1086/Brain Trust

Brain Trust
Date of Scene:	06 February 2024
Location:	Classroom
Synopsis:	Riventon reaches out for help. Sailor Mercury, Pluto, Page Mage, Naru, and Mamoru answer the request... and Riventon gives them the data without starting trouble?!'
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Mamoru Chiba, Naru Osaka, Setsuna Meiou, Rashmi Terios, Ami Mizuno

---

Takashi Agera has posed:
Riventon felt... a little bit awkward, sneaking into his own school in the evening. But really, there was no better place for a bunch of magically aware people to get together across lines and try to save someone. He was, in all honestly, indebted to those who agreed to show up - on relatively short notice and with really only the assurances of either himself or Mamoru. Since there was seven of them, and at least a lot of them needed to meet in henshin, the place Mamoru had chosen for it all was an unused classroom, tucked away in the back of RHA's hallways. It might be odd to think that a school so packed with students would have an unused classroom but the empty space spoke for itself.

    And generally - giant explosions in the girls dormitory recently excluded - nobody often tried to start trouble -at- the Academy. For one thing, a lot of Obsidian's younger people called it home. For another thing, it was like kicking an anthill full of magical girls. Right outside the gates? Fine. Within the gates? Practical suicide.

    Begrudgingly (and over protests) Mamoru had healed what he could of Riventon/Takashi's injuries, which was most of it. Though unusually for his healing there was a scar on Riventon's arm that stuck - a bit of visual evidence of the way Sailor Moon's purification had, well, purified the heck out of his arm. But what Mamoru had been able to heal was the frankly more immediately damaging effects of Firefly... or not-firefly ... mauling him.

    Not that it stopped him from complaining about it. "I was going to be fine. Mostly fine. Fine enough." he says as he walks in, armored-lab-coat gear and all. "You worry too much... But thank you for setting this out, for vouching for me. In as much as you can."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Everyone knows I'll jump in the way and almost die if anyone tries attacking anyone else," Mamoru says blithely as he comes into the classroom with Riventon, "ergo, no one will attack anyone else."

He's looking a little tired, but otherwise just fine -- and honestly, for Riventon's perspective, who hasn't seen much of him, he looks so much better than he did when he had a wall of angry wasps buzzing under his skin all the time.

It's after hours enough that he's changed into his usual non-school uniform of dress shoes, jeans, a t-shirt, a button-down, and the black leather blazer-length jacket that Kyouka gave him for New Year's. He pushes his glasses up and says, "And I don't worry too much, you worry too much."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Not so very far behind, is Naru. Who is.. just Naru. She hasn't got a henshin, and even if she did, it's not likely she'd be in it right now. She is another spot of neutral ground in here. Generally. Mostly at least.

"There's no sense in sitting around being sore and miserable when there's options." Naru comments and then glancing to Mamoru a moment and her expresson is rueful. "Which basically is a do as I say, rather than as I do half the time, but that's neither here nor there."

"You both probably worry too much." Naru points out as she looks between the pair of them. "Good evening."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Off outside of spacetime, in a place that several yobs zornward of normal reality, a trio awaits on a glowing magical circle placed over a large plate.

A long staff is used to make various scribbles of light adjusting this or that, then a deep female voice intones, "...there we go. It's time. Here we go."

Back in normal reality, off to one corner of the room...there's an area that's been slightly marked off and that the desks have been obviously pushed out of that's a bit on the other end of the room from Mamoru and Riventon.

Slowly, almost politely for those that can sense magic, the feel of power begins to build up over there.

Of course, the SOUND that is being made is something...that may or may not twig recognition from certain individuals.

It's this kind of wheezing groan that's puncuated every few moments by a soft thump.

This cycles two or three times...then there's a subdued flash of light...and standing in the small area are Sailor Mercury, Sailor Pluto, and 'Page Mage'.

The tallest senshi strikes the ground with the butt of the Garnet Rod once...then dismisses it to...wherever and steps forward, "Greetings all."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Okay you *have* to be doing that on purpose," Rashmi says with *very faint* accusation. After all, she knows very well what an absolute nerd Pluto is, and is amused by the entire prospect.

