1961/Information sharing session

From Radiant Heart MUSH

Information sharing session
Date of Scene: 20 September 2024
Location: Function Hall
Synopsis: Hinoiri meets up with Setsuna, Rashmi and Koji in order to get some help on the weird tracking system she stole, as well as exchange information about her Eclipse Zone towers. Additionally, Setsuna and Rashmi lend Hinoiri a book of ancient magic that will definitely NEVER cause them problems, especially if it's real.
Cast of Characters: Hinoiri Kirara, Rashmi Terios, Koji Silvia, Setsuna Meiou


Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara was not the easiest person in the world to work with at times. However, she was someone people COULD work with. And now? She had the little GPS thingy she'd swiped out and disabled.

Her equipment was in a resting state, most of it disabled and she...

Hinoiri was BARELY resisting the urge to take the device apart with a screwdriver. But it was HARD. She'd sent a message to Setsuna to please come by the music room after class, and trusted Rashmi to get Koji to do the same. And one thing was apparent the moment they arrived...

Even if she was no longer a badguy, Hinoiri still either had found the one school in Japan that allowed leather jackets with studs, or really did have no care for actual school attire.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
<< Koji-kun, join me in the music room? Hinoiri-chan found a tracker thingy from Easter, and she wants to get a bunch of us together to figure out what it's looking for. Once again your Earth electronics skills get you a consulting gig. Also there will be snacks and drinks. >>

Because Rashmi is involved, so of course there will be snacks and drinks!

As she opens the door to the Math Club room, Rashmi can't help but chuckle at Hinoiri's insistence on the 'leather' jacket. "Y'know, Hinoiri-chan, I *gotta* show you an old movie sometime, about a delinquent girl gang-boss. Somehow I think you'd really like it..."

Koji Silvia has posed:
Stuck.

Invited in his civilian guise, to meet someone who's only met him in his hero guise, meaning she doesn't know but she knows, but she-

    << MASTER. You are doing It again. I am warning you per your request. >>

     "Fiiiine..." He sighs, and then picks up the twin toolboxes loaded with things he might need, "Thank you."

With that done, he's the second to show up at the Music Room, only to stop for a moment to see the girl in the leather jacket, and then a glance over to Rashmi, before saying, "I am suddenly reminded of Jurassic Park. Hi Rashmi." Another deep breath is taken as he goes and sets his things off to one side, still in his school uniform, but he takes off his jacket and tie, so that he's 'off the clock', "Hello... Hiroiri-chan? Kun? Sorry... I'm not really the new-people type like Usagi-chan."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou found herself more than glad to get the request from Hinoiri to meet, as she'd been pondering meeting the former villian herself.

Though she had been having a wierd feeling all day that she couldn't quite put a finger on...she just felt...slightly off and didn't really know why.

Still, the school day was over and, after taking the time to close and lock up the Infirmary for the day, the nurse made her way over to the music room to meet as asked.

As she arrives slightly after Rashmi and Koji do, she looks over at Hinoiri's attire...and it gets a raised eyebrow for all of about five seconds before the taller woman shrugs and adds, "Very few people are quite as outgoing as Miss Tsukino, Mister Silvia...which is probably for the best. I do care for that girl, but I fear the world would be ill equipped to handle two of her."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara glanced towards Rashmi. "What about me screams 'delinquent'? I get some of the best grades in this school!" she said, sounded actually offended. She then glanced towards Koji and... and she sighed. "Just... just call me Hinoiri. That was what we did back home..." She lightly tapped the screw driver on the device. Ohhhh. Soon. Soon, my pretty...

Two Usagi. TWO. The thought of that... made even Hinoiri shudder. No. She didn't have enough cope. There was NO such thing as enough cope.

"So... I've called all three of you here today because, well..." she motioned towards the device. "This. Panthalassa Aquatics is looking for... something. I'm not sure what, Usagi recommended some of you, so I figured why not. I'm not the best with human tech, so I figured one of you could take this apart and figure it out better than I could and then I can take that info back to Yellow Pearl Voice."

... Yes, she was trying to payback the girl who was helping her get some stability back in her life. Bite her.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"The jacket makes you look tough and cool," Rashmi says simply. "That usually translates to 'delinquent student' is all. Anyway! Hi Koji-kun, hi Setsuchan! So I know what *I* can do to help figure this out, but, how exactly were you wanting to start this off, Hinoiri-chan?"

