318/An Unfortunate Presentation

An Unfortunate Presentation
Date of Scene:	27 August 2023
Location:	Administrative Office
Synopsis:	Kyouka shares what she has found out about Midnight Tokyo with her trusted allies.
Cast of Characters:	Kyouka Inai, Homura Akemi, Setsuna Meiou, Usagi Tsukino, Takuto Tsunashi, Hannah Steiner, Wako Agemaki
Tinyplot:	Midnight Tokyo

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Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Early in the evening, a text message goes out from Kyouka to select individuals.

    TXT: Please come to my office tonight around 8pm. It's important. Magic business.

    That's all. Even though it's after hours and summer break, those who come will find the doors unlocked. Most of the lights in the building are off, resulting in a spooky, almost surreal atmosphere, but Kyouka's office is lit and the door is open.

    Inside, Kyouka herself is sitting behind her desk. She looks.. wan. Pale, with dark circles under her grey eyes that aren't usually in evidence, and she leans an elbow on the desk, pinching the bridge of her nose with two fingers as she waits for her invited guests to arrive. She has set up a projector screen against one wall, and has an LED projector sitting on the corner of her desk.

Homura Akemi has posed:
    Somewhere around 7:58 PM Homura Akemi walks in through the office door. She's chosen to wear her school uniform despite school being out. She lives on school grounds anyway, so there's a connection there as well. The short walk is nice, even if she'd be on time even if the meeting took place all across the city.

    Without any pretexts whatsoever she walks in, finds an unoccupied space of wall and leans back against it, crossing her arms over her chest and then lifting one foot so the sole of her shoe helps prop her. Kyouka probably won't mind, and the shoes are clean anyway.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
When Nurse Meiou sees the text, and further that it's important, she pays close attention. She'd gotten several messages from the guidance counselor that she was looking into something...and she's got a feeling that this is the fruition of the other woman's investigations.

Fortunately for her, she's got the shortest trip of all of them, with her offices being just a few doors down the hallway.

Thus, once the time nears and she assures herself that there's nobody else nearby, she henshins into Sailor Pluto, then calmly walks four doors down and to the left, then slips in so that she ends up standing in one corner of the room, wherupon she clacks the butt of the Garnet Rod on the floor at precisely the stroke of 8pm.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi has been rather tense, these last few days - between her all-but-confirmed realization that Darien is Hematite, Hematite warning her to warn Inai-sensei, Inai-sensei asking her to keep her card on hand -

It's been a stressful few days, okay? She's not sure what this meeting is about, aside from probably whatever Inai-sensei has done to get in trouble with the Dark Kingdom, but she's going to be there. She's been asked to be there, after all.

So just before 8pm - 7:55pm or so - Usagi transforms into Sailor Moon, and makes her way from the roof of the dorms to the administration building. She slides Kyouka's office just at 8:01pm, eyes one of the available chairs, debates looking silly if everyone stands, like the serious looking girl leaning against a wall or Sailor Pluto, with her impressive Garnet orb - and takes a seat anyway. She's looking tired herself.

"Did Hema-chan come after you yet, Inai-sensei?"

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Two whoooole minutes after 7:58, right as Sailor Pluto is creepily going TOK on the floor with a weapon of mass destruction, a whole lot of spiky red-and-yellow hair and white-and-gold military-style coat comes in with everyone's favorite Otome. That whole lot is, in fact, a boy. "--se I'll behave. I behave better than Vice President, I don't jump on people's faces," he says.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah's not exactly been having a good time. Between an attempt on her life and associated fear over those she cares for and old trauma? Well, Kyouka's text comes as a well-needed distraction. Even as it makes her own worries spike. Kyouka is penciled in that 'cared for' list after all. With a stretch, and a Henshin, she and Lyra wander in to Kyouka's office with a firm tap of her Device upon the door.

"Coming in, frau Inai!" Comes Trager des Blauer Greif, her large lizard friend helpfully pushing open the door with a large talon, the dino-lizard-'dog' guiding her owner in.

"Guten aben mein dear beamter. I do hope I need naught dedicate extra prayers to the Sankt for your sake! That one sounds serious!" Comes the Magical Girl, smiling and her voice jaunty as usual, but all that humor doesn't meet her eyes. Luckily her glasses help.

She ducks into a quick bow, as many others enter. A quick Area Search, and Moon and Setsuna immediately are picked out! A smile to her Ally and to her favorite fite club partner Moon.

"Trager des Blauer Greif, at your servi..." Starts Hannah with her greetings for those new, only for Moon's words to catch her.

