1346/Laboratory Ledgers

Laboratory Ledgers
Date of Scene:	25 March 2024
Location:	Obsidian Tower - Dark Laboratory
Synopsis:	Wherein Aloisia Stauss meets Sunbreaker while she's organizing various lab ingredients and introduces herself.
Cast of Characters:	Aloisia Stauss, Hinoiri Kirara

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Aloisia Stauss has posed:
Being somewhat of a provisional member of Obsidian has its perks! Among other things, Aloisia Stauss currently doesn't have to interact with most of the leadership unless she ticks them off or is being asked to do some job. At least until she gets all of the paperwork and such processed and squared away. The most evil thing: The Corporate Paperwork Machine.

Truly the most terrible of things.

Right now Aloisia is doing one of the odd jobs given to her at the moment. She is presently in one of the labs wearing a pair of somewhat nice jeans, a button-up shirt, some somewhat more dressy boots, and holding a clipboard. She's doing one of the jobs very of the people who work in the labs wants to do: She's taking Inventory. Writing down all of the inventory and attempting to follow any paperwork for anything mysteriously missing. Right now she was taking stock of and checking off various different mysterious fluids and ingredients, checking weights to ensure they're within reasonable bounds of what was to be expected.

She sets one of the sealed bottles on the scale, comparing the weight. "Let's see... 40 grams... and... 42 grams on last weighing." She murmurs to herself, before referencing the usage sheets. "Ah, yep, .5 grams used there, 1 gram used there... a few smaller uses..." Luckily it was a pretty easy, if tedious job, since usually everything was properly recorded. Mostly because nobody wants to tick off the bosses.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker was doing a... fairly good job of making herself scarce. Why? Because BERYL WAS TERRIFYING! After finally getting de-iced, she was doing what she could to stay out of the woman's way. Because of that, she was instead seeing new parts of the company.

The labs, at least, were somewhere she'd been to plenty of times and, aside from hiding from Beryl, provided a good secondary usage. She walked into the lab and picked up... a jar... before sighing.

She put it down, and started looking around, rummaging for a bit before glancing towards her. "You. Lackey. Where's the griffon feather, dragon claw and crystalized hawk drool?" she asked.

Seriously. What kind of magical lab neglected the bare essentials? How was she supposed to cast a proper spell without them?!

".... Wait, you're not one of the... Ted's... are you?"

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
For the most part, Aloisia had been staying out of the way of various lab workers and not interacting with them; focused on her job. That is until someone called out 'You. Lackey.' of course. Who could that person be talking to?

Wait.
She's the only one there.

"Griffon feather is on shelf set 3, 4th shelf. Dragon claw is in high sec storage, I don't have access so can't give the specific shelf. Crystalized hawk drool is on shelf set 10, bottom shelf."

One of the Teds. She pauses. "What? Nein. I'm not one of the Ted's."

She carefully puts the bottle -- vampire bat guano -- back where she'd taken it from, turning more fully towards Sunbreaker after the material had been secured.

"I am Aloisia Stauss." She says, dipping into a polite bow towards Sunbreaker. "A relatively recent arrival, I am working with Obsidian on a semi-provisional status at present as I am associated with Count Steiner." In spite of her heavy accent, unlike the other belkans... she wasn't mixing in space german for the most part right now. Possibly because she was in work mode. "I am a Belkan Knight, so do not have an alternate name like many others do."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker gave a small nod. "Shelf set 3..." she mumbled, looking around for a moment before... "Ahhhhh! Perfect. Hm?" Why did this have a little witch tag on it? Oh. Right. Majorina. Ehhh, she gave good stuff, at least. "High sec storage, I'll head by there next, then. Hawk drool, hawk drool... here we go," she mumbled, snapping her fingers and no, she did not bend over for it. It just came to her hand.

"Nice to meet you then, Stauss, I'm Sunbreaker. Creator of the Eclipse Zones, most powerful mage in all of Kirakirafantastica, the-- Wait. Did you say Count Steiner?" she asked, looking up. "You're... a friend of Hannah's? Or the uhhh... guy. With the spider? What's his name? Auto? Otto? Something like that. Do you dance?" she asked, cocking an eye.

... That there was a question.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
"I put some things back where they belong which was likely not where they had unofficially been placed as their new 'home' for who knows how long. I don't know the last time someone did a proper full inventory." Aloisia comments. "So a few things may have moved homes, but if you reference the sheets for at least the stuff out here, everything should be in its proper place."

Pause.

"For at least a few days."

Aloisia listens to Sunbreaker's introduction of herself. "Hm! The eclipse zones. Those are some rather nice work, honestly. Honestly almost too good of work, I imagine there's going to be a large strike from your opponents sooner than later." Possibly a bit of foreshadowing there. "Kirakirafantastica... I'll have to look into that. And no, not a friend of Countess Hannah's. Nor a friend of Count Steiner's either. I am closer to..." She pauses, crossing one arm across her chest, tapping her chin with one finger. "A soldier in his employ, though not directly." Do you dance?

