2410/What the Roomba

What the Roomba
Date of Scene:	16 March 2025
Location:	The Shed
Synopsis:	Minako brings Ami to the shed to catch up on current events. They run into Bow and Amy while there. An unexpected visitor then summons Entrapta as they meet Emily the Roomba.
Cast of Characters:	Minako Aino, Bow, Ami Mizuno, Amanda Faust, 281

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Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino leads the march out to the Shed that many at Radiant Heart Academy were already familiar with. Just past the little wooded area, down a path, past a series of various Tanuki statues that were mismatched and didn't seem to make a lot of sense as to why they were there. The statues are ignored in favor of approaching the little tool shed that stood there looking completely ordinary and not at all like a secret hideout.

"So much has happened," she chatters idly to Ami while pausing to twist the doorknob the wrong way to open the door. Which in fact was the right way to access the magical entry to the Shed. Instead of a small little shed it opens into what appears to be an empty classroom with several chairs, desks, windows that brought in sunlight that didn't seem to match the correct time of day, and doors that led who-knows-where beyond. Their own little Tardis.

In she sweeps heading for one of the chairs to flop down into with a tired sigh. It had been a long day and even though she had skipped volleyball practice, she was still enjoying the momentary downtime.

"Now, first things first," she declares as she reaches around to her bag to pull out... Snacks. "Salty or sweet, Ami-chan?"

Bow has posed:
Already in the Shed, Bow has a carving knife out and a block of wood. Seems he's working on a new figurine. His bow is folded down into it's compact state, set on another part of the table as he hums to himself. Drawing the knife back and forth across the wood as he whittles, he chews on his lip. When he hears the door to the shed open, he glances over, catching sight of Ami and Minako.

"Hey!" he greets warmly. "Didn't feel like sitting in my room, but can totally duck out if you need the space!" comes the offer to the pair of girls, as he lowers his knife for the moment, rubbing a thumb over the wood to get a feel for it.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Sweet, please," Ami declares quietly, sighing as she sinks down into one of the opposite chairs. A moment of rarity-- slump as if melting in the comfort of shelter, as far as possible from weather's wicked whims! "Though should probably not have too many before dinner," she adds, a brief stretch before she leans forward against her knees with a sigh of reverence.

"Well, at least the world has not ended or anything," she says with faint cheer, a smile brightening her features. "So, that is something? And hello!" she adds, straightening up quickly. "No, we were just--" She pauses, glancing out the window.

"-- visiting?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy (with a y) is already here as well, wearing her favorite red skirt and a dark T-shirt with a chibi cartoon tiger saying 'nyo' on it, sitting on an old couch reading her phone, seemingly in intense thought until the two girls' arrival and dialogue makes her look up. "Oh, hey. How's the leg?"

    She blinks at Bow, smiling at his earnest politeness, but has to point out, "There literally cannot not be enough space in here, Bow. It actually gets bigger when more people are in here, or we're doing something that needs more space. Have you seen Entrapta's firing range?" She jerks a thumb towards the door in one wall.

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino glances over at Bow to flash a smile in his direction. She'd seen him before several times, but wasn't exactly paying much attention before. There was a lot going on in her life back then. "Oh hey! Sorry if we're interrupting, just thought it would be a good place to talk shop for a bit."

Dutifully she hands over the little bag of chocolate Koala cookies to Ami while keeping the bag of senbei crackers for herself. The spicy kind! Which is to say they weren't very spicy at all but had a nice little bite.

Amy's question regarding her leg is responded to by the leg in question swinging up into the air as if demonstrating it was all well and good. Not the most lady-like way to show that she was actually doing better. "All healed. Bit stiff, but Mamoru-san took care of it for me. I took a day off practice just in case to let myself heal up more. And," she adds while tearing open the bag of crackers. "I'm taking my vitamins and eating lots of protein too." Seriously. Honest.

