1931/Entropy, Energy, and This F***ing Guy

Entropy, Energy, and This F***ing Guy
Date of Scene:	06 September 2024
Location:	Pikarigaoaka Ward
Synopsis:	Sailor Moon and Amy Faust defeat some goofy motorcycle youma, after which Amy asks Molly if she'd be able to scan her friend Norie, who's cursed. Unfortunately, Molly isn't able to, but that doesn't stop an interesting conversation with Kyubey from taking place. Will there ever be a day where Kyubey doesn't piss off everyone they interact with?
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino, Norie Okana, Amanda Faust, Molly Skyline

---

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"You know, like, in my head, I know a youma can be anything," Sailor Moon is huffing and puffing, swinging from the overhead pole of a street light, gloved hands straining to hold on, "But like, I didn't think we've have to worry about motorcycles, you know?!"

And yet, motorcycles they do indeed need to worry about. There are two of them circling below, like sharks ready to leap for the kill, and it's only the fact that even doing wheelies isn't enough to give them clearance that's keeping Sailor Moon safe - but her arms are burning and she is not going to be able to stay up here much longer.

It had started as a coincidental meeting on patrol, Sailor Moon going around and keeping an eye on things, Puella Red - looking for a Witch, Sailor Moon thought, though she hadn't had time to ask. They'd been just getting into conversation when Sailor Moon made the mistake of tripping over a loose rock and knocking over a parked motorcycle... that had promptly tried to bite her.

Because of course the front of the bike was a mouth, and of course the headlights were eyes, and of course it wanted revenge for being knocked over.

"If they would stop chasing I could just purify them!"

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana was here. Also a coincidence. She'd find a little corner and start watching. She didn't wanna get involved, for fear of making things worse. She watches, listening to the words Sailor Moon says...

She winces... she can't help, but she hopes she gets to see a purification in which she is not the target.

She's lucky she has nothing to do with this youma. Maybe it'll cause some silly misunderstanding anyways.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Monsters just can't let a girl read manga in peace!" Amy complains. She had been reading on her phone, walking, between attempts to triangulate a Witch, and ran into Sailor Moon on patrol, and they barely started talking before Usagi aggroed the motorcycle. Motorcycles are supposed to be peaceful! They're not supposed to aggro!

    Anyway, it's been frustrating so far, as the motorcycles were too tough to be taken down by bullets and after they dodged her shells a couple of times Amy is trying to avoid more missed shots.

    "Why not?!" Amy wonders, hanging from the streetlamp next to Sailor Moon. "I feel like I've seen motorcycle monsters plenty of times in videogames."

    She catches her breath a bit. "Okay, so. I'm pretty sure they can't dodge fast enough if I use the giant cannon, but then... well I guess some damage is unavoidable but also I can't use it like this." Hanging from the streetlamp. She's forgotten for a few seconds that she can fly.

    "...So how do you think they track their prey? Vision? Scent?" Amy looks down at the menacing motorcycles. "...Heck with it." She whistles like calling a dog. "Hey! You don't want to eat Sailor Moon. You want a nice stick!" She conjures a long, cylindrical explosive in one hand, rubs it briefly against her forehead, "It's even got our scent on it! Go fetch!" And she flings it away.

    If the motorcycles actually give chase, she doesn't even have to set it off if Usagi can purify them!

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I don't know! Motorcycles are cool and exciting, not rude and hungry!"

This last part is yelled angrily at the hungry, hungry bikes. In response, they rev their engines and perform another wheelie, trying to catch her feet. She squeaks and hurried bends her knees, getting her feet that much higher up.

"Yeah, let's - let's try not to destroy the street, neither of us has a barrier up, you know?" She winces, imagining the aftermath... "Um. That's a good question, it's not like they have ears - oh!"

The stick is thrown, and the bikes, apparently, sense movement, because as it's launched, their engines rev, and one manages to catch the stick in it's jaws, racing a bit away, with the other chasing after, ramming it (lightly) from behind to get the stick.

"I cannot believe that works," Sailor Moon wheezes, and drops down to the floor, bending her knees to lessen the impact. "Phew... I could feel my arms giving out. Okay, okay, here we go -"

She stretches her arm up, and the Crescent Wand falls into it. With a quick gesture, she carves a golden circl into the air, and at it's apex, calls the name of the attack, silver beams of light striking the motorcycles.

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

In the aftermath, the two bikes lie on their sides in the street - only, they aren't wickedly cool motorcycles anymore, but electric scooters.

"Wha - they were just faking to look cool?!"

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana watches Moon Healing Escalation and is a smidge too close, causing herself to be caught in one of the amazing beams of light, and making her slide backward and wave her hand in the air as dark energy crackles around the affected hand.

It's turned to it's dark energy, gaseous form as she frowns and starts exclaiming "Owie owie owie!" she goes as she huffs.

She knows she wasn't the target... but it still smarts. She also realizes she's very visible now.

"I did not. Intend to get hit." she says.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy invented the cannon attack because a speedy Sunbreaker was causing a similar problem, after all. Which, yeah, kinda cratered the city street Amy hit.

    She drops once the bikes have turned away from them, also landing in a crouch, and then stretching as Sailor Moon purifies the motorcycles into... scooters?

    "Norie! Are you um... okay?! Sailor Moon, do you know um. Norie?"

    Amy walks over to the scooters. "They... so wait. So is the implication that the scooters, once magicced, wanted to be cooler? Or did this energy read their owners' desire for a cooler ride?"

    She picks up the 'stick' and holds it out to show the pineapple-like texture on the outside. "Plan B was to puncture the tires. I figure a fragmentation grenade wouldn't destroy the street as much." She looks at it a moment. "Huh. I don't think I can... re-absorb ammunition once I generate it. Oh well. I guess the next monster gets it." She slips it into her belt pouch but it's too long. So she adds a loop to the belt and slips it into that. Sure, that's safe.

    Then she lifts one of the scooters and goes to wheel it over to where it was originally parked.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Victory is sweet - but hitting the wrong target... isn't. Especially when the wrong target is a girl around her age waving her arm around, the limb turned gaseous and dark energy-fied. The sight is distinctly unpleasant, and it reminds her of something, though it slips away when she thinks about it.

"Oh, shoot, are you okay?!" She hurries over, the Crescent Wand vanishing off to her pocket space now that she's no longer in need of it. "I mean, that looks really bad, so I don't think you are, but I didn't mean to hit you with it either!"

And worst of all, she has no idea of how to fix that.

"I mean... why not both, Red-chan?" The question, and the scooters, which are being carefully picked up and carried back to their original positions down the street, are ignored as Sailor Moon hovers around Norie.

"I don't think we've met. Sailor Moon, soldier of love and justice, totally sorry about hitting you - I mean, you must have a bunch of dark energy, for that to happen, but still, I don't like to hit people on accident!"

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana is holding her changed hand and looking down at it. "It's fine." she says quietly. "Red-chan was taking me somewhere when this happened. I had nothing to do with this, for the record. Not that you're accusing me." she says.

Her voice is strangely monotone. "Hello, Sailor Moon. I am. Norie Okana." she says softly. "I'll be fine. You didn't meant to hit me. I don't think." she says quietly.

"I don't see...why you can't join us?" she asks.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Dark energy and youma are so weird. I wonder if anyone knows why they work the way they do..." Amy walks back over from putting away the scooter and looks at Norie's arm, and then at how distressed Sailor Moon is, and then back at Norie. "Can't you just..." she gestures vaguely, closing and opening her fist while wagging her upper arm back and forth.

    "Ah... yeah, you, uh..." She looks back to Sailor Moon. "I was gonna ask Molly to scan her and see what's up with her, uh... situation."

    She looks back at Norie. "I mean I guess you're okay with her knowing since you said she can join us, but... it feels weird to just like... tell your secrets..." She does start walking towards Molly's place, though.