"I... can... dance? I feel as if you're referencing more specific than the general dance that a minor noble would be taught for parties and such though."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker gave a light snort. "Well, knowing people who do lab work, you'll be lucky if they stay where they belong more than a day. Who's got you doing this busywork, anyway? It seems the kind of thing they'd likely have a youma do." Pause. "You're... not a youma... are you?" she asked. She'd met some... realistic looking ones, but the girl SEEMED human.

"And yeah, I imagine the sparkles are prepping up as we speak to try and break them. Unfortunately for them, I'm already two steps ahead. While they've been floundering and trying to find some way to break my current plan, I've already started on three more." That. That was not true. But she'd let everyone else think it was.

"So, you're part of his department then? And they have you... doing busy work. Who'd you piss off? The spider?" she asked, shaking her head. "And no. I meant dance dance revolution. It's a game. I beat Hannah in it a while back." sure, she lost 2/3, but that was still ONE victory! "In my civilian guise. I was curious if you'd played it too, or if it was just her. So... what exactly *is* a belkan knight? Oh... right. Since you're new, you likely won't know. I'm a unicorn, turned human when I came to this world. So... don't assume I know all the ins and outs of the humans and belkans. I'm reallllllly not from here."

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
"Nah, not a youma. Just not officially a member of obsidian yet. Waiting on paperwork and such still, so they foisted something minor off onto me to do because the youma who normally does this disappeared mysteriously. Something about it running of ranting about disorganization." Aloisia responds bemusedly. "I'm all... well, maybe human? I'm Belkan, we look the same but I don't know the physiological differences there may be to be honest. It's pretty wild how similarly our world's peoples look to earth's people."

Talk of prepping and floundering and three more plans. "Hm. Neat! I'll look forward to the follow-up plans, then. Honestly I don't have too many huge ones at present myself, as the whole situation with the Count and Countess are a bit... weird right now. Something about a treaty? I haven't really read over the Ps and Qs of that particular situation." But it was a disappointing one, really. "So, perhaps, I could help out in the future if you need it."

Who'd you piss off? "Hm? Oh, no, I didn't piss off the spider. She thinks I'm pretty great because my first action got a reasonable amount of energy. Did you see that light show above the clover tower a couple weeks ago? That was me. It got a good amount of energy since there were a ton of people there." Dance Dance Revolution. "Hm." She taps her lip at that. "I can't say I've tried it before, though it does sound pretty entertaining. I'd be willing to try it. I somehow doubt I'd win against you unless it's something you can easily do by instinct or dancing experience." What's a Belkan Knight?

"Someone trained in the ways of the knights of ancient Belka. Basically, magical combatants using devices." She taps one of her shield-shaped earrings. "Usually more physically focused than those who use Midchildan Devices, such as the TSAB agent Chrono Harlaown." A unicorn. Pause. Aloisia steps closer to Sunbreaker at that, looking over her curiously. "A unicorn. Fascinating... I've fought many a beast but unicorns were things normally relegated to mythos due to extreme rarity." Likely due to overhunting. "I wonder why you turned human... is that another effect of this strange magical distortion that ... messed up my ship..." She pauses. "I would say destroyed but it more. Disappeared it."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
"Yeah, that sounds about right. If I found out I was created to take care of this lot's messes I'd beg for purification too."

"Tell me about it. Where I come from humans are just a myth. And then I come here and they all look the same and I'm stuck as one. Walking on two legs all the time is infuriating."

She then looked the girl over. "Huh. You think you're capable of helping out? Well..." She glanced around. "You're able to organize things at least and Sora knows that without people who could do that all of the basic organizations here would screech to a halt. So, sell me on you."

"What, exactly, makes you special, Aloisia? What's your special talent? What about you do you think is so impressive that you can stand above the masses and perform? And... no, sadly. I got a report on it, but at the time I was busy. Good job on your first outing. I imagine the sparkle skirts put a stop to it? They do that. Beat up one, three more pop into existence. Kill one and a whole army of them appear and just curb stomp you. My advice? Knock them away, get what you can and then skedadle."

"Never met this Chrono, sorry. Sounds annoying, if he's an agent. AH HA! Shaved diamond! Buck, perfect," she said, picking up a third jar. All three of the gathered ingredients disappeared. "I'll bring them back later. Put it under 'Easter', it's for the Eclipse Project."

She then gave Aloisia a knowing smile. "Where I come from, we're pretty common. There's earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi. Not to mention griffons, dragons, kirins, a lot of creatures you lot consider myths. Yet... no humans. I wonder if that just means humans don't mix well with others?" Pause. Blink. Think.

"... Actually that's probably exactly what it means."

