1936/Checking Pings

Checking Pings
Date of Scene:	07 September 2024
Location:	Okujoo Ramen
Synopsis:	Molly organizes for a meeting at Okujoo Ramen, to discuss the dark magic ping felt in the concert attack, and plumb the depths of its dire portents.
Cast of Characters:	Molly Skyline, Ami Mizuno, Rashmi Terios, Laisa Samuiko, Usagi Tsukino, Amanda Faust

---

Molly Skyline has posed:
It's immediately after a fight; not what one might necessarily term a big fight, but an unusual one. One of Sunbreaker's towers was involved, as well as a portal to the Dusk Zone (if that's correct?), a Youma Princess (who threw a lot of forks and had bad manners), and a time space barrier that glitched.

Well, that last one might've been Molly's fault, she hasn't used the barrier very many times yet.

Molly herself is still in her scored and damaged Henshin, and is busy grabbing food for her friends and fresh acquaintances alike at her Mother's restaurant, Okujoo Ramen, after hours; the deal being that as long as Molly does the cleanup, she can serve her friends as much uneaten Ramen as she likes. So, as she comes out of the kitchen, she's got a tray with a big bowl or Ramen for everyone, of whatever they wanted out of what's left. With extra egg, of course.

"Right, so," she says, as she sets everyone's Ramen preferences down in front of them, and finishes by taking a seat with her own -- which has extra extra extra egg, owing to her current and serious need for carbs (do eggs count as carbs?) -- "Starcrash has the recording." She sets her staff down in the middle of the table. "And, Nicomachea should have all the permissions needed to access it." She smiles at Ami, "And, I don't think we've met before, but I've been told you are super smart! I'm Molly Skyline."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
It certainly wasn't the first time that Ami has been to Okujoo Ramen, but it was the first time someone had called her there after hours. Given it was Usagi and Rashmi that made the request however she'd not hesitated to make her way here meeting up with the others with a bag over her shoulder filled with Just-In-Case items. Just the necessities like a first aid kit, her computer, and of course konbini snack cakes that she hadn't yet told Usagi about.

Molly's greeting is met with a a quiet smile in turn. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Ami Mizuno... And yes, I'm incredibly smart." Somehow she manages not to sound arrogant when saying this. Somehow. "What exactly is going on? I know you all just finished fighting, but..." A curious glance is cast toward Rashmi at mention of Nichomachea giving a familiar nod of apparent acknowledgement. The bag she brought with her is swung into her lap to unzip, and immediately withdraw a small blue computer from one of the pockets. There's no digging or searching: She knew exactly where it was.

"I've linked with Hannah's Device several times, it should be fairly quick to recognize and data-share with your Devices as well."

That was certainly no 'name brand' computer she had given it's tiny size, so her confidence in being able to link up with alien devices might very well be reasonable.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
When your best friend asks for help, you don't hesitate. Even if it is after-hours, and especially if it's both Molly *and* Usagi who need her help, and it allows her to do her job alongside Sailor Mercury.

Team-ups on the 'learning stuff' part of the job, after all, don't happen as often as you'd think!

Beaming across the table at Ami, Rashmi looks around the table. "So... I'm not one-hundred-percent sure how the science language is gonna translate across computers," she says, as she lays Nicomachea out on the far end of the table, and a half-dozen holographic screens blip into existence above the book's pages. "Mercury-chan, is it okay if Nicomachea links into your computer? Just to give you the raw sensor feed, I mean. If there's an easier way for you to handle it from your end, I'm all for it."

Ever mindful of privacy preferences, Rashmi is definitely not willing to assume permissions where none are stated. "Otherwise just say the word, and I can give you what Starcrash is giving us."

And she works diligently on her ramen, as the screens begin to light up with scrolling numbers, charts, graphs, and all manner of alien sci-fi analysis SFX.

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Laisa isn't sure what to make of all of this. She has been lucky to avoid most magical stuff since Christmas. Now she's caught up in something apparently quite weird and concerning, moreso than usual. She has the broad strokes thanks to various notes left at The Shed and other pieces she's managed to put together, but it wouldn't be inaccurate to say that she's a bit lost.

    Nor does she have any particular opinions about one magic computer linking up to another. That is actually the thing that makes the most sense to her.

    "So like... there was this tower? And like it opened a portal? And there were gross things on the other side of it?" she tries to explain to a bunch of people she doesn't know that well, if at all. Yet she didn't seem to mind them seeing her dehenshin. It would be weird if she was the only one who opted out.

    "Apparently the tower was from one of those weird lowkey drain zones, but..." she gestures towards Molly. "I think her computer can say it better than I could."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Ami-chan!" Usagi has changed out of her henshin, given that the only people around are allies thus far, and she and Luna have been working their way through ramen (okay, she's been making her way through, Luna has been eating fishcakes). Still, when Ami arrives, she's given a hug. "Yeah, like she said," nodding towards Mou Fubuku, "There was... this weird portal, with a weird monster, and it spat out a princess youma, and that was fine, but weird, but... when I purified it, it didn't fully work, and the thing in the portal - it looked at me."

She does not like this. Not at all. She doesn't know what's going on, but she doesn't like it.

