273/Starlight Rendezvous

Starlight Rendezvous
Date of Scene:	21 August 2023
Location:	Starlight Mansion
Synopsis:	Some cats will do anything to walk on a keyboard.
Cast of Characters:	Nephrite, Kiseru
Tinyplot:	Midnight Tokyo

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Nephrite has posed:
    The Starlight Mansion stands in the woods, in a forested section of Tokyo. Who the hell can afford a mansion in Tokyo? People with mind control, that's who. At the moment, it's still early morning, totally dark out, and the stars are in the sky overhead. Also the Moon, but best not to think about that. The Master of the house does not appear to be home.

Kiseru has posed:
    There is a person in Obsidian who owes a Favor to the Kiseru Lady. In exchange for having his debt settled, he searched high and low for information about the Midnight Tokyo Project. Nothing in any official source he could find. Not until he found the metadata in the computer that handles the internal TV displays in one of the meeting rooms. He couldn't get much out of it. It was encrypted heavily, after all, and had clearly had efforts to erase it taken place. But he got the name of the person who did the erasing. 'Masato Sanjouin'. This office worker passed along to his debt collector this information, as well as what he could find about where the intern Masato Sanjouin lives, and hoped that the Kiseru Lady would just go ask him. Even if Sanjouin is just an intern, he had closer contact with this project.

    And so it is, that a black cat sneaks through the shrubbery around the Starlight Mansion. Not a black cat. A cat made of... Black and white scribbles. Like an animation of a cat without the details other than shape. It pauses on the edge of some sort of barrier, tail swishing back and forth, and twitches its shadowy whiskers in an attempt to ascertain if Dark Energy constructs can pass through or not.

Nephrite has posed:
    There is no specific defense against Dark Energy per se. But it's not friendly to most things that try to cross it without permission. The magic script for the barrier is all written in constellations and fragments thereof, all the way around the perimeter of the mansion, out to several kilometers to keep people from even finding the place. But its deterrence affects minds, primarily. A construct of Dark Energy is not the intended target.

Kiseru has posed:
    The construct is most definitely not a thinking being. Intricately made, and capable of recording and transmitting information, but it is independently operating without any independent thought. It will adapt in order to complete its objective, but that's about it. So the Dark Energy cat sniff-sniffs at the wards, looks up, tail flipping this way and that, and then circumnavigates the entire barrier very quickly by flitting through the shadows.

    After it has been confirmed that there is no conventional access without going through the barrier, the cat leaps up into a tree, and from there to another, etcetera until there is a bird's-eye view. What can it see, what can it see... Maybe if it gets high up enough it will be able to see the mansion.

    But that's not why it's jumping up there.

    A flock of crows rises from the opposite side of the barrier from where the cat is. The crows, too, are Dark Energy constructs. They flap and circle, more and more of them pouring up out of the barrier until the sky is black with them. Finding out just how high up the barrier goes.

Nephrite has posed:
    The perception blocking applies from all directions, but again, only for those without Veil sight. Technically a remote-controlled drone could be flown in, but it would trip SOMETHING if it got too close. The 'Distraction Field' affect, however, is just a big psychic deflection. Further in is where the real magic barriers are. The birds can fly straight through the outermost defense, and get fairly close to the mansion, within about a hundred meters of the clearing in the woods where the home was built. If they fly past that point, a much more solid barrier activates. This one, unlike the outer barrier, IS keyed to block Dark Energy constructs. Not Dark Energy USERS, per se, just constructs. Strange that one would defend against one but not the other...

Kiseru has posed:
    They circle around and around, tighter and tighter, passing through the Distraction Field, spiralling around the house on the hill until it looks like it's been surrounded by a black tornado from a distance. The cat runs, jumps, and closes the distance between outer and inner barriers so it can act at the right time. Then the rip of one of the D.E. crow's wings touches the inner barrier. It's like it touched a solid wall. Soon, the barrier's defenses start to cause the crow constructs to be destroyed in flashes of localized starlight, all over the place, exploding them in a mix of dark and light that might be visible all the way from the city.

    It's definitely an odd set-up, but not one the adaptive constructs are equipped to analyze. Also, this is now a time-sensitive operation. Who knows if there's alarms going off or something?

