Kepler itself to the researchers she's trusting with the Fruit, but also, the nature of what was Kepler is really hard to wrap your head around *without* knowing about the Blooms. So instead she offers, implicitly 'before Antithetical Praxis showed up', "I've got video of our landing if you want me to bring that in later." And samples!

"Er, wait, Mesmer? Please let go, and, Mr. Ulrich?"

    Well, Petra tried? On one hand, she dislikes Mesmer enough to not want her to have anything at all, especially not relating to women, but on the other, as long as Mesmer's hands are full with Matilda('s hands), she's pretty much harmless. "Ah, good luck."

"Madness? Can you elaborate on symptoms?"

    She... could, actually. It would actually have been easier if Underived Conviction *did* blast them all like Antithetical Praxis did, because that one experience made Petra pretty confident in theorizing about the latter. Instead, what she has to offer is, "Breakcore and emojis."

"Hey, c'mon, so, how is it that Ulrich gets to get in on two of your big projects, and this one's not all mine?"

    "Jealous of being the side-piece..." Petra shouldn't say things like that, because Medicine Pocket has the authority to inject her with substances. "And, er... well, if there's any 'intention' encoded into it, it'd be without any language that it's possible for us to understand normally? Is my guess. I could try, but it might be dangerous."
Lilian Rook     'That's Regulus,'

    "Oh, then it's a pleasure to meet you." Sakura says. Slightly lost, yet somehow on the ball, she adds, "As you know, I am from the same world as Lilian. I presently enjoy historical literature, antique collecting, tea ceremony, and watching speedruns."

    'Sakura. I hope you've had an agreeable time visiting Laplace's campus.'

    Sakura wears an expression so strangely interpretable in many ways that it doesn't express much at all. Incidentally, she takes one step closer to the door where Lilian will soon emerge from again.

    'I hope you've been well. You look more relaxed.'

    "You as well, Miss Mesmer Junior. And I'm not just saying so." Sakura finally says. "Thanks to the abundance of generosity and patience shown by Ash and Miss Oreshnika, I might be the most relaxed I've been in a thousand years." She smiles like she's being fondly silly. It could be literal.

    'Curiosity may be fatal to felines, but'

    Lilian can't help a weird, impulsive backwards glance at Mesmer.

    'When will your observational findings from such a journey be published?'

    "A-ah. It's . . ." "I'm afraid that I'm required to file most of it as a series of thorough reports to my preexisting employers. If they contain any hazardous information or have the potential to unknowingly distribute dangerous magic, I'll be in a lot of trouble." Lilian lies ever so smoothly. "We have expert analysts for exactly that. If they give me the green light, you'll be the first to see it."

    'Did I miss anything?'

    Sakura, lightly stunned, decides to file this behaviour tentatively into the 'Ash quadrant' of her social graph, and respond with polite applause. "Only names, small-talk, origins, and arcane skills." she says. "You're just in time."

    'Hey, c'mon, so, how is it that Ulrich gets to get in on two of your big projects, and this one's not all mine? What's up with that?'

    "Because I don't know the first thing about ciphers and I already have my own lab dog." Lilian shoots right back. "If you don't fuck anything up then you're welcome to your share of samples, you know."

    'Madness is fixable.'

    "Were I only so confident . . ." Sakura says, quiet as a whisper.

    'All recording instruments are active, and callibrated, Mrs. Rook. Feel free to begin your part of the demonstration at your prerogative.'
Lilian Rook     As the readings come flooding in, it becomes immediately trivial to verify Sakura's opening theses. There not only don't seem to be any signs of arcane fluctuations from the artifact, there seem to be none against it either. Even Lilian's own signature arcane flux doesn't linger on its surface in residual traces, rendering it impermeable, albeit uselessly, to arcanum. There are no life signs, no volatiles, Nor any for a radius that seems to settle around 36cm, though the airborne radius can be verified to be fluctuating by about a centimeter and a half.

    Weight: 1.2134 kilos. Average density: 6.17g/cm^3. Thermal Conductivity: 0.93W(mk). Weakly diamagnetic. Wildly polymorphic lattice structure. Spectroscopy reports that uniform reflective wavelengths that should appear grey-white to the naked eye. Low levels of microwave radiation at irregularly ordered intervals. Completely opaque to x-ray, yet ultrasound immediately suggests a soft, conductive interior. A blurry smear of indescernible mass comes out different on every single slide. None of that matters as much as what comes next.

    When the sensor booms have passed, Lilian simply picks up the artifact, gloves on, and holds it up as if to present it for advertisement. Within the same second, the garishly neon-chemical surface subtly writhes to the touch. As the skin darkens, her fingers stain it in luminol and jellyfish light, extruding criss-crossing lines across hundreds of potential cross-sections of the now wetly glossy sphere. The vertices of each intersection strobe rapidly, each pulse at a consistent thirteen millisecond duration, but with a non-repeating, patterned frequency. The moment they finish, the skin turns translucent; see-through to a dark hole at the bottom of the ocean, thick with gloomy pressure and primordial potential, where something pulses at the core.

    Then the artifact reforms itself; or reconfigures. The translucent surface 're-polarizes' in some way, and now the entire thing is made of solid mirror-black metal, heavy and angular, warm to the touch. Tiny, dull gold-ish inclusions look very much like a camera timelapse of stars moving across the night sky on its surface. Lilian lobs it up with the gentlest motion, and it comes apart into a dozen equidistant slivers, 'exploded' with geometrical perfection along the vertical axis. Its smooth, solid insides appear to be faintly stained by residual heat, and persistently drip an inexplicable near-infrared substance that pools in Lilian's palm only to sizzle away again.

    The individual pieces steadily orbit a hazy whiteout blot at its center, eerily familiar to some. Each full rotation follows exactly a one second interval.

    "I'm not so certain I'd describe the effects I've experienced as 'mental' so much as 'sensory' and 'perceptual'." Lilian says, calm as having tried this yesterday. "Uniformly heightened sensory acuity, perhaps a mild sense of 'hypervividity'; slight, emotionally-rooted psychosoma, and increased emotional 'presence' in general, plus overall intensified physical signals-- hunger, thirst, fatigue, so on-- and--" Lilian's lips quirk down in a reluctant way. "--a vague sense of reassurance, or 'trust'; some sort of tribal-brained holdover neuron firing, no doubt."
Foundation Scions 'Congratulations, Junior Investigator Bouanich.'

    Matilda's in such luck, because she wants it said every time! Well. She wants that now, at least. In a few weeks, she might start to get embarrassed, but this isn't then yet! She nods, emphatically, and smiles like she's on top of the world.

'Hey, Matilda, what was the date and time when you were born?'

    "Why, none other than the day after the summer's solstice, nineteen direct years ago, so..." A moment to tally it up, "1993! In, the mid-morning, I believe! No-where else, of course, but Paris, the capital of France! Why do you ask? Are you hoping to preform a reading, of some sort?" She didn't hear the whispering, but she *is* a diviner.