Molly Skyline has posed:
All this fighting and noise has managed to garner some attention! A fresh combatant is flying into the battle arena, approaching at speed, borne aloft on purplish, translucent wings. "I'm coming!" shouts Molly, to basically nobody but herself since she's high up in the air.

As she gets close, she angles downwards, flying like a dive bomber almost straight down. As she rush down towards the ground, she casts a Time Space Barrier, and a rapidly expanding bubble grows to encompass the immediately surrounding area, protecting the real world from harm and shifting those who are either Mahou or monsters (or at least former monsters) in with it. Though it is starting to seem like someone didn't get the memo about the fight being, y'know, over.

"Starcrash!" she shouts. "Starfall!"

<< ARMED >>

"FIRE!"

And Molly just... keeps flying straight down. Fast. Like, really fast; she's picking up speed, as she rushes straight for the e-bikes (that to be fair were Youma a moment ago). As she rushes downwards she picks up a plume of purplish energy around her; and only at the last minute does she right herself. Her barrier jacket and staff let off a blast of energy, making a crater in the ground and sending chunks of e-bike flying in all directions as she makes possibly the most aggressive landing possible, kneeling in the crater as the dust clears.

"There! That took care of that! Everyone okay?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Oh, she was? And yeah, I mean - sometimes people just have dark energy, it doesn't mean you're responsible for every random monster in the city." It's probable that if Usagi knew who she was talking to, she'd be more suspicious - but she doesn't, and the Veil is enough to keep her from thinking twice about the odds of two monotonous girls with bodies that become dark energy upon exposure to purification.

"I really didn't," she confirms, and glances at Red, who's mentioning situations and secrets, with a puzzled expression "And if you don't mind, I'd be happy to tag along, though, it kinda sounds like there's something a little serious going -"

This is when the barrier goes up, and then Molly crashes (starcrashes, one could say) right into the earth with a plume of bright purple energy that destroys the two e-scooters, craters the street, and sends a huge wave of energy that briefly sees Sailor Moon's hair dancing in the wind, like spaghetti noodles in flight.

"Ah - ah, you really took care of that," Sailor Moon agrees faintly, eyes swirly. @o@

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana frowns. "I do not like being made of dark energy. I used to not be made of dark energy. Red-chan is taking me to get looked at by someone who has a device.

She hesitantly thinks this is becoming a worse idea. She looks at Amy. "I'll be. Fine." she says softly. "I should maybe..tell her who I am though." she says with a little bit of terseness to her voice. "I am La Crimmm----"

Really awesome explosion after a barrier gets thrown up....

"---oh." she says, her hair now all frazzled. She somehow looks sadder about this than the hand situation. :c

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Sometimes people just have dark energy. "Wait, really?"

    And then barrier. She looks around until she sees Molly, "Wait! No--" She holds up an arm to shield her face as her cloak and hair billow dramatically in the wind.

    "Um... we purified them already... well, she did, but... thanks to your barrier, the bikes are still there in the real world, right?"

    Amy scratches her head and smiles awkwardly. "Um, Molly, Starcrash, we came here to uh... I've got some questions about Devices. For my sake, and for hers." She nods at Norie.

    If questioned, she plows ahead: "I... there is a small chance that it may be possible for Puella Magi to... become normal again. I... I don't think it's likely for me, but, I figure it doesn't hurt to check, how do people get Devices and how do you find out if you have... the ability to use them?"

    She turns her head to nod at Norie. "And we were wondering if Starcrash could scan her and tell us anything about how to... break or at least mitigate her curse."

    Amy looks to Molly and rubs the back of her head, ^_^; "Sorry this isn't a more pleasant social call..."

Molly Skyline has posed:
The first thing that happens after Molly lands is Sailor Moon agreeing that she took care of all the youmas, and after that the purplenette basically just has stars in her eyes and really doesn't hear anything else, she's too busy feeling just extremely cool for being noticed.

Of course they noticed you Molly, you casually bounced a couple of blocks into an alternate dimension and thene executed a flashier landing than Iron Man. And blew up a couple of extremely unworthy e-bikes.

"...Wait, hold on? Questions about Device Mages?"

She looks back and forth between those assembled, and holds up one hand, "Okay, hold on a sec. First of all," she bobs her head towards Norrie, "I don't think we've met. I'm Molly Skyline; pleasure."

She'll wait a moment for Norrie to have a chance to introduce herself, before turning her gaze back to Amy. "So... I'm gonna admit I don't know super much about Puella Mages. ...Or any sort of mage other than Devicers so far, but..." She cups her chin with her free hand, "I'm not sure my answers are gonna help you all htat much. See..." She pauses, trailing off for a moment as she thinks about how to answer that.

"So, everyone I know who has a device that I've gotten to talk to, basically got it the same way... we stumbled on it by accident. I just kinda found Starcrash in a flea market, and he activated when I got attacked by a Youma. That was a heck of a night, by the way. ...I don't know how to tell if you've got the ability to use one, other than finding one and trying to use it... and I don't *think* any of you could use Starcrash even if you had the ability to, he's my device."

She tilts her head, and mmmms, "I can try scanning, but science isn't really Starcrash's thing? Like he might just say 'human female' and leave it at that. You really want Rashmi-chan and Nicomachea."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sorry, everyone who hoped to make a point or share a thought, Sailor Moon was being kind and accidentally drowned out all your opinions.

However, that doesn't mean she missed the interrupted confession, because she looks at Norie and her messed hair and...

Decides not to make a situation of this confession, instead saying -

"I hope there's a solution for you, then, because you shouldn't be trapped as something you don't want to be. I'd suggest purification, but, I'm guessing you already tried that?"

Probably, the hamsterball of doom would just... hurt.

And then Amy has questions about Device Mages, which Sailor Moon did not anticipate, but which makes sense, considering what happened with Sayaka-chan, and...

"That sounds so familiar," she sighs, "It really does seem like magic just jumps out at you, sometimes."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "A flea market." Amy echoes. -_- "This is how people wind up as magical girls, huh...? I'm not that lucky."

    She nods at the assessment that for scans they should really go to Rashmi, giving Norie an apologetic look.

    And then turns to give Sailor Moon a surprised look. "Familiar? I thought... wait, you didn't find Luna and your henshin device at the flea market too, did you??"

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Well... okay when you say it like THAT it sounds silly, I'll grant you," Molly replies. "But that first fight I was in was epic! I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, I didn't know I could fly, I didn't know I had more than one way to attack, and honestly I didn't know I wash't going to end up getting crunched up by what seemed like a vaguely sentient cement truck with a thirst for blood."

Molly says that last bit super exagerated for dramatic purposes, like BloooooooOOOOOoooood

"I don't have a familiar though, that's cool. But I think I'm okay with that, Starcrash and I have conversations -- mostly I talk and he listens 'cause his personality module is missing -- and I dunno if I could handle any more than that."

Norrie, it seems, had to make a hurried exit, which is okay! We all have lives. "So uhm. Why would a Puella Mage want to stop being a Puella Mage?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Maybe the disappointment got to her - but there's Norie, disappearing, and after an awkward little wave, there's Luna being brought up.

"No, I found her in a parking lot on my to my old school," Sailor Moon says, as if this is any better. "Then she did a flip and made it appear out of thin air."

Magic.

"But like, half the people I know with magic were either destined for it," she gestures at herself, "Or just stumbled into it," she still gestures at herself. Usagi! You have to pick one!

"Luna's... huh. I guess she is like a Familiar... she's my advisor, a Mau cat. Um, that means she's an alien cat? She knows... a lot, honestly. I should bring her on patrol with me more often, but she's kinda been busy with the computers lately..."