    A large number of the crows split off from the huge black cyclone and fly towards the cat construct as though dive-bombing it. When they reach each other, the crows just flow seamlessly into the cat, vanishing inside of it like a drop of black ink into a puddle of more black ink. As more and more Dark Energy concentrates itself in the cat construct, it becomes denser with that same power. Eventually, it leaps through the air and attempts to punch through the barrier with sheer supernatural mass.

Nephrite has posed:
    There may be silent magical alarms going off, but they are not evident. However, the inner barrier flares and struggles to keep out the density-increased construct, pale light blistering across an invisible surface, smoke rising, until the construct just overloads the barrier. And with all the contact points in a 360 degree radius, it is only one of many things setting off any alarms. On the other side is the mansion. There may be additional magical defenses, but the house isn't even locked. There are open windows. The balcony rooms on the second and third floors have open patio doors, even. Someone really, really, really didn't think their defenses were going to be breached.

Kiseru has posed:
    It's a struggle. The damage being done can only be replenished as quickly as crows can merge with the cat. And while there are several thousand of them, they aren't being replaced after being expended. Eventually, the cat construct breaks through, still trailing smoke, takes quick stock of its surroundings, and then enters through the most immediately available opening and starts tearing around the house, flitting from shadow to shadow, flowing along walls, floor, and ceiling like liquid darkness, searching. What is it searching for? An Obsidian-issued office laptop.

    Some cats will do anything just to walk on a keyboard.

Nephrite has posed:
    There are fewer wards inside the building. They are there for specific, important things, not just scattered around where the owner or a guest might step on one. There's a journal in a desk in a bedroom on the third floor that looks like it might have some information. But if all the cat is looking for is a laptop, then said laptop is sitting on top of the same desk, not connected to anything, no battery, and under some sort of anti-static sheet. There's no wards on it. Maybe the owner just assumed that a laptop wasn't something a Dark Energy construct would break in to steal, since normal thieves definitely wouldn't have made it this far.

Kiseru has posed:
    No journals, no trinkets, no doors that aren't already open, no whiskey, just the laptop. When found, the construct leaps up onto the desk, turns into a pool of liquid darkness again and tries to just swallow the computer whole, anti-static sheet and everything! The crows are still burning themselves up on the defenses to keep the distractions going, and make it difficult to pin-point the intruder, but it's only a matter of time, isn't it? This needs to be finished quickly.

Nephrite has posed:
    All the wards up until now have been Astrology Magic. The barriers, the distraction field, everything. When the cat tries to swallow up the laptop, a blazing red 'Evil' crest appears on the computer and erupts outwards with a wave of hostile power, provided by an ancient creature of hate and destruction. Metallia has placed a finger on the scales.

Kiseru has posed:
    Even with the increased density from the crow constructs, the cat construct is blasted off the desk and away from it through the air. It resolved into a solid form again as it flips and lands on its feet, with part of its body just plain missing. Well, that was unexpected. Adaptation time. The Dark Energy construct runs out to the bedroom's balcony, and all of the remaining crows give up on their distraction in order to gather together in a river of black silhouettes. Then, acting like a battering ram, they attempt to smash through the barrier, into the bedroom, and ram into this 'Evil' ward to see if it can be depleted or overwhelmed.

    Time is running out.

Nephrite has posed:
    The inner barriers buckle under the onslaught. Larger constellations erupt across the unseen surface, flaring to life right here on Earth instead of up in the sky. A Constellation Avatar even starts to rise up from the barrier to intercept the crows. But enough of them get through to smash through the partially-open patio doors, sending wood and glass flying everywhere, and then smash into the ward around the laptop atop the desk.

    A sphere of darkness not unlike the black tornado that previously surrounded the mansion pushes outwards, the red 'Evil' crest appearing again, along with eyes, a nose, and mouth. An imitation of the laptop's owner's face, carved into a Shadow.

    Roaring angrily, Nephrite's Shadow lashes out, sending bolts of arcane energy rippling through the constant stream of crow constructs in an attempt to destroy them all. However, this means the Shadow is distracted and cannot defend the laptop itself presently.

Kiseru has posed:
    Something else unexpected. The Shadow. A soul-projection? Too powerful to fight. These are just Dark Energy constructs that went for quantity over quality. The cat has one chance. It leaps up onto the desk, swipes the laptop off the desk (a special cat skill), and then leaps down onto it. Then it seems into the computer, vanishing inside, before emerging moments later. Then it's tearing off towards the balcony as the crows are annihilated within a matter of seconds in the last eruptions of crackling black-red power. It's just the cat now, carrying a precious cargo of information.