"It was definitely one of Sunbreaker's Eclipse Zone towers," Luna says, looking up from her fishcakes. "It even had her face on it, which doesn't seem like the smartest choice."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy (with a y) is just getting there as Ami-with-an-i shows up; She didn't spend magic on flight, and so had to jog from the battlefield. She glances around before stepping inside and de-henshining. They've seen eachother in computer club and around Usagi and probably in STEM classes. "A lot of things have happened," the redhead answers as she catches her breath for a moment, and then tries to get a look at the screenfulls of science readouts, desperately trying to figure out what they're showing and not get left in the dark like some... some *non-science-person!* She... she knows science, dammit!

    Also once out of henshin she's in the outfit from the concert earlier, which is possibly her conception of some sort of goth clubbing outfit with a neck-and-shoulder-baring black top and matching skirt and belt and boots and choker and some kind of mesh.

    Amy chimes in, "The monster on the other side of the portal... nothing we did could hurt it. Even Sailor Moon's attacks."

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Yeah, the portal-gribbly was something evil," Molly confirms. "Did not like. Zero out of ten, would not reccomend to anyone 'cause it's a meaniepants." She leaves Starcrash in the middle of the table, but shifts out of henshin into the goth-lite outfit she was in for the concert. "I dunno though, it was that 'ping' that worries me the most, I think? The monster at least didn't come out of the portal, so if we have to deal with it for a while by just showing up to fight portals, assuming this keeps happening, then I guess that's a strategy for now?"

The purplenette is rapidly getting through her bowl of ramen; looks like she used a lot of mana on that finisher, given that it was the first time she cast it in combat, and now she needs carbs. On the upside, if enough of the recordings are gone through, her best friend will see it!! And the ping came after that, so they should. Yay!

"Glad you could all come," she adds. "And yeah, I think... we've basically covered everything that happened. I got hit with dark-energy forks. We all did. ...But it's the ping that worries me."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Of course," Ami responds to Rashmi with a nod. "I can't recall, is Nicomachea Belkan or Midchildean? The Mercury Computer is already familiar with linking to Belkan devices," she admits. "Though it should be able to adapt and read from the other sort as well. The Silver Millenia technology is very adaptable."

Though she's focused a bit on the sharing of information at the moment, when Usagi greets her she does return the hug with a smile. "I'm glad you're all right, Usagi-chan." Even so her expression turns a bit concerned as she looks between them all.

"The Towers were siphoning energy directly into the Dusk Zone to feed Metallia and Queen Beryl. I suppose it's not unheard of that they could have re-routed them to draw the energy elsewhere, but... To what? If you'd described that to me before those two had been destroyed I would have to assume it was Metallia."

Her lips purse together with a little frown and she glances down to stare at the screen of the Mercury computer a long moment. "So there's some other entity building power now."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Mid-Childan," Rashmi chuckles, before listening to the accounts of the others. "...Sounds to me like they're reusing the things she'd built," she muses, before looking up and giving the new face a bright, cheerful smile. "Hi! Rashmi Terios, Grade 10 at Radiant Heart," she says by way of introduction. After all, if Usagi trusts her enough to be in civvies, why not? "So... When Sunbreaker was using those towers herself, what they did was create this big field full of Dark Energy, which made her and her minions stronger, and us and our powers weaker. I never actually managed to *make* a Barrier that interacted with one of those fields in our favor, so, that makes sense... But a portal? Like, a *portal* portal? Not a memory portal since stuff came *out* of it..."

Frowning to herself in thought, she watches the readouts read out as she reduces the noodle portion of her bowl to nearly nothing. "This Dusk Zone... I've heard *of* it before, but, never gotten any details. But it looks like..." with a few gestures, she maximizes one window, then enlarges two others to sit alongside the large one, with the other three running, flattened and small, at the bottom.

"So *Sunbreaker's* towers were pulling from the planet's magical energies, only draining people as an incidental splash effect. With this one, the people *are* the primary, so, yeah... Can anyone describe to me who it was that turned the stupid thing on in the first place? Maybe we've seen them before."

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    A lot of words are being thrown around that Laisa doesn't have much more than a passing familiarity with, but she decides not to worry about it and just go with the flow. Even if she doesn't think she has a whole lot to add to the science side of things.

    "I mean... Obsidian has a lot of branches. Killing Beryl had to create a power vacuum that someone is trying to fill."

    When Rashmi introduces herself, Laisa smirks back in a way that seems almost flippant. "Laisa Samuiko, Grade 7, and cursed with coolness."

    As for the person who turned it on, Laisa thinks back. "I remember a woman with long red hair manning the machine. Apparently she likes cats?" she glances towards Luna. "I don't know. Seemed like the kind of person who's always looking for an excuse to do something insane."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"She did like cats," Luna says, "She was quite friendly, aside from the fact that she very clearly wanted to drain everyone of their energy - I doubt she would have stopped, even had it threatened lives. Everyone was unconscious, but she was still draining them."

Her tone is grim.

"She was indeed a woman with long red hair, and reasonably tall, I suppose? She was certainly older than Stellar."