'Gloomies you.'

    "Hey!!!!!"

'We have expert analysts for exactly that. If they give me the green light, you'll be the first to see it.'

    Weirdly, it's Mesmer who pipes in, possibly actually trying to be helpful, with "Is it a Paladins matter? Perhaps I could assist in some of the protocol if it is."

'I've got video of our landing if you want me to bring that in later.'

    "Please, by all means," is the Cryptography Lead's crackle-buzzy reply, clapping his hands together, and giving them an emphatic little rub together.

'Jealous of being the side-piece...'

    "Ohhh. Hey, Petra, tell me, have the new vertebrae started growing in yet?" This is probably just banter, especially since they stick their tongue out at Petra- but they know Petra shouldn't be saying such things when they have the legal authority to inject her with substances, too! Maybe MePo did do something. Who's to say!

'If you don't fuck anything up then you're welcome to your share of samples, you know.'

    With the requisite little fist-pump, after rolling their eyes at the first part, and with a hollow-raspy tone, Medicine Pocket responds in implicit-acquiescing agreement with "Score!"

'Were I only so confident . . .'

    Maybe it's just a coincidence, or a factor of back-of-the-neck pricklies, or the tone of some magnetic field, but Mesmer picks that moment to throw yet another strange staring-sympathetic glance back at Sakura.
Regulus ''I'm burdened by apparently impressive greed.''

"Are you though?" Regulus asks, thinking this through. "You don't actually want it, it's like saying 'I'm so hungry' and then pushing away all the plates of food that come your way. Maybe you should consider going for ''someone'' you like after all?"

''Antique collecting, tea ceremony, and watching speedruns.''

Regulus completely misunderstands the last term and says, "Oh I love speedrunning too. It's the best kind of running," with more confidence than is warranted. "I do alot of running around lately, and I've got to be speedy about it or I'll get in a lot of trouble. What kind of antiques?" Regulus tries to think of the most antique object she can thinkg of. "Vases?"

''Anti-Rebellion specialist unit''

Regulus is trying not to go on and on about the fear rocks and everything since the more she thinks about it, the more annoyed she gets, and if she keeps getting annoyed she might be mean at Matilda a SECOND TIME and she will DIE if she has to see that lip quiver again. So instead she says to Petra, "Uh well she was pretty effective. But uh--it's over and done with! So."

She starts to reach over again--

APPLe says, "Captain, Please."

"So uh-" She says. "Do you have to wear that or...?"
Lilian Rook     Putting it back on its pedestal, the artifact returns to its prior form within seconds. Lilian says "We've observed the sensory effects coming and going in diminishing cycles over the course of several days with prolonged handling, but briefly as this, they don't last outside thirty minutes. Furthermore; Sakura?"

    "Of course." Sakura turns as if presenting to the class. "So far, myself and three others, including Lilian, have intentionally handled it without intervening filters for an extended period of time. I have a list of descriptive traits of the artifact when handled, and the personal perceptions of each one involved, with me right now, as a matter of fact." On a notepad. Like, a cute little leather-bound pocket notebook. She holds it up in both hands like it's a flash card to a Japanese language class.

    "If I may ease any potential anxieties, the reported symptoms do not appear to be impairing. In one case, it provoked 'a sense of allegedly pleasant detachment, renewed energy, increased 'presence' in spatial environments, difficulty remaining in one place, and increased interest in non-social human contact'." Sakura clears her throat just for pacing. "In another, it was 'Slightly increased talkativeness, a mild sense of 'attachment' or 'neediness', brief experiences resembling separation anxiety, slightly improved critical and analytical thinking, and an increased preference for it'."

    One little breath. "And in another, 'irregular moments of combativeness and self-centered thinking and behaviour, improved stamina, focus, and mental persistence, lowered inhibition, and lowered emotional extremes'."

    She's still looking weirdly conflicted about something when Lilian says "Okay, I'm coming out. Form a line or something."
Lilian Rook     'It extends the chance of someone having whole hours with it and all kinds of lame intentions, definitely.'

    "Measuring in micro-NAZCAs." Lilian says, impenetrable bleak-jovial.

    'Maybe it's how they can't help but go 'fuck, that's sick' even when they'd rather call things stupid loser stuff.'

    Sakura finally eases back into an effortless smile again. "There is a rare sort of honesty that can be found in those who fear no consequence, it seems. Perhaps it is even one that we all crave, without knowing definitely."

    'Terrible. There truly is nothing and no one to sink one's teeth into, these days.'

    "Okay seriously though, don't try to eat it." Lilian says. "I'm not joking. I will shoot you if you try."

    'Well, it's your divination that got me worried, but-- true. I bet you could avoid any gloomy fate.'

    "Certainly one so far, it seems."

    'Oh my god, Sakura-- this is the *perfect* girl to do readings and stuff on. There's this girl that she's got this huge crush on that goes *nowhere*.'

    Oh. Sakura was interested in all this already, but now she's interested. She steps aside to let Lilian through as she comes back, but does so in a way that places her closer to Petra, almost leaning in. "Then it was good of you to consult with me." she says, conspiratorial, looking at Matilda like someone standing right outside the secret club treehouse. "But without knowing anything of the individual in question . . ."

    'I've got video of our landing if you want me to bring that in later.'

    "That's . . . probably harmless."

    'Breakcore and emojis.'

    Both Lilian and Sakura snicker, then abruptly try to clam up.

    'Why, none other than the day after the summer's solstice, nineteen direct years ago, so...'

    Off the top of her head: "Oh . . . a great excess of fire, no doubt, and too little water. But at least her wood . . ."

    'Is it a Paladins matter? Perhaps I could assist in some of the protocol if it is.'

    "No." Lilian says, weirdly hastily.
Lilian Rook     'You don't actually want it, it's like saying 'I'm so hungry' and then pushing away all the plates of food that come your way.'

    "Sometimes, people are fighting battles you know nothing about." Lilian says. "Sometimes they're just getting through the day so they can go and eat a decent meal at home."

    'Vases?'

    Sakura first only somewhat successfully conceals her silent laughter with her sleeve, given its different length from usual, then says, gamely, "Most often, Muromachi period artifacts of various kinds, but it seems I collect European pieces meant for astrology, timetelling, navigation, and so on, along the way." She pauses. "Cups more than vases." she says, weirdly thoughtfully.
Holly Asturias "Breakcore and emojis."

    "Breakcore...?" She, surprisingly, knows what breakcore music is, because there's assuredly several kinds of *cores in her playlists. What she has no idea about is how to translate that statement into 'madness'. Surely it'll be obvious in a moment?

ARTIFACT.

    No, not at all.
    But damn, it's pretty.

    Especially when it breaks apart, like a little planetarium display.