"'Hema-chan'? By the Sankt, is someone after your life, frau Inai!? I shall hunt down the curr personally!" Comes Hannah very suddenly! She's on edge. Kyouka knows why, after all.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"I am not actually sure that's true." Ginga Otome - Wako - precedes Takuto into the room walking backwards, the better to keep a mildly chiding eye on him. "But Sugata-kun's not here, so it'll probably be fine. Whatever Inai-sensei wants to talk about, it seemed serious."

When she turns, her eyes sweep the room, taking in the others already assembled. Sailor Moon in particular gets a quick, friendly little wave, though it doesn't quite seem the right time to say hello.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka makes no comment as people begin to enter, other than to give a glance and a nod to Homura, oddly much more the greeting of an equal than one of a teacher to a student, and a similar one to Pluto, with a "Thanks for coming." Added in a tired voice. Usagi enters next, then Hannah, just in time to hear Usagi ask whether or not she's been attacked yet, and the redheaded counselor winces just a little, holding up a hand towards Usagi. "Usagi-chan, this ain't about that.. well, not exactly. He hasn't, but that's not what we're here to talk about this time. Appreciate the concern though."

    To Hannah, she adds, "Maybe, and you'll understand why in a few minutes. But please don't go rushing off to challenge anyone to a duel. This is a more complicated situation than that, I'm afraid."

    The Gingas are the last to enter, and although the boy wasn't invited, Kyouka doesn't protest. She knows who he is, and if Wako wanted to bring him, she's not really going to complain. Instead, she just stands behind her desk and addresses the group at large. "Thanks for coming. Sorry for the ominous texts but.. sometimes it's just the way it be, know what I mean?" She gives a tired grin, then comes around to lean on the front of her desk.

    "So, straight to business. You all are here because I trust you, I think you can handle yourselves, or both. This ain't the kind of shit I like to put on people who are new to this game," an apologetic glance to Usagi, "But sometimes there's just no choice. I trust everyone here knows Obsidian Corp., right? And knows they're not good news. Turns out, less good than previously thought."

    "A week or so ago, I was contacted by someone from inside Obsidian who told me to look into something called the Midnight Tokyo Project. I have done this, and hoo boy. You thought 'evil corporation' was just a turn of phrase? Sorry, not in this case. What I have found out, thanks in no small part to a generous donation from Akemi-san," an acknowledging nod to Homura, "needs to be shared, because I can't do anything about it on my own."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"I don't jump on Sugata-kun's face either!" Takuto hisses to Wako, and then shuts up and clasps his hands behind his back, slide-stepping over to stand out of the way of the door. With that out of his system, he actually looks serious; he nods in return greeting, then keeps his mouth shut because... he wasn't explicitly invited.

Homura Akemi has posed:
    The nod is returned to Kyouka, and Homura makes a faint notice that Setsuna gets one too, but not the others. This has her studying Setsuna for a little longer, but it's only a casual look over. When everyone else seems to have shown up in henshin Homura doesn't so much as shrug before her clothes replace themselves in a short burst of purple magic. It's not like she even has another name for herself; she's never bothered with hiding her identity or her nature as a Puella Magi. The specifics of her powers are, of course, an entirely different story.

    Another slight nod as her donation is mentioned. It needed to be done, so she did it. Hopefully that won't end up with terrifying consequences. She's started frowning a little ever since Obsidian was mentioned though. Less because she's annoyed by the name and more so others can read her expression and know she doesn't need to be told it's bad news.

    If she were the one giving this presentation instead of Kyouka and telling all she knows about their plans, people would probably start turning white or green and needing to run for the bathroom.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Pluto responds to the guidance counselor's thanks with a small smile and nod, "Not a problem."

The others assembled are noted by Sailor Pluto as they enter, and Sailor Moon and 'Blauer Greif' both get small nods of recognition.

Sailor Pluto is apparently in 'SRS BZNSS' mode at the moment.

Moon's comment of 'Hema-chan' gets a small blink and tiny frown...but then an equally small shake of the head has her back to a neutral expression as she mentally marks that as a note for later and goes back to listening to Kyouka.

The mention of Obsidian, however, causes a sound that's possibly noticable in the otherwise somewhat quiet room...that of the material in Pluto's glove protesting at the stress being put on it as she grips her staff in what is likely some kind of death grip.

Apparently she HAS heard of them and she DOES NOT like them for some reason.