Usagi grimaces, "Yeah, she was older than Stellar. And it was a real portal, but like, I didn't try to go in - we had the youma, and all the the civilians, because the barrier couldn't work properly, I guess? But I couldn't really tell if our attacks went into the portal, or if they just... stopped."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy listens again to the refresher on the towers. She mostly stayed away from them in the past on account of the concern that energy drained from her could only be replenished by grief seeds. Although thinking of it now, she suspects Puella Magi might hold more energy at once than other magical girls, even if it doesn't recharge on its own. Maybe the drain would have been less than she expected. "Oh uh, Amy Faust, grade 10, nice to meet you too." She nods to Laisa, who... she thinks is the only one here she has no idea who the civilian identity is?

    The readouts are... concerning. In that she can't read them. "Come ooooon..." She gets a bit whiny in her frustration. "What... what do these readouts mean? I swear I'm smart! I know science!" She holds her hands up to her face and blushes as she hears how lame that sounded out loud.

    Who the person was who turned on the thing? That, at least, she can comment on! She's helping! She uncovers her face, "It was the same lady who had the flamethrower vaccuum thing and the car youma awhile back, she was dressed like facilities this time. You know, jumpsuit, hat." She nods at Laisa, "Yeah, long red hair." She looks thoughtful. "...I think she might've been driving one of the times we saw the shoot-your-crystal-heart-out-rifle thingie."

    She looks to Usagi. "There was another tower on the other side, and it seemed like it did degrade and break after awhile? But I dunno if that was our attacks or if they can only maintain the portal for so long."

    She looks back at the readouts, muttering, "...I swear I'm smart..."

Molly Skyline has posed:
"You *are* smart," Molly comments, giving Amy a pat on the shoulder. "Actually, all of you are smart. I'm the one here who's not super bright at this stuff, I'm more into Dungeons and Dragons and I'm learning stuff about cars. When there's this kinda stuff to figure out, I usually just call Rashmi-chan, she's awesome."

She pauses, and bobs her head, "And yeah, Amy-chan is right, that woman was the same one from the other day, who shot Chiyo with the... yeah, Amy said it best. And she is an *abysmal driver*, which is something I find deeply offensive." And by the expression on her face, she indeed does find it deeply offensive. "If her car ever shows up in my Mom's shop, downstairs, I'm totally sabotaging it after hours. With like... I dunno. A grenade or something. Anyone know where I can get grenades? Amy-chan?"

Molly powers through the last of her ramen, extra extra egg and all, and drops the chopsticks in her bowl. "I could eat another one of those right now," she mutters. "Anyway, yeah, she was not exactly being careful. So we gotta stop her."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Usagi-chan," Ami scolds quietly as her attention is torn away from the readouts, and the displays that are being put up of the entire situation. "Do not ever jump through one of those portals! Who knows where it may go or what it might do to you?!" Concerned and a bit aghast at the mere SUGGESTION that Usagi would even consider going in the portal to see if it was 'real' or not. It's a momentary distraction but one she felt the need to Most Definitely Remark On to ensure that such rash thoughts aren't considered in the future.

"It *is* concerning that your purification didn't have any effect of course. Your purifying is some of the most powerful that I've seen." It's why she was in such high demand! Other than being super friendly, and cheerful, and supportive of her friends, and... Her girlfriend really was social darnit.

"This is alien technology we're dealing with, Amy-chan. Unless you're familiar with it, it's going to be a lot to take in at once. I've had experience, and a past lifetime using it."

Her attention shifts back to the Mercury computer to begin looking over data that scrolls by at a speed only someone that can speed read would be able to process.

A small pause and she adds, "We are not using grenades." Followed by a distracted, "The area damage is far too unpredictable."

A slow, deep breath is taken as her expression shifts to a calm, focused one. For a few moments longer she remains silent as she drinks the information in only to finally sit up straighter with eyebrows knitting together in a small frown.

"According to what data I'm seeing here, it seems the ping was being used as you would with a network. It was looking for something... But I think," she adds as her gaze finally tears away from the screen. "That it was sent out earlier than expected. Likely from necessity given it found itself facing opposition." Her hand lifts to gesture around indicating, well, all of them. They were the interference that caused the ping to be sent early. "Whatever it is, it's searching for something."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...Amy-chan I had to study for six months just to have an idea of the basics of what any *one* of those readouts mean, and I *still* need to cheat and have Nicomachea explain it in my head based on what I'm looking at, at any given moment," Rashmi says, amused and fully understanding the Puella's frustration. "So to quickly explain: the main screen is kind of like thermal imaging, only it's displaying energy patterns based on the recording. That big blob in the middle is purple cos it's the color Nicomachea's assigned to Dark Energy. On the side is basically like waveforms, and composition stuff, but it's all according to the math and technical studies of an interdimensional alien civilization. Don't worry if you can't read it, that's a big part of why I'm so happy to work with Mercury-chan on it."

Turning back to Ami-with-an-i, the redhead beams. "You *get* this stuff the way I don't, so you know how to explain it better."

Rashmi may be smart, but she also knows her limitations, and an instinctive grasp of hyper-advanced mathematics? Not one of them. *Trig* slides between her brain cells weekly.

As the others describe the perpetrator, Rashmi nods slowly, then more decisively. "Okay *I know her.* I mean, sort of. ...I smashed her car once when she was using one of those soul guns."

