1135/Meister to Meister

Meister to Meister
Date of Scene:	19 February 2024
Location:	Plot Room 4
Synopsis:	Hannah Steiner shows Takashi Agera how devices are supposed to be built and helps him repair Luminous Titan.
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Hannah Steiner

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Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon, through Sailor Pluto, gave Hannah Sharpe some coordinates for where he wanted to meet to talk about Luminous Titan - or what was left of it.

    And the site he shared with her was... so far on the outskirts of Mitakihara that it was almost out of the Ward. Few came here... it was a building that had, at one point, been intended to be the centerpiece of a new development. But with funds lost midway through development, the half-finished tower stood as a testament to hubris and nothing more. Which did, to be fair, make it an excelent place for these two to meet. Isolated and with a legend among locals of either being haunted or at use by some criminal syndicate, nobody would come here. It was the perfect place to work and be alone, but that also made it the perfect place for an ambush.

    Today, though, there was no ambush. Just Riventon a few doors down in one of the few more finished areas, with some workshop equipment, waiting impatiently.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah Steiner isn't about to turn away a chance to score diplomatic points with one Sailor Pluto, nor is the idea of working with Obsidian's Least Insane (to her at least) Madman entirely lost to her. ...Alright to the contrary, she actively laughed at the invitation initially, only to calm down given the subject matter.

Outwardly, anyway.

Thus, landing upon the top of the abandoned building, the Scion of House Steiner walks herself and her undisguised Razorhound, Lyra, towards the meeting place. Her cover had been long ago cooked by her Uncle for the most part, but she'll need it to perform properly today. Still, she's not being /subtle/ with her identity.

"Herr Riventon!" She sounds actually /pleased/ to meet her would-be enemy, especially under these circumstances!

"It has been too long, mein honored gegner, for weal or whoe as they say!" Twin shoes and four sets of claws finally make their ways into the lab proper. She taps her Device on the metal grating, and initiates an Area Search to get a proper idea of just what she has to work with alongside her ally-slash-foe.

BG almost immediately offers over her own data packets from Luminous Titan's remains that Pluto let her study, as the proverbial olive branch.

"I suspect we've ground rules to clear up, ja? Nein cutting each other's throats or stabbings in the back while on neutral grounds? Professionals? Scan all you like und I shall do the same, use mein tools und parts...I expect all of them back..." Hannah lays out the array of /proper/ meister tools that Koji scavenged from the Artha.

"Und I expect equal considerations. Agreed?" A pause, and then she bows.

A cane-head pumps into a fist. "Shall we see to it!? Let us save a life, und perhaps many more." For all her enthusiasm, her last words seem a bit more solemn, and there's a sightless nod to Riventon.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon honestly has more questions than answers - but he's relatively sure his partner in not-crime-today does as well. So while she enthusiastically speaks about today's business, Riventon instead reminds her that this isn't the first time they have shared a goal. "I hear your uncle still despises his new spider friend, for what that's worth." he notes. Riventon looks over at the 'proper' tools with some curiosity, as everything he's brought today is anything but proper. In fact, more than a couple of them require Dark Energy to even operate.

    "Do they say for weal or woe on your world? It's interesting how we have some linguistic similarity. I wonder what that means for our worlds in the past." He notes.

    As he starts to pull out both the peices he still has and some extrras (from his own Artha salvage adventure) he notes "It's not in my interest to be known as someone who stabs people in the back when they help him. In fact if someone came to dive on you now I'd probably have to defend you to avoid it looking that way. It's why I picked something so isolated; less chance I have to answer awkward questions from HR." he continues.

    "So, Luminous Titan is... well, there's obviously things in these Devices I can't replicate here on Earth, but the device was custom built by me to help Firefly keep her powers in check. And it worked until... it didn't, rather explosively. But I do think it did her a lot of good, so I want to try to repair it to do at least what it used to do." he note. "Also, the energy blade at the tip could hurt but never kill, which suited the girl's... sensibilities more. I want to keep that intact."

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah somehow manages to bark even harder than her guide lizard's disguised form could manage when Riventon reveals her Uncle's proper humiliation! To say he's gotten a few extra notches on her score card with that is an understatement. Her 'Search' focus does of course narrow briefly upon those tools that are somehow both archaic, and yet the ones that require Dark Energy are both a curiousity as well as make her stomach to want to turn.

She lets BG tuck /that/ analysis for later when she didn't grab some cheap, tasty ramen on the way here.

Shrug. "...Nein. Mein most learned room-mate und our mutual benefactor both recommended a few books. I just like the phrase. Drama~" Her sightless eyes twinkle, even as her voice emphasises the royal delight for such theatrics!

"Gut! We've an understandig! Und should even the Moon's Light bite upon you, Herr Riventon, I should even deny its' rays personally whatever mein feelings otherwise!" That's an agreement, if one cuts through all her prose.

Then she drinks in the most important parts of their tasks with far more nods, and vague ja's than is her usual stream of verbage. Lips purse, a single brow tightens, and she huffs.