Definitely alien. And... after a glance at Amy, she says, carefully, "Molly-chan, has anyone ever mentioned to you... oh man, or to Rashmi-chan or Chrono-kun... the truth about Witches?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy has this mental image of a cartoon Luna doing a poorly-animated flip while a slide whistle effect plays.

    "Wait. Luna's an alien too?!" Amy looks shocked at additional revelations. Then less so. "Wait, from which planet? Was... did we used to have a cat planet that got blown up thousands of years ago or something?!"

    Amy looks to Molly and smiles a bit nostalgically. "Yeah, the first battle is something, huh? I thought... well I didn't really have time to think, everyone was down except Sailor V after Scorn attacked, and then I turned the tide... afterwards I thought it must be a dream 'till I woke up the next day... then I got the invite to the school, and when I finally dared leave the apartment I ran into Mio at the park and got dragged to the dance and met Hannah and..." She shrugs, grinning awkwardly. "It's been a wild ride and a new normal since then."

    Amy furrows her brow in thought. <<I don't think I found Kyubey at the flea market. Did I? I wouldn't remember, because of the veil.>>

    Oh neat, Amy can use telepathy too! ...Wait.

    <<No. I found you at the Academy while following Sayaka. That is a question answered. Will you exchange information in return?>>

    Amy sighs. "That one wasn't really important and you know it."

    The familiar creature's silhouette can be seen looking down from a nearby rooftop, red eyes reflecting light like a cat's. <<Amanda, you of all people understand we are on the same side. If Puella Magi do not complete their contracts, the Universe will end sooner.>>

    "So yeah." Amy whispers loudly to Sailor Moon. "I think he's probably following anyone he thinks was involved with what happened." She points a thumb in the direction of Yumegahama.

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Hey, since my first battle I've only taken on a Youma solo once and won. ...Every other time I've had to call for help." Molly ahems softly. "Like that time I got chased all the way out of the city by a youma made out of a warplane. With like, shark's teeth. I'm not kidding!! I'm not!"

Molly throws her arms up in the air and lets them fall back to her side. She looks to Usagi, and scraches the back of her head lightly. "I uhh... no. Nobody's mentioned the truth about witches to me before." She holds out her hands, and shrugs lightly. "I don't think they have to Rashmi-chan or Chrono-kun either? Or at least, they've never mentioend it to me." The purplenette shifts her hands behind her back, still holding her staff, and clasps them together there.

"So... what's the truth?" Her brow furrows in concern. "Please, let me know if there's anything at all that I can help with. I mean... I've never heard of anyone wanting to become a different sort of mage before. So I imagine there's something that I oughta hear about... and I really *would* like to help my friends, in any way I can."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nods to Sailor Moon after the plane is mentioned, "It's true, I was there. I invented a new attack to finish it off." She turns back to Molly, takes a deep breath, and then glances over at the mascot watching from across the street, which remains expressionless.

    Amy looks back to Molly again. "There are a lot of perks to being a Puella Magi, it's true. It's far from all bad news, which is why I'm not in a rush to switch, but... You know we have limited magic. And... Well. You may have heard that when we run out, we die." She holds up her hand to show her soul gem -- currently full, though the glow the silver crystal put on it is much fainter now, almost gone. "But the truth is--"

<<A wish is balanced by an equally powerful curse.>>

    Amy sighs. "That's one way of putting it. We... we become Witches." She watches Molly's expression.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I've taken on some by myself, but purification is a bit of a cheat code to handling youma solo," Sailor Moon says a bit sheepishly, because she does, in fact, regularly handle smaller youma on her own, if she runs into them on patrol.

But then, Molly confirms that she - and Chrono and Rashmi, most likely - don't know about the truth, and that means...

Amy reveals it herself, with help from a voice that can only be - "Kyubey," she says, firm, "If you're going to lurk, you might as well just come out. We're not going to hurt you."

Even if he deserves it, the creep. Still - Amy and Kyubey have delivered the hardest blow.

"Not all of the Witches are former Puella. Sometimes, a Witch's familiar can become a Witch, but a lot of them... are. I don't think it's anything we can help with, except by making sure to give the Puella we know any grief seeds we get, from taking on Witches."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly goes quiet for a long moment, s she chews on everything she's just been told. And it definitely needs some serious chewing; she shifts Starcrash to rest on her shoulder, and taps her thin lightly with her other hand.

Kyubey? Molly tilts her head. "What's a Kyub-- oh, that must be the other voice I was hearing," she mumbles, mostly to herself but loud enough for everyone else to hear.

"So... Okay." Molly looks at Amy's soul gem, something she doesn't entirely understand yet but is beginning to grasp the importance of, "Let me make sure I have this right. You have a wish, which you have to complete or the... universe will end faster? But if you use up your magic, you'll die, and by die we mean turn into a witch, but if you defeat other witches you can take their grief seed to prolong your own life?" Molly watches Amy's expression; and her tone is gentle but serious, as she glances to Sailor Moon and back to Amy.

"So... Amy, I'll abolutely help you any way that I can. Starcrash might not be much help with scanning people, but if you ever have a grief seed? Let me scan that. Starcrash is *great* at finding targets, if I ever find one of these grief seeds I will make sure that I get it to you."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks briefly confused when Usagi says she didn't see Kyubey, but maybe she didn't look in that direction, pointing across the street. Kyubey's silhouette drops off the building and comes into the light from the streetlight.

    "Well," Amy adds, "Give them to us or... Madoka will know what to do with them. She has a special connection to Puella Magi and Witches." Kyubey obviously must know that much already, right?

    <<Indeed! Madoka's abilities are quite remarkable! She would have been a powerful Puella Magi, in another timeline.>> Does he know something, or is he fishing, or guessing, or messing with them?

    Molly gives the rundown of her understanding. Amy nods. "Pretty much. If there weren't other types of magical girls with unlimited magic, I'd be stuck in a death game like it's Magical Girl Raising Project or something." She sighs and slumps her shoulders a bit, then holds a hand to her head. "Damn, I really kinda am La Pu--"

DAYS AGO:
    Amy is sitting on her computer, typing in Consensus.

Malloween: Yeah I never understood the popularity of death game and battle royale type shows. I think the last one I saw was Magical Girl Raising Project? Well, actually I stopped watching it halfway through after the only character I cared about died.
SSJ420Goku: Well, yeah, characters are gonna die in a show like that. But don't you want to find out what happens?
Malloween: Look, La Pucelle was the only character I was watching the show to find out more about, for obvious reasons.
ZoltrakLaser: La Pucelle? Is she a Joan of Arc reference?
Malloween: Well she's the one who was a boy who always liked magical girls and then unexpectedly became one.
ZoltrakLaser: Yeah I figured it was something like that, I know what server I'm in.
Malloween: She insists on being honorable and upholding a vision of magical girls as people who use their powers to help and protect others, even when it turns into a death game.
Malloween: Wait, what does it have to do with Joan of Arc?
SSJ420Goku: Yeah and her magic power is to summon a sword that she can make grow to any size!
Malloween: Yeah, when I put that together I was like "Come on, seriously?" :rolling_eyes:
ZoltrakLaser: Oh it's a moniker for Joan of Arc, yeah. It means "The Virgin" in French.
Malloween: What.
Malloween: Well that's kinda rude for the author to name the one that used to be a boy...

    Wait. How many times has Amy compared herself to a character no one knew, and they only heard a name that meant--

    The remaining shreds of her masculine pride wail in embarassment. Amy shouts a rude word, sighs, and drops her head to her desk. Thunk.

NOW:
    Amy freezes mid-sentence. "...Nevermind." She nods to Molly, "Um, yeah, pretty much. It seems that granting the wish of someone with the potential to become a Puella Magi reverses entropy, somehow."