And Ami cracks the mystery of the signal, and Rashmi is *so glad* for someone who truly knows what they're doing. "So it was calling out, but can't be sure the signal was powerful enough to *reach* whatever it was calling to? And... if you can't purify it, then... Well I mean have you *tried* to purify an entire part of this Dusk Zone? Maybe it's just too clogged with Dark Energy to be cleaned out like that?"

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    "Yeah I couldn't say what the deal was with the portal. I was still trying to figure out what a princess fork was."

    Laisa has since confirmed that there is, in fact, no such thing as a princess fork.

    Turning to Amy, she says something that's probably not nearly as reassuring as it sounded in Laisa's head. "Don't worry! I don't get it either. It's all Greek to me!"

    On the question of grenade acquisition, Laisa holds up her empty hands. "Hey, don't ask me. I'm an ice sculptor, not a soldier." Though the idea of an ice grenade does cross her mind.

    She takes a moment to listen to what Ami has to say about it, and while she may not be a science type she's still young enough to be computer literate. "So the ping was like... an actual network ping. Huh. Do you think maybe it was looking for another tower?" She pauses, then says, "Or maybe... the person who made the tower?"

    At the mention of the Dusk Zone just being too clogged to purify, she has to consider. "I mean... I don't really know what kind of effect my snow would've have on it because I didn't really focus on the portal. I feel like the beams the Moon girl were producing should've been enough to have some effect, though. I could almost believe that there was just too much. Kind of a dire thought, though."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I didn't try! I was just launching attacks! I thought maybe an Escalation might do - well, something, but it didn't do anything at all," which had been disappointing. "And - I mean, I've never been in the Dusk Zone. I don't think I'd like it."

This last part is pretty dry.

"I'm not that dumb!" Huff. "But, still - I am a strong purifier. If we can... it might be good to try and get Wako-chan and Madoka-chan and maybe Wukong-chan, too... Yellow-chan couldn't hurt, so we could try again. I mean, we probably won't be that lucky, but, maybe we could be, you know?."

That's basically all the strong purifiers she knows.

"...you know, we know people like Hemachan, who used to be in Obsidian. Maybe I should ask him about that woman? If we know who she is, maybe we know what she's trying to ping?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Molly asks for a grenade and Amy reaches for her belt pouch for the one she conjured earlier but that's in henshin so it's not on her. "Uhh. While we've seen that in at least some circumstances I can hand off weapons, I don't know how long they last."

    At least she assumed the question was asked of her because she literally conjures explosives, and not because she's American.

    Speaking of nationalities of origin, oh right, Ami is an alien (sort of) and has a past life of being familiar with Moon Science. Amy relaxes, slightly.

    And then is a little bit on edge again after Laisa cheerfully tells her she doesn't get it either.

    And Rashmi has had six months of study. When was there magic study?!

    Amy opines in a small voice, "I really want to know how real science works... magic classes would be way more useful than what we're learning in school..."

    Amy nods as she looks closer at the screens in front of Rashmi, nodding. "So, it's sort of like looking at probability diagrams of electron orbitals, or energy levels, or things like that that you'd measure the waveforms of."

    She looks at one of the more arcane screens. "So does a pattern like that indicate a lot of energy, or...?"

    Not using grenades. "We could use a shaped charge, but isn't Obsidian made of money? They'll just buy her a new car."

    The ping. Like on a network! Now we're getting to something Amy is familair with! Sort of! It's close enough! She'll take it!

    "So... it's trying to establish a sort of magical wireless connection with something else that uses darkness? But how could there be some machine that uses darkness, somewhere around Tokyo, that Obsidian doesn't already know where it is?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno shakes her head a little bit toward Laisa's question only to flash a grin. "I'm simplifying it significantly. In this case it's not a peer-to-peer ping. There's not a designated 'path' it's following to find what it's looking for a response from. It's more like..." Her eyes roll upward considering thoughtfully. "Star Trek 4, with the deep space probe sending out a signal to find the whales. You're right though: It may not have enough power yet to go as far as needed."

At Usagi's assurances she wasn't about to jump through any portals, Ami reaches out to grasp one of her hands with a fond squeeze. "I never said you were dumb, Usagi-chan. I just know how caught up in the heat of the moment you can get at times. The same is true for most of us. Just in your case, you know we'd come after you, and I imagine the Dusk Zone is similar to the Dark Kingdom in a way."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Upon being told that grenades are not an option, Molly's face falls, and she plops her head down on the desk. "I mean... like... half of my spells are like grenades," she mumbles, dejected. "Most of what I do explodes in some fashion or another. ...Or burns, the burning is good too. Or freezes. But mostly explodes or burns, or both, or else lots of all three at once."

But then there's talk of the ping being in search of something, and she sits back up, all prior sadness forgotten. "Oh, so... is it like radar, then? Like, maybe it's sending out dark energy and then checking to see how much of it does or doesn't get reflected back?" She furrows her brow. "But like... what would they be looking for? Sources of dark energy? Potential mahou? Rogue youma? ...Is that even a thing?"

She scratches the back of her head as she pushes back from the table and rests in her seat. "I dunno, doesn't make any sense to me yet. But I feel like we have to assume they'll do it again."