At the nod to Homura, Setsuna looks over at the younger woman and gives a very formal nod, then goes back to listening.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi shrugs at the apologetic glance, settling back further into the chair, relieved that Hematite isn't the subject of this meeting, because -well, it would be really awkward to have to tell everyone here that they have to keep their hands off. And besides, as much as Inai-sensei's concern is appreciated, being new doesn't seem to be getting her out of any trouble, so she'd rather be read into the situation.

Besides - the moment Obsidian is mentioned, she too is tensing up, looking decidedly displeased.

She has questions, but she'd rather wait - she's already offered one comment and been rebuffed, just a bit.

But does this have to do with the mall? She'll have to find out.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah seems to briefly deflate at Kyouka's mention of the dreaded word, 'complicated'. With a palpable air of disappointment, the Device Mage and her feathery lizard soon floating vaguely in the air as she uses her massive guide companion as a pillow. One leg across the other, and she taps her Device to her chin thoughtfully.

"At least it has gathered a gallant band." Finally offers Hannah as she pushes down her immediate desire to punch someone in the face, for a beaming smile at the group. Just like a politician! Just not so slimey in her case. Usually.

But Kyouka's words have her raising a brow. "Mmm. Quite the portfolio, that one! Impressive by any measure of the word, at least by this place's standards!" Comes Hannah, unable to hold in her praise for a massive megacorp. It's in her blood after all.

"I assume then, our dear Megacorporation is making coin in means less than mundane, perhaps? 'Midnight Tokyo Project' is..." A shake of her head, and Lyra growls. "A touch ominious."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Once Kyouka begins to speak, Wako turns her full attention to listening. It doesn't take long for what the guidance counselor is saying to have the Galactic Maiden's expression turning grave.

'Midnight Tokyo.' Hannah is right, it sounds ominous. Already there are questions forming in Wako's head, but she holds them for now, waiting for Kyouka to say more.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka gives Hannah a bit of a glance and in a dry voice says, "If making money was all this was about, then I doubt I'd need to be calling for tactical strikes." She walks over to the projector she has set up, pressing the on switch, which lights up a bright white square upon the projection screen she has set up on the wall. "Unfortunately, this is less about making money and more about 'oh shit we're all gonna die'." A pause, and then adds, "I mean, unless we do something about it."

    She glances back around the room, making sure everyone is paying attention. "So yeah, I looked into it. A couple bribes, a couple thefts of corporate information, a couple of antagonistic interviews, maybe a little threatening.. and I ended up with this." She holds up a small USB thumb drive, perhaps with a slight dramatic flourish, and then plugs it into the projector.

    The screen lights up with... a map of Tokyo. A satellite image, it appears, colored like a blueprint but with prominent locations marked. Many of said prominent locations are overlaid with astrological symbols, both Western and Eastern zodiac signs. There appear to be some notes transposed in a silvery script, the letters resembling constellations. "That," Kyouka says, gesturing at it. "Is Project Midnight Tokyo. I'm fairly confident this is real." Another look around, especially at Homura and Pluto. "Does it mean anything to you, at a glance?"

Homura Akemi has posed:
    Maybe to Kyouka's surprise Homura actually responds in the positive, "I've seen something like this before. Don't ask me where," more like when. "Some of the details are different though. What I knew was something called 'Gemini Project', and it was an attempt to create a replica or copy of Tokyo. In the Dusk Zone, if I remember correctly. I could have some details wrong. It's been a long time." Wait... a long time? The girl looks like she's in her early to mid teens at most. Well, other than her eyes and expression. There's a lot more in there, for people who know what to look for.

    She puts her foot down and stands up straight, shrugging. "This, though?" She makes a motion to the projected images, "It looks different somehow. Bigger maybe. More complex." She casts her gaze over to Pluto, wondering if the other person Kyouka clearly has a very high opinion of has anything more to add.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
The Galactic Prettyboy's silent; he shakes his head. Somewhere, he's aquired a lollipop, and the stick is sticking out of his mouth. He crosses his arms loosely and leans against the wall, studying the image. He does not say the script looks really pretty, even if it does.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah Steiner has the good grace to not immediately quip back at the mention of money and tactical strikes. She is, however, smiling in that fairly smug way that shows she has about four or five examples of just when such things might mix.

Luckily before temptation overwhelms her, Lyra baps her right in the face with her tail. Bap! Pfffft! Grumble. She pushes aside that feathery-lizard tail.

She commands Blauer Greif to do a Focus Search as Kyouka puts up visual aides.

Even after it's all translated into map and pinpoints of sound and other Hannah-discernable things, the young woman seems puzzled. Those are definitely stars overlayed on the city, but she's not exactly familiar with local astrology. She wishes she had a star-travel chart, but doubts such a thing really exists on this planet.