"Right then. /We/" Emphasis thus. "Require a reforging of this...I am trying to spare you the religiousity, but Sankt Bless this broken frame...poor soul of a jury rigged Device. Acht. So! Durability first. Starship grade materials, though unwieldy, I think between the pair of us we can work it into a usable shell. So much as it /pains me/, if you want non-lethality to be the default?" A shake of her head, and she lays out a basic /Mid-Childan/ design for a Glaive-type weapon.

A pause. She rubs her chin. "Und with our materials here und some magework...I think I can enchant the thing once we've a proper Core going to at least pause any critical ex-or-implosions with Gravitic Magic. Which leaves an important point..." Her entire attention is on Riventon.

"Am I to assume we are corraling a more-than-lethal amount of Dark Energy?" A tilt of her head. It's not even really that much of a question, and more offering up a Duty.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Let's just say this device is as much to protect Firefly from Dark Energy as it is to protect the entire block of city around her from Firefly's Dark Energy. Everyone is happier when she doesn't go supercritical, ne?" he says. And then he tilts his head. "This one at least is MOSTLY Mid-Childan, with ... just solutions where I'm not... sure how the parts go right normally." he admitted, scratching the side of his head. "Look, I never exactly had a guide for this stuff. Just a bunch of parts that seemed to work together. So I'm sure I've got some stuff plugged in wrong." he admits.

    "But it's a working kind of wrong!" he adds. "But the non-lethality is Firefly's request. She's quite good with the glaive - I've got some theories on just how because according to her she's never held one before I gave her one to test - but she won't put everythings she has into it if she thinks she can kill someone with it. She needs the comfort to fight at her full abilities." He continues.

    "And honestly, I'd rather she didn't have anybody's death on her conscience anyways. Her energy is already a little erratic, I don't think putting that weight on her is going to help things."

    "But honestly, there's a lot I'm still trying to figure out about these devices. I'm sure there are entire parts I've never seen because a working intact copy has never fallen into my hands. ...Thanks to some people."

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Sankt Kaiser help her. It's easy to feel sorry for Firefly, misguided though she might be, but hearing both his frustration at not having proper training or parts, and just his seeming care for Firefly?

Hannah's teeth grit. Her heart trembles, and she leans on her Device just a bit to try to stay /focused/. She can't just jump the whole world forward. And in the back of her mind, she knows Riventon is - even if she can't exactly call him an enemy right now - an opponent. One on the opposite side of a conflict. The politician in her wants to keep that close to her chest, and so does the more Meisterly part of her, eager for more improvement of the craft.

Her glasses go into the Subspace of her Device, followed by hat, and she lets out her blonde hair in something that's /almost/ shaggy, if it weren't for a deep smile.

An honest one.

"Our differences on Dark Energy aside, we need your skill here, Riventon. You are skilled, und I say that as a Meister trained by the best money can buy, und I dare say one with more than a little Belkan talent. So. We gift her a neigh-unbreakable weapon where she can shove all her talents into a strike, und leave her opponent into dreamland rather the Saint King's realm." Nod. And a nod. And a prayer.

Another Area Scan of the remains. She and her Device briefly work through schematics, the young woman dipping hard enough to openly sweat at the work. She floats up off the ground for several minutes, and then floats the data packets over to Riventon's own cursed Device.

"Und there you have the corrections. ...Both Mid-Childan, und if it happened to be a Belkan Device, well...it is your fabrication, und not mein Heresy, ja?" She...actually looks away. It's not like she hasn't seen the crumped together nature of Riventon's Device.

If it's for this girl? She'll eat the consequences, theological or physical.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "It's a different kind of skill, the jury-rigging." he says, simply. "My devices are held together with Dark Energy and Hope. Which... on some level is a volatile combination on its own for a lot of people." he admits. "Much like Mid-childan and Belkan seem to be."

    He takes some of Hannah's data, and some of his own and starts working but after a little bit he pauses. "Can you... show me how these tools are supposed to work? I'm suspecting all of the other devices aren't forced to stay together by being quasi-melted together by Dark Energy. And while some of these tools are kind of obvious - they have earth analogues - the ones for the more fiddly magic bits are unfamiliar to me. I'm not asking you to work on the Device itself if it's anathema to your religion or whatever, you can show me on scrap or projected theory... but I'd like to make sure this is done as right as we can with what we have and you... have tools I don't. And information I don't."

Hannah Steiner has posed:
"Ja! Hah, you seem adept at...what is that local material? 'Duct Taping Together A Miracle'?" Griiiin! Teeth are /gleaming/ on Takun as if she's /proud/! Ahem!

She regains some composure. A shake of a hand. "While I /suggest/ a few candles und prayers to your own local deities such as they are, und /especially/ the 'wash your karking hands with anti-bacterial fluids' method, nein. These tools are universal after the treaty." She admits, and nods to Riventon.

And then she pulls out a simple Storage Device. She's needed to do maintenance on it for a minute, but the courage has left her. She places it on the table.