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    When Amy notes that Obsidian is made of money, Laisa intones, "Once again we see that money is the root of all evil." Then she fingersnaps at Amy and says, "Right, that's the confusing part. Obsidian would know where their stuff is. Except..." She then gestures at Usagi. "... As she said, there are people who have left Obsidian, and so maybe one of them took something on the way out and Obsidian is looking to ping that thing."

    She is, of course, just guessing. Laisa isn't that intimately familiar with Evil Inc.'s various defectors and, for opsec reasons, she probably shouldn't be.

    Ami answers her question and clarifies a few things, "Right, well, the simple version is preferred in my case, so I appreciate it. I'm guessing it'd be hard to figure out what it was looking for unless it actually found it, though."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"I mean my study came from Hannah-chan," Rashmi says, shrugging. "I asked."

Ami opines how the ping was a probe, and Molly guesses sonar, and as things turn over in Rashmi's head, it feels like both of them are close enough to come up with a working plan. "Mercury-chan," she says, letting the display freeze on the wave of Dark Energy put out by the tower. "Can you see if you can isolate the -- lack of a better term here, really -- frequency of that pulse? I'll do the same, and we can see if our efforts match. Because I think everyone's right; this isn't a one-off, and we *really* need to have that signature if we're gonna figure out what they're looking for. Best case scenario, we find out first and can do something about it."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I guess I did jump through the moon portal," Usagi mumbles, and squeezes Ami's hand in return. Amy mutters about the real magic that she wants to learn, and Usagi looks at her a little funny, and says - "I don't think there is real science. I think there's science and there's magic and sometimes they mesh up but most of the time they don't. Chrono-kun's must have been using magic science his whole life, and he doesn't understand how magic here works at all."

There is no understanding how it works.

"So it was the lady who shot Chiyo-chan," and there's plenty of anger in her voice then. "And she brought the rifles back... but only once. I wonder... why? And... what's she looking for now?"

Laisa's suggesting they could be looking for something they lost, but... "Well, I'll ask no-longer-Hematite," she says, because she won't blow Mamoru's identity.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno keeps Usagi's hand in hers a bit longer than may be necessary for a friend simply comforting another friend. Those were the perks of dating. Still she did require both hands to work the Mercury Computer and reluctantly withdraws after a moment.

"That's the same rifle that was used on Naru-chan as well, I believe? That was some time ago. It's still worth following up on."

"I'll run it through the system and see if I can find a match somewhere," she agrees with Rashmi. A few more keys are quickly typed as she loads the data into the Mercury computer. "It may take awhile to go through the --"

The Mercury computer chimes causing her gaze to snap back to it.

"Oh. Oh no." The look of concern returns to her as she just stares. No eye movements, no drinking in of data: Just staring at a result.

"Usagi-chan..." Ami's gaze raises to flit around the group with worry, watching all of their reactions, but most certainly focusing on Usagi. She knew how upset this topic made her.

"It's roughly an 87 percent match for the Dark Energy signature that I recorded when we were attacked by Firefly."

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Well." Molly shrugs her shoulders. "I think we've come right back to, 'we need to be there to stop them next time'." She shrugs her shoulders lightly. "Rashmi-chan, do you think we can tune Starcrash and Nicomachea to watch out for the same sorts of energy signatures, so we can at least give early warning to everyone else? And maybe we should share cellphone numbers, for everyone who's okay with that?" She opens her mouth, and shuts it again, thinking something over.

"So. At what point *do* we go into one of these portals? I mean, not next time, definitely, but... I think..." she trails off, and tilts her head towards Ami.

"Firefly? ...Well damnit, I was thinking about using that as a superhero name. It's taken? That's not *fair*. ...Also, what's she all about, and... what's this energy signature you're on about?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "If we isolate the 'frequency', or signature, or handshake or whatever it was... can we try to ping the thing to find it first, and then put it in a magic Faraday cage?"

    Beat.

    "...Is there such a thing as a magic Faraday cage?"

    Usagi points out that even magic science doesn't understand magic, it's all different.

    "...You know, long ago, I wondered whether it would really be worse to live in Mage where the way the world really works is determined by the collective unconscious and human conception rather than physics."

    "...It never occured to me that there was an even weirder possibility." She continues, with a hint of driness and tongue-in-cheekness but also partially serious, "Now I understand what cosmic horror truly is. I couldn't imagine a world with no rhyme and reason to it all, and yet here we are. Perhaps thinking I could understand it was a mistake..."

    "...but then, how are we to control our destiny if the rules are inextant or beyond our ken? Can we only do our best and hope things work out?"

    Beat.

    Amy throws up her hands and paces in a circle. "Oh my god this is the world everyone who didn't study science and technology lives in, so this is what that's like, how do you stand it?! Thinking there are just... mysteries out there you can't know?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    ...Although then Amy's distracted from this latest rant by a revelation: "Firefly? The magical girl who killed one of the Obsidian folks, pinned it on you, and then helped save Christmas? I don't think I've seen her since... so, she's missing?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"I would be *shocked* if there was something like that that worked on everythi--"

Ami's sudden match has Rashmi slapping her chopsticks down next to her empty bowl, eyes wide. "Wait, *what?!* Yo--"

Pieces fall into place.

Rashmi's wide-eyed, horrified look, turns on Usagi.