After all; if it's Hinoiri's project, she gets to be in charge of the who and the what do.

Setsuna's entrance earns the tall nurse a bright and cheery wave.

Koji Silvia has posed:
With an eye towards the esteemed Nurse Meiou, Koji gives a polite nod of greeting to Setsuna, and with a minor adjustment of his glasses he reaches down for one of the two large toolboxes, taking out what looks to be a small-end laptop and power adaptor. Next comes out small box with several connection ports, and those are taken over to one of the small side-tables used by students to make sheet-music notes, or to leave the occasional drink. Powering up, he connects the small box to the machine, and then leaves it sitting with a USB cable to be connected to the device Hinoiri has in her hands.

    "Oh, I forgot to ask, Miss Meiou. Did you enjoy the thank you present I left you?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou waves back to Rashmi...and brings her hand up to cover a small smile as she watches Hinoiri process the thought of two Usagis running around. After a moment, she composes herself, then steps in and nods to the others.

A look is given towards the device Hinoiri shows as Koji promptly goes to early steps of identifying the tech, and at his question she smiles, "Oh, most certainly Mister Silvia. I hung it up in my library slash workshop at home."

She then glances back to the paler redhead and she asks, "Is this perhaps to do with someone using those towers you invented to whatever nefarious and plagaristic ends they had in mind?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times, looking bewildered. "Wait... what?" she asked. Blink blink.

"Why would delinquents be cool? You... you'd fail school," Hinoiri asked. What? WHAT? Did not compute!

Hinoiri took the USB cable and plugged it into the device, turning it on. "So, I know it's looking for... something? So if you can like... extract the thing it's searching for? That'd be great."

Setsuna's comment, however? It made her go entirely still. She then took a small, deep breath. "I... am aware. Unfortunately, I am unable to access the towers at this time as I no longer have access to my gemstone magic. Without dark energy, I can't do anything. And if I use dark energy, there is a very good chance I will kill all of you and blow up your world. So... at this point... I have no choice but to trust you lot to blow them up."

"And I am *entirely* okay with this."

No. No she was not.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"No," Rashmi says, smiling gently, "no you're not. But we all appreciate you trusting us with it all the more."

As the USB is passed over and plugged in, Rashmi hurriedly brings Nicomachea out and in active mode. "Nicomachea: Barrier, dimensions those of this room and no farther. Let's just make this a magically sterile workspace."

    << *BONG!* >> << COMMAND INPUT EXECUTE -- TIME-SPACE BARRIER >>

A bubble of staticky magic spreads out to settle over the contours of the room, shifting the immediate area half a step to the left, dimensionally speaking.

"Now keep your sensors open, Nicomachea. Get ready to catch whatever signal it's putting out."

    << ACKNOWLEDGED >>

Koji Silvia has posed:
Tapping the box, Koji says, "This is something I built myself after the last time I dealt with weird tech. It's like a fusebox. If there's any kind of power spike or weird signal, or anything else that I could think of that comes from that..." He points to the tracker, "The circuits inside of this will burn out first. So if you suddenly see a puff of smoke from it, that means it did what I hoped."

With a shrug, and a sigh, he adjusts his glasses and turns the interface box 'On' and allows it to connect to the small laptop, "I'm not a hacker, and this isn't like the movies... so if this thing is password locked, we're probably not getting in unless Rashmi's friend there can interface via this laptop. But what we may be able to do is try and download it's storage to another device."

Fully and still avoiding the fact that he's a 'Device' User and that Hanzo could crack the password in record time.

He then chuckles a little and pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "If I'd had the time, I could have built a little Faraday cage. I was just telling Rashmi about them the other day."

With an almost cat-like stretch, he twines his fingers and then limbers them up, "If this IS a GPS tracker, that means it's looking for a radio frequency tag, or an RFID Tag. Meaning that what we're looking for would be attached TO something. If they're not able to find it, it might be underground, or buried, or it might be in... well... a Faraday cage."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
At Hinoiri's forced-calm statements, Nurse Meiou arches an eyebrow...but Rashmi, ever the diplomat, gets to that point before she does. The older woman, however, has more to add, "And do not mistake how much we appreciate your current efforts and work. I was more in the mind of tapping your knowledge, as the person who created them, you'd neccesarily know very well how they operate...I was rather curious if it might be possible to create some kind of virus that we can load into one of the towers so that the next time they try to poll it for whatever data they're looking for, they also pull something that ruins all the data they collected using the stolen tech and made it meaningless...or perhaps sends them chasing fake data and wasting all their time and money."