    <<Correct. Humans are only just beginning to consider the problem presented by the limited lifespan of the universe. We sought a form of energy not bound by what you understand as the laws of thermodynamics. "Magic" can bend them, but it is not limitless. For instance, if you use a spell to throw a rock straight up, it is true that the kinetic energy imparted to the rock may significantly exceed the amount of energy you used to fuel that magic. However...>>

    Kyubey walks around the edge of the streetlamp's light, past Usagi. <<There is no process known to our scientists, after thousands of years of searching, by which you could catch that rock when it falls back down and convert the energy of its motion into magic that could fling it even higher, again and again, to generate infinite energy. And when you consider the energy and resources that go into creating Devices and similar artifacts, the gains are not so great as they initially seem. But what our scientists did find...>>

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Kyubey stops and sits like a cat, facing the group. <<...was the power of Puella Magi. Our civilization created technology that could convert the emotions of a sentient, sapient life form into raw energy.>> He licks his paw and washes his ear like a cat. <<Unfortunately, our species do not possess the capacity to experience emotion. So we studied various species throughout the universe until, finally, we found you humans.>>

    Amy is just kind of staring now, mouth agape. Kyubey continues, <<The amount of emotional energy that can be produced by a single human is greater than the amount used between its birth and growth.>> He stops washing his ear and sits up, looking at them. <<Incredibly, human souls are an energy source that can counter entropy! And most effective of all are girls in the second stage of growth, who experience the greatest fluctuations between hope and despair.>>

    He looks right at Amy. <<In the moment when your Soul Gems flare out and turn into Witches, enormous energy is created! It is the job of us Incubators to collect that energy.>>

    What.

    Amy slowly closes her jaw and tries to gather her thoughts. "So. All of this. Enabling me to fight monsters and sending me to hunt Witches, it... empowering me to help people doesn't matter at all to you? I'm just an energy source?"

    Kyubey twitches its tail and cocks its head to one side slightly. <<Correct! Because of you and other Puella Magi, when humans finally leave this planet to join the civilizations among the stars, it won't just be an empty and desolate universe that you find! Your contribution to the future will be far greater than merely having fought monsters and saved individual lives. None of my species could ever accomplish so much simply by living and dying... You are truly a wonder!>>

    "So..." Amy points at herself and makes circling motions with her finger, "All of this, the making me a teenager again, the hormones, the... everything I'm feeling... is all part of the plan to make me a better energy source?"

    <<Yes! You did not experience it before, and so you generate just as much emotion as any other Puella Magi! Of course, a body matching your soul was provided as well. If you had already experienced this in your previous body, you would not have still been a viable candidate.>>

    Amanda just. Walks over to the lamp post. And gently inclines her head against it. Thunk.

    This is a lot to process.

    She just sighs at the thought of how just in the past several minutes she's gone from getting saddened by Norie's situation to fired up to do something about it to surprised by motorcycle youma to fighting on adrenaline to jokingly treating the motorcycles like dogs to astonishment at that actually working to explaining serious matters to feeling extremely embarassed over something petty and silly to having her mind kinda blown by the reveal that not only is it not just the wishes of little girls keeping the stars from going out, but rather the stars are kept from going out by burning the souls of little girls as fuel, and also it is in fact the only reason she was elevated to magical girl status...

    ...and this is just the latest series of ups and downs and loops and corkscrews on the emotional roller coaster that has been her life for the past nearly fourteen months, which is all part of the plan so that she'll generate lots of emotional energy for aliens to harvest.

    And despite all that, she still prefers this to the alternative of not having Contracted.

    Amanda lifts and inclines her head again. Thunk.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
He was all the way down there? That's such a cowardcore move! Usagi, as cowardcore brand ambassador, rolls her eyes a little when she spots him, but, as promised, doesn't hurt him.

"That sounds like total bullshit," is what she says instead. The explanation is, in many ways, going over her head. She wishes she had a way to record a voice that was in her head - she wishes that Kyubey was not speaking in her head, because it was fucking creepy coming from him - and most of all, she wishes that Kyubey didn't exist.

"Look, I don't know a lot of things," she says, frank, "But it's probably only gonna take humans another hundred or two hundred years to get into space the regular way, and that's not enough time for like, entropy or whatever to have emptied out most of space. And besides that, why not just tell people, huh? Why not give them the facts of the deal? I bet, no matter how terrible a fate it is, that there are plenty of people who would agree even with all the facts, not like poor Sharpsong-chan, who was devastated!"

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana is still here. She's mostly kept to herself, since Molly said they'd wanna see Rashmi or literarily anyone else instead. So this trip was useless and she splayed her ruined hair between fingers as she looks around where they are. "You have a hairbrush? Uh... nevermind." she says with a sigh as she looks down.

Did she noticed Sailor Moon's knowing look earlier? Maybe.

"I can't be purified." she says tersely. "All it does is burn me and reverts me to base form. And then it hurts some more and keeps burning after that. It..."

"Those motorcycles back there." she says. "When you purified them. They turned back to their base forms. Scooters. I don't... have a base form to return to. I'm a motorcycle that just becomes really angry dark energy waveforms rather than a scooter, again." she says softly. "Even this..." she motions to herself. 'Norie' "...is just some illusion around some dark energy doing a not so great impression." she says as she wilts again.

She looks up at the discussion of entropy. "Riventon might not be all 'right' about Dark Energy, and don't you tell him I said that..." she says. "...but we're pretty sure Dark Energy resists Entropy. These things made of it, these giant threats everyone seems to have a jar in somewhere, can be contained for million of years and only need minute amounts of energy to jumpstart." she asides.

"Or so it appears. But that's what current examples are telling us." she utters a little...

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly listens to everything Kyubey has just laid out, and she too needs a minute to process it. Not a figurative minute; a minute. Well, actually more like two of them.

So, the stars in the universe are being fueld by massive, billion-years long fusion reactions, turning hydrogen into helium and then other elements all the way up to iron... and apparently, also by burning up the souls of little girls on this quaint little planet in the middle of some nowhere part of the universe called Earth.

"That makes literally no sense," is the first thing that she blurts out, and immediately upon saying it she realizes how vacuous that statement is. She walks around all day long with a piece of alien technology that most closely resembles the love child of an artillery piece and a nuclear weapon hanging off her ear and looking like an earring. A few weeks ago she fought an animated fighter plane with enormous teeth and the next day it was a vending machine. None of this makes any sense in the normal meaning of the word. Or even a stretched out meaning.

She drosses the space between her and Amy, and unbidden drops an arm around her shoulders, in a wordless demonstrationg of support.

"Oay, maybe things don't *have* to make sense, but that's still..." she trails off, trying to figureo out what to say. Clearly the situation is unacceptable. But is it her place to say how unacceptable it is? "What you're doing... how is it justified? We're living and breathing *people*, we're not a buncha duracells! Crikey, did nobody watch the Matrix?" She glances sideways at Amy, "And Amy, you need any help with this, I'll give it,"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks thoughtfully at her gem as Norie mentions not having a base form to return to. And then frowns at the suggestion the Incubators turn to Dark Energy instead. "Wait, that can't be a good idea..." <<What you call 'Dark Energy' is connected to emotions, and so we cannot generate it on our own. But isn't using it to oppose Entropy precisely what we are doing when a Witch is created?>> Amy's eyes widen as Kyubey gets there a little faster than her thoughts were going to on their own. Damn, she didn't think of it that way but he already is using dark energy!