    "So it is... an empathic conduit, then? Responding to the person holding it? No, it's doing more than reacting, it's clearly stimulating different needs in different people, but also... energy, contentment, trust... needless to say I'm stumped!"

    She was never going to not be!

    "In your opinion, were all of the traits being brought on by interacting with it 'positive'? That is, not positive traits in the literal sense, but traits one might consider positive to have more of, for themselves alone."

"Okay seriously though, don't try to eat it."

    "Oh heavens no. Perish the thought, I'd rather not find out what my stomach being sterilized feels like. Nevermind if it 'explodes' like that again! My I'd be quite content to hold it though, but you've said 'human', and I'm not, if that might be a concern at all."

"Are you though?"

    "Well..."

"Sometimes, people are fighting battles you know nothing about."

    "Ah... I suppose it might be like that."
    Holly clears her throat, and attempts to make it less obvious Lilian might've hit something. She fails, considering the ensuing silence.
Lilian Rook     The materials, configuration, and composition, physically change each time, corresponding to their visual appearance, but the strobing code that precedes each and every one of them is unique; and if the same person picks it up over and over, always the same for them.

    ±The artifact wants to suit you. In a way, it knows you; it knows what you were meant to be before you were born, and it knows what you became instead. Every way you identify yourself by diverging from the norm, from 'natural', it will justify, and make stand for themselves; deviance given telos, lacking given pathos.±

    ±It has no purpose but to obliterate your 'innate, inborn nature'. Its workings are infinite, and all serve only to interlace every other part of you so firmly that they fill the vacuum that should be left, contrarian to the way nature famously abhors emptiness so greatly it will fill it with just about anything.±

    ±Without biting into it, you'll never know what that version of yourself looks like, but by holding it, you get a glimpse. What comes to mind are the parts of you that you wear proudly, and the parts that you suppress on purpose; the feelings you wish were your normal, as 'normal' depressurizes just a little, and other things fill the extra space±
Tamamo     Each full rotation follows exactly a one second interval.

    Now, that is familiar. Tamamo watches with interest.

    '...some sort of tribal-brained holdover neuron firing, no doubt.'

    "Hmm." Something else, perhaps.

    There's a rising curiosity, but she can still put that down, for now. It certainly helps give a clearer picture than she had of having only seen Xion touch it.

    'In, the mid-morning, I believe!'

    "A truly sunny auspice. Did you know, I and Lilian chose the equinox for our ceremony for its position of balance between the solstices? Oh, but that has little to do with birth divination, of course. The summer solstice... that would be either Gemini or Cancer in the Western tradition, yes? Under the Four Pillars, it would be the Horse, though the element depends upon the year. Mid to late morning is the Hour of the Snake, but... oh, Jianya would know these by heart, I am sure. I have not used the Four Pillars often, in truth. Now, when is Ms. Sonetto's birthdate?" A totally inexplicable topic shift. "I suppose I shall ask her, later."

    'Do you have to wear that or...?'

    "Yes."

    '...difficulty remaining in one place, and increased interest in non-social human contact'.'

    "'Non-social'...?" What a curiously suspicious term.
Lilian Rook     'In truth, Laplace Center is a bit of a haven for informality,'

    "I had my suspicions." Sakura silently implies tittering with her sleeves and shoulders. "Or else I would have worn something else." She absentmindedly adjusts her cherry branch kanzashi.

    ''Mrs. Rook and Dr. Rook,' perhaps?'

    Sakura thinks on that for a little while, then says, uneasily, apologetic smile in place, "I think I would hesitate before saying so, Mrs. Tamamo. Ear of the layman would naturally conclude that the doctor is your husband."

    'If this should happen often, I might need find the time to expand my workshop.'

    "Honestly, I'd prefer to keep any faffing and the about thereof very far away from anything I care about." Lilian says as she reaches the observation deck main group, and immediately gravitating between the two women. "Which does, mind you, include your workshop."

    'I wonder as to just how much unused capacity there is, within the campus walls.'

    "Quite a lot." Lilian says, meaning two things. "But there's not much use in loaning out labs to people who have no head for science or arcanum. It's not as if this dadaistic chrome behemoth is set up like a bed and breakfast." On the other hand . . .

    'Jealous of being the side-piece...'

    "Don't make me call HR on you too!" This is, fortunately, not a threat Lilian can remotely act upon.

    'Breakcore...?'

    "Oh god it's such a long story." Lilian sighs. "Something enthusiastically artificial, and thriving in its indulgent divorce from tradition, Doctor Asturias."

    'So it is... an empathic conduit, then? Responding to the person holding it?'

    "If I knew, I wouldn't be here." Lilian says, like a verbal shrug. "My intuition is that it's 'reacting' rather than 'reading', though. Like a reagent."

    'In your opinion, were all of the traits being brought on by interacting with it 'positive'?'

    Both Lilian and Sakura gain. Simultaneous. Uneasy. Equally readable. They weren't even looking at each other at the time. "As wonderful as it'd be to live in a world where everyone can be trusted and everything can be shared, I'd think anyone who genuinely believes so is an imbecile or a mental case. As incidentally comfortable as high-fidelity emotional processing and a little hyperphysicality is, I'd hardly think it'd be worth that."

    'but you've said 'human', and I'm not, if that might be a concern at all.'

    "Doctor Asturias . . . I'm afraid to say that . . ." "Literally nobody here." "I just can't see you as a human . . ." Why does Lilian find that specific tone so funny?
Lilian Rook     ''Non-social'...?'

    Sakura, fully suspecting that Tamamo knows which of the remaining three options that one is, says "Parallel play, copresence, splitting tasks . . . I'd have to read my notes again."

    'Did you know, I and Lilian chose the equinox for our ceremony for its position of balance between the solstices?'

    Lilian would be 'smug' right now, if she weren't actually pretty much solely responsible for all of that playing out the way it did; so it must be 'proud' instead. "And goodness it wasn't easy. And imagine the pressure of knowing you pop the question now or wait until next year!"
Tamamo     'Or else I would have worn something else.'

    "There are times to wear colors for specific purposes, of course," says the foxy office lady, "but among others, on this particular world, to appear in 'too distinctive' fashion only suggests to others a predisposition toward the arcane."

    Thinking over a broad history of cults, magicians, and court practitioners, she continues, "Is that not curious?"

    'Ear of the layman would naturally conclude that the doctor is your husband.'

    Tamamo thinks about it for a moment. "The Western tradition is difficult in some ways, after all." Then, related in ways she doesn't see a need to explain, "Compared to the times of a thousand years past, I do take some small pleasure in the signs I may employ to make clear our bond, among those who make certain assumptions. The changing of names is one of these." The rings are another.

    'Honestly, I'd prefer to keep any faffing and the about thereof very far away from anything I care about.'

    "I would be very careful, of course! Ah, however, the greatest care possible to show would be to not allow such artifacts into my workshop in the first place." She can't help admitting that.