Bow has posed:
"Naw, just didn't know if you were discussing you know like... top secret Sailor stuff." Bow responds easily enough as he picks up the sandpaper to work on the figure for a few moments. "I didn't feel like being couped up in the dorms, and there's so much pollen outside today, figured I'd crash here for a bit and hobby out. I think we met briefly once, though. I'm Bow, user of archery bows, violin bows and bows that go on presents." he offers in greetings, pretty much a one trick pony.

When Amy mentions the range, there's a nod of Bow's head. "I was using it earlier, though it's probably more for much bigger and flashier attacks than mine." he admits with a chuckle, though he politely turns when Minako goes flashing her gam around.

"Treats do not count as protien and vitamins."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami (with an -i!) bites back a tiny smile. "Treats ar ea vital part of a balanced and nutritious meal, she says matter-of-factly, "With occasional diverions into things wonderful and sweet," she says, sighing anew-- this time with relish. Carefully, neatly, she begins unfurling the packaging, letting the contents' chocolate fragrance waft into the air. "Domo, Minako-san. You remembered!" Plucking one of the cookies from inside, she nibbles the edge with delighted bliss. "It has been too long," she says dreamily. "Impossible to find while travelling!"

Another nibble (bitenibblebite) stolen, she folds her hands together, glancing at the leg in question more seriously. "Got hurt?" she asks, glancing up again intently.

Entrapta (281) has posed:
In the shed, there is a table. On the table is a watch. The watch is broken, it looks as if someone has struck it with a hammer or something, and there is a piece of paper beside it.

No, Entrapta (mentioned earlier) is not here, but it appears that she's left something. Visible, odd enough to draw attention perhaps, but weird.

A broken watch, and a piece of paper? It has a scribble on it, a bunch of math that a smart person could identify. It says, around the math, that the writer is upset with the watch and why.

Inaccuracy. Why? Because. Why? Because it drifts. How much? One second every six months. Which is, apparently, unacceptable variation of drift and ...

The note then drifts off into scrawled complaints about 'how am I supposed to work with these tools?' and 'inventing something better'. Some of which is in Etherian.

Nerd stuff.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy briefly looks surprised at Mina moving the leg so readily, but nods. She looks at Bow. "I mean, if it was top secret senshi stuff they'd ask us to leave, I guess. Or maybe just arrange a meeting spot over the communicators?" Amy holds up her left wrist -- out of henshin, there's her senshi communicator, disguised as a calculator-watch.

    She gives Ami a curious look. "Traveling? Oh, where did you go?" she wonders.

Minako Aino has posed:
"Of course I remember," Minako assures while popping a few of the salty soy sauce flavored crackers in her mouth to crunch away on, cheeks puffed out. Her mouth does remain closed though she raises her eyebrows at Bow's remark and quickly gulps it down. "I-" she begins only to cough with fist raising to pound against her chest quickly. "Dry," she wheezes, and fumbles her free hand in her bag to snag a bottle of tea.

Once that small issue is taken care of she can speak again.

"I eat salad, too! And I had ramen with meat earlier! That's healthy! It wasn't even instant." Of course that doesn't seem as if she'd really mind either way if it were instant or not.

For a moment she does grow more serious though with her hand patting against her knee. "We fought some of the Black Moon Clan the other night, and Rudeus, er, Rubeus I mean. He got a bunch of us with these dark energy spikes. Went right through my thigh and pinned me in place for a bit. But I heal quick, especially with some help."

Glancing around she drums her fingers over the bottle of her tea. "They know a lot of our real identities, and went after Usagi-chan's family. We sent them on a cruise to get them away for awhile. My parents, too. They're mostly after Usagi-chan and ChibiUsa and ultimately the Silver Crystal, though."

Bow has posed:
It was a shot in the dark, but Bow gives Minako a little grin when she snags on the hook he threw out. But, he doesnt go pursuing it, instead, the discarded project on the table has grabbed his attention. Rising from his seat, he makes his way over to the broken watch and picks up the note to read it over. "I'm sure you've probably met her by now, but if you see a short girl with purple hair that talks to objects alot? That's probably Entrapta. She's a mechanical genius and ended up with us other refugee Etherians here on Earth."

