2354/Radiant Infirmary Episode 2354: Help Wanted

Radiant Infirmary Episode 2354: Help Wanted
Date of Scene:	23 February 2025
Location:	Administrative Office
Synopsis:	Exhausted after the events of Breaking News and Catharsis, Rashmi petitions Setsuna for a medical excuse from school... And to relay the news of the night's terrible events. ...And to ask for an adequate workspace to work on Nicomachea. Which is granted... in the Gates of Time.
Cast of Characters:	Rashmi Terios, Setsuna Meiou

---

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Throwing a chunk of the forests on the Radiant Heart campus under Barrier, and demolishing the absolute hell from it, did at least accomplish one good thing; it got Rashmi exhausted enough to shed her *physical* tics. Her mind is still a-whirl, and as the sun rises over the Academy, and the redhead remains awake, she looses a long sigh, and starts to text Setsuna.

<< TXT to SETSUNA -- Hey Setsuchan. Got a lot of news, and I'm gonna need another day pass to catch up on sleep. Let me know when you're in your office? >>

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
If one were watching the time, the response would come to the SECOND that the Infirmary is scheduled to open:

<< TXT to Rashmi -- I'm in the infirmay now. Come see me soonest. >>

Rashmi Terios has posed:
When Rashmi shows up in the infirmary, once again she looks like fime miles of bad road. Hair a-frizz, bags under her eyes, tear tracks... But there's a difference this time; the *lost* look in her eyes is gone. She looks haunted, yes... but full of a tired kind of fury, which would explain why sleep has proven elusive.

And even still, she tries to smile. "Heyyyy, Setsuchan," she says, as the infirmary door shuts. "Yoooou're gonna want full privacy for this... If only so the wrong people don't see the imagery."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
There's no time for the usual circumstance about the Infirmary, as the moment Rashmi enters and Nurse Meiou sees her...the Nurse is gone, and suddenly Setsuna Meiou is grabbing her friend and pulling her into a big hug...for the redhead looks like she probably needs it.

Silently, behind her back, the door gets closed and various locks can be heard engaging...but for the moment, at least, Setsuna is focusing on one of her first friends.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"WLPH," is Rashmi's first and most eloquent observation, because surprise hugs are surprises first. But it's only a moment before she wraps her arms around Setsuna and squeezes, tight. Because oh, yes, a hug is something she *badly needed* after her night.

And then she leans back, and opens her mouth, and the next two sentences alone are enough to describe the shape of the problem.

"...We found Starcrash. And... we found Molly-chan."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
During the hug, Setsuna carries Rashmi over to a chair, and when the smaller girl breaks the hug, Setsuna sits her down before grabbing another chair and pulling it up near her.

As Rashmi lays out those two short sentences, the older woman blinks, then narrows her eyes and frowns, "...the way you say that makes me think that there's rather a lot of untold story behind those seven words."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi nods a couple times, and lets out a long, ragged sigh. Going over the story multiple times only hours after living it isn't... pleasant, but necessary. One does not date Chrono without growing used to the concept of after-action debriefing.

"There was a blackout last night," she begins, tapping Nicomachea and coming away with a pair of melon Ramune, still chilled due to its time spent in Device stasis. One is offered out to Setsuna, as she continues.

"It was caused by a *huge* burst of Dark Energy, and with it was a distress call, with Starcrash's signature. ...In the call was Molly-chan's voice. So... Nicomachea blew an alarm right into my brain to get me out of bed. ...And I met up with some others, and we went to go check it out. ...The center of the blackout was this... tower. Not an Eclipse Tower, and it had this big metal sphere at the top."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna takes the offered bottle and absently pops the marble before taking a sip as she listens to Rashmi begin her tale.

A frown crosses her face as Rashmi tells of the distress call and the tower it came from.

Mostly because she knows her friend enough to see the little tells.

If they had found Molly alive, Rashmi would have been reacting with immense joy.

And would problably have Molly in tow.

If they'd found Molly DEAD, Rashmi would probably have mentioned that at the beginning...and been making arrangements about her body.

The fact that neither of those things is true means that something ELSE is going on...and none of the circumstances at the end of those lines of possibility are very good.

Right now it's just a matter of hearing her out and finding just HOW bad the situation is as she cautiously says, "...go on..."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Nodding, Rashmi taps Nicomachea's charm again, extracting a small USB drive, which she hands over... before removing the Device entirely from its string around her neck, bidding him change into Active Mode with a thought. "Everything on there is everything I'm about to show you... I just figured you'd want your own copy."

Screen after screen pops up, showing several views of the inside of the sphere; A medical restraint chair, its restraints broken outward. Equipment and paraphernalia of both medical science and the uglier kinds of magic. A wall covered with x-rays and clinical shots displaying grievous harm, the bones and organs and meats rent by brutal force... And the staples, spells, and enchanted threads needed to put the flesh back together.

The last picture is very different; black cloth covering a doorway to another room, and Starcrash resting upon a samurai's weapon stand.