But luckily Homura has seen a thing, and Hannah immediately inverts it all with a sudden scowl.

"If this Gemini Project was an attempt of making mockery of Tokyo..." Comes Hannah as she draws the logical conclusion.

"Perhaps one can transpose another place upon this world? 'Midnight Tokyo'. Midnight oft indicates an ending." Muses Hannah uncertainly, before her focus lands on Pluto, trusting in her Ally's wisdom to see whether she might be scrabbling along the right road.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Pluto frowns and steps forward and to the side...gettting closer but making sure to stay out of the projector's light as she looks over the map...and especially paying attention to the silvery script. She frowns, something about it is tickling her memory...

For a momentary distraction, she looks over at the symbols as well, doing a rough count of how many locations are marked...responses are going to have to either be ordered or tightly co-ordinated depending on how many assets are on hand.

Then she straightens up suddenly, "...this is an ancient Earth script. Nobody's used this language for thousands of years." She scowls, "...it's in code, though...I've seen the type before, but I don't know the cypher." She then shakes her head, "Cracking it is going to be difficult. I might be able to find something that can read the language, but I don't think it's got the computational power to crack the code."

She then gestures at the map, "...this was usually used in rituals and summonings, though...and while I can't say for certain, as I'm not familiar enough with the area, I suspect that those marked locations are key points because of leylines or spots of ritual significance..."

She shrugs, "...that last part's just a guess, though."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako's eyes narrow as she peers at the symbols. Soon enough, though, she shakes her head. "This is way beyond anything I'm familiar with," she murmurs.

"Although..."

A bubble of pink energy shimmers into being in the air near her shoulder. Within it hovers a white-and-gold robot no bigger than an action figure. < I am sorry, Miko-sama, > the little avatar chimes. < It does not resemble anything in my memory. >


The Ginga Otome shrugs philosophically. "It's okay, Wawna," she says. "It was a long shot."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Wako-chan's friend - is it possibly her friend Takuto-kun? She's heard enough about him but - it's not like she can recognize his face. (She's seen a picture. She probably should be be able too, but the veil,,,) - is funny, at least. There's something to his atmosphere, even if he too gets serious, that almost sets her a little at ease. It's helpful, because what Inai-sensei has just introduced them too? We're all going to die? Not comforting.

And of course the screen lights up, and Sailor Moon has nothing to contribute at all, because absolutely nothing she's seeing makes sense. Some of the zodiac signs, sure, she recognizes those, but not nearly well enough to know what they mean, and her suspicion that the Dark Kingdom is related to this isn't one she can back up, not well.

She doesn't know Jadeite had anything to do with this project, after all. Just because he'd been doing something at an Obsidian warehouse didn't mean it was something to do with this - Obsidian was a huuuuge company after all! If they were evil, they could have dozens of evil divisions. The Dark Kingdom could be totally unrelated.

But then the girl against the wall speaks up, mentioning a Gemini Project, and a copy of Tokyo, and - that would. That would definitely be bad.

"The Dusk Zone..." Sailor Moon doesn't know anything about it, and her voice is hesitant. She's not had nearly enough training, knowledge, learning about any of it to really understand, but she remembers the monster that had blown up the mall, that had lead Luna to Obsidian in the first place. It had seemed to come from a hole in the world. But did that have anything to do with this? With languages thousands of years old and copying Tokyo or transposing or -

"Inai-sensei, I know you said the two weren't related, but - is Hematite involved in this? It might be important. But I'm sorry if it's not."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka listens to all the comments, glancing to each other person as they speak, then back at the diagram on the wall. Her wan features don't look any happier to have to present this kind of information, nor does she seem to cheer up at all when the audience, such as it were, chimes in with their observations.

    She nods her head to Homura, then again to Hannah. "You have good instincts, Ms.Trager. And it seems that this is a... variation, on what you're talking about Akemi-san. I have been told, by a source that I believe to be telling the truth, that the purpose of this," a gesture at the map and the symbols, "Is to merge Tokyo with the Dusk Zone. Physically overlay the two, so that the Dusk Zone and Tokyo become, for all intents and purposes, the same place." Another glance around the room. "For those of you who might not be aware... that would be bad. As in, all non-magical humans die, and those of us who are magical but are not fueled by Dark Energy are probably temporarily still alive but very, very unhappy."