He quickly scribbles a few notes back on the paper, adding, 'You should meet with Chrono or Rashmi at the Kourma Chameleon and ask about devices, if you haven't, they're probably the best contacts. Or maybe the Earth does actually move one second faster every six months? Research later.'

His attention returns to the topic of the Black Moon Clan and Rubeus, and he frowns. "Is everything alright now, or do you need any help?" he asks curiously as he moves to return to his seat.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami winces, listening intensely in that totally-focused way of hers. "How did they learn--?" she begins in a brief outburst (for her), quickly calming as she draws a breath. "I should have been here," she remarks with a sigh, torn. "Though perhaps for the best. I was in Kushiro, up north in Hokkaido. Visiting family there." Her smile is weak, a blush rising on her features. "My grandparents. They are very old, and always happy to see us when Mother and I can come. It isn't very often, considering how busy she is...."

She purses her lips, frowning. "They didn't attack them or us, but now--" She takes another cookie from the packet as Bow remarks, brow furrowed in concern even over Nerd Senses <tm> tingling. Chocolate Worries!

Nibble.

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Oh that? The math is a mental re-creation of the physical fluctuations in the liquid crystal that measures time in the watch itself. Basically they were pissing around with the watch and got annoyed that it wasn't accurate enough. What they were -doing- with it? Not stated.

Far away, hunched over a robot that she's currently disassembling, a short purple-haired girl sneezes. The robot, powered down, says nothing as the girl wipes her nose with a tissue, then gets back to work.

"I know, just let me finish this," she mumbles. Then gets back to saudering connections.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nods as Minako describes the fight with Rubeus. "It was rough. But he's finally gone now."

    And then she blinks, and holds a hand to her face. "...Unless they clone him. Shit. Apparently they can do that. We were so relieved, we didn't think about it... Rrrgh..."

    "Oh, they learned by attaching Hino-san's shrine and baiting us into transforming in public because there was no time. You weren't there, so... you're safe, I think."

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino fidgets. She does so in the way that states she had some potentially bad news, or had done something bad, or something similar. "Well, they knew because um, they er..." Here she sighs with her head dropping forward.

"They tricked us. One of the Specter Sisters was attacking awhile ago and Rubeus was watching from the sidelines and saw us henshin."

The explanation is let out in a rush of words as she reluctantly lifts her head expecting to get scolded for being so careless. Especially HER. She was the one that had been at this the longest! She should have known better!

"My parents got on their cruise just fine, but when Usagi-chans folks were preparing to leave some duplicate robots of them showed up to attack, then Rubeus and the Specter Sisters that *we had already killed* and..."

Oh right usually people didn't like talking about the killing thing. She looks around with a sheepish grin. "Uh, we took care of them again."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami's brow unforrows, though her face briefly clouds with The Look. Someone is going to Get Talked Too. But not even in the semi-public/privacy of the Shed.

Sailor Business.

"Have we taken measures?" she asks, folding her hands together once again around her package of crisps. "Rubeus and his cohorts might not be in the picture, but they could have informed others, or left some other hazardous clue."

Dark furrows vanish. Mercury Brainstorming Mode-- she focuses her attention on the absent bits of the timepiece on the table nearby, studying it from a distance as her thoughts run in swift currents beneath placid exterior. "Perhaps we could track our families through the computer, Eternity Main?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Oh yeah no, the threat's not over yet--" Amy shakes her head and waves dismissively, "even if they can no longer clone the fallen for some reason, Saphir and... Emeraude and Diamonte, I think? still know. The threat's not over yet. That's why their families are going on cruises. ...They even found my old identity and concluded he's a missing relative of mine, so they may have dug pretty thoroughly... or just guessed from surname and nationality."