Nephrite has posed:
    Nephrite's Shadow roars again as it rises up to its full size and stretches out to encompass the room. A hand reaches out on an extending, flaming arm of shadow, trying to grab the cat before it can escape, and smashing through anything in its path in the attempt. Floor, balcony, walls, ceiling, it doesn't matter. The power of Metallia, even dilluted, does not heed mundane restrictions made by mortal men. The entire mansion is less than a sheet of paper before such ferocity. Add to that the arcane bolts of power that strike outwards in all directions in prediction of possible evasive maneuvers, and things are looking bleak for the feline felon.

Kiseru has posed:
    Just a cat construct. Being chased by a giant hand that seems to just be erasing everything it touches, while black-red bolts of magic explode everything it doesn't touch into showers of debris, fire, and gods-know-what-else. The cat form was selected because of its agility and mobility, but as it has to abruptly turn away from the balcony and run back the way it came to try to duck under the Shadow's grasp, it seems the construct has determined that going through the entire mansion is a better alternative to being caught in mid-air after leaping the balcony.

    So now the chase begins in earnest.

Nephrite has posed:
    "What!" the Shadow yells out in surprise as the cat abruptly reverses directions. That wasn't one of the escape avenues predicted, so the unexpectedness allows the Dark Energy construct to run out of the bedroom and back out into the mansion. Indeed, the chase has begun. The other hand joins in. Soon, tendrils of corrupted soul explode through walls, huge hands rise up through the floor or tear down through it if the cat makes it to a lower floor. The infuriated yells of a monster whose lair has been invaded ring out across the entire forest the whole time.

    The Constellation Avatar that was forming to deal with the crow constructs now leaps down from the barrier and begins heading to cut off the escapee at the door. A man made of pale blue between the points of starlight and the lines of white that link them.

    Orion the Hunter prepares his bow and arrow.

Kiseru has posed:
    Ducking, diving, leaping, sliding, turning quickly, running fast. If anyone has ever tried to catch a cat that doesn't want to be caught, this is that on steroids, plus the cat can go 2-D as a shadow as-needed to evade or escape. It's probably maddening. But room to flee is running out quickly. Jumping down through one of the holes in the floor that the hands made previously, the cat construct makes it to the first floor, aiming for the open front door, and charging despite the star-formed archer who is hunting it.

    If it can just get past him and pass this information to another construct or escape into the shadows of the forest...

    The cat leaps towards the avatar's face, front legs extended with its imitation of claws, intending not to fight but to use the Hunter as a spring board for leaping away!

Nephrite has posed:
    Nephrite's Shadow is definitely enraged. The mansion is in tatters, this intruder is close to escaping, and it won't stand still long enough to be crushed. Why is life so unfair!? Floating down through the floor after the cat, it sneers. "No escape now." it gloats, now that the construct is trapped inbetween the Shadow and Orion.

    The cat leaps at Orion's face. Orion draws his bow.

    An arrow of starlight fires unerringly at the construct. Compared to the Huntsman, the cat, no matter how nimble or supernatural, is just prey.

Kiseru has posed:
    The cat construct leaps. The Hunter shoots. The arrow flies. The construct is cut in half at the mid-section, unable to dodge in mid-air against an archer of legendary skill. The lower half dissolves into black mist after hitting the floor. The upper body, however... Turns into a mass of crows, the ones that had merged with the cat to give it the needed Dark Energy density to get through the barrier. Now back to crows, they flood past Orion, trying to make it outside and into the sky so that they can scatter in all directions!

    Shadow Crow Jutsu!

Nephrite has posed:
    Now it's Orion's turn to be surprised. He draws and fires, again and again as the crows swarm past and around him, trying to eliminate them. He may be supernaturally powerful and legendarily skilled, but there's so many of them! Arrow after arrow flies and destroys its target unerringly. But there's a cloud of them above the mansion, already splitting up and flying away.

    Eventually, they are even out of Orion's range. The Constellation Avatar hesitates, then lowers his bow.

    The Shadow seethes, watching this, clenching its corrupted hands. Then it screams wordlessly in sheer hate and rage as the mansion starts to collapse from the inside. The intruder got away.

    Nephrite will not be happy about this. The proof is in his own Shadow's reaction. Someone will have to pay for this disaster.