    As for Molly's argument, Kyubey cocks his head the other way: <<The lives of a few, spent to save the universe? Humans speak of self-sacrifice, and many lives outweighing few; We, too, would readily sacrifice a few of our own to save the universe, if we had emotions to be converted into energy. If it is because they are young... Many humans live short lives, but do not even get wishes.>>

    Kyubey turns towards Usagi and cocks his head to one side -- a human motion, for once, rather than as part of scratching at his ear like an animal. <<The civilization that was here over fourteen thousand years ago reached far greater technological achievements, and yet, where are your explorers, your colonies, the grand expansion your species intends in all your stories about what you plan to do had you the capability?>>

    And then he's padding around in a little circle like a cat and sitting down again. <<Earthlings have traveled as far as your moon, and gone no further in over half a century. Why are you so certain you will have faster-than-light travel so soon? If you cross the stars any other way, it will take a long time indeed. And unlike the travelers from other dimensions, you cannot use magic to do so.>>

    Amy gasps softly. She hadn't even thought of it that way.

    Kyubey stares up at Usagi emotionlessly. <<We obtain consent first. You know there will be a price; Scientifically you know that energy cannot be created or destroyed, and your stories are replete with countless examples of the costs paid for miraculous things, and even that you may come to regret a bargain agreed to without knowing the cost. Even children know these stories, even if they do not understand the scientific principles behind them. -- All who contract and become Puella Magi knew this, and agreed anyway.>>

    Amy leans into Molly's arm and sighs. "It's true, although I figured the cost was 'high likelihood of death or injury in battle or watching the same happen to my comrades, I guess... Hey, wait though, I didn't think I'd become a curse or a monster!"

    Kyubey turns his head towards Amy to answer, <<You had no evidence to the contrary, either.>> Before looking between the group. <<Why is it that when humans regret a decision based on incomplete or uncertain information, they feel resentment toward the other party?>>

    "I..." Amy stares and tries to figure out how you explain that to an alien.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
So La Crima can't be purified, because she doesn't have a body except for Dark Energy. Usagi... would have to be careful, because she could probably kill her, if she purified her hard enough. Destroy her entirely, because she doesn't have anything but the Dark Energy.

"Sounds like the first problem to solve is getting you a body, and then getting you into the body," she considers, glancing at her. Madoka-chan had been able to make two bodies for the girls that had died. Usagi had wanted to make a body for Himeko, so she could live again, even though, ultimately, she'd moved onto - well, what came next. She'd been sure she could make that miracle happen, and she had been able to resurrect - to resurrect so many people, in Paris...

She's not going to offer, not now, not out of the blue, not when she doesn't know if she can do it, but it's worth thinking about.

But then Kyubey is talking, bringing up the civilization that was on this planet so long ago and - and it hurts, yeah. It's a sore spot.

"They died," Usagi says, flatly, and her face is hard, her chin jutting out as she lifts her head, unwilling to be cowed. "That civilization didn't know a damned thing about you, and their deaths had nothing to do with entropy. And no, it's not fucking true, Amy-chan, pardon my language - a lie by deception is still a fucking lie. It's not self-sacrifice when you trick people into a meat grinder. It's self-sacrifice when you decide that you're willing to sacrifice yourself, not when someone else is cool with making you a battery!"

"You don't tell Puella Magi the consequences, you don't tell them what's going to happen, you don't even tell them they're doing some great big sacrifice for the cosmos. You hide information, and give it out piece by piece only when people figure things out on their own."

Oh, she's actually angry, as she listens to this sociopathic little rat talk around his bad behavior.

"You hide information that you think will make people less likely to take your deal - that's manipulation, you little shit. I believe in what humans can do, and what we can achieve. We went from trains to rockets in just a few centuries, and I'm sure we can go back beyond the Moon again. Maybe it will take lifetimes to get beyond the starts, but I don't think it will take so long the entire universe dies out because of entropy!"

Entropy takes a long time, even she knows that. It's the eventual death of the universe, not the death of the universe that's coming in ten years.

"So you're like the beings people shouldn't bargain with. So you're an empire destroying kitsune. So what? People don't know that those things are real. When you make a deal and hide the facts, you don't get to pretend you don't know you're hiding things from people. You're still manipulating them, and that's wrong. And it's okay for you to not understand that, because it's we'll all do our best to make sure every potential knows the real cost of your deal."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana sours at Kyubey. "Oh, your species is a bunch of opportunistic deniers. You're not heroes. Entropy is just part of the natural order! Eventually, we all turn to nothing." she says quietly.

"Even dark energy beings will run out of energy and sleep." she says with a narrowing of eyes. She then looks up. "Excuse me." she says as she forms a ball of dark energy from her still, gaseous hand, and fires the blast of dark energy towards Kyubey. It's small and localized, but will likely kick up a lot of sand and dust anyways.

She doesn't announce it except for the small 'excuse me'.

She's excepting a rebuttal, so her first course of action is to turn to Sailor Moon, though she doesn't raise a hand.

"He was asking for it." she says, deadpan.

Molly Skyline has posed:
When Norrie fires the bolt of dark energy at Kyubey, Molly's response is just to say, compeltely deadpan, "Starcrash, Aurora Barrier."

<< AFFIRMATIVE. DEPLOYING SHIELD >>

A faceted energy shield snaps into place around Molly, visible just for a moment before it disappears from view once more. She steps away from Amy as she casts it, and moves to stand further away from, well, everyone really. Just in case.

"Look, you have no excuse," she declares, rounding on Kyubey once more. "You said you lack emotions, that shouldn't also mean you lack *morals*. You're going around tricking people into ending up in a terrible fate, so that you can make the universe last longer? I'm sorry, but it's not like it isn't going to last billions of years already? You are ruining people's lives just to solve a problem that you invented!"

"And," she continues, "I don't even care if you're 'sacrificing a few to save many' or whatever. Who do you think you are? Commander Spock? Because let me inform you, Spock *did* have emotions he just kept them suppressed, and the only person he ever sacrificed was HIMSELF. That's how self sacrifice works. When I was in a big fight the other day, and my friend needed to be protected, *I* stood between him and danger. That's self-sacrifice. My choice. Me. I did it. I didn't grab someone else and throw them in the way, which is what you do."

She realizes she's been advancing on Kyubey as she's been talking; so she stops, forcing herself to plant her feet and stay put.

"Oh yeah, and you're going to trot out some nonsense about how you can't do it or whatever. Don't have emotions. But for one? That doesn't make it moral for you to trick other peole into doing it for you. And for two?" The purplenette's eyes narrow.

"I'm willing to bet I can kick you in the balls hard enough that you'd learn about 'sorrow'."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Getting Norie a body. Amy thinks back to what she felt, donating her energy to help those two Witches. "Getting her a body is something we might be able to do, if we had--" She stops. Kyubey is right there. "--help. We'll talk about it later."

    Pardon her language? Amy just gives a shrug like 'I don't mind'. She's certainly been a bit of a foulmouth herself outside the classroom!

    Curiously, she sighs when Usagi mentions manipulation.

    Kyubey does indeed bother to dodge the dark energy bolt, much dust being kicked up and soiling his plush white fur. He looks at Molly. <<We have been harvesting emotional energy from this world for thousands of years. Your civilization's conception of the Universe's lifespan is what it will be if my work continues at its previous rate. With so many now having magical potential, it may last even longer.>>

    Amanda watches her allies rage, and wonders if it will make a difference. Finally, Amanda turns to Kyubey: "She's right, it's manipulation. And we could try to claim it's logically wrong, or talk about why it's morally wrong, but this emotional response?"

    Two pairs of red eyes stare into eachother.

    "You beat us at our own game."

    Kyubey waits for her to continue. Humans seem very fond of explaining themselves.

    "I hate lies more than most, because my brain is atypical." Amy thrusts a thumb towards her chest. "But manipulation is a core part of humanity. We didn't get these big brains for science, or technology, or being good at math. We got them for understanding and manipulating other big-brained humans. A million years of evolution for the sole purpose of figuring out how to convince other humans to help us survive and pass on our genes. It's the strongest weapon in our arsenal, because a group of humans is the strongest force on the planet."

