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xp_logsEmma attends some of the presentations makes an interesting discovery.
Soft voices filled the room as prospective investors moved around the various small set-ups that showed some of the idea's and prototypes the four founders of the think tank had been working on. Kade Kilgore, Wilhelmina Kensington, Manuel Enrique, Maximilian von Katzenelnbogen and a few of their staff moved around, chatting up potential uses of the technology, answering questions and dropping tiny hints about other future plans.
Emma smiled at the attentive waiter by her elbow, took the flute of champagne they were offering and sipped it. They did have good taste in that, at least, she had to concede. Then she drifted towards one of the staff demonstrating the technology. “This is all very interesting and Frost Enterprises might well be persuaded to invest in at least some of what’s being shown. As I’m sure your founders are aware, my company is particularly interested in psi-technology. Is there anything that might pique my interest?”
"That would be my area of expertise." Wilhelmina smiled softly, sipping her own flute of champagne. "Homines Verendi's work into psionic related technology has been growing rapidly. We have prototypes available for demonstration if you're interested Ms. Frost."
“Frost Enterprises is always interested in cutting edge technology,” smiled Emma. “It is unusual to see a start-up such as yourselves working on psi-technology, though. It’s proven a rather difficult branch of technology, even for established tech companies.” Emma reached out a tendril of her telepathy, felt it skitter off the mind in front of her. Though you seem to be making an adequate job of it, she thought to herself.
"Yes well, it does require a certain intellect that many of our competitors lack." Wilhelmina smirked. "Homines Verendi is very fortunate to have such well-connected investors. It allows us to expand into more difficult technologies that continue to evade our competitors."
Emma allowed her smile to cool slightly. “Frost Enterprises has been fortunate,” she said. “Our investments have generally proven well-founded. But there’s more than a few venture capitalists who’ve been burned by poor choices in technology. So please excuse me, Ms Kensington, if I seem skeptical. It has served my companies well, so far,” she added smiling. Emma strengthened the tendril of her power, drove it harder against the artificial shield that lay between her mind and that of Wilhelmina, testing where the boundaries of it lay, mapping it on the astral plane.
The technology certainly put up a fight, but was no match for Emma's probing. Such was Wilhelmina's confidence in her product that she barely noticed, she didn't think she had to pay attention to potential probes.
Emma continued making technological light chit-chat with Wilhelmina, who remained oblivious to the curl and probe of Emma’s telepathy. Emma’s probe skimmed round the edges of the artificial shield, tested each part of it. ~Ah, there,~ Emma thought as her probe found a weakness. She tapped at it, carefully, then hardened the probe, feeling as if she was using it to pries molecules apart, open a gap in the shield. ~Now,~ she thought, ~why are you so determined to keep psi’s out of your beautifully groomed head?~
Emma would never be so crude as to describe what she did next as rummaging in Wilhelmina’s psyche (though she would concede to skimming). Lightly, leaving no trace, she shuffled quickly through Wilhelmina’s recent memories, then started to probe a little more deeply. Emma frowned as she deepened her incursion into Wilhelmina’s mind. Longer-term memories felt a certain way to her; stronger, more resilient, bedded in. But as she reached beyond the most recent past, the memories that flitted past her were shiny, felt new. Like a flag brandished to cover over something else.
~What are you hiding, young lady?~ wondered Emma ~Even from yourself.~
And then the probe slipped below one of those bright and shiny memories, the lies Wilhelmina told herself and into…
~Oh,~ thought Emma and compassion flooded her. She knew that darkness. Or something very like it. Emma’s blink was like the click of a shutter, memories pictured and put away in a moment. What fathers could do… She didn’t let that thought finish. Instead she whispered, ~I’m so sorry that happened,~
Wilhelmina froze, blood running cold at the realization of the intrusion, and of what the other woman must have seen. She took a deep breath to steady her voice as she whispered harshly to the other woman, so different from her earlier demeanor. "Get out of my head."
“Of course,” said Emma, smoothly withdrawing her probe (though not before taking a few mental snapshots of the shape and feel of the psi-blocker; Emma was certainly willing to admit her telepathic ethics were flexible). “It doesn’t help,” she added. “Keeping it secret from yourself. It… erodes you.” Her moue was small, a delicate movement of her mouth. “Believe me, I know.”