"...I need to talk to Setsuchan," she says quietly, and collapses the screens into nothing with a wave of her hand. "Amy-chan, when you've logged out of your existential crisis you *need to listen to Usagi-chan,* okay? Everyone does. I gotta go. Molly-chan, I... I'll explain everything Usa-chan can't. I just gotta go. *Now.*"

Hurriedly standing up from her chair, she pauses, urgency warring with politeness. "Laika-chan, it was *really good to meet you.* Everyone, I'm sorry for rushing but--"

    << FLIER FIN >>

Little golden dragonfly-wings blink into existence at her ankles, and the redhead simply jumps off the roof, flying as fast as she can toward another part of Pikarigaoka.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It's a... high match... to Firefly? To the thing inside Firefly, at least.

No, let's be honest. The thing inside Hotaru.

Usagi is certainly holding still, now, clutching Ami's hand. This topic certainly does make her upset - Luna has stretched to lay in her lap, offering additional, silent comfort, and Usagi takes a deep breath, as Amy puts it out there in the most blunt way, and she looks about as horrified as Rashmi - maybe in a different way, but nonetheless horrified.

And she nods, as Rashmi flies off, because she'll get there faster, and she won't freak out if she sees Hotaru at the house she lives at and there is no way she's compromising the secret so -

"Yes. That Firefly. And if this energy is like hers... then maybe it's from the department she worked - works in." Right, got to pretend she doesn't know she's not still with Obsidian. "Firefly is dangerous. She did kill two of her own, in front of me, and the next time we saw her... she didn't remember, I guess. She like.. transformed, kind of, and she hurt me and Ami-chan pretty badly, and even went after Riventon. I don't think she... entirely meant to do it."

This is big progress, considering she still very much has not talked to Hotaru or anyone else in detail about all this.

"But until we know more... we need to keep this quiet. Not the towers, or the portal, I mean, we should probably tell people about that, but... Firefly. If no one's seen her in ages, maybe she... quit, like Sunbreaker did."

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Laisa blinks. "Wait. So Firefly killed someone and then framed someone else?" Pause. "Wow, no wonder they're looking for her. So is she like a stone cold type?" After seeing people's reactions, she mistakes their concern for their smol adorable friend for fear of the vicious and terrible Firefly. Usagi's words only add fuel to that fire.

    "L-later, Rashmi. Don't get murdered by Firefly or something."

    Just what exactly did she walk into?! "I mean... if they're looking for someone like her, what could they possibly want? Revenge? Maybe she decided to become a quiet quitter and they're going to give her a motivational talk?"

    It's probably best if Laisa stops talking. Too bad she doesn't know that.

Molly Skyline has posed:
"I but--" Molly watches as Rashmi takes off, and is about to jump up and take off after her, but she's kind of hosting here at her Mom's restaurant, and Rashmi said she has this, and they agreed to let each other deal with things when they say they've got it, and then MOlly gets so mired in indecision that the moment sorta passes, and she just deflates and sits down.

"Dangit, I wanted to use Firefly," she mumbles. "Oh well, back to the drawing board." She plants one elbow on the table, and her chin in her hand, as she lets the conversation go on a bit around her. After a couple minutes, she sits back up again, and bites her bottom lip.

"Okay so like... I'm just super confused," she confesses. "What's going on? Who actually *is* Firefly? Can someone like... explain at least some of this to me? Preverably with small words."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    People suddenly get really scared, and Amy looks confused, and Usagi explains... and Amy nods, looking a bit surprised at the news that Firefly's kill count is now 2, but beginning to look more... concerned, as Usagi explains that Firefly may not have wanted to do it or even remembered it; picking up on that some of the concern may be for Firefly, although she assumes in the abstract rather than that they know her personally. "So we've got somebody who's like... A were-natural disaster, who like... sometimes is a stone-cold killer, and other times is that little girl who helped save Christmas? Yikes, that's... rough... for her I mean... well also for everyone else, too..."

    Amy continues thinking about it. "...And a problem if she's loose and can't... lock herself in a cage every full moon, or whatever sets it off."

    Dangit, I wanted to use Firefly, Molly opines. "It's also a Star Rail character. ...Who was a nice girl forced to be a power-armor soldier instead of herself, come to think of it. Maybe there's just something about that name?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Molly is utterly lost, which is fair. Laisa seems half lost, which is also fair. And Amy is the least lost, which is helpful!

"Okay, so, Firefly is someone who's been on Riventon's side before, and I mean, people say she's been cute and normal, but I only ever saw her when she was doing terrifying murder-y things so -" Usagi can't do something as flippant as shrug, so she just looks tired and serious. "But were-natural disaster doesn't cover it. When she's like that, her hair gets long, and there's a black star on her forehead, and she tries to strangle people to death. And she can disintegrate people with a touch."

A beat.

"That's how she... killed those two girls. I tried to save one of them, and I had to - I had to let go, because I didn't know if I'd disintegrate with her."

She exhales, looking down at her emptied bowl of ramen, petting Luna's back with her other hand.

"The important thing is, no one's seen her in ages," which is true enough. "And we need to figure out what they're looking for - if it's Firefly, or if it's something else like her, because... when it comes to Obsidian it can always get worse. Laisa-chan is right, because we don't know what's going on, and there's lots of things it could be - but also, it's pretty scary, and I don't think anyone should look by themselves. We've got to do it together."