Her amusement falls away, however, upon catching sight of Riventon. It's not indignation or anger that replaces the humor, since it was Mamoru who set this whole thing up.

And Mamoru is *too much of a great guy* to pull the rug out from under, like this. Especially now that he's had his soul dry-cleaned.

But she *does* look wary, and a bit nervous, as she takes Nicomachea in both hands, and hugs the Device protectively against her chest.

As if she suspected Riventon of maybe planning to yoink the Device away, at the first opportunity.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Sailor Mercury watches the formation of the symbols that Pluto marks with her visor up to get readings on it. Just because they were going to be teleporting to meet Mamoru and Riventon at his request didn't mean her curiosity was only on the meeting about to occur. EVERYTHING was something new to learn.

Soon enough they appear in the corner and she just looks mildly confused at the noise that's made. While 'Page Mage' remarks on it, she glances toward Pluto with a little cluck of her tongue. "Left the parking brake on again?" comes her teasing inquiry. Apparently, though it was a surprise, she did indeed get the reference.

Looking forward to Mamoru, Naru and Riventon with a thoughtful expression. Quietly she remarks on the situaton with, "Mamoru really does have a way with all the pretty boys."

Takashi Agera has posed:
Riventon looks around at the assembled group and... well, his face is not the smugly-grinning, self assured sneer that it normally is. It's more worried and also TOTALLY out of place (and somewhere in his mind also knowing he's outnumbered).

    He finally takes a moment and sighs. "Alright, I didn't want to do this, but I'm glad you were all able to come together. This isn't some plot or Obsidian plan or anything. This isn't even really about... about the greater fight we're on opposite sides of." he says. Well, it is, in a way, but in a way Riventon doesn't know yet. "This is... about a little girl. She's 12, she's a good kid, and she's already dealt with losing her mom. As far as I can tell she has some sort of... parasite on her Linker Core. I can explain that term if it hasn't made its way to you yet. It's... okay, it might ALSO occasionally cause her to lose control and lash out with incredible bursts of energy... but I think it's also harming her." he says.

    "It's not regular Dark Energy." Which is of course super UNharmful to the right people. "It's something different, and I'm not sure what it is, but I don't think that... well, I can't trust that I can figure it out on my own in time. I already gave some of the information to Osaka-san and I brought some to share. I'm not even looking for a cure, I just... she lost control recently and if that keeps happening I don't know if the girl will be lost or not. I just need to at least buy some time." Riventon doesn't know Pluto's job or that'd be more topical.

    "So... yeah. Please. Help me figure out some way to at least slow the progression or something. I'm sure some of this information can be used against me too, because it's on Dark Energy, but that's fine. I don't have the girl here and the best I can give you is data, which is why I asked my friend to gather everyone who was good with data." he says. And then he slumps into a chair and looks at Mamoru with an expression like 'damn that was difficult to do'.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru knows that the hardest part of Riventon's already epically difficult asking for help is admitting that anyone else is any good at something he's good at -- so the return expression is one that's proud as well as affectionate. A warm 'Good job Taka!' is what his face says, which might answer the comment from Mercury that Mamoru is decidedly ignoring.

He doesn't sit in a chair, himself; he perches on top of one of the desks. Then he asks, "Has her hair calmed down in the interim? If not, part of whatever solution is come up with will have to be how to apply it."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru glances over to arrival of the trio from somewhere and possibly somewhen else. One never knows. She smiles her greeting to them and then settles her attention back to Riventon and Mamoru.

"I've been looking at the data, I haven't come up with anything yet." Naru comments into the mix of it all. She is clearly in the camp of 'working together is a good thing', based on the whole 'already has data' point.

Naru considers a moment. "So.. how is it affecting her currently? Lashing out.. is that just a matter of control? Or is it negatively affecting her mental and/or physical health as well?"

Information that she might already have, but clarification amongst the whole crew is a feature.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Sailor Pluto asides to Rashmi, "I have no idea what you mean, dear."

Mercury's comment just gets a smile and a wink.

Absently, she looks Riventon over...then shrugs internally.