"I don't need advice from a woman who pillages around where she isn't wanted." Wilhelmina spat, glaring at Emma out the corner of her eye. "And I certainly don't need a mutant preaching to be about what's right."
“Pillaging is positively rude,” said Emma, one perfect golden eyebrow arching upwards. “Considering you didn’t even notice me bypassing your little artificial shield.” She stopped, sighed. When she spoke again, she kept her voice very soft, so it wouldn’t be overheard. “I am not going to debate what is right with someone who has made their view on mutants so abundantly clear. But it’s not the fact that I can find out your secrets that you hate. It’s the secret itself. And no matter your views on mutants or my ‘pillaging’ I don’t wish that kind of pain on anyone.”
"Perhaps if you didn't wish to be called out for an action, you ought to refrain from entering someone's mind and diggering where you clearly are not wanted." Wilhelmina hissed. "And one can be just as upset that something private was uncovered by a stranger's snooping as they are with the fact that the memory exists. Good day Ms. Frost."
Emma watched the young woman walk away from her, anger clear in the set of her shoulders, her stiff back. “I doubt it is a good day for you, Ms. Kensington,” Emma said to herself. “But I hope one day I can help make it better.”
Sue in the meantime puts on her old thieves hat and does a little sabotage while learning some interesting information.
The blue light from the rifles shone softly in the darkened room, all neatly lined up on a table covered with a white sheet. Little red lights from the security cameras and motion detectors offered the biggest contrast in the otherwise darkened room.
Every event that ever existed, every office or research compound that Sue had ever visited had one glaring weakness, confidence. Hold a clipboard or folder and look like you knew what you were doing and people would just assume you were meant to be. No-one wanted to get in the way of someone on a mission and potentially draw the ire of management. A wig and a few cosmetic adjustments and she was unrecognizable. That had brought her through the initial levels of security. There was still the door, a heavy metal contraption that was meant to provide security and safety.
And it did, normally, but all doors had safety features built in, simulate a power cut and the door would open to allow the workers inside out, or allow her access. The blonde had hidden her disguise down in a bathroom down the hall and was dressed in something a little less baggy and likely to catch the camera's sign when she least wanted it as she mapped a path around the cameras.
The hushed voice of one side of a conversation floated towards Sue. Kade Kilgore paced back and forth in an empty corner as he talked on the phone. “Father- no, listen, there’s an untapped market for this kind of tech. There’s definitely going to be investors interested! I just need a few more weeks to get it all lined up-“ Whoever was on the other end, his father presumably, cut him off, leaving Kade even more agitated.
Soft footsteps took the blonde through the shadows, hunched over to break up her silhouette, making it harder to spot her as she worked her way around the room, hooded eyes watching Kade as he paced back and forth. She could hear him, the words new but the tone of voice oh so similar, it was one she'd heard from her brother so many times as he was trying to convince their father of something. Parents. Wherever you went, they were the same, but Kade had made his bed, so now she'd have to make sure he laid in it. A touch of a forcefield was all she needed to emerge safely into the light, settling down next to the rifles to stare at them thoughtfully.
Kade's father was so loud he could be heard even not on speaker, continuing on for several minutes. The few times Kade attempted to cut in, he was interrupted. It seemed this conversation had been frequently held before. "Father, please. I just need-"
It wasn't hard to work on the rifles while the distracted Kade struggled to cut into his father's tirade, it was something she'd seen all too often, the struggle to step outside of your father's shadow by whatever it took. She'd taken up thieving, Kade had tried his hand at mutant suppression, today only one of them would be coming out of this successfully.
Delicate hands moved over the rifle, a little readjustment there, a crossing of wires there and the show would be ready to start.
A young PA rushed over to Kade, clipboard in hand. Meekly, she said, “Um.. Mr. Kilgore? I’m sorry to interrupt, but we’ve got to get your mic on, if you could come with me.”