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Laisa overhears Amy mention (multiple times actually) that Firefly was actually with them during the Christmas trip and her eyes go as wide as saucers. "N-no way... she was the Firefly we're talking about? That girl? She seemed so cute and innocent... though her device was kinda... suspicious. I thought it was just joking at the time. Like... a personality quirk. I didn't realize that it was serious."

    Luminous Titan did seem kinda like it enjoyed the idea of violence, though. Laisa just completely ignored all of the red flags because she looked so cute sleeping in the sled. That's what she gets for judging by appearances.

    Turning to Molly, she kinda sympathizes, but she says, "Well, I mean, it's a cool name! Good luck finding another one. My sympathies. You don't want to steal a name from someone like that, though."

    Laisa quiets down for a moment and starts putting pieces together. They are probably fitting together wrong, but nothing that anyone is saying would actually dissuade her from coming to the conclusions she's being led to. The story that Usagi tells is... grim.

    Laisa gives her a sympathetic look. "I actually can't imagine how awful that was. I'm really sorry you went through that. Really sounds like a grim way to go."

    Of course, even after Laisa says all of that, she can't help but worry about what she's gotten into. All she wanted to do was rebel against her ridiculous family and now she's hearing about cute little girls who dissolve people on a bad day?

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Man, everything I want is always taken," Molly grumbles; she might've been about to say more, when Usagi is telling her bit, and the purplenette just goes quiet instead.

"...Okay damn, that's... something else," she agrees, going all quiet. "She disintigrates people? Just with a touch? Yeah, that's a bit of a ways out of my league," she admits. Well, be fair Molly, you set people on fire from a quarter of a kilometer away, you're no slouch. "But... Okay yeah, I understand why Rashmi-chan took off at speed like that, that makes sense."

She purses her lips, looking down at her own empy bowl of ramen. Well, actually, just empty bowl now. With a little broth in the bottom. "Yeah, you're right," she agrees with Laisa, "I don't want to take a name from someone like that, she might come and disintigrate me just for the trouble. ...But that doesn't mean I can't do something *similar*." She sits up, and grins. "How about Firemoth? I like that one."

Yes, Molly. Because that's what's important right now. (Well, it's easier than thinking about an opponent who might disintigrate her.)

Amanda Faust has posed:
    That's right, Laisa! You never know what you'll get with appearances! Why, the two 150cm girls you're talking to could be an alien moon princess and a magical anti-monster Terminator which may one day turn into a giant, reality-warping monster, and you would never know!

    Amy listens to Usagi, trying to memorize these details about how to tell if Firefly is currently SAM (serial annihilation mahou) or not.

    When Usagi says she had to let that person go, Amy can't help but step forward and hug her for a moment. "You... you did what you had to. It's not like you could have stopped her from disintigrating."

    After... however long of a hug Usagi would like, Amy steps back. Could Obsidian be looking for someone or something else with the same signature? "Good point. We should... we should maybe check in with Hinoiri and ex-Hematite and see if this jogs any memories of something that didn't seem important at the time."

    She blinks at Laisa, who looks just so shocked. "I mean... yeah? Although I guess um... I didn't tell you at the time, because, like, she was right there, you know? Also I didn't know you and this seemed like pretty sensitive information, if it got out to enough people that folks outside Obsidian knew about her. ...The second murder and the alternate form and the disintigration is news to me too, though."

    Beat.

    Amy turns towards Molly and cocks her head to one side. "What's a firemoth, though? And in what way are you like a moth?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The hug is accepted for a long moment, because yeah, Usagi could use it. And she looks at Laisa, and offers a faint smile. "I hope you don't ever see anything like that, honestly. It was pretty bad, but - I made it through, with all my friends, and that's how we'll get through this."

When Amy steps away, she's shaking her head, because she can fully understand Laisa's shock - "I was pretty surprised when it turned out some of my friends like her, because I saw all the murder and they saw all the cute, and - well, some of them saw the murder too, but I guess they just don't... mind."

She has no idea how the Outers just shrugged that off. Maybe it's the same way they could decide to murder Hinoiri so... readily.

At least Molly is offering something much more positive to think about. "I mean, who's in that kind of league? But Firemoth sounds super cool. Like, pretty badass? I mean, I'm not the biggest fan of fire right now, but two of my teammates use it, so I refuse to let bad experiences take it away from me!"

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Laisa tries to consider a cool fire-based name for Molly's super hero magical girl form, because Firefly is firmly off the table. "Firebird and Phoenix are probably taken too. Um... How about... Ruby Dragon? Singe Salamander? Burning Butterfly? Incineration Ifrit? I mean Firemoth can also work. I could see you being Firemoth. I mean my name is basically just 'snow angel big blizzard' so I'm probably not the best person to ask. ... Not that I chose it."

    Helping Molly come up with a name is at least making it so that Laisa doesn't have to process the idea that she was headed off to one of the most remote parts of the planet with someone as terrifying as Actual Firefly.

    Laisa shakes her head at Amy, saying, "No no no no no don't apologize for that. We all keep secrets in this lifestyle, right? Like sometimes really big ones. I'm not mad I'm just a little alarmed. Like nothing really bad happened to us or Santa or the misers by the end of all that, right? It's no big deal."