She opens her mouth to say something...then visibly pauses, tilts her head...then sighs and says, "Part of me wants to admonish you, but I rather get the impression that you've spent the last however long 'riding the tiger' as it were."

She sits on one of the desks nearby and says, "Thank you for reaching out. Frankly, we were planning on reaching out from our side as well."

She looks over at Mercury and Rashmi, "These two are our best at number crunching, Miss Osaka over there has always managed to bring good insights to the table as well."
Shehe then frowns and taps her lips, "...one thing I was hoping about...how much of Firefly's Device were you able to recover?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Even as Riventon speaks, Rashmi remains wary, at least at first.

She remembers what happened the last time she tried to help Riventon, after all.

But it's not about him, it's about a little girl. A little girl with a... parasite? On her Linker Core? "How...?"

Shaking her head, she crosses a room to set Nicomachea, open, on a desk. "Okay," she says, looking up and nodding her head to Setsuna, then flashing Ami and Naru each a quick grin. "So do you have a-- wait. Firefly? *Firefly's* the one with the problem? And *Luminous Titan* got hurt?!"

All at once her entire expression changes to firm determination. Apparently Riventon isn't the only one who sees Firefly as a precious cinnamon roll.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Whatever jabs or quips that Mercury could possibly offer toward Riventon are at least not brought up after that request for help. If anything, her expression softens to a worried one while she gives a small nod.

"Ah, so it's not a split personality then. I wasn't entirely certain," she begins to explain as she moves to slip daintily into a seat herself leaving her legs leaning to one side with knees together so her skirt isn't an issue. A laptop is pulled out to place on the desktop which she flips open immediately to begin preparing whatever it is she'll need to prepare. "Given the amount of trauma you and others say she had been through, and the drastic change in personality and power level, that had been my current working theory with the limited data I had from our last encounter. It's a parasite, then." The summary is remarked upon as she starts to review the data she obtained once more with that new knowledge in mind.

"Is that also what's slowly killing her?" Mercury risks looking up after Pluto speaks giving a nod. "More to the point, is *she* the one that is 'allergic' to Dark Energy or is it the parasite? Or both?"

Rashmi's question about 'Luminous Titan' leads her to assume that might be the Glaive's name. "Firefly broke it."

Takashi Agera has posed:
Riventon sighs. "No more crazy hair at the time - She was back to Firefly when I last left her." he says. Well, back to Hotaru. Close enough. He can't say it was Hotaru. "Well, I can't fault anybody for not being able to get everything they need in a few days. I've had access to it for a lot longer." Riventon says to Naru.

    "It's not a matter of control, it's more like... split personalities isn't right. Her energy signature itself changes. She becomes a different person. So more like posession or inhabitation or a body swap. Like I said, there's something infecting her more than some part of her that's corrupted. I have... a lot of data on the various ways Dark Energy interacts with... people. I can see the difference between having it mixed in after the fact, it being part of you - not instantly, but over a period of study yeah I can connect it to known historical data and pick out the differences - and in her case it's kind of more like a slowly closing candy shell, only the candy inside isn't Dark Energy."

    "I've got about a third of her device. I think someone picked up after me." he admits. "But I suspect some of it - the parts that were supposed to keep her Dark Energy in check.... those parts were obliterated by the power surge. There's stuff in it I can't remake with our technology anyways. As you may or may not know, Devices - at least every one I've ever seen - use components not of this world. Stuff we can't make with anything close to our level of technology, and that requires a knowledge of magic to boot."

    He looks to Rashmi and nods. "Firefly and... Luminous Titan is basically going to need to be rebuilt from scratch. Obliterated is a better term than damaged or broken, really..."

    "I don't know if it's her or the parasite. I've been doing the best I can. I know that once I started to normalize her surges of Dark Energy that her vitals stablized, she had fewer... negative episodes. But it almost seems like it's been building up like a steam pipe behind the scenes because when she went off today there was such an immense power. Maybe you can pull what's alergic to what from the data."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I thought it was more like possession, I mean... that really wasn't Firefly," Mamoru says, pulling his legs up to sit crosslegged on the desk top he's claimed. He watches Rashmi and Ami set themselves up at a couple of other desks, and he adds, "Is the data from me in there too? I hope it helps, if it is."