    She then turns to Pluto, as the woman says she recognizes the language, but it's coded. "Mmm. That's beyond my pay grade, I'm afraid. My assumption is this," another nod to the map, "Is the ritual to accomplish the task of bringing the Dusk Zone into synch with our reality. Tracks if this is a language often used for rituals and summonings. The question is, and this is one I don't have an answer to right now- how do we stop it from happening? Because I dunno about you guys, but I'm not the type to sit around and let millions of innocent people die so some corporate fucks can get their Darkbucks delivered."

    She then frowns slightly at Usagi. "I don't know. I don't know of any 'Hematite', other than what you've told me. But if he's supposed to be coming after me like you said, because I have this.. I have to assume so. Seems like it'd be a stretch to be a coincidence."

Homura Akemi has posed:
    Homura resists the urge to put her hand on her face to cover it, or pinch the bridge of her nose. She knew something like this would be coming. Some major plot that threw everything, or almost everything, into certain danger. Having seen something like this so many times before doesn't mean the feelings of ominous dread don't appear. Especially not when so many of them succeeded and heralded the end.

    She's about to make a joke when Kyouka abrogates the need for it by stating what the actual plan is. Merge Tokyo and the Dusk Zone. Well, no, that wouldn't be good at all. "An apocalypse then. That tracks with what I know about Obsidian." she reaches back and flips her hair. "This is the sort of thing they trade in." She feels a certain weighty obligation to add further and note, "I don't know anything you'd call 'scientific' about the Dusk Zone, other than it's some kind of other planar swamp entirely filled with dark energy. If that got overlaid with Tokyo, Kyouka's right, everyone inside would die. It wouldn't end at Tokyo though. The Dusk Zone is also filled with all kinds of terrible things you never want to meet face to face, and giving them an open door to Earth the size of Tokyo." A shrug, "Well, I don't think I have to explain why that'd be bad."

    Her tone is serious, but pretty casual all told for trying to make it clear this plot succeeding is likely to effectively end the human race.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As Sailor Moon mentions 'Hematite', Pluto glances over at her. Probably the 'Hema-chan' mentioned earlier. While she won't just write off ANYONE who even WORKS for Obsidian, since she's fairly certain some people working there even in the darker divisions are not fully there of their own choices, it's still something she's going to have to question at some later time.

She looks at the map again, then looks over to Hannah, "How good are your scanners, Blauer Grief?"

She points at one of the sites that looks like it's promient, "We should probably scout one of these locations...but major rituals are generally finicky things. They likely have a good bit of redundancy if they're not TOTAL morons...but still, with most rituals if you cause enough disruption, the whole thing falls apart."

She then frowns, "...then it's a matter of what they used to POWER the ritual and whether said power is volatile and dealing with the consequences of any backlash."

A nod is given to Homura at the succinct enough description of why the whole thing is EVEN WORSE than it sounded.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"So-- you don't know how they're going to do it, you don't know precisely what they're going to do with it, you don't know what they're doing it for, and no one can read the directions," says the Ginga Bishounen hesitantly, like he's not sure but that's his assumption, "but we do know it's dangerous, so... should we just go to the places marked and set up cameras? And then explode things very carefully when they come to do weird magic ritual stuff? Or do you have a better plan? I mean my go-to for apocalypses is let them start and then sword them until they stop."

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah makes sure to take in Pluto's suppositions on the odd symbols, recording the names she uses but neither herself nor her Device can make any sense of it all. Still, they could be useful later. Finally she gives a small shrug.

"Such might be arranged, perhaps." Comes the Trager with a brief smile to Pluto, before refocusing on the others.

Hannah does /not/ feel good about scrabbling onto the answer, and has to make a conscious effort to not lose her lunch as the implications that Kyouka and then Homura 'helpfully' lays out. She looks green by the time she manages to speak.

If one listens really close, they might hear her mutter something about a Lost Logia and then making a vague symbol in the air, followed by a prayer in Belkan. What is being described is /far/ too akin to the sorts of madness the old bad Saint Kings would get up to.

Pluto asks, and Hannah lets go of her Device, letting her speak for herself.

<frau Pluto. Mein sensoren are rated at Alpha grade by Belkan Armed Device standards for Focus und Wide Area Searching. Mission angenommen> Confirms the Device, and Hannah simply nods in acceptance.

This calls for Scouting, and she can do so Heavily.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"I'd rather not do that again if we can help it," Wako tells Takuto, aside. "Just because it worked out once doesn't mean we can count it on it every time, you know?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Merging the city with the Dusk Zone?! Sailor Moon is sitting straight up, a blatantly horrified expression on her face - some gathered here might have excellent poker faces. Sailor Moon is not one of them. But if the Dusk Zone is the place that monster came from, it's definitely not a place she wants to even visit, let alone see Tokyo become a part of! And her family is non-magical! And probably everyone else's ever! Millions of people - millions of people would die, if this succeeded.