Kade ceased his glowering to smooth his expression into something more amicable. “Of course, just a moment.” To his phone, he said, “Father, I have to go now. We can continue this after the presentation.” He straightened out his suit and his shoulders with a shake as he hung up the phone.
For a moment the blonde froze as the two of them swept past, she knew that they couldn't see her but still, it was an instinctive reaction she'd never fully trained away. She didn't even breathe till the two had past, quicky reassembling the rifle and tiptoed back to the hallway to retrieve her outfit.
This would be fun.
The results are rather intriguing.
Voices slowly hushed as everyone took their seats in the small auditorium and the lights darkened, leaving on the spotlights on the small stage in front of the room. A nondescript man in grey overalls pushed a table covered with a white sheet on stage while Kade Kilgore was getting a microphone pinned to his lapel just to the side of the stage.
~How very theatrical.~ Emma’s voice in Sue’s head was positively bored. ~I remember watching a presentation just like this back in what feels like the stone age. I hope they plan to do something interesting soon.~
The younger blonde sat back in her chair, eyes half not really focused on the stage, but on the man getting set up to the side of it, ~Oh, I wouldn't count on it, he seems to think that this is the peak of entertainment and he has an abysmal droning voice~ Sue's voice was filled with wry amusement, ~I made sure to include a few curveballs.~
~The PowerPoint presentation is going to take a sharp right turn around about slide 6?~ Emma teased, lightly.
~I thought that was just long enough for people to start getting bored but not yet have started ignoring it,~ a smirk tugged up Sue's lips, ~I couldn't get everyone a shot of coffee, so I figured this would be the next best thing.~
~I look forward to your intervention,~ Emma’s voice in Sue’s head was amused. ~Far more than the actual presentation, I think.~
~No pressure huh?~ There was a laugh in Sue's mental voice as she settled back in her chair, watching the slide tick over as Kade explained the concept and the power of the sonic rifles before pulling the white sheet off the cart, the audience making the expected oohs and ahhs of appreciation, building up to that grand crescendo, as the man lifted a sonic gun to aim at a target...only for it to tune into a radio station playing the latest pop hits, advising the entire room about an artist’s torrid love life before her crooning voice filled the room.
“ I do hope you realize it’s a compliment when I say that that is fabulously petty,” Emma murmured below the music, so only Sue could hear her.
The younger woman leaned back in her seat, a self-satisfied smirk dancing across her lips, "You know what, I'm honored."
Whereas before Kade had been a picture of trust fund confidence, cracks began to show in his facade. He fiddled with the instrument, increasingly frustrated, and announced over the music, “Just some technical difficulties, ladies and gentlemen. It will be up and running in a moment.” It was clear he had no idea how this had happened or how to fix it.
“If you’re looking for angel investors in this project,” said Emma, and her voice was as cold and hard as diamonds, cutting through the subdued conversation that had started to arise in the audience, “I’d expect you’d have some basic knowledge of how it works.”
Kade turned a particularly unflattering shade of red at the biting remark. “Ma’am, I assure you that I do. It’s never done this before.” Just as he said that, something in the weapon sparked, and smoke began pouring out of it.
"You know, I've always heard that she has the voice of an angel," Sue spoke up, leaning forward in her chair, blue eyes settling on Kade, "But, I think this might be taking the angel investor gag a little too far. I'm sure we all have...better uses of our time. If I wanted a concert, I would have attended one."
"I-" Kade's expression was one of one watching all his future plans and generational wealth wash down the drain in real time. He watched as people, investors, began to stand up and file out of the room, murmuring their disapproval. Rather than face any more embarrassment, he turned on his heel and just walked off stage, no small amount of stomping involved.
Emma tilted her head back, laughed softly. “That young man truly doesn’t understand the brazen hustle required to get angel investors on board with new tech,” she murmured to Sue. “I would have had them convinced that it was a secret sonic rifle that could take out your enemies under cover of harmless music within forty-five seconds.” She tilted her head slightly, contemplated. “Mostly harmless music,” she added.
Sue's laugh was soft as she tilted her head towards Emma, "People would pay big money for a stealth sonic rifle, everyone would leave thinking you were a genius, well more of one...you know now you mention it." The younger woman grinned, "That might be an idea to keep on the backburner."