Ready to be taken up at a moment's notice.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Silently taking the offered memory stick, Setsuna absently twists her hand and dismisses it to her spatial pocket, at the same time replacing it with her henshin pen which she absently begins spinning through her fingers like a fidget spinner.

The picture of the medical and necromantic instruments gets the mild frown she'd been sporting earlier to twist into a full-on scowl.

This story is DEFINITELY taking the express lane to 'WORST CASE SCENARIO'

She absently takes a sip of her ramune, then sighs and gestures with her bottle as if to say, 'go on'.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
*PHOONK*

As if Setsuna's drink reminded her she had her own soda, Rashmi chooses now to push the marble down, and takes a sip. "Weeeeell... then I scanned Starcrash, and he was charged up and pretty much whole... then he activated and did two things, one right after the other. The first thing was sent Nicomachea a massive download -- too quick and compressed to not be corrupted, so he's working on restoring that -- and the second thing was threaten to fire on all of us, on his own. That's when he was stopped. ...By Molly-chan's voice. Molly-chan's voice *without an accent.*"

Setsuna has spent more than five minutes in proximity to Molly, it is *known* what a British accent does to Japanese.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As one who speaks a vast plethora of languages to the level of a native speaker (it got REAL boring around the Gates, and there was a LOT of time to practice various languages and dialects), Setsuna is well capable of speaking Japanese with a vast number of accents...and of course having heard Molly's typical mangling of Japanese ( counterpointed by Minako's mangling of English the last time she heard the blonde speak it in English class ), she knows that if Molly was speaking without an accent, one of two things was going on.

Either
    A: Molly had suddenly gotten a LOT better at Japanese via some kind of magical means
OR
    B: Molly wasn't driving that body anymore, and whatever WAS there didn't have an accent.

She REALLY hoped the answer was A...but by this point, Setsuna was fairly well convinced that the answer was B.

She then does her best to contain her irritation by guzzling down the remains of her ramune...

Or...

Well...

ATTEMPTING to.

Because of the way the Codd-neck bottle is designed, it's impossible to chug from one...which leaves Setsuna getting sadly MORE irritated as she tries.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"At which point, Starcrash flew through the cloth into the other room," Rashmi says, nodding at the irritation on Setsuna's face. "And this is what greeted us."

All the other pictured bwip away, to be replaced by a woman, seated at a very Japanese low table, with sushi in front of her. A woman in her mid-20s, dressed in what can only be described as 'sexy kimono.'

A woman who put very red lipstick on Molly's face.

"...She calls herself Seriss Nyx," Rashmi says, that tired anger flaring up again in her voice. "And I'm pretty sure that was the last true word that came out of our mouth. Including that Molly herself was 'in Valhalla, isn't that where people who fall in battle go?'"

Rashmi has *never* been impolite enough to do the 'snotty teenager voice.' *What did this woman do?*

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As the image of 'Seriss' comes up, Setsuna stares for a few moments, then very deliberately closes her eyes and takes a few calming breaths before opening them again.

She opens her mouth to say something...but then there's a sharp 'CRACK' noise from her right hand...and she blinks and looks over to see that the ramune bottle...a bottle type that is known for being made of particularly heavy duty glass...in her hand is now sporting a rather large stress fracture.

The older woman looks mildly embarassed as she dismisses the bottle to her dimensional pocket as well with a murmur of, "...'ll ressicle tha ltrr..."

She takes another deep, calming breath, then says, "...go on."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...No I get it," Rashmi says. "Trust me... The last thing I did before trying to sleep was to blow up a pretty healthy chunk of forest... under Barrier. So... she wasn't very open about her aims and whatnot... except to use Molly-chan's potential 'like the poor girl never did.' ...After which she decided Starcrash needed an... aesthetic update. *On the spot.* *Just *rearranged him with whatever jerk magic she's got.**"

Dutifully, Nicomachea displays 'Seriss Nyx' in her Barrier Jacket, all swept-back spikes and half-mask showing off her red lipstick. And Starcrash, now a spear with a broad, split bident blade, and the once-purple gem now a deep red, shot through with a single purple crack."

"...So I get wanting to break things. A *pacifist mermaid* was with me, and when I said I wanted to tear her throat out *she understood.*"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
The look on Setsuna's face is...rather bland.

Flat.

Emotionless, even.

At a glance, it kind of looks like she's not really reacting at all...

But to someone who knows her as well as the redhead across from her, Setsuna's adoption of such an uninterested expression is a sign she is livid beyond words.

After a moment, she waves a little again to indicate Rashmi should continue her tale...that gesture all she can trust herself with at the moment.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...That's it, mostly," Rashmi says, her voice hard as stone. "We left before I did something all of us would regret, and while we were going away she seemed to take Starcrash's grimoire for a spin, so... Glad I didn't try to go for her face."

The picture bwips away, and Nicomachea glows, before melting back into his standby configuration, which Rashmi fetches to replace on her string. "After we got back, I woke up Pulp Noir, because he was *never* convinced she was really dead, and he deserved to have a *little* win in all of this. Then I blew up the forest, then I tried to get some sleep... when a problem occurred to me."