    She looks at Ami curiously. "What's Eternity Main? Oh, also! I was wondering, if there might be any way to locate Nemesis in this timeline, so we can possibly learn more about them through where they came from... and prevent this all from happening again."

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino nods emphatically at the talk of 'not being done.' "They don't work with Obsidian or the others. Some of Obsidian actually came and fought them with us, actually, so I'm not worried about them finding out so much. Saphir, Esmeraude and Diamand? Demande?" She shakes her head a little bit. "We've run into the first two but not the last. They're still around and likely still know what their colleagues found out."

"Also it did seem like they were..." She spreads her hands, gesturing with tea bottle in one hand and crackers in the other. "Making zombies or ressurecting the dead? Kazuo said he felt some kind of energy around them when Saphir puppeted Calaveras the first time we fought her. He said he was 'checking for damage'."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami listens quietly, sliding into movement with studious swiftness. Unfurling the top fromn her satchel, she retrieves a notebook and pen from within, uncapping the dark writing utensil before flipping towards a blank page. "'Damage' rather than 'injuries'?" she asks, writing with precise care. "And possibly unaligned with Obsidian..." She exhales slowly, releasing her breath with a murmur. "Thank the spirits for small favors." She jots down a few more notes, pausing as she checks her notes in quick review. And furrows her brow in thought.

"I'll need a scan on them," she announces gently, gazing down at her book before her eyes rise up. "If they haven't seen me yet, it might still only be a matter of time before they surmise, take a wild guess, or just try for the sake of luring me out. They could come after others near to our civilian identities on purpose or at random."

She taps her pen to her lips, thoughts racing. "I need a scan on them. Sailor Mercury will, at least."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
In the school, in a dorm room where the walls are slightly blackened, a roomba scoots around the floor. Pushed to the limit of roomba technology, little Emily is a miracle of sweeping. She maps the room with minimal input, plots courses, and climbs over obstacles.

She also misses her creator, the AI running her systems far too advanced for a roomba. So she strikes out, making her way through the ducts as she's been taught to do. Minutes later she finds herself in systems and access points, and elsewhere.

And, after a time, a door in the back of the Shed opens slightly. The door says 'The Zone', but it closes just afterward.

And then? Emily sweeps the floor beneath people's feet, doing her job proudly. She has a lot of catching up to do. Good girl.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks to Minako, then back to Ami, clarifying, "Saphir was collecting the bodies of the fallen. They have some ability to animate corpses, which he used to look them over and analyze damage like a fast magic autopsy -- or like seeing what went wrong with an artificial soldier to improve the next version -- but... if the way they brought people back was related, then it was clearly a more advanced and powerful technique. ...I don't know what they actually needed to resurrect people. They didn't recover Koan's body, so her clone was still a teenager and she didn't remember her previous encounter with us; none of them appeared distressed to be clones or resurrected, though."

    A scan... "We have some of the earrings that appeared to focus their power. Did... did we recover one of their bodies? A lot was going on at the end..."

    She looks down at the sight of movement on the floor, which is a surprise since none of the cats came in that she's aware of... "Oh, we got a roomba."

Minako Aino has posed:
"They took the bodies last time. I think I overheard one complaining that she was younger now because someone had buried her body?" Minako had been a little busy at the time so it was hard to pay attention to everything that was going on.

"No bodies this time, but I did get a Heart Crystal--" The thought is cut off as she feels SOMETHING brush by her feet. With a squeal she pulls her legs up on the chair abruptly, twisting to the side to peer down at Emily scooting happily by.

"A what?" Oh, right, those little sweeper bots. Slowly she lowers her feet down again with an embarassed mumble of, "I thought it might have been a mouse."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami nods, note-taking accelerating as she considers and frets and chews on chocolate cookies.

And lifts her feet as Emily zips past underneath. Focused!