    Laisa will be spending several hours in her dorm tonight curiously pondering just how many times she's come very close to death. For now she's just reeling because her cool is shattered.

    To Usagi, Laisa shakes her head. "I mean... I hope I don't too. I've always, admittedly, been pretty sheltered even without the magic... but sometimes you don't see the horror because it's actually not there, and sometimes you don't see it because it was right in front of you and you just ignored every sign. Just... you know... a life lesson I should have probably started taking seriously a long time ago."

Molly Skyline has posed:
"I mean... I dunno," Molly mumbles. "I do a lot of fire attacks and I fly, and like... moths fly? And Firemoth sounds cooler than, I dunno, fireduck or firehen or firebat." She pauses, glancing in Laisa's direction, "And uhm, those are all really good suggestions, but I don't think any of them are quite, like, *me*, you know?" She shrugs her shoulders lightly. "I mean wahtever, it's been a year and I haven't come up with anything yet and I've been introducing myself as Molly Skyline everywhere I go, wether in Henshin or not."

She sighs softly, and raises her hands to rub at her temples. "Actually, I think I'm just trying to think about something other than what was so scary it made my best friend not just leave to go warn soemone instantly, but made her do so in the biggest rush I've ever seen her be in. So like... look. Before you all go, I want to make sure everyone's got my number. I might be pretty close to a one trick pony, but I'm an artillery mage and I promsie you it's a darn good trick, so if anything comes up and you need some firepower, please please don't hesitate to call me." She looks back and forth between everyone assembled. "OKay? And I'll make the same commitment, anything comes up I'll call people. Especially if it's someone who introduces themselves as Firefly."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Singe Salamander? Burning Butterfly? Incineration Ifrit? "These sound like Mega Man X bosses... or FOXHOUND agents... Not that that makes it a bad name." She looks to Molly. "I don't think anyone from this or the last generation will assume you named yourself after a videogame OC."

    She looks back to Laisa just sort of... increasingly :| as Laisa goes on about not seeing the horror because you ignored every sign. "Look, if you're learning that lesson at this age, you're ahead of the game. Don't worry about it, that's one people four or five or... several times your age often refuse to learn. And like..."

    Amy scratches the side of her head. "I mean, look, that's kinda just how life as a magical girl is. We've got friends who are princesses who were imprisoned for years, people who've lost their entire worlds, people caught up on both sides of an alien succession crisis, and friends who almost destroyed the world once."

    Amy holds out her hand and looks at it, as if checking her nails -- I could have painted them black to go with this outfit. I... guess I still could? But who do I ask about that? Now's an awful time to bring it up, she thinks -- and speaks, calmly and cooly as if expositing some basic scientific facts, "You wouldn't think, by looking at me, that I've been put in the body of a magical Terminator designed to hunt and kill reality-warping monsters that feed off death, yet here I am." To say nothing about turning into a Witch, or how the whole setup is really for harvesting her emotional energy to keep the Universe running, as was revealed earlier in another scene when we get back to it.

    She continues, plainly despite the subject matter, "If I looked like what I was, I'd look like some yggdroid-looking thing at best and a terrifying magitech killer warbot at worst. Probably followed around by boss music. The catch is that replenishing the magic I use is... difficult. That one painting where I was a robot was more honest."

    Amy hmms at Molly's suggestions. "Skyfire? I took awhile to come up with Rocket Girl Red. I'm not sure it's great, but... I really had to get out in front of people coming up with something else." She grimaces awkwardly.

    "And hell yeah, artillery is a good trick. High five, artillery mahou!" She smiles and high-fives Molly.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Maybe, but you learned it, right?" is what Usagi has to offer Laisa. "You figured it out, and before some people might have, like Amy-chan said. That's what matters."

And then Molly is suggesting they share phone numbers, and she's right, of course.

"Right, right - I'm Usagi Tsukino, Grade 10, just in case I didn't mention it earlier, Laisa-chan - Amy-chan and Molly-chan knew, and you should too. This is my phone number - ZZZ-ZZZZ. My boyfriend, Tuxedo Kamen, is Mahou MSF; he's got healing powers, so if you're ever hurt, reach out to him. Don't even worry about it."

She looks up, at the night sky above.

"It feels like we're probably headed for trouble again, but we found a clue, and maybe we got ahead of Obsidian, this time."

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    At the mention of FOXHOUND and Megaman X, Laisa looks a little embarrassed like she's been accurately called out on something. "Yeah well I mean... Sure it's formulaic maybe but... They're cool names, though. You remember them because they're cool. Right?"

    Laisa listens as Amy goes on to talk about just... all the sheer amount of dire stuff that's been happening over the past year, and in a way it actually... makes her feel a bit more normal, actually. Like the stuff going on in her life isn't that big of a deal. Well, it actually is, but... she doubts anyone from her cursed line would end the world.

    "I mean... if I looked more like what I was... I'd probably be more like a snow witch or a yuki onna than anything."

    Laisa considers sharing numbers and, after a moment, agrees to it. She writes down her number on a napkin and slides it over to the others so they can read and see it. "Alright, well. If you need another purifier and don't mind a cold breeze then call me up. I'll try to be around to help out more."