He looks thoughtful, though. "If her dark energy surges from negative states of mind, like mine did, I'm surprised she didn't lose control when she, you know, lost control initially and started waling on Sailor Moon with Luminous Titan. Were you getting uploads of readings from it, or just alarms when it got over capacity?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Pluto nods at Riventon, "That was Mercury and I. When Moon told us what happened, I remembered someone..." Here she nods to Rashmi, "...once telling me how important a Device can be to it's user...so I figured seeing if it was repairable wouldn't hurt."

She nods, "Fortunately, we know an actual Device Meister and I've got her looking at what we already have of Luminous Titan. Even if some of the parts will need to be rebuilt from scratch...having the original for a base should be a decent start."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I mean.. there's certainly precident for possession.. parasitic implies that whatever it is has been using her device and / or her energy for it's own sustenaince and I dont think we necessarily know that one way or another." Naru considers as she leans against a desk, digging into her satchel to pull out a notebook and a pen."

There's a considered frown, thoughtful more than anything. "Although the mention of a steam pipe building up pressure starts to put that .. negative organism back into play.. if something is gathering more energy than it can deal with." Naru mmmms softly.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
So, something had been inhabiting Firefly, and Riventon had been suppressing it. But if it was a possession...

"Riventon-san," Rashmi asks, frowning down at Nicomachea and idly turning pages -- more to have something to do with her hands, really, than any pertinence to the writing. She looks up, brow furrowed. "You said you'd made something to suppress it. But if you don't know what exactly is *in* her... Were you able to put it to sleep, as well? Because if not, I... kind of have a guess as to why it went so wild this time," she says, nodding toward Naru.

"Also," she continues, "Device space doesn't have a *concept* for Dark Energy, how was it you were able to make something to keep it in check if you can't do it with the stuff we have here?"

She half-expects the answer to be left at 'because I'm awesome,' but one never knows when helpful information might happen.

"Also uh, Riventon-san... do you happen to have any of his pieces with you? Only if so, and there're traces, Nicomachea can save the signatures for analysis."

Blinking at hearing that Pluto and Mercury gathered the rest of the pieces, Rashmi tilts her head. "She's gonna need his core, if that survived. Otherwise it's a completely new Device, and definitely not her old friend."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"We did," Mercury pipes up while starting to type some information into her laptop. Just notes really about the situation at hand, and the updated information for later recollection. Nothing overly specific that would end with a 'cure' or fix for the moment. Pluto fills in the rest though, and she finally pauses to look up again with a small frown.

"Whatever it is," she begins hesitantly, "She didn't seem aware of the memories of when it was active. Or at least not the correct memories. She thought that Sailor Moon had killed that other girl when it was her. That's originally why I thought a split personality--They have been medically proven to actually be so vastly different that one personality can have allergies while the main personality does not." Her fingers tap lightly against the edge of the computer wishing she had more to input.

"Sealing it is only going to be a temporary solution if it's effecting her memories and gathering power in the background, too. Somehow we'll have to work out a way to remove it. Likely as soon as possible. If it's learned how to break out of being sealed, the repaired Device may not be as effective."

Takashi Agera has posed:
When Setsuna mentions that they know a Meister, Riventon's device pipes up, the gauntlet on his hand's center jewel lighting up in time with the words.<SUPERIOR DEVICES REQUIRE SUPERIOR MEISTERS. THE TITAN REQUIRES CREATOR RIVENTON. TO REBUILD OR REPAIR. OTHER MEISTER: IRRELEVANT.> the device says in a feminine Midchildan (AKA Space English) voice.

    Riventon chuckles at his Device. He doesn't disagree with it, but doesn't push the issue so as to maintain the tenuous peace. "Well, it'd probably be best if this Meister of yours and myself at least worked together on it. The core is gone but I do have a backup." Riventon says. "Might be a different friend, but it'll be -close-." he says. "And yeah, I was getting some readings from it - she had episodes before but never one of this magnitude, so I expected Luminous Titan to be able to hold it. If I'd wanted it to be able to soak those kind of surges on the regular I'd have had a hell of a time packing it into a standby form."