Soft voices filled the room as prospective investors moved around the various small set-ups that showed some of the idea's and prototypes the four founders of the think tank had been working on. Kade Kilgore, Wilhelmina Kensington, Manuel Enrique, Maximilian von Katzenelnbogen and a few of their staff moved around, chatting up potential uses of the technology, answering questions and dropping tiny hints about other future plans.
Emma smiled at the attentive waiter by her elbow, took the flute of champagne they were offering and sipped it. They did have good taste in that, at least, she had to concede. Then she drifted towards one of the staff demonstrating the technology. “This is all very interesting and Frost Enterprises might well be persuaded to invest in at least some of what’s being shown. As I’m sure your founders are aware, my company is particularly interested in psi-technology. Is there anything that might pique my interest?”
"That would be my area of expertise." Wilhelmina smiled softly, sipping her own flute of champagne. "Homines Verendi's work into psionic related technology has been growing rapidly. We have prototypes available for demonstration if you're interested Ms. Frost."
“Frost Enterprises is always interested in cutting edge technology,” smiled Emma. “It is unusual to see a start-up such as yourselves working on psi-technology, though. It’s proven a rather difficult branch of technology, even for established tech companies.” Emma reached out a tendril of her telepathy, felt it skitter off the mind in front of her. Though you seem to be making an adequate job of it, she thought to herself.
"Yes well, it does require a certain intellect that many of our competitors lack." Wilhelmina smirked. "Homines Verendi is very fortunate to have such well-connected investors. It allows us to expand into more difficult technologies that continue to evade our competitors."
Emma allowed her smile to cool slightly. “Frost Enterprises has been fortunate,” she said. “Our investments have generally proven well-founded. But there’s more than a few venture capitalists who’ve been burned by poor choices in technology. So please excuse me, Ms Kensington, if I seem skeptical. It has served my companies well, so far,” she added smiling. Emma strengthened the tendril of her power, drove it harder against the artificial shield that lay between her mind and that of Wilhelmina, testing where the boundaries of it lay, mapping it on the astral plane.
The technology certainly put up a fight, but was no match for Emma's probing. Such was Wilhelmina's confidence in her product that she barely noticed, she didn't think she had to pay attention to potential probes.
Emma continued making technological light chit-chat with Wilhelmina, who remained oblivious to the curl and probe of Emma’s telepathy. Emma’s probe skimmed round the edges of the artificial shield, tested each part of it. ~Ah, there,~ Emma thought as her probe found a weakness. She tapped at it, carefully, then hardened the probe, feeling as if she was using it to pries molecules apart, open a gap in the shield. ~Now,~ she thought, ~why are you so determined to keep psi’s out of your beautifully groomed head?~
Emma would never be so crude as to describe what she did next as rummaging in Wilhelmina’s psyche (though she would concede to skimming). Lightly, leaving no trace, she shuffled quickly through Wilhelmina’s recent memories, then started to probe a little more deeply. Emma frowned as she deepened her incursion into Wilhelmina’s mind. Longer-term memories felt a certain way to her; stronger, more resilient, bedded in. But as she reached beyond the most recent past, the memories that flitted past her were shiny, felt new. Like a flag brandished to cover over something else.
~What are you hiding, young lady?~ wondered Emma ~Even from yourself.~
And then the probe slipped below one of those bright and shiny memories, the lies Wilhelmina told herself and into…
~Oh,~ thought Emma and compassion flooded her. She knew that darkness. Or something very like it. Emma’s blink was like the click of a shutter, memories pictured and put away in a moment. What fathers could do… She didn’t let that thought finish. Instead she whispered, ~I’m so sorry that happened,~
Wilhelmina froze, blood running cold at the realization of the intrusion, and of what the other woman must have seen. She took a deep breath to steady her voice as she whispered harshly to the other woman, so different from her earlier demeanor. "Get out of my head."
“Of course,” said Emma, smoothly withdrawing her probe (though not before taking a few mental snapshots of the shape and feel of the psi-blocker; Emma was certainly willing to admit her telepathic ethics were flexible). “It doesn’t help,” she added. “Keeping it secret from yourself. It… erodes you.” Her moue was small, a delicate movement of her mouth. “Believe me, I know.”