Her heart wavers, just a little. She clenches one fist, the fabric of her glove straining, and she doesn't meet anyone's eyes. "We don't know how they're going to do it, or exactly what besides maybe this - terrifying plan to apocalypse the whole planet, but - we - I - might have a lead on who's got this going on, besides, you know, an entire mega corporation. I don't have any like, solid proof or anything but I think - something called the Dark Kingdom might be behind this."

Some of the people here - Ginga Otome, Kyouka Inai, and likely Sailor Pluto - will recognize that name, at least. Those same people are likely to recognize the next one too.

"You all probably heard about the explosion at the mall a little while ago? It was caused by a monster that came out of a hole in like... the world. It came after something Obsidian was giving away, and later, when we tracked those things to a warehouse, we fought a man named Jadeite, who called himself a General for the Dark Kingdom. Hematite is one of their other generals, and - a few days ago he told me that Inai-sensei has made his friends very angry. And they can do mind control, and they hurt people, and if they're willing to do all that - I mean, maybe it's dumb, but I think they could be involved. So maybe that's a place to start looking for more answers: the Dark Kingdom."

She's just said a whole lot - so she sits back, twiddling with her fingers, not quite meeting anyone's eyes, hoping they don't have too many questions.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka heaves a small sigh and nods her head to all of the various reactions. "Yeah, you're all right. It's bad news, which is why it can't be allowed to happen. Akemi-san has the right of it- this has implications beyond just Tokyo itself. It's a big scary deal."

    She then points at Pluto. "And you have the right of it. Whatever is actually happening here, the next move needs to be investigating these places." She points at the spots on the map marked with astrological symbols. "We need to know what's going on there and if we can, disrupt it." She looks at Pluto again. "Can you work on trying to crack the code?" She gestures to the constellation-cypher. "That's so not my wheelhouse. But knowing what's actually being said would be a big help. There's more documents written in the code on the drive too. I'll give you a copy."

    Then Moon speaks up, and if anything, she goes a little bit paler in the face, her hand coming up to pinch the bridge of her nose again. "You know, you're probably right. And it's worth looking into. Just be careful, okay? All of you. "She glances around. "This is Big League shit. We can't do nothing but I also don't want anybody getting killed."

Homura Akemi has posed:
    Homura looks over to Pluto as she explains, and then over to the projections again. "You said something about leylines earlier? With the amount of power something like this would take if you're right about that I think you answered your own question. If there really are lines that trace the flow of magical energy around the world," that's about the extent of her knowledge about what a leyline is supposed to be, "then the amount flowing into Tokyo must be staggering. There's a reason Radiant Heart Academy is where it is, right? We're practically drowning in the magically aware. You can't throw a rock without hitting a magical girl or boy." Illustrative hyperbole. "If all that magic is flowing in specific places, tapping into even a little of it would gather a lot of energy for a ritual like this one, right?"

    As for how to stop it, the veteran Puella Magi has some thoughts on that. "In my experience, if you kill the asshole that came up with the plot things tend to resolve themselves quickly enough. Why don't we start there, and see what happens?" She throws a glance over at Kyouka, who she thinks might appreciate this line of 'planning'.

    When Sailor Moon suggests she might know who is doing the planning she motions towards her. "And now we have our target list. So, who wants to head up the kill squads?" Now she's getting her deadpan jokes in. But... honestly if people just started going along with it she'd be satisfied.

    She's honestly pretty much had it with people trying to kill everyone on the planet. It's exactly schemes like this that get Madoka to make some ridiculous Wish to either stop it or put the pieces back together after they succeed. She'd long since stopped thinking keeping Madoka from becoming a magical girl in the first place was a viable option, but after what she'd seen the last time around saving the world, or at least this timeloop of it, might depend as much on keeping Madoka Kaname from making a Contract with Kyubey as anything else.

    She gives a look to Kyoka and nods, "I can probably investigate one or two of the sites. I have to patrol for Witches anyway, so it's not out of the ordinary for me to be looking places over, especially if they have some kind of strange magical signature."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Ginga Otome nods solemnly to Kyouka, before her eyes turn to Sailor Moon. "I'll help you with that, however I can," she promises. "I'm not exactly sure how that might be--" here she makes a brief, rueful face, "--but it's bound to be risky. You'll need people backing you up."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Absolutely no one is allowed to kill Hematite," Sailor Moon grits out - truly and properly grits out, her soft face turned hard at the very thought, her head snapped to glare at the magical girl who'd made the suggestion.

