Texts: magical rules lawyers

Texts: magical rules lawyers
Date of Scene:	15 November 2023
Location:	Texts
Synopsis:	Kyouka texts Darien about the Silver Crystal video, he asks her about contract magic.
Cast of Characters:	Kyouka Inai, Mamoru Chiba
Tinyplot:	Silver Crystal
Tinyplot2:	Lost & Found

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(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: so let me ask you something

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: what was that video actually supposed to accomplish?

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: buying time. it wasn't even well edited, it wasn't supposed to be posted. boss did it on accident.

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: i dont know if i think its stupid or brilliant.

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: both tbqh. it's having the great/terrible effect of seriously complicating everything and making fakes show up, sending people on wild goose chases. its just also harder for the right people to find it now, too

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: i dont know if thats true. i mean maybe in some ways, sure. but i told usagi (she came to me about this the other day), you were looking for a needle in a haystack. now you have thousands, hundreds of thousands more eyes looking

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: makes the odds of someone finding it way higher. and chances are good it NOT gonna be the wrong people, either, its just gonna be some rando

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: law of averages, my dude

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: But each side could as easily get to some rando first and steal it.

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: correct. which just means we gotta be faster. but if the goal is to secure the thing, a race to steal it is preferable to just never find it. at least imo. i admit i am rather action-forward

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: you know right? who i'll give it to if i find it. you must know or you wouldnt be talking to me about it. unless you're still just gathering data by psychologying at me

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: a little of both. i know what i want to believe, and i know what you want to do. i hope that reality aligns with both our wants, but id be a fool not to at least consider the alternate possibility

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: fair

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: i know who you want to be, mamoru. and i will help you be that person in every possible way i can. but until you are, completely, that person i need to be careful. i hope you dont take that as a lack of belief.

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: no, it's truly fair. i'm not just saying that. we all know the others arent always in charge of themselves

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: very few of us always are. thats why we look out for each other

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: btw. if it ends up having to be me that translates the MTP map notes, i hope you can trust me on that. you might be in luck with pluto but i have Doubts

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: i will take what i can get. action-forward, remember? id rather act on info i cant completely trust than not act at all. it just means being careful

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: but i will absolutely not refuse whatever you give me

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: OK. right now rashmi and chrono are decoding it. after it's decoded, i can read the language it's in. it wouldnt hurt having two translations anyway, if sailor pluto CAN do it

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: the more people working on it, independently or together, the better. on the off chance you both succeed we can compare the translations and hopefully find any discrepancies that way. as i said, i will happily take all the info i can get, and worry about what is trustworthy afterwards

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: hm. this is related but only tangentially

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: do you know anything about magical contracts and how to get out of them? i cant remember if i asked you before

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: i know something but i would not call myself an expert because that would be disingenuous. i can only speak from experience

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: im trying to figure out if i have a greater or bigger hold on my guys than the demon, and whether they made a contract with it that i can break. i asked chrono, he had some ideas, naru was facilitating, kazuo was throwing around some neat possibilities

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: but just saying the sooner we find out if its a possibility then the sooner i can try it and we can maybe get out

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: i will stress again do not take this as absolute fact as im only relating my experiences and i dont know the specifics of the situation

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: but in my experience two important factors are precedence and jurisdiction

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: a contract being before another contract can be important, as can the relative 'ownership' over the place or person making the contract. ownership being a loose term here, but you know what i mean. jurisdiction

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: okay. that's good to know. and dw im not taking your word as final

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: contract magic tends to be used by magical rules lawyers and it would not surprise me if there were all kinds of conditions and loopholes i know nothing about. i suppose that might also work in your favor, tho

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: well i would be being the rules lawyer here. i mean also ive been hearing a lot of 'well what's the wording' and i'm gonna have to ask one of the guys about that. which might activate the demon card.

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: its probably important though. maybe. if you need backup i'm there. just fyi.

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: Thanks. I feel like this is where i should start being a dick so i dont ruin my reputation

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: dont worry i still think youre a dick

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: good, mutual

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: btw the evil butterflies are french

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: les papillons mauvais sont francaises??? is probably wrong

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: mauvaises?? lmao

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: anyway that makes sense

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: does it actually

(PHONE) Darien Shields texts: yeah cuz adrien is french and hes the one who knew about them

(PHONE) Kyouka Inai texts: oh ok i guess that does make sense.