    Oh gods is this the human version of one of Kyubey's monologues.

    "Deception and lies... even the truth needs persuasion to motivate people or they won't listen. And there are non-zero-sum games where working together really does help everyone involved. A human tricked into working against her own best interests for you is a powerful tool in a time before technology, and still so now. So I guess it's an emotional survival stratagem. Trick another human, gain a powerful ally. Trick another human and get caught, gain a powerful foe. Knowing this... The strategy of tricking someone is a dangerous strategy, and on a level playing field, the high risk deters its use."

    Amy crosses her arms and looks thoughtful. "Huh, this really explains a lot about why people are so bold about it these days, huh."

    She kind of forgot where she was going with this.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Others, however, are very clear on where they are going with this. Unblinking red eyes look between them.

    <<How are you going to tell everyone about Puella Magi and Witches? Even if you tell everyone with magic potential at Radiant Heart Academy, I will find potential Puella Magi elsewhere. Humans here will forget over time, or think it is a story, and I will return when none who remember me still know of magic.>>

    <<We Incubators struggle to understand your values. If it is logical for someone to be sacrificed, then if they are logical they will see that and agree to it. If they do not, they must be illogical. So too if it is moral for someone to be sacrificed, then if they are a moral being they will do so willingly. If they do not, are they not the immoral one? Why does it matter if they decide intentionally to sacrifice themself or not?>>

    <<Perhaps this is the inevitable result of dealing with emotional beings. Amanda's explanation suggests as much: The same forces that led to your emotions lead to resentment at your own exploitation, even for the benefit of others.>>

    Amy, who was looking like she's chasing some thought at the tip of her awareness, looks over. "Hey!"

    Red eyes regard the attackers from a face of white fur and unchanging expression. <<I have no such weak point. This body and others like it are disposable. Sailor Moon and Amanda Faust already know this. You will only be wasting your energy.>>

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Maybe. It's something to explore later. I'm sure Obsidian has resources too." And then Kyubey is fired upon with Dark Energy, and Sailor Moon looks at Norie and says, simply, "I didn't see anything."

What is she, a cop? A snitch? Forget about that! Kyubey deserves everything he gets, especially since it won't even stop him.

Molly's shield is a good idea though, to keep her safe given the circumstances. Usagi had said she wouldn't hurt Kyubey, so she'll keep that, but she glares at him nonetheless.

"Your efforts don't outlast my civilization's concept of the universe's lifespan. Without your work, the universe would still be ancient. It would still last ages, so fuck off."

Blunt and wrathful.

And then Amy gives a speech that's - well, Usagi honestly isn't sure what she's talking about. She's not sure why she's talking about lies and manipulation this way, and admits it, "I don't really know why you said all that, or what it matters. Maybe we have big brains for manipulation, so what? That doesn't mean we should get manipulated by some asshole who thinks he can do better at what we do."

And Kyubey asks how she'll tell everyone, and she looks at him, and that time will run out, and she says, "Then it's a damn good thing I'm not just a human, huh? My mother ruled our empire for ten thousand years and she could have lived longer, if not for Beryl and Metallia. I'm her daughter. I have her power too."

Her eyes burn - literally, actually, gleaming with power. Her tiara vanishes, revealing the glowing sigil of the moon on her forehead. "If it would save people from you and the evil you bring, I would live for thousands of years."

(Somewhere, in the far off, distant future, thousands and thousands of years from now, SAILOR COSMOS sneezes.)

"You incubators are scumbags. You prey on kids like us and use them up like cheap batteries, all because you're scared of dying. So much for being emotionless. If you didn't feel anything at all, you wouldn't care that some day everything will be over! You wouldn't care that people die and things end!"

A bold claim to make, but one she firmly believes.

"It is not logical for someone to be sacrificed. You have decided that people should be sacrificed, and then you've just, built up all this bullshit explanations around making it sound good and right and true for it to be done. It might be virtuous to sacrifice, but only because its willingly done, with an open heart. The rabbit is painted on the moon because it freely gave itself, not because someone else tried to make a snack out of it!"

(Check out the Jataka Tale of the Selfless Hare to learn more!)

"And yeah, maybe so. Maybe our feelings let us know when people are exploiting us, using us like tools. You're no better than scum who take advantage of people to make a little extra money. You can dress it up all big, but you're just someone too chickenshit to do anything yourself. Instead, you make humans suffer so you don't have to. I might be a crybaby, but at least I'm no coward."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana lowers her gaseous hand and puts her other hand over it again in case some random passerby comes along. Some things.

First and foremost, she gives Amy a sidewise glance. "Manipulation is a bad trait to have and use. I know." she says quietly. Her eyes then trace to Sailor Moon again and she relaxes a little more when she says she saw nothing. She then looks to Molly. Who says stuff and the last sentence causes her to blush a little as she looks between the group.

She coughs and shakes it off and looks to Kyubey. "Everything you do is bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Because every time I think too hard about being you." she says, leaning forward. "I almost feel like giggling. And when I start feeling good, it's always over the most bad, grievous things." she says, looking down.

"So maybe when the bad feeling barometer is going off, someone should listen and put you out of your misery." she says.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly Ahhhs, "I see you've decided to employ the logical fallacy that we, in England, refer to as 'being a proper wanker'. You're using language deliberately to try to make your position seem like the only reasonable one to take, and assuming that therefore, anyone who disagrees with you must be unreasonable, and therefore wrong. But you're basing your entire argument on the notion that the needs of your bunch to live a long time outweigh the needs of innocent little girls to have a decent, happy life and not be turned into witches to satisfy your ends."

The purplenette folds her arms across her chest. "However, I don't subscribe to that notion, so your entire argument is a load of bollocks, as far as I'm concerned." She grips Starcrash tightly in her hand, walking her fingers against the haft. "The only thing that's preventing me from unloading everything I've got into you, right now, is that I'm aware that it wouldn't matter and it would be a waste of my time. Ensure that it stays that way."

She tilts her head towards Amy, "If there's anything I cna do to help you get out of this, or get a Device of your own, or get a grief seed to stave off the worse, let me know and I'll do it." She casts her gaze towards Norrie, "That goes for you too, anything I can do to help your situation, I'll do it." She pauses, and looks in Usagi's direction, "And you, uhm, if you're actually going to be a goddess or something that lives for thousands of years, I feel silly offering you my help, little ol' insignificant me who'll be happy if she hits eighty, but I'm gonna offer it anyway. Any help I can ever five you, it's offered."

She narrows her eyes as she looks back at Kyubey. "Maybe if you asked us *honestly*, and tried to work *with* us instead of using us, you might get better results? Ever think of that?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy did tense slightly at hearing Molly's threat earlier. Awkwardly looking at the ground, she mumbles, and then raises her voice above a mumble. "I feel that, like. For the sake of everyone who has them, I should tell you it hurts way longer than a hit to the chest. I'm not saying don't do it to people who deserve it, just, know what you're dishing out."

    On to other concerns. Should? "He said he doesn't understand morals, so an argument based on morals seemed pointless." Amanda nods at Norie. "I don't think survival of the fittest is actually moral, and actually I kind of have a beef with a lot of the ways Nature does things. Was part of the point of helping Gretchen trying to make something better..." Although she then looks briefly shocked, trying to work out if that was a clue that helps Kyubey or not.

    Being a right proper wanker. <<I am not making a moral judgement. I am incapable of doing so. I do not understand why your professed values do not sway you. Humans will live in the future as well. Many will be innocent little girls, far more than will ever become Puella Magi.>>

    Anything Molly can do to help? Amy looks over, "I thought Devices were only found by a lucky few? But if we can find one and confirm I can use it and put my soul into this body..." Amy shakes her head. "Honestly, even then, I'm not entirely certain it would be better, though it would be good to know if I have the option. If I can count on you all to kill my Witch before it hurts people, then... If I weren't a Puella Magi I'd be dead already. From fighting to gain Coco the peach of immortality. From being caught in the two-Witch explosion at the train station. Possibly other times. There are advantages to this," she sighs and looks down at her hand, "I have to admit."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Kyubey's face is unchanging, as always, as Sailor Moon -- no, Princess Serenity, makes her threat. Her eyes burn with power, their light reflected in his.