    'It's not as if this dadaistic chrome behemoth is set up like a bed and breakfast.'

    Ominously, "Needs must."
Holly Asturias "Something enthusiastically artificial, and thriving in its indulgent divorce from tradition, Doctor Asturias."

    "So not music...?"

"As wonderful as it'd be to live in a world where,"

    "A little hope never hurt anyone, Lilian."
    That's assuredly, provably, *measurably* not true.

"I just can't see you as a human . . ."

    It takes Holly a moment to realize and tone, and then laugh. "My, point well taken. I'm concerned over nothing, aren't I?"

    Then, she will happily have a god. Hold the Fruit, but don't bite into it. Simple enough. There are people watching, and Lilian is the sort to stop something she'd consider reckless and unsafe, most likely? And so Holly can take her turn in the Safety Enclosure, and ponder the forbidden alien apple.

    What the Fruit plucks at, from within her...

    She holds it up, to mimic the gesture Lilian made with it. It allows the fruit to bloom, cold and icy; flowers, lone petals and vines, fragile strands of ice interlinked by the thinnest veins of gold. It would only take one touch, a finger's worth of pressure to shatter the whole thing, but here, openly, it's allowed to be vulnerable and on display. It won't be destroyed.

    She's silent thorough it.

    The feeling of her skin being glass, cracked, and the efforts she's put into covering that up at all costs. The want to show it, without judgment or consequence or discomfort.

    The way her heart feels like it stops beating, and she's allowed to will it to beat again, without anyone telling her that's unreasonable.

    Kindness that isn't pushed back against.
    Donor, not drinker.
    But one completely willing to indulge for herself, too.

    Freedom. From family, and obligations, and duty.
    The feeling that other people can handle it, too.
    The ability to self-authorize a break, guilt-free.

    And at the Fruit's heart, a blood-red droplet that expands and shrinks like beats, unconstrained and weightless. A thing she won't say.

    When she has to put it away, and return to the others, it's hard to get an immediate transcript out of her. She seems a bit sad, and a bit happy, and a bit of mixed-feelings about it all.

"As wonderful as it'd be to live in a world where,"

    "Maybe a little hope does hurt after all."
Regulus "Oh, ah, sorry love." Regulus tells Lilian. She isn't entirely sure if Lilian is chastizing her or not, but she does feel a little chastized anyway. She gives Holly a long look and once Holly clears her throat is now absolutely certain Holly is 'dealing with some shit' and maybe she shouldn't be needling her so much. "Uh, well, sorry if I'm being too pushy about it..?" Regulus apologizes but probably not too effectively since she's not entirely sure what she did wrong exactly except maybe underestimate the idea that Holly has shit going on.

''Muromachi period artifacts ... European pieces meant for astrology, timetelling, navigation--''

Regulus gives a confused look to APPLe at the term 'Muromachi' who helpfully explains, "A period of around 1330 to 1570 AD in Japan. It is a period known for their ink wash paintings--ah, but of course they'd have cups in that period too. And vases, certainly--"

But Regulus is already perking up at the mention of European artifacts of NAVIGATION. "Oh! Navigation, hm? Any fancy sextants or astrolabes? I may not look it but this radio pirate is pretty adept at navigating by the stars."

''Okay seriously though, don't try to eat it.''

"Is it going to try to convince us to eat it?" Regulus doesn't really want to eat the mysterious magic fruit by herself, that's lonely! So she thinks she's safe from temptation.

''Slightly increased talkativeness''

"Uh oh." Regulus jokes. She doesn't rush to the front or linger to the back of the line that inevitably forms, wiggling excitedly at the chance to be a part of some new fancy project even if she'd rather be doing something a little more involved with her hand.

''When is Ms. Sonetto's birthday?''

Oh shit, Regulus realizes, Sonetto has a birthdate. Sure, she knew she you know is born the same as any other arcanist, but some part of her also kind of assumed that Sonetto leapt out, forged perfect, from deity's forehead like in ancient myth.

APPLe has no interest in holding the artifact--he's too busy fretting over Regulus's eagerness to do so. Regulus 'patiently' waits her turn.
Regulus When it finally IS her turn, the fruit becomes--well it becomes an apple. It's not very exciting but considering Regulus's best friend in the whole wide multiverse, it makes sense? She isn't very surprised by its form herself but she goes very, very quiet as she holds the item in her hands.

Regulus is proud of her accomplishments. She's proud of Team Timekeeper. She's proud of the friendships she's made, even the friendships that might just exist in her own head. She's proud of her love of music. She's proud of her musical ability and her talent at working with machines and alchemy.

That essential loneliness that made Team Timekeeper and the Suitcase such a desperate goal of Regulus's, the eagerness she now displays in doing her part to help build that community--now with the societal support she needs--it feels like everything that she really hoped for is already within reach. All she could long for past that would be a lessening of ambiguity, a deeper confidence in that which she already sees and feels, a bigger heart to hold more people in it--at least as big as the Suitcase interior itself--and a lingering glow in her soul that curbs her doubts scoured into her being by rejection after rejection, some overt some languid. In turn, she wishes to be so resilient that she could breeze on by, as uncaring of criticism, a lack of understanding, and disgust that she pretends to have.

Regulus knows herself pretty well, though, even the faults and even that which she acts is not there, she's in tune to the beat of her own heart and the apple seems to throb in her hand, outpacing and overpowering the pulse of her own heart and in that alone is the answer.

A little lion only ever needs a bit more courage and then she can be more resilient, she can have a bigger heart, even the rejection of others would fade away--both in the room it can linger within her own chest but also because courage inspires courage, and engenders trust.

As she sets the fruit back down, she can feel her own heartbeat again as it is no longer overpowered by that of an apple's.

"Trippy." Regulus says, still grinning somehow. "But I can say for certain it knows my style! Guess that makes two fruits that get me." She glances to APPLe. "But don't worry, love, you'll always be my first mate." She winks at him and then lifts up her shades and slides them down over her face.
Petra Soroka "Why, none other than the day after the summer's solstice, nineteen direct years ago, so..."

    "Prolonged labor, huh?" Petra says, as if this is something to be sympathetic about?? Towards Matilda's mom? No, probably towards Matilda? Being born on the solstice is something morally good because Lilian was born on the solstice, which means that Matilda's a little bit of a fuckup.

    "We've *gotta* do a reading," This isn't actually in response to Matilda asking, but now instead fully engrossed in gossiping with Sakura, about Matilda, right in front of her. "Oh, she's *so* excess of fire. I know my people. But then we've gotta find out Sonetto's birthday too..."

"Hey, Petra, tell me, have the new vertebrae started growing in yet?"

    Petra cups her hand over her mouth and scoffs performatively. "Yeah? If you make me taller than Lilian, she'll kill you for real. Bet." Now she's daring them??

"Are you though?"

