2266/Mahou 101: The Other Side of the Coin

Mahou 101: The Other Side of the Coin
Date of Scene:	24 January 2025
Location:	Radiant Hearts Academy - Rooftop
Synopsis:	Philip meets Entrapta on the rooftop to discuss the Phantom Empire and offers to help her see a demonstration of mirroring. This will end well, I'm sure!
Cast of Characters:	Phantom, 281
Tinyplot:	Mahou 101
Tinyplot2:	The Precure Hunter Attacks!? The Dreaded Precure Graveyard!

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Phantom has posed:
It started with a message sent to one of the fliers Entrapta has put out about the mahou and magic.

TEXT Philip Toms texts Entrapta: Want to know about the other side of magic? Meet me on the rooftop after class.

Which is where Philip is at the moment. His school uniform is covered with a knee-length quilted coat and a pair of gloves as he looks out over the winter landscape, the sun slowly dipping down off to the west.

Beside him is a thermos and couple of disposable paper cups as he's using one of the HVAC units as an impromptu picnic table.

Entrapta (281) has posed:
There are a lot of places around here, but not many that Entrapta is comfortable with. Rashmi showed her the roof, and she's got that area in her repertoire at least. Even if the wind does like to blow away papers. I mean, you can memorize a paper. Even if it's a diagram.

So, the text is received positively. She even shows up, though her classes aren't really that important for her and she's missed a few from time to time. She is carrying what appears to be a roomba in her arms, held close to her chest, as she looks out the doorway to see who is there.

Standard fare, she's wearing a school uniform. It does nothing for her, but school did just let out after all. Eyes looking at the new person, she looks away quickly enough to check out what he has with him.

It does not garner any more reaction. "I put you into my phone as random person number six," she says thoughtfully. "I've had five other people reach out to me, but most of those were about donations of old electronics. But you know about magic so I hope for better today."

Odd opening statement. But she's been said to be quite odd.

Phantom has posed:
"So close to being lucky number seven." Philip responds as he gestures to the unit. "Pull up a seat. Do you like hot chocolate? Chiyo makes some of the best." he admits as he waits for Entrapta to come over to join him. "Oh. No no, no junk here. Just magic. If that's what you want to know about."

"But the magic I'm going to talk to you about is not the magic born of dreams or of the desire to be... it's what they face." he explains as he pours out the two cups and slides one over to the girl.

He glances off in the distance, where a large tower looms. "That's Obsidian." he says, a wave of his hand towards it. "Within it is a group known as Mirage."

"And I was once a general that was tasked with hunting down and capturing Precures."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Entrapta doesn't sit, but she does place her roomba down and lets it roam around. It seems to act like any roomba would, slowly beginning to tidy the rooftop, bumping into things and turning another direction. She smiles at it, and lets it go play. if you can call what it's doing play. Which she can and does.

"I don't know what that is," she says as a response to the offer of cocoa. "But I'm doing some research to try and understand magic, I admit. If you want to add to our knowledge I'd be happy to talk!"

Pause. "Or listen, if you want to go on. Most of my applicants so far have been a bit hesitant to share. It limits the data. Can you tell me more? That's just names, it doesn't really say anything."

Phantom has posed:
"Cocoa? It's melted chocolate mixed with milk. You should try some." Philip offers. But then she says that she's happy to talk, and he chuckles. "Well, you're not running away in terror, so that's a good start." His smile for a moment is wry, before he turns his attention back to the situation. "I'll tell you what I can about the Phantom Empire, what it did, how it did, and what it's motivations were. I'm willing to share, because, I really don't have a reason not to share. But let me start by showing you an image."

Reaching into his pocket, he takes out a small mirror and waves his hand over it. "Let the future in the mirror turn terrible." It's one of the few powers he has, but he brings up an image. Within is a picture of a barren field, amethyst stones jutting out of the ground, the sky dark and grey. From where it can be seen, in the distance is a coffin that is standing upright. There is a girl trapped within, caught in mid-henshin, her arms crossed over her chest as she's bound in ribbons. "This is what I used to do."

"The Phantom Empire wants to destroy love and to plunge the world into darkness and despair. My job was to remove the biggest threats to that."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
"Why would I be afraid?" Entrapta says, as she starts to settle down to sit. Only after her roomba has tidied the floor, but that might have been the plan. She leans over to look at the image, because obviously she would. Looking at it, she memorizes what she's seeing, then looks back to the person holding it.

"I have questions already," she admits. "Are the Phantom Empire and the things you said previously related? You didn't mention, and I don't know if I should be making unwarranted causal assumptions between them yet. Also, why would they want to do that? That sounds particularly illogical, given the general values placed on both love and despair in the stories I've been privy to thus far in my time here."