She shrugs as Rashmi and Koji start to work, and steps over to stand closer to Hinoiri as she watches the other two, "I figure if anyone would know if that's possible, it would be you...and I also imagine if such were the case the opportunity to get some measure of revenge on them."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara nodded along and pretended she knew what a faraday cage was. "That sounds like it could be useful."

None the less, she did smile when her afforts were appreciated. "I'll be honest. A virus like that... likely wouldn't work. I don't really know a lot about computers aside from what I learned since coming here. I can do a little bit of basic programming and install games and stuff, but anything too complex and it'd all shut down. The towers themselves are kind of a... mass produced unit. In a way. Simple, a few moving parts. Nothing really to change on them, that could cause a big virus meltdown."

She then sighed and rubbed the back of her head. "While the interface could... maybe be messed with? They're designed to tap into the leylines of the world and then draw that power out, to keep them going. I don't know how they're using them to gather data."

"They're probably just using them as a power source or piggy backing off my dusk zone connections and... I can't... really do a lot about that."

She then reached into her bag and pulled out a small... notepad. "However, I *do* have the passwords that I *had* set for them here, for you sparkles." She held them out. "Go wild, wreck them. As far as Obsidian is concerned I never worked for them."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"You tell her, Koji," Rashmi says, "you know the concept better than I do."

At Hinoiri's explanation, she tilts her head. "But... if they *weren't* tapping into the leylines, would it be taking a lot *more* from people, to get the same power? Because based on everything I heard, that's kinda what was happening. Anyway... Power's on, computers linked, Device sensors are sensing... Wanna hit the button, Hinoiri-chan?"

Koji Silvia has posed:
Standing up, Koji smiles, "Okay, easy explanation. A Faraday Cage is a is an enclosure like a dome, or a box, or a room that has conductive materials used in it's construction and has an electrical charge running through it that creates an electromagnetic force. So no errant power comes in or goes out. It's a signal blocker, protects things inside from lightning strikes, but doesn't stop things like the Earth's own electromagnetic field from passing through. So inside, a compass would work, but you couldn't use your cellphone."

With that, he looks down at the system, "You know... I have no idea what you're all talking about with this tower thing... but... magic's just another form of energy. Energy has different wavelengths and frequencies. So... maybe your towers are like a radio station where someone is recording every signal out there so they can review them later to figure out what each type is?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou shrugs, "Eh, I was less thinking 'make the towers blow up' and more thinking 'alter whatever they're using to interface with them to muck up all the readings they've ever gotten off of them to beyond uselessness to deprive them of all data'...but I'm aware that may not really be possible. I was just hoping that you'd have a better read on what part of the towers they'd be possibly interfacing with and if there were ways we could use that against them."

She sighs, "I mean, rapid unplanned disassembly is always an option, but often being subtle gives SO MANY more options to screw with them."

While she waits a bit, she leans up against a desk and absently twirls her fingers to produce a SNICKERS bar which she offers to Hinoiri, then repeats for each of the others in the room before retrieving one for herself.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a small nod. "I... guess. If you bypassed the safeties and... oh bucking... did they bypass the safeties? Can you access one of these towers and get me it? Wait. No. Dang it. They probably disolve once you break them, anyway... ughhhhh..." she grumbled, face palmed.

"Well, yes, magic is an energy. But in this world it doesn't follow all the rules that magic is supposed to follow," Hinoiri said. "And so it ends up just... working weird." She then tapped the button, letting the signal go out...

And... it was definitely something different from what they were used to. "I guess... hmmmm... it shouldn't be gathering data or anything? That might be something they attached to it? All of the sensors I attached were more to make sure the energy drain didn't go too hard. I didn't want anyone to like... die to it. Or any sparkle be too dumb and get their flanks killed because they ran into one."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...Oh hey American candy," Rashmi says absently, reaching for the offered chocolate bar. And it's at that point that the contraption sends out its signal, and screens pop to life above Nicomachea's pages, filling with information as the analysis goes on.

"Speaking of working weird," she murmurs. "Hinoiri-chan, any chance you could hit it again? Also Koji-kun, can you check and see if there's any... well, signal in the noise? Like, if it's not *gathering* data, maybe it's *sending* some?"

