Texts: Black Flame and Brain Weasels

Texts: Black Flame and Brain Weasels
Date of Scene:	05 September 2023
Location:	Texts
Synopsis:	Naru checks in with Kazuo after her first encounter with Sunbreaker. Her reward for survival might possibly be free blackmail material.
Cast of Characters:	Kazuo Saitou, Naru Osaka
Tinyplot:	Dangerous Orbits

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(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: FYI if you havent met dark energy yet, just don't. It's obnoxious. (Not Dead Yet and all that.)

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: I'll do my best to go along with your advice. Is there any particular flavor of obnoxiousness to help identify it? (And how is recovery going?)

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: In hindsight, the black flames, draining people and trying to kill us was probably a clue. I just didn't expect her to try and drown me in it. Recovery is slower than I like and insidious.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: I take it that I should expect some crankiness in class Wednesday. It seems reasonable after having survived a murder attempt by what sounds like the homicidal 1980s.

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: Black flames, spikey, a lot of attitude.. I'll be sure to cue up a retro soundtrack if we meet her again. I am attempting to keep the cranky mostly in check, cause I do not need to share. I think it's working? Ish? If I post something about looking for a fainting couch to lounge on dramatically being epic art morose, then it's not working anymore.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: You are many kinds of artist, but thankfully not that kind. Does activity help work it off? Or at least keep it back?

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: At this point, yes cause it's a good distraction. Staves are pretty awesome, so also good incentive to keep working with those. Long runs are <3 (but they usually are). I just need to actually, y'know, attend classes and do homework now and then. Your summer job done?

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: Yes. I will take a moment to believe in a benevolent or at least capricious deity just to have someone to thank. I cleaned the apartment three times this weekend in the faint hope of keeping the damned fur from following me to school.

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: I think that hope is in vain, but I will cling to it on your behalf regardless.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: [photo of a very large, very pink costumed teddy bear mascot, artificial face beaming vapidly as it waves at children on the sidewalk]

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: All hope was already lost.

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: If I spot any pink stowaways, I'll just snag then and pretend nothing happened.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: Blessings upon you and yours. (If they turn out to be tiny monsters, my apologies in advance. But at least you could step on them.)

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: If they are tiny pink fluffy monsters, our room might end up with a(nother) pet.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: I'd say Luna might eat them, but I can feel her turning up her nose at the idea from here.

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: She might terrorize it, but I'm more likely to get lectured on what I'm bringing home than her eating it.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: FYI, there is some concern that a mind-controlling cult might be trying to drag me in, so a reasonable amount of caution about the information available in my head might be due. (It is entirely my fault for not telling you before this, and I apologize. I also note that that comment doesn't count as new information, just a reminder for me to tell you. I already saw her facepalming, so a lecture is only a reasonable extension.)

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: The Cult? (And duly noted.. also if you think cats can't lecture a person without words, you haven't lived with enough cats.)

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: I haven't lived with any cats. This is automatically not enough. ... And the cult Inai seems to particularly dislike. I'm not certain how many there are, and at this point I strongly suspect some are using others as cover.

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: That's the one. Sadness, as you're my source of sanity, and I'll be more careful what I say now.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: Fortunately the vast majority of our chat is things they already know or don't care about. I'm trying to figure out ways to protect the rest.

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: That feels like a very polite way of saying that we talk about a lot of mundane trivia. Which is probably true. I appreciate the warning though, I'll leave the puzzles out of this convo.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: I was thinking more that we talk about trying to figure out the things they already know. (Dark energy, for instance.)

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: Yeah, if they haven't figured out dark energy, dude.. they need to seriously get with the program. But fresh puzzles I'm currently mulling on, I'll leave those.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: I bow to your judgment. Though given your "insidious" comment, they may well only think they've figured dark energy out.

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: Insidious cause the brain weasels love it. So it's hard to sort out what's just a bad brain day, and what's artificially enhanced bad brain day.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: If it redirects attention like that... interesting. I wonder if that's what the mind control is. Sufficiently focused dark energy to redirect everything.

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: At least that's how this manifested.. Both in the moment, and the lingering afterwards. But that would track.. I mean, a lot of mind control is focused guilt and shame and misplaced devotion. At least based on my readings.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: I may have to grudgingly make a stop by a shrine. Just in case. If some charm or other might buy ten seconds, that's hypothetically long enough to send a very short text.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: ... my principles hurt.

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: I mean, we are also talking literal magic here. So many normal bets are off.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: Yes. That means there are infinite numbers of "this is stupid but it might work" things to try. I suppose if nothing else then salt or iron filings in the eye might provide something a purely physical irritation.

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: Legion of potential. And both I would find highly irritating, so seems entirely possible. Granted, I am not a magical being.

(PHONE) Kazuo Saitou texts: I'll start carrying things on morning runs. Just in case there's a moment when testing doesn't seem likely to make things any worse.