    Incubators may not feel fear, but somewhere, in a model of the world and its possible futures inside an optimization process iterating inside an alien mind, the shadow of an... undesirable outcome appears.

    As his contractee warned, and as he has experienced, most humans who know the truth will become his enemy--

    (In another timeline, Madoka Kaname says, "If that's how you think, then you really are our enemy.")

    --and a human with formidable power is a formidable enemy. He may have to consider ways to remove Sailor Moon from his light cone, as the Puella Magi here would put it.

    He will also have to consider alternate plans in the event that Sailor Moon is unstoppable. Having to consider such a grave loss, or rather, having to devote a mental process to model a possible future so much less optimal than the models he currently considers most likely, may be the closest thing an Incubator can feel to a negative emotion.

    You're scared. <<Working to ensure our own survival is not an emotional act. All life in the universe does this; That which does not does not survive.>>

    Coward. Chickenshit. <<I told you. If I were capable of becoming a Puella Magi, it would be logical for me to do so.>>

    "So..." Amy asks, another thought grabbing her interest, "Does that mean if we found some way to give you emotions, you'd take it?"

    <<If we can ensure I can become a Puella Magi, it would be the most sensible thing to do. I do not know how this could be done, but that does not mean it is impossible.>> Also, it would be better for him if they worked on such a fool's errand instead of directly opposing him.

    Sure, Amy thinks, I bet you'd feel differently about that if you had emotions. "But would you really do that, when you could gather far more energy by continuing to harvest it from humans?"

    Red eyes stare into eachother silently.

    "...You said 'we'. I can almost believe you would do it, but another Incubator would just take over, wouldn't they?"

    Kyubey twitches his tail. He suspects this will result in a decreased likelihood of the humans wasting their time in such a way, but Amanda has figured it out anyway. Somewhere, an optimization process considers its models of human behavior, and calculates which noises to make through its puppet at them, weighing how to convey a kernel of honesty and inflate its perceived possibility in the humans' minds to distort their own mental models of the world and possible futures so that their own attempts to take what they believe to be optimal actions will serve his goals.

    <<Unless you can make me more powerful than Madoka Kaname, yes.>> Ultimately, this is not the best situation, and he probably cannot warp their minds to prioritize such an effort over stopping him; But he can play the long game. A secondary distortion: Make them think he will not outright lie. This may slightly increase the chances of successful manipulations later.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"It feels pretty bad for everyone who gets kicked there," Usagi whispers to Amy, because it seems like the kind of thing she might not have experienced yet. Usagi has a little brother, and they have definitely wrestled in a way that was more serious than playfighting that definitely resulted in regrets on all sides.

And Molly, who makes that offer -

"We'll all someone important, you know? We matter. And I bet your help is going to be critical at some point! You're pretty rad, you know?" And in spite of her anger, she smiles. And of course - she doesn't know that she'll live half as long as her mother did. She's a human girl, most of the time. It's only when Princess Serenity is her and she is Princess Serenity that she's something else, something other, but - she's a normal girl, still. She's going to be a housewife.

But. In the smallest corner of her heart, if it would save people - maybe she would be something else.

(In that distant future, SAILOR COSMOS sneezes again. The solar winds must be stirring up space dust, or something.)

"Most life in the universe has feelings," Usagi tells Kyubey stubbornly, "Animals, even plants, they say. Maybe you just don't want to recognize what you have as feelings, but if you didn't have feelings, you wouldn't be able to care."

He says he doesn't understand why their morals don't work, and she laughs.

"Humans have all kinds of morals! We don't always agree on them, and we don't even all like the same ones. We have different religions and values and morals, so just trying to pick a moral that would convince all of us is dumb." Silly sociopathic rat. Morals are unique to all culturals and peoples.

And then she scoffs. "Amy-chan's right. You'd just make one of you a Puella and keep preying on kids. I wouldn't give you Madoka-chan's power for anything."

Norie Okana has posed:
Some more things happen.

Molly offers help. This makes Norie look uneasy. "You can't help me with what we came here for. You said someone named Rashmi should?" she says. "But I do need. Energy to fix this..." she says lifting her gaseous, weird hand. "Normally. I'd fix it myself. But I need to eat energy to fix it in any reasonable time frame because it was caused by purification." she says meekly. "I guess. I'm asking if I can...feed from you. You know. Steal a little energy." she says.

She looks over to Sailor Moon and looks down. She rubs her shoulder a little awkwardly. She's said enough, herself and doesn't know what else to add.

Amy gets a look. "Do you uh. Know this 'Rashmi'?" she asks.

Her eyes light up a moment suddenly. "Oh. Uhm. Right. I'm looking. For help. For my condition. Away from... Riventon right now, too, because I like Riven-senpai. I do. A lot. but I also think his answers revolve around a lot about dark energy. I need to look for answers beyond that. I'm saying this because...."

"Look, just don't talk about this openly without... like...asking me first or...getting my permission..." she says quieter.

"I don't want to hurt Riven-senpai's feelings...or drive him away. I mean..."

"He's one of two people I can hug, even, without....draining or hurting." she mutters.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly sighs, and pinches the bridge of her nose -- carefully, since she's in Henshin and she could hurt herself with the barrier jacket if she wasn't gentle -- and shakes her head. "I feel like we're going around in circles," she states at last, glaring at Kyubey. "We tell you why we believe what you are doing is wrong, and you just profess that you have no emotions and what you're doing is logical and we're the ones in the wrong and you're just saving the universe, so offering a few human girls up on the chopping block is fine really, and you'd do it yourself but you can't which is awfully convenient if you ask me, rinse, lather, repeat."

She glances in Sailor Moon's direction, then back to Amy, and shrugs. "Yeah, what she said, too. A proper foot to the soft bits is bad no matter who you are, so uhm. Don't think that your current... configuration... renders you in any way immune, it'll suck no matter what. Take my word for it. No need to do any science."

The purplenette folds her arms, and returns her glare to Kyubey. "What you need to be aware of is, maybe me fighting you directly is a bad idea. Maybe it's not even feasible. The fact that I have no idea what the answers to those questions are, is one of several reasons why I haven't levelled my own form of fast-acting entropy at you right here right now." Her eyes narrow, and she plants her free hand on her hip. "But if you go fishing for Puellas when I'm around, I'll do my damndest to make sure you come up with nothin' but a little girl what knows better, Mate."

She glares, hand still planted, as she slowly turns her gaze to Norrie. "If it'd help," she offers, with her tone softening considerably, "I don't mind you taking some of my energy. I can get it back easily, even if you end up taking a lot. ...I just... gotta eat a lot of carbs, that's all."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's eyes widen slightly at this small, not-fate-of-the-world-affecting revelation, and she nods slightly in acknowledgement. Although it's not like she assumed a kick anywhere sensitive wouldn't be painful at all. ...Well okay technically she can always turn off pain but that has nothing to do with the details of anatomy.

    Also wait hang on is the girl telling her this, an important friend and the legendary Double Girl, also possibly going to become a god, what. It was weird enough to know Madoka could become such, in some other timeline.

    Are... are there more? How many more of her friends might become goddesses?

    Will she one day have to apply the suggestion she offered Madoka, to herself?

    Kyubey looks to Molly as she says this is going nowhere. <<I tried to explain ourselves to you to increase the probability you might understand.>> And as Molly continues from Sailor Moon's earlier comment, Amy nods and looks away awkwardly, her hands fidgeting together close to her chest, and shifts her stance so her feet are even closer together.