Finishing off the last of her soda, she looks up at Pluto. "When I started the design project to upgrade Nicomachea... I always figured I'd do what I normally did, and steal a workplace under Barrier to use. ...But then it occurred to me, uh... I won't be *able* to have a Barrier up if Nicomachea's, y'know, disassembled. So... How much room does your garage have?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
With a huge sigh blown out, Setsuna forces herself to relax a little, and she leans over to give Rashmi a brief hug again as she hears what her friend had to do to regain her composure.

Then, as the redhead asks about garage space, Setsuna frowns a little, "...well, between the '66 Corvette, the GT40, and my Rogue, there actually ISN'T a lot of room in the garage."

She shakes her head, "Certainly not enough for what I imagine you'll need to do some precision upgrading of as complicated a piece of equipment as Nicomachea is..."

Setsuna trails off, however, a slight frown and a 'pondering' expression on her face before she cautiously goes on, "...you'd want the barrier to prevent outside interferene and contamination, yes?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Well that... And uncomfortable questions like 'who are you,' 'are you a member of Shop Club,' and despite having a key..." Rashmi trails off, and closes her eyes. "'...Where's our little girl?'"

And she just... sits with that for a moment, because while nobody, herself included, having the courage to tell them their daughter is gone seems to have paid off... it's still an ongoing act of cowardice, not answering any of the fliers.

"...Yeah. I need a secure workspace."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
The reminder of the grim circumstances causes Setsuna to pause...then once more visibly take a few deep breaths to get herself centered once more before she sighs and reaches up to pinch the bridge of her nose.

She sits like that for a few moments more before returning her attention to Rashmi...and then Setsuna's expression takes on just the slightest tinge of amusement.

She's by no means feeling amused, but at the moment, she's seeing at least a small note of positivity in that she thinks she can offer her friend precisely what she ACTUALLY NEEDS rather than what she is planning to settle for.

With a tiny little smile, Setsuna tilts her head a little, "So that then begs a question...how well would you be able to work if you had a clean-room grade workspace that was exempt from the regular rules of entropy?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Well it'd be *fantastic* to work from inside a Device inventory but like I saaaiiiioooooooh, okay," Rashmi says, as the penny drops in real-time. "...I mean, I'd need blankets on lines or some folding screens or something, otherwise I'd spent half my work-time tilting until I fell over? Setsuchan I adore you but it is *scary* that you've gotten used to not having a horizon."

However, the idea of having the White Void as a workspace *is* producing a small, answering smile. Because nothing feels better than a project, slowly gaining momentum.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna's smile grows a bit as Rashmi cottons on to what she'd been suggesting...but that is soon replaced by a blink and a confused look, "...I don't know what you mean."

Yes, to her, the space around the Gates is normal...and she's so far totally failed to grasp that Rashmi and Usagi both at least find the white void somewhere between depressing, frightening, and confusing.

After a moment, though, she shrugs and points to the little movable cloth dividers on stands that the infirmary has that can be moved around a bed to provide a certain level of privacy, "I've got a bunch of these that I can set up there for you along with whatever work table you need. Would that work?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Setsuchan you've been living there for thousands of years," Rashmi explains. "Either you've given up on finding a horizon, or you're okay with there being absolutely nothing to orient you on your position in the world. Either way, you'd've *had* to get used to that, but..."

Rashmi manages a small chuckle. "For the rest of us it's... *super disorienting,* all the contradictory information with absolutely no frame of reference. Anyway... Yeah, those'd work great. I can totally deal with the ground and the sky being the same color, as long as there's something that divides them."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
The taller woman stares at Rashmi for a few moments, then absently shrugs, "...if that's what you need, but to be honest, the space around the Gates never really bothered me THAT much, even when I first got assigned there."

Perhaps another small reminder that Setsuna is perhaps a bit...odd.

This is the woman who never needs a watch to know what time it is down to the second no matter where she is in the world, after all.

After a few more moments she shakes her head, "...okay, then. I'll mark you as medically absent from your classes today. Go crash in your bed, because there's no way I'm letting you work on Nicomachea without having had a good solid eight hours sleep beforehand."

She then pauses as a thought occurs, "...actually, let me get you mild dose of diphenhydramine in case you have problems falling asleep."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"That sounds... like a really good idea," Rashmi sighs, as the exhaustion starts creeping in around the edges, as if summoned. Slipping out of her chair, this time *she* initiates a hug, one that she knows both of them really need. "Thank you, Setsuchan... And... don't worry. I'm not gonna go looking for trouble."

"And if I find out who's responsible, you're gonna be the *first* person I tell."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna willingly returns the hug...then steps away for a moment to one of the little walk in closets at the back of the room.

She's in there for a few minutes before stepping back out and handing Rashmi a pair of sample-size packets, "Okay. Take one of these packets when you get back to your room and you're ready to sleep. Keep the other around for later, as I'm sure you'll have a time you need it eventually."

And with that said, she gives the redhead another quick hug and a kiss on the top of the head before unlocking the Infirmary and chivvying Rashmi out, "Go sleep. I'll expect to hear from you tomorrow."