And begins to demonstrate every single tool she was gifted by her dear friend. First, the laser carver to seemlessly work apart the Device to its' base parts without damaging anything. Then several more delicate tools to tweak the insides of a Device, not quite to the Core, but to pause the beating lines into the potentially Living heart one calls a Linker Core. This one is just a marbel, no matter how precious the memory inside might be.

Riventon is given a brief flash. Hannah's parents. A far, far off world, a grandparent only remembered in vague feelings and the touch of a soft blonde beard.

And it all ends, the lesson digging in deeper as she both demonstrates how to store memory into a Device, how to free the Linker Core, and how every single tool she's been gifted can both mend and sever each system away and back again.

Hannah is a thorough teacher, and in this context? She holds nothing back.

She has to lean on Lyra a bit after that long, intricate lesson.

"Und...any questions?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    The information from Hannah Steiner is very helpful - not just in the tuning of the Device he's working on, but it gives him some thoughts about where he went wrong (or at least different than the usual intent) with his own Device. It'll help Riventon build this Luminous Titan II... but also others.

    "Unfortunantly, it looks like the core itself of Luminous Titan also was shattered. In order to get the kind of energy control I needed, I had to route the system through the core. It worked great, until it didn't." He says. "So I've been trying to peice it back together with some backups and some of the tools, but I don't think it can ever be quite the same. The crystals at the core of these devices are... unique... and it seems like the act of the shattering and the putting it back together have changed it somehow." he notes.

    "Does that jive with what you know? Once the core goes like this - shatters fully - even with the same parts it's essentially... different?" He asks. "I'm trying to get it as close as possible for Firefly's sake... I don't want her feeling like she hurt her Device. AI or not, it was one of her friends, a constant companion, you know?"

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Upon hearing that Luminous Titan's core was shattered? There's both a physical and a neigh-on audible /wince/ from Hannah. A hand runs through her hair. Silence. Hannah doesn't speak for a good minute or two.

"It...Most linker cores can repair themselves, and with a Meister? Can repair from even substantial damage. A...There are, even with the likes of a Meister of Meisters..." Her face drops.

"Yes. They fall into various levels of intelligences even normally, and with a critical loss of their Linker Core?" Hannah is openly sounding /uncomfortable/ which isn't likely good.

"Ja. Back during the Bad Old Days? An ancestor's of mein had a beloved Device shatter und consume both themselves und an entire regiment in grief. We've /protections/ now, however...we can gather the shards, try to heal them. But we do not know what shall be borne." Comes Hannah honestly.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon nods. "That's what I was afraid of, and what all of the data I could pull together told me." He says. "You know, you'd think with all of the other Devices in Obsidian this data wouldn't have been as hard to get as it is." he says. "But none of them really built their own Devices, and they're not keen about me taking theirs apart to figure out how they work." He admits. "So... thank you for spending the time, rather than just keeping secrets to yourself." he says.

    He nbeeds people like Hannah for at least a bit, if he's going to squeeze performance out of not just Luminous Titan but Axion as well. Much like Hinoiri/Sunbreaker, if being nice could get him the information, it was easy and cheap compared to having to beat it out of the girl.

    "I think the Dark Energy it was trying to contain changed it, too. We'll get as close as we can, but... it won't be the only hard conversation Firefly and I are going to have. She's on the run from her father now, too... it's a whole thing. I think she still trusts me at least, though."

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Part of her knows she might be, on the whole, helping Obsidian in this endeavor by being so thorough with Riventon. The rest of her doesn't care, as she knows when someone is focused on a person they might just call 'family'.

Hannah just digs into a pocket, and then presses a piece of paper into a pocket. A simple burner number, with a smile.

A hand waves away the thanks.

"I hate keeping secrets, if I am being blunt. I should see this entire galaxy, und far beyond bathe in prosperity! Acht, und yet...Anyway. We may be on the opposite sides of things, but any words between /us/..." She motions to the burner number.

"Well. Keep it singular, ja?" Shrug.

And then she bows. Formally. Religiously.

"May Frau Firefly's soul be blessed by Her Upon The Cradle, that her pain be relaxed, that she find deserving Family that shall not betray her!" Comes the earnest prayer of one Hannah Steiner!

And then she rises. Teeth grit.

"Und if there is anything I can do to hide her from this gutless..." Her next words are heated, but she ventually chokes them down.

"To help Firefly, ask anything." A firm nod. Lyra lets out a fierce howl!

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon nods. "I'm learning that a lot of people feel that way. It's good to know if I ever do something that prevents me from being able to take care of her... she'll have people to lean on. And I'll put your name at the top of the list for this." He nods, taking the bit of paper, reading it. His device makes a 'ping' noise and then the paper is destroyed, turned into ashen black flecks and vanishing. "Only myself and Axion will know it from that sheet." He says with a smile.

    "As far as I'm concerned this more than makes us even - so I'll go see if I can find more ways to make your Uncle's life... more interesting, shall we say." he says with a wink.