    Further words from the purplenette to Kyubey get that same faceless expression. Perhaps he does not feel the need to say something like 'understood', or more likely, does not care. The closest he's shown to contrition is explaining why he took so long to tell anyone Amy needed to hunt Witches; certainly it doesn't seem like he's going to apologize for anything now.

    Sailor Moon tells the little white rat off. <<I expect that we will continue struggling to understand humans for tens of thousands of years, if not billions. And you can't give me Madoka's power because you are not capable of that.>> He looks up at her. <<But this is true, and it is a price we are willing to pay: If you can give us the amount of energy that Madoka Kaname and her Witch would have produced, while also preventing us from harvesting any further emotional energy from Earth -- then we Incubators will consider such an outcome safer and more desirable than continuing to harvest energy on Earth in perpetuity.>>

    Kyubey turns and begins to walk away down the street. After a moment, he stops and turns to add, <<That will give us plenty of time to discover another way to reverse Entropy.>> before continuing on.

    "If wishes were horses, Incubators would ride." quips Amy. "...Okay that doesn't really work here, but um, I don't see how we could possibly do that."

    Amy turns to Norie and smiles, "I do know Rashmi! We can go see her later." Another surprising revelation: "Wait, Riventon can hug you? How?"

    At last, the thing that's been nagging her in the back of her mind the whole time finally surfaces. "Wait... is that..." Amy looks at the others. "What if we're such good sources of emotional energy because of this runaway process of social manipulation and understanding evolving our brains like this?"

    She points at Norie. "It could be why we're able to use dark energy, when species like Kyubey's can't except through this weird indirect way of making us make it for them."

    And she can't stop the train of thought now as it ploughs on through the next station. "If all magic has an emotional component... and if the most powerful magic is tied to feelings and emotion... then aren't we perfectly evolved to be magical geniuses?! Except... on Earth, we can't use magic..."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
An annoyed huff, as Sailor Moon looks at Kyubey, and then turns away from him. "Yeah, you guys are right. We're not going to get anything new from him, no matter what he says... the best thing we can do is keep making sure to warn potentials, and spread the news far and wide. ...and see what we can do for Norie-san, here."

It's a good thing that Molly offers to give some energy. Sailor moon herself not going to offer her energy - she still remembers what happened last time, and has a feeling Norie would be able to put together quickly that Usagi, the girl who tasted like the best donut, is Sailor Moon, who will surely taste the same way.

A body... that still sounds important.

Her eyes soften, as the explanation is heard. "Thank you for trusting us," she says honestly, "I don't know if Dark Energy can fix this, just because well, it sounds like adding more of it might just give you more of it?"

Riventon's subordinate... he really has a lot of pitiful types, huh?

"I really think helping you look for a way to either restore your body or make a new one, is going to be important..."

So Riventon could hug her... wait.

"Is it because he has all that Dark Energy, like you? I accidentally got him once, and he was kinda... cheese-holded for a little bit..." ahahaha... hahah...ha. "But if you're Dark Energy and he's Dark Energy, it'd make sense that you can hug him without draining, right? It's like how same Pokémon types don't do a ton of damage to each other!"

It might not be like that at all.

Amy brings up emotional energy and brains and magic, but... "Aren't there lots of aliens that use magic? I mean, there's like, Belkans, and Mid-Child-A's," yes she butchered that, "And maybe some others, besides like, Senshi."

Because she did just acknowledge being a like, potentially long-living wild goddess type even though she's not. She's not nearly as cool as her mother, after all.

"Still, maybe that's got something to do with it... but maybe not everyone can use magic everywhere? Like, maybe it's just more people know, on other places, but not everyone's got it?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie handles the unpleasant stuff first. The feeding. She gently. hesitantly lifts her more human hand to Molly's shoulder, while speaking. "This will sting. There will be a little lightshow but it's harmless." she continues to move once Molly shows nosigns of refusal and with a short blush she touches Molly's shoulder and indeed there's a stinging sensation, and a dark energy crackle. This lasts for a few seconds, but not terribly long, after she's removed her hand. In the meantime, she's restored her other hand. She sighs, and looks down at them as she nods. "Thanks." she says quietly.

She looks to Amy, through the fingers of both hands at first. "Oh, he attunes his dark energy field to my own and it attunes to a loop. So I can't drain him, he can't drain me." she says. Monotone. Less sulky. Good! She looks to Sailor Moon. "Oh, he's dark energy wielding, but not like I am. I can still drain him. But the fact he is dark energy is part of the reason I can hug him!"

"Dusk Zone natives.... largely dark energy beings I can hug. But I doubt Metallia and their ilk want hugged. And I doubt waking various sleeping and contained forces of darkness to ask if they'll give me a hug is a good use of my time." she says dryly near the end. Obvious sarcasm.

She looks at Amy as emotion is brought up. "According to your little brat....." she pauses and looks to Amy. She looks to Molly. She looks to Sailor Moon. Kyubey doesn't get a glance.

"My Apologies. That was rude." she says quieter.

"According to .... TSAB Agent Chrono .... he was apparently confused how magic worked here on Earth. So it may be different per planet. How magic works." she says quieter, before shrinking a bit at your faux paus.

Molly Skyline has posed:
And by the look on Molly's face, indeed it stings; and in her brain, Molly is thinking oh hey, so that's what it feels like to get frisky with a Portugese Man'o'War'. Fantastic, glad to have had that experience. But, she did offer to help, and she never makes that offer unless she means it; so when it's over, she just phews, and lets a shiver run down her muscles.

"If you get desperate, come see me again," she offers. "But, hopefully we can find you a solution, yeah? And I can get you in touch with Rashmi-chan. Like I said, she might have ideas." Or at last know somebody who might have ideas. Molly might be forgiven for thinking that Rashmi basically just knows everything.

The purplenette frowns in Kyubey's direction. "You keep making requests you know we can't fulfill, and you keep making offers that you know you can't do. Are you, like, done here? Isn't there somewhere you're supposed to be? Like a home planet or something? No, seriously; Go away. Like, really far away."

She sighs, and shakes her head. Definifely going to need some fried chicken after that drain for Norrie's benefit.

Oh, and apparently Sailor Moon, who is potentially gonna be some kind of goddess who'll live for thousands of years, thinks that she's... RAD.

How cool is that?

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Sailor Moon discusses making Norie a new body. Amy holds out her hand like she's trying to Force Push Norie, and furrows her brow slightly.

    ...

    ...

    "...Hn. When you start turning into dark energy I can feel... something... but..." She walks up to them, gesturing for the others to come closer, and whispers, "But I really think it'd be safer to gather Sailor Moon, myself, and um, Madoka's new form together and see if we can like, between us... I don't know? We should really ask Kamiko how she did that." She holds her fingers to her head. "Ugh. I feel like I just tried to lift weights in my brain..."

    Energy donation is mentioned, and... "Needless to say, especially when I've got plenty of energy, I can share some if you need it."

    But what about alien humans, like Belkans and Mid-Childans? "Right, yeah, Chrono had never seen anything like Earth before... Although now we know some of why..." She glances at Sailor Moon, then continues, "I mean... they're still humans, aren't they? Although I wonder where they came from... Are they from outer space, or other dimensions? If other dimensions, then where'd they come from in those dimensions? Was there some weird ancient timeline split? Did they all evolve independently? Is it some mix of all different origins with some of them created by gods? Or ancestors taken from this dimension, or maybe our ancestors were taken from one of their dimensions, who knows?" She taps her chin. "Same questions if they're from outer space, really."

    Beat.

    "Hey Starcrash, how much do you know of humans' evolutionary history in your home dimension or on your home planet? Are you from space or an alternate universe or what?"