    "Everyone's always fucking posting- but never posting fucking." Petra's slight hesitation in her complaint is probably because she only said the second half of it impulsively the moment it entered her brain, but she does mean it. "If you can't rise above the level of crude pointless sexual harassment expressed in a fucking Instagram comment then I don't respect anything you have to say."

"I do alot of running around lately, and I've got to be speedy about it or I'll get in a lot of trouble."

    For Sakura's benefit, and maybe to brag a little, Petra explains, "I keep capturing her in a cube that follows her slowly everywhere, and then I make her run obstacle courses. Because she's not very athletic. Only I can do both kinds of speedrunning."

"Do you have to wear that or...?"

    "What?" Petra looks down at herself, having already fully conceptualized the service dog vest into her self-image. "Oh. Yes. Otherwise someone might think I'm a stray. No, it's just Medicine Pocket's joke-- but I do actually have to wear it."

"I'm not so certain I'd describe the effects I've experienced as 'mental' so much as 'sensory' and 'perceptual'."

    For the sake of Lilian's dignity, Petra won't theorize out loud on the trends suggested by the intersection of Lilian's personality and her described sensations from holding the Fruit. But she *will* be an eager little pervert at staring at the *extremely* Lilian-oid reconfiguration, blurting out thoughtlessly, "Pulsars are so pretty."

    Lilian is an extremely physically rooted person, though. The general shape of 'comfortable animalistic intensity' is a pretty clear one, and given that the Beauty of Ash is a hypervivid sensory bud shaped like an animal....

"Form a line or something."

    "Okay!"

"And in another, 'irregular moments of combativeness and self-centered thinking and behaviour, improved stamina, focus, and mental persistence, lowered inhibition, and lowered emotional extremes'."

    Hm. Petra will remember this. The ease with which she can immediately attribute each of those sets of traits to the person they came from finishes drawing lines between the dots she had traced out in the outline of the Fruit. While waiting in line, she idly says, "I think I've got a pretty good idea about where it came from now, at least. This one's so easy to get."
Petra Soroka     Petra isn't first in line to go fruit-grabbing, because she's already touched it before once, though not directly. She's probably last instead, because she still isn't totally convinced that her Bloom-attachment won't make her especially vulnerable to any harmful overflow effects of the Fruit.

    She'd like to think that having hacked her brain into the strange alien shape it now exists in, where she can chat with a sort of cosmic horror hypercube girl and come away feeling like she understood them perfectly well, makes her *more* durable to existing around the Blooms, rather than less. But, like, this is the same thing that ¶killed the dinosaurs, so, it doesn't hurt to be careful.

    "If something bad happens to me, I'll try to make myself normal first. Like, just in case." Preemptively, before going into the room, Petra reassures Sakura.

    Going into the room and approaching the pedestal, Petra takes a deep breath to steel herself. Her Silver, hovering passively beside her in a little fist-sized glob, contorts into a starburst when she holds the inhalation, a little bit reminiscent of Ulrich's ferrofluid. While breathing out slowly and steadily, Petra reaches out to take the Fruit off the pedestal.

    And then... nothing, much.

    The Fruit changes color, like it does for everyone else, but it's nothing so dramatic as Lilian's, and without even changing shape. Vacuum bleeds off her fingertips and into the surface of the fruit, wiping the colors and patterns away into pure, clear crystal. Like the gemstone heart of a stony golem, or of the Beauty of Ash itself, the Fruit becomes essentially featureless besides a faint internal orange glow catching in the edges of its facets.

    "... Huh. Did I mess something up?" Petra tilts her head, Silver squiggling softer as the tension bleeds away. "I don't even feel all that different. Um... I guess I sort of want a cigarette? Not all that strongly, though."

    She keeps looking up at the observation deck towards Lilian each time her attention tries to go somewhere else, but that's, like, also normal for her? A little warily, "Maybe my psychic power's interfering with it or something? I should have that under control, though, and-- well, honestly, based on the trend from this thing, I'd expect it to bypass that nullification completely? I can't really tell, but...."
Petra Soroka     "Permission to egg it on a little, ma'am? I'll be gentle with it."

    Lilian, and Sakura, know exactly what she means by that, having been subject to her 'egging on' before themselves. Only once she gets permission from Lilian does she follow through, one hand flipping open the compact mirror that glitters with pearlescence similar to the Fruit that she holds in the other.

    After a cycle of breathing, the single most irreplicably unnatural thing about Petra floods the room in an invisible wash of un-light. The psychic power doesn't register itself with any measurable arcane flux whatsoever, but the imprinted shadow of its presence sends every monitoring machine's readings into nonsense: it's as if every mote of dust in the air is shot through with a pillar of lightless starshine. The floor, sterile and dull and meaningless, is a dome that conducts the echoes of the flow of pneuma in the air to a singular point, a silent deafening orchestra seizing every sense and every beat of the heart, turned inwards to a focus in the center.

    It becomes impossible, for just an instant, to interpret anything at all out of anything besides the Fruit in Petra's hands. The Mona Lisa, the Ark of the Covenant unveiled, a prized stuffed animal retrieved from the depths behind the couch, presented on the palms of a statue of marble, the ampitheatre of its exhibition a featureless background blur besides to exalt its subject.

    The Fruit explodes into a three-dimensional sphere of sparkling glass fragments. They orbit around a center point with no core at all, each one refracting a glimpse of a different image inside the clear crystal, with heartbeat impressions of familiar gestures-- the gleam of metal, the perfect interval of flashing light, a liquid-light ripple. After several long seconds, the fermata of a note that makes the Notre Dame shudder, it collapses again, reforming into the solid fruit just like before.

    Recovering for a moment from the effects of her own psychic power, Petra breathes heavily while staring at the Fruit with a sort of complicated expression. Neither it nor she seem any worse off for having done all of that, and eventually Petra gets her voice back.

    "... No, I still feel the same. A little more sure of myself, maybe. Sort of like I got a hug?"

    Petra folds her arms across her chest. "No, I know what it is. I feel like I just got told I'm right about something. I passed a test and I know exactly what it was."

    Satisfied with that, Petra turns to leave the room. Something catches in the light behind her, in the corner of her eye, and she freezes. Trailing behind her, sticking right out of the base of her sacrum, is a shimmering metallic limb of Silver, shaped and placed exactly like a fluffy dog tail. As she stares at it in shock, it lazily wags, plates of metal sliding over one another smoothly and exposing slivers of wires and hydraulics within.

    "What? Hey? Why is it stuck there? Huh?"

    After leaving the room, Petra still can't do anything about it, and she starts frustratedly chasing her own tail until exasperatedly stopping when she realizes how it looks.
Foundation Scions 'You as well, Miss Mesmer Junior. And I'm not just saying so.'

    Mesmer's stare doesn't have enough expression in it to flare guilty, but her posture shifts, a bit defensive-upset, intentionally quieted. "Are those friends of yours," She asks, about 'Ash' and 'Oreshnika'; whose names and voices she's heard and possibly even remembers. Maybe she doesn't want to pry, or maybe it's just the next formulaic bit of polite conversation to tread down? She's being weird.

