[ It's not a long public transit ride to the Dunno HQ campus, likely because it's the city's largest employer. It rises from the center of the city in an extremely Blade Runner-y fashion, a cluster of sky- and starscrapers of varying heights that mixes large glass windows with shiny chrome opacity. The effect is quite impressive. ] [ Soon you pass through the minimum, minimum security checkpoint on the outermost layer, which since it includes the tourist check-in you breeze through easily. Now you're in the massive lobby of the Dunno main building, which controls access to everything else. A large reception desk of real Earth wood sits beneath a pair of sweeping staircases leading up to the various skyways out. ] [ Receptionists are ready to help you! Thankfully foot traffic seems light today. ] * Katherine has braided her hair up by now and found a blouse, slightly more professional looking flats, and slacks somewhere. She's got a scowl on her face as they arrive, and the badge pinned to her chest. * Yue is similarly dressed for inconspicious work, which means ditching that coat and the rifle, unfortunately. She's swapped it out for a poloneck with jeans and a shirt on top for casual workiness, with the badge pinned to her chest too! "They know how to put on appearances." * Katherine murmurs back, "Well, we're gonna have to too." (Of course, this leads to me not knowing how to get where we need to go.) (I am afraid to ask the receptionists. They could be evil.) (Then you will stay here... forever!) (*thunderclap*) * Katherine walks up to the receptionists and leans on the desk. "Hey." * Yue walks forward to the receptionists' desk and says in a professional tone, "We're here for contract work with R&D Special Projects?" [ A pleasant young girl gives a pleasant smile to these two women! With their contractor badges so she needs to make a good impression! "Good morning!" Her followup is headed off by Yue, and she blinks. "Do you happen to know which division? We have a number of product teams here at Dunno." Her smile seems to move into a new, brief position when she says 'Dunno', like a visual version of adding a (tm) after it. ] (That cut off?) (No, made it.) * Katherine replies, "You got a division index?" Didn't write it down and the headputer's been on the fritz. * Yue is so not gonna answer with 'Dunno'. That'd just be tacky. She lets Kat lead. (It's not 110% clear that Draupnir is an open name. ^^;) [ Tap typeity tap! "Let's see... there's the Consumer Goods and Services division, the TVNet and Media Division... the Floofy!" and here another (tm) smile punctuation "division... oh. And one last one with a Special projects department, the SCA Synthesis Development Laboratory." ] (Wait, Floofy is a competitor!) (IT IS A CONSPIRACY. FLOOFY IS DUNNO.) (I thought Floofy was a Dunno service mark.) (Replace Floofy with some random word then, it's irrelevant.) * Yue nods and says, "That's the one - that last one. Where're we headed to?" [ Tap tap. A blink. "Oh dear, I'd forgotten... that building is only accessible by groundcar. I can call one up for you if you'd hand me your badges?" Bright! Smile! ] * Katherine unclips her badge and hands it to her. * Yue passes hers as well. [ She takes them, pausing for a moment to run them through the system. The world holds its breath but apparently Soma's work is good; she hands them back and points to the doors. "Thank you! Head out there and one of the grounds staff will be by with a ground car to pick you up shortly. Thank you for visiting Dunno!" (tm) smile "Have a pleasant day." ] * Yue smiles back at her. The edges of her mouth teeter and force her back to a neutral :| before long as she turns her head to walk out. * Katherine clips hers back to her chest and nods, managing a faint non-feral smile, then heads out there. She murmurs softly, "SCA research, huh?" [ Outside, which you couldn't see from the underground train in, is a particularly nice park. Given their rep, Dunno's HQ is surprisignly opulent, all things considered. Stone benches are arranged in a circle around a flowerpot full of irises and hyacinths next to the paved road leading into the campus grounds. ] * Yue is clipping hers back as well when she says, "It's more probable than anything else." * Katherine nods slightly. "True." * Yue comments idly as she waits for their ride, "Must be set for life to work here." * Katherine glances to Yue. "Corp life's corp life." Doesn't ask anything but your soul. * Katherine looks back forward with a faint smile. "And who uses that nowadays, really." * Yue looks back to her. "I'm not religious, no." * Katherine replies, "Good. You were Europist, I might lose it. Then again, you don't look like the drug-addled type." * Yue leans back and murmurs, "Don't need stories telling me it's wrong each time I peek down my scope." * Katherine snickers. "You know, I never got that