She seems to be taking it well, though she's approaching it from a statistical viewpoint. Which might be just how she thinks.

Phantom has posed:
Slipping the mirror back into his pocket, Philip responds, "They are one in the same. I was one of their Generals, under the name of Phantom and hunted precures to steal their powers and seal them away. As for the why? A world that is without hope and despair if much easier to conquer, Entrapta." he points out. "Without love, without courage, it's pretty easy to walk over someone to take what you want."

Taking another sip of his cocoa, he considers her for a moment. "Mirage is just one of the organizations within Obsidian. There are several. Most of the time, their objectives align. Some of the time, they don't, and they will actively go out of the way to sabotage each other to advance their own agendas. I doubt that they will ever see past their own gains to see what they can do together."

"Which is why I'm pretty sure that they will eventually lose."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Rubbing her knees with hands on crossed arms, Entrapta listens to the story being told. Her face is calm, as if she's just listening without being invested in it. Which could be a fair statement. She thinks a moment after he's finished, then says, "Sounds like fairly standard specialists."

Tilting her head, she looks to Philip and continues. "Anyone who is in a specific field tends to think that their goals are the only ones that really matter. If you have a biologist and there's a biology aspect to the overall situation, they'll focus on that and ignore everything else. That's why I try to learn every field possible, a generalist overview with a specialist focus is much more effective to obtaining any goal."

She looks down at her roomba, then at the cocoa. "I don't know how to ask for things," she admits. "I'm socially inept. You say that you used to do these things, but you changed your mind? Can you tell me why? Is it just because you believe that they'll lose?"

Phantom has posed:
"How are you ever going to get the answers you want if you don't pose the questions you want answered? I can see your curious. How did he capture them? What's the reason for putting them in mirrors? What happens to them while they are in there?" Philip isn't mocking her, per say, but he's pretty sure he can guess at some of the questions that she might be formulating. "Don't be afraid to ask. Even if I was a dark general still, the shield they put up around the school makes sure I can't do anything."

"But you're right. That's the problem. Everyone wants to be number one. Everyone wants to be the one that's declared the victor. And they give little care about how they do it. Or who they harm along the way." Philip starts to respond, before Entrapta asks a question. Just not the one that he was expecting.

A little sigh comes out in a puff of breath that is visible as mist as he slumps slightly. He gets a smile. Not a bad one, one that just seems wistful. "It wasn't really something that changed my mind. It was someone." he explains. "I carried out the cardinal sin of the Phantom Empire."

"I fell in love with someone that wasn't Queen Mirage."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Actually Entrapta hadn't even considered those aspects, the ones that philip is now postulating. She is NOW, but at the time? Not even a hint of them. Tilting her head back and forth, she considers everything that he's just said, and takes a moment to consider.

Moving past the love of someone, since that doesn't interest her at all, she says, "Okay. So you can't show me any magic, that's a negative. I was hoping to see some. Let's gather what data we can then. Tell me about the process. How does it work? Could it be re-created, so I could study it?"

WHY would you want to do that? She really isn't good at explaining her reasons for things. Perhaps she wants to be able to un-do it, or maybe she's actually evil herself and wants to be able to improve her ability to do things, but so far it most likely falls under the category of: she's curious.

"I could possibly adapt that to a billion other avenues of knowledge and discovery, I've never seen anyone doing capture type magic and the concept is fascinating."

Admittedly this might feel alittle jarring just after Philip mentioned falling in love, but Entrapta isn't very well socialized yet.

Phantom has posed:
It's not jarring at all, really. A laugh comes from the fallen general. "Oh you remind me of Riventon. All of his focus is on science!" Philip responds with more than a little amusement. "Let's work the problem in reverse. We'd need to leave the school grounds, and I'm not sure if I have enough magic left in me yet to give you a full show. Nor do I think you want to volunteer someone... well no, you probably would hope someone would get mirrored so you could see it."

"But mirroring can happen to anyone. The other generals of the Phantom Empire, when they attack, they mirror the civilians around them to create troops called kindabads. Kindabads are made from the despair in a person's heart. Now, there's another one above that. The terribad. These are people or things that have built up a lot of despair, and they make much larger monsters."

"Precures... pretty cures, on the other hand... are full of hope and promise. If you capture one with the Eternal Gauge - you can trap them between their forms. And by seperating them this way, they become a source of power that the Phantom Empire can harness. That's what makes the current Phantom so dangerous. She's new, but she's far more reckless with her abilities than I was."

"It can totally be recreated. But the question is - how do you recreate it without... wait." There's a pause, a tilt of his head as he considers her. And it's turn to ask the question. "You're not magical, are you?"