'No.'

     "I see." Mesmer glances, squints, shrugs; the little lip-twitch, visible clearly enough through the fishbowl helmet, betrays a frustration, annoyance, or anger of some sort; Lilian's no doubt as able to pick it apart for its vagueness as Mesmer is. She adjusts the cuffs on her sleeves and goes back to work.

'Sometimes they're just getting through the day so they can go and eat a decent meal at home.'

    "You shouldn't eat within a laboratory, the cafeteria is better suited for it, and still worse than private quarters." Mesmer's tone, and subsequent little neutral glance at Matilda, when Matilda giggles a little bit, makes it scarily unclear whether Mesmer is keeping up with the bit or not.

    Medicine Pocket, not really having been listening, wrinkles up their nose a little, takes a hand out of their pocket to, wiggle-waggle it in the air, and go, "You can just eat wherever. There aren't rules to it. Grow up." Matilda snickers a little bit more.

'Oh . . . a great excess of fire, no doubt, and too little water. But at least her wood . . .'

    Matilda, perking up, adds the useless-cheerful "Hein? By that elemental scheme, would I not, ah-hem, be more akin to 'earth', given that is where the likes of clear crystals, and useful herbs and resins, reside to be found?"

'That's . . . probably harmless.'

    "Well, I'd, for one, certainly hope so! A video tape that could pose some variety of threat would require approval from the Foundation's Arcanum Containment Department in order to be certain it could be safely studied!" Nobody tell the Cryptography Lead that the Fruit that's today's focus is near-certain to earn Laplace some less-than-gentle scolding.

'Okay seriously though, don't try to eat it.'
'I'm not joking. I will shoot you if you try.'

    Scoffing, Medicine Pocket dramatically rolls their eyes, turns away from Lilian, and goes to lean against a wall. "I'm not interested in volunteering anymore, actually," is huffed out. What, they weren't seriously going to try and bite it or something, right? This has to be an elaborate joke, or shying away from being on-display themselves for this part of the experimental trial, rather than once they have their hands on all-important Samples, right?

    There's a little bit of a jokstery-scamp eye-gleam, for a moment, as they sigh in their against-a-wall posture, indicating maybe it's a bit more of a joke. They think they're so cool.
Foundation Scions     The science teams are just as fascinated by the lack of anything directly revelatory to be seen in the data of the readout displays, as they would if it were mind-blowingly aberrant; the exception being the obvious disconnect between some of the data points and the direct observational notes being scrawled down on paper and filmed, both by cameras, and perception-encoding machinery hooked up to a few scientists.

    When a scientist pulls the Cryptography Lead aside to show a tickertape readout, he audibly gasps in (static-buzzy) fondness for how strange the lattice structures are, a dozen thoughts in calculating-parallel to try and make sense, and all the more interested when, at a glance, he can't yet. He claps his hands, but keeps his thoughts to himself, save for his ferrofluid body-face wibbling into a confused and motionful (@) dizzy shape as he looks between readout and readout; eventually up and plugging in a- tail? -to a convenient port in a magnetic tape-spinning computer bank.

    When Lilian actually holds the Fruit, there's a chorus of gasps, and an even louder one of scritchy-scratching pencils on paper notepads. A dozen interested scientists scrawling out stream of consciousness observations, or sketching out the display, or simply trying to keep track of the steps and the physical changes in order, like this is a replicable reaction. The pattern of blinking specifically, immediately, is scoured into a dozen observation devices, to the Cryptographer's delight- "Oh, how exciting~!"

    He actually wiggles at the prospect of a proper, earnest, possibly-productive task of ~Decoding~. Gosh.

'I'm not so certain I'd describe the effects I've experienced as 'mental' so much as 'sensory' and 'perceptual'.'

    It's Mesmer who prompts, "For the record of this analysis, could you elaborate on the differences you ascribe to those categories? It's best to not leave even subjective observations up to greater-than needed interpretation." She's probably actually trying to be helpful, even if her default tone is kinda-miffed. She truly needs that vacation. "Can you identify which neuron?"

'Okay, I'm coming out. Form a line or something.'

. . .
Lilian Rook     'but among others, on this particular world, to appear in 'too distinctive' fashion only suggests to others a predisposition toward the arcane.'

    "Oh no." Sakura says, with cheerfully Lilian-copied dry affect. "How disastrous would that be? To be spoken of in the same breath as the deepest secrets of the world, and the names of those destined to find them . . . Why, I couldn't even begin to imagine." says the literal actual cult leader.

    'Is that not curious?

    "I'm afraid that distinctive self-expression has ever been suggestive of 'a predisposition' of some sort." Sakura laughs soundlessly.

    'It is a period known for their ink wash paintings--ah, but of course they'd have cups in that period too. And vases, certainly--'

    "And yet," Sakura sighs, soft-theatric, hand to the side of her face. "I seem to pile up so many swords."

    'Oh! Navigation, hm? Any fancy sextants or astrolabes?'

    "Miss Regulus, pardon me for saying, but you have the look of one who would go out to buy a pair of socks and find herself navigating between the stars before long."

    'Is it going to try to convince us to eat it?'

    Lilian hesitates for a fraction of a second. "No." she says, three-quarters certain.

    'Compared to the times of a thousand years past, I do take some small pleasure in the signs I may employ to make clear our bond'

    "Very much so! Why, in Lilian's country, it was customary for marriages to only last a year and a day!" Lilian takes her turn to bop Sakura on the back of the wrist this time. "Be normal!" "I was expressing agreement!"

    'So not music...?'

    "But it is music, Doctor Asturias."

    'A little hope never hurt anyone, Lilian.'

    "Nothing has ever hurt anyone more." says Lilian. "It's such a famous, visceral emotion because you have to endure having it."

    'Maybe a little hope does hurt after all.'

    ". . ."

    Lilian looks back to Ulrich. "You're keeping wide-angle footage of these pulse codes, right?"

    'Prolonged labor, huh?'

    "She tried her--" "I'm sure she was doing her--" "Best." "Best."
Regulus ''I seem to pile up so many swords.''

"Any of them have wickedly fab names?" Regulus asks. She didn't try to eat the fruit so the fruit probably didn't try to convince Regulus to eat it because if it did try to convince Regulus to eat it there's good odds that sucker would've went straight into her mouth before she could remind herself about the whole getting shot by Lilian promise.

''You have the look of one who would go out to buy a pair of socks and find herself navigating between the stars before long.''

Regulus blinks for a moment and assumes Sakura is complimenting her. "A spacefaring rockstar pirate, is it? Well I haven't actually been between the stars just yet, but maybe one day--thanks for believing in this pirate, Sakura."

She smiles happily.
Lilian Rook     'Yeah? If you make me taller than Lilian'

    Lilian shivers.