Koji Silvia has posed:
Humbly accepting the Snickers, Koji puts it away in a pocket before saying 'Sumimasen' softly.

But then he's back to guy in the chair duty and begins clicking on things on the small laptop, "I'll see if I can pull the device's activity log... I -THINK- I remember how to do this, but the most technical I've ever gotten is website design and not anything... mmmm..."

As he waits for his system to try and catch up, he says over his shoulder, "This is all starting to sound more like Star Trek the more you go on, and honestly, you're sounding a lot like a ship's engineer. This guy named Scotty. Their ship is ALWAYS running into stuff that doesn't make sense, and it's always breaking things on the ship, and he's always got to fix it, which just teaches them about some new thing about the universe. It just doesn't make sense yet. You sound like you'll get it. Eventually."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou grins as Koji references Trek, and she drops her voice a little and puts on a Scots brogue as she does a reasonable imitiation of Montgomery Scott, "Ach, the more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."

She then looks over at Hinoiri, "It's an exploration vessel, so it's their job to go look for the wierd..."

Then she lets out a happy sigh, and quotes, "...her continuing mission...to seek out new life...and new civilizations...to boldly go where no-one has gone before."

And of course she's taking on Patrick Stewart's tones by the time she's done.

Yes, the school nurse is a tremendous nerd.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara nodded, pushing the button again. The signal... was weird. It wasn't like the ping, at all. It was definitely looking for something else. Unless they were familiar with some of the stuff that Yellow Voice used, they likely wouldn't even recognize it.

Hinoiri blinked a few times. "Scotty? I'm... not familiar. I think I saw a little bit of it? The one with the laser swords, right? It was pretty okay."

"... What? I... I guess I am where nobody from my world has ever been. But... I don't think it's really my mission. Sora actually forbade me from ever coming through this portal. Unless this is the thing with the laser swords again. And the weird like... jet racer things?" she said, giving another shrug. "... I really feel I'm missing something here."

"Can you make sure to print out the magical signature?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"It's the *other* big space thing," Rashmi chuckles. "Less space wizards and laser swords than intergalactic exploring and occasionally politics. And... yeah, I can do that. Which reminds me..."

Slipping a pair of SD cards out of her pocket, she sets one aside, and slips the other into her phone. After a couple seconds, both Nicomachea and phone *ping!* and the card is removed. "Also I promised you Telepathy code, Hinoiri-chan; that's on the blue card, the images of the signature's on the red card. If you need it on paper instead I can pop down to the Computer Club room and take care of it that way?"

Koji Silvia has posed:
    *POP!*

And some smoke begins to rise up from The Box, filling the air with an ozone stink.

Disconnecting that from the laptop, he catches some screenshots to keep and then starts unplugging and folding it down, "That might not have been weird magic stuff. Like I said... I only just built it. Could have been a bad connection, or just this special bad-guy GPS is running too much power."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou's nose wrinkles as she leans back from the distinctive odor of burning electronics, "Mister Silvia, let me know if you need some extra funds to build a more robust Thing in the future."

She then nods at Rashmi's attempt at clarifying the difference between the major 'Star ____' franchises, "Star Wars is laser swords and good space wizards fighting evil space wizards. Star Trek is science and exploration of the unknown. They're both good in their own ways...it's more a matter of which kind of adventure appeals to you more at the moment."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a small nod. "Ahhhhh. So the wars one is about the... politics and such? The whole trade federation thing? While trekking is more about trekking through the star systems? Are they connected, or is it just one of those things where everyone throws 'star' at the beginning of things?" Hinoiri asked.

"... Space wizards and space scientists both sound fun, though."

She'd then take the cards and shake her head. "Nah, this is fine. I just figure, well... Yellow Pearl Voice is funding all of this research, it'd be nice to be able to give her some information aside from like... I managed to turn this thing on. I figure I stole it from the bad guys right in front of her, so she'll be happy to know it got some good information."

"Thanks, by the way. For helping me with this. I'm sorry I can't do a lot with the towers. But... on the upside? I only made so many of them. So unless they learn how to reverse engineer them, they'll run out eventually. So... that's good?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...Close enough," Rashmi says, probably to the utter *indignation* of the sci-fi nerds. "And you're welcome, Hinoiri-chan. Seriously, I'm *really glad* to help, and I'll definitely see if we can put those passwords to good use. Or... well any use, really. Also if the Device math starts to give you headaches, I *think* Nicomachea has a basics primer I can give you. It wasn't much of a help for me, but..." With a shrug, she grins. "Leaning challenged."