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Entrapta was about to answer other things, but Philip kept on talking so she tabled them for later. Then other things, and questions! But again, more talking. Then at the end, she goes through the table and answers it all. In order.

"I'm totally on the side of Science! That's always been my goal, maybe the only goal. Maybe not, I keep getting told that there's more to it and the data seems to back that up. But that just means that I need to invent a new type of science, one that defines and works with love as a data point."

She seems serious. And might be smart enough to do it. "I'm not supposed to leave the school grounds without someone to escort me. But you're someone. You still haven't told me what mirroring is, aside from a way to hold someone. I'm guessing that you don't really know yourself, or you'd have led with that level of description. Most of the people I meet here have only a very peripheral understanding of how they do what they do, so that's normal."

She skips the naming of the enemies, names are never relevant data. "With enough data I can work with anything. And no, I didn't have a crystal so I don't have magic from my world. I haven't managed to decipher magic here yet to a point where I can really say whether or not I have magic, but that term is so vague as to be effectively meaningless. I can't fly or transform, and those seem to be fairly universal. Does that answer your question?"

Phantom has posed:
"Remember that first image I showed you, of all the girls trapped? That's mirroring - it's done through the Eternal Gauge, if it's permament. Otherwise, it's a way to seperate a person's despair from themself and make it into a temporary physical creature that can attack on your behalf. That's the simplest way to put it. The more complicated way is to say that when you feel at your lowest, and most depressed? A mirroring takes those emotions and gives them form. And it's what drives the power of the Phantom Empire, that feeds on despair and hopelessness."

Maybe a better explanation? He's not sure, but Philip is being as open as he can with her. "Huh. Who put that rule on you?" he asks Entrapta. "Sounds like they're trying to keep you from doing your own exploration and research. But yes. I am someone. I'm not sure I can contact the person that is the current Phantom. Her name is Scorn." And there's things about that that Philip won't go into.

"But I do still have contacts with the Oresky Trio. I could ask them about putting on a demonstration for you."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Okay, out of order it is. "Rashmi told me not to leave without someone to escort me, after Amy found me walking in traffic. Apparently I need more education in how street lights work and experience with oncoming cars." She doesn't seem upset. "I believe it's to keep me from getting ..she called it 'splatted'."

She smiles. "It seemed like an affectionate term when she said it. Nobody has ever kept me from doing my own research." That last statement sounds almost indignant.

"The general setup of what you're describing suggests a non-crystalline wave form, possibly a counter form. It'd be very interesting to get a sample of, see if the concept holds. If so that leads to a lot of possible experiments! I could potentially create ways to counter any form of magic given enough time and energy. That's a fascinating thought."

"I'd need to do the math on it but there's a lot of possibilities. If I had some actual mirror form magic I could study, even better."

Phantom has posed:
"Ah. The ramen girl." Philip nods. "She seems pretty bossy at times. But she means well. And yes, getting hit by a car is generally a bad idea. Has someone actually sat you down to explain these things to you?" There's a curious look at that. But really, no his rodeo, not his clowns.

"Good. Always be open to doing your own thing. Don't let others dictate to you." He's only been under Mirage's thumb for almost 300 years. What does he know?

"We can't do it tonight, obviously, but if you give me time to contact the Oreskys, I can see if they can set up something for you." And make sure they don't mirror her? Maybe? What type of terribad would Entrapta make?

"Or, if I can find a way, since you're right - there's a reason the graveyard has so many crystals - there might be a way to talk to someone about getting you a tour of the graveyard itself. Not sure how likely that is though."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Entrapta leans forward, then smiles. "I'd really appreciate it, there's so much more data that I could collect and work with if I didn't have to wait so very much. People keep their magic to themselves, and that's no way to advance the cause of science!"

She clearly has some issues with personal space and ownership, but it's just as clear that her friends are working on those very issues with her. "People tell me a lot of things, but I'm here for the science!" And that she's not necessarily internalizing those lessons yet.

One lab accident away from being a mad scientist. Yeah, Riventon would love her. "Let me know when we can go do that, okay? I'll try and prepare for it, so I can get some readings! There's so much more I could do with a bit more data!"

That's when her roomba bumps into her, her energy level bar showing low. "Hm. Was there much more you wanted to talk about? Emily is running low and she needs her recharge bay. I'm working on better batteries, but it's a slow slog at times."

Phantom has posed:
"I have your number. I'll keep in touch." Philip responds. Oh, if Philip knew what he really was, there would probably be much much more to discuss. But that's for a different time. Finishing off the rest of his cocoa, he collects the cups so that he can throw them away.

"And yes, take... Emily, was it? to get recharged. I look forward to next time we meet." And with that, he's making his way off the roof and back into the general masses that he's been thrust upon. For now.