"I don't need advice from a woman who pillages around where she isn't wanted." Wilhelmina spat, glaring at Emma out the corner of her eye. "And I certainly don't need a mutant preaching to be about what's right."
“Pillaging is positively rude,” said Emma, one perfect golden eyebrow arching upwards. “Considering you didn’t even notice me bypassing your little artificial shield.” She stopped, sighed. When she spoke again, she kept her voice very soft, so it wouldn’t be overheard. “I am not going to debate what is right with someone who has made their view on mutants so abundantly clear. But it’s not the fact that I can find out your secrets that you hate. It’s the secret itself. And no matter your views on mutants or my ‘pillaging’ I don’t wish that kind of pain on anyone.”
"Perhaps if you didn't wish to be called out for an action, you ought to refrain from entering someone's mind and diggering where you clearly are not wanted." Wilhelmina hissed. "And one can be just as upset that something private was uncovered by a stranger's snooping as they are with the fact that the memory exists. Good day Ms. Frost."
Emma watched the young woman walk away from her, anger clear in the set of her shoulders, her stiff back. “I doubt it is a good day for you, Ms. Kensington,” Emma said to herself. “But I hope one day I can help make it better.”
Sue in the meantime puts on her old thieves hat and does a little sabotage while learning some interesting information.
The blue light from the rifles shone softly in the darkened room, all neatly lined up on a table covered with a white sheet. Little red lights from the security cameras and motion detectors offered the biggest contrast in the otherwise darkened room.
Every event that ever existed, every office or research compound that Sue had ever visited had one glaring weakness, confidence. Hold a clipboard or folder and look like you knew what you were doing and people would just assume you were meant to be. No-one wanted to get in the way of someone on a mission and potentially draw the ire of management. A wig and a few cosmetic adjustments and she was unrecognizable. That had brought her through the initial levels of security. There was still the door, a heavy metal contraption that was meant to provide security and safety.
And it did, normally, but all doors had safety features built in, simulate a power cut and the door would open to allow the workers inside out, or allow her access. The blonde had hidden her disguise down in a bathroom down the hall and was dressed in something a little less baggy and likely to catch the camera's sign when she least wanted it as she mapped a path around the cameras.
The hushed voice of one side of a conversation floated towards Sue. Kade Kilgore paced back and forth in an empty corner as he talked on the phone. “Father- no, listen, there’s an untapped market for this kind of tech. There’s definitely going to be investors interested! I just need a few more weeks to get it all lined up-“ Whoever was on the other end, his father presumably, cut him off, leaving Kade even more agitated.
Soft footsteps took the blonde through the shadows, hunched over to break up her silhouette, making it harder to spot her as she worked her way around the room, hooded eyes watching Kade as he paced back and forth. She could hear him, the words new but the tone of voice oh so similar, it was one she'd heard from her brother so many times as he was trying to convince their father of something. Parents. Wherever you went, they were the same, but Kade had made his bed, so now she'd have to make sure he laid in it. A touch of a forcefield was all she needed to emerge safely into the light, settling down next to the rifles to stare at them thoughtfully.
Kade's father was so loud he could be heard even not on speaker, continuing on for several minutes. The few times Kade attempted to cut in, he was interrupted. It seemed this conversation had been frequently held before. "Father, please. I just need-"
It wasn't hard to work on the rifles while the distracted Kade struggled to cut into his father's tirade, it was something she'd seen all too often, the struggle to step outside of your father's shadow by whatever it took. She'd taken up thieving, Kade had tried his hand at mutant suppression, today only one of them would be coming out of this successfully.
Delicate hands moved over the rifle, a little readjustment there, a crossing of wires there and the show would be ready to start.
A young PA rushed over to Kade, clipboard in hand. Meekly, she said, “Um.. Mr. Kilgore? I’m sorry to interrupt, but we’ve got to get your mic on, if you could come with me.”
Kade ceased his glowering to smooth his expression into something more amicable. “Of course, just a moment.” To his phone, he said, “Father, I have to go now. We can continue this after the presentation.” He straightened out his suit and his shoulders with a shake as he hung up the phone.
