The X-Project

Marie-Ange and Topaz work on unpacking Avalon-lite - one of the back offices in the new building. Backdated to 12/18/21.



"I'm starting to notice a pattern," Topaz grumbled, looking at her entirely dead refusing to turn on and weirdly cold phone. "And I think it might be 'don't put electronics in the void bag.'"

She set it aside to continue unpacking the things she'd rescued in the void, pausing every now and again to frown at something that probably shouldn't have been in there but somehow was.

"On the other hand." Marie-Ange said, carting in another small stack of duct-tape wrapped boxes. "It would be a good way to dispose of burner devices." She locked the wheels of the cart and started taking boxes down from the stack. "Probably smells better than asking Jubilee to melt them in a bucket."

"Great, I created a technology blackhole." Topaz sighed, standing to help with the boxes. Something rattled in one of them as she put it down. She put a bubble around it.

Marie-Ange stared down the box until it stopped making noise, and then turned to move another box off the stack. The bubbled box rattled again until she glared at it over her shoulder. "We should put that one in the freezer with the liquid nitrogen until it learns to behave. Or in the void bag. See how it likes being in a black hole with the burner phones and whatever hard drives Doug wants to erase forever."

"Having been in a void, I can promise it won't enjoy it very much," Topaz said absentmindedly, moving the bubbled box to a corner. "I'm assuming it's from the Do Not Touch collection from Avalon. Most of those things made weird noises, but they were harmless. I've got my notes somewhere in the bag, I'll take a look later."

"Oh, that does remind me, we tested the tea alarm clock. It really does ring every time someone needs tea" Marie-Ange said. "We had it out when we were making the coloured art for the ritual to bring you home. I think for a bit, all I did was make chai, and hand it out. It just kept ringing, stopped right before you came home."

“Surprised it didn’t ring more when I got home. There’s no tea in the void, you know.” Or much of anything else, but Topaz had priorities.

Marie-Ange bent to unpack another box, this one marked "safe" in Topaz's handwriting. She popped a knife from somewhere in her trousers, sliced the tape open and then disappeared the knife into the same unknown place. "I like to think it understood how much tea Amanda was going to pour into you. Ooh, this one is the templar and weird Vatican books. Where do you want these?"

"So much tea. I was almost sick of it." Topaz pointed to the bookshelf against the right wall of the room. "Safe books go there." She pulled out a small crystal ball, which immediately started filling with white fog. "Nope. Absolutely not. Not today," she informed it, hastily putting it on a shelf.

"I refuse to use that." Marie-Ange hauled the box to the bookshelf, and started unpacking, checking the spines of the books every so often against the "Doug and Topaz's Hacked Together Magic Library Sorting Algorithm" guide that had been laminated and taped to the edge of one of the shelves. "Crystal balls are silly and I refuse. Cards are ridiculous a crutch already."

"I'm not entirely sure it's for telling the future. And I'm not checking it today." Topaz shook her head. "I'll save it for a day when we're bored."

"Maybe it is a cotton candy machine." Marie-Ange offered. "Walk me through your plan for safety with the artifacts. This is your library, how do we lock it down if something goes wrong?"

Topaz looked up from her bag, scanning the room. "Well, in an ideal world I'd always be here when a problem happens. In a realistic world, I set up wards that can be triggered either manually or by an occurrence. Say, a tornado hits. Wards go up so we don't end up with dangerous magical things thrown across the state. Manually, I'm still working on something..." She fished a small plastic ball out of her pocket, holding it up. "Low level wards at all time, of course, but for something more serious, throw one of these into the room and..." She broke the ball, and a small burst of energy lit up over her palm. "It's not a perfect plan yet, obviously."

"Can we set some up on triggers? So that if we have to hit a panic alarm, the room triggers some of those?" Marie-Ange asked, and then surveyed the room, and the subtle little pieces of painter's tape still sticking out around bookshelves, marking wards. "Good work. I like the tape, is it forever, or just until we find a better solution?"

"Yes, and temporary. I've only had a couple of hours, but I can do much more with another day or two."