"The earrings will help," she says, smile returning to her features for the first time. "Heart Crystal too! Neither one might have a charge anymore, but we might be able to--" She waves her pen in the air, trying to conjure the right answer. "--track their mystical signature? Unravel their dimensional frequencies? Recombobulate their metamagical doowhatsimabobs? Sorry, it's a bit too complicated to explain." Glancing sheepishly, she makes a note in her booklet, flipping a page as she continues. And pauses.

"We have a roomba?" she asks, blinking as she glances up, then down in surprise. "It couldn't be a mouse. I thought Artemis or Luna might have--?"

Entrapta (281) has posed:
Emily slips out of sight. It (she?) doesn't bump into walls, checking the room. It already has the room mapped out in its memory, and doesn't need the impact sensors for that. But then she (it?) catches on a fallen object.

And pauses. The rear wheel catches, stopping on a literal dime that flips up, catching in the rotors, and she panics! There's a whine from underneath a stool, as the roomba revs to try and dislodge the coin.

Trapped! Trying to reverse out the obstacle has no effect, the geometrically flattened spheroid, she stops wasting energy on that wheel.

If a robot could frown, she'd be frowning. But she lacks features. She does, however, call for help. A beeping noise from beneath the stool alerts those listening that she is in need of assistance. And possibly a phillips screwdriver.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks at Minako. "Oh. She wasn't buried. She was left in Kamiko's labyrinth after I accidentally blew her head off." Amy grimaces and rubs the back of her head -- and winces a bit at the pain of the movement pulling on still-sore chest muscles from her wound earlier -- "I just wanted to make sure she was dead, but uh, yeah, it turns out that um. Shaped charge jets do not merely poke holes in flesh once it's no longer protected by magic."

    She doesn't seem to judge Minako for being concerned that a mouse might have brushed her foot.

    "I do wonder about that. A heart crystal can... be depleted? What does that even mean?" She looks at the ring with its ruby-red stone on her left ring finger. "Although... Perhaps it's not unlike a grief seed with no soul in it anymore..."

    She nods at Ami's explanation of tracking them by metaphysical means. "You can just say sympathetic magic. ...I'm kidding, I know it's more complex than that, I understood a little of what Rashmi tried to explain about Devices once."

    She blinks. "Luna and Artemis... do they hunt mice? Although I guess it's little different than humans hunting deer or rabbits, huh..."

    Beeping! "What?" Amy stands up -- and freezes with a pained grunt, very slowly dropping to her hands and knees to look at Emily. "What does that beep code mean?" She searches for an online manual on her phone.

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino holds up her hands quickly to shake at Ami in a 'no don't say it!' way. Thankfully neither of the guardian cats was here right now though. Instead she just looks mildly panicked. "Don't ever suggest Artemis catch a mouse, he will get super offended! He's just as scared of them as I am!" Seriously. How could a cat be afraid of a mouse? They were both up on a chair that time one was in her room.

Amy's further explaination of what happened causes her to settle down a bit as she listens, mouthing a small 'oh' at the correction. "That would make it harder to ressurect someone, I bet."

The sudden beeping of the roomba causes Minako to look over. While Amy is researching what the beeping means she just observes. "... I think it's stuck?" It certainly wasn't moving like it was a moment ago!

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Wincing at the... graphic description, Ami-(i) casts Amy-(y) a dissapproving look before returning her attention to the--

"Adorable!" she proclaims, giggling quietly. Tsking gently, she slips from her chair, setting her notebook aside as she reaches down to touch the disc, poking gently before she experimentally moves it off to one side. "Who could it belong to?" she wonders briefly, straightening back up with a smile. "I wonder if there would be any complaints if we added cat-ear headband to it?" she hazards innocently, the faintest twinkle of mischief radiant in her eyes.

"But anyway," she adds, more seriously from her kneeling position on the floor. "We have some old, possibly discharged objects. Should we try to recover a--" SHe pauses, swallowing around a grimace. "--body for further sample? THough I've no idea how or if Dark Energy might affect them. Have affected them. Zombies?"