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
"Yeah, I'm sure that's where it went to be honest. There's just a lot of chaos here, though people are actually surprisingly good at showing just how well they've kept track of /usage/ if not location." Aloisia comments.

"...Huh. I can't even imagine how difficult it would be to adjust to that, especially since it's an extremely different balance if you're on two legs versus any other count. I'm presuming 4, which is a lot more stable I'd assume."

Sell me on yourself. Aloisia crosses her arms over her chest. "Well, first, I'm actually trained and seasoned in combat, and have spent much of my life fighting creatures and other people. I have access to and ease of use of the strongest defensive spells available to device mages, and can penetrate similarly powerful defenses with my own attacks when necessary." She flashes a smirk. "A good explanation is... a juggernaut." Pause.

"The sparkle skirts did stop it, though honestly it was less due to them defeating me so much as it largely just being a method to draw in the sparkle skirts. In particular, Hannah Steiner herself." She frowns as she thinks of that fight. "She was... disappointing. Her strength must be in her allies, more than herself."

"Just so long as you record how much you use and return them to where they're from, I'm not particularly worried after I finish this job, it's not my permanent assignment. If I get reassigned to it later and find things a terrible mess I might be Annoyed, though." She adds with a teasing tone. "Anyway, honestly, biggest upside to me?"

"I can follow orders."

A pretty big thing to be honest, in an organization full of backstabbing and bad blood. Earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, griffins, dragons.... "Hm." She taps her lip. "Or humans never natively existed on your world to begin with, perhaps all human and unicorn myths on this world and yours from those rare instances of people crossing over?" She muses out loud. "But also the latter is likely. Humanity does have a fondness for its wars, if history class is to tell anything."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
"Exactly. I'm impressed people remember the usage. I usually... actually I usually get my own ingredients, so I guess it's not surprising I rarely use their stuff. Or I have someone here supply it..." Sunbreaker muttered, shaking her head.

"Oh my gosh, EXACTLY! And fingers, don't get me STARTED on fingers! I had four hooves and a magic horn to grab things! Now I have these weird little pudgy stump thingies on my top legs that ALWAYS NEED TO GET INTO EVERYTHING and it's MADDENING!"

Slow, deep breathes. She then cocked an eye. "A defensive mage? That's interesting. Care to put it to the test? I could use a warmup. And if you're as good as you say, you might be useful. I tend to be more freelance, so I sometimes do work with other departments as needed. However..."

"Being able to follow orders isn't exactly a big upside, kid. I mean, sure. Being loyal is good? But youma follow orders. But a lot of them are too dumb to do the job right. But if you can get things done AND be loyal? That's pretty useful. Not a lot of people here who can do that."

There was a low sigh from Sunbreaker before she spoke again in a low tone. "Trust me. The bar is *really* low for competence around here."

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
"They remember probably mostly because when inventory comes around, something being out of place is an annoyance. Things mysteriously missing is theft, and just saying 'oh i forgot' isn't likely to fly." Aloisia chuckles softly. The talk of fingers gets a tilt of her head. "Did you lose the use of your magical horn to grab things? If you didn't, I understand they're awkward, but having something that doesn't use magic to hold onto something seems moderately useful to me, even if you're not used to it."

Care to put it to the test? "Yeah, we could do that. I mean I'd have to finish my task first since this section needs to be finished by the end of the day." She says, motioning towards the general area she'd been weighing and taking stock of. "I'm probably going to end up being more freelance too, since frankly... I feel like this side is going to be more fun to be on."

Being able to follow orders isn't exactly an upside. "Nah, see, that's different. Like you said, a youma's too smart to do the job right. That's not properly following orders, that's just being told to do something and pointed in a direction. Which, while effective in large numbers, isn't great for anything even remotely close to precision work. And that's the sort of thing that I can do."

The lower tone gets a smirk from Aloisia. "From what I can tell from my admittedly short time here... this place is full of a lot of egos... it's not surprising if most of them don't work well together. So someone like me, who while I have my own ego, but also the discipline of a soldier? Yeah. I can see me being an uncommon asset."

"Speaking of." She dips into a bow again. "I really should get back to my work, feel free to ask me if you need to find anything else though."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker nodded. "Yeah. All unicorns could do telekinesis. Well, or just grab things with our hooves. Yes, the hooves were like normal pony hooves in your world. No, it apparently doesn't make sense. It just worked that way. It's really hard to explain to you people for some reason."

Sunbreaker did smile when Aloisia accepted her offer. "Good. I think you'll have fun with it. If you're as good as you say that could be useful. Not many people can survive one of my blasts. Well, when I go all out. So... for obvious reasons, I won't hit full tilt right off the bad."

Aloisia did make a good point, all things considered. "Right. I should get back to my potion, anyway. It was nice meeting y ou, Aloisia. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of each other, soon. Don't let them push you around too much." She turned to leave, her mind already considering things...

Someone who could do more delicate work... well... there was always room for people like that.