    He looks to Naru. "We don't know but we should. I'm confident the answers are in the data. The answers are always in the data. It's just up to us to find them." he says, with an air of confidence that'd be nicer to hear on not-a-villain. "And... Device Space... whatever that is... might not understand Dark Energy but I most assuredly do. I learned from how mine interacted with my prototypes. Probably hard to do if you can't control it natively, though. Or if you're in some sort of sad space with no access to it."

    "And obviously yes if someone comes up with a safe way to cure the girl that's better than putting it into temporary remission but I'm keeping my expectations low to start with. Stalling it would give us more time than we currently have, and I believe that's time we need. If you come up with a breakthrough by all means share it, but I don't want that to be the only condition we're focused on."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Unfolding himself from the desk he was sitting on, Mamoru slips off it and comes to look over Ami's shoulder, adjusting his glasses again-- but then when Riventon speaks up again, he frowns and straightens up. "Really, though, were you getting readings from Luminous Titan before Firefly's parasite took control? Because she legitimately lost her temper and was fighting for longer than I would think... and if you were getting readings and the data's in here, that might be a good thing to look at for what actually triggers the takeover, if it's not just dark energy surges. Because like I said, if her dark energy surges are triggered by strong negative emotion, then Luminous Titan should have lost control sooner."

He takes a breath, then jams his hands in his jacket pockets and glances at Setsuna for a second, and lets the breath out slowly before suggesting, cautiously, "Because... what about mood stabilizers? Just for now?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Sailor Pluto sighs and nods along with Riventon, "Most people don't realize it, but a LOT of modern medicine is just suppressing symptoms to buy time for other things to work."

She shrugs, because this kind of magic isn't her main field...then goes on, "If you give me a way to contact you, I'll get it to Trager-chan so the two of you can see about working together on this."

A shrug is given, "I have it on very good authority that she actually DOES know what she's doing."

She then snaps her fingers a few times as she pulls at her memory, "Oh! You might want to check the scan for the event with wossername...the twit who split herself in two like Israfel? Luminous Titan was going on about a surge of energy then, too...so if you have that data, that's something else to compare it against."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
    << *BONG!* >> << THE PERFECT WILL FOREVER BE THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD ENOUGH, >> Nicomachea rejoins, in his professorial lecturing tones.

"...Oh good you got him started," Rashmi sighs.

    << ANOMALOUS CORROSIVE ENERGY SIGNATURE DESIGNATE Dark Energy HAS NO KNOWN COUNTERPART ACROSS ALL THE SIXTY-ONE DINEMSIONS OF TSAB ADMINISTERED SPACE. AT KNOWN CONCENTRATIONS ON UN-ADMINISTERED WORLD Earth, OBSERVED EFFECTS OF SUCH ENERGY WOULD BE CONSIDERED A SYSTEM-LEVEL CRISIS. >>

"Thank you, Nicomachea," Rashmi sighs. "Point is, I agree, if Luminous Titan's getting rebuilt at *all,* it's probably gonna need both of you," she says, nodding to Pluto. "We'l do our best to make sure she doesn't, y'know... disparage your work *too* much, but like... Just remember what's important when you're working," she says, making a vague gesture with one hand.

"So... Elimination is ideal, suppression good enough for the moment, but since whatever's in her has *been* suppressed, and broke out, it's gonna be a lot harder. Because it knows what to 'look' for, now. And with that in mind," she says to Naru, "I'm not... sure it's a matter of 'dealing with.' The real question is... How much is 'enough,' and what happens when it *gets* enough?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Sailor Mercury nudges the laptop to the side a bit so that Mamoru can get a proper look at the screen. It certainly wasn't any operating system that was on Earth. Even the other Devices she'd run into so far had pegged it at some kind of super advanced tech. What it was doing was scrolling data along one side of the screen in time with the video recording of the incident so that it could be pinpointed when it went from Firefly being angry to the OTHER thing taking over. "If there's data on that, it would be good to cross-reference, yes," she agrees with a thoughtful nod.