"You all leave him to me." And then she pauses, glances at Ginga Otome, smiling a little awkwardly. "Me and Ginga Otome-chan?"

She's much less fierce, when saying that.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As Sailor moon mentions the Dark Kingdom, as predicted, Pluto DOES react.

Specifically with a twitch that has her raising up the Garnet rod a few centimeters then banging it on the ground as her gloves creak in strain again.

She takes a deep breath, then nods, "I'll see what I can do. Cryptography's not my thing, but I might have some leads to look into."

She vaguely remembers one of the Inners had something back in the day. She'll ask Luna if it made it to the present.

Homura's suggestion causes Pluto to smile a savage little grin, "...sadly, while going for a surgical strike on the leaders is a plan I normally would be all behind...well..."

She takes a deep breath, "...depending on how networked Obsidian is, the people in charge of all of that?"

She gestures at the map, "...it's more than a little likely that they're probably mainlining whatever power they're planning on using to kick this all off."

She scowls, "...which is not to say the plan doesn't have merit...just that pulling it off is going to probably require a lot of weakening them first before hitting each one with a big, co-ordinated strike..."

She then trails off, "...and one thing? If the Dark Kingdom has anything to do with this? That means that we're dealing with people backed by something that's monstrously powerful."

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Moon throws out a /lot/, and Hannah mentally jots it all down. The Dark Kingdom. Names. Blauer Greif mentions in her mind something about rock-based names. And then again. 'Hematite'. The one linked to quite possibly harming Kyouka.

A squint. If Obsidian is helping this Dark Kingdom? Perhaps her Uncle took refuge with them? He wasn't the type to just be able to toss out demons last she checked.

But Kyouka lays out the truth, and suddenly Hannah is standing.

"Upon the Honor of House und Name, I pledge upon you all due assistance und every ounce of mein strength that we may save the innocent souls of this city! In Sankt Olivie's name!" Comes Hannah formally, one heel tapping the other, and she bows!

Then, she straightens, and rubs her neck. "I have too much to do here to die." Mutters Hannah with a scowl.

A deep sigh. "frau Moon? Can you describe your enemies? Should we be able to one of the hunds, we may be able to gain information should Scouting fail." Questions Hannah.

Homura gets a raised brow! "Mein freauline, what is the quote? 'Dead men give no actionable intelligenz'" Comes Hannah with that ever-present smile, looking more like a mask now than ever. She chuckles regardless. What a dangerous magical girl!

Oh, and Moon's yelling at Homura. Hannah's face suddenly lights up, and there is outright /pride/ being offered towards her mahou friend. Yes. Standing her ground for someone she cares for.

Suddenly, all of her previous worries are easy to push in the background. Sankt be praised, Moon is finding her feet, and it makes Hannah /happy/!

Pluto, sadly, brings her back to Earth as it were.

"Und whatever /that/ is, we should know what we fight." Quips the young woman.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"I'll help whoever needs backup!" Takuto says cheerfully.

And then he de-henshins. "I'm Takuto Tsunashi. Don't reveal your secrets, I'm just giving you mine so you can find me in school if you need to. And I can get places pretty fast! I can't make Zero Time like Wako though, so... property damage. Sorry."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I don't care if they're backed by Colonel fucking Sanders," Kyouka snaps, "We deal with the immediate problem first, and we worry about dealing with the backers later." She holds up her hands, one towards Homura and one towards Moon. "Regardless of whether that would even work, I think picking off Obsidian higher-ups is a little above our operational capacity at the moment. There's more of them, they're more experienced, they have a lot of backup, and they have plans. We have.." She looks around the room, quirking her mouth. "Well, us. And that's plenty, trust me, but not if we bite off more than we can chew before we're hungry enough."

    "Oh, related-" She pauses. "I have reason to believe this plan is not very popular internally with other divisions of Obsidian. I'm not going to betray my sources here, because I don't want to burn bridges. But let's just say that we may have help from the inside. I don't know what form that help will take, but anything that makes life more difficult for the guys trying to pull this off is a good thing in my book. I'm just warning you- if you see anything that looks like Obsidian fighting their own in any way... it probably is. Use what you can. The priority is saving lives. Morality and honor can come later."

