A Talk (Closed)

[Abraham Bishop]

He'd ran the idea by Liling already. She'd even offered to pass it on to Tim herself. But it wasn't as if Abraham actively avoided Tim - no that would just make it easy for Tim to get away with things. Rather Tim probably wished he'd avoid him. But Tim was one of the public faces of Aegis which meant his actions both as Surge and as Timothy Smith reflected on Aegis whether he liked it or not. It wasn't just Tim either. Abraham gave extra scrutiny to everyone in Aegis who had their identities public knowledge. He'd just long suspected Tim let certain vigilantes out of his grasp on purpose, rather than arresting them and bringing them back to Aegis' headquarters. That and the young man seemed to have poor impulse control which was concerning to say the least. Abraham cared a lot about the public's opinion and view of Aegis, probably more than he should have, definitely more than was healthy. Besides, though, he'd been in a better mood lately. He was engaged to Dimitri after all - which was enough in itself to make him happier. Liling had been the first he'd told then his fellow Pillars because after her, they were the closest to friends he had on the team. He hadn't officially told any of the team's members because they were a bunch of nosey children and he enjoyed knowing something they didn't. He entered Tim's lab with his arms behind his back and his usual cold aura despite the upturn his life was taking. He cleared his throat to get the younger man's attention, expression serious as he regarded him. "We need to talk," he said simply, seriously, and very much aware of the panic that could potentially induce in Tim.

... the joy and the chaos, the demons we're made of. i'd be so lost if you left me alone ... the phantom Timothy Smith outfit 295 words >:3c

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[Timothy Smith]

"Okay, I'm turning on the safety warnings. Should just be a safety goggles this time. We're only testing 20% power."

Tim pulled large, circular safety goggles on and flipped a switch, illuminating a sign above the outside of his lab that read "EXPERIMENT IN PROGRESS. PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT REQUIRED BEYOND THIS POINT. RECOMMENDED SAFETY GEAR:" and then an image of a pair of safety goggles. There were other images below that, that weren't lit up, including a hazmat suit, a respirator mask, and even just one of an explosion. That one usually required some explanation, but it wasn't lit up this time, so explaining that it meant you needed to stay behind the blast shields wasn't going to be an issue.

"Alice, sending 20% power to the device. How's the link looking?"

"Good. I don't have to focus on it, but it can access my predictive subroutines."

"Recording online?"

"Online."

"Amplified Light Personal Defense Test 5, 20% power. Note: work on the acronym, I can make it cooler. Systems are all within acceptable parameters, power drain is minimal, cooling systems are working as intended. Beginning 20% power stress test."

"We need to talk."

Tim turned, and saw The Phantom standing in his doorway. Without goggles on. Tim pointed up, gesturing to the sign above the Pillar's head, and then pointed at the rack just behind him with safety goggles. Once Tim was satisfied that he was either moving back out of the danger zone or had the appropriate safety equipment, he turned back to the experiment. Only then did the words he had said register. "We need to talk" was never a positive thing. That was always a terrifying thing. Especially when it was in person, there wasn't an email or a memo or something first.

He shook his head. He had to focus. One thing at a time. Trying to take care of everything at once is how he ended up with a sleeping problem and nightmares, that had thankfully faded for the most part.

"Testing with solid light pulses emulating 9mm small arms fire, twelve round burst."

Tim went through several tests, each time a solid light barrier appearing to protect the mannequin that was the target, which was wearing the device that was being tested, a vest that had several odd technological attachments on it.

"Testing sustained flames, 300 degrees Fahrenheit."

The barrier appeared and blocked the flames for about fifteen seconds, before something sparked on the vest, a piece popped off, and the barrier disappeared, roasting the mannequin. Tim sighed. "Catastrophic failure encountered. Suspending test, will review cause of failure and update notes at a later date. Alice Linked Auxiliary Node appears to be working spectacularly. Alice, end the recording please."

There was a beep in response, and Tim flipped off the warning lights, took off his goggles, and turned to The Phantom, trying to swallow the fear he had. The Phantom was the one Pillar that he felt didn't like him. He wasn't sure why, maybe he thought he was too reckless, too young, he wasn't sure. If it was any of the other Pillars, yeah that "we need to talk" would still be terrifying, but not nearly as much as coming from the Phantom.

"How can I help you?"

Abraham Bishop

[Abraham Bishop]

He honestly didn't know what Tim was doing - he rarely knew what Tim was doing, especially in his lab. It wasn't Abraham's area of expertise and he was well aware of that. He noted the sign once it was pointed out to him, arching an eyebrow because he wasn't sure how he'd missed it before. He retrieved a pair of goggles, putting it on. He was fairly certain Tim expected him to ignore the warning - even though safety was something he took very seriously. He wasn't naïve. He was fully capable of telling when someone didn't like him. He had no delusion to believe Tim, or even Alice for that case, liked him. He knew they didn't. He simply reminded himself that it didn't matter. They didn't have to like him in order to follow orders. He didn't need to be liked in order to do his best to keep them safe. He watched the experiment, not sure what the goal behind it was. He assumed Tim had gotten a Pillar to sign off on it but there were four Pillars that could've done that that weren't him. And Tim wasn't likely to go to him for permission. Ever. Not unless it specifically affected him or Cloak, which wasn't often. He was still watching where the experiment had taken place when Tim turned to face him. He put his own goggles up, resting them on his forehead. "Are you trying to create a forcefield?" Abraham asked, momentarily distracted. "Have you considered bringing Raj in? Studying the way he creates forcefields?" Raj, of course, was an Aegis member that was not only a telepath but one gifted in forcefields as well. While his identity was secret to the public, it was known among Aegis' membership. Abraham blinked as if remembering he'd come for an entirely different reason and awkwardly cleared his throat. "I wanted to discuss a new assignment for you, get your professional thoughts on it, on how possible you think it would be. It's about the attack that happened not too long ago - specifically the radioactive person the attackers had with them."

... the joy and the chaos, the demons we're made of. i'd be so lost if you left me alone ... the phantom Timothy Smith outfit 353 words n/a

template by rem of WW

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[Timothy Smith]

Tim shrugged and patted the smoking mannequin and vest. "Well, I'm not trying to make a force field. I already have. What I'm trying to do is make it practical for our people to wear out in the field, give them a lower profile form of body armor. Almost literally weightless."

Tim pulled the fried vest off the mannequin as he continued to speak. "I haven't talked to Raj yet, but I should get him up here. I'm having trouble adapting the ALISE systems for this, the systems keep overheating and failing under sustained fire, which is of course not acceptable whatsoever. I'm also testing ALAN at the same time, two birds, one stone. The Alice Linked Auxiliary Node. It's an automated system that can access Alice's subroutines, reacting to stimuli faster than your typical "dumb" AI, but without having to have Alice "present" and maintaining focus. That part's working pretty well."

Really all the nerd babbling was Tim trying to make himself less nervous about talking to Abraham. He knew he botched the incident with the radioactive guy during the attack. He should have been more on top of things. Stopped him. Gotten him help that Aegis could give. Honestly, it reminded him of Nihilo, which he also felt was a personal failure. Not only was Nihilo arguably part of himself, but he'd gotten back out into the world before Tim could try to help him.

Tim sighed and addressed the issue Abraham was bringing. Or at least the one he thought he was bringing. "I'm sorry sir, I should have performed better during the incident. It won't happen again, and I've been reviewing the encounter during my training sessions in the ALISE and identifying where I failed and where I can do better."

Abraham Bishop