"That could very well be a two-fold attack then. Medically and with the Device's ability to keep the parasite in check. That would ultimately buy is more time," she agrees with a glance cast toward Riventon. "Oh, I agree we need to focus on this first, but the other goal is most certainly one that we need to keep in mind at the same time in case inspiration strikes at the same time."

"However if she's already ill then medically would be an issue as well..." A soft sigh comes. "More reason to get my medical degree. Do you have medical records for her as well, Riventon? We should also consider that."

Takashi Agera has posed:
Riventon shakes his head. "Well... yeah I don't. She's... connected to some people who are... secretive. Within the Company. They only trusted me with her because I went out of my way to save her at personal risk. And even then... I'm not sure entirely. I brought her to a doctor once... against orders... but I don't exactly have those records." He says. "I'm pretty much giving you everything I have which is energy readings. Normal medical doctor-y stuff is not a skill that comes in real handy in my crew. Since none of us are like... regular people. Trust me, the medical side of things can be fixed if we can get the parasite to calm down." He says.

    "I'm just going to give you -all- of the readings I have, boomarked moments, dated. I brought flash drives. There's no Obsidian Malware or anything on them. Mamoru's honor." he says, speaking for the other boy. "Obviously I wouldn't have gone through all this if it wasn't important."

    "I like my device better than yours." He says to the Page Mage. "If Trager is who I think it is, she owes me a favor for making her Uncle's life interesting, anyways." he adds.

    He drops a series of flash drives - obviously picked up from a local office supply store (one not owned by Obsidian!) on the desk. "Careful not opening them on some kind of potato computer. There's a lot of data highly compressed there, it'll crash a hunk of junk." he pauses. "...if it crashes, get a better computer though, seriously."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...Glad to hear that," Rashmi says mildly. "Nicomachea: Mana Investigation. Pull the readings off the storage spaces and decompress, and let's see what we have to work with."

    << *BONG!* >> << MANA INVESTIGATION >>

And above the pages of the tragically analog and un-hip Device Book sketches a holographic 'tank' half a meter wide and two meters tall, with sub-screens and readouts blank and ready. << COMMAND INPUT AWAIT >>. "So Mercury-chan? You get first dibs due to format compatibility, when you're done with a drive pass it to me? We can take all the time we need to crunch numbers, but I want to see what needs seen at least for a little bit, right now."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Sailor Mercury reaches up to take one of the drives because.. she did have a USB port at least. "Of course," she assures Rashmi with a solemn nod. "This is actually a Silver Millenia computer but it's adjusted to be compatable with current Earth technology. It's also familiar with Midchildean and Belkan encoding at this point as well," she assures all the while slipping the drive in with eyes narrowing. Just to ensure that there was no virus. Just in case.

"It appears safe enough." A glance is cast back toward Riventon. "Not that I don't trust Mamoru-kun, but you're not him. No viruses or malware or worms detected."

"Would you like me to transfer the data directly to Nicomachea so that there's no issues?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
At this point, Sailor Pluto has little to add...so she just crosses her legs and settles in to see what the two tech analysts can come up with.

Takashi Agera has posed:
Riventon's device pings, and he looks down to it and seems a little... distraught. "Mmm. Well. Fantastic. There's an... a situation that requires my... very present attention. I am... sorry to have to cut this delightful interlude short, but I need to make sure all of our efforts on this subject are not in vain after all." he says, visibly wincing. "Mamoru knows how to get in contact with me - actually, I don't care if he gives you my work cell. Worst you could do is sign me up for cat facts or something, then I have to get you back." It's hard to tell if he's joking or quite serious, when he talks like that. It could be either.

    "I'd hoped to put our heads together a bit more but destiny seems to have its own plans and I didn't get to choose them. I will... reach out to Mamoru, or to any of you that reach out to me." He turns and starts to step into the dusk zone and stops - physically half in-half-out of the other world, which is a disorienting look to be sure. "And thank you. For listening. For any help you provide. Firefly has been dealt a very poor hand and I would like to see that changed." he says before stepping out of this world entirely to duskjump back to Obsidian Tower... because now he has to *find* Firefly.