    She sighs again, and once more pinches the bridge of her nose with two fingers. "Look, I'll give each of you a copy of the info. Look into these sites. Try and crack the code. Don't take stupid risks. I need to go lay down.. my head has been killing me since the other night, and I haven't been able to sleep very well. Probably all this," she gestures at the map still projected on the wall. "I'm too old for this shit."

Homura Akemi has posed:
    That Pluto takes her suggestion seriously causes Homura to smile a little herself. Working with that one might be interesting. Then, when she notes that simply trying to take down the obvious leader right from the start isn't likely to work she makes a show of letting out a long suffering sigh and shrugging her shoulders, palms up. "I know, but wouldn't it be nice if it worked? Maybe some day we'll find a way to bottle a massive coordinated strike and learn to open it when the time comes."

    At the mention of the Dark Kingdom having the backing of something monsterously powerful? Homura doesn't even react. No surprise, no worry. For anyone watching her, it'd almost look like it's something she already knew.

    As for Sailor Moon claiming Hematite for her own, Homura sends a slightly less viscous smile in her direction. "Good. Practice your energy blasting and learn to charge it up, because I get the feeling that one's going to take a big one. I believe in you." That's... a remarkably strange and positive statement from the girl who was deadpan sarcasm and cold anger not too long ago. Stranger still, she seems to mean it.

    Then she hears even better news. "Internal division? That's the best news I've heard all week. We don't need our own 'kill squads' if they're bickering among themselves. We should encourage that in any way possible, even if that just means letting them yell at each other and not interfering if they start."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Ginga Otome doesn't seem particularly concerned, or surprised, when Takuto reveals himself. Going by her lack of reaction, it might be inferred that this is more or less business as usual for the two of them.

Especially when she follows his example. The little hovering robot winks out of sight, and the girl's white and gold military-style attire fades back into the very mundane pink hoodie and street clothes of a teenage girl.

"Sailor Moon already knew, but - I'm Wako Agemaki," she offers to the rest of the magical types around the room. "Just in case. I'd be lying if I said I understand much of any of this stuff, except for how serious it is... it never hurts to know who you can call on for help, if you need it."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Pluto smiles a vicious little smile, "...if someone can identify the major groups, we can see about driving some wedges into those joins."

She sighs, "While it's probably too much to hope that ALL the groups are prone to infighting...someone or someTHING was powerful enough to force them all to work together in the first place. We need to keep an eye out for it...if only so it can be avoided until we're ready. Things like that have a tendancy to need very special dealing with."

She nods to Kyouka, "I'll start working on figuring out what I can. I've got some things I need to ask from you, but they can wait until later."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sailor Moon wasn't expecting - that. The other girl backing down, Inai-sensei backing her up on not killing anyone - even if the reason was different from her own. She is expecting Tragar-chan's smile, because she's never known anyone who loved battle and war as much as Tragar-chan, but the rest...

"So far as I can tell, the Dark Kingdom are behind a good number of the youma being sent out. The first time Jadeite showed himself, he was mad at his youma being destroyed... so I guess, if nothing else, we can always keep knocking down monsters and hope they come crawling out of the woodwork after us."

Hopefully not the way that they're coming after Inai-sensei...

"They wear dark uniforms, with um, colored piping, I guess? Jadeite is a blond with blue eyes. Hematite's nice - and Pyrite is a trainee, I guess? She's a younger girl, maybe like ten or twelve?"

She cocks her head, thinking.... "Hematite's nice. He might be... not so nice at times, but he's not as bad as the rest of them are sure to be."

She's taking careful note of Sailor Pluto's responses - she has got to force answers out of Luna and Pluto soon.

"I would share my identity with you all - really! But... there are people I'm worried about, and I can't make that choice for them."

It might not be a hard jump from Usagi Tsukino to Ami Mizuno and Rei Hino... or worse, Naru Osaka.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka opens her desk drawer and pulls out a bunch more USB sticks. "These are copies. Everything that's on that one," a nod to the projector, "is on these. You can take one each, if you want. Or not, whatever floats your boat. Just be aware that having these might make you a target, so if you're worried, maybe don't take one. Those of us who have the map can point you at targets if you need it."

    She pushes off her desk then. "Like I said.. I'mma go lay down. I'm available, if you need me. But," a glance around, a heavy sigh. "My fighting days, actually attacking the bad guys.. they're mostly behind me. So dealing with this is gonna have to be on you guys. I'm sorry to put it on you but, that's life I guess. I'm here to help however I can and remember, I'm just a call away if you need me."

    A faint smile as she heads for the door. "Everyone in this room is trustworthy. Work together if you can. And please, nobody die." And then she's gone.