For a moment the blonde froze as the two of them swept past, she knew that they couldn't see her but still, it was an instinctive reaction she'd never fully trained away. She didn't even breathe till the two had past, quicky reassembling the rifle and tiptoed back to the hallway to retrieve her outfit.
This would be fun.
The results are rather intriguing.
Voices slowly hushed as everyone took their seats in the small auditorium and the lights darkened, leaving on the spotlights on the small stage in front of the room. A nondescript man in grey overalls pushed a table covered with a white sheet on stage while Kade Kilgore was getting a microphone pinned to his lapel just to the side of the stage.
~How very theatrical.~ Emma’s voice in Sue’s head was positively bored. ~I remember watching a presentation just like this back in what feels like the stone age. I hope they plan to do something interesting soon.~
The younger blonde sat back in her chair, eyes half not really focused on the stage, but on the man getting set up to the side of it, ~Oh, I wouldn't count on it, he seems to think that this is the peak of entertainment and he has an abysmal droning voice~ Sue's voice was filled with wry amusement, ~I made sure to include a few curveballs.~
~The PowerPoint presentation is going to take a sharp right turn around about slide 6?~ Emma teased, lightly.
~I thought that was just long enough for people to start getting bored but not yet have started ignoring it,~ a smirk tugged up Sue's lips, ~I couldn't get everyone a shot of coffee, so I figured this would be the next best thing.~
~I look forward to your intervention,~ Emma’s voice in Sue’s head was amused. ~Far more than the actual presentation, I think.~
~No pressure huh?~ There was a laugh in Sue's mental voice as she settled back in her chair, watching the slide tick over as Kade explained the concept and the power of the sonic rifles before pulling the white sheet off the cart, the audience making the expected oohs and ahhs of appreciation, building up to that grand crescendo, as the man lifted a sonic gun to aim at a target...only for it to tune into a radio station playing the latest pop hits, advising the entire room about an artist’s torrid love life before her crooning voice filled the room.
“ I do hope you realize it’s a compliment when I say that that is fabulously petty,” Emma murmured below the music, so only Sue could hear her.
The younger woman leaned back in her seat, a self-satisfied smirk dancing across her lips, "You know what, I'm honored."
Whereas before Kade had been a picture of trust fund confidence, cracks began to show in his facade. He fiddled with the instrument, increasingly frustrated, and announced over the music, “Just some technical difficulties, ladies and gentlemen. It will be up and running in a moment.” It was clear he had no idea how this had happened or how to fix it.
“If you’re looking for angel investors in this project,” said Emma, and her voice was as cold and hard as diamonds, cutting through the subdued conversation that had started to arise in the audience, “I’d expect you’d have some basic knowledge of how it works.”
Kade turned a particularly unflattering shade of red at the biting remark. “Ma’am, I assure you that I do. It’s never done this before.” Just as he said that, something in the weapon sparked, and smoke began pouring out of it.
"You know, I've always heard that she has the voice of an angel," Sue spoke up, leaning forward in her chair, blue eyes settling on Kade, "But, I think this might be taking the angel investor gag a little too far. I'm sure we all have...better uses of our time. If I wanted a concert, I would have attended one."
"I-" Kade's expression was one of one watching all his future plans and generational wealth wash down the drain in real time. He watched as people, investors, began to stand up and file out of the room, murmuring their disapproval. Rather than face any more embarrassment, he turned on his heel and just walked off stage, no small amount of stomping involved.
Emma tilted her head back, laughed softly. “That young man truly doesn’t understand the brazen hustle required to get angel investors on board with new tech,” she murmured to Sue. “I would have had them convinced that it was a secret sonic rifle that could take out your enemies under cover of harmless music within forty-five seconds.” She tilted her head slightly, contemplated. “Mostly harmless music,” she added.
Sue's laugh was soft as she tilted her head towards Emma, "People would pay big money for a stealth sonic rifle, everyone would leave thinking you were a genius, well more of one...you know now you mention it." The younger woman grinned, "That might be an idea to keep on the backburner."