Entrapta (281) has posed:
The resonances from the moving people around her make Emily whine her engine hopefully. She knows that help will come, and she's patient. Slowly learning how to understand what the air-vibrations mean through her impact sensors, she's starting to get an idea what they're trying to communicate.

Yes, an impact sensor can be repurposed to deal with other vibrations, if you're sensitive enough. And Emily has nothing if not free time. Not entirely certain about context yet, but the patterns exist. And she's certain that she can...

The front door bursts open. Looking out of breath, Entrapta skids to a stop, looking around frantically. "I..." Gasp for breath. She takes in a lungful of air, eyes scanning about, then she falls to the floor by the roomba, tools in hand.

"I got you, little one," she can be heard saying. "That's my brave girl..."

Wot.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Huh, I'm not finding beep codes..." Amy-with-a-y glances up from her phone at Amy-with-an-i, and from somewhere unbidden surfaces the thought 'better that than a maid headband...' "I dunno. Maybe it's one of Entrapta's projects? Setsuna-chan mentioned Entrapta modified her roomba..." She texts Entrapta, "what does <beep code> mean?"

    And then Entrapta is at the door, out of breath.

    Amy blinks. "It was... a distress call?"

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino starts to stand from her chair but Ami beats her to it. Of course she did. The others were just watching but Ami was curious enough to go over and see. No sooner has she 'rescued' the poor bot than Entrapta rushed in making her glad she hadn't gotten up as well. She'd just be in the way.

"This must be Entrapta, then," she reasons with a nod of acceptance as she watches the other girl with tools and weird goggles on her head start to work on the roomba.

"..."

Maybe Ami and she would become friends?

"Uh, we didn't do it?" She offers hesitantly just in case Entrapta thinks they were messing with it.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"It was following a precalculated pattern of cleaning when it was obstructed by unexpected resistant material along its maneuver route that it could not dislodge with the available tools," Ami explains helpfully, pausing for a moment.

"...It was sweeping and found a coin in the way," she adds, a brief blush on her features. "It could not sweep it away. We did not touch it."

Pause.

"Much. I moved it to one side?"

Entrapta (281) has posed:
"Actually, the coin got stuck in a rotor," the purplette says from the floor. "The other coin was incidental to the issue. She's going to be fine," says the girl with all the aplomb of a mechanic talking from under your mazda x-7.

"I'll have you able to adjust the distance of your wheels, Emily, then you can handle these problems on your own. It's a simple enough addition.." She's mumbling something about tensile strength and replacement axles when she goes quiet.

Then she looks up. "Oh. Hello." finally taking note of the living people in the room. "Yes, it was a distress signal. Note for future encounters." Wait she heard Amy say that?

"I'm sorry it took so long to get here," she says...to the roomba? Or to the humans? It's hard to tell at this point. And with a 'ping', a coin is dislodged, sending it across the room.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy is thinking of the robot birds from that one old webcomic. Minako says this must be Entrapta, and she nods.

    When Ami restates herself, Amy notes, "Well /i/ was impressed with the details and specificity you provided to aid in troubleshooting." Beat. She smiles. "I guess you haven't met Entrapta yet, huh? I think it's fine to talk to her... naturally, instead of worrying about how... typical people would take your words."

    She flinches away from the 'ping', because she's not wearing PPE, and winces, again, at the movement aggravating sore, recovering injuries, but then she looks back to the others. "Entrapta, this is Ami Mizuno-tensai and Minako Aino-san."

Entrapta (281) has posed:
"Uh-huh," Entrapta says, as she does a quick diagnostic sequence on Emily, then sets her loose. "I wonder what she'd look like with cat ears," she says thoughtfully, as she packs up her tools.

And wanders out. Not even fully paying attention to reality? Check. Permission tacitly granted to decorate Emily? Mmmmmm.........

Oh yeah.