Koji Silvia has posed:
With all of that done, Koji packs up his laptop and the Thing, and replies to Setsuna, "The Computer Club is very suspiciously well-stocked, Miss Meiou. Like a lot of things at this school. I first need to see what shorted out, and then maybe figure out if I should install some kind of voltage reader to measure the spikes. If it gets that far, I may come and ask. After all... if I keep signing out materials from the bins, eventually someone's going to ask what I'm making."

Picking up the boxes, he heads for the door, "As usual, Rashmi... call me if you need me. You both have a good evening."

He then stops, and looks back at Hinoiri for a moment, and adds, "By the way. I don't exactly LIKE people knowing I'm in the middle of all this stuff. So... you knowing is going to bother me for a bit. But if these two vouch for you, and Usagi likes you... then I can get over it."

As he hits the door, he adds, "And the jacket's cool! Really retro-punk. If you want some patches or some pins to decorate it with, I know some corner shops you can hit. I can also get you a book on how to sew on leather!"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou supresses the urge to wince at Rashmi, then lets out a little sigh and shakes her head.

It's close enough for the uninitiated, she supposes.

After a moment, she snaps her fingers and looks at the bespectacled redhead, "Hey, Rashmi...did you ever finish with that copy of the Clavica Salomonis de Secretis I loaned you? Since Miss Kirara specializes in magical studies, perhaps she might have better luck with it."

The taller woman turns a little to look at Hinoiri, "If you'd like to take a crack at it, it's a tome of supposedly magical rituals for use by those with little or no magic from a very long time ago that I managed to rescue, but I never managed to find out if they actually worked or not, or if they were just mad imaginings. The catch is that you'll have to do some translating from Attic Greek to read it."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a sheepish smile to Rashmi. "For what it's worth? If I took over the world I'd always see you as prime lackey material." She was only partially joking.

She did give a small wave to Koji, though. "Good luck with that. People with a lot of magic stuff tend to draw attention eventually. And... thanks. I think? It's just a lot like the one I came here in, suits me." Pleather was cool.

However, at the mention of magical spells for non-magical things? Her eyes lit up. Almost physically. "YES! I mean, err, yes. I'd be happy to take care of that. And eh, I've translated ancient languages before, it can't be that hard. Not any worse than most the hoofwriting I've seen."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Take care, Koji-kun, and thanks!" Rashmi says, lifting a hand, "and let me know if *I* can help anything *you're* working on!"

Turning back to the girls, Rashmi chuckles. "'Lackey.' I mean, given your standards, I'd take it. And... oh that's right!"

Turning to Nicomachea, Rashmi gestures the screens away, then reaches out and plucks a cloth-wrapped, oblong package from Nicomachea's crystal. "I loaned it to Naru-chan for a bit, but... she couldn't make heads or tails of it either." Turning to Hinoiri, Rashmi looks down at the package, then over at Setsuna, then down again... then holds the package out. "So... this book is, technically, like seven hundred years old. It spent most of that time, like, *outside* of time, but... It's the oldest thing I have ever put my hands on. Please, *please* take such good care of it."

Because we all know what happened the *last* time Hinoiri saw a book in Rashmi's care...

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou waves a hand, "Fortunately, Attic Greek is a known if ancient language, so you won't have to build a translation matrix from scratch, it'll merely be a bit time consuming."

She nods at Rashmi's comments about the book, "It WOULD be difficult to replace, so I'll ask you to be careful with it...but that's all. It's supposedly all about binding and summoning things. And if it's something you can make work...well...I'll ask that you not summon anything in it...but the binding rituals, should they work, would likely be of great use in research...so make yourself a copy and get it back to me when you're done and hopefully you can make good use of it."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gulped and slowly reached out her hands, taking the book and... "Don't worry, I'll be very, very gentle with it. Incredibly gentle. I would never intentionally try to hurt a book that isn't trying to hurt me," Hinoiri said.

"And don't worry, if I wanted to summon a bunch of undead hordes or world ending apocalypses I already know half a dozen spells for that. This? This is just going to be research purposes. Unicorn's honor."

Nevermind she wasn't a unicorn right now... How hard could ancient greek possibly be?

Incredibly. The answer was incredibly.