either. No atheists in foxholes? Really?" She scratches a claw along her cheek very lightly as they continue waiting. * Yue glances at her again. Her pupils shrink and dilate for a moment as she says, "Never heard of that one before." * Katherine is silent a moment, then mutters, "Old phrase." [ Eventually, a ground car -- Dunno make, natch -- arrives. Driving it is a middle-aged man in a Dunno jumpsuit with sandy blond hair and a bit of stubble. He whistles at the two of you with a smirk. "Morning, ladies. Here to visit Spook Mansion?" ] * Katherine manages a half-grin. "That's the idea." * Yue remains perfectly flat in appearance, and walks in to the back to be chauffeured. [ There is plenty of room in the back. At least the seats are comfy! "Good," the driver says, getting in. "Last people who needed a lift out there didn't have a sense of humor." ] * Katherine slides in after Yue. "Like to try to keep sane, you know?" * Yue trances into Rochelle Mode, keeping her eye out the window as she gets into her seat. [ A laugh from that. "Yeah, well. If you've got sanity to spare, rub it off on those yahoos while you're in there, thanks." He starts driving! The road circles through the campus but the main buildings are getting in the way of the line of sight. ] * Katherine stretches out slightly in the seat, then asks, "Spook Mansion? It really that bad?" [ Thanks to the marvels of partial auto-pilot, the driver can half-turn and lean over the seat to answer. "It wasn't so bad when old Sydney ran it, but the new guy... well. People call him the 'vampire' cause he never leaves 'cept at night. Then there's that Fortescue woman... ugh." He turns back to the wheel. "He even gave the place the stupid new name." ] * Yue glances back up front to ask, "What's wrong with them?" (Sorry, had to spam the main channel with incomprehensible science.) [ A 'pfft!'. "They just creep me out, off in their big concrete box that barely anyone comes in or out of. What is it that brings you two out there, anyway?" ] * Katherine chuckles. "Someone's got to bring in attractive girls for the vampire." She smacks Yue on the shoulder. * Yue 's poker face and tone is useful when she responds without hesitation, "Yes..." [ That gets a nice guffaw out of him. "Ha! Bet he could use it. I personally don't like the guy, but it's a shame about his kid..." You turn a corner, and suddenly you can see it: a big, square building with no windows and only one set of main doors. It's considerably apart from the main campus, as if they're afraid the building's going to explode and take everyone with it. ] * Katherine peers at it and mms. "Sure you don't just wanna call it 'The Coffin'?" [ The driver's voice has a little singsong lilt to it. "All I know about what they do in there is that it involves 24 stuff," he says. "So they want to make sure if somebody goes supernova he doesn't take Vanderhoosen with him." ] (I hope I got that name right.) * Yue folds her arms under her chest and mms for a moment, before saying, "His kid?" (Sorry. We'll wrap this up when you get to the building.) [ The driver waves a hand as you near the building. "The vamp's got a sick kid... only time he leaves is to go visit him in the hospital." Soon you're pulling up into the round driveway outside the building and the car comes to a stop. When the driver speaks next it's with a tone of both sarcasm and practiced delivery: ] [ "Welcome to the Developmental Research in Amplified or Uncommon Powers Not Identified Readily Laboratory, ladies." The doors open for you to get out; the driver stays where he is. "Enjoy your stay." ] * Yue says, "Thanks," and steps out. * Katherine gets out too, saying, "Yeah. Have a good one." (Okay, I'm doing this one big narration, then you both get one quick reaction each andw e'll cliffhanger) [ Once you're out, he drives off, apparently not wanting to stick around. The building isn't far away, and the doors don't appear to have a security checkpoint up front; apparently the front desk handles all that. Once you get close enough the smoked glass doors slide open. ] [ The problem is they slide open to reveal Platina Fortescue, though it may please our heroes to know that she seems genuinely surprised to see you. It doesn't last long, however, because her face turns into an arrogant smirk. "Well... what a nice surprise. Visitors." ] * Yue is similarly surprised for just long enough to bolt forward into a grab! Oh, cliffhanger indeed. * Katherine replies, grinning slightly as Yue makes for the grab, and her own claw comes up in a ready stance, "Always good to see you, Platina." (Sorry. I kept trying to find words and it didn't work at all. Did not quite expect to get made this quickly!) [ Did Soma know this would happen? What exactly is the DRAUPNIR lab? Will Yue do the DSC on Platina or has she not sparked enough martial arts moves? Find out... next time!]