    'I keep capturing her in a cube that follows her slowly everywhere, and then I make her run obstacle courses. Because she's not very athletic.'

    Sakura, unexpectedly, looks absolutely fascinated by this information. Leaning in a bit closer so she can lower her voice, she says "Are you sure this isn't . . . No no. But why a cube, of all things?"

    'Pulsars are so pretty.'

    Lilian, distractedly, says "Was that Tidal Heart, Wildflower, or Crisis? Or was one of the other ones a pulsar, actually?"

    'Are those friends of yours'

    "Only for the empty vaults of any language to convey a thought more specific." Sakura says, in a way that feels like an overly wistful 'yes'. "I am glad to call them as much, though. There are ties which bind inescapably without asking for friendship."

    'You shouldn't eat within a laboratory, the cafeteria is better suited for it, and still worse than private quarters.'

    Lilian is about to scoff, or roll her eyes, or say something catty, but Matilda laughing along instantly evens her out into a gratified little smirk. It turns to her cracking the fuck up when Medicine Pocket interjects.

    'Hein? By that elemental scheme, would I not, ah-hem, be more akin to 'earth', given that is where the likes of clear crystals, and useful herbs and resins, reside to be found?'

    "Mrs. Tamamo has already mentioned its twin, Miss Bouanich, but . . . Are you really so interested in such measures of the stars and fates?" Of course she is. She knows she is. She's read her for filth. Her goal is to get Matilda at a cafeteria table discussing her astrological love prospects with Sonetto by the top of the hour.

    'I'm not interested in volunteering'

    Sakura, watching closely, leans between Tamamo and Lilian, and whispers "How similar they are, yes?"

    'I think I've got a pretty good idea about where it came from now, at least. This one's so easy to get.'

    "I'd watch yourself. Laplace is full of some very competitive sorts." Lilian says. Sakura smiles knowingly as Petra enters the chamber.

    'Maybe my psychic power's interfering with it or something?'

    Sakura looks at Lilian's lightly clenched fists, and murmurs "You're fighting with every fibre of your being to kill 'perhaps you're already too fruity' within you, aren't you?" Lilian whispers "It's just too obvious. And lame. And I'm here with my wife." "I did notice."

    'Permission to egg it on a little, ma'am? I'll be gentle with it.'

    Lilian quirks an eyebrow up, but says "Granted."

    There is a moment where she regrets it. That moment is followed by one where she questions it, and that in turn is followed by a very long moment where she feels inexplicably grateful to have said it. Much of its spectacle-- of 'Petra' flensed of root and context, rendered in forms witout nature-- is intuitively obvious to her, but it's still such a pretty thing, and it illuminates her expectations greatly. And then there is a moment where--

    'I passed a test and I know exactly what it was.'

    --the only thing that can pass her lips is "Ouppy." Both she and Sakura are instantly debilitated with laughter.
Lilian Rook     'Oh, how exciting~!'

    Of course Lilian is deeply invested in her own data. Frankly, from the moment she got back, she'd already fully sketched Holly's result from three different angles (and frowned at Regulus producing Just An Apple, even if she secretly thinks it's sort of sweet). She meanders between cryptographers to eye ticker tapes around their shoulders and listen in on their babble, trying not to let on that her preliminary conclusions come from familiarity with her world's esoterica only, and no decrypting experience; then trying not to get distracted by Ulrich's tail, and failing.

    "There's one more specialist I may be able to call on, if you think there may be a linguistic basis for it later." Lilian says, engaging stage three of her 'show off all her friends' plan. "I have every reason to believe it contains either a message to future sapient life, or a diagnostic for the schema of life, so I'm rather looking forward to knowing what it is."

    'For the record of this analysis, could you elaborate on the differences you ascribe to those categories?'

    Lilian glances at Mesmer out of the corner of her eye, visibly annoyed at the question, down to the stupid specification of 'which neuron', but the intensity of the whole thing is also noticeably subdued from its normal. Afflicted with a temporary bout of self-control, perhaps. Likely because the information is, actually, relevant.

    "The textures, colours, scents, and so on, are factually there, and verifiable by others, therefore they are being perceived rather than hallucinated. It's unlikely that it serves to physiologically alter sensory organs on a temporary basis, and it certainly doesn't amplify anything with arcanum, so the logical conclusion is that it has to do with the efficiecy of information capture and processing." She sighs at the end of it, but continues on easily enough.

    "The state of 'trust' doesn't feel like a change of mind, so much as 'the right moment', I suppose; something informed by thousands of microscopic factors in humans. If I had to compare it to something, I'd choose . . . either sensing someone's receptivity to a secret you've kept, or becoming aware of someone's strong protective signals towards you, perhaps. As for the rest, I've no reason to believe anything substantively changes; only that the mix of signals frees up mental resources and encourages focusing them on optimizing physical health."
Tamamo     It takes a while before Tamamo works herself up to it. The thought of 'I should know what it does, if it did something mysterious to them' dominates her mental justifications. She can't let it be somewhere they walked that she wouldn't. Finally, she says, faux-lightly, "I suppose I shall take my own turn, now," and makes her way down.

    The fruit -- the artifact -- has returned to its neutral state. With some trepidation, she takes ahold of it, lifts it into the air as she'd seen done, and--

    --nothing happens. For a moment. For another moment. For seconds that tick by.

    I should have expected this, she thinks to herself. Out of everyone here, the one least suited to a gift like this, the one without permission to use it, is the one who was born on purpose.

    She hasn't felt anything, but the fruit's color has shifted while she's holding it. Just noticeable, now, and then more so. By the time Tamamo takes another look, it's rapidly approaching infrared, only to settle on a hot 635 nanometer wavelength. The shape is nearly spherical, its edges fuzzing into incoherence, the 'surface' forming a pattern of barely visible warmer and colder light. Only the cameras will catch those details in full, to say nothing of their constant rotational velocity of 35.16 arcseconds per minute. It's only very technically different from holding extremely still, but even that would be disturbed by micromotions that have no effect here.

    And then, that's all. She looked surprised, at first, but Tamamo's expression is carefully blank, now. She looks into the red almost-sphere, neither urging nor challenging nor wary of what it might do next. She's merely waiting to see if it does anything at all.

    Another minute passes. Instruments record. Spectrographs form patterns intimately familiar to certain specialists. Clocks tick. Tamamo doesn't move, until she does, closing her eyes.

    "I see. It is difficult to read someone in my position, is it not? This was the not their intention. I shall take this sign as an invitation. I should, in kind, make an effort to make things more plainly readable, after all." Tamamo lets go of the fruit, which hangs in the air, exactly where she'd left it, not so much as brushed by her fingers.

    She reaches up behind her head, and, one hand to either side, withdraws the gold-set jade hairpins, letting her hair flow behind her. There's a flash that disappears from her hair, almost an optical illusion, like a specular reflection off curved metal. It doesn't disappear from her ears and, now far harder not to notice, her tails, shifting from red to yellow to white only by increase in temperature.

    Sensors read the thermal radiation. That's no illusion. Temperatures rise in the chamber in the manner more easily understood than white-out, as well, while Tamamo peels away a disguise of the divine. The fruit responds, finally.

    Nine sections separate, each a complex, crescent-like curve, not possibly forming a sphere by any three-dimensional geometric solution. They shift slowly outward, then transform again. Three interlocking constellations of painfully bright stars shift, spreading, partially disentangling, breaking out from three into nine, only to hold fast in every case to a much smaller, brighter core.

    Tamamo looks distantly fascinated, her eyes aflame. She glances up toward the observation deck, too far to state with full certainty just where she's looking -- but she knows. She smiles. Her teeth are oh so very bright and sharp.

    She closes a fist, and it's like a candle snuffed. Apart from her loosened hair, all is once again as it was. She calmly leaves.
Foundation Scions 'And verifiable by others, therefore they are being perceived rather than hallucinated.'

    "Would you consent to electroencephalography, comparative to estimation-models of neural activity prior to..." Her microphone doesn't capture a tongue 'tsk', but it's there, in the gaps of words, "Exposure?"

    "A more accurate model would be useful to acquire, and if the formatting is of a more efficient scheme, analysis and potential application could come from the study. That being said, I anticipate difficulties." She wants to get her fingers deep into someone's brain and look at the folding patterns, but Lilian's bites, and the patterns don't make sense to her. Reluctantly, and with something scrawled on note-pattern, shorthand abbreviations, "Those connotational clarifications are useful. Thank you. That's it, that's all."

'Are you really so interested in such measures of the stars and fates?'

    Et comment!" Matilda chirps, so blatantly perking up at even the notion. "Yes! Very much! I am, after all, an excellent diviner myself, glimpsing truths and omens caught momentarily as moon and star-light passes through the clearest of crystal quartz!" She has to be a little flowery with it!

    "Astrology itself, is not my preferred medium, I find that the motions and changes of the celestial are far more interesting to consider than circumstances around births, though, the merit is present- the tides of the Moon, however, are not so subtle, and I like to say I am a friend to her!"

    Ulrich, plugged into the output-consoles of the laboratory's sensors, perks up into a (!) expression at Petra's charming Silver-starburst display, parsed in a dozen spectra, but still akin to a cat startling at a photograph of a different cat. "Your interference signals are quite unique, but may I just ask, for the pursuits of accurate data, you either tone them 'down', or 'very far upwards', Petra?"

    Ulrich, of course, gets his wish! For all the good that the utter nonsense of the data-output on the panoply of machines actually does, it's there, and present, in scrolling displays and tickertape, with electronic fizzling and sparking; the scientists who look and stare, at screens or at the stage, don't know what to make of the perfect sterility either.

'Sort of like I got a hug?'

    Idly dumbfounded, and slightly distressed, from behind microphone, panelling, and her glass fishbowl, Mesmer makes to press on that- "Could you clarify that statement-"

    Petra does, though, and not in response to being asked. Researchers around nod, to Mesmer, like Petra's answer is granular enough, and that game of interest and control-jockeying is undercut.

    "Ohh, hoh, hey, Petra? The tail finally grew in!"
Foundation Scions . . .

    When it's Matilda's turn, excitement mixes with a bit of nervousness! These displays, thus far, have been quite awe-striking to observe, and yet emotionally confusing, too! She's not exactly sure what will occur! At least, unlike with Petra, she's fairly certain no tail will be grafted-on! That seems to be an unusual doing, of her own making! How embarrassing!

    Matilda's posture is the same as if this were a heavy crystal orb, when taking it- held from under, two handed, like its weight will be more than it appears, like it falling simply can't be afforded, for either its delicateness, or that which it could take apart in descent. Nothing about holding it in her hands dispels that assumption.

    Somewhat like with Petra, the Fruit changes first to a crystalline-clear colorless coloration, but lap-faceted, tetradecimally, with distinct play-of-color just under its surface. Reflections and refractions catch in it, miniscule, the whole effect dusting it into pseudo-translucence, the dust hanging in a projector's beam catching hints of the films.

    Matilda, gingerly holding it, staring at it, looks transfixed and giddy, and that look doesn't fade when she moves wide-eyes from it, outwards, to the retrofuturist laboratory-chamber. It's obvious immediately that there's some manner of strong behavioral difference, for Matilda to be this lost in a moment so-observed. She blinks, holds her eyes closed a moment, and reopens them, and with a shameless little hum, demonstrative out to the scientists, on re-remembered impulse, gives them all a little heavy-held wiggle of the Fruit. "Comme c'est joli! Do you see how it dances?"

    'Fascination' is the clearest and cleanest symptom in Matilda, though it's unhelpfully impairing to her urgency in describing it all. Her little unhindered motions on the operating-stage are like trying to catch the flow of some unseen tidal wave, she's lost in thought and murmurations, her breathing is slow and bated, much the way she's been seen while deep in ritual, for her divinations, or the summoning of Hell Biker- late-night peace and campfire conversation. Caught only on sensitive microphones, in some re-realization of how many people are there, watching, alien to her attention-obsession, is a faint and surprised 'Tant de vagues s'écrasent les unes contre les autres!'

    Little strayings take her near to look at the boom-arm equipment, circling like a bug to a bright light a few of them, those emitting and sensitive towards arcane flux, specifically, but the unseen little tides push her back towards the center of the room, ambiently pleased and interested.

    A cheery hand pulls away from the fruit to wave at the onlookers, dragging, for a moment, faint crystalizing-growths out from its surface to stick to fingertips, until those break away into tinkling dust, butterfly-wingbeats, and nothing; and the fixation-fascination breaks enough for her to put it down, fully, and dust herself off. She looks a bit confused, more than a bit embarrassed, and scampers off with a quick over-the-shoulder look back to the Fruit.

. . .
Foundation Scions 'There's one more specialist I may be able to call on, if you think there may be a linguistic basis for it later.'

    "It would be a folly to be caught up in hubris and ignore the lucky chance to confer with an expert and a peer, Mrs. Rook. Exploration of strutures of syntax, grammar, or information-density, of course, will take some time, but rest assured, at the earliest confidence-point, I'll send you a memo." Ulrich, now un-plugged from the consoles, stows his tail, a little bit of drippy-ferrofluid retreating up its length into the frayed fabric of its insulation. Vocalizing in stacic-buzz, "Ahem. I hope to clarify, or contraindicate, your assumptions as quickly as would be possible without sacrificing efficient functionality. Personally, if it is the latter, I'll be giddy with excitement."

    As if to indicate, cutely, this, excitement, he puts his gently-balled fists near his chest, and buzzes out, with (!!) on his face, "'Eureka!' Oh, I've